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Last weekend, Penske Racing’s cars led both races in Detroit for most of the day and seemed in position to win when the last precaution flew. A race failed for Will Power when his car failed to re-ignite after a red flag. The other saw Josef Newgarden overtaken too late by Patricio O’Ward on old tires. Today Josef Newgarden either led or effectively led the lead on every single lap of the race on Road America before a warning was issued four laps to go. On a smaller track that would end the race under yellow. Here it meant another new start.
Newgarden had a difficult easy race. He had a small mechanical problem early on, something he briefly thought would force him into an emergency shift mode where he had to manually adjust the revs when downshifting. That didn’t prove to be a problem at the start, but then the timing of the warnings and the seemingly inferior fuel economy of the Chevrolet vehicles forced him to save fuel during the second half of the race. The last caution guaranteed his window, but the transmission error reappeared on the last restart.
He stumbled upon an upshift as the leader drove into Turn 1 and opened the door for Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to turn second into victory for the whole day. He fell back to 21st place, a devastating result for a driver and a team with championship expectations who have not won a single race in nine races of a 16-race season.
Newgarden drops to fourth place, 83 points behind a three horse race. He, his team-mate Simon Pagenaud, today’s runner-up Colton Herta and last weekend’s race 1 winner Marcus Ericsson now form a group of underdogs just 22 points apart, but only within striking distance if they either have a winning streak continue or watch the top contenders get some disastrous results in a row over the next five races.
His failure is Alex Palou’s gain. The sophomore rider has now won his second race with Chip Ganassi Racing and the second of his career. That win makes him the first CGR rider, alongside Scott Dixon, to win twice with the team since the incredible 2011 serial champion and 2013 retirement Dario Franchitti. It also makes him the championship leader again, while Patricio O’Ward left 28 points behind with a disappointing ninth place. Dixon, who secured fourth place today after an extraordinary but almost noiseless drive from the middle of the field, is 53 points behind as the third member of a three-car-two-team battle.
Will Power completes the podium of the day, but like Colton Herta, he was doomed by inconsistency. In the series standings he is now by far in tenth place, 145 points behind the leaders.
Among the non-contenders, the star of the day was Formula 1 veteran Romain Grosjean. The former Renault and Haas F1 driver fell out of the top ten after a series of slow stops, but that put him in a perfect position to deal with all the aggression he could never show in a Formula 1 car to storm through the field. Grosjean made Turn 5 his battlefield, overtaking both inside and outside all day as he recovered to a triumphant fifth place. It’s Grosjean’s best drive to date in an IndyCar, including finishing second after a pole position on the Indianapolis street circuit.
It’s been a mixed look back for former Haas F1 teammate Kevin Magnussen on his IndyCar debut. Magnussen had never driven an IndyCar before this weekend and was in a difficult position due to the acclimatization period from lap 1 of the race. He ran off the track early, then the pit strategy actually brought him to the top of the race when he restarted. Despite slow lap times, he held his off-strategy colleague Takuma Sato in front of the pit lane throughout the run and appeared to be in a position to steal a strong finish when he had a mechanical problem and stalled on the side of the road late in the race . His best lap time of 1:50 was almost a second and a half behind the best times of the leaders, but was competitive with much more experienced drivers. If Magnussen is looking to do so, the F1 veteran and newly minted IMSA winner seems more than qualified for a chance to do so in the future.
IndyCar has a week off before its Mid-Ohio race this weekend. This race will be the last for a month, but after this long break, the last six races will be held in great excitement over eight weeks. The season is already drawing to a close, so anyone hoping for a championship will have to end this first half of the year strongly in this race.
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