Roger Ten
Saturday 29th May 2021
To say last weekend’s race was interesting might qualify for the understatement of the year. From the wrong results of the Formula 1 race in Monaco, to the Indy 500 qualifying battle between the veterans and young shooters, to the NASCAR Texas seaplane races, the fans were on the edge of their seats.
The longest races of the year for both the IndyCar and the NASCAR Cup will be held on Sunday. So make sure you have enough snacks and drinks on hand.
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Although it looked like the wheels of the dominant Mercedes F1 team had fallen off in Monaco, they would not come off at all. After a frustrating qualifying, Mercedes started with the seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in seventh and team-mate Valtteri Bottas in third.
Polesitter Charles Leclerc set a fast time, but crashed immediately and finished qualifying with a red flag. The car was repaired, but hidden damage caused a transmission failure on the warm-up lap and the Monaco resident was again eliminated from his home race.
This left Red Bulls Max Verstappen alone in the front row for the standing start and he cut over Bottas’ arc to take the lead. Bottas stayed with him until the first pit stop when the right front wheel refused to get out of the Mercedes and Bottas withdrew. This left Verstappen home to take the win, followed by Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Verstappen now leads Hamilton in the drivers ‘championship race by four points, while Red Bull is one point ahead of the constructors’ points race.
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In the Indy 500 qualifying, 35 cars were registered for the 33 starting positions. Sunday morning’s “bumping” session was a nail bite with veteran and former 500 winner Will Power battling it out for the field. He did it with the only female participant, Simona de Silvestro.
The fastest of the “Fast Nine” was the six-time champion Scott Dixon, who was only 3/100 mph ahead of the young shooter Colton Herta. The top three rows are a mix of veterans and youth, and it’s a question of which camp will prevail in Sunday’s race. The coverage on NBC starts at 8 a.m.
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Racing in the rain is a novelty for NASCAR and only on street circuits. The first visit to the Cup series at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, pushed the concept to its limits.
The track was semi-dry at the beginning and the drivers had the option of starting with rain tires or slicks. Austin Cindric showed his skills in wet racing on slicks early on and drove four laps before conditions deteriorated. The rain continued and then got heavier causing visibility problems, some nasty rear-end collisions and a red flag on lap 25. Conditions continued to deteriorate and the race ended on lap 54 with Chase Elliott winning.
I’m glad three of my picks ended up in the top five – Elliott first, Kyle Larson second, and AJ Allmendinger fifth. Elliott was the 11th driver to win that season, taking Chevrolet’s 800th NASCAR Cup victory. It was also the 268th cup win for Hendrick Motorsports, which set the record for Petty Enterprises.
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Sunday is NASCAR’s version of the endurance race, the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte. There are six former 600 winners in the field, with Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick winning twice and Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon and the Busch brothers winning one each.
Larson is the race favorite with 5-1 odds, Truex 11-2, Kyle Busch 13-2, Elliott 7-1 and Denny Hamlin 15-2. The race will be broadcast at 3pm on FOX.
