GP of Alabama IndyCar postscript
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| Josef Newgarden |
I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a foregone conclusion. But if you asked me prior to the start of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season, and even after the first three races I'd have told you Josef Newgarden scoring his IndyCar win in 2015 was a pretty safe bet. Still, don't confuse the perceived inevitability the CFH Racing driver would find victory lane with the fact Newgarden won Sunday's Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
Because when one goes beyond the mushy, feel good headlines of a popular young all-American, dimple-faced kid from Tennessee scoring a much-awaited first win, one soon realizes there was absolutely nothing inevitable about the sublime drive turned in by the 24-year-old Sunday.
A win for the ages
While Newgarden qualified fifth, he essentially admitted after the session he wished it had rained as he didn't believe his #67 Hartman Oil Chevrolet had the speed to contend for pole position.
With Penske drivers Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud starting 1-2-3 respectively and three-time series champ Scott Dixon fourth on a track many consider difficult to pass, it was expected the top-4 qualifiers would duke it out for the win.
That's not what happened.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]No, when the green flag fell, Newgarden passed both Dixon and Pagenaud to move into third, before getting Power at the end of lap one. From there, Newgarden would settle in behind leader Castroneves before moving to the front after a slow pit stop for the Brazilian.
At that point, Newgarden seemed in control but was forced to pit early on lap 36 – the cusp of the three-stop window – after an ill-timed caution for an incident involving Stefano Coletti and James Jakes. Castroneves was able to jump past Newgarden after a bobble by the team on pit road. Perhaps worse, Newgarden would now be forced to manage his tires and fuel to make it on one more stop. Whereas he had surged past the leaders on pure speed, Young Josef would now have to play the strategy game.
Graham Rahal was in the opposite frame-of-mind. Having stayed out when Newgarden pit on lap 36, the RLL driver was committed to a 'full-go' two-stop strategy. And while Newgarden had a 20-second lead on Rahal at one-point, the CFH Racing driver, long the hunter looking to break the stronghold of the big teams, found himself ironically, the prey being stalked by a suddenly resurgent, hard-charging, Rahal.
Also, Newgarden needed to go 27 green flag laps on one tank of fuel, with Rahal closing at the rate of two seconds a lap and fuel-mileage maestro Dixon, who had the luxury of an extra lap of fuel. And when Castroneves ran out of fuel shortly before taking the white flag, it was fair to wonder whether Newgarden would be able to go the distance.
However, Young Josef would manage the gap perfectly. Although Rahal got Dixon on the closing lap, Newgarden held off the epic charge of the #15 Steak N Shake Honda, winning by two seconds.
Yes, it was not just a first win, but a drive for the ages. While many races are won by such things as charges to the front, drivers controlling the race from the lead, or drivers managing the strategy to optimal perfection, Newgarden managed to beating the best in the business at all of them in the same race.
Breathtaking stuff!
‘Murica
If you so happen to be American, Newgarden’s win combined with Rahal’s inspired charge were probably more than enough to get your tingling with patriotic delight about. But Newgarden and Rahal were merely part of a bountiful American super-sized buffet of Red, White and Blue awesomeness served up at Barber this weekend.
Friday Wisconsin-native Aaron Telitz drove past Jake Eidson and Victor Franzoni in the closing laps to win the first Cooper Tires U.S. F2000 Series Powered by Mazda race. Saturday, Orlando’s Spencer Pigot scored his first of two flag-to-flag Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires wins from pole position to take over the series’ championship lead. California-native Neil Alberico would throw in another win Sunday in Pro Mazda for good measure.
Now, I have nothing empirical to support this other than I don’t remember any race weekend where Americans saw such success across the IndyCar ladder. But in all honestly, other than the race being Fourth of July Weekend, it’s hard to imagine an IndyCar weekend being more of an American love fest than this past weekend at Barber.
Unfortunately…
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| The engines don't scream anymore, the thrill is gone and hence no new fans are being generated |
It’s not like anyone watched.
Look, I don’t want to be Mr. Piss in Everyone’s Cheerios Guy. I’ve been watching Indy car racing for 30 years now, and Sunday’s race was as compelling from start to end as any I can remember. Still, anyone who harbors a passion for this great sport has to be concerned with a 0.25 overnight TV rating and the simple fact that no matter how good the show is: people aren’t watching.
Yes, I know NASCAR’s rain delay at Richmond, which moved a scheduled Saturday night race to Sunday, probably didn’t help matters. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t seem to matter much how good the racing is, who is running at the front, whether NASCAR is on or off. People aren’t watching in anywhere near the numbers to make the sport viable long-term. Maybe, the sport isn’t losing the fans in the numbers it did during The Split years. Still, people aren’t becoming fans.
And why people aren’t becoming fans is something decision-makers within the industry must take a serious look at. Tactical solutions like not having races when football games are on, giving a bucket-load of points out for Indianapolis 500 qualifying, and strapping random parts to the car are not the answers.
Something to keep an eye on
For a second straight week, Castroneves qualified on pole, led the opening stint, and after the first round of pit stops found himself no longer leading. Now, the delay on pit road in Long Beach was no one’s fault. If anything, credit outside front tire-changer Travis Law from alertly holding the Brazilian to avoid what would have been a disaster for both Castroneves and Tony Kanaan. Castroneves ultimately finished second.
However, faulty pit work at Barber combined with apparent miscommunication from the team about his fuel situation means Castroneves has certainly failed to maximize a pole-winning car the past two weeks.
Given Team Penske’s well-documented struggles on pit road in recent, Castroneves’ numerous near-championship misses, the fact these things tend to weigh on teams and drivers and an escalated intra-team battle at Penske, one has to wonder how this will affect the team going forward.
Race Control
I’ve made my views on Brian Barnhart’s reinstatement in Race Control very clear, so I won’t repeat the,. Let’s just call this the first installment of my weekly Race Control questionnaire.
- I’ll start by saying the penalty on Will Power was 100% the right call. However…
- Why was no penalty called on Juan Pablo Montoya who dived-bombed Charlie Kimball going into the turn, hip-checked him on the exit, and then essentially admitted after the race that he had no reservations about moving the Ganassi driver out of the way?
- Ok, so no penalty was called. But to my knowledge there was no decision made on the call, after INDYCAR announced the incident was being reviewed? Why was that decision never announced by the television team? Or did INDYCAR simply forget about the incident?
- Ryan Hunter-Reay was docked points for running Simon Pagenaud off the road at NOLA in relatively speaking a slow speed corner. Fair enough. Will Sage Karam get a similar penalty for running RHR off the road in a similar fashion? And will Karam’s infraction, which occurred in a high-speed area be deemed more egregious than Hunter-Reay’s? Or will simply nothing happen?
I’ll repeat what I’ve said numerous times: the issue with Race Control isn’t the calls they got or more often wrong. The issue with INDYCAR Race Control is no one has any belief in their ability to get it right.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Graham
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| Graham Rahal |
The funny thing is that as well as Newgarden drove, the biggest winner at Barber might have been Rahal. It was a welcome effort for young Rahal (still only 26), who has taken his fair share of heat the past few years. Personally, I’ve always found the son of three-time Indy car champion Bobby to be quite pleasant. Still, I likewise believe he has brought a certain degree of the criticism upon himself.
No, there is nothing wrong with tweeting about your exotic automobile collection, jet skiing, or playing golf (I admit I’m a little jealous). However, similar to his constant talk about inadequate dampers and too little grip, his seemingly charmed life didn’t exactly appeal to the masses, as young Rahal regularly floundered somewhere between 17th-20th driving for his daddy’s team.
To be clear, this is not about whether the perceptions are right or wrong. The point is the perceptions exist, and they seemed to weigh heavily on Rahal both personally and professionally, as his on track performance continued to suffer. I noticed this first-hand last year after Rahal got out of the car after the season-finale at Fontana, having 19th, 5 laps behind winner Tony Kanaan. The TV cameras were focused on Power wrapping up the championship and Kanaan winning. Meanwhile, I caught a glance of a thoroughly despondent and defeated Rahal alone with a few RLL crewmen, hopelessly in search of answers.
Well, fast forward to the first four races of the 2015 season, and Rahal has found something he was missing in recent years. No Honda driver has been as quick as consistently through the first four rounds as Rahal. We’ve already outlined his amazing charge to nearly catch Newgarden, and I’ll add that I don’t recall any driver passing so many people on the outside of a natural-terrain road course, nor with the conviction we saw from Rahal Sunday.
While it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly is different in 2015, Rahal is unrecognizable from the wayward, lacking confidence driver we saw in 2013 and 2014. Of course, Barber 2015 will forever be remembered as Newgarden’s sensational maiden. But it might also go down as a turning point in the career of young Rahal.
Brian Carroccio is a senior motorsports columnist for AutoRacing1. He can be contacted at BrianC@AutoRacing1.com