Grosjean Looking to Gain Experience in Oval Debut

Romain Grosjean will be making his much-anticipated oval racing debut this weekend as he takes on the World Wide Technology Raceway aboard his #51 Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Nurtec ODT Honda for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Saturday.

Grosjean, who ruled out running on the superspeedways this season, always remained opened about racing at the 1.25-mile, egg shaped oval. His first taste of the track came in late July during his one-day rookie orientation test, and it didn’t take long for him to confirm his intentions of participating in the 260-lap race, even if he said that it was very different from everything he’s ever done before.

“I’m going into my first oval race this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway so there’s obviously still a lot to learn for me this weekend. I’m really feeling like a rookie going into the race,” expressed Grosjean. “I really want to go there and gain as much experience as possible and do the best we can, obviously. The key word on Saturday will be experience, through practice, qualifying and the race and, of course, to get the maximum out of it.”

Grosjean is coming off another strong weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he picked up his second podium finish of the season. In nine starts this season, Grosjean has three top five and five top ten finishes and has led 49 laps. He has one pole position and has started in the top seven in seven events.

Despite missing the three superspeedway events earlier this season, Grosjean remains in the hunt for Rookie of the Year honors as he sits in second place in the rookie standings, only seven points behind Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin.

This weekend will also mark Grosjean’s first NTT INDYCAR SERIES one-day show with all on track activity at World Wide Technology Raceway taking place the same day. Action kicks off with a 90-minute practice session from 12:15pm local time. It will be followed by qualifying at 4:00pm local time with both practice and the qualifying being streamed live on Peacock TV.

The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 will go green at 7:45pm local time (8:45pm ET) and will be broadcast live on NBCSN from 7:00pm local time (8:00pm ET).