IndyCar: Saturday Morning Update from the Detroit Grand Prix

Good morning from sunny downtown Detroit and the second day of the  Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear.  Today will be another steamy day with temperatures in the high 80s.

There was a festive atmosphere downtown last night.  People were interviewed on the local news about having the Grand Prix in the new location, and they were excited and happy to bring their children and grandchildren out to see the NTT INDYCAR Series, the  INDY NXT by Firestone, the Trans Am Series, and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race up Jefferson Avenue.

The unique pit lane is excellent for viewing all 27 cars in their pit stalls.  It actually has an uphill elevation which could provide some issues for the Juncos Hollinger and the AJ Foyt Racing teams, whose four cars occupy the pits with a downhill entry.

Yesterday, we had many red flags instead of yellows because the track is so tight. Qualifying today will be tricky if an incident on the track causes a red flag during a session.  Getting out at the beginning of the qualifying session will be essential to avoid being caught out.

Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the Andretti Autosport No 27 AutoNation, talked about how much room each car will have when all 27 cars are on track at the same time.

“There’s no space. It’s 330 feet between each car is, I think what we calculated..  Under 2.2 seconds is the gap if all the cars were on track at once.”

Today’s schedule for the IndyCars is Practice 2 at 9:05 am and qualifying at 1:15 pm.

Lucille Dust reporting live from Detroit