IndyCar: Sunday Morning Report from Xpel Grand Prix

It’s a beautiful morning here at Road America. The sun is out, and temperatures are predicted to be in the mid-sixties for today’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES race.

The race today is set to be a battle of tire strategies.  Despite its potential, the alternate (red) tire has been a topic of concern among drivers.  One driver even reported delamination after just one lap, adding an element of unpredictability to the race.

Colton Herta, No 26 Gainbridge Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian, commented on his experience with the alternates.  “It’s tough to say exactly because our biggest problem isn’t tire deg in a session like this, it’s overall tire grip, getting them up to temperature. It’s very difficult to do that. That’s kind of the biggest problem we were having.”

“But I didn’t have any sort of delaminating problems.”

The morning warmup is at 11:15 a.m. CT. That should provide more data on the tires since the only tires used yesterday were the wet tires.  Only the six drivers in the Firestone Fast Six put on alternate tires for the short session, but the track was also still damp off the racing line.

Herta will start in the first row next to Ganassi Racing’s rookie polesitter, Linus Lundqvist. Going into Turn 1 after the green flag flies should be very interesting.

The race is scheduled for  2:45 pm Green Flag . The NBC broadcast on will start at 2:30 pm.  You can also watch the race on Peacock.

Check back for more updates.

Lucille Dust reporting live from Road America