Newgarden wins Rain-Delayed Detroit GP Race 1

Newgarden en route to a Race 1 win

Josef Newgarden used pit strategy, as well as a pit incident– caused when Will Power left his pits with 3 wheels — to take the lead and win the first race of the 2019 Detroit Grand Prix. Alexander Rossi dominated for the first half, but was unable to regain the lead and finished second. Takuma Sato made incredible passes while the track was wet to end up third. Felix Rosenqvist and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top 5.

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The rain that missed Indy last week found Detroit this week. Just as the cars began to grid up, the word went out that severe thunderstorm warnings caused a shutdown of on-track activities. Cars were turned around and humans were all herded to any spot offering shelter from the storm. While it did rain heavily, and we had a bit of a light show, the really nasty stuff didn't arrive. In all, the race was delayed some 90 minutes, and the race itself was declared a timed race of 75 minutes. While it doesn't get dark in this part of the world until nearly 10 pm this time of year the TV schedule just didn't permit a longer race.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The track was wet when the race started. Not just "wet on asphalt" but "rain on polished concrete" wet. Accordingly the race hadn't started yet when Zach Veach spun his car, causing a yellow flag start. Zach would recover nicely and finished 8th. Matheus Leist also spun early, but he never recovered, and a closed pit pit stop dropped him a lap down. He finished 13 laps down in 21st.

The green flag finally flew a lap later, only to have a caution for debris. And so it went — Sato would also body-slam Pato O'Ward in the mist — until the track was dry enough that people could see and at least some traction was gained.

On lap 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay spun and fell to 15th spot. He soldiered back to 5th spot before it was done. Alexander Rossi continued to lead, followed by Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, Josef Newgarden, and Will Power.

The track wasn't really dry at all when Marco Andretti — who was having yet another horrible weekend, and had nothing to lose — came in for slick tires. He put on quite a display of car control as he tried to drive slicks on a moist track, but he hoped that cautions would go his way and he'd be cycled to the front. However, starting on lap 15, several others came in for slick tires, and when the caution flag flew on lap 18 (Ed Jones nicked the tires in corner 7) Marco had no advantage when the balance of the field went to slicks on lap 19. Marco finished 15th on the day, Ed Jones 20th.

The person who did take advantage of pit strategy was Josef Newgarden. Alexander Rossi was doing well on wet tires, but Newgarden pitted right before the Ed Jones incident. When Rossi came in he was relegated to second place for the rest of the race.

The race changed some more when Will Power's pit stop went bad, leaving the pits with only 3 tires attached. Power hit the pit wall when he pulled out, and to add insult to injury he was given a 1-lap penalty for unsafe start and dragging equipment out of his pits. Power finished 18th.

Lap 22 gave us a green flag, and it quickly became obvious that passing wasn't easy on a track that was still wet once you got off the line. One lap later Scott Dixon — running in the top three — clipped the inside of turn 5 and landed in the tires in turn 6. Dixon finished last on the day — and one has to try really hard to remember when Dixon made such a mistake, or didn't finish a race.

The race had another caution — Leist finished off his awful day with a shunt into the tires in turn 7 — and in so doing, eliminated any question that the gas-hungry Chevy engines would run out of fuel. Given the impossible passing conditions (although Sato did make a pass on Rosenqvist to take third) the field was basically set. Josef Newgarden lead 25 laps to win in a Chevy — which is good, since Detroit is Chevy's party.

Quotes

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 Fitzgerald Team Penske Chevrolet): "How about that call by Tim (Cindric)? It was the perfect call to get us in position that we needed. I was hoping it would dry up, I thought that would give us more opportunity to do something. But our Hitachi Chevy car was awesome. The Chevy engine was perfect. I had the horsepower I needed. The fuel mileage; the drive-ability. In Chevy's backyard, this was a big one. It's great to have Hitachi with us. So many people here from Japan. It is an honor to have them here. So pumped to have them here. So pumped to be with Team Penske. We really wanted this one. I can't tell you how hard our whole team worked the whole off season to make sure our street course cars were ready, and they were ready today."

MATHEUS LEIST (No. 4 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "Not the best day at the track today. Unfortunately we had a lot of problems and we didn't have the pace. I feel sorry for the team but we'll work on it for tomorrow and try to have a better day."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "Tough day at the office. The Arrow car was quick in certain stages of the race, but unfortunately the way the yellows fell, it wasn't to our benefit. A lot of guys that made mistakes today ended up catching a lucky yellow and ended up ahead of us. Ninth certainly isn't the result we deserved for the effort we put forward and keeping our nose clean. We'll move on to tomorrow and try and finish further up."

MARCUS ERICSSON (No. 7 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "I thought it was a decent race. Obviously, it was my first experience on these wet Firestone tires, because I missed out on them that part of the race in Indy, so I had zero previous experience (with them). It made the first part of the race a bit difficult to sort of get up to speed in the wet, but I thought when I got going, we were looking quite strong towards the end of the wet tire stint. In the damp conditions on the slicks (primary Firestone tires), we were quite competitive. We were making up a few positions, picking off a few guys in the Arrow car and moving up the field. Of course, in conditions like that, it's difficult to make moves because the track was wet off (race) line. We couldn't really progress more than that, but I think it's all part of the learning curve. We'll try again tomorrow."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "It was unfortunate. I just clipped the inside wall and got into the tire barrier. Driver error. I think we broke the suspension and the upper toe link. The PNC Bank car was really good and we were setting up for a good finish I thought. I'm glad the tire barrier was there. Whenever you go right toward a wall you never know. But I'm fine and we'll have to bounce back strong tomorrow."

FELIX ROSENQVIST (No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "We had a big battle going on with (Takuma) Sato. I got him and he got me back. I respect him, but there were some questionable moves for sure. I really wanted a podium out of it today, but that's the way it goes. We are moving in the right direction in the NTT DATA Honda and hope to continue to show that tomorrow."

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "We just have to rebound tomorrow. Simply put, we just have to go out there and execute in every way. We've made a lot of little mistakes this year, some with strategy and some on me making a mistake in qualifying; we just need to do a better job and we have an opportunity to do that tomorrow. It just seems like one of those seasons where things don't go your way, but I've had it the other way before too. We have really fast Verizon Chevys so I know it can turn around quickly."

TONY KANAAN (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "We got a good recovery. We tried different things for qualifying to find the right way. The only way we're going to be making improvements is trying and unfortunately qualifying didn't go well. We had a pretty good race. I loved the pit stops, the guys did an awesome job. We gained some spots there and I passed some cars on the race track, so we're just going to keep going. It was a mistake-free race for me so I'll take it."

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Fifth Third Bank/United Rentals Honda): "The car in the wet wasn't great; the rear was pretty sketchy in the rain. When Ed Jones went off, I think everybody was close to doing the same thing. Once it went dry, the car was very good. It just seemed like we gave up a little in the rain but when it dried out we were pretty good. Tomorrow it's going to be dry and I think we'll be strong. The changes that we made were better in the race than in qualifying this morning so hopefully that carries over. I will try to get a good night's sleep tonight and be ready to go again tomorrow."

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 18 SealMaster Honda): "In a short race like this it's tough to make anything happen. It was really difficult in the wet. I struggled to keep the rear tires together. We were going to pit a bit early and sure enough the yellow came out right when we were deciding what to do, so we missed the shot. After that everyone went on slick tires. I made up one or two spots. There were a couple of mistakes and we recovered to 11th. There just wasn't enough time to make much happen. The cars in front were doing a good job. I felt I was a bit faster at times, but not enough to make moves. Not the greatest day, not the worst day. We'll keep working on the No. 18 SealMaster and see what we can do tomorrow."

SANTINO FERRUCCI (No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda): "We had an OK start, you can't really pass in the rain at the start because you can't see, so we weren't really able to move up. Then, we pit early for dry tires and we thought that we'd be able to move up the field when the yellow came out but the cars in front of me didn't pack up and that set us back in the field. Nothing really went our way today, there's nothing we could really do other than now prepare for Race 2 tomorrow and hope for a better result aboard our No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda."

ED JONES (No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet): "It was an interesting race in the wet conditions. I had a good start, made up a few positions and got into the Top 10. We were running pretty well. Everyone's tires were going off quite a lot and we just lot the fronts. I made a mistake just as we were about to pit and unfortunately lost us a lap and a strong result. I'm sorry to the team and hopefully we can have a stronger day tomorrow!"

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "It was a tough race out there with all of the different conditions! We were able to move forward a decent amount of positions which was good, though we would have liked to have finished a little higher up. It could have been a lot worse! Thank you to my guys, we made a good call no when to come in for slicks. We'll go back tonight and see where we can improve for tomorrow."

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet): "My race was awesome. That was some of the most fun I've had in a race, well, I had fun last week and in the Indy GP too. I guess when you have fun you go fast. We had a tremendous DXC Technology Chevrolet. It was phenomenal. I had fun in the rain, that's my favorite. We passed a bunch of cars. In the dry conditions we were super fast but the track was so damp on the inside I couldn't make moves without risking to go off. Quite frankly, I did start thinking about the championship today and with how tired I was this morning I was very content with sixth-place because I think that will go a long way at the end of the year. We should be pleased with today. Very happy for Josef and Team Penske, at least we got one win for Roger here this weekend."

ZACH VEACH (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda): "It was a rollercoaster day. Qualifying was good – we lined up eighth, but then I made a mistake on the pace lap and spun with the wet conditions. We went back to 22nd for the start and worked our way up. Great strategy from the team to get me back towards the top 10 and then I passed cars one by one on restarts. [Colton] Herta and I, I think, put on a good show together for three corners – it was hairy. I think we could have been higher; we kind of got hurt by conditions. We should have restarted third or fourth, but they didn't pack the field up, so we got hurt there. But, all-in-all to come away with a top 10 after starting 22nd – I'm pretty happy with it."

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 27 NAPA Auto Parts Honda): "These yellows are tough – they've killed our race three times this year, but it's part of the game in INDYCAR, (and) it's the same for everyone. We had a really good car under wet conditions. We were able to control the race and control the gap to Scott (Dixon). Track position on a one-line track is obviously key. There was really only one dry line; there was not much I could do. Josef (Newgarden) did a good job. I tried to push him into a mistake, but it didn't come. It's hard. I'm frustrated. I think we had the best car again today."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "Today was kind of a mess. We had a braking issue which made it challenging. I don't know why, but they were pulling hard left. So, I was a wounded duck out there in the wet. Then I had some contact with Sato, he got under me and kind of ran wide. But, all in all, it was clean racing. We made a risk and came in early for dry tires, when it was still wet, hoping for a yellow. The yellow came, but we weren't given the have a chance to pack up. I have no idea what was happening there with Race Control. All things considered, we got away with one and salvaged something today. We'll take the points for fifth and look to gain more ground tomorrow."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 30 Mi-Jack/Panasonic Honda): "Graham (Rahal) and I struggled a second off the pace from the pole sitter, but I think we played it well. I think the rain definitely helped us and then made some good position gains. In the end, I think fighting for the podium, on the wet parts and dry parts, were certainly exciting. Thanks to the Detroit fans for staying after some extremely difficult (weather) conditions here." (About learning anything today that can be used for Race 2) "I am sure. We need to go through it everyone with the engineers. Hopefully we can have a better car tomorrow and I don't know we'll see."

PATRICIO O'WARD (No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet): "That was a tough one to take. We qualified really well and the No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet felt strong right out of the gate, but once again we just didn't have luck on our side. Sato put us into the wall on the first green lap and at the time I didn't think there was much damage to the car, but we found out later we actually had some damage to the suspension. Even with the suspension damage we were moving up through the field and got as high as eighth I think, but we had an issue on our last pit stop that cost us a few spots. We're still working through what exactly went wrong, but I know whatever it is will get worked out by tomorrow. I'm obviously frustrated that we finished where we did, but if we just keep showing progress as a team and how good we can be I know it'll all come together soon."

MAX CHILTON (No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet): "It was a very active, short race today. I think it was equally exciting for the drivers and the fans and even though our result wasn't where we wanted it, I did actually enjoy it. The No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet had good pace at the end of every stint, we just lacked that pace at the start. There were cars that were overtaking us at the beginning of our stints, but we were able to get those positions back when we were on both wets and slicks toward the end of each stint. I mean honestly there's not much different we could've done – we just needed to start higher than we did."

COLTON HERTA (No. 88 GESS Capstone Honda): "Not the best day today for the #88 GESS Capstone Honda guys. We qualified fifth and finished 12th. We were really quick in qualifying, so hopefully tomorrow we can find the speed again to start tomorrow's race up front. The guys worked so hard again today and we'll continue finding the speed for the remainder of the weekend."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 98 AutoNation/Curb Honda): "We did a great job on strategy and took a big risk. We outsmarted people [going to dry tires first] and kept if off the wall – then they didn't let us pack up and opened the pits. I've never seen that in my career. It was tough, I wish we got the reward we deserve."

Results:

Pos	No	Name	Diff	Led	Start	Engine	Points	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden		25	2	Chevy	303	Team Penske
2	27	Alexander Rossi	0.8237	18	1	Honda	270	Andretti Autosport
3	30	Takuma Sato	11.4760	0	9	Honda	238	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
4	10	Felix Rosenqvist	11.8833	0	4	Honda	149	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
5	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	12.2263	0	6	Honda	187	Andretti Autosport
6	22	Simon Pagenaud	12.5127	0	13	Chevy	278	Team Penske
7	15	Graham Rahal	13.1515	0	11	Honda	149	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	26	Zach Veach	14.0022	0	8	Honda	107	Andretti Autosport
9	5	James Hinchcliffe	15.2409	0	10	Honda	167	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
10	21	Spencer Pigot	16.1462	0	17	Chevy	153	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	18	Sebastien Bourdais	16.9309	0	16	Honda	143	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan
12	88	Colton Herta	17.2807	0	5	Honda	128	Harding Steinbrenner Racing
13	7	Marcus Ericsson	17.9085	0	15	Honda	98	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
14	31	Patricio O'Ward	24.0822	0	7	Chevy	83	Carlin
15	14	Tony Kanaan	25.6122	0	21	Chevy	125	AJ Foyt Enterprises
16	98	Marco Andretti	26.0652	0	18	Honda	119	Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
17	59	Max Chilton	26.4759	0	19	Chevy	72	Carlin
18	12	Will Power	33.0561	0	12	Chevy	196	Team Penske
19	19	Santino Ferrucci	43.1639	0	22	Honda	140	Dale Coyne Racing
20	20	Ed Jones	1 LAPS	0	14	Chevy	128	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	4	Matheus Leist	13 LAPS	0	20	Chevy	117	AJ Foyt Enterprises
22	9	Scott Dixon	20 LAPS	0	3	Honda	211	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams

Race Statistics

Winner's average speed: 80.294 mph

Time of Race: 1:15:30.5932

Margin of victory: 0.8237 of a second

Cautions: 4 for 14 laps

Lead changes: 1 among 2 drivers

Lap Leaders:

Rossi 1-18

Newgarden 19-43

NTT IndyCar Series point standings:

Newgarden 303, Pagenaud 278, Rossi 270, Sato 238, Dixon 211, Power 196, Hunter-Reay 187, Hinchcliffe 167, Pigot 153, Rahal 149.