'The Bermuda Triangle of racetracks': What IndyCar drivers said after $1 Million Challenge at Thermal Club
What IndyCar drivers were saying after Alex Palou led every lap of the inaugural $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club:
Alex Palou — First: "What an amazing weekend. Right from the start, we had all the speed we needed from our Honda engine and Chip Ganassi Racing car. The race format was obviously different to our regular championship, so we weren’t sure how [the strategy of] saving tires was going to play out in the final, But with no restarts at the end, everything was amazing."
Scott McLaughlin — Second: "It all started I think with my heat race. I think I had a really good start. I was lucky not to get caught up with the kerfuffle with Grosjean and settled into a rhythm. Felt like we had a good speed in the heat race. In the final race, we were pretty conservative, looking after our tires at the start, being smart, knowing there's guys that were going crazily slow, almost too slow I feel like, from a racing perspective. At the start of race two, I tried to have a go at Alex, but ultimately he was just a little bit faster with that clean air. It was always going to be clean air was going to be king this weekend. I settled in, tried to maximize what we had today with our XPEL Chevy. That was second today."
Felix Rosenqvist — Third: "A good day here at Thermal, and we leave with some cash in our pockets. That’s good for Meyer Shank Racing, and it’s great to have two Honda boys on the podium here today, and all the Hondas at the front this weekend. Alex [Palou] was kind of untouchable, so I think we finished where we could, to be honest. We weren’t the best on tires, so we kind of had to manage them a bit. But all in all, it’s been a really good start to the season for us.”
Colton Herta — Fourth: "Starting deep in the field like we did, we knew the race was going to be a battle, but saving tires for the first half of the final, like we did, seemed to work well for us. And to finish fourth in just a short race was pretty decent. It was a really fair fight with Marcus [Armstrong] for fourth. I felt like we gave each other plenty of racing room.”
Marcus Armstrong — Fifth: "I'm actually kind of disappointed by P5 because on the start of the first part of the final, I had a missed shift and couldn't shift to second gear, so I lost a couple of places, and that sort of put us on the back foot. Credit to the team. We've been good all week, and we can take that momentum to Long Beach now."
Alexander Rossi — Seventh: “That was pretty anticlimactic. It's hard to pass around here. The car was good, and we were able to move up from 14th overall to start the day to P7 in the final race. Now we move on to Long Beach.”
Josef Newgarden — Eighth: “Just really hard racing there with me and Alex (Rossi) and kind of a microcosm of the two strategies you saw today. We didn’t quite go into the heavy tire conservation mode that he and others did over the first 10 laps before the break. You could tell it benefited him greatly and while the Hitachi Chevy was good today, I was just trying to hold him off. It was a great weekend here at Thermal. They rolled out the red carpet once again, and I think you saw today that this track could put on an entertaining show with more laps, tire degradation and pit strategies.”
Christian Lundgaard — Ninth: “My race was basically done on the opening lap of my heat race when I was hit and my sidepod was severely damaged. We were penalized two times after that for trying to repair the car. We showed good pace, which should bode well for upcoming races and help us get the Hy-Vee Honda a win.”
Agustin Canapino — 10th: “It was a good finish in P10. Really, really happy with the progress with this weekend. Honestly, we are improving a lot and we are still in the battle, the top-10. It was our first top-10 in IndyCar. I am really happy, of course. Unfortunately, from the main race, our car has a big vibration for some reason. I’m not sure what happened there. But anyway, we finished in the battle in the top 10. Thanks to the whole team, and we’ll focus on Long Beach.”
Graham Rahal — 11th: “The first race, the car finished third but it was just really, really loose. It was a real handful for me. The second race was not bad necessarily, but the stuck throttle started really early -- like lap two or three I started to feel it. It's just so dangerous. I just don't know where you press on from then. I tried to save tires, save the car but the throttle was getting worse. Even at that pace it was getting worse and worse and worse. Ultimately, it's just a danger that really doesn't make any sense to continue and harm something -- let alone myself. So, we decided to come in a little bit early. You go two laps down and ultimately that's it. We had to retire from there which is a share because we made good strides in the Code 3 Associates car this weekend.”
Pietro Fittipaldi — Finished 12th: “We had a good start in the heat race. We were aggressive and then we went to P5. We had a bit more pace than (Linus) Lundqvist in front. We were just kind of thinking ‘We're P5 so let's finish there and qualify for the final race,’ which we did. Then we went out for the final race and had a really good start. I think we were 8th or 7th and unfortunately, we had a fueling issue and didn't put as much as fuel as we thought we did. Basically, we were about half of a tank of fuel and I had to coast the whole race just to be able to make it and not go a lap down. Then IndyCar deemed that because we weren't full fuel that we had to be disqualified for the second race. I’m very disappointed because I think we had something there. I mean, we obviously were not fighting for a top three but fighting for a top-six finish was definitely in the bag. So yeah, I’m disappointed but we're gaining momentum and we're fighting where we should be. Although I only know four of the 16 tracks we will race on, it's important the more laps I do, the more confident I get in the car so we just have to keep this momentum going.”
Pato O’Ward — Seventh (Heat 2): “It was a challenging weekend for us. In terms of testing, we had a pretty phenomenal week. In terms of race format and results, I would call it the Bermuda Triangle of racetracks. That is what my engineer Kate Gundlach said, and I would have to agree. It's a very temperature-sensitive track, very wind-sensitive, and we were on the wrong side of it in qualifying. That's something that none of us could have predicted and is probably something that has never been seen before in the NTT IndyCar Series. We'll learn from it, and we can apply it when we come back next year, but that's it from us. I'm glad we're heading to Long Beach; it's a place that we know. All this work will be for something. I'm looking forward to getting back to our championship.”
Tom Blomqvist — Eighth (Heat 2): “That was actually a hard race. I got a little love tap at the start of the race which messed me up a bit and I lost a position. I thought the format was actually quite exciting and there was definitely a bit of energy around, but it's of course tough when you don’t make it through to the final round. Overall, it was a pretty fun weekend and we made some progress, now we’re ready to head to Long Beach.”
Will Power — Ninth (Heat 1): “I saw (Romain Grosjean) T-bone someone, and I kind of went to the outside and went to the back. It was very close, very close. I was, man, I actually I was wondering where I was because of how many people that got knocked out (in the Lap 1 incident). If it’s tenths, you could make four up. I made a couple of up and caught up to the group that Colton (Herta) was holding up, but once the tires deg, the track is slippery, there’s not many places that you can make a move. I made two moves through those esses hammering through the two fast corners, and then just throwing up the inside because it’s a pretty wide entry.”
Callum Ilott — Ninth (Heat 2): “The start today was strong and a bit scrappy, but then I was fighting with (Tom) Blomqvist quite hard. I had some contact with him, but we just didn't have the pace from there. Pato (O’Ward) and Alexander (Rossi) got past me, and it was just a push to the end. Good job to Alexander (Rossi) to get into the All-Star Race; his team did a solid job. This was a weekend of missed opportunity. We were super strong in practice, and it's a shame we couldn't do more with it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and qualifying was full of potential, but unfortunately we didn't get the results there we were looking for. A lot of lessons learned from it, and I think the team knows how we could've done some things differently. Honestly, this weekend was great. It was good to come out here with a lot of pace, and I really enjoyed working with the team. I'm thankful for the opportunity. It's a shame we didn't get more out of it, we all deserved a bit more. Big thanks to Zak, Gavin, Tony, NTT DATA, Team Chevy and Arrow McLaren for giving me the opportunity."
Santino Ferrucci — Eighth (Heat 1): “It was a solid two-day test for us at A.J. Foyt Racing. We learned a lot. We kind of came in on the backfoot from our Barber test. Got the car sorted, and in qualifying, we kind of missed it a little bit. I kind of missed it a little bit. When we started the heat race, and honestly, we were super competitive. We should have transferred. Just got caught out on that Lap 1 incident. Hats off to the boys. Solid three days of work. Looking forward to heading to the hybrid test next week with Chevrolet.”
Sting Ray Robb — 11th (Heat 1): “The start was crazy. For a nonpoints race, I did not expect that. I was thankful for the free spots even though it’s a sad day for anyone involved in that. The team did a good job this week. It was a long week for a race that I think was consequential to our championship run. We learned a lot and we’ve got some work ahead of us. I’m excited our Pray.com team got to be with us here this week, and kind of got to have a quiet race weekend, which was fun. I’m excited for the next one.”
Romain Grosjean — DNF (Heat 1): “I got hit on the braking. I haven’t seen the footage, but I got hit really, really badly in the back and then the car spun. It’s… It’s… Who’s going to pay for the damage? We come here with no points on the line, we do nothing wrong, and the car is completely smashed. What is that? It’s not what I signed up in IndyCar for.”
