IndyCar at new-look Road America puts on a surprisingly good show
ELKHART LAKE – Nope. Didn’t see that coming.
After a ragged leadup to IndyCar’s first race on Road America’s smooth new surface, expectations were – if we’re being charitable – modest.
Part parade, part demo derby it was likely to create a busy week for the landscapers at “America’s National Park of Speed,” as management likes to call these 640 acres. After the crews finished piling wreckage into their transporters for the trip home, the biggest cynics among us imagined, the sweepers would spend Sunday night putting the gravel back in the gravel traps.
“Savage,” was the word one driver chose Saturday to describe what might be ahead, and no one really argued.
But then a funny thing happened Sunday.
A race broke out.
A good old fashioned race, with bits and pieces a lot like those of the previous 33 CART, Champ Car and IndyCar events here.
Results: 2023 IndyCar Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America
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The Sonsio Grand Prix was part athletic contest, part science fair and part chess match with 27 drivers challenged by the undulating 4.014 miles of fresh asphalt, with its 14 turns and 195 mph top speeds, and their engineers working to keep their cars consistently fast as various strategies played out.
It turned out drivers could venture off the super-grippy racing line and make some passes after all. They could slip or spin off course and keep going after they’d given no real indication a day earlier that was coming.
“I don’t really know,” winner Alex Palou said when asked about the difference a day made.
He also didn’t really care.
He was just super happy the way things played out.
Palou was one of the many who made their weekend more difficult by crashing Saturday. After he blew through Turn 14 and slammed a wall, Chip Ganassi Racing had 90 minutes to rebuild Palou’s car for qualifying. He earned the third starting position, ran near the front all day and took the lead for good seconds after completing the 48th of 55 laps.
“I think it was just by more cars running, just getting more tire rubber on track in general from other series as well,” the 26-year-old Spaniard continued.
“But, yeah, we were able to brake on the inside and get passes. I lost two positions. I got two back. Yeah, it was possible to overtake.”
Yeah.
At record levels.
According to IndyCar, the race included 444 on-track passes, the most at the track since the series started coming in 2016. Of those, 386 were for position. Thirty-two were within the top five.
That’s not to say this race was 1 hour and 45 minutes of beauty under Chamber of Commerce conditions.
Romain Grosjean caught air over the troublesome curb in Turn 1 and spent more time in the weeds than he’d care to. Jack Harvey wrecked in 14, the way Palou and two others had a day earlier. Four cautions for 10 laps are more than you’d necessarily like, but the second half of the race ran yellow-free, allowing various strategies to play out.
Strategy largely came down to the choice of when to use the primary tire vs. the red-sidewalled alternate that wore faster, and that led to disparity in speed.
Then there was fuel conservation. That played into the finish as a frustrated Colton Herta couldn’t go full-out at the end, dropping to fifth after he’d led 33 laps.
And finally there was good, hard racing that included contact from which drivers could recover. Runner-up Josef Newgarden went elbow-to-elbow with Christian Lundgaard in Turn 5 early and then later with Palou in Turn 6.
“I think just in general, the cadence of the driving and the track with this tire grip, there was still great opportunity to pass people,” said Newgarden, who finished 4½ seconds behind Palou.
“There was a lot of drag on the car, so you could get runs on people. You could use overtake (a limited amount of extra power on demand) and it was effective. There’s just a lot of reasons why. Not one thing or another.”
Selfishly, Newgarden liked the old surface on which he had won twice, had two near misses and captured three poles. But after 27 seasons, that asphalt was only five years younger than he is.
“We’re definitely going to leave here going, yeah, this place races really well,” Newgarden continued. “You can start 15th and pass forward. Doesn’t mean you’re going to win, but you could pass forward today.”
And to think, on Saturday that seemed like a long shot.
“We were a bit of a ping-pong ball in the start of the race in Turn 1 and Turn 3, then got shuffled back even more,” said Pato O’Ward, the third-place finisher. “So, yeah, we had to pass everybody on track.
“I think the numbers today show it’s very raceable, a lot of action, yeah.”
Palou was fortunate in that much of the crazier action happened behind him. But when he needed to push he was able and when he got pushed he was able to recover.
The last time Palou won at Road America, he went on to take the championship as well. Now he has won three of the past four IndyCar Series races and built a commanding 74-point lead in the standings through eight of 17 races.
Palou isn’t clearing space in his trophy case yet though. If anyone needs a reminder about how unpredictable IndyCar can be, they need look no further than the difference between Saturday and Sunday at Road America.
“I think the crashes and the mistakes on drivers in general, it’s because there’s so much grip on the new tarmac that allows you to push in the limit,” Palou said. “Obviously when you’re on the limit, there’s huge crashes or huge mistakes.
“That’s good. I mean, a track that rewards aggressive driving and searching on the limit, I think it’s the kind of track that drivers like.
“Then in terms of passing, I think it’s actually going to be even better next year because the track surface was still too new. On the exiting or the outside of the corners, it was a bit slippery. I think we’re not going to have that next year, so it’s going to be even better racing.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Surprising IndyCar race at Road America won by Alex Palou
