Pruett’s cooldown lap: Barber
The week got away from me with the biggest RACER Mailbag I’ve ever had to answer, so I’ll keep it short with a Barber rewind since the event is fading in our rearview mirror.
BRAVO TO RACE CONTROL
I sure wish IndyCar’s race control team could go back in time and apply its approach to Barber to the previous Sunday at Long Beach. Kill that penalty it gave to Pato O’Ward for hitting his teammate Alexander Rossi, and then the no-call on the Colton Herta-Josef Newgarden hit makes more sense.
The 90 laps at Barber reminded me more of a rough hockey match than an IndyCar race, and I loved everything about it. We need a couple of these each year — I wouldn’t want it to become the norm — because the cars are strong enough to take it and the side-by-side clashes into and out of Turn 5 added constant excitement. It felt like there were very few corners where contact wasn’t made, and as long as it’s kept between warring drivers and doesn’t entangle others, the “have at it” approach seems to work at Barber. Thanks to race control, they let the slam dance go.
BIG DRAMA, MEH RATINGS
I had some folks insist the Penske push-to-pass nonsense was everything the series needed to get more attention. The 2023 race on NBC had 930,000 viewers. Sunday’s race had 813,000 with Peacock factored in, down 117,000.
Combined with Long Beach the week prior which aired on NBC in 2023, but was placed on its USA cable network in 2024, IndyCar shed 836,000 viewers during its back-to-back races.
The overnight number for Barber was 763,000 for traditional TV viewing, and with the 50,000 from Peacock factored in, the final number improved to 813,000.
That development also shines another light on the state of streaming and its consumption habits for IndyCar fans. With a tiny 6.2 percent share of the total Barber viewership picture coming through Peacock, it’s hard to point to cord-cutting as the reason for the decline.
UNCOMMON
Pato O’Ward’s afternoon had the look of a boxer who got dropped to the canvas in the opening round and spent the rest of the match trying to chase a knockout instead of winning each remaining round. O’Ward’s day began with spinning off at Turn 5 while avoiding the back of Christian Lundgaard’s car, had some argy bargy in the middle, and ended with hitting and spinning teammate Theo Pourchaire while they were running 18th and 19th.
They’d end up 22nd and 23rd, with Pourchaire credited with Arrow McLaren’s best finish of the day after Alexander Rossi’s car shed a wheel and was retired in 25th. It was as big of an out-of-character race I’ve seen for O’Ward.
This kind of ham-fisted performance is the last thing Arrow McLaren wanted heading into the month of May. Producing a fast and flawless performance across its three cars at the upcoming Indy GP is what they’ll need to roll into the Indy 500 with confidence and momentum.
The elbows were out at Barber, but race control stayed in the background — except for those who forced their hand. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
THE POINTS
Colton Herta’s best start to a season (101 points) continued with a run to eighth; he leads the championship entering Indy. The same is true for Felix Rosenqvist, who has nothing but top 10s this year and holds fifth in the standings (87).
With his win, Scott McLaughlin shot from 27th and last to ninth; he’s back in the mix after one race (59). Linus Lundqvist’s first podium also did wonders for him; he rocketed from 18th to eighth (62).
Josef Newgarden initially left Long Beach with the championship lead, but that was surrendered after penalties were applied for St. Petersburg, and after rough day in Berber, he improved a few positions to 15th in the standings (48).
Christian Lundgaard had two hellish results to open his season; a sixth-place at Barber got him back on course, but he’s digging out from 16th in the championship (48).
The nicest and biggest surprise of all is Santino Ferrucci in 10th (58).
INDYCAR MEDICAL
On a personal note, I had the good fortune to receive care from IndyCar’s medical team in the dedicated IndyCar Medical transporter Friday morning at Barber. Saturday night at Long Beach, something mean — a spider, I suspect — bit me in a few places, and the one bite on my hip turned into a thermonuclear infection by the middle of the week.
With no time to schedule a visit to the doctor on while jamming between Long Beach and Barber, the amazing doctors and nurses at IndyCar Medical saw me first thing on Friday, prescribed some powerful antibiotics, and by Saturday night, some of my energy returned and we started winning the fight.
I happened upon one of the medical team members in the paddock on Saturday — she saw me from a distance — and walked over to check on me. I left Barber wishing every medical team was as kind and proactive as the pros from Indiana University Health who staff IndyCar’s program. Truly exceptional people there.
MISC
• Arrow McLaren brought Pato O’Ward’s second-place trophy from St. Petersburg to give to Team Penske’s Will Power, who was promoted to second after Newgarden and McLaughlin were disqualified. It was meant to be an exchange, with Team Penske handing over Newgarden’s first-place trophy after O’Ward was promoted to first. The exchange didn’t happen. Hopefully O’Ward’s winner’s hardware from St. Pete will turn up at Indy.
• Kyffin Simpson’s run of clean races continues. We haven’t seen outrageous passing and aggression from the Caymanian rookie, but he’s finished 12th, 19th and 14th and sits in front of six other full-time drivers in the championship (P19) and is tied on points (45) with his more heralded Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong.
• The season has gone pear-shaped for Carpenter rookie Christian Rasmussen. Mistakes have relegated the reigning Indy NXT title winner to last among the full-timers, and to make matters worse, he crashed hard in a Thursday test at Mid-Ohio, which added to the escalating repair bill for 2024. Like Arrow McLaren, Rasmussen needs to use the Indy GP to get centered and build forward.
• The event’s promoter said 86,000 people attended the Barber race from Friday-Sunday, the most since the inaugural IndyCar race there in 2010.
• IndyCar reported 289 passes, with 281 for position, which were the most recorded at Barber.
