Pruett's cooldown lap: Road America-269476

Road America was an absolute blast for all the reasons that make a motor race worth watching. We had raw speed (Josef Newgarden), giant oversteer (Pato O’Ward), crashes and clashes galore (almost everyone, it seemed), and a few interlopers to follow (Kevin Magnussen, Cody Ware), and high drama (Newgarden, Alex Palou) to close the race that made the REV Group Grand Prix one that won’t be easily forgotten.

We’ve covered some topics in the race report and sidebar stories, so here are some other observations to recap the event:

IT’S RAINING MIDWESTERN CARTOON ANVILS

The Road America lap chart shows Josef Newgarden was leading on Lap 53 of 55. A week before, it had Will Power leading on Lap 65 of 70 on Saturday’s Race 1 of the Dual in Detroit doubleheader. Let’s not forget Newgarden was also in the frame for a solid run at Detroit 1 until his wheel fell off at the first pit stop. At Detroit Round 2, Newgarden was shown leading on Lap 67 of 70. In all three instances, Team Penske surrendered those late leads.

Split across the three, Penske’s Newgarden and Power came within 10 combined laps of authoring a trio of victories in 195 laps of competition.

Newgarden led 32 laps at Road America. Power led 32 at Detroit 1. Newgarden led 67 at Detroit 2, for 131 laps of mastery over those 195 from Belle Isle to Road America. And yet, with five laps to go at Detroit 1, three at Detroit 2, and two at Elkhart Lake, crushing losses were visited upon The Captain’s team. Just brutal and undeserved.

Newgarden has led 99 of 195 laps over the last three races, but has no wins to show for it. Levitt/Motorsport Images

WOMEN ENGINEERS CONTINUE TO ROCK

Following the breakthrough wins at Detroit with Marcus Ericsson’s assistant Chip Ganassi race engineer Angela Ashmore and Nicole Rotondo, Ericsson’s Honda Performance Development engine engineer, and another win for Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP performance engineer Kate Gundlach, the tally increased at Road America with Alex Palou’s CGR simulation engineer Danielle Shepherd, who has two wins this year and has been an important part of the program for many years.

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?

Every race has one or more drivers who fell off the radar or went for a long drive throughout the field and weren’t necessarily rewarded for their efforts. At Road America, the first of two to spotlight is A.J. Foyt Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais, who must have wondered if he angered some gnomes and evil spirits living in the forest.

Bourdais qualified well in P11, but ended the first lap back in P13, made his first pit stop, and once more, left in the hole, losing five spots with a slow stop. Relegated to P18, the misery wasn’t over as the rear of the car felt weird. In an annual tradition at Road America, a car had its camber shims come loose and the handling went south during the race. This year, that car belonged to Bourdais, who had to pit and have the problem rectified on the left-rear; he’d lose a lap in the process.

To quote the rapper Sticky Fingaz, "But wait, it gets worse."

Bourdais would get his lap back when Kevin Magnussen caused a caution, but the pits closed as a result of the yellow and the No. 14 Chevy needed fuel. He’d pit for emergency service, get enough fuel to circulate until the pits opened, pitted again to fill the tank, and was duly penalized for the emergency service on a closed pit lane, which sent Bourdais to the back of the field.

All of this happened in the first 37 laps of the race! Restarting in P22, Bourdais would do Bourdais things and haul the No. 14 up to P16 at the finish.

The second spotlight goes to Oliver Askew, who had a weekend of fluctuating fortunes as he was flying inside the top 10 in the first two practice sessions, struggled with handling in qualifying to earn P16, and then went on a crazy journey in the race. Like Bourdais, he lost a ton of positions on pit lane with slow stops, pitting in P15 under yellow on Lap 24 and returning in P20, for example, and with his next stop from P13 under yellow on Lap 36, he took the green in P21 and was sent on an operation to pray for a yellow, then found himself in the lead in the closing laps after everyone else pitted. A caution did arrive on Lap 52, but by that time, he was on fumes and surrendered the lead, resumed in P15, and wound up in P12 at the finish line.

Bourdais did Bourdais things and battled relentlessly, even overcoming being a lap down, to finish 14th. Cantrell/Motorsport Images

POINTS THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’

Leaving the Detroit, this was your top 10:

1. Pato O’Ward, 299 points
2. Alex Palou, 298, -1
3. Scott Dixon, 263, -36
4. Josef Newgarden, 248, -51
5. Rinus VeeKay, 243, -56
6. Simon Pagenaud, 243, -56
7. Marcus Ericsson, 211, -88
8. Graham Rahal, 209, -90
9. Colton Herta, 202, -97
10. Takuma Sato, 181, -118

Leaving Road America, here’s how good and bad fortunes shuffled the deck:

1. Alex Palou, 349 points
2. Pato O’Ward, 321, -28
3. Scott Dixon, 296, -53
4. Josef Newgarden, 261, -88
5. Simon Pagenaud, 255, -94
6. Rinus VeeKay, 243, -106
7. Colton Herta, 242, -107
8. Marcus Ericsson, 239, -110
9. Graham Rahal, 228, -121
10. Takuma Sato, 206, -143

Of the major takeaways, the obvious is the change atop the standings with Palou capitalizing on both Newgarden’s DNF and O’Ward’s decent but unremarkable finish of P9.

The biggest trend that took place at Road America was one of championship separation. Yes, Dixon did a marvelous job to climb from P13 to P4 in the race, but he lost 17 points to his teammate on Sunday. Newgarden’s rotten luck did similar damage, taking a reasonable 51-point deficit and punching it out to 88. Pagenaud’s P18 took his manageable gap to the leader and did some damage. It’s here, in P5 in the standings, where the separation trend takes off.

After Detroit, Rinus VeeKay in P5 and Pagenaud in P6 were tied at 56 points back from the lead. In fact, the post-Detroit top six were 50-ish points out of P1, which left a lot of drivers in the championship mix.

After Road America, it’s been cut to the top three for those who are 50-ish points behind the leader. Pagenaud, taking P5 from VeeKay who was sidelined for Road America, kicks off the cluster of drivers who are now at or near 100-plus points back from Palou.

Pagenaud was a huge climber after the Indy 500, in P4 and a modest 47 points back from Palou. Three races later, he’s in a similar place in the standings in P5, but the gap to Palou has doubled to 94.

After Detroit, the top nine drivers were within the 100-point bubble. After Road America, it’s down to the top five as this single race managed to take a highly competitive championship and turn a bunch of haves into have nots. Really, it’s Palou, O’Ward, and Dixon in the same championship zip code and a bunch of other drivers after them who are praying Mid-Ohio delivers enough points to keep them in the title conversation.

If they want to keep their title hopes alive, Newgarden and the rest at 88-plus-back-gang need to start winning or living on the podium with just seven races remaining.

ROAD TO INDY 

It was a weekend of mechanical woes and messy hits affecting the leaders in Indy Lights. Carlin’s Alex Peroni was on his way to a first win when vehicular problems struck in Round 1; Kyle Kirkwood drove off into the distance to get his fourth win and a brief grasp of the points lead. Recovering from a bad Saturday, David Malukas took Sunday’s win and reclaimed the championship lead as teammate Linus Lundqvist and Kirkwood left the track tied for second, seven points behind Malukas.

Indy Pro 2000 saw points leader Christian Rasmussen close the weekend with a win after Manuel Sulaiman claimed Race 1, and in USF2000, Kiko Porto got another win and extended his championship lead while Thomas Nepveu broke into the winner’s column on Sunday.

LEADERS CIRCLE WATCH 

It’s never too early to check in on how IndyCar’s Leaders Circle competition is going among full-time teams looking to land in the top 22 and earn a $1 million prize money payout for the following season.

Part-timers Santino Ferrucci and Helio Castroneves continue to split a few full-time entries in P22 and P23, respectively. As expected, the absence of those two at Road America helped Andretti’s No. 29 entry for James Hinchcliffe to move into the safe zone in P21 and assuming Ferrucci and Castroneves continue to slide down the order, Hinchcliffe has a decent 19-point gap to AMSP’s problem-stricken No. 7 entry which currently holds P24, but should improve to P22 after Mid-Ohio.

Following the same slide assumption, Foyt’s No. 4 entry might be able to overtake the two part-timers at Mid-Ohio, but there’s no guarantee; it’s 17 points behind the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Indy 500 winner.

One positive piece of Leaders Circle news came from Max Chilton and the No. 59 Carlin Racing entry which came into the race in last, 22 points behind the No. 4 driven by Dalton Kellett. Thanks to the P10 in the race, the No. 59 cut the deficit to the Foyt car to six points. If the Carlin team can pull of a few more 'strategery' surprises before the year’s out, earning a $1 million contract could be possible.

Grosjean (No. 51 Honda) drove with his elbows out all day long at Road America. Abbott/Motorsport Images

MR. INVISIBLE

I know James Hinchcliffe partook in the race, but his presence was, unfortunately, never felt. Improving from P19 to P15, his finish on Sunday was, as astounding as it might seem for the six-time IndyCar race winner, his second-best result of the year.

THE CHICKEN SALAD AWARD GOES TO…

Marcus Ericsson for turning chicken **** into a how-did-he-do-that result of P6.

Starting P18, the CGR driver improved to P12 until he played himself at the exit of Turn 3, getting wide, keeping his foot in the throttle, and creating a tank slapper that threw the No. 8 Honda onto the grass. Sitting stalled, he’d bring out a caution, get restarted, and pit with the rest of field, falling to P21.

The Detroit Round 1 winner would get up to P18 on the return to green and motor to P8 before making his final pit stop on Lap 41. Returning in P16, he’d get back to P12—where he was at when he spun—and improved to P10 when the alternate-strategy duo of Max Chilton and Takuma Sato stopped while holding P1-P2.

Ericsson would get to P9 when the last of the strategy gamblers pitted, and with the last restart coming off of Ed Jones’ problems, he’d take the green in P7 and inherit P6 when Newgarden was hit by the cartoon anvil.

What a wild day for the Swede.

MISC 

• It was a brief moment in the championship spotlight, but Pato O’Ward did have the team founded in 2001 as Sam Schmidt Motorsports and known today as Arrow McLaren SP holding first in the championship for the very first time. Only lasting seven days, it won’t be the last with the Mexican in the No. 5 Chevy.
• A lot was made over the weekend’s various broadcasts about Josef Newgarden driving out to the edge of the track in certain corners as some form of risky practice. I’d agree, if it were a random thing where Newgarden wasn’t aware of the situation. But he did it lap after lap, and never lost control. And he’s been the most dominant driver at the track since IndyCar returned in 2016. Which suggests the two-time champion was, indeed, in full control and demonstrating his extreme skills to eke out an advantage.
• It came as a byproduct of staying out when all the leaders pitted, but it was joyous to see Kevin Magnussen lead an open-wheel race for the first time in forever.
• Countering the six happy laps with Magnussen in the lead, that’s three straight failures to finish for the No. 7 AMSP Chevy. From the mechanical issue that caused Felix Rosenqvist to crash to the engine problem Oliver Askew experienced to the electrical shutdown that ended Magnussen’s debut, it was a turbulent nine-day span for the No. 7 entry.
• Six of the nine race winners this year are 24 or younger. One is 30, and the other two are 40 and 46.
• Spinning and stalling is becoming an unfortunate expectation for Jimmie Johnson. If nothing else, it’s a variable that adds spice to the road and street courses, but he didn’t come here to sacrifice himself for the sake of entertainment. IndyCar’s testing rules won’t allow the CGR team to do whatever it wants with the current car and engine package, so it’s worth asking if renting a large skid pad and putting Johnson in a modern era CART or Champ Car—of which the team has many, and others race in vintage events—and spending a few days living on and going over the ragged edge would be of value. Finding and exceeding the limits on the race weekends, to the detriment of his open-wheel racing education, is increasingly hard to watch.
• Must be some kind of first to have two Canadians serving as the bottom full-time drivers in the series with James Hinchcliffe in P20 and Dalton Kellett in P25.
• Romain Grosjean: Absolutely fearless. The Frenchman seemed to be in every multi-car battle, banging wheels, and giving those around him the business. He isn’t afraid to throw down, which has been a joy to observe.
• His teammate, Ed Jones has been racing harder than ever, but it went unrewarded in Wisconsin with a broken suspension. Together the Coyne drivers should be a headache for the bigger teams, if only the duo could get to the finish line without problems blighting one entry or the other. So far, if one DCR driver has a good day, it’s almost guaranteed the other will be nowhere in sight by the checkered flag.
• NBC Sports’ slavish devotion to promoting the NASCAR race at Nashville at a non-stop pace from the first IndyCar practice session on Friday to every few minutes during Sunday’s race was the latest reminder of where stock car racing ranks compared to IndyCar within the company. It was downright embarrassing to see how many times the commercials with Brad Paisley and Dale Jr. ran, and the constant tune-in reads the IndyCar broadcast team was told to deliver. And when those weren’t happening, chirons on the left-side timing and scoring pylon were used to promote the race. There’s nothing like making IndyCar fans feel like second-class citizens throughout their race.
• How do Scott Dixon super fans compete for P1 in the Kiwi’s heart? Michael Crowe would like to submit this permanent gesture for review:
• Take a deep breath, enjoy a weekend off from IndyCar racing, and enjoy IMSA’s six-hour race at Watkins Glen on Sunday as a palate cleanser before this amazing season resumes July 2-4 at Mid-Ohio.