The opening weekend of the 2016 IndyCar Series from the streets of St Petersburg in Florida provided both good racing and plenty of storylines, too. Here’s my review:
The Race
The 110-lap event featured just four lead changes, and, thankfully, none of the debris-related cautions that characterised this race a year ago. Despite the general lack of passing for the lead, it was an entertaining race with plenty of slicing and dicing going on back through the field. Montoya’s pass for the lead on Simon Pagenaud came on the eighty-fifth lap. Pagenaud had arguably the best run of his short Team Penske career in what feels like a critical season for him, in terms of his continued employment with The Captain.
Will Power
Arguably the biggest story of the entire weekend didn’t actually happen on track. Well, in the beginnings, it did. Australia’s Will Power crashed hard in Friday practice, necessitating a long rebuild by his Team Penske crew. There appeared to be no ill effects because Power stormed back to claim the pole on Saturday.
It was after qualifying where things went south for Power. What was originally deemed to be nausea relating to a stomach bug was eventually diagnosed as a concussion, and Power was held out of Sunday’s season opener. Journeyman Spaniard Oriol Servia drove the #12 Verizon Chevrolet at short notice, needing overnight express delivery to get his helmet and seat to southern Florida.
There’s evidence to suggest that a driver can miss a race and still win the championship, but it’s going to be tough sledding for Power. A win at the double-points Indianapolis 500 will help his cause, but the chance of a repeat of his series triumph in 2014 appears to have been snuffed out before the first green flag of the year. That’s sad.
Despite that, clearly IndyCar did the right thing – the only thing – and the delayed nature of Power’s symptoms is just one more indication of how there’s little rhyme or reason when it comes to concussion. The 2014 IndyCar Series champion will need to pass a series-mandated test before he’s allowed to race again, with the next event in Phoenix in early April.
Juan Pablo Montoya
The Colombian won his second-straight race on the streets of St Petersburg, taking over the lead of the race from Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud with about two thirds of the race completed. From there the 2015 Indianapolis 500 champion was barely headed. JPM’s speed would be frightening a few other drivers and team-owners in the paddock.
Remember, it was a somewhat-surprising win by Montoya last year that saw him lead the championship – courtesy, it must be said, of a double points haul from his Indianapolis 500 win – right to the very end, eventually to fall at the final hurdle in Sonoma. You wonder if Montoya has a championship-sized chip on his shoulder and is looking to make amends. He certainly looked good at St Pete.
Carlos Munoz
One of the more ridiculous attempts to pass that I can remember in recent history ended up turning the racetrack into something resembling a peak hour traffic jam. It all started when Carlos Munoz ploughed into the back of Graham Rahal in a move that was never, ever, ever going to work. It caused a melee that took out a lot of good cars, and inspired some fairly angry hand gestures from Graham and others.
There should be strong penalties handed down for situations like that were there was no chance of a happy ending. It’s the only way some drivers are going to learn.
Honda’s Speed
Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third and Russian Mikhail Aleshin, driving for the underfunded Schmidt Peterson Motorsport came home with an impressive fifth, keeping Chevrolet teams honest all day.
Another Honda runner, Graham Rahal, might’ve figured in the final stages of the race had he not been mauled by Carlos Munoz. These are good signs, albeit early ones, for Honda, with a new aero kit and obvious improvement in the engine department, too.
Connor Daly
Great scenes when the young American led laps fifteen laps around the halfway point of the race. IndyCar’s fan base loves seeing highly-touted rookies doing well, especially when they’re American born, and even more so when they’re born in Indiana. Daly nails the trifecta in this case. And, he drives for minnow outfit Dale Coyne Racing. You can pretty much guarantee this won’t be the last we see of Daly, and it was a good start.
Marco Andretti
Another race, another controversial move by Andretti. You know when Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear, fence sitters of the highest order, say that a move was never going to work that it was absolutely no chance of happening. That’s how it was with Andretti, firing down the inside of Luca Filippi and ending up turned around and stalled in turn one. Seems to happen far too often with the third-generation racer.
Tony Kanaan
TK started nineteenth and seemed set for a long, torrid day at the office. In the end, he came home with a respectable ninth-place finish.
Next Up: Phoenix
IndyCar returns to the 1.0-mile short oval in the Arizona desert for the first time since 2005 for what should be an epic night race. The track has worked hard promoting the event, so here’s hoping for a big crowd.
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