The second weekend of racing in the 2016 IndyCar Series season took us to the Phoenix International Raceway, the fast one mile bullring that hasn’t seen an IndyCar Series race in more than a decade. Here’s what you need to know from a record-setting weekend in the desert:
The Race
A common complaint from everyone watching on television and tweeting was the lack of passing after the first half-lap following a restart. Everyone from NASCAR superstar Jimmie Johnson to retired and respected champion Dario Franchitti through to yours truly made the point, and it’s a good one. Less downforce and more horsepower is the way to go. Observations to that affect were made by a bunch of drivers but IndyCar took no notice, so the show wasn’t as good as it could have been.
The cars already rocket around the track, banking laps fifty miles faster than the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars were able to produce in their race on the same track earlier in the year. Make an impressive spectacle even more so: let the cars actually slice and dice. We’ve seen tremendous races on a similarly fast and short oval at Iowa, and Phoenix could be a similar type of event. Decreased downforce is likely for next year, but more horsepower appears a pipe dream.
Given passing was, at best, difficult all night, New Zealand’s Scott Dixon brought the famous Target thunderbolt scheme back to Victory Lane, giving Target Chip Ganassi Racing it’s maiden win of the season.
Once again, Dixon’s drive was cool, calm and collected. Aided by punctures to chief rivals Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves, IndyCar’s Ice Man didn’t thaw out any in the desert, but with teammate Tony Kanaan absolutely flying in the closing stages, you wonder what might’ve happened had the race been 300 laps rather than 250. TK finished fourth, behind Dixon, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power, but was clearly the fastest driver late in the race.
The race finished under caution, and whilst there will be some people inevitably upset with that, and calling for a NASCAR-style Green-White-Checker finish, I’m no fan of that gimmick, and prefer a race that ends naturally rather than with artificial assistance.
The Crowd
Saturday night marked the first time an IndyCar race had been staged at Phoenix since Sam Hornish Jr. – remember him? – won in front of about twelve spectators back in 2005, so the reported attendance of around 17,000 is a good start. By all accounts, the racetrack was big on promotion, going all-out to let people in the Phoenix area know that the IndyCar Series was coming to town. Where IndyCar is concerned, that isn’t always a given.
Whilst it wasn’t the most entertaining race I’ve ever seen from the IndyCar Series, it was still plenty more exciting than the recent NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, and there’s nothing like watching these cars at speed under lights. All in all, a good foundation for an event with multiple years remaining on it’s contract. It should be bigger and better in 2016 – and hopefully the series will bring the correct aero package with them.
Graham Rahal
The Honda-powered cars had a shocking qualifying on Friday, with Chevrolet teams locking out the first ten grid positions. Rahal, driving for the team his father co-owns with David Letterman, qualified a dismal nineteenth, but recovered incredibly well during the race to bring home a fifth place finish.
Rahal’s weekend mirrored many of his weekends from the 2015 IndyCar Series season, where poor qualifying runs – thanks largely to the fact that Honda runners just don’t have the power they need to post competitive lap times under qualifying conditions – were turned into solid finishes and, in some cases, race victories.
Considering the obvious disadvantage Honda runners had during qualifying, Rahal will be completely stoked with his run. Imagine what he could do if he started from inside the top ten. Honda has work to do.
It’s worth noting that Rahal was, once again, the highest finishing Honda runner, beating out the factory-supported effort of Andretti Autosport. Rahal-Letterman Racing is punching way above it’s weight, and it’s great to see!
Scott Dixon
The Queensland-born New Zealander keeps on keeping on. His Phoenix victory is the thirty-ninth of his IndyCar career, which sees him pull level with the legendary Al Unser Jr. on the list of all-time IndyCar Series winners.
Dixon is fast becoming one of the great drivers the sport has ever known. The great shame is that, because of the IndyCar/CART split and the way open-wheel racing has dropped off the map in America – except for the Indianapolis 500 – Dixon will likely never be as fondly remembered and celebrated as the likes of Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford and others. He really should be.
Simon Pagenaud
Coming into the season, there was a feeling that Pagenaud, a big-name Penske recruit last year, needed to do big things to keep his seat from warming up. The Captain, Roger Penkse, loves winners, after all, and doesn’t suffer losing, either. Well, after two races, Pagenaud, courtesy of a second-place finish, leads the IndyCar Series championship as we head for Long Beach. The Frenchman is four points ahead of Dixon, in the early season Penske vs. Ganassi battle.
Will Power
After missing the season-opening Grand Prix of St Petersburg due to concussion symptoms, the Australian bounced back with a solid third place finish, and the nice chunk of points that comes along with that. A double-points haul – and, of course, the win – at Indianapolis in a few weeks would be great for Power’s championship aspirations.
Rookies
Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi, both running an IndyCar Series oval race for the first time, finished seventh and fourteenth respectively. Chilton, for all the social media hubbub that he was a kid from a rich family who couldn’t actually drove, proved a few doubters wrong with his composed run. Rossi, running a car mostly devoid of sponsorship, might’ve finished higher, but was penalised late. Still, a good run for the two guys at the head of IndyCar’s 2016 rookie class.
The IndyCar Series returns to action in two weekends’ time with the prestigious Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment