The ferocious fuming of 26 IndyCars rippling around Road America required a week to recharge, but the NTT IndyCar Series returns to action this week at the legendary WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
IndyCar’s yearly trip to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin got off to surprising start as rain littered the racing surface for Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.
The slick tarmac offered little grip to drivers through Road America’s high-speed corners, and as the Firestone Fast 6 was coming to an end, disaster struck.
Back-to-back Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden’s PPG Chevy broke traction in the dreaded Kink, careening into the wall at a wicked pace. Newgarden walked away unharmed, but he would be forced to swap to a backup car for Sunday.
Surprises continued as the truncated qualifying session put rookie Linus Lundqvist on pole for the 55-lap affair, though his advantage would be short-lived.
Teammate and fellow rookie Marcus Armstrong bump-drafted down the main drag into turn 1.
Unfortunately for team owner Chip Ganassi, the straight isn’t where the bumping stopped.
Armstrong clumsily bowled through the back of Lundqvist’s American Legion Honda, triggering a melee that saw both Ganassi Hondas spin and taking Colton Herta (by way of Josef Newgarden) with them.
The race’s second caution was not far away as Herta’s diffuser strakes ejected from the floor of the car on the violent rumble strips on the exit of turn 1.
Calamity continued on the next restart with Sting Ray Robb mowing down former Road America winner Felix Rosenqvist in turn 6, sinking the Swedish driver down the running order.
Team Penske erased the competition’s shot at victory as Scott McLaughlin pulled away before pit stops occurred. Lap 18 marked when the effective lead changed hands with Newgarden’s PPG pit crew pulling off a sharp stop to eke ahead.
While the advantage didn’t last forever, the switch to the primary tire for the rest of the race put the Tennessean heavy in his teammate’s rearview mirror.
McLaughlin made the switch over to the alternate tires, ultimately leading to his downfall as Newgarden’s backup car fired around the XPel Chevy with 20 laps to go.
The frontstretch maneuver slotted McLaughlin in second as the Tasty 2s looked poised for their second (official) victory of 2024.
Except, teammate Will Power sat behind both of his teammates in third, waiting for his opportunity to pounce.
The crafty Aussie performed a textbook overcut on Newgarden, pitting a lap later and taking less fuel on lap 45.
Chief strategist Ron Ruzewski’s masterclass bestowed Power his 40th win and his first since the return to the Detroit Renaissance Center layout in 2022.
Power’s win was felt on multiple levels as the Team Penske legend seized the points lead from a troubled Scott Dixon. The six-time IndyCar champion struggled mightily throughout the day with his car’s setup, eventually logging a 21st-place result.
Herta’s odd day ended on a positive note as he clawed his way back to the front with a 6th-place effort, but he made headlines for the wrong reasons after the race.
The embattled Andretti driver insinuated that he would have to “shoot someone in the head” on pit road to get called for a penalty by IndyCar race control.
Further digging this insanely large hole deeper, Herta and a few well-respected media figures attempted to defame the journalist that recorded the quote, but a full video from Frontstretch journalist Christopher DeHarde debunked Herta’s claims.
A one-race deal with JUNCOS Hollinger Racing at Road America followed by a win in the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans led to a new home for up-and-comer Nolan Siegel as he takes the reigns of the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevy.
You might be asking yourself: Didn’t McLaren announce that Theo Pourchaire would pilot the #6 car for the remainder of the 2024 season?
To answer your question, of course they did.
This is Arrow McLaren we’re talking about. This is Zak Brown we’re talking about. This decision didn’t shock me as much after the Malukas firing because Theo had only run decently, not exactly great.
Pourchaire — the defending F2 champion — wants to find alternative employment for the remainder of this season within IndyCar, and the 20-year-old Frenchman will undoubtedly find a plethora of suitors as the season progresses.
Every day, Alex Palou likely wakes up and laughs a little bit, especially on days where he reads what fresh disaster the team he spurned has drummed up this week.
With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about the other big news of the past two weeks: the new TV deal.
FOX Sports overpowered the incumbent NBC after prolonged negotiations between Penske Entertainment and the two networks. The move puts America’s premier open-wheel series on network television for every. single. race.
Not a typo. Every single race will be on Big FOX, and that’s cause for celebration.
IMS Productions stay onboard as the series makes the switch for 2025, so FOX’s oft-criticized NASCAR coverage won’t affect the quality of IndyCar too much.
The sanctioning body also revealed the 2025 schedule. The 17-race tour includes all of the tracks on 2024’s with some notable (or possibly notorious) revisions.
First, still no ovals before the Indy 500, meaning no opportunities for rookies to get oval experience before Indianapolis. This is bad for the racing product for what is supposed to be The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Second, Gateway got moved up from its traditional late-summer date up to late June. Innocuous on the surface, this shift precludes IndyCar drivers from competing at Le Mans like many of them did this year, taking international eyes off series talent.
Third, no new ovals were added to the schedule, and an oval lost a race as Milwaukee’s doubleheader is reduced to just one event. Where is Texas?
As for the few positives, the season ends on August 31. I might be in the minority, but I don’t think it is a bad thing for a series struggling for ratings ending before the NFL kicks off in the second weekend of September.
Another one is the sequencing of the schedule. Yes, there are still breaks at the beginning of the season that seem rather pointless.
Next year, those breaks are shorter, and Thermal Club secures an actual points race in lieu of the overblown gaffe that was the $1 Million Challenge.
Since we’re up to speed on the recent happenings within the NTT IndyCar Series, let’s get to know Laguna Seca.
The Track
For a nominal fee of $1.5 million, the collective business owners and citizens of Monterey County, California came together to build a racing circuit on the grounds of an Army target range at Fort Ord.
Construction ended in 1957, and the surrounding area finally found a successor to the Pebble Beach road races near the grounds of the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links with the incorporation of Laguna Seca Raceway.
The track’s original, 1.9-mile grand prix layout served the track for over 30 years as cars shot down the front straight and sailing left down the ridge until reaching what is now considered turn 5.
The original course is similar to its modern counterpart from there, including the iconic corkscrew. It was this layout that — after decades of hosting sports cars and motorcycles — attracted American open-wheel racing in the 1980s.
CART debuted at Laguna Seca for the Cribari Wines 300k, the penultimate race of the 1983 season.
Dynamic rookie Teo Fabi took the inaugural pole and dominated the race, showing the way in his #33 Skoal Bandit March 83C-Cosworth DFX for 95 of the race’s 98 laps en route to his third victory of the year.
From that point on, Laguna Seca held a CART event every year until 2004 among a two layout changes that tacked on a new infield section for 1988 that was further revised in 1996 to give us the 2.238-mile circuit we know and love today..
The new layout set the stage for one of the track’s iconic moments when Alex Zinardi’s executed a last-lap pass on Bryan Herta in the corkscrew in 1996.
The IRL-CCWS merger in 2008 halted renewed efforts to bring IndyCar back to the crooked California course.
The long unified open-wheel series made their grand return to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to bookend their 2019 season, leading to rookie (and California native) Colton Herta dominating the race like Fabi did 35 years before.
Since then, the IndyCar Monterey Grand Prix made a major move to run in the summer for this season before kicking its date to late-July for next year.
Now that we know how we got here, let’s get acquainted with the track itself.
Drivers roll out of the final turn and shoot uphill to the finish line. Cars crest the hill and cut to the left until heating the brakes up to slow down for turn 2.
A tight, double-apex left-hander, turn 2 is better known as the Andretti Hairpin. Named after international superstar Mario Andretti, the hairpin kicks off the infield section that weaves back to the right for the deceptively sharp turn 3.
Passing under the Firestone bridge welcomes the drivers to a quick right-hander of turn 4 that opens up to a small straight before cranking the wheel and mashing the brakes into turn 5.
Exiting the tight left, cars wind uphill once again, soaring under the VP Racing bridge and into the daring, banked left of turn 6.
The climb continues up the Rahal Straight — named after Laguna Seca wins leader Bobby Rahal — until reaching the peak of the course.
At this peak is one of the most treacherous corners on Earth, the Corkscrew.
The Corkscrew is a blind, painfully-sharp left-hand corner that takes cars to the top of the mountain and flings them down a 59-foot paved embankment.
Oh, by the way, you also have to swing back to the right on your way down for turn 8A, or else you’ll be kicking up dust.
This downhill portion continues into the sweeping left of turn 9, better known as Rainey Curve after MotoGP champion and local legend Wayne Rainey.
IndyCar drivers must be brave through this long corner, barely letting off the throttle to keep up their speed for the final section.
Another banked corner awaits drivers in turn 10, carrying maximum pace into the final left-hander of turn 11 before shooting back up the main drag.
Now, let’s go see how the weather looks for Sunday and examine the last four races at Laguna Seca to see what kind of race we might expect.
Weather & Fast Facts
This weekend’s forecast shows favorable conditions for a great race on Sunday with a high of 66 degrees, lining up directly with the average over the last 10 years.
Obviously, there’s no rain in the forecast, so let’s peek at some of the Fast Facts.
Last year’s caution-riddled affair disrupted a three-year average of one caution per race, bumping that number to 4, running nearly 11 of the race’s 98 scheduled laps.
Lead changes aren’t exactly uncommon here, but they’re nothing compared to an oval race, tallying up about 6 per race while position passes exceed 225.
Three-stoppers tend to perform the best at this road course. If I had to make a prediction, I’d imagine our winner will follow a three-stop strategy unless this race is as chaotic as last season’s.
As was the same with the caution and caution laps totals, 2023’s iteration of the race pared down the last caution lap down to lap 45.
The booth for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey consists of Kevin Lee, Townsend Bell, and James Hinchcliffe. The trio will broadcast on the USA Network at 6:30pm Eastern time, running for 98 laps over the sprawling circuit.
Each of the last three races ended after spending two hours on track, so this race will be a slight boost for IndyCar as it won’t be going up against NASCAR as well as drifting into primetime.
Now that we’ve covered the Fast Facts and Forecast, let’s head over to the betting favorites offered by the fine folks at DraftKings.
The Odds
Topping the DraftKings’ odds list is none other than Alex Palou (+300). The Chip Ganassi star claimed his only 2022 victory at WeatherTech Raceway, a precursor for his monster 2023 championship campaign.
In all three of his IndyCar starts at Laguna Seca, Palou planted himself firmly on the podium, and I don’t foresee that streak ending this weekend. Having missed out on victory lane since the Indy road course in May, keep your eyes peeled for the #10 Honda on Sunday to beat the heat and the competition.
Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden (+400) celebrated his second IndyCar title at Laguna Seca when the series returned to the track in 2019, becoming a place of sentimental value for the Team Penske dynamo.
His four starts here are nothing to sneeze at, scooping up three top-10s and a podium in xxxx, finishing in the tire tracks of xxxx. Needing more points to truly enter the points battle, Newgarden is poised to make this a great day for the Tasty 2s.
Newgarden’s Bus Bros co-host and teammate Scott McLaughlin (+500) sits as the third-highest favorite on the oddsmakers’ list. The multi-time V8 Supercars champion notched a compelling victory at Barber in May, and after a podium at Road America two weeks ago, the Kiwi is primed for another strong run outside of Salinas.
Though he hasn’t led a lap at the track bearing a name that translates to “dry lake”, McLaughlin’s three starts at the facility demonstrate immense year-to-year progression, and I expect the throne bearer of the Thirsty 3s to put his car up front on Sunday and keep it there to the end.
Other notable betting lines include defending winner Scott Dixon (+800), Road America winner Will Power (+800), and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (+600).
Writer’s Pick
Road America’s pick from yours truly was Josef Newgarden whose certain victory in America’s cheese land was hijacked by Power’s overcut that dropped Joe New down to second.
I feel that another winless streak will be severed this weekend as home state wunderkind Colton Herta will return to the top step of the podium at Laguna Seca on Sunday.
Herta (+1000) made headlines for the wrong reasons in Road America, insinuating Newgarden deliberately ran over him in the lap 1 melee. He said this even though Herta made contact with and stalled the #2 car in the closing laps at Long Beach.
(Writer’s Note: Neither driver was penalized for either incident.)
Andretti Global’s golden goose inches closer and closer to victory lane seemingly every week, but the checkered flag eludes him. Having throttled the field in its first two trips back in 2019 and 2021, Colton takes after his father in knowing how to tackle such a tricky race track.
The former Indy NXT champ needs more bullet points on his résumé to cement his bid to enter F1, and a big win this weekend and a bundle of points would push him closer and closer to the superlicense points necessary to make the jump to “the pinnacle of auto racing”.
(Top Photo Credit: NBC Sports)
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