Round 7: Xpel Grand Prix of Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 7 - 9.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by mstets

I would never have expected to say this at the start of the season but Simpson gets my vote for most impressive performance in qualifying. He was just .1 sec slower than Pato and .35 slower than Dixon on a 4 mile course in the rain. He's exceeded my expectations all year just by staying out of trouble (recall Jimmie Johnson's rookie season) but I'm surprised by his pace in qualifying in difficult conditions.

I was surprised by a lot of the interviews during qualy that many drivers who have been in the series for years claimed to have never driven an Indycar in the rain like this.

Simpson did great and I was also impressed by Siegal. Not to be last with so little seat time was a pretty good run.

[broadrun96]

Indy has been weird with avoiding rain somehow, well except for that "race" you went to. They always get it before or after a session when they're not on ovals or they delay the start.

Looks like this afternoon could be clear but F1 might not get so lucky

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Indy has been weird with avoiding rain somehow, well except for that "race" you went to. They always get it before or after a session when they're not on ovals or they delay the start.

Looks like this afternoon could be clear but F1 might not get so lucky

I'm going to be recording both races and trying to watch when I get home later this evening.

And Chadwick grabbed pole in the NXT race!

[broadrun96]

The comments on people giving her credit but saying now bring the win like everyone would want from pole are met with why cause she's a girl responses. No, get pole next step is win for everyone. Hopefully it's not locked to Peacock membership so I can catch it this evening

Sadly looks like the rain only moved to Montreal for today. Rain race would be fun but I'm gonna have to catch up cause F1 running slower pace

[bjohnsonsmith]

FCY as both Ganassi cars spin.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent restart from Scotty Mac.

[broadrun96]

Well that started poorly, Colton got swamped by everyone

Linus got a bit of butt wiggle and that's all she wrote so that sucks

[bjohnsonsmith]

I missed the 2nd FCY and now it's 3, with only 6 laps in.

[broadrun96]

Colton is always on the radio crying, dude you hit Linus not the other way around. But guess he's ready for F1 how dare you race me penalties

RC says nope, that's on you son, no action

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I missed the 2nd FCY and now it's 3, with only 6 laps in.

Colton off and ripped his diffuser to shreds on I think the exit T1, landed on track right on the line

Ahhh, Stingy that's gonna be a penalty shoving Ericsson off track, 7 spots on track for that one

And Rassmussen throwing Kiffin off, that's gotta be a paddlin too. That might need more than a paddlin, drove right thru Kiffin in a corner you DON'T pass in. Carry it and get him out of it on the front

[broadrun96]

Dixie not having a good T5, brakes late but big wiggles and Power got him finally

[broadrun96]

Well done by Kiffin in the interview not throwing Christian under the bus completely. Sometimes the racing happens response sells the new guy on sponsors better than my response would be

The McLaren guys were a bit slow on Theo. The orange rims get me every time thinking they're going reds again. Think Foyt guys have that with red rims too

[broadrun96]

YIKES, Dixie had a BAD set of reds there. That tire was done done

[bjohnsonsmith]

All three Penske drivers in the top three places.

[broadrun96]

Track temp there is our feels like temp here in Georgia. 68 would be spectacular, was a bit hot sitting out finishing dinner in the smoker

[broadrun96]

Damn, the over cut is CRAZY today, seconds in it with hot tires over trying to get heat in them

[bjohnsonsmith]

Herta pits so its a Penske party at the front.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Will Power on his 40th IndyCar race win, which also ends a 2 year win drought. His last was at Belle Isle in 2022.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Race Result

A Penske podium. I can't remember the last time that happened and with three drivers.

There were 3 cautions in the race, all in the first 6 laps.

Will Power's win puts him top of the driver's standings, with 236 points, just ahead of Alex Palou on 231. Followed by Ganassi team mate Scott Dixon on 225.

Chevrolet have 561 points and Honda have 545.

[joeb]

Watched the race on replay and couldn't believe how messy the start was, but I was glad to see them race cleanly after that. Amazing how bad Dixons red tire stint was compared to many others who made it last a stint length and stay on pace.

Stingy would have been knocking on a top 10 without that 7 place penalty!

[NaBUru38]

I missed most of the first third of the race, and almost fell asleep on the rest. My fault to be honest, as I went to El Pinar yesterday.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I scoured the records and as far as I can make out, the last time Penske got three drivers on the podium was in 2017 at Sonoma: Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and Will Power. They had a 4 driver team for the full season that year, which included Helio Castroneves who was 5th.

[v8supes]

I couldnt quite believe that Newgarden didnt have enough pace to stay ahead of Power at the last stop given Power had pretty used reds by the end of that stint.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by v8supes

I couldnt quite believe that Newgarden didnt have enough pace to stay ahead of Power at the last stop given Power had pretty used reds by the end of that stint.

I think the track evolved a lot from FP1 to the race with all the rain. Tire operations didn't work like anybody predicted.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by v8supes

I couldnt quite believe that Newgarden didnt have enough pace to stay ahead of Power at the last stop given Power had pretty used reds by the end of that stint.

Except for Dixie everyone else seemed to have reasonable success on reds, think he pushed too much defending and burned em up early instead of the others that let em breathe a bit and then pushed