Round 5: GMR Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. May 12 - 13.

[Adam43]

Yes, a good race. Could have done with a couple of yellows to spice it up, but otherwise good

Team could have helped Lundgaard more - for instance Rahal could have helped more.

Palou looked the strongest.

[fieldodreams79]

I enjoyed it. Not great. Not terrible.

I know playing "in the danger zone" with yellows in hindsight is easy, but thought that first stint on hards, they should have just let Lundgaard go as long as possible. Pulled the trigger too early and they never recovered from it.

Also thought the penalty on Kirkwood was a little harsh. Thought it was Power's fault at first, forcing him off but they both went too deep and Kyle just got loose on the grass. Racing deal.

[broadrun96]

Yeah, the first yellow threw RRL for a loop and they couldn't get back on track. Especially used reds later vs new ones for the rest

And definitely agree on Power/Kirkwood, if anyone that was on Will pushing him out and it wasn't like Kirkwood was well off and spearing back over a corner there. But wasn't a great weekend for officials appointing blame to drivers

[bjohnsonsmith]

The Power/Kirkwood incident.


https://youtu.be/OsckVNYvbQY

[broadrun96]

Yeah, I stand by Will wasn't gonna make it without pushing Kyle wide and thus his fault if any. He got spun so everyone carry on, penalty not needed

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Yeah, I stand by Will wasn't gonna make it without pushing Kyle wide and thus his fault if any. He got spun so everyone carry on, penalty not needed

Yes, be interesting know where Race Control think Kirkwood should have gone.

[fieldodreams79]

Kyle could have gotten out of it while on the grass, which is where Will put him. I'm one of Will's biggest critics but he got Kyle fair and square and just drove him a little wide. Kyle could've conceded the spot with Will not only being fully along side before the apex but past him beyond the exit. Racing deal. No penalty.

With only having to give the spot back, was that "less" of a penalty than a drive thru?

[mstets]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Well RLL strategy has bit them in the ass again it seems

Race left me wishing that RLL had put Lundgaard on the same tire strategy as Palou. Palou is so good at managing tires and fuel that he might have dominated anyway but tire choice seemed to put Lundgaard at a big disadvantage. I thought he should have stayed out much longer on the first stint to shorten the laps he had to do on the reds. Wonder if the team brought him in because he was catching potentially lapped traffic. Were the lap times falling off, or was it just a case of not being snagged by an untimely yellow?

I don't remember what tires the other two RLL cars started on but Graham evidently had a rear tire punctured by contact with Kirkwood's front wing and had to make a pit stop at the end of lap 1?. That put him on a fuel conserve strategy for the rest of the race which didn't work out as the race stayed green from there to the finish. Very late in the race Graham still had 185 seconds of push to pass remaining as an indication of fuel conservation. To make it back to a 10th place finish from near last after 2 laps is pretty impressive. With another yellow Graham might have had a chance at some more passes. Harvey smoked the front tires going into turn one on his first stint which dropped him back considerably, then spun on his own later which put him near the tail of the field.
This race had the potential to produce results for RLL equal to what Ganassi and SPAM ultimately achieved.