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It’s the now-traditional start to the fabled Month of May.
The IndyCar Grand Prix on the combination oval and road course circuit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway kicks off the biggest few weeks of racing in the world.
Team Penske has dominated this event in recent years, including a dominant win by Australia’s Will Power in 2018, which he followed with an Indianapolis 500 victory fifteen days later.
Here’s all you need to know from a wet day at Indianapolis:
Pagenaud wins in dramatic fashion
If there’s a driver in the IndyCar paddock who needs a win more than Simon Pagenaud, I don’t know who it is.
The Frenchman started his Team Penske career with a bang, winning the series championship in 2016, but it’s been a tough road since then, and already this year, there’ve been whispers that Pagenaud might be moved on in favour of Alexander Rossi for 2020.
In that environment, then, Pagenaud made a spectacular pass in the wet on Scott Dixon, who led a race-high 39 laps, with just under two laps to run, and held off the Kiwi to capture his third IndyCar Grand Prix win, to pull him equal with Penske teammate Power. No one else has ever won this race, dating back to it’s inception in 2014.
For Pagenaud, this was a big, big moment, and a much needed-one. Talk about a win to – at least momentarily – quiet some of the speculation around his job prospects for 2020.
To execute the way he did on Dixon, who is probably one of the hardest guys to pass in the series, was very impressive, and the emotion of the win was clear in victory lane.
Driving for Roger Penske is a cutthroat thing. He demands success, and I hope that this is the kick-start that Pagenaud, who seems like a good guy, needs as the series heads into what looms as a pivotal summer stretch for him. If nothing else, the win is a great platform as the Indianapolis 500 looms.
Australia’s Will Power finished seventh, and realistically needs a huge double-points haul at the Indianapolis 500 to be in with a shot at a second IndyCar Series championship.
Will Power of Australia (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Great to see Brazilian Matheus Leist in fourth, a much-needed positive result for AJ Foyt Racing, who haven’t had much to get excited about in a very long time.
American driver Spencer Pigot was one spot further back in fifth. You can bet he and his Ed Carpenter Racing squad will be very fast on the oval. His teammate for May, Ed Jones, had a good run, home in sixth.
Some notable finishes of a negative nature: Long Beach Alexander Rossi in 22nd, rookie Colton Herta one spot further back and Helio Castroneves, who can make history with a fourth Indianapolis 500 win in a few weeks, in twenty-first.
First IndyCar Pole for Felix Rosenqvist
The Swede is a rookie in IndyCar racing, but having raced in multiple top-level series around the world including Formula E and DTM touring cars (not to mention having a Macau GP win on his resume) he’s hardly a novice. And he showed as much in qualifying, putting his unmissable NTT Data Chip Ganassi Honda on the front row.
Rosenqvist couldn’t turn his pole speed into a win – he finished eighth – but I can’t help but think a maiden IndyCar win isn’t too far around the corner, and could even come in a couple of weeks in the biggest race of them all…
Jack Harvey scores his first podium
Everyone loves Michael Shank, the prolific sports car owner who’s been running IndyCar part time in the last few years with aspirations to run full-time in the near future. So watching Shank’s Jack Harvey drive to a third place finish was fantastic.
Surely it’s one of the best stories to come out of a 2019 IndyCar Series full of good stories. Harvey’s previous best finish was tenth. So that’s a huge step for Shank – who said the podium finish was “overwhelming” – Harvey and everyone involved with the unmissable pink and black Honda.
First NBC race for IndyCar
The kick-off event for May was also the first time that an IndyCar race aired on NBC (which, like the Indianapolis 500, will be called by Australia’s Leigh Diffey) after the first four events were on cable, and that’s a big deal because the network that has super-served fans of NHL, cycling and other sports has gone all-in on IndyCar racing.
The response by the viewing public –perhaps helped by poor weather in the Indianapolis area that might have kept some people away from the track – was a good one: the peacock network was the highest-rated IndyCar GP in five years, and NBC is poised to saturate all of it’s networks with Indianapolis 500 promos as the big race gets closer.
I think we’ll see a decent ratings bump compared to last year’s all-time low mark, the final race on ABC.
Next Up
Four days of practice lead into Indianapolis 500 qualifying.
The equation is simple: there are thirty-six cars and thirty-three starting positions. On Saturday, the entire field of entries will qualify. The top nine run again Sunday for the chance to start the Indianapolis 500 from pole, and cars from 30-36 will run the ‘Last Row Shootout’ to see who goes home and who goes on.
From that, the fastest 33 IndyCar drivers on the planet will start the 103rd Indianapolis 500 in less than two weeks’ time from now. Whatever happens, it promises to be gripping.
The Roar will have plenty of Indianapolis 500 content leading up to the race. I’ll be on the ground for race week, bringing you as much of the colour and drama of the biggest single-day sporting event in the world.
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