INDYCAR
Note: This new feature at INDYCAR.com will go beyond the time sheets to identify trends and developing stories after the opening day of practice at every NTT INDYCAR SERIES event.
The cross-country trip to The Thermal Club in Southern California showed well Friday to everyone in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES except those trying to manage their race tires. That was a challenge, as expected.
That’s one of the observations from the first practice of The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix weekend.
Track Influencing Tire Wear
The composition of the asphalt on this 17-turn, 3.067-mile permanent road course is coarse to begin with, and the dust from the basin near the Santa Rosa Mountains adds to it. Then mix in the additional weight that this year’s drivers are working with due to the hybrid system that wasn’t on the cars a year ago.
The combination of these factors eats at the Firestone Firehawk tires.
Everyone predicted tire wear would be the topic of this weekend’s second race of the season, and that’s already showed true. Josef Newgarden spoke at length of it; Graham Rahal laughed sarcastically about it.
Rahal’s commentary was to his crew on the radio as he completed the first lap on a set of the primary compound tires. The rubber wear could be easily seen when the No. 15 Mobil 1 Honda arrived in Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s pit box. Remember, the primaries had their durability beefed up by Firestone in anticipation of the challenges offered by the circuit, and last year’s all-star race featured a series of 10-lap runs in anger. Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network) is set for 65 laps.
Last thing to note here, and this is a big one: If the alternate compound is thought to be the preferred option, as some drivers suggested as they practiced, that could make the delicate situation even more so. The reason: The decision was made to alter the allotment to each team this weekend. Rather than five sets each of the primaries and the alternates, as was the case in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on March 2, each team will have six sets of primaries and only four sets of alternates.
Shwartzman’s Fire Costs Everyone Time
With this being the first points race held at this track, everyone needs as much green-flag time as possible. The series rookies need it more than anyone.
To that end, Robert Shwartzman needs a mulligan. The rookie did not complete a lap due to his No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet catching fire exiting Turn 6. The cleanup that followed robbed everyone of more than 15 minutes of Friday’s session.
Shwartzman was already working from a deficit as radio transmission issues in practice in St. Petersburg limited his track time. Now this.
Friday, the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team was quickly on the spot to assist Shwartzman, but it needed to remove the engine cover, the driver’s seat and other components to contain and extinguish the fire. But the damage had been done, and it was so extensive that the team opted to rebuild the entire car.
As for the rest of the field, no driver completed more than 19 laps. Three got fewer than 10.
Several Drivers Need To Better Results
It’s not too early to say some drivers with true championship aspirations need this weekend to go well. Count Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and Team Penske’s Will Power in that camp.
Yes, we’re only one race into the season, but it could be getting late early for these three. It’s not just that they all finished the St. Petersburg race outside the top 10 and stand 32, 36 and 46 points out of the lead, respectively, but the deficit is, in some ways, larger than that.
Here’s why: The top four finishers in St. Petersburg are four of the sport’s heavyweights. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Scott Dixon, who have combined for nine series championships and four of the past five titles, are 1-2 in the standings, with Team Penske standouts Scott McLaughlin and Newgarden third and fourth.
See, it’s one thing to climb over one or two of the top contenders, but to do so versus all four of them who started the season so well is quite another story.
In 2023, Palou never had a finish lower than eighth in winning the title. Last year, the Spaniard won his second consecutive championship and third overall by having only two finishes in the back half of the 27-car field. If he repeats that, Herta and Power, for example, are already halfway to that total.
With Friday’s session being a bit disjoined with the red flag for Shwartzman’s car fire, the speed chart was not likely to be reflective of what’s to come. But be warned: Palou was P1. The rest of the aforementioned: Herta was fourth, O’Ward sixth, McLaughlin seventh, Power 10th, Dixon 12th and Newgarden 18th. We’ll find out better in qualifying how they stack up, and, of course, in the race they’ll have to manage those tires.
The second practice of the weekend is at 1 p.m. ET Saturday (FS1, FOX Sports App, INDYCAR Radio Network). NTT P1 Award qualifying is at 5 p.m. ET Saturday on the same outlets.