Photo by Kyle McInnes

Yesterday’s race ay Weather Tech Raceway was an entertaining one with battles for the lead, differing strategies, and tire calls that looked questionable at first, but proved correct at the end. Alex Palou once again put on a clinic at a track he has come to dominate the last four years.

Yesterday’s win was not a typical Palou beatdown. He was beaten to the second corner by Kyle Kirkwood on lap 1 and didn’t take the lead until lap 25. Although he lad 48 laps, he had to fight for the lead, and his laps in front were spread over four segments.

Some thoughts:

Delayed Yellow

Marcus Armstrong spun and stopped on track on lap 74. Indycar withheld throwing the yellow so that several cars who were on an alternate strategy could make pit stops. I’ve talked about my dislike for this procedure before.

This delayed yellow policy is dangerous and gives the pitting cars an advantage. At some point another car is going to collide with the disabled car. Indycar has been fortunate that an incident hasn’t occurred yet.

Josef Newgarden, who had cycled to second place because of pit stops, needed one more stop. Because of the delayed yellow, which was thrown while he was in the pits, allowed him to keep his position. He did not have a second place car yesterday. He spun with two laps to go and finished 19th, a little lower than where he should have finished.

I don’t care if it was Newgarden or some other driver, as he was not the only one still needing a final stop, but this policy is unfair. If a yellow is needed, just wave the flag. Race control should not concern itself with whether cars need to pit or not. That is a team decision. If a yellow comes out, well, that’s the way it goes.

Off Road Adventures

At times this weekend I thought I was watching the Baja 1,000. I don’t recall seeing so many cars go off track in one race weekend. Christian Lundgaard went airborne as went through the sand trap at the corkscrew.

The dust clouds were commonplace all three days. may=be the track’s new pavement is still slick. Fortunately, most drivers recovered and kept going.

Malukas, Siegel Debuts

David Malukas and Nolan Siegel had successful debuts at Laguna Seca. Malukas drove his first race of the season for his new team, Meyer Shank Racing, and finished 16th. he ran in the top 10 most of the day.

Nolan Siegel, in his first drive for Arrow McLaren, ironically in the car Malukas was supposed o run this season, finished 12th after starting 23rd and recovering from a spin and stall on lap 41.

Strategies

I love a race where pit strategies differ. On Palou’s first stop, the team decided to stay on primaries and save the alternates for the final stint. It seemed questionable at the time, but worked out as Palou was able to pull away once he regained the lead.

Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi just missed on fuel strategy, and they had to hold back to save fuel.

In two weeks at Mid-Ohio, the hybrid era begins. I am looking forward to seeing how the addition of this power component affects the dynamics of the racing and strategy.