Photo by Kyle McInnes

It took three events, but Indycar found a way to create an entertaining show after the introduction of the hybrid. Cars could pass and race closely, several pit strategies were tried, and the distance between the mid race cautions were far enough apart to not interfere with scheduled pit stops.

Another metric by which last night’s race was great was the number of drivers upset with each other, and the discussions among fans theat the race created.

The high line practice appears to have worked, as cars could pass on the outside. Indycar recorded 676 passes, 254 for position, a nice recovery from the dearth of overtaking we saw at Mid Ohio and Iowa.

Hard Luck Drivers

Three drivers in particular had great races going for them, only to have them snuffed out by on track incidents or penalties.

Let’s start with David Malukas.

Malukas started second, and he had the only180 mph lap in qualifying. He fell back at the start, regained his spot, and passed Scott McLaughlin for the lead on lap 16. Malukas was in line for his third straight Gateway podium, when he hit the wall on lap 240 after being hit by Will Power. How Power wasn’t penalized for that move is beyond me, but Malukas’ night was over. I enjoyed watching a driver from one of the smaller teams going toe to toe with the Team Penske trio.

Nolan Siegel was in contention for a career best finish, possibly a podium or top five, with the pit strategy he was following, but a pit lkane speeding violation ended that hope. He recovered to finish seventh.

Conor Daly started ninth and moved up a couple of spots early. He looked like a sure bet for a top 10 finish, but on lap 17, contact with Kyle Kirkwood in an incident which also involved Daly’s teammate Romain Grosjean, dashed his hopes. Daly ended the night in 13th, but he showed the promise that Juncos Hollinger Racing was looking for in their quest to make the Leaders’ Circle. With three ovals remaining, I think they will get there.

More Alchemy from Alex Palou

In a race in which points runner up Will Power appeared to earn the maximum amount of points available to him, and in which points leader Palou seemed to be going virtually nowhere, Palou finishes fourth after a Colton Herta received a last lap blocking penalty, adding 10 points to his lead, while Power drops to fourth place after his 18th place finish.

We had the same scenario at Toronto, wher Palou looked to be vulnerable to seeing his lead shrink within shouting distance. Now, He leads by more than one race.

Scott Dixon is a master fuel saver. Palou is a master point saver..

Restarts and Penalties

Indycar assessed eight penalties during the race, but I think two more were warranted. I felt Power should have had an avoidable contact penalty for the Malukas incident, and Newgarden should have had some consequence for the slow restart which resulted in the chaos which caused a red flag.

Restarts- From my view near turn 1, It looked like most of the restarts and the start of the race were ay a slower than normal pace. The restart on lap 252 was the slowest of the night. While Indycar telemetry showed Newgarden maintained the proper speed throughout the restart, something was not right. That restart should have been waved off.

Overall, this was a really good race. It had great racing, multiple strategies, controversy, and lots of drama and controversy, which is still being discussed today.

Thanks for following along this weekend. I’m going to the Cardinals game this afternoon before heading home. They extended their winning streak to one in a row last night.