Author: thepitwindow

I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events

Quick Thoughts- Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix

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In no particular order, here are some of my thoughts on today’s race. I haven’t seen the replay yet.

Today’s race was an above average race for Barber. The different strategies kept the outcome in doubt, and two asses for the lead in the last 25 laps is about as good as you’ll get on a road course.

The only thing that could have made this race better is if it therebwer no cars on a fuel save strategy. At leastfive cars did not have enough fuel to complete their cool down lap. hen Grosjean pitted on lap 59, I thought it would be a stretch for him to finish the race.

St. Pete Deja Vu– Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin fighting for the lead as McLaughlin comes out of the pits. Fortunately, Barber has a lot more room to battle tham St. Pete did. I hope we see more great fights between these two this season.

How did Grosjean have no push to pass left? He shouldn’t have needed to use much since he led 57 laps.

Grosjean now has five second place finishes in his career. Only two other drivers have had more runner up finsihes without a win. Vitor Meira was an eight time runner up and never won. I think Grosjean’s time is coming,perhaps as soon as May 13.

I watched the race from the turn 15-16 area. there were many close battles for position, some wheel banging, groups of cars all day long.

I am happy to see Will Power on the podium. I was starting to think he had lost his competetive fire.

A nice job by Christian Lundgaard. His sixth place finish is the nbest for a Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver this season.

The drive of the day goes to Felix Rosenqvist. He dropped back quickly to the back at the start from his ninth place grid spot, but fought back to finish eighth.

Josef Newgarden has two finishes of 15th or worse. Like last year he will need to come on strong with a lot of victories to be in contention for the championship.

Honda and Chevy have each won two races. The engines seem more equal this season than they did in 2022 when Chevy seemed to be the better power plant.

Thanks for following along this weekend. Tomorrow is May 1. I might have a couple things to talk about for the next 30 days or so.

Barber Race Day

thepitwindow

Good morning from a coolish Barber Motorsports Park. The forecast looks sunny and dry for the start of the race, with temperature of 68 degrees at the green flag.

Today’s schedule: Times are Central

Gates and all fan activities open at 8:00am

  • 8:00am – 8:40am Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – Cayman (Race #2)
  • 8:55am – 9:35am Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – GT3 (Race #2)
  • 11:00am – 11:30am NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warmup Peacock, Indycar Radio
  • 12:00pm – 12:55pm INDY NXT (Race) Peacock
  • 2:00 pm – 5:00pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Race) NBC, Peacock, Indycar radio
  • The green flag will fall at 2:30 Central time.

The big question today is: Can Romain Grosjean put a complete race together?Grosjean has yet to convert a pole into a victory. St.Pete was his best chance, and today will be another great opportunity for him.

The Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix is traditionally a low incident race. Few yellows occur during the race, and generally they come early. Pit strategy and starting positon are the keys to the race outcome.

I still like Pato O’Ward to win from third. The winner usually comes from the first five starting positions.

I expect another podium from Scott Dixon. It would be nice to see him finally win at this track.

Keep an eye on Christian Lundgaard today. He starts sixth, the best for a Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver this season. Can he maintain or improve his position. Will we see another charge through the field from Graham Rahal?

The last two Barber winners, Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward, start second and third.

I’ll be back with starting tire choices. Enjoy the race.

Grosjean Continues Andretti Pole Dominance

thepitwindow

Romain Grosjean too the pole for tomorrow’s Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, turning a lap of 1:05. 8396. Grosjean edged Alex Palou by 0.0734 seconds in winning his second pole of 2023 and third career pole position.

Andretti Autosport has won three of the four poles this season. Kyle Kirkwood won the pole at Long Beach.

Five teams put cars in the Fast Six. Only Chip Ganassi Racing had two cars in the final round.

Quick Thoughts

Is tomorrow the day Grosjean finally converts a good starting spot into a victory? St. Pete was in his grasp until the incident with Scott McLaughlin.

Pato O’Ward has qualified in the top six of every race in 2023.

If Kyle Kirkwood can stay on track during qualifying, he will win a ton of poles. His spin today was the secon incident in qualifying this year.

Nice to see some success for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Christian Lundgaard will start sixth.

Despite a strong team showing in practice, Scott McLaughlin was the only Team Penske car in the Fast Six.

All time career pole winner Will Power has an average starting spot of 10.5 this season.

Today’s crowd was good, although it seemed a bit down from previous Barber Saturdays.

Palou Tops Practice 2

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Alex Palou got a clean lap with about 12 minutes to go in the morning practice and it was good enough to lead the session by two tenths if a second over Josef Newgarden and Scott

The Penske duo of Newgarden and McLaughlin led most of the session.

Practice ran clean until Helio Castroneves spun and stalled on track with 45 seconds left. Only a couple of cars went out to complete the time.

500 Qualifying Tweaked

thepitwindow

Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced the qualifying format for the 107th running of the the Indianapolis 500. While similar to lastyear as far as the number of cars eligible for the pole, the program has been modified to create more content on Sunday.

The new format, per IMS and Indycar: The schedule does not include the practice periods preceding each day’s action.

DAY ONE: Saturday, May 20

11 a.m.-5:50 p.m.: Full Field Qualifying (Live on Peacock, also 2:30-4:30 p.m. on NBC)

Qualifying will take place for positions 1-30. Positions 13-30 will be set, and those drivers will not requalify Sunday.

When every car in the qualifying order for Saturday has been presented at least one chance to qualify, teams may choose from two lanes for second and subsequent attempts. Cars in the priority lane (Lane 1) must withdraw their qualified time – if the car has one – but get priority access to the track ahead of Lane 2. Lane 2 is for cars that have already qualified but wish to improve their position.

Once cars are outside of the Top 30, they are considered to not have a qualification speed as only positions 1-30 will be locked in during Day One.

DAY TWO: Sunday, May 21

2-3 p.m.: Top 12 Qualifying (Live on Peacock)

Positions 7-12 will be determined. The order is based on Saturday times, slowest to fastest. Each car is guaranteed one attempt. The fastest six advance to the Firestone Fast Six to determine positions 1-6.

4-5 p.m.: Last Chance Qualifying (Live on NBC)

Positions 31-33 will be determined. Each car is guaranteed one attempt and may make multiple attempts until time expires. Each car’s most recent qualification speed will remain eligible for the starting lineup until the time is withdrawn or qualifications end.

5:15-5:45 p.m.: Firestone Fast Six (Live on NBC)

Positions 1-6 will be determined. The order is based on times from Top 12 Qualifying earlier Sunday, slowest to fastest. Each car is guaranteed one attempt. The fastest driver in the Firestone Fast Six will earn the coveted NTT P1 Award for pole.

This program eliminates the two hour gap that Sunday in 2022 had. I assume the series will play Sunday by ear each year, since this may be the last year there are more than 33 cars for a while.

As I stated last year, I thnk 12 cars eligible for the pole is too many. I am also unsure of the value of bumping for just one car. I will expand on my thoughts next week when I sharethe entire May program.

Qualifying Day at Barber

thepitwindow

Today’s schedule

Times listed are Central Time

Gates open at 8:00am

  • All Fan Zone Activities
  • 7:50am – 8:10am Porsche Sprint Challenge – Cayman (Qualifier)
  • 8:25am – 8:45am Porsche Spring Challenge – GT3 (Qualifier)
  • 9:00am – 9:45am Blue Marble Radical Cup (Race #2)
  • 10:00am – 10:45am INDY NXT (Practice #2)
  • 11:00am – 12:00pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Practice #2) Peacock
  • 12:20pm – 1:00pm Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – Cayman (Race #1)
  • 1:20pm – 1:40pm INDY NXT (Qualifier)
  • 2:00pm – 3:15pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Qualifier) Peacock
  • 3:30pm – 4:00pm INDY NXT autograph session
  • 3:35pm – 4:20pm Blue Marble Radical Cup (Race #3)
  • 4:35pm – 5:15pm Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – GT3 (Race #1)

Good morning from Barber Motorsports Park. The weather forecast call for 73 degrees and partly cloudy when practice begins and 77 degrees and cloudy with a 15% chance of rain for qualifying.

Starting position is key to success in the nrace at Barber. Qualifying will be interesting. In yesterday’s practice, the top six were separated by 0.36 seconds and the top twelve had a gap of 0.65 seconds.

Notes

Romain Grosjean will get a new engine for the number 28.

Yesterday afternoon Inidnapolis Motor Speedway announced its May schedule and Indianapolsi 500 qualifying format. There are a couple of tweaks to qualifying. I will talk about May in my next post in a bit.

Perhaps it’s the timing of this race, but it seems odd to step on another race’s weekend with an announcement like this.

I will be back with practice results, qualifying groups, and qualifying results later.