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
Happy race morning. A high wind advisory should make things interesting for the drivers today. A dusty track track will likely greet the field or come into play during all segments of today’s event.
Today’s schedule: All times eastern
12:30 pm- NBC, Peacock on air
12:36 Heat 1 green flag
1:10 Heat 2 green flag
1:59 Main event green flag
Format:
Each heat race is 10 laps. Top six finishers min each heat advance to the main event.
Main event is 20 laps with a 10 minute break after 10 laps. Pole for the main event is the heat winner with the fastest qualifying time from last evening.
The Thermal Challenge weekend got very interesting tonight as qualifying for tomorrow’s heat races took some interesting and surprising turns.
Group 1 looked to be a team Penske front row sweep as Will Power and Scott McLaughlin held spot 1 and 2 in the early laps. But Felix Rosenquist saved the best until last and grabbed the top spot for Heat 1 tomorrow.
McLaughlin finished second, and Rinus VeeKay will start third.
The top 6 for Heat 1 features all three Penske drivers and representatives from Meyer Shank, Rahal, and Ed Carpenter Racing.
Group 2 qualifying looked to be a McLaren front row with Callum Ilott and Pato O’Ward. But a red flag with 1:19 to go caused by Marcus Ericsson’s spin and tire barrier contact set up a one flying lap scenario. Ilott and O’Ward chose not to go back out.
Palou grabbed the ole with the session’s fastest lap. Ilott and O’Ward faded to 8th and 9th, respectively.
The top six has three Ganassi cars, two Rahal machines, and a Meyer Shank entry.
The pole for the main race will be the heat winner with the fastest qualifying lap. If Palou wins his heat, he is on pole for the feature event.
Notes
I thought the qualifying was better than I expected. The eight minute periods added a sense of urgency to each group. Having push to pass available made for some different strategies. Indycar may want to look at these new wrinkles for future qualifying sessions.
I have a feeling Felix Rosenqvist is just getting started, and the rest of the grid better watch out for him. He qualified on the front row at St. Pete and won a pole today. His teammate, Tom Blomqvist, also was in the top six in his group.
What a horrible weekend for Andretti. The cars are slow, and both Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson had contact in separate incidents. Ericsson’s car got the worst of it. If this event returns, the teams outside the top 5 are going to need much more than $23,000 each.
I hope this is not the last time we see Callum Ilott in Indycar this season. He led one of the practice sessions and nearly took the pole for one of the heat races. Someone needs to find a spot for him.
I am more enthused about the races tomorrow than I was before the weekend started. Sunday has the potential to be a lot of fun.
Results:
Tomorrow’s action begins at 12:30 pm Eastern on NBC and Peacck.
Christian Lundgaard turned the fastest lap of the two days with about five minutes left in Practice four to edge Team Penske teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin.
Power had led most of the session. Practice started late because if high winds which blew sand across the track occasionally throught the two hour session.
Callum Ilott edged Alex Palou for top honors in the third session of The Thermal Club Million Dollar Challenge. Palou grabbed fast time early as he did yesterday, but Ilott, arguably the best Indycar driver not driving full time in Indycar, passed him before a 50 minute stoppage to repair broken asphalt in turn 5 halted action.
Ilott and Palou are the only drivers to turn a lap in less than 99 seconds.
Indycar extended the session by 15 minutes, but the extra time was chewed up by red flags for Romain Grosjean, who spun and stalled, and Kyle Kirkwood, lost control in turn 8 and made rear contact with the armco. The damage was not serious, and Kirkwood returned for the final 15 minutes of practice.
The final two hour practice session begins at 4 pm Eastern, followed by qualifying at 8 Eastern.
Alex Palou repeated fast time in Friday’s second practice session as the Indycar concluded five total hours of testing at The Thermal Club.
Combined Session results:
Notes
The qualifying rounds have been shortened to 8 minutes from the originally scheduled 10 minutes at the requests of teams and drivers. High tire degradation was the reason for the change.
Felix Rosenquist continues to fit in well with his new team as he was in the top 10 all day.
Callum Ilott is doing a great job for Arrow McLaren filling in for David Malukas.
Chip Ganassi Racing and Arrow McLaren appear to be the strongest teams so far this weekend,
Alex Palou set the fast time early in Practice 1 and kept it through the entire session as the Thermal Challenge weekend began. The session ran without interruption.
Race weekend: Friday, March 22 – Sunday, March 24 Track: The Thermal Club, 3.067-mile, 17-turn road course (counterclockwise) in Thermal, California
Race distances: (Two Qualifying Heats) 10 laps / 20 minutes) | (Sprint for the Purse) Two Segments (10 laps/ 30.67 miles each) with 10-minute halftime after Lap 10 Push-to-pass parameters: 40 seconds of total time for each qualifying group, heat race and both segments of the final. X: @TheThermalClub, @INDYCAR, #ThermalChallenge, #INDYCAR Instagram: @TheThermalClub, @INDYCAR, #ThermalChallenge, #INDYCAR Facebook: @ThermalClub, @INDYCAR, #ThermalChallenge, #INDYCAR TikTok: @IndyCar, #ThermalChallenge, #INDYCAR YouTube: @INDYCAR Event website: www.thermal.ccINDYCAR website: www.indycar.com 2023 race winner:NTT INDYCAR SERIESInaugural Event Qualifying record:NTT INDYCAR SERIESInaugural Event NBC Sports telecast: Races, 12:30 ET Sunday, NBC (live). Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Peacock Live Streaming: All NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test sessions, qualifying session, heat races and the final Sprint for the Purse will stream live on Peacock, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product. INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the anchor alongside turn announcers Ryan Myrehn and Jake Query. Michael Young is the pit reporter. The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge, Saturday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test sessions and qualifying session air live on SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85, racecontrol.indycar.com and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA. At-track schedule (All Times Local):
Friday, March 22 9-11 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test, Peacock2-5 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test, Peacock
Saturday, March 23 9-11 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test, Peacock 1-3 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test, Peacock 5 p.m. – $1 Million Challenge heat race qualifying (two groups / 12 minutes each), Peacock
Sunday, March 24 9:24 a.m. – $1 Million Challenge Heat Race 1 “Drivers Start Your Engines” 9:30 a.m. – NBC on air 9:31 a.m. – $1 Million Challenge Heat Race 1 (10 laps / 30.67 miles / 20 minutes / Top 6 advance to Sprint for the Purse), NBC 9:58 a.m. – $1 Million Challenge Heat Race 2 “Drivers Start Your Engines” 10:05 a.m. – $1 Million Challenge Heat Race 2 (10 laps / 30.67 miles / 20 minutes/ Top 6 advance to Sprint for the Purse), NBC 10:52 a.m. – $1 Million Challenge Sprint for the Purse “Drivers, start your engines” 10:59 a.m. – $1 Million Challenge Sprint for the Purse (Two 10-lap segments with 10-minute halftime after Lap 10), NBC (Live)
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Notes:· The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge will be the first non-championship NTT INDYCAR SERIES race since 2008. With a total payout of over $1.7 million, it is the largest non-Indy 500 purse for an INDYCAR SERIES event in over two decades. More information on the weekend format can be found HERE. There have been 10 INDYCAR SERIES exhibition races held since 1946, including the Marlboro Challenge All-Star race, which was held by CART from 1987-1992. NON-CHAMPIONSHIP INDYCAR RACES 1946-PRESENT YEAR RACE TRACK WINNER 1957 Race of Two Worlds Monza Jimmy Bryan 1958 Race of Two Worlds Monza Jim Rathmann 1966 Fuji 200 Fuji Speedway Jackie Stewart 1987 Marlboro Challenge Tamiami Park Bobby Rahal 1988 Marlboro Challenge Tamiami Park Michael Andretti 1989 Marlboro Challenge Laguna Seca Al Unser, Jr. 1990 Marlboro Challenge Nazareth Rick Mears 1991 Marlboro Challenge Laguna Seca Michael Andretti 1992 Marlboro Challenge Nazareth Emerson Fittipaldi 2008 Nikon Indy 300 Surfers Paradise Ryan Briscoe* Note: The 1981 and 1982 Indianapolis 500 only counted for the USAC INDYCAR SERIES championship and was considered a non-championship event for CART teams.· Qualifying heat races will return to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES for the first time since the series conducted heat races at Iowa Speedway for the 2012 and 2013 events at the track. Two drivers entered have won heat races in their career: Graham Rahal won heat races in both 2012 and 2013 at Iowa while Scott Dixon won a heat race at Iowa in 2013.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES QUALIFYING HEAT RACESYEAR TRACK LENGTH WINNERS 2012 Iowa Speedway 30 Laps Graham Rahal (1st), Tony Kanaan (2nd), Dario Franchitti (Dash) 2013 Iowa Speedway 50 Laps Scott Dixon (1st), Graham Rahal (2nd), Helio Castroneves (Dash)·
INDY NXT by Firestone points leader Nolan Siegel will make his NTT INDYCAR SERIES “debut” at The Thermal Club. The California native was the INDYCAR developmental series’ Rookie of the Year in 2023 and tested for Dale Coyne Racing in January. The 19-year-old is scheduled to make starts at Long Beach, Indianapolis 500 and Toronto.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 