Tag: A;ex Palou

Tire Roulette Lands on Red 4- Quick Thoughts on Thermal

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In the end, red tires were the way to finish, as Alex Palou come storming back to take the lead from Pato O’Ward with nine laps to go after a great battle with Christian Lundgaard.

O’Ward led most of the way, but his choice to end on the primary tires cost him the race.

The race itself was another snoozer as cars were strung out for the most part all day. I hope this is the end of Thermal as a points paying venue. The track is not interesting, the surroundings are sterile, and the lack of a crowd visible to viewers at home made the event look small and minor league.

Palou

If anyone still doubted the greatness of Alex Palou, today should have erased all doubts. He took this victory on track with a powerful rush after his final stop. In my opinion this was his best win in the series. O’Ward seemed to have the field covered, yet Palou found a way to win.

Power Saves His Season

Will Power began the day with just five points, a DNF at St. Pete, and a 21st place starting spot. In what was expected to be a track position race, Power ended up sixth and may have put his season in the right direction. He needed a finish like this for the points and his confidence.

Herta Bounces Back

Colton Herta had another great qualifying effort, but unlike St. Pete, he maintained position all day and finished fourth. Herta moved up eight spots in the championship.

Palou/Lundgaard

The battle for second on lap 50 between Palou and Christian Lundgaard was one of the best on track duels I have seen in IndyCar on a road course. The two swapped spots for several corners before Palou took the position and pulled away.

FOX

The glitch was not the network’s fault. An Indycar production truck had an electrical issue. There were some improvements since St. Pete.

The leaderboard had the tire each driver was using after pit stops began, and they showed that graphic as the race wound down.

It seems as if with 20 laps to go, the cars in 14th place and lower are never shown on the screen. I think they are still in the race, and those drivers need to have their names on the screen too.

When will we see a pit stop timer?

The best thing about the broadcast was how much more relaxed Jack Harvey seemed this weekend. The stiffness is gone, and his speech flowed naturally and with confidence.

That will do it for me this weekend. Thanks for following along. I will be on site at Long Beach.

Thermal Wrap-up: A Missed Opportunity

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To sum up- Alex Palou dominated both his heat and the feature race to win the $5000,000 prize at The Thermal Club Million Dollar Challenge. Other than a first turn crash involving Romain Grosjean and Rinus VeeKay in Heat 1, there was little passing.

In the second half of the main event, Alexander Rossi was the entire show with a wheel to wheel duel with Josef Newgarden, and Colton Herta had eyes on him as he worked his way to fourth after saving his tires in the first half of the final race.

Overall, today was a missed opportunity for Indycar to gain some fans in what would have been an off week on the schedule. There were some positives, and several negatives. If IndyCar wants to do something like this in 2025, a lot needs to improve.

Some Good Things

I’m glad IndyCar finally decided to try something new. It has been a long time since we have seen any kind of different weekend format. More about this in the next section.

I liked the eight minute qualifying rounds and that Push to Pass was available to the drivers during qualifying. I think these ideas should be explored to possibly become a part of qualifying in the regular season.

This event filled what would have been a six week gap between the St. Pete opener and Long Beach. There is still a four week gap between the first two races.

Felix Rosenqvist now knows he can win a race from the pole. The Swedish driver has never before led the first lap of a race where he started on the pole. He is an excellent qualifier, and I don’t think this will his last pole of the year.

It was wonderful to see the old aggressive Alexander Rossi on track again. His passes were the reason to stay tuned today. If his duel with Newgarden had happened in the Indianapolis 500, Indycar would be sitting pretty.

What Did Not Work

Whenever I hear a sports program is a made for TV event, I cringe. It usually means, as we saw Sunday, that it’s not about the sport, but something that looks like the sport. The aim is ususally to sell something other than the sport. That is what we saw.

What could have been a great opportunity to introduce Indycar to a national audience turned into a two hour infomercial for The Thermal Club, a playground for the wealthy.

Don’t get me wrong, it looks like a fabulous place, and if someone can afford it, good for them.

But I thought this was to be an Indycar showcase, just one race into the season. I didn’t see any promos of upcoming races or the Indianapolis 500. I learned more about The Thermal Club than I will ever need to know.

The racing was dull. Except for the intrigue of Herta’s tire strategy and Rossi’s charge through the field, there was not much to get excited about. This track is too long to provide the close racing action a sprint event like this deserves.

The post race ceremony was too similar to a regular season post race. For this event it should have been bigger. There should have been money cannons or a jar full of dollar bills or something for the second biggest non 500 purse in history.

Far an event with that much money at stake, the post race should have been more significant. Speaking of the money, the $23,000 participation prize probably didn’t cover a team’s expenses in going to this event for four days. It was definitely a losing proposition for the teams that had crash damage.

How to Do Better

These suggestions are just my opinion, but if Indycar decides to do something like this again. and I like the basic concept, just not execution, here are a few ways to make this better.

An event like this needs to be at a venue where fans can affordably attend. There was zero atmosphere at The Thermal Club. Any spectators were on balconies of the homes around the track. The race may have felt more excited if tv viewers could hear fans cheering for their favorite driver.

Hold an exhibition at a shorter track which has some good passing zones. This track was not made for Indycar racing.

If the purse is going to be as large as it was this weekend, pair each driver with a charity and pledge a matching amount of each drivers’ winnings to that charity. For that amount of money in a setting built for people who have had good fortune, I think this is the right thing to do.

The final segment of the main event should be longer. If there is to be a halftime break, put some content in it, perhaps a celebrity tire changing contest.

Allow more Push to Pass. Imagine what Rossi could have done if he hadn’t dun out of extra boost.

I would prefer no halftime break and a required full service pit stop within a designated pit window.

Increase the purse, especially for those who finish 6 -27. They are the teams that could probably benefit the most from winning a half million dollars.

Hold the event at a venue separate from a test and either pre season or post season.

This was a nice try, Indycar, but a missed opportunity to gain some traction.

Rosenqvist, Palou Win Poles for Thermal Heats

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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.

The Youngest Champion?

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Photo: Alex Palou celebrates winning the Rev Group Grand Prix. Photo by Chris Owens, Indycar

Alex Palou holds a 39 point lead in the NTT Indycar Series championship over Pato O’Ward with just six races left in the season. Veterans Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden sit third and forth and have a chance at overtaking him in the final stages. I think Palou will prevail. At Mid Ohio he showed that he can maximize points playing the hand he has been dealt on a particular weekend. Would Palou be the youngest champion in Indycar Series history? He would only rank third. Sam Hornish, Jr. was just 22 years old when he won the IRL championship in 2001. Jacques Villeneuve was slightly younger than Palou will be when the 2021 season ends.

Sam Hornish, Jr.
Jacques Villeneuve

Villeneuve, born April 9 , 1971 was 24 years, 154 days old when the 1995 season ended on September 10. Palou’s birthday is April 1, 1997, and he will be 24 years, 178 days old when the current season ends on September 26. The 1995 season had 17 races, In 2021 the schedule called for 17 races, but the cancellation of the Toronto race has reduced this year to 16 events.

We need to look back to 1960, when A. J. Foyt won his first championship at age 25. The next youngest series winners since then were Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2006, and Al Unser, Jr. in 1990, who were both won at the age of 27. Hornish, Jr. was 27 years, 100 days at the final race of 2006, while Unser, Jr. was 27 years, 185 days old at the conclusion of the 1990 season.

In the year of the kids, crowning the third youngest champion in the last 61 years seems appropriate. I’m anxious for the year too resume anbd to see how everything plays out.