Great race....the opposite of most; crazy early, then calm late And Josef Newgarden knows to be P2 on the last lap.....he set Pato up then executed perfectly Great win B2B for him
Heck of a finish. I gotta feel for Pato, but McLaren 2nd in Monaco and Indy. I'm no fan of Penske, but I like the Tennessean winning. Irony: The Nashville native winning on a day we almost didn't see the race because the Nashville station was running weather most of the day.
I was able to watch like 3 min of the race. From all of your comments it looks like I missed a good one.
Ironically, Larson made it to Charlotte Motor Speedway just as they red-flagged the race because of rain. And it came from part of the same squall line that had resulted in the four-hour delay at Indy! Can't blame anyone for accusing Larson for bringing the rain with him. At least, it they do resume, he'll be able to do 150 laps of the 400, which works out to 3/8 of the whole distance.
That's what he claimed in the post-race interview. That he had to hit his "fuel number". The three cars ahead of him at the end all pitted later and had more fuel.
There are three positives about yesterday's race I'd like to solicit comments on: The Car - For a car designed 12 years ago, the Dallara DW12 seems to need no replacement. To my eyes, it is fast, stable, sturdy, works well in traffic and seems to elicit few, if any, negative comments. I believe it is planned to replace it in 2 or 3 years, but I'm inclined to ask, why? The Tires - I heard no complaints about the tires yesterday. They seemed to be working at the end of stints just about as well as at the beginning. Compared to all the belly-aching I hear about the tires in F1, the reliability of the Indy Firestones is a breath of fresh air. The Track - I still find it amazing that a track designed 115 years ago, when top speeds were around 110 MPH, still works just as well at speeds over twice as much. The track surface may have changed, but the configuration - lengths, widths, turn radii, banking - are all basically the same as in Carl Fisher's original 1909 track. And it is so smooth! Watching the cars going 240 on a track with no bumps whatsoever is pretty amazing. Even all the purpose-built F1 tracks, that carry no daily traffic like street circuits, can't seem to match the Indy billiard table.
@Gatorrari yes all great positives.... plus lots of lead changes and lots of passing and battles for many places on the track. I really enjoyed this race as always! Indycar is the best racing going...at so many different tracks there is always some great racing happening.
