1. This was a beat down from Takuma Sato and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and hats off to both. Tire degradation increased dramatically at Barber this year compared to previous years and it threw everyone off. A lot of teams were lost and could not get a handle of it but Sato and RLLR did and they were the best today. No one came close. It was clear from the end of the first stint that this race was going to be his. Most drivers were on a three-stop strategy and a few decided to try a two-stop strategy but Sato had the gap from the get-go. No one was able to keep up and the pace wasn't there to make the two-stop strategy work. Bravo to Sato, bravo to RLLR and we will have to wait to see if this is a one-time thing or if RLLR could be a contender in more races to come.
Side note on Sato, it is kind of fun to see him have this success so late in his career. For the longest time I have said we know who Sato is and after years of tearing up equipment he was never going to turn his pace into championship contending speed. It is early and I am not going to say Sato is going to be in the championship fight but I like that he can be in the top five and running at the front in four or five races a year. He is a nice guy, he has always been humble in IndyCar and this is his tenth season in IndyCar! He made IndyCar a home after the Formula One stint ended. It has been great to have him around.
2. Scott Dixon had nothing for Sato and second was all he could pull off. We don't see many races where Dixon is beat by this margin and it not be someone like Will Power, Josef Newgarden or Alexander Rossi. It is still a great points day and if we have learned anything from Dixon is he doesn't win early but gathers the points and then adds a few victories over the summer on his way to another championship push.
3. Sébastien Bourdais worked the two-stop strategy the best; unfortunately, the pace was not there to make the two-stops strategy work. Bourdais could not flip the gap to Sato before Sato made his second stop. Once Sato came out ahead of Bourdais it cast the dye and Bourdais was not going to win this race. Dale Coyne Racing deservers credit for the attempt and this result is a lot better than I thought a two-stop strategy would reap. The caution played into Bourdais' favor but I think he was would have at worst finished in the top five had the race stayed green.
4. Josef Newgarden had a big rebound after qualifying 16th. Newgarden went to the three-stop strategy early and it allowed him to gain a lot of ground but the problem was when others came in for their first stops, Newgarden was 10 laps into his stint and started to drop back. He was going to finish better than his start and likely in the top ten but the caution put him in a spot where he wasn't going to have others on fresher tires late in the race and it allowed him to jump into the top five. Newgarden retains the championship lead and it is early but it seems like every champion has a race like this, a poor starting position but it ended in a fourth place finish. This may be a race we look back on come September.
5. Alexander Rossi was moving at the start and went from eighth to fifth but that is the wall he hit and a top five is a great result but the damage was already done. The gap was too great to overcome. Rossi was good on the tires but he wasn't going to be able claw back the deficit with how quickly the tires went away. I think Rossi is a bit disappointed with the results. He should have at least been on the podium at Austin and he had nothing for the Penske and Ganassi cars at St. Petersburg but Long Beach is next week and I think we could see the tide start to turn more in Rossi's favor.
6. James Hinchcliffe was fourth pretty much the entire race and he lost a few spots after the only restart. While that is a little disappointing and underwhelming, he needed the result. The results haven't been there since last summer and he needs to pile up top ten and top five finishes like he did at the start of last season before he can be a race winner. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports talked about becoming the fourth top tier team over the offseason and it has yet to finish in the top five this season. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has won two of the last five races. SPM has to figure out regularly finishing in the top ten and this is a step in the right direction.
7. Marcus Ericsson was the first driver to go to the three-stop strategy and he worked it so he was ahead of the Penske drivers. Kind of like Austin, Ericsson put himself into a position for a top ten result and he got it today. This was a challenging circuit for Ericsson but he got the most out of it. A lot of rookies were fighting from the start of practice Friday and I think Ericsson should be proud of this result.
8. Ryan Hunter-Reay had a solid day and finished eighth. He did nothing spectacular but outside of Sato, Bourdais, Newgarden and Ericsson, no one was spectacular. Hunter-Reay didn't burn his tires out more than others but he didn't have the capability to mount a challenge. The caution may have gone against him, as he would have likely finished sixth but he still gets a top ten out of this one.
9. Simon Pagenaud finished ninth and while he continues his impressive finishes, it has to be getting frustrating that it never seems to click from Friday onward. It has been a while since Pagenaud was fastest from practice into qualifying and the race. He is always in the top ten. I know he had to come back from 14th on the grid today but most of the time he is sixth or eighth and he finishes fifth or seventh. You would think a Penske car would just stumble into a victory and that hasn't happened to Pagenaud for a little over a year.
10. Felix Rosenqvist got a tenth place finish out of this weekend and that is a big gain. I think Rosenqvist really was caught out on how much Barber has worn down over the years and the tire degradation at Austin and Barber was something he was not expecting. These two weekends were eye opening and Rosenqvist made a big improvement from Austin to this race. There are many more learning experiences ahead of him but I think this was an important weekend for him.
11. Pagenaud wasn't the only Penske car lost this weekend and Will Power had his hands full in every session. I feel like Power qualified seventh on pure talent. Power is too good as a qualifier to start worse than seventh. It has been nearly two seasons since he has started outside the top ten. Unfortunately, the tires did not agree with Power and he had a spin in turn 15 and cost him a few spots early. He was in the top ten late but lost tenth on the penultimate lap. It seemed like that was the best Power could have done and that is unusual for him.
12. Quickly through the rest of the field: Zach Veach made a big gain from 23rd to 12th. He made some moves late. Jack Harvey was on the two-stop strategy but had a pit lane speeding penalty. Fortunately for him, the lone caution went in his favor and he was eighth. Unfortunately for Harvey, he came in for a splash of fuel and he finished 13th. Marco Andretti and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the top fifteen. Andretti made up some ground early but he didn't really have top ten pace. Patricio O'Ward had a bad race and finished 16th but I think he will turn it around. Spencer Pigot got the two-stop strategy wrong and this was a missed opportunity after starting sixth.
13. A.J. Foyt Racing is a mess. Tony Kanaan was 18th, the first car one-lap down and he was not much better than that this entire weekend. I hate to say it but this is the end of career playing out in front of us. It is going to be hard to justify Foyt bringing Kanaan back. On top of that, Leist was not ready for IndyCar last year and we are only three races into his sophomore year but I do not see any gains coming.
I do not understand how a team has had solid funding for this long with ABC Supply Co. and has never turned into a consistently competitive team. I almost feel like IndyCar should take over this organization because all the pieces are there for this to be competing for top five finishes and top ten finishes and there are some really good drivers on the sidelines, some of which Foyt fired and possibly prematurely.
14. Ed Jones gunned the start and rightfully got a drive-through penalty. Ben Hanley did well. Hanley is still acclimating to single-seater racing. I am not sure he is the long-term option for DragonSpeed and if Elton Julian has the funding I think there are a few drivers out there that would be better for the organization in this developing phases but Hanley is holding his own. Max Chilton is still lost.
15. There were two retirements today and I feel bummed for Graham Rahal because he was running in Sato's shadow. If he does not have the throttle issue he may have been the only car who could have kept up with Sato and it would have been a much more interesting race. This is a missed opportunity for Rahal but if RLLR has this pace at the other road and street courses I think the results will come for Rahal. Colton Herta had fuel pick up issues from the start and two weeks after his glorious day in the sun the 19-year-old fell back to earth.
16. Tire degradation was the talk of the weekend and this was a weekend where it didn't matter what compound it was because the primary and alternate tire were both junk before you knew it. If one of the compounds held up I think this race would have been better and the two-stop strategy would have had a better chance of working. Barber is set to be repaved immediately after this race. I think the track record is in jeopardy next year. I know some people are concerned that the repave will mean no degradation next year and lead to little passing. There is part of me that would be fine if the track was not repaved and Firestone brought a different tire next year but I also think the track could be repaved, IndyCar can test ad nauseam over autumn and Firestone can bring two tire compounds that degrade but also has the pace that allows either a two or three-stop strategy to have an equal chance or working out.
17. One final thing: I love Barber. I love this track. I love that has been on the schedule for ten years. I am excited every year IndyCar goes to this race, the attendance is great and I hope to get down there once. All signs point to it remaining on the IndyCar schedule for quite some time.
18. No days off and Long Beach is up next. We are approaching the quarter-post of the season and we have had three race winners from three different teams in the first three races and neither Chip Ganassi Racing nor Andretti Autosport has won this year. This has already been a fun year and there is so many more races ahead of us.
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