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| IndyCar has hit the busy portion of the schedule and treks up to Detroit |
Coverage:
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday June 1st with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. On Sunday June 2nd, coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Kelli Stavast, Marty Snider and Robin Miller will be on pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 10:55 a.m. ET (45-minute session)*
Second Practice: 2:50 p.m. ET (45-minute session)*
Saturday:
Qualifying: 10:45 a.m. ET (NBCSN will have taped coverage at noon ET)*
Race: 3:30 p.m. ET (70 laps)
Sunday:
Qualifying: 10:45 a.m. ET (NBCSN will have live coverage)
Race: 3:30 p.m. ET (70 laps)
* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.
Championship Catch Up
Simon Pagenaud entered the month of May 11th in the championship. He exits the month of May in first overall with 250 points after a pair of victories in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 and taking 163 of a possible 166 points from the two Indianapolis Motor Speedway races. This is the first time Pagenaud has led the championship since after the 2017 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Pagenaud has been in the top five in the championship for the last two races after not being in the top five of the championship for the previous 21 races.
Josef Newgarden lost the championship lead for the first time this year but he is one-point behind Pagenaud in the championship. Newgarden has five top five finishes from the first six races and he has led a lap in four of six races this season. Alexander Rossi remained third in the championship after the Indianapolis 500 but he went from 36 points behind the championship leader to 22 points back. Rossi has been in the top five of the championship for 23 consecutive races.
Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon are tied for fourth in the championship on 203 points with the tiebreaker going to Sato. Sato has four top ten finishes from the first six races and two of those were top five finishes. Last year, Sato had two top ten finishes from the first six races and he did not get a top five result until the seventh race when he finished fifth at Belle Isle. Will Power remained in sixth in the championship for the third consecutive race. Power is 66 points behind his Team Penske teammate Pagenaud.
Ryan Hunter-Reay gained two positions after the Indianapolis 500 and he heads into Belle Isle seventh in the championship, 93 points behind Pagenaud and as the most recent Belle Isle race winner. James Hinchcliffe finished outside the top ten for the second consecutive race but Hinchcliffe's 11th place finish in the Indianapolis 500 moved him up to eighth in the championship, 105 points back. Spencer Pigot may have finished 14th in the Indianapolis 500 but it moved him to ninth in the championship, the first time he is in the top ten of the championship in his IndyCar career and he is 117 points back.
Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top ten of the championship and he is the highest rookie in the championship on 129 points. Ferrucci is also five points ahead of his Dale Coyne Racing teammate Sébastien Bourdais, who lost three spots in the championship after his retirement in the Indianapolis 500. While Bourdais dropped three spots, the driver he made contact with, Graham Rahal, dropped five spots from seventh to 12th after his accident. He is 127 points behind Pagenaud.
Jack Harvey and Ed Jones are tied for 13th on 118 points with the tiebreaker going to Harvey after his third place finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis but Harvey will not be at Belle Isle or Texas with Harvey and Meyer Shank Racing only running four of the final 11 races. Jones will be back this weekend in the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.
Felix Rosenqvist rounds out the top fifteen on 117 points and he is seven points ahead of Colton Herta and Tony Kanaan. Herta has dropped from second in the championship after his victory in Austin to 16th after four consecutive retirements. Kanaan's ninth place finish in the Indianapolis 500 was his first top ten finish since he finished sixth at Toronto last year. Matheus Leist is two points behind his A.J. Foyt Racing teammate while Marco Andretti has fallen to 19th in the championship on 105 points.
Zach Veach rounds out the top twenty on 83 points, two ahead of Marcus Ericsson, followed by Patricio O'Ward on 67 points, Ed Carpenter on 65 points and Max Chilton on 59 points. Conor Daly round out the top twenty-five with 40 points after finishing tenth in the Indianapolis 500. Carpenter and Daly will not be competing at Belle Isle.
Pagenaud's Run at History
Last year, Will Power became the ninth driver to win the race before the Indianapolis 500 and then gone on to win the Indianapolis 500. This year, Simon Pagenaud became the tenth driver to achieve the accomplishment. It is the first time this has happened in consecutive seasons since 1934-35 when Bill Cummings and Kelly Petillo each did it.
No driver has won the Indianapolis 500 and then the following race since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. Pagenaud could not only end a near two-decade drought but he could join the likes of Petillo, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser, Jr. as drivers to win the race before the Indianapolis 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the race after the Indianapolis 500.
Petillo won the 1934 season finale at Mines Field in Los Angeles, California before winning the 1935 Indianapolis 500, the first race of the season. The next race was on July 4, 1935 at the Minnesota State Fair Speedway and Petillo won the 100-mile dirt event.
Foyt's 1964 season is remembered because he won the first seven races that year with Indianapolis being the third of those victories.
In 1994, Unser, Jr. won at Long Beach, then the Indianapolis 500 and followed it up with a victory at Milwaukee.
On all three occasions, Petillo, Foyt and Unser, Jr. went on to win the championship that year.
Belle Isle is the location of Simon Pagenaud's first career IndyCar victory, which came in the second race of the doubleheader in 2013. The Frenchman has had respectable results since at Belle Isle but his average finish of 9.5 makes it one of his worst tracks on the IndyCar schedule. He has four podium finishes at the track but he has finished outside the top ten in four of the last eight Belle Isle races, all eight coming with Team Penske. He has only led in three Belle Isle races, the last two being both 2016 races where he started on pole position for both races.
Dixon Déjà Vu
Like 2018, Scott Dixon heads to Belle Isle without a victory to his name this season. Like 2018, Dixon has the fourth-most points heading into Belle Isle, though he is fifth in the championship because Takuma Sato holds the tiebreaker.
The good news for Dixon is he has double the number of podium finishes through six races as he did last season. He has four podium finishes from six races while he only had two podium finishes after six races last year. Dixon went on to pick up his first victory of what would be his fifth championship season last year in the first Belle Isle race.
While Dixon is coming off a 17th place finish, his worst since he finished 32nd in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 after contact with Jay Howard but his track record points to him bouncing back. In the last three races Dixon has finished outside the top fifteen, he has finished on the podium in the following race. After that 32nd place result at Indianapolis two years ago, Dixon was runner-up in the first Belle Isle race. He finished 17th in the 2016 season finale at Sonoma and he wound up finishing third in the 2017 season opener at St. Petersburg. He was classified in 19th after the ever-memorable 2016 Texas race that stretch over three months only for Dixon to dominate the next race at Watkins Glen and take the victory.
Dixon has not won at the same track in consecutive years since 2014 and 2015 at Sonoma.
ECR Teammates Connected at the Hip
Ed Carpenter Racing had its best two weekends of the season at Indianapolis and while Ed Carpenter's second place starting position and sixth place finish helped, Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones had two respectable results and the two drivers have been comparable this season.
Jones and Pigot have started within a position of each other in three races this season. They have finished within three positions of each other in five of six races this season with St. Petersburg being the exception after Jones made contact with the damaged car of Matheus Leist. Both drivers have one top ten finishes and both drivers have two top ten starts.
While Jones has been the top ECR qualifier in four of six races, Pigot has been the top ECR finisher in four of six races. Jones finished ahead of Pigot in the Indianapolis 500 but he did by only one position with Jones in 13th and Pigot in 14th.
Despite their similarities Pigot is five positions and 15 points better than Jones in the championship. Jones holds the upper hand in career results at Belle Isle. Jones has three top ten finishes from four Belle Isle starts and he finished 11th and third in the races last year. Pigot has six starts at Belle Isle but his best finish was tenth twice and he has never started better than 12th at Belle Isle.
Rookie Shuffle
The Rookie of the Year battle has flipped tremendously since the end of April.
Before the month of May, Colton Herta was the top rookie, tenth in the championship on 88 points and he was eight points ahead of Felix Rosenqvist. Marcus Ericsson was the next best rookie at 61 points with Patricio O'Ward and Santino Ferrucci tied on 56 points despite O'Ward having made one fewer start.
Ferrucci will head into the month of June on 129 points, tenth in the championship and as the top rookie. Rosenqvist, Herta, Ericsson and O'Ward have all dropped positions in the championship since Barber. Rosenqvist is 15th in the championship, 22 points behind Ferrucci. Herta is seven points behind Rosenqvist. Ericsson is 48 points behind Ferrucci with O'Ward rounding out the five rookies, 62 points behind Ferrucci.
While Ferrucci has three top ten finishes from six races, Rosenqvist has the most top ten finishes of the rookies with four. Herta is the only rookie with a top five finish this season but since his victory at Austin, Herta has had four consecutive retirements with his average finish being 25.75. Ericsson has had four finishes of 20th or worse with his only top ten finish being seventh at Long Beach.
Ferrucci and O'Ward have each raced at Belle Isle but Ferrucci is the only of the two to run an IndyCar on the track. Last year, Ferrucci made his IndyCar debut in the #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda filling a vacancy after Pietro Fittipaldi was sidelined due to his injuries from an accident driving DragonSpeed's LMP1 entry at Spa-Francorchamps for the opening round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship. O'Ward won at the track in 2017 in the IMSA Prototype Challenge class.
Carlin Comeback
Carlin is returning with its tail between its legs.
Neither O'Ward nor Max Chilton were in the Indianapolis 500 with the only Carlin driver to make the Indianapolis 500 field was Charlie Kimball, who has three more starts this season and will return next week at Texas.
Things had been promising for O'Ward. He has started in the top ten twice this season and while his only top ten finish was eighth at Austin, O'Ward was the top Carlin finisher in three of four starts with Chilton finishing 18th at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, one spot ahead of O'Ward after the Mexican driver had to serve a penalty for running in the back of Alexander Rossi at the start and had to make an additional pit stop after the rain started due to tire pressure issues. O'Ward has been the best Carlin starter in each of his four starts.
Chilton heads to Belle Isle after hitting rock bottom of what has been a terribly long fall. Before failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, Chilton had not finished in the top ten in the previous 23 races. Chilton has started in the top ten only once over the previous 25 races. This year Chilton has started outside the top twenty in three of five starts.
Belle Isle is where Chilton picked up his best result in 2018 when he finished 11th in the second race. He has never finished in the top ten at this track and he has only started in the top ten twice in six starts.
IMSA
This weekend will be the final time IndyCar and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship share a bill with the Daytona Prototype international and GT Daytona classes running a 100-minute race around Belle Isle. There will be 11 DPi entries and 12 GTD entries.
The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr lead the DPi championship with 120 points. The Brazilian duo has finished off the podium in the last two races after finishing second and first at Daytona and Sebring respectively. Four points behind the Brazilians are Ricky Taylor and Hélio Castroneves in the #7 Acura Team Penske entry. The #7 Acura is the only car to finish in the top five of every race this season.
Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande are third in the championship on 113 points with Mid-Ohio winners Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya tied with the Long Beach winners João Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque. Advantage goes to Cameron and Montoya in the championship as both the #6 Acura and the #5 Mustang Samplings Cadillac each have a victory and a third place finish but the #6 Acura's next best result is sixth, better than the #5 Cadillac's seventh.
The Mazdas are tied on 100 points apiece. The #77 Mazda of Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez are coming off a runner-up finish at Mid-Ohio while Jonathan Bomarito finished third in the #55 Mazda with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Harry Tincknell is back in the #55 Mazda this weekend after he missed Mid-Ohio due to FIA World Endurance Championship responsibilities with the Ford GT program at Spa-Francorchamps.
Colin Braun and Jon Bennett are tied on 94 points with Simon Trummer and Stephan Simpson with the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Misha Goikhberg and Tristan Vautier a point back of the #54 Nissan and #84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac. Will Owen has scored 90 points in the #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac. Victor Franzoni will join Owen in the #50 Cadillac. Franzoni spent the last two years racing for Juncos Racing in Pro Mazda and Indy Lights. He won the 2017 Pro Mazda title with the team and he won an Indy Lights race at Road America before finishing fifth in the championship last year. Franzoni made his IMSA debut in the GTD class at Daytona and he took the class pole position in the #13 Via Italia Racing Ferrari. The team went on to finish eighth in class.
Belle Isle counts only to the WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship for GTD teams and not the full GTD championship. The WeatherTech Sprint Cup consists of the seven races, all of which are two hours and 40 minutes in length or shorter.
Because of this change, some of the notable GTD teams will not be participating at Belle Isle. Ben Keating and Jereon Bleekemolen will not be at Belle Isle in the #33 Mercedes-AMG as the duo will focus on the Le Mans test day and their GTE-Am Ford GT entry. Pfaff Motorsports will not bring the #9 Porsche to Belle Isle for Scott Hargrove and Zach Robichon. The #19 Moorespeed Audi of Alex Riberas and Will Hardeman will not compete this weekend.
Leading the Sprint Cup standings is the Mid-Ohio-winning #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Jack Hawksworth and Richard Heistand with 35 points. The #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher are three points back in second with the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of Bryan Sellers and Ryan Hardwick rounding out the top three on 30 points.
Patrick Long is fourth in the championship on 28 points and he will have Zach Robichon join him in the #73 Park Place Motorsport Porsche. Robichon will be going after the Sprint Cup while Long's regular co-driver Patrick Lindsey will be at the Le Mans test day. Townsend Bell and Frankie Montecalvo bookend the top five in the Sprint Cup championship for AIM Vasser Sullivan Racing with the #12 Lexus drivers nine points back.
Cooper McNeil and Toni Vilander are 11 points back in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari with the #44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini of Andy Lally and John Potter 12 points back. Ryan Dalziel and Parker Chase are on 22 points in the #8 Starworks Audi with the #57 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Katherine Legge and Christina Nielsen on 21 points.
The Sprint Cup-only #74 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG of Gar Robinson and Lawson Aschenbach on 20 points with another Sprint Cup-only entry, the #76 Compass Racing McLaren of Matt Plumb and Paul Horton on 18 points. Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley round out the Sprint Cup championship on 16 points in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW.
Since returning to Belle Isle in 2012, General Motors has won the Belle Isle race seven consecutive years with Wayne Taylor Racing responsible for four of them and Action Express Racing responsible for the other three. Meyer Shank Racing has won the last two years in GTD with Legge in each winning entry with Andy Lally as her co-driver in 2017 and Mario Farnbacher as her co-driver last year.
NBCSN's coverage of the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday June 1st.
Fast Facts
Saturday's race will be the seventh IndyCar race to take place on June 1st and first since Hélio Castroneves won at Belle Isle in 2014.
Two drivers have had their first career victory come on June 1st. Greg Moore picked up his first career victory on June 1, 1997 at Milwaukee. Ryan Briscoe matched Moore's achievement with Briscoe's first career victory coming at Milwaukee 11 years to the day of Moore's maiden victory.
Last year, Scott Dixon picked up his first victory of the 2018 season on June 2nd at Belle Isle. Sunday will also be the six-year anniversary of Simon Pagenaud's first career IndyCar victory, which came at Belle Isle.
Pagenaud is one of three drivers to have their first career victory come at Belle Isle. The other two are Hélio Castroneves and Carlos Muñoz.
American drivers have won three of the last four Belle Isle races after American drivers had not won the 16 previous Belle Isle races.
Honda has swept the Belle Isle races the last two years and Honda has won eight of 13 Belle Isle races since 2012.
The last two Indianapolis 500 winners have finished in the top ten of both Belle Isle races.
Last year, six drivers finished in the top ten of both races, the fourth time six drivers have finished in the top ten of both Belle Isle races along with 2013, 2014, and 2017.
Since Belle Isle became a doubleheader there has never been more than six drivers to finish in the top ten of both races.
Last year, Ryan Hunter-Reay became the fourth driver to finish on the podium in both Belle Isle races joining Mike Conway in 2013, Will Power in 2014 and Graham Rahal in 2017.
Three of the last four Belle Isle races have had an average speed above 100 MPH. Only once before 2018 did a Belle Isle race have an average speed above 100 MPH and that is when Alex Zanardi won the 1998 race with an average speed at 100.052 MPH.
Six consecutive Belle Isle races have had an average speed above 95 MPH after none of the prior ten Belle Isle races had an average speed over 95 MPH.
Chip Ganassi Racing is one victory away from 107 victories, which would tie the team with Newman-Haas Racing for second most in IndyCar history.
The average starting position for a Belle Isle winner is 5.76 with a median of fourth.
The average number of lead changes for a Belle Isle race is 4.4 with a median of fifth.
Eleven consecutive Belle Isle races have had five lead changes or more. In the 14 Belle Isle races prior to this streak the most lead changes in a Belle Isle race was five and that happened on three occasions.
Only twice has a Belle Isle winner led fewer than ten laps. In 1996, Michael Andretti led seven laps on his way to victory. In 2015, Carlos Muñoz led eight laps in the rain-shortened first race of that doubleheader.
The average number of cautions in a Belle Isle race is 4.12 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 14.32 with a median of 14.
Six consecutive Belle Isle races have had three or fewer cautions. Five of those six races have had less than ten caution laps.
Possible Milestones:
If Ryan Hunter-Reay takes the green flag in both Belle Isle races he will become the fifth driver to achieve 200 consecutive starts.
Scott Dixon, Sébastien Bourdais, Will Power and Graham Rahal could all surpass Hélio Castroneves' record of three Belle Isle victories. All four drivers have won twice at the track.
Tony Kanaan, Simon Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay could all equal Hélio Castroneves' record of three Belle Isle victories.
Scott Dixon needs to lead 59 laps to reach the 5,500 laps led milestone.
Will Power needs to lead 59 laps to become the 11th driver to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.
Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 45 laps to reach the 1,500 laps led milestone.
James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 44 laps to reach the 800 laps led milestone.
Graham Rahal needs to lead 16 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.
Predictions
Alexander Rossi makes up for Indianapolis and a lost podium finish here last year and Scott Dixon replicates his 2018 Belle Isle weekend and those two drivers split the weekend. Rossi will leave Belle Isle as the championship leader. Felix Rosenqvist and Colton Herta both get top ten finishes. Josef Newgarden will be the best Team Penske driver in the championship after this weekend. At least three drivers that finished outside the top twenty in the Indianapolis 500 get a top ten finish in the first Belle Isle race. Sleepers: Ed Jones and Sébastien Bourdais.
