Pierre Gasly became the first French driver to win a grand prix since Olivier Panis won the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. Gasly became the eighth driver to score a first career victory at Monza joining Phil Hill, Jackie Stewart, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Clay Regazzoni, Peter Gethin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Sebastian Vettel. It was AlphaTauri's first victory since Vettel won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. None of the top four finishers from Monza had a grand prix victory at the start of that race. Logan Sargeant sacrificed the Formula Three championship lead and heads into the finale eight points behind Oscar Piastri. Outside of Monza, IndyCar announced the Mid-Ohio doubleheader will happen next weekend, there was local winner in DTM and then a wet race, Wayne Taylor is mad at Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson made one final Southern 500 start. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Jimmie, Just Run the Full Season
We have reached the lame duck days of Jimmie Johnson's NASCAR Cup Series career. With nine races to go and no championship hope left, we are just burning time until November 8 when Johnson's 19-year Cup career officially ends.
Johnson already has eyes on what is next and the front and center favorite for his retirement hobby is IndyCar.
Prior to the pandemic, Johnson attended the IndyCar preseason test at Austin, as a guest of Arrow McLaren SP. Plans had been made for Johnson to test with AMSP at Barber in April and then the lockdown happened because of the pandemic. The test was cancelled indefinitely.
During the lockdown, Johnson competed in multiple IndyCar iRacing events. A second test was arraigned for Johnson at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Chip Ganassi Racing set for a few days after the Grand Prix of Indianapolis/Brickyard 400 weekend in early July. Johnson failed a covid-19 test, was not able to run the Brickyard 400 and that test was further delayed.
Johnson's day finally came in an IndyCar on July 28, driving for Ganassi on the IMS road course. After the test, the seven-time Cup champion said, "It only lit the fire more. I want to do this more than ever before" to the Associated Press.
After the test, Johnson earned praise from Scott Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull. Hull said Johnson's lap times were in the ballpark and Hull believed if Johnson were to run the Harvest Grand Prix weekend at IMS in October that he would be "very, very respectable there."
In the last two months, Johnson has been more vocal about an IndyCar future. He was on Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s podcast and said the hope is to run all the road and street course races in 2021. With the introduction of the aeroscreen, Johnson has been more open to an Indianapolis 500 attempt, although it sounds like that would be more likely come 2022.
However, as Johnson flirts with how much IndyCar he wants to do, and sponsorship will determine how much he gets to participate, I have a little advice for Johnson ahead of whatever number of IndyCar races he runs in the near future... just run the full season.
I know Johnson has expressed worry running IndyCar oval races, and some of that is concern that comes from his family, but if he is going to attempt the Indianapolis 500 in 2022, along with all the road and street course races, why not add another four races to his schedule?
For starters, if you are going to attempt the Indianapolis 500, how are any of the other ovals any more dangerous than Indianapolis? We have seen in recent years James Hinchcliffe nearly bleed to death and Sébastien Bourdais break his pelvis from accidents at Indianapolis. We have also seen Scott Dixon fly from the exit of turn one to the middle of turn two after launching off of Jay Howard. This year, we saw Oliver Askew and Spencer Pigot both notably get the wind knocked out of them from accidents. Both walked away, but both were physically shaken.
If you can run at Indianapolis, you can run anywhere.
Texas is still hairy, and we are only four years removed from Josef Newgarden's accident with Conor Daly that left Newgarden with a fractured wrist and collarbone. Those injuries did not keep Newgarden sidelined, but Newgarden accident aside, we have not seen an excess of serious injuries from Texas accidents since Kenny Bräck got into the catchfence in 2003. There have been big accidents and hard accidents at Texas, but fortunately, a great majority of the time the drivers have walked away with no serious damage.
The rest of the IndyCar ovals are tame in comparison to Indianapolis and Texas. Outside of Bruno Junqueira getting a concussion at Iowa in 2008, I cannot recall one serious injury at Iowa Speedway. It has been over a decade since IndyCar raced at Richmond, and there were a number of accidents at Richmond, but the only one I can recall that was scary was Laurent Redon in 2002. Redon was fine and there are no other Richmond accidents that come to mind that kept a driver out of a car for an extended period of time. The same is true for Gateway, where the only major accident I can recall was Scott Pruett in the first Gateway race in 1997, when there were no SAFER barriers and the cars were miles behind today's car in terms of safety innovations.
I get Johnson's hesitation to running ovals, but if he is up for running Indianapolis, the other ovals on the IndyCar schedule should not be of greater concern. If anything, Johnson should feel more confident and comfortable heading to Iowa than Indianapolis.
If Johnson wants to sample the road and street courses in 2021, I am fine with that, but if he is going to add only Indianapolis to that itinerary for 2022, he is short-changing himself, IndyCar and every motorsports fan in the world.
A full-time IndyCar commitment would still be far less than a full-time NASCAR season. We are talking about 16 race weekends, plus add in a week and change for Indianapolis 500 practice and qualifying, at least one preseason test and likely one or two midseason tests and he is busy for at most 20 weekends, still far less than the current NASCAR season. He would get two or three weeks off between some races. He would run back-to-back weekends at Toronto and Iowa and then get two weeks off. He wouldn't have to be in a car until late-February and he would be done by the end of summer. He would get all of autumn and winter with his family.
NASCAR has afforded Johnson the luxury of getting to run pretty much every major oval track in the United States, but he has never raced at Iowa. He has not been to Gateway since 2001 in the then-NASCAR Busch Series. He has seven Texas victories and three Richmond victories in Cup. Wouldn't he want to experience those tracks in a different car? Wouldn't he want to see if his NASCAR experience carries over and make him a stronger driver than the rest of the IndyCar field? Even against IndyCar's most experienced drivers, Johnson's mileage at Texas and Richmond is far greater and you have to wonder if he could step in and immediately be a contender for victory.
I am not saying come 2022 Johnson has to be a full-time IndyCar for the next five years of his life. I think he should try it for a year. I think he should have one go at all the tracks and get the full taste of what IndyCar has to offer. One year, that is all, no more. Basically, be Rubens Barrichello for the 2020s.
IndyCar should push Johnson to try a full season. I know many were encouraged after his IMS test, but we are still not entirely sure where Johnson stacks up against the current IndyCar grid on road and street courses. It didn't sound like he was eight seconds off the top time, but even if he is 2.5 seconds off the top, he is in Dalton Kellett-territory. That is good, but still far from being a top ten contender let alone contending for race victories. The Jimmie Johnson buzz will quickly vanish if he is running 24th.
However, ovals are where Johnson is more likely to succeed, and that would be better for IndyCar. It is one thing if Johnson is 24th and a second away from being a second away, but if he is tenth or 11th and at least in the ballpark where a few things could go his way to lead to a podium shot or possibly a victory, that will keep people's attention. The Jimmie Johnson experiment in IndyCar is not going to last long. He is not going to be around for a decade. IndyCar has to capitalize on his time as short as it will be. The one way to do that is have him compete where he will be remotely competitive.
Johnson wants to continue competing, just not the 38-week marathon NASCAR season. I don't know how much IndyCar racing he needs to get his fill. Is one-year enough? Is this something he wants to do two or three years to see how he improves? Maybe he wants to do this until he is 50, which I doubt, but maybe he does and sees it as a great way to end his 40s. Where does IndyCar fit in with his sports car interest? Does he want to do 12 IndyCar weekends and ten sports car weekends? We know Johnson wants to continue competing, but we do not know how much time and dedication he wants to give while balancing retirement and being with his family.
I don't know what Johnson's long-term motorsports plans are, but short-term we know he wants to try IndyCar and, in the final days of summer 2020, that is something we can pencil in for next year and feel confident it will happen. Once again, I am not advocating for Johnson to run IndyCar full-time until he is 50. All I am saying is one full season would be enough.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Pierre Gasly but did you know...
Mick Schumacher and Callum Ilott split the Formula Two races from Monza. Dan Ticktum won the second race on the road before being disqualified for having insufficient fuel for a sample. Frederik Vesti and Jake Hughes split the Formula Three races.
Sting Ray Robb swept the three Indy Pro 2000 races from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Eduardo Barrichello won the first two U.S. F2000 races and Reece Gold won the third. With Barrichello's victories, he and his father Rubens became the first pair of father and son to have each won on the IMS road course. Rubens Barrichello won the 2002 United States Grand Prix.
Kevin Harvick won the Southern 500, his eighth victory of the season. Brandon Jones won the Grand National Series race, his third victory of the season. Ben Rhodes won the Truck race, his first victory since 2018.
The #7 Acura Team Penske Acura of Hélio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor won the 6 Hours of Atlanta, its second consecutive victory. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Patrick Kelly, Scott Huffaker and Simon Trummer won in the LMP2 class. The #25 BMW Team RLL BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Bruno Spengler won in the GTLM class. The #86 Acura of Matt McMurry, Mario Farnbacher and Shinya Michimi won in the GTD class.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Scott Redding and Jonathan Rea split the World Superbike races from Aragón. It was Rinaldi's first Superbike victory. Andrea Locatelli swept the World Supersport races and he has won nine of nine races in 2020.
Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from Assen. It was van der Linde's first DTM victory.
Scott McLaughlin won the first Supercars race from Townsville while Shane van Gisbergen won the final two races.
The #54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche of Sven Müller, Christian Engelhart and Matteo Cairoli won the 6 Hours of Nürburgring for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
Ott Tänak won Rally Estonia, his first victory of 2020.
Coming Up This Weekend
An IndyCar doubleheader from Mid-Ohio.
Formula One visits Mugello for the first time.
MotoGP will be about two and a half hours away from Formula One in Misano.
DTM visits the Nürburgring, in what will be a busy September for the famous track.
NASCAR visits Richmond for the first and only time in 2020.
Super GT makes its first trip to Motegi.
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup debuts at Magny-Cours.
World Touring Car Cup opens its 2020 season at Zolder.
