1. Rinus VeeKay came out of nowhere to take his maiden victory, making it three first-time winners through the first five races of the season. To be fair, it wasn't really out of nowhere. VeeKay has been in the top ten for most of the season. He really hasn't put a wheel wrong. He qualified seventh for this race, but I didn't get the sense he was going to leap from seventh to the top of the field. I thought he could compete for a top ten spot, maybe a top five, but victory? I didn't see it.
VeeKay showed great speed over each stint and the tires worked better for him in each stint. He clawed into the battle and tire strategy got him on top. From there he pulled away from the rest of the field. Last year, I felt VeeKay was finally the driver to get Ed Carpenter Racing out of its post-Josef Newgarden funk. He carried over his strong finish to his rookie year into 2021 and now he has a race victory.
I am not sure exactly where VeeKay falls among the young drivers. He hasn't been as explosive as Colton Herta and he doesn't have the pizzazz of Patricio O'Ward, but he has been quick in every series and his entire career has been in the United States. He went through each Road to Indy series. He is as close to an American as you can ask for. He is a good guy. He comes off as down to Earth. I don't think he has done anything malicious on the racetrack. I don't recall him making any enemies. Between VeeKay, Herta and O'Ward, three drivers all 22 years old or younger, IndyCar could have a trio that last two decades. They could hang around to 2041. Nothing is guaranteed, but the next generation is here.
2. The weekend started with the glorious story of Romain Grosjean's pole position and for the first half of the race it felt like the fairy was going to come true, but Grosjean lost the advantage in the middle of the race as he switched to the primary tires. On top of it, Grosjean struggled with traffic. It was a good day, but he fell out of contention in the later stages and second will have to do.
I am not surprised with Grosjean's speed. He did spend a decade in Formula One. He was on the podium with Lotus. He was sixth and fifth in his first two starts with Haas. Grosjean had too much success in Europe's junior series to think he would be completely out of his element in IndyCar. It was going to be different and there would be a learning curve, but he wasn't going to be lost. He wasn't going to be one of the slowest. Every weekend he has been respectable. Everything clicked this weekend and he nearly pulled off an incredible victory. The rest of his season should be interesting.
3. It looked like Álex Palou was going to be the one who could have spoiled Romain Grosjean's party, but Palou was caught behind his own teammate Jimmie Johnson when he exited pit lane. This left him a sitting duck to VeeKay down the Hulman straightaway into turn seven. Palou never recovered from that. VeeKay may have always gotten ahead of the Spaniard, but it looked like Palou was going to be fighting for his second victory today. Instead, he was third. A good result, but it could have been better.
4. Josef Newgarden ran fourth today. I am not sure how many laps he spent in fourth, but if you said he spent 75 of 85 laps in fourth I would believe you. We haven't seen a race on the IMS road course where a Team Penske was not a factor until today. Newgarden was fine in fourth, but he never was a threat. It is still a strong day for the championship, and we shouldn't be concerned. Team Penske had three cars in the top ten. Today was just different.
5. Graham Rahal had the drive of the day to fifth. He went off course after contact with Conor Daly in the opening corner accident. It broke Rahal's sided, he had to make a pit stop, then the crew made a second pit stop, the race went back to green and Rahal was caught out. The team gave Rahal a fuel number to run so he could make it on only three stops. He was furious, but slow and steady got him fifth! It is frustrating because he couldn't do more. Fifth was as good as it was going to get, but with how good his car was he probably wish he could have fought for more.
6. Simon Pagenaud ended up sixth, which is a typical Simon Pagenaud day. Do nothing wrong and finish sixth.
7. Alexander Rossi got up to seventh after starting 14th. Rossi appeared to have an engine going sour late in the race, but he held on for the top ten result. He is also the top Andretti finisher, which is not a good thing because he was only seventh and Andretti Autosport needs to be putting cars on the podium and in the top five.
8. Scott McLaughlin kept his nose clean and finished eighth. It is another solid result for him. Through five races, he hasn't done anything wrong this season and hasn't really looked out of his element.
9. Scott Dixon made a pit stop under the caution after the opening lap incident and went off strategy for the entire race. It got him a ninth-place result. Dixon won this race last year in July, but outside of Palou, the entire Ganassi team has been off on the track. The team did not do well during the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader and the team was not spectacular today. Despite this, Dixon maintains the championship lead and Palou is second.
10. And Marcus Ericsson makes it three Ganassi cars in the top ten as he finished tenth. Ericsson made some aggressive moves to get into the top ten. Ericsson has yet to have a stellar race with Ganassi. He has yet to put his mark on a race and mix it up for the lead or a podium, but he is a consistent driver who has regularly finished in the top ten. He needs to find a little more though if he hopes to stay with Ganassi for a long time.
11. Will Power's weekend was kind of written when he brought out the red flag in the second round of qualifying and could not start better than 12th. Power never really appeared to be a threat. I think if he doesn't get knocked out of round two, he makes the Fast Six and this is a different race. It is a missed opportunity, but it could have been worse.
12. Twelfth does not tell the full story for Ryan Hunter-Reay. He ran well considering he started 19th. I thought he might have been able to pull out a top ten finish with his alternate strategy. He was just shy of it. It is not great on paper, and it has been a tough year for Hunter-Reay, but it was a solid drive.
13. Colton Herta should have been in the top ten, but Marcus Ericsson nudged Herta off course. I am kind of surprised Ericsson didn't get a penalty for that. Herta was kind of stuck in eighth all race. It wasn't a great day for him.
14. Let's wrap up the field. Ed Jones didn't do much with his good starting position. None of the Arrow McLaren SP cars were competitive. Patricio O'Ward was 15th, Felix Rosenqvist was invisible in 17th and Juan Pablo Montoya was not a factor in 21st. Takuma Sato was in the way for about nine drivers today and he was 16th. A.J. Foyt Racing was also lost with Sébastien Bourdais in 19th, Dalton Kellett in 20th and Charlie Kimball in 22nd.
15. Jack Harvey had a podium run going and then had the pit stop from hell. They didn't get one of the wheel nuts secured, lost a host of spots and then had a right rear tire puncture on his out lap. Instead of sipping podium, he is 23rd just ahead of Jimmie Johnson. Oof.
16. This was the worst possible winner for Conor Daly. Daly was knocked off course when Simon Pagenaud bumped him, and Daly stalled in the grass. It broke something in the gearbox, Daly had to get repairs and he finished 35 laps down. Daly has been poor with Ed Carpenter Racing. He still hasn't finished in the top ten with the team. I believe VeeKay has finished ahead of Daly in every one of their head-to-head starts as teammates. Even worse, Daly started sixth, a spot ahead of VeeKay. Daly needs to get some results with ECR. VeeKay is showing the team has speed. If Daly cannot match it, ECR will get a new road/street course driver will be in order for the #20 Chevrolet.
17. And now the Indianapolis 500 is ahead of us. Practice begins Tuesday and we have five different winners to open the season and seven different winners in the last seven races dating back to last season. Can the Indianapolis 500 be any crazier? Qualifying comes first and we know how bumping shakes up the show.
