Newgarden was a sitting duck on the alternate tires while O'Ward made daring pass after daring pass to get to second. O'Ward was in the groove in the closing laps and he made Newgarden pay. And O'Ward started 16th! He had made up ground throughout the race and when presented the chance for victory, he took it.
It has been a great season for O'Ward. Through eight races, he has two victories and he is the first repeat winner of the season. O'Ward also has four podium finishes and six top five finishes from eight races. There hasn't been a driver that has broken away from the field. O'Ward is positioned to do it. If he keeps up this consistency, the championship will be his.
O'Ward exits Belle Isle as the championship leader by one point over Álex Palou. There are still at least eight races to go, maybe nine races remain, but the youth takeover is in full force.
2. Josef Newgarden led 67 of 70 laps and he lost the lead with three laps to go. Newgarden had always committed to the two-stop strategy, starting the race on the primary tire, but when Dalton Kellett stopped at the end of pit lane, it appeared a caution could have come. Kellett was out of the way, but Newgarden made his stop proactively. He was in the window, but the team put on primary tires for that second stint. Unfortunately, the second stop came about five or six laps earlier than desired, meaning Newgarden would have to run about five or six more laps on the alternate tire.
It looked like Newgarden was going to lose out to Colton Herta, but Jimmie Johnson spun just ahead of the two and brought out the caution. Instead of Newgarden losing out to Herta and having to hold onto a ten-second gap over third with 15 laps to go, Newgarden had to hold on with about a dozen cars on better tires breathing down his neck.
If the Johnson caution never happens, I think Newgarden limps home to second. Instead, he had to hold on to second and it was a masterful, defensive drive. It sucks to lose this race, but Newgarden deserves recognition for his drive.
3. Álex Palou isn't going anywhere. Another race weekend and another podium finish. Yesterday, Palou struggled, and he bounced back, qualifying fourth today and spending the entire race in the top five. He got a third-place finish taking advantage of Colton Herta, who did not have the pace in the short sprint to the checkered flag. Palou had a 36-point championship lead over entering the weekend. He exits down one point, but it could have been worse, and Palou has positioned himself nicely for the second half of the season.
4. Colton Herta must be frustrated with this weekend, but especially with today. Without Johnson's spin, he likely would have overtaken Newgarden in the next lap or two and he would have won running away. Instead, Herta did not have the speed on the restart and in the short run. He dropped to fourth and it is hard to take any positives from this. When it mattered most, Herta did not have it. He could not pull out the victory. It is another Andretti Autosport disappointment.
5. Graham Rahal was in the top five all race and yet never looked like a threat. It was a good day. Rahal has five top five finishes from the last six races. That is good, but it has to be better if Rahal wants to get into the championship fight. It has been four years since his last victory. That streak needs to end soon.
6. Will Power committed to the two-stop strategy, but unlike Newgarden, Power did not stop when Kellett had pulled over. Power went the distance on that second stint, and he only had to run 19 laps on the alternate tire. It got Power a sixth-place finish after starting 20th. It is not quite enough to make up for yesterday, but it is something positive to take to Road America.
7. Scott Dixon had a little contact at the start, but it did not throw him off his game. Dixon was seventh, and that was as good as he appeared to be. He has not had a poor race really all season. Indianapolis was out of his control, but we are not used to Dixon going four races without a top five finish. He can turn it on at any moment, but with the production from O'Ward and Palou, Dixon has to turn it on soon.
8. Simon Pagenaud was eighth. Not much to say. Good day.
9. Marcus Ericsson was knocked into the wall entering turn seven when Rinus VeeKay drove into the Swede. It forced the team off-strategy and Ericsson still finished ninth. It looked like Ericsson was going to have a hangover after his first career victory. Ninth isn't fantastic, but it was better than this day was heading at one point.
10. Santino Ferrucci pulled out a top ten finish in a backup car after he totaled his car on the final lap of qualifying. Credit to the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing crew for getting this car ready and allowing Ferrucci to keep his 12th starting position. Ferrucci spent the entire race on the fringe of the top ten. This was a good weekend for him.
11. Quickly through the rest of the field, Ryan Hunter-Reay had to start 17th. Hunter-Reay made up some ground but did not make many waves and ended up 11th. Takuma Sato appeared to always be going backward and then he finished 12th.
12. Alexander Rossi had a damaged front wing after that opening lap contact with Romain Grosjean and Scott Dixon. The wing didn't really fall apart until halfway through the opening stint. Rossi had already committed to the two-stop strategy. I think the team should have called an audible and switched to three stops. Rossi was always going to lose time with the long stop for the wing change. The team should have allowed him to run all out. He got back to 13th, but he was better than 13th today. His difficult season continues and we approach two years since his most recent victory.
13. Hey! James Hinchcliffe got his best finish of the season! It is still only 14th. Hey! Conor Daly finally was the top Ed Carpenter Racing finisher in a race! It was still only a 15th-place finish. Belle Isle did not spark anything for Sébastien Bourdais and he was 16th. Ed Jones dropped like a rock in this one and was 17th. Rinus VeeKay pinched Ericsson and it cut VeeKay's tire, taking VeeKay out of contention for a good finish.
14. Jack Harvey was hit on an out lap. Romain Grosjean got into Harvey in turn six, Harvey went around and had a flat tire. Harvey continued, but he was never going to get a good finish. Grosjean was handed a penalty and then his brakes caught fire late.
15. Was Scott McLaughlin in this race? Yes, and McLaughlin was 20th. It was a tough weekend for him. Somehow, Jimmie Johnson was only one lap down. Johnson spins every week. You can put money on it. Max Chilton ran over the back of James Hinchcliffe in turn three on the opening lap when the field stacked up. Chilton's wing damage put him in the barrier and he lost two laps. Chilton never got those laps back and he was 22nd for the second consecutive race.
16. Dalton Kellett pulled over because the right rear wheel nut was not on. IndyCar made the right call not throwing a caution. Kellett stopped out of the way and was still behind the pit wall. Cars were able to exit pit lane safety. Kellett's team had to run down and wheel him to the side to fix the issue, but IndyCar made the right call letting the race stay green. It did alter Newgarden's strategy, but that was the team's choice. Power did not stop. If Newgarden stays out, perhaps he wins this race, even with the late cautions.
17. It should be noted Oliver Askew replaced Felix Rosenqvist in this race. Rosenqvist was released from hospital with no major injuries. Askew's day ended after 46 laps when the team retired the car after a possible engine failure.
18. I am surprised more teams didn't not use a three-stop strategy today. I think people saw what Will Power did yesterday and saw it could be beneficial to just go long on the alternate tires on the first stint. Only seven cars stopped under the Chilton caution on lap two, and I thought more may have stopped on lap nine or ten. I thought the teams could get five or six good laps on the alternates and once that compound was maximized, the teams could switch to the primary tires and go hard for the final three stints.
19. I have been saying it for years, Belle Isle is a fun track. I would have never said that ten years ago. But, in its current condition, we have a surface that chews up the alternate tire and encourages a three-stop strategy. We have a race distances where the windows are large for a three-stop strategy and a two-stop strategy. You could stop as early as lap 16 and make it on two stops. Or you could run until lap 27 and make your final stop as early as lap 43. Or you could go long on the first two stints and make your final stop with about 16 laps to go.
Belle Isle has turned into a fun race. The winners this weekend started 15th and 16th. The Saturday race had over 200 passes. The first 25 laps on Saturday had a race worth of action and that was before Rosenqvist's accident and the final 45 laps. I look forward to Belle Isle each year now. It is crazy to think how the track's perception has changed in less than a decade. I am not sure any other track has had such a turnaround.
20. This was a difficult weekend in terms of scheduling and people aren't happy.
Let's start with today. The French Open men's final pre-empted the IndyCar race and the first half of the IndyCar race was on CNBC.
It is not ideal, but IndyCar isn't NBC's only sports property. It had the French Open final and a tennis match could last anywhere from 90 minutes to five hours. Let's also remember Belle Isle was a week later than its normal spot in the schedule. IndyCar chose to move Belle Isle back a week and be French Open final weekend. This problem likely doesn't happen if Belle Isle stays the week after the Indianapolis 500.
Also, NBCSN was committed to the Premier Lacrosse League in the afternoon, there was a Stanley Cup playoff game scheduled to follow the race and there are Olympic trials on all afternoon on NBCSN and in primetime on NBC.
Don't forget that NBC stayed with the first Belle Isle race for 90 minutes longer than its scheduled broadcast window. The Saturday race was not bumped to CNBC or NBCSN. IndyCar got 90 more minutes on network television. The first lap of Saturday's race was missed as the Premier Lacrosse League game before it went to overtime. Once, the IndyCar race ended, NBC moved onto the Olympic diving trials and there were technical issues with post-race coverage on the Internet and streaming.
That wasn't on purpose. Technical problems happen and they are inconvenient. It was a long day for everyone, and the day had not gone as planned. There was no post-race coverage scheduled prior, but when the broadcast had to move to diving, all of a sudden, a streaming post-race show was needed. That is a lot easier said than done.
NBC has many sports properties to please. They all are going to be shown live. There is bound to be a few conflicts. IndyCar was given extra time yesterday and then had to start on CNBC today. It was not ideal, but the final half of the race was shown on NBC. The Newgarden-Herta battle and then the O'Ward-Newgarden battle made network television.
It is easy to get angry, but don't forget NBC is the television partner that has put at least eight races on network television, three more than its previous contract, and the Indianapolis 500 had pre-race coverage begin at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Indianapolis 500 is treated like a major event. It never got three hours of pre-race coverage prior to NBC.
IndyCar has gotten a lot out of this television partner and NBC stayed with a race for 90 minutes longer than its scheduled television window. I cannot stress enough how generous that is.
It is easy to be angry and feel disrespected, but everyone should step back and consider all the moving pieces. This was a tough weekend, and a lot of things did not goes as planned, but that should not cancel out the overwhelming number of good things that have come with this broadcast partner and we should not forget where IndyCar was before this deal.
21. Next week is Road America, as we are in the middle of the season. The races are disappearing fast as summer is ready to begin.
