1. Sometimes everything falls your way and Álex Palou was the man who capitalized on another unfortunate finish for Josef Newgarden.
Newgarden's gearbox seized up at the restart with two laps to go and this allowed Palou to take the lead into turn one. Palou had been in Newgarden's footsteps all race. He just couldn't get ahead of Newgarden. Newgarden had been flawless all race and with 32 laps led, it should have been his. Newgarden expressed concern about a sticking third gear on his first stint, but the problem subsided as the laps went on. It could not have reared its head at the worst possible time.
Palou deserved a good day, and he was set for a podium result. A victory was a gift, but one he would take. Even without a victory, today is when Palou firmly asserted himself as the championship favorite. His bad days are few and his good days are stellar. Patricio O'Ward appeared to have taken the clubhouse leader position when he became the first repeat winner of the season last week, but Palou responded and got his second victory. Not only was it Palou's second victory, the Spaniard also has five podium finishes and seven top ten finishes from nine races. He has led seven of nine races and he has been no worse than third in the championship.
This victory puts Palou back on top in the championship, and I don't think he is going to fade. If he is not champion, it is because someone beat him.
2. Colton Herta has fallen back into the same rut of only being good that he was in early last year. Herta had a bunch of top five and top ten finishes last year, but didn't have enough to be a race winner. He already has a victory this year but he had not been on the podium since that victory. He entered this weekend with only two top ten finishes in the last six races, both happened to be top five results, but it is still not good enough.
Herta lost a few spots early on the alternate but climbed up to third in the late stages. He just didn't have the pace for Newgarden and Palou. It is a good day, but there is still speed that needs to be found.
3. Will Power gets to be the top Penske finisher today after Newgarden's disaster. Power was in the top five all race, but, like Herta, had nothing for the top two. Also like Herta, Power needs to string some good races together. This is a good result to build from.
4. Scott Dixon stopped with 16 laps to go for his final pit stop and it leapfrogged him up the order. After looking like he might sneak into the top ten, Dixon launched himself into the top five and got a fourth-place result. He went 15 laps on his first stint, longer than anyone and he ended on 16 laps, longer than anyone.
Unfortunately, Dixon's teammate won another race. Taking a tenth and turning a fourth is a great day 99 times out of 100 for Dixon, but he continues to lose ground and he will need to win a handful of races in the second half of the season.
5. Romain Grosjean was strong all race and he was fifth. Grosjean has looked strong in every race. He is in the top ten in almost every session. He didn't have a great middle stint, but he made up for it in the closing laps. He will be a factor in every race for the rest of the season.
6. I am not sure how Marcus Ericsson finished sixth in this race. Ericsson started 18th, was mostly outside the top ten, spun on his own, caused a caution and then made his final pit stop on lap 41 and ended up sixth. I don't know how he did it, but good for him.
7. This is another puzzling day for Alexander Rossi. He started well but didn't have a great end to his first stint. He jumped on the alternate tire and the Ericsson caution worked in his favor as he could get off that tire early and avoid dropping off the cliff. Back on the primary tire, he looked great and gained a few spots and was fourth when the caution came out when Kevin Magnussen's car ground to a halt.
After the final pit stop, Rossi lost ground. Power, Dixon and Grosjean cycled ahead of him, and Ericsson passed him on track. He should have picked up his first top five of the season, instead he is seventh again!
8. Takuma Sato went off-strategy and was always going to make his final stop with about eight laps to go. Sato was set to cycle back to 15th and that final caution for Ed Jones' suspension failure put him in prime position to get spots on fresh tires. He worked up to eighth, a better day than he was set to get.
9. Patricio O'Ward ended up ninth. That is where O'Ward was stuck all race and the championship lead is now gone.
10. Max Chilton gets his first top ten since Watkins Glen 2017, 44 starts ago. Chilton was on the same strategy as Sato, and Chilton led seven laps, his first laps led since Portland 2018. They went off-strategy under the Magnussen caution and then went hard. That paid off and they could sprint to the line. Chilton wasn't going to finish in the top fifteen if it wasn't for this strategy. It paid off and he finally had a good day.
11. Graham Rahal lost out with that last caution and Sato and Chilton were able to get ahead of him with fresher tires. Even before that, Rahal did not finish well. He lost out spots on the pit cycle and dropped from the edge of the top ten to outside the top five.
12. Oliver Askew was on the Magnussen-caution pit strategy and he was on pit lane when Jones spun and brought out another caution. This went from Askew being outside the top fifteen to running up to 12th.
It was a good weekend for Askew, and it should put Conor Daly on the hot seat. Askew was quicker than Daly all weekend. Rinus VeeKay has already been head and shoulders ahead of Daly for two seasons. Daly also stopped under the same caution as Askew but decided to try and stretch the fuel to the finish. Daly did stretch it, but he finished 20th. Daly was behind Cody Ware.
Askew has about five days in an IndyCar this year. Daly has been in the car all season and Askew was better.
13. Ryan Hunter-Reay was off in the second half of the race. At one point, Andretti Autosport had three of the top six runners and Hunter-Reay looked like a top five contender. He just got worse as the race went along and on his final stop he lost more spots in the pit cycle. Then Sato, Chilton and Askew, three drivers Hunter-Reay was miles ahead of all race were ahead of him.
Hunter-Reay was one of the fastest cars all weekend and this result does not represent that.
14. Let's blow through some other drivers, Scott McLaughlin had another anonymous weekend in 14th. That honeymoon is over. James Hinchcliffe didn't get mentioned once and was 15th. What is going on at Andretti Autosport. Both A.J. Foyt Racing cars suffered mechanical issues. Dalton Kellett had to retired after 19 laps. Sébastien Bourdais lost a lap for repairs, but the cautions cycled him back to the lead lap. All Bourdais could pull out was 16th.
15. Bourdais also stopped under the Magnussen caution with 19 laps to go. He also tried to conserve fuel, but ultimately took a splash. Jack Harvey was the best car in the running order of those that stopped and that was a mistake. Harvey was in the top ten, looking at a top five result. He rolled the dice and then bailed out. You are not going to save four laps of fuel at Road America. His best bet was driving all out and taking the splash with four or five laps to go. This was a dumb move because Harvey could have used a top ten result and the team took one that was basically guaranteed away from him.
16. Simon Pagenaud bailed out on the lap 36 strategy by stopping at lap 41 with the rest of the leaders. It left him in 18th. Oof.
17. Cody Ware didn't do anything wrong and finished 19th. His lap times were not stellar, but he completed all 55 laps and gets to say he finished ahead of Josef Newgarden, Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Magnussen.
18. We haven't even gotten to Josef Newgarden. This was killer. This is the second consecutive race he dominated and lost late. The strategy was off at Belle Isle, but this was the car letting him down. If that final caution doesn't come out for Jones, does he win? Does the gearbox hold up? Was it the restart that killed it?
Through nine races, Team Penske does not have a victory and the team arguably should have won the last three with two of them belonging to Newgarden.
19. Jimmie Johnson spun again and was in the way on a restart. I want to see Jimmie Johnson in an Indy Lights car. How would he do? Would he get a better handle? I am curious where he stands in terms of open-wheel car comfort. If he isn't competitive in an Indy Lights car, then let's go down to Indy Pro 2000 and there is always U.S. F2000 after that.
20. Ed Jones had his left rear suspension break, and he could have been in the top ten. He was solidly in the middle of the field all race.
21. Kevin Magnussen did not follow the leaders when pit stops came at lap 24 under the Ericsson caution and he led six laps. Magnussen was set to a normal three-stop strategy and his hope is everyone that stopped under the Ericsson caution would be forced to make a fourth stop. Of course, his car failed on him, and we will never know how that strategy would have played out.
It was cool to see Magnussen take this chance. He decided to run an IndyCar with zero days of testing and he showed that he was not on pace with the leaders, but he made up notable ground over the weekend. Ten years ago, the guy who just won the most recent Grand-Am or American Le Mans Series race wasn't going to take on an IndyCar substitute role the following weekend.
IndyCar is getting cool substitute drivers again! It's not quite Alan Jones in for Mario Andretti, coincidentally at Road America, but this is what we want to see. We want top-notch drivers saying yes when offered an IndyCar ride. I don't know if we will get to see Magnussen again. He has the Ganassi sports car ride, and he will be a part of the Peugeot hypercar program next year. This could be the one time we get to see Magnussen run an IndyCar. I am glad to have seen it. I hope comes back someday. I bet he hopes he returns as well.
22. We get a week off and then it will be Independence Day weekend at Mid-Ohio. The summer is only getting started and this season is far from over.
