Lundgaard had Kyle Kirkwood and Felix Rosenqvist ahead of him as Kirkwood and Rosenqvist made their second stops early. Lundgaard lost time. Kirkwood and Rosenqvist were on fresh tires. Though Lundgaard may have been quicker, he wasn't going to lap those two cars. Trapped behind them, all of a sudden, Will Power and Palou closed in.
Power made the second stop first and Lundgaard responded coming in the next lap, but Palou did not get the disruption of the back-markers and the clean in and out laps allowed Palou to go from behind Lundgaard and Power to ahead of both on lap 41.
What backfired on Lundgaard was the Dane was on primary tires for that stint. Palou was on used alternate tires, but it had shaken out for both drivers to end on a new set of alternate tires. It was game over there. Palou could stretch a lead in the third stint and then they would be on the same tire compound for the final stint. All Palou had to do was keep it on the road, and he is a driver that practical never makes a mistake.
It is hard not to call this a comfortable victory, but for the first half of the race, it wasn't Palou's. We have seen this plenty of times. He doesn't panic. His team doesn't panic. They methodically find a way to win and the pieces fell in place today. This was always going to be a great day for Palou. Even if Lundgaard doesn't hit the back-markers, at worst Palou is third.
This is the dangerous thing for the rest of the field. Palou is due for a bad day, but are they going to pile up? Probably not, and he is bound to repeat this performance three more times before he has a finish outside the top twenty. He is already the championship leader and we haven't even got to the Indianapolis 500, a race Palou has done exceptionally well in and a race he is highly motivated to win.
2. Will Power must be frustrated because he drove smart all day and couldn't get to first. Power thought he made the right play stopping before Lundgaard for the second stop, but Power caught Marcus Ericsson exiting the pit lane and that was the difference. Behind Ericsson, Lundgaard got out ahead of Power, and there was nothing Power could do about Palou from that spot.
I don't know if it would have made a difference with Palou, but about a second and a half could have been the difference between Palou taking over control of this race and Power taking control around the halfway point.
It has still be a stout start to the season for Power, not too different from 2022, his second championship season.
3. Christian Lundgaard lost this race in the second stint, but what I do not get is with how large the pit windows are in this race, and with everyone committing to a three-stop strategy after the first stop, why didn't Lundgaard's team bring him in as soon as Rosenqvist emerged on his front wing?
Lundgaard was never going to overtake a driver on 15-lap fresher tires, but Lundgaard was in the window to make it on two stops at that point. Instead, Lundgaard rode the rear wing of Rosenqvist for about four laps. If Lundgaard comes in on lap 38, a lap before Power actually stopped, Lundgaard might have been able to get into clean air and keep Palou behind.
I understand not letting the tail wag the dog and not letting back-markers decide your strategy, but clean air should have decided the strategy, and once in range to make it on two stops, take the clean air.
Lundgaard drove well today, but this feels like the crew beat itself trying to show might instead of showing brains.
4. I was surprised when Lundgaard hit traffic that Scott Dixon did not immediately come in for his second pit stop. Dixon was about six seconds back. Dixon could come in three laps earlier than everyone and make up time while also saving fuel. Dixon still finished fourth. I was surprised that team wasn't a little more aggressive when it saw Lundgaard being backed up.
5. Marcus Armstrong drove great today. He was in the top five for majority of this race. Prior to Luca Ghiotto's caution, it felt like Armstrong had spent about 35 laps running about ten seconds behind Dixon and yet six seconds ahead of the car behind him. Great run. First career top five finish for Armstrong. Chip Ganassi Racing has a good crop of drivers. Shocking how that works out.
6. Scott McLaughlin went from poised to finish about 14th to finishing sixth because he was on pit lane when Ghiotto spun and stalled in turn 11. Sixth was much more favorable than McLaughlin actually ran today. He may have been able to drive into the top ten, but after winning at Barber and going from 29th in points to ninth, ending up sixth today when he likely wasn't going to finish in the top ten is a second gifts in as many races. McLaughlin enters the Indianapolis 500 sixth in points.
7. Colton Herta was racy today and if his team had the car filled with enough fuel for a proper qualifying run, he likely doesn't finish seventh running an aggressive three-stop strategy because he started 24th. Also, he probably finishes a little better if Marcus Ericsson doesn't knocked him off the road at the start. Herta already had an arm tied behind his back, being punted through the gravel and onto Hulman Boulevard didn't help, and yet, he still flew up to seventh.
Without the caution, McLaughlin is definitely behind Herta, but there is a slim chance Herta could have chased down Armstrong and made the top five. About halfway through this race, sixth or seventh was about as good as it was going to get for Herta. Not a great day but it is a recovery and an important day when taking into consideration the championship. Herta doesn't retain the championship lead after this result, but he is 25 points back, tied for third. Herta is still in the fight.
8. Alexander Rossi spent the entire race in the top ten, and this still feels like a disappointing day. Is this the best Rossi and Arrow McLaren can do? They were nowhere close to contention in this race. Eighth is good, but if this is the tip of the iceberg, that isn't great. Rossi ran the best of the McLaren drivers today, but for a team that had all three cars in the top five of this race last year, and took two of the top five in last summer's IMS road course race, McLaren wasn't a threat for the top five today.
9. Graham Rahal got his first top ten finish of the year in ninth. Rahal likely wishes he was closer to his teammate Lundgaard on the podium, but Rahal did well and was competitive in the top ten. Rahal got shuffled behind Herta and Rossi. Rahal lost time on the primary tire during the third stint of the race. Rahal needed a top ten finish. He got it today. Hopefully the team can build off this.
10. I am pretty sure Felix Rosenqvist was 27th at the end of lap one after being sandwiched in turn one, but this team stopped on lap ten, got off the primary tire and started clawing positions back to end up where they started at the checkered flag. Finishing tenth after starting tenth doesn't draw much attention, but this result should.
Meyer Shank Racing couldn't have done this last year. Rosenqvist might not have been able to do this last year. Both these parties came together at the right time. And Rosenqvist is still in the top five of the championship. Only positives should be drawn from this result.
11. I am going to run through the rest of the field in team pairs. Andretti Autosport looked in trouble on about lap eight when Kyle Kirkwood was its top driver and Kirkwood was 17th. The team reset for the most part and Kirkwood made up ground, not at the same rate as Herta, but Kirkwood was knocking on the door for the top ten. This was a rougher weekend than Andretti Global expected. It salvaged something...
For the most part because Marcus Ericsson was 16th, and he wasn't close to competitive today. The Herta contact was bad on Ericsson's part. That was a questionable move into turn four. Either way, Ericsson was not moving forward. That is a little bit of a concern.
12. Romain Grosjean quietly finished 12th. Juncos Hollinger Racing showed good pace in practice, had no pace in qualifying, and was somewhat good in the race. Not a bad day for Grosjean.
Remember when Agustín Canapino was second in opening practice? Well, Canapino ended up qualifying 15th and finished 21st. Can't always take practice as gospel. Let's comeback to Canapino after Road America to get a sense of how his sophomore season is going.
13. When a day is going poorly for Patricio O'Ward, his attitude is abysmal. The Ghiotto caution put O'Ward in a bad spot because the team was finishing on the primary tire. That isn't a great strategy choice to begin with, but if the race had remained green, it wouldn't have been as bad as being mauled at the restart. O'Ward ended up falling out of the top ten. He was distraught on the radio with the team, but the emotion getting the better of O'Ward when the going gets tough happens too often. It is something he must work on.
Théo Pourchaire is learning. Pourchaire was shuffled back at the start. He came in blind to this seat. He is behind the field in terms of seat time (except for Ghiotto). Results will be better than 19th, but at the moment Pourchaire is going through the growing pains. He knows he has a dozen more races this season. Things will improve
14. The only Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver outside the top ten was Pietro Fittipaldi in 14th, but after a pair of weekends where Fittipaldi was a magnet to issues, he will be happy with today. Fittipaldi was in the top ten for a portion of this race. RLLR still cannot get all three cars in the top ten, but over the last two seasons this has been its best day top to bottom.
15. Kyffin Simpson drove smart again and finished 15th. Simpson didn't drive like a dope. He didn't throw the car off the road. Pretty much everyone behind did something stupid today. That earned him a ten-spot improvement from his starting position. Good for him.
We never saw what happened to Linus Lundqvist, but he was running a position ahead of Herta for the middle section of the race as those two were on the same strategy, and then all of a sudden Lundqvist wasn't there and he was a lap down. I don't know if it was just a long stop or a bigger problem. We will find out soon enough, but this could have been a top ten for Lundqvist. Instead, he was 24th.
16. Josef Newgarden had the primary tire stint from hell because he was in position for a top five until his second stint of the race and he fell from middle of the top ten to 14th in no time. Newgarden was running laps in the 74-second range while everyone else was in the 72-second range. I don't know if there was a bigger problem, but this was a costly day for Newgarden to finish 17th, his sixth result outside the top fifteen in the last eight races. Oh boy!
17. I don't know what we should expect from Dale Coyne Racing, but Jack Harvey finishing 18th and Luca Ghiotto ending up 25th after a spin and stall is likely as good as we can hope for. Harvey started 17th. How much further up should we expect him to finish? Ghiotto was a last-minute call-up for Barber and I cannot imagine he had simulator time ahead of this race. This is as good as we can hope for for DCR at the moment.
If anything, I wish we saw the strategically aggressive Dale Coyne Racing that earned it good results in the latter years of Champ Car and with Conor Daly in 2016. Why did Harvey go 16 laps to open the race on the primary tires? Why did Ghiotto go 22 laps to open the race on the primary tire? This team isn't beating anyone with pace. Stop on lap ten! Get those tires out of the way! That is the team's best option at the moment and it is unfathomable why it isn't the most aggressive team on strategy every race. Come on, Dale! Get it together!
18. Brutal day for Ed Carpenter Racing. Christian Rasmussen was run off the road when Newgarden and Harvey was battling. Rasmussen ended up 20th. Rinus VeeKay had a few rough moments, a slow pit stop, and a drive-through penalty to end up a lap down in 26th. I am sure this group is glad to turn its attention to the oval.
19. I am going to cover Tom Blomqvist in 23rd right here because he just had a bad day but a day that shouldn't surprise us considering he is still adapting to IndyCar after moving from sports cars. This was his worst day of the season. Blomqvist has looked good, but he still has work to day.
20. Which brings us to the king of stupid for the day because if Santino Ferrucci is going to run his mouth before a race the one thing he better not do is not finish dead last after looking like a dope for running another driver off course. Oh! That's what he did!
Ferrucci might say he isn't taking any garbage from Romain Grosjean, but when you run him off course, lose two positions in the process of running Grosjean off course, and damage your own car in this incident and completely fall out of any competitive position, that is Grade A stupidity.
This has been a much better start to the season than anyone expected for A.J. Foyt Racing. It isn't going to finish in the top ten in every race, but Ferrucci had the car in a spot to at least finish in the top half of the field. Instead, he couldn't see the forest from the trees, focused on a getting one over on Grosjean after a run-in during the morning warm-up, and that led to Sting Ray Robb being the dimmest of bright spots anyone could ever ask for with a 22nd-place finish.
But that is what you get when your best driver is more interested in being a bullhorn. I hope you enjoyed the attention for the noise, but now here comes the attention for where you finished.
21. I will write this every year but I was wrong about the Grand Prix of Indianapolis a decade. I was wrong. This was another great crowd. This race has grown pretty much every year since 2014. This is an outstanding why to open the month of May and the festivities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You aren't getting close to 10% this many people for a practice day.
A proper race with a healthy undercard in support races is what brings the people out. The hillsides were filled. There were more people spread out in the turn four oval grandstand than we have ever seen for this race. The weather was gorgeous. This is one of those cases where you can take tradition and shove it because tradition wasn't bringing out this many people for a significantly higher average ticket price.
Oh! And the IMS road course has turned out to be a pretty damn racy track! Got that one wrong as well.
22. We get two days off and then Indianapolis 500 practice begins. The days are disappearing rapidly. Our annual date with history will be here soon enough.
