Josef Newgarden was at a level at Gateway where he knew when to go and he knew he would have the speed to win the race. There is no reason to try and lead 175 laps. Newgarden has done it and won, but if the field is level or there are a few challengers, it is wise to wait until the final stint before showing your hand. That is what Gateway felt like. Newgarden knew he had a level that could beat Marcus Ericsson even if Ericsson had led majority of the race.
I don't know how many current drivers have that ability. They can fit on one hand, you might not need every finger, and it is what separates Newgarden from most. And everyone who thinks Newgarden is done just has to look at the scoreboard. He has two victories. His teammates have a combined zero. How many victories do we think David Malukas and Scott McLaughlin will win in the final nine races? If Newgarden is going to be Penske's most frequent race winner, he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
2. Newgarden said after the race he thought Christian Rasmussen was a lap down and Newgarden let Rasmussen through not realizing it was for the lead. Once told Rasmussen was on the lead lap, Newgarden picked up the pace and re-took the lead.
This isn't the first time this has happened. Newgarden arguably lost the 2018 Iowa race because he thought James Hinchcliffe was a lap down and that race swung in that moment and Newgarden never quite had the power to get back to the front and win a race it seemed he was on to dominate in historic fashion.
I don't buy how no one would have said to Newgarden over the radio on the late restart that he was the leader and that Rasmussen was second but with a car between them. Either he is lying or Team Penske's timing stands are not as thorough thinkers as they once were. I would bet if Tim Cindric was up there, he would have mentioned the restart order and noted who and where second place was in that lineup.
The team must being saying who is running where. How would Newgarden know how hard to push on the restart without knowing where the closest competitor was lined up and what was between him as the leader and the his closest challenger? It seems crazy the team would not have given Newgarden the running order prior to the restart.
3. Let's turn to the championship because Álex Palou's lead is down to 49 points after Palou's fueling issue in Gateway. Kyle Kirkwood is second.
Didn't we learn last year just because Palou has lost some ground doesn't mean it is a competition? Last year, everyone was saying it wasn't over after Patricio O'Ward won at Toronto and got within 99 points with four races to go only because Palou's team had an off day on strategy. How did Palou respond? He won the next race and he was third at Portland in the race after that to clinch the title. So much for it not being over!
Everyone needs to continually outscore Palou to make this a battle. He lost a chunk at Gateway, but he doesn't lose chunks that often, and what he loses is never greater than the chunks he gains on a more regular basis. Over the final nine races, a driver averaging six points more per race than Palou could be champion. So far, no one has consistently outscored Palou at that rate. Before getting exciting that a title fight is on, we must see a driver regularly take points off Palou. Otherwise, Gateway is just one race where Palou lost a chunk and then he will gain it all back and then some over the next five races.
Palou has won four of the first nine races. The only other driver with multiple victories is Josef Newgarden, a driver who the loudest believe is terrible and Team Penske should have already fired him. This was just one race where Palou ran out of fuel entering the pit lane. Another lap of fuel and he would have been finishing in the top five again. If anyone is going to beat Palou, they are going to have to at least match his output.
Is anyone going to win four of the final nine races? Well, probably Álex Palou, but can anyone else?
4. The first place it was mentioned that there were slight tweaks to the downforce levels and the tires for Gateway was on Off Track with Hinch and Rossi, and Alexander Rossi was rather optimistic about the changes. Many who were not driving in the Gateway race disagreed with Rossi's assessment.
I don't think this Gateway race was much different from last year's Gateway race, and I must admit it was probably better when no fan knew a thing about racing and just wanted to go to the racetrack to watch fast cars go around in circles.
There is an abundance of information out there and 600,000 experts. Over half of IndyCar viewers know everything, even more than the drivers!
It is good to have some working knowledge of why a race turned out the way it did and understanding downforce and grip and how the conditions can play a role. Motorsports, and IndyCar in particular, has transformed from being about who could produce the fastest car to who can produce the best race car because majority of the variables are controlled. They weren't talking about maximum wing angles and mandatory Gurney flaps and tire compounds 40 years ago. The regulations were different and how teams competed were different.
If a team ran a Gurney flap, it was hoping to be faster. If a team ran a certain tire manufacturer, which brought a specific tire compound to the racetrack, it was hoping to be faster. If it worked, great, but it could be a disappointing combination and a team would be forced to try again or stuck with what they got and finishing 14th or maybe creeping into the top ten if many cars failed during the race.
Everyone has the same parts now. The engines are different but not that different. The tires are carefully crafted under Firestone's watch. The goal is still to go faster than the next guy, but within the sandbox everyone is playing. That means there is a limit and even if you are the fastest, you are not going to be that much faster or considerably out of reach to the next closest competitor.
Scott Dixon nearly won at Gateway and probably had the ninth-best car in the race because he could go 55 laps on a stint.
There are obviously some technical changes that could hurt a race. I don't think that means every change. There are also outside factors that determine how a race plays out. This year's Indianapolis 500 would not have been the same had it been 30º F warmer. There is an effort to make a race at least compelling, but there are factors no one can control that can negate all the work that is done.
My point is don't get so upset, and if you are still upset with how Sunday night's race turned out, it had 475 passes and 268 of those were for position. From 2017 through 2021, the six Gateway races during that span never saw a race with 400 or more total passes and never saw a race with 175 or more passes for position. Since 2022, the average number of total passes at Gateway is 544 and the average number of passes for position is 236.2.
Sunday night's race saw the most passes for position in a Gateway race since it returned to the schedule, and dare I mention the three races with the most passes and passes for position at Gateway have all occurred since the introduction of the hybrid! Oh the humanity!
Some people are unable to experience happiness.
5. Sidebar, one day we need to talk about the passing numbers IndyCar reports on its event summaries. It isn't a matter of it they are bad or good or accurate, but what should we make of them and how much should we use those as a measuring stick over what we see with our own eyes.
6. In the lead up to Gateway, there were conversations about the start time for the race, which was after 9:20 p.m. ET. The race start was moved up as rain was in the area.
Some made it very public that they were going to watch and that it was a great thing IndyCar had a race on broadcast television in primetime, and they would watch no matter what hour the race would be held and they love IndyCar more than you.
Others said this race was not feasible within their schedule and could not watch the race and mentioned Sunday night is not the best time for a race to be held.
Multiple things can be true.
A night race can be good. A night race on broadcast television can be good.
A post-9:00 p.m. Eastern start on a Sunday is not ideal.
IndyCar does not exist in a vacuum. With the current broadcast partner in Fox, it worked to have this race as a primetime race. It worked last year to find a window to show the Gateway race in primetime six weeks before it was supposed to take place and after it was originally scheduled for an afternoon start. IndyCar isn't the only sporting entity out there. The United Football League, an entity Fox Sports has invested in, just like IndyCar, had a playoff game on Sunday that started at 6:00 p.m. ET.
If you want to be on broadcast television, you are going to need to play ball with the broadcaster and understand you are one part of a larger web of properties. IndyCar isn't big enough to call the shots and demand its own start times. If you think the race should have been Saturday night, Fox had the Boston Red Sox vs. the New York Yankees scheduled. IndyCar isn't going to move that game.
Gateway could have started at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on FS1 or Fox's streaming service Fox One, but people would have been upset about that.
There is a limit to a 9:00 p.m. Eastern start, and it is not the greatest for broad viewership. Then again, no IndyCar race has broad viewership outside of one race a year. You are likely not catching anyone's attention with a race ending beyond midnight on a non-holiday weekend Sunday. Starting an hour earlier is the sweet spot. Start at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and it is over by 10:30 p.m. It could be over by 10:00 p.m. if the race moves fast enough.
This can be worked on and tweaked for the future. The start time did not appear to hurt the crowd at Gateway, which is a good thing and speaks volume to the audience that track can attract.
Also, you don't love IndyCar more than somebody if you are willing to stay up beyond midnight to watch a race. Watching any sporting league or racing series should not require unquestioned devotion. There has been a cultish undertone to some IndyCar support for a while now. It is getting a little louder. That isn't a good thing. Don't think that isn't a barrier to entry for some people. Not everyone wants to be in a cult.
7. Sidebar, one day we need to talk about IndyCar fan behavior and how it can come off as rather unwelcoming to others, especially those who have started watching motorsports through a different series and are willing to try and watch other forms only to be told what they are watching is bad and they should be watching something else instead, IndyCar specifically, because it is better and they are not watching for the right reasons and they are not real race fans and they are actually not welcomed unless they completely denounce what they previously were watching and declare IndyCar the best.
It really is a group that tries too hard but also doesn't know how to ingratiate themselves to others.
They shout, "Love me, stupid" and miss the irony of their statement.
