That may have made it a little easier for Kirkwood, but he still drove to the lead ahead of cars running an alternate strategy. With separation, Kirkwood flew, opening a lead over ten seconds in no time, and it was never really closer than that. Even with the late cautions toward the end of the race, bringing the rest of the field to Kirkwood's gearbox, and a late attempt from Scott McLaughlin to take the lead, Kirkwood kept firm control of this race. In the closing laps, he was running his fastest laps of the race, and he still won by over three seconds ahead of Christian Lundgaard.
Kirkwood's street course prowess has been well-documented. His sixth street course victory in seven career victories speak for themselves. He never slipped up on a course where it was uncertain you could fully be in control. With the bumps and uneven surface, it was a track setup to catch out drivers. Plenty of drivers had little bobbles that would seem to be innocuous turn out to be tumultuous. There was no sense of safety on any lap. Last week, Kirkwood clipped a barrier and ended his race in Markham while pushing for a podium finish. If anyone knew a course could trip a driver when least expected, it was Kirkwood.
He remained out of the barriers and he remained near-flawless to the checkered flag. With Palou's struggles today, Kirkwood kept his championship hopes alive for another race. It is still a 91-point deficit with three races remaining.
2. Christian Lundgaard had good pace in this race, and it looked like he would be racing for second with Scott McLaughlin until the late cautions packed the field together. Then McLaughlin threw it away on the penultimate restart in turn one. It opened the door for Lundgaard to push Kirkwood, and he kept Kirkwood honest, but Lundgaard did not have it in the closing laps.
For as good as Kirkwood has been on street courses this season, Lundgaard has been just as good. He looked strong today and was deserving of a podium finish.
3. Three races, three consecutive third-place finishes for Will Power, and Power had a lot of pace in this race. Like Markham, Power had speed despite starting further down the order than desired. In the penultimate stint, Power chased down McLaughlin and Lundgaard and put himself firmly in the fight for the podium. He may have gotten there without McLaughlin's issues. The second half of the season has been much kinder to Power. He feels like he has settled in at Andretti Global.
4. Marcus Ericsson had another strong race, and Ericsson took a six-spot grid penalty for an engine change this morning. He went from 21st to fifth. Ericsson was shuffled a little too far back to really push for the podium. Even though the field was bunched up with the late cautions, Ericsson still finished over 12 seconds behind Kirkwood. That shows how much of a different realm Kirkwood was in today compare to a teammate that also finished in the top five
5. Kyffin Simpson went off-strategy early to attempt a four-stop race. It looked like a stretch, but the cautions fell in Simpson's favor that he could be on the same cycle as the leaders, and it turned into a strategy that put Simpson into a top five position. Two fewer cautions and Simpson likely does not get this result. Credit to Simpson for holding on and the #8 Ganassi team for rolling these dice. Simpson has been finding a way to get results in the second half of the season
6. Nolan Siegel also went on the four-stop strategy like Simpson and it got Siegel a career-best finish in sixth. Siegel drove well today. He didn't make any mistakes. He didn't overdrive the car. He held his own and kept it in a top ten position. This could have been a gamble that didn't pay off, but Siegel brought it home.
7. Scott Dixon got off the snide with a seventh place finish, but Dixon needed those late cautions. His final stop came 41 laps to the checkered flag. It would have been a mighty ask to make it if the race ran entirely green. Those late cautions helped Dixon get to the line, but Dixon also made a late move to take seventh from Josef Newgarden. Dixon was never really a factor in this one, but he just needed a good day. He got it.
8. Josef Newgarden is the top Team Penske finisher, and Newgarden probably did the least of the three today. Newgarden never made a push for the front. He ran in the middle of the field all race and was in position for a top ten result. He made a few passes, but he was not breathtakingly quick today. Eighth is a good day though.
9. For the first time in his IndyCar career, Caio Collet has finished in the top ten. Collet was ninth. He didn't really make any waves. He completed 147 laps, didn't make a mistake and he was rewarded for it. He needed this day because his season has been rotten, and it sounds like Collet is under pressure to remain at A.J. Foyt Racing. This will go a long way.
10. Romain Grosjean was on the same strategy as Simpson, but an off-track excursion in turn one cost him dearly. Grosjean nearly gave away a top ten finish with that incident, but he recovered to take tenth. It definitely could have been a little better. With how his season was going, consecutive top ten finishes is tremendous for this group.
11. Mick Schumacher took 11th. The biggest thing for Schumacher was not making a mistake. Last week, a barrier caught him out. Today, he ran all 147 laps and he was the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher. That is beneficial to him and this team.
12. Alexander Rossi was 12th. I don't know what else to say. Ed Carpenter Racing had good pace in practice. It didn't translate for Rossi in qualifying. It did for Christian Rasmussen, and Rasmussen started fourth. Come the race, we didn't see anything special. It is better than it has been for Rossi, but it is still disappointing considering how the weekend started. We hear a lot about promise from ECR but we seldom see it fulfilled.
13. Graham Rahal went well off strategy early in the race, but unlike others, it didn't cycle into Rahal's favor. He was always caught in needing to make an extra pit stop. In a way, 13th is pretty good because it looked like Rahal might have had to make a stop and end up a lap down. It is hard to count it as a moral victory, but it could have been much worse.
14. We are going to blow through the lapped cars here...
Christian Rasmussen was spun in turn five after contact from Marcus Armstrong. Both cars were competing for top ten positions at that point. Rasmussen cannot catch a break. He was fortunate the race shook out where he could finish 14th, the best of the lapped finishers. It looked like it was going to be worse than that for a great portion of this race. Rasmussen had good pace today. It is a shame he was taken out so early.
Dennis Hauger was 15th a lap down. This was another race where Hauger didn't do anything with a good starting position. He started eighth today. At no point was he moving forward. He dropped back again. This has happened too often this season for Hauger.
Patricio O'Ward cost himself a top ten finish with a bad run into turn six and going into the runoff. The bumps knocked O'Ward out of rhythm and he wasn't going to make the corner. It was surprising we didn't see more of these incidents during the race. There were plenty of those during practice and qualifying. For O'Ward, it was incredibly costly.
Marcus Armstrong had a penalty for that contact with Rasmussen. Armstrong is in a horrendous funk. He looks like a driver who cannot get out of his own way. Everything has been a downslide since his engine failure while leading at Road America.
Louis Foster was banged up in the Markham accident. Thumb injury, foot injury, Foster was not 100% in this race and it showed. He was never competitive in this race.
Felix Rosenqvist spun in turn one right after Scott McLaughlin smacked the barrier. The two incidents were unrelated. Rosenqvist grazed the barrier and could continue, but the damage was enough to drop him a lap down and ruin what should have been a top ten run.
15. And now we reach Álex Palou. The first 35 laps looked good. Then Palou clipped the tire in Schumacher's pit box. It did look like that tire was in an odd spot, more centered than usual, but Palou is supposed to avoid it. That was a drive-through penalty.
On the next pit stop, Palou's crew could not get the left front tire secure and that cost him time and put him a lap down. Palou had a chance with that stop to remain on the lead lap and be ahead on pit stops compared to Kirkwood. It would have positioned Palou to cycle to the front should a caution come out before the rest of the leaders made their next stops. Of course, the fumbled wheel nut negated that and the caution never came anyway.
Palou ran aggressive to remain competitive, and he was going to take an extra pit stop in this effort, but he suffered left rear suspension failure and spun, effectively any hope of a promising result. The repairs were made and he ended up 20th, three laps down.
The championship is still over. The reaction has been just like after Toronto last year.
"It's not over."
Does anyone think Palou is going to lose 30 points in each of the next three races? Seriously?
"He lost 42 points today."
Do you really think that is going to happen again? Palou is 17 points away from clinching the title with two races to spare. He would need to lose 37 points over the two Milwaukee races for the title not to be clinched early, and he really needs to lose 42 points because any championship margin of 49 points or greater means all Palou must do at Laguna Seca is start to claim the championship.
Yeah, Palou cough up some points today. Yeah, these were unforced errors. They aren't going to happen in four consecutive races to close the season. All Palou needs is one average day in the final three races to lock up the title. That is going to happen. Mathematically, it is still alive. Unless a driver is within 49 points after Milwaukee, let's not kid ourselves into thinking we are in for a title fight to very last checkered flag of the season.
The inevitable has been delayed unless at least Saturday.
16. Electrical issues effectively ended Santino Ferrucci's race immediately. Ferrucci was on pit lane early and had to change his steering wheel. Ferrucci was basically seven laps down for this entire race, and once he couldn't gain anymore positions, he pulled it in 19 laps from the finish. That was a tough break.
17. Four retirements in this race, which feels surprisingly low.
Scott McLaughlin went for it on Kyle Kirkwood on the penultimate restart. Kirkwood had been untouchable to that point. McLaughlin had a slight fuel advantage and the alternate tire. It was a golden opportunity to take the lead. McLaughlin overcooked it in the corner. It is a tough blow. This was probably one of McLaughlin's best races of the season, and all he will have to show for it is 22nd.
18. Rinus VeeKay was ricocheted into the barrier after Armstrong hit Rasmussen into the Dane. There wasn't much Rasmussen could have done there, and it was devastating for VeeKay, who was actually ahead of Kirkwood on that restart because VeeKay was on pit lane when the first caution came out for David Malukas getting into the wall and collecting Sting Ray Robb as collateral damage.
VeeKay appeared to have a run on Graham Rahal, who led on that restart, but VeeKay admitted he confused where the restart line was, and he backed off. I don't know if he thought where they initially started the race on the exit of turn one was where the restart was supposed to be and not the start/finish line. VeeKay was alongside Rahal, and then he backed off and it allowed Kirkwood, Simpson and Grosjean to get ahead. Not long after that, VeeKay was pinballed into the barrier and out of the race.
The strange thing is this was the third restart of the race. VeeKay would have known that restarts were at start/finish, unless he thought it was on exit of turn one and everyone had to throttle up out of turn seven to have enough speed on the restarts exiting turn one. On the first two restarts, there were no real pass attempts into turn one. It is conceivable VeeKay got it mixed up. That confusion may have been costly to the Dutchman.
19. David Malukas appeared to have clipped the barrier on the inside of turn seven, sending Malukas into the outside barrier. Sting Ray Robb had nowhere to go as Malukas was parked on corner exit. Malukas had gone off-strategy, stopping under the second caution for debris. He had been running seventh.
I don't know how that strategy would have played out. It became clear through practice this was going to be a three-stop race as soon as any caution came out. We had a caution immediately for debris, which lasted three laps, and then on lap 18 the caution came out again for debris, which lasted four laps. At that point, it was obvious this was going to be a three-stop race. Malukas was on the same strategy Rahal employed, and Rahal had to make three more stops to make the finish. Rahal made a fourth additional stop to get tires with just over 20 laps to go after Palou's spin.
I think Malukas is finishing at best in 12th or 13th if he went the full distance. It was a roll of the dice that didn't quite make sense, especially for a car racing in the top ten.
Malukas was hard on himself after the accident, as this was his third consecutive result outside the top ten. He brushed the barrier at Markham, and today's accident was an unforced error. The team didn't quite have the pace at Portland. I don't think Malukas has been terribly poor. It is a bit of a rut, but not the end of the world.
20. As mentioned above, Sting Ray Robb had nowhere to go when Malukas spun. I don't know how well Robb would have done without that accident. He probably finishes at least 20th.
21. I thought it was a good race. The track was fine. The opening stanza was rather uneventful. Minus the debris cautions, it was processional early.
Most of this race was settled. The most action came involving lapped traffic, and with a race that was 250 miles in length, it allowed lapped traffic to be a factor. Most street races are complete around 175 miles, if we even go that far, and we might not see the very end of the pack become a factor. We never see the end of the field caught with nearly 60 laps to go. Arlington was barely over 60 laps in length.
The roads were wide enough that it didn't feel like every pass was risky. It allowed drivers to make a move early and position themselves properly into a corner. I don't think it was the greatest street course IndyCar has ever raced. I don't think it was the worst either. It can be somewhere in the middle.
Extending the race to 147 laps might have cost us a little more thrilling race because this became a race where everyone knew it was achievable completing it in three pit stops. If this race remained 125 laps, as originally scheduled, it would have been a three-stop race for everyone and there would have been almost no shot at running it in two stops. The teams were barely making it 40 laps. Even at 125 laps, if a team made it 40 laps, they would still need to make three pit stops.
We could have had a full-throttle, three-stopper at 125 laps because the pit windows would have been massive. Teams could have tried to stretch each stint to 35 or 36 laps and then had a shorter final stint to sprint to the finish, or teams could have stopped early, around lap 21 or 22 and run an alternate strategy from there.
The longer street race was different to see. We have seen a road or street course race of this length in over 40 years. I don't know if we need to do it again or if this was necessary. If there is going to be a three-stop race, set it up so everyone has to push and make it so attempting to stretch fuel is disadvantageous. There should be a goal for the race length.
22. It is getting late early. Only two race weekend remain. There are three races thanks to the Milwaukee doubleheader. I consider that a blessing. We are back on track Saturday, Friday technically because of practice, but we are talking races here.
