Morning Warm-Up: Detroit 2025

Colton Herta scored his first pole position of the season and the 15th pole position of his IndyCar career, as Herta ran a lap of 60.477 seconds in the final round of qualifying for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. It is Herta's second consecutive pole position at Detroit. Last year, he led the first 33 laps before cautions shuffled him down the order and he ran into the tire barrier while in the middle of the pack. Herta ended a lap down in 19th. After finishes of 25th and 14th in the two races from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Herta is looking to avoid three consecutive results outside the top ten for the first time since 2022 between the Iowa doubleheader and the summer IMS road course race.

David Malukas starts second for the third time in his career, as Malukas was 0.1713 seconds off Herta's time for pole position. Malukas started second at Gateway and Milwaukee last year. His previous best start on a street course was fifth. At the Indianapolis 500, Malukas matched his career-best finish of second. Only twice has he had consecutive top ten finishes in his career. The first time were the first two races of 2023 at St. Petersburg and Texas. The next time was at Gateway and Portland later that season. 

Kyle Kirkwood ended up 0.2533 seconds shy of his Andretti Global teammate Herta, and Kirkwood will start third. After the penalties from the Indianapolis 500, Kirkwood heads to Detroit coming off the worst result of his career in 32nd. Kirkwood has finished in the top five of four consecutive street races, and he has seven consecutive top ten finishes in street races. He has finished sixth and fourth in the last two Detroit races.

Christian Lundgaard will take the outside of row two for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix in fourth. The Arrow McLaren driver was 0.4159 off pole position. Lundgaard is coming of his best finish on an oval after he was classified in seventh for the Indianapolis 500. He has five top ten finishes from the first six races. Prior to this season, his most top ten finishes from the first six races was three. He has finished 6th and 11th in the two races held on this circuit.

After Graham Rahal serves a six-spot grid penalty, Álex Palou moves up to fifth as Palou 0.9901 seconds slower than Herta in the final round of qualifying. Palou has not started worse than eighth this season, and this is his sixth consecutive race starting on one of the first three rows. Palou has finished on the podium in six consecutive races, the longest streak of his career. The last time a driver had seven consecutive podium finishes was Hélio Castroneves in the final seven races of the 2008 season.

The Rahal penalty moves Rinus VeeKay to the third row. This was the third time this season VeeKay has made the second round of qualifying, and he does it with Mike Cannon as his lead engineer. Cannon re-joined Dale Coyne Racing earlier this week. Cannon had been signed with Prema this winter before leaving the team in January. VeeKay was 0.0256 seconds from advancing to the final round. VeeKay was second in his first Belle Isle start in 2021. Since then, VeeKay has not finished better than 14th in his last four Detroit starts.

Scott McLaughlin is the top Team Penske driver on the grid in seventh. This is McLaughlin's sixth time starting inside the top ten this season. In five starts between Belle Isle and this Detroit street course, McLaughlin has finished 19th or 20th four times. He was seventh in the 2023 Detroit Grand Prix. He has not finished on the podium in a street race since he was second at Nashville in 2023.

Will Power makes it an all-Team Penske row four. In the last eight seasons, Power has only one street course victory. That was the final Belle Isle race in 2022. There have been 37 street course races since the start of the 2017 season. Power has won from eighth on the grid twice before in his career. Both came in 2016, first at Belle Isle and then at Pocono.

Marcus Armstrong moves up to ninth starting position after Rahal's penalty, as well as a six-spot grid penalty to Scott Dixon, who initially qualified tenth. Armstrong has made it to the second round of qualifying in five races this season, but he has yet to finish better than seventh. He went from 19th to third last year at Detroit, his first career podium finish. Armstrong has led a lap in four of the first six races this season. 

Christian Rasmussen takes tenth on the grid, his best starting position since he started eighth at Mid-Ohio last July. Rasmussen wound up finishing ninth in that Mid-Ohio race, his first top ten finish in IndyCar. Rasmussen is coming off a career-best result of sixth in the Indianapolis 500. It was his second career top ten result. Rasmussen was the only driver to fail to finish in last year's Detroit race. 

A six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change at the Indianapolis 500 knocks Graham Rahal from fifth on the grid to 11th, but this was the first time Rahal made the Fast Six on a street course since Long Beach 2019. Including Belle Isle, Rahal's average finish in the last three Detroit Grand Prix is 22nd. Rahal has not had a top five finish on a street course since he was fifth at Toronto in 2022.

Marcus Ericsson missed out on the second round by 0.0102 seconds, but he will start 12th after Scott Dixon's six-spot grid penalty from tenth on the grid. Three of Ericsson's 11 podium finishes have come in Detroit, Michigan. Two of those were at Belle Isle with the other on this course last season. The only track were Ericsson has finished in a podium position in consecutive years is Indianapolis 500 where he was second in 2023 the year after he won the race in 2022. 

Louis Foster fell 0.0081 seconds shy of making it through group two, and this places the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver 13th. Foster has started better than 14th in four of seven races this season. The Briton has finished 11th and 12th in the last two races after he did not finish in the top fifteen of the first four races of the season.

Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0435 seconds from advancing out of group one. Instead, Rosenqvist starts 14th, matching his worst starting spot of the season. Rosenqvist has three top five finishes from the first six races. Only twice in his career has he had at least four top five finishes in a season. The Swede had six top five finishes in 2019 and four in 2023.

Alexander Rossi starts on the inside of row eight. This is Rossi's worst starting position since he qualified 20th for St. Petersburg in March. Rossi has gone 14 races without a top five finish, the longest slump of his career. His previous worst was a ten-race streak from the 2020 St. Petersburg finale through the first nine races of the 2021 season.

Scott Dixon has a six-spot grid penalty after taking his fifth engine of the season, and this will drop Dixon from tenth on the grid to 16th. It has been one year since Dixon's most recent victory, which came at Detroit last year. A record eight of his 58 career victories have come from a starting position outside the top ten. The last time Dixon won a track in consecutive years was at Texas in 2020 and in 2021. 

Callum Ilott takes 17th on the grid, just under a tenth of a second from making it to round two, but this is the second time Ilott has started inside the top twenty this season. He started 16th at Barber Motorsports Park. After his disqualification from the Indianapolis 500, Ilott has been classified outside the top twenty in five consecutive races. Among the drivers to start all six races this season, Ilott is last on points with 45, 18 points behind the next closest driver.

Patricio O'Ward finds himself in 18th, ending a streak of five consecutive races starting in the top ten. This is the fifth time in the last six street races O'Ward is starting outside the top ten, and his best starting spot in that span was ninth at Long Beach in April. He did go from 23rd to 11th at St. Petersburg in March. O'Ward was second and third in the two races from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has never had three consecutive podium finishes in his IndyCar career.

Kyffin Simpson will start on the inside of row ten in 19th, eight spots better than last year when Simpson started 27th in this race. Since finishing tenth at Long Beach, Simpson's average finish is 24.333. He has failed to finish on the lead lap in all three of those events, and notably was unable to start the Grand Prix of Indianapolis due to a gearbox problem. Simpson had completed every lap in the first three races.

After failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, Jacob Abel returns and scores his best starting position of the season. Abel will roll off from 20th position. His previous best was 23rd at Thermal Club. He had started on row 13 in his other four starts. In three Indy Lights starts on this course, Abel had finishes of fourth, ninth and fifth.

Santino Ferrucci will start 21st, and this will be the tenth consecutive race Ferrucci has started outside the top ten. He does have four top ten finishes in his last nine starts however. In nine starts between Belle Isle and this Detroit street course, Ferrucci has four top ten finishes. Seven of Ferrucci's 31 career top ten finishes have come from a starting spot outside the top twenty.

Last week, Robert Shwartzman started on the inside of row one. This week, Shwartzman will start on the outside of row 12 in Detroit. Shwartzman led the first laps of his career last week in the Indianapolis 500. Those were also Prema's first laps led in IndyCar.

Devlin DeFrancesco finds himself starting 23rd. DeFrancesco is coming off a career-best 11th-place result at Indianapolis. This will be the 41st start of his career and DeFrancesco is still looking for his first career top ten finish. He was 12th in his only start at this track in 2023.

Josef Newgarden hit the wall in qualifying, and that means Newgarden will start 24th for Detroit. Newgarden's top five finish slump is up to five races, his longest since 2018 when he went five races without a top five result over the two May races from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Belle Isle doubleheader and Texas. Newgarden has not gone six races without a top five finish since a 13-race stretch over the final two races of 2013 and the first 11 races of 2014. Four times has Newgarden finished in the top five after starting outside the top twenties. The most recent time was last year at Iowa going from 22nd to third.

Conor Daly ended up last in group one, placing Daly 25th on the grid. This is his worst stating position of the season. Daly has not had a top ten finish on a street course since he was sixth in the second Belle Isle race in 2016. He has made 23 street course starts since then. Daly was eighth last week at Indianapolis. He has not had consecutive top ten finishes since he was 2022 when he was fifth and sixth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 respectively.

The two Juncos Hollinger Racing cars will be starting next to one another on the grid with Sting Ray Robb in 26th. Though he was ninth at Long Beach, Robb as finished outside the top twenty in the other five races this season. In his two Detroit starts, Robb has finished 22nd and 21st.

Mechanical woes plagued Nolan Siegel's qualifying, and Siegel will start 27th after only running two laps. Despite having an accident on the final lap of the Indianapolis 500, Siegel has finished in the top fifteen in three consecutive races. He had only four top fifteen finishes in his previous 15 starts.

Fox's coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 12:52 p.m. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.

Musings From the Weekend: Farewell Belle Isle

Will Power did the Penske company proud, and that wasn’t the only place Penske was on top. Kyle Kirkwood was on ice for most of the weekend but was still outstanding. The NASCAR Cup Series debuted at Gateway, and things boiled over. NASCAR’s second division debuted in Portland, and things were sloppy. There was heartbreak in Barcelona for a Spaniard and a Frenchman benefitted. Formula E visited a new city. A drought was ended in Italy. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking. 

Farewell Belle Isle

A decade ago, this trip was unimaginable. 

Belle Isle for IndyCar? There were at least a dozen other desirable circuits. At a time when the series was tipping more road and street course heavy and still was not going to Road America and Watkins Glen, Belle Isle didn’t receive a warm welcome on its return. Frankly, its return was a disaster. 

Chunks of pavement were flying up and hitting drivers in the head. The race was stopped and faced a lengthy red flag for track repairs. It was already a dull race and was shortened for everyone’s benefit. Of all the tracks IndyCar could have added in the debut season of the DW12 chassis, especially after a revolutionary Indianapolis 500 with two-mile Michigan International Speedway in the area, Belle Isle looked like the worst choice possible.

But Roger Penske learns from defeats. The Penske-promoted event turned into a gem, a ten-year success story. The track was re-paved and lengthened back to the 2.35-mile circuit. All the amenities around the grounds were updated. Firestone developed arguably the perfect tire compounds for degradation to allow for varied strategies, not to mention it was made into a doubleheader, giving IndyCar more track time a week after the Indianapolis 500. 

Within a few seasons, the reputation flipped. Still a street course where overtaking was difficult, Belle Isle at least became a lively circuit. Passes were more than possible and happened somewhat regularly with the extended run to turn three. A car on worn tires couldn’t hold up the field. The race length encouraged teams to roll the dice and many benefitted from their gambles. 

Yesterday alone saw Will Power win from 16th on the grid, in what was effectively a caution-free in dry conditions. Ten years ago, no one could have dreamt of that being an outcome at Belle Isle, but after a decade of dramatic results, Power’s drive was no longer unfathomable but rather probable with the right driver at the wheel. Power, a generational wonder, was more than up for the task. 

Considering what we saw the last few years, IndyCar leaving is stunning. It has developed one of the best street circuits not only in the series but arguably the world. This isn’t the city pulling funding or sponsors withdrawing support and the race falling away. Belle Isle is disappearing because Chevrolet and IndyCar want to move the race downtown. 

I get it. I spent time downtown this weekend. Detroit is an underrated city in terms of its aesthetic. Once the richest city in the world, its beauty and prestige remains on display. The concentration of restaurants and hotels has the downtown circuit in a walkable range for practical everyone who will visited the city. I will say for being downtown in the middle of the afternoon on Friday not much will be disrupted when the race comes to down. 

This circuit will go pass the “Spirit of Detroit” and “The Fist” monuments. The Renaissance Center will tower over the circuit. There will be a surprising amount of elevation change from walking the circuit, but the biggest concern is it doesn’t look like a racy layout and many sections appear tighter than Belle Isle. Outside of the one hairpin, the rest of the circuit could be processional. 

Leaving Belle Isle for a step back in terms of racing but hopeful for an increase of exposure to the city is a compromise the series, Chevrolet and the city hopes raises the profile of the event. It has been promoted that spectators will be able to view half the circuit free of charge. That is a questionable financial move, but running downtown will have more eyes on the race. While Belle Isle is a lovely location, it was a little removed from the heart of Detroit, and it wasn’t the easiest to attend. Most people were shuttled into the circuit, which is fine and didn’t take long at all, and while the line moved at a good pace, no one wants to wait 45 minutes to an hour in line to leave a race. That will not be a problem with a downtown race. 

After all the years of watching Belle Isle, seeing the races developed into something wonderful but also noticing the beauty of the place, I had to visit it for myself and this was a now-or-never moment. I had to experience it and it lived up to the expectations. Everyone was in good mood and in Penske fashion, it was flawless. From the paddock to the spectating areas to the podium in front of the fountain, IndyCar couldn’t have had a better event. 

The bar will be high for the downtown area, but worse case scenario, we can always return to the isle. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Will Power, but did you know...

The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Sébastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande won the IMSA race from Belle Isle, its second victory of the season. The #17 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood won in the GTD class.

Linus Lundqvist swept the Indy Lights races from Belle Isle.

Fabio Quartararo won MotoGP's Catalunya Grand Prix, his second victory of the season. Celestino Vietti won the Moto2 race, his third victory of the season. Izan Guevara won the Moto3 race, his second victory of the season.   

Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race from Gateway, his second victory of the season. A.J. Allmendinger won the Grand National Series race from Portland, his second victory of the season. Corey Heim won the Truck race from Gateway, his second victory of the season. 

Mitch Evans won the Jakarta ePrix, his third victory of the season. 

The #71 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra won the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000km. 

Ott Tänak won the Rally d'Italia Sardegna. 

Coming Up This Weekend

The 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans

IndyCar races at Road America. 

Formula One is in Azerbaijan. 

NASCAR has a round in Sonoma before its one off-weekend during the season.

World Superbike will be at Misano. 

GT World Challenge America has a scheduled weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

World Touring Car Cup hopes the Goodyear tires hold up at the Hungaroring. 

First Impressions: Belle Isle 2022

1. Really? We are leaving Belle Isle? Really? Of all the areas IndyCar could improve, Belle Isle isn’t one of them. It is the best street circuit in IndyCar, a monumental rise from its previous beleaguered reputation. 

IndyCar has a street circuit with prime tire wear that allows a variety of strategies while having a few respectable passing zones, and it is leaving it for what is underwhelming layout in downtown Detroit. I am not sure there isn’t anything more IndyCar than making such a decision. 

We cannot deny Belle Isle’s development into a proper racetrack. It isn’t perfect. The main straightaway and the first two corners aren’t the best start for a circuit, but it did lead to a great drive into turn three, one of the best corners in IndyCar, not to forget mentioning a battle can continue into turn four where a pass could be completed or countered. 

Turn seven was another action spot at the end of a not-so-straight straightaway, adding difficulty to passes but not making overtaking impossible. 

Of the street courses, Belle Isle is the clear number one in IndyCar. St. Petersburg has always been flat, never spectacular but never lackluster. Long Beach is good, but we don’t see the same consistent tire wear like we have at Belle Isle. Toronto has been fading for over a decade. It is getting squeezed out of the city. The pit lane configuration is ridiculous and hurts the actual track layout. Nashville is still young, but outside of two corners at the end of long straightaways, it is narrower than desired. 

Belle Isle was in the sweet spot for every aspect of a street circuit. I understand why the race is moving downtown. I spent the weekend in Detroit and stayed downtown. In terms of location, the 2023 circuit is in a phenomenal spot, but IndyCar is trading what is actually a great race for an unknown that will have a high bar to clear. 

2. It is late. I spent all day at the track, this will be a quick first impressions but we will not forget Will Power’s performance, one that has to be considered the best of his career. Power won from 16th in what was effectively a caution-free race. You have to work to do that and Power and crew deserve credit. 

I joked Scott Dixon would fine a way to win from ninth by starting on the primary tire. It was actually Power from 16th. With many cars in front of him on the alternate, Power was on a passing spree. Some spots were gifted because some teams committed to the three-stop strategy immediately. Others were easy because Power had better pace in the middle of the stint. 

Where this race turned was Power deciding to go primary-primary-alternate, gambling he could build a large enough of a gap to suffer during the final stint and still hold on to win. He held on by a second. Even if Power didn’t win, he wasn’t going to finish worse than second today and the strategy would still be a success. But Power had to make those passes early, including passing Scott Dixon to win this race. If Power never got ahead of Dixon, he might have led the middle portion while Dixon struggled on the alternates, but he would have been passed in the final stint as his gap would not have been as great. 

This was as close to a perfect driver as Power has ever had in his IndyCar career. After having the first race of last year’s Belle Isle doubleheader slip away from him, Power deserves to close out the Belle Isle-era on top and earn Chevrolet’s 100th victory since returning to IndyCar in 2012 to boot. 

3. Alexander Rossi was one of the earliest commitments to the three-stop strategy and it always looked set to be a winning strategy for Rossi. He caught just a little more traffic than Power and could only come within a second of Power when crossing the finish line. 

Rossi didn’t need an extra two or three laps. He needed two or three better corners over these 70 laps. In the final stint alone, Dalton Kellett did Rossi no favors, neither did Jimmie Johnson nor Santino Ferrucci. A little more respect from all these lapped drivers and Rossi would have at least had an attempt on Power. Power might have been able to hold Rossi, but Rossi wasn’t going down without a fight. 

4. Scott Dixon went primary-alternate-primary. Since Power got ahead of him, he had to do something different. I thought it was smart to end on the primary tires. Last year, late cautions cost Josef Newgarden as Newgarden had a hand tied behind his back on the alternate tires. The primary tires gave Dixon a punchers chances, but he lost too much time, fell behind Rossi and Power deserves credit because Power was flawless over his second stint. 

Not a victory for Dixon, but the podium finishers started 16th, 11th and ninth. They nailed it today. 

5. Josef Newgarden was on a two-stopper and started on the alternate tires. That killed his race immediately. He lost too much time in the opening stint. It was an understandable strategy. We rarely see the pole-sitter go aggressive and commit early to the three-stopper because they don’t have to. The pole-sitter has the track position. No one is going to trade that, but everyone knew the alternates were trouble.

It was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t day for Newgarden. If there is any bright side, at least it wasn’t feast or famine as has been the trend through the first six races for Newgarden. He needed a fourth-place finish. 

6. Patricio O’Ward started fifth and finished fifth. Yeah, that matches. O’Ward didn’t do anything flashy but did nothing wrong either. 

7. Álex Palou ran a similar strategy to Dixon and he went from 18th to sixth. He couldn’t get the track position and was always caught behind someone. It was still the kind of day Palou should pull out even though he was starting in a poor position. 

8. Quiet days from Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta see them finish seventh and eighth. It felt like these two were around nobody all race and yet still finished in the top ten. Simon Pagenaud went backward in the opening stint on the alternate tires. Pagenaud also had a notable lock up cost him time. Ninth is disappointing when you start third. Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top ten in a solid run on a three-stop strategy. 

9. We are going to quickly cover the rest of the field. And I mean quickly. 

David Malukas committed late to the three-stop strategy. Malukas also didn’t have a great start and he dropped out of top ten contention. He is still looking for this first top ten result but this was a good weekend. 

Conor Daly was 12th doing nothing flashy. 

Takuma Sato lost spots at the start and struggled mightily on the alternates. Sato was always chasing the race but losing ground, falling to 13th.

I am not sure how Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey finished 14th and 15th respectively. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was off all weekend. Lundgaard had a slow first stop. Harvey never looked all that competitive, and yet these are the final two cars on the lead lap. Go figure.

Rinus VeeKay technically brought out a caution for his incident on the final lap. It cost him a few spots. He was ok today, nothing special, but that was a rough end to his day. 

Romain Grosjean was setback with the qualifying accident. After seeing how Rossi ran, I think Grosjean would have been a factor in his primary car. 

Devlin DeFrancesco was 18th. That is all. 

Scott McLaughlin threw away his race with a lock up into turn three and then screwing up getting out of the runoff area putting the car into the barrier. 

10. As I said before, Kellett, Ferrucci and Johnson did not favors to Rossi. They were all only slightly better to Power. Ferrucci and Johnson were both two laps down. There is no reason for them to be that difficult in the closing laps. They aren’t getting the wave around anyway. The leaders aren’t going to pit if there is a caution in the final ten laps. They are still going to be a lap down. Accept being two laps down and get out of the way!

Tatiana Calderón had her hands full this weekend. Belle Isle is a ruthless circuit. Many rookies struggle in their first visit. 

Kyle Kirkwood had a fantastic race going and then hit the wall on an out lap end his race. After his practice accident Saturday morning, he had ice on his right hand nearly the entire time he was out of the car. Kirkwood had a breakout weekend considering the pace he showed in an IndyCar and the drive he put on in the Lexus to win IMSA’s GTD class on Saturday. The only wish he could ask for, besides not being injured, is closing out the weekend with an representative IndyCar result. It didn’t come but this weekend will not be soon forgotten. 

Hélio Castroneves retired with an electrical issue and Graham Rahal banged the wall early trying to make a horrible situation good. Not the kind of exits these drivers would have wanted. 

11. A few observations from around Belle Isle:

It is a beautiful facility. It is a shame IndyCar is leaving it for that reason alone. 

I am not sure I have been to a cleaner racetrack. I am used to seeing the overflowing or overturned trash cans. I never saw that. I rarely saw a trash bin close to overflowing. It was immaculate. The entire staff deserves praise. They were incredible the entire weekend. 

This was my first street course event, but considering it was in a park, it felt like a normal road course. You could walk all over, there was plenty of open space between corners, the paddock area was an actual paddock area. It was tight but all the teams were together and parked on a solid surface. 

While the grandstands were full, fans took the picnic tables from under the pavilions, carried those over to the fence and then stood or sat on top of those to watch the race. You have to love the ingenuity of the race fans. And everyone was respectful to the picnic tables. From what I saw, no golf balls were turning them over or jumping on them to break them. They just wanted a better view of the track. 

There wasn’t a video board at the turn three area, which is odd considering a grandstand was there. I can see how it would be difficult to put one on the outside of that corner for that grandstand to see. There were many big trees and a lamppost just on the outside of the corner. It could just be down to space, but that was the only downside about that area. 

12. I will go back and watch the broadcast tomorrow. I am sure that will answer many questions, but we also have to turn our attention to Road America. That is now under a week away. 

Morning Warm-Up: Belle Isle 2022

Josef Newgarden won pole position for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on the final lap of qualifying. Newgarden ran a 75.2153 in the final round to take the top spot. This is the 16th pole position of his career. He has won from pole position four times, most recently at Mid-Ohio last year. Newgarden is the seventh different pole winner this season in seven races. He does not have a top ten finish in his last three starts, meaning he doesn't have a top five finis in his last three starts. The only time he has gone four races without a top five finish driving for Team Penske was a five race stretch in 2018 between the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Texas.

Takuma Sato was 0.1337 off pole position and he will start second. This is Sato’s first front row start since he was on pole position for the second Gateway race in 2020 and his first front row start on a road/street circuit since he won from pole position at Barber in 2019. He has not had a top five finish in his last 15 starts. Sato's last top five finish was a fourth in the first Belle Isle race. Sato had finished in the top five in the last three Saturday Belle Isle races. He has had at least one top five finish at Belle Isle in the last four seasons IndyCar raced this circuit.

Simon Pagenaud leads an all-Meyer Shank Racing row two with Hélio Castroneves starting fourth. Every time Pagenaud has been the top Meyer Shank Racing qualifier, Castroneves has been the top MSR finisher. Every time Castroneves has been the top MSR qualifier, Pagenaud has been the top MSR finisher. This is Pagenaud’s best Belle Isle starting position since he swept the pole positions in 2016. Castroneves has eight top ten finishes in his last ten Belle Isle starts. Four of those finishes were top five results. This is the best starting position for both MSR drivers. 

Patricio O'Ward has the #5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet starting fifth. O’Ward could join Hélio Castroneves, Sébastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal as the only drivers to win consecutive Belle Isle races. O’Ward started fifth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last month and finished 19th. 

David Malukas made the Fast Six for the first time in his IndyCar career and Malukas will start sixth. He is the highest placed driver in the championship without a top ten finish. Malukas sits 19th on 90 points. Dale Coyne Racing's best finish in the last eight Belle Isle races is ninth. 

Colton Herta is coming off a 30th-place finish at Indianapolis and he qualified seventh for this race. Indianapolis was the third time Herta has finished outside the top ten this season. This is the third time in four full seasons Herta has finished outside the top ten in at least three of the first six races of the season. 

Marcus Ericsson starts eighth in the #8 Honda. Ericsson has not had consecutive victories since the 2009 British Formula Three season when he won the second Rockingham race and the first Hockenheim race on May 31 and June 6 respectively.

New Zealand owns row five with Scott Dixon on the inside and Scott McLaughlin on the outside. Dixon does not have a podium finish this season. This the first time he has that had a podium result in the first six races since the 2005 season. Dixon has only four podium results in 20 Belle Isle starts, three of which are victories. McLaughlin's lone top ten finish on a street course his IndyCar career was his St. Petersburg victory earlier this season.

Alexander Rossi is coming off his first top five finish of the season and he starts 11th for this race. Rossi has not had consecutive top five finishes since he had four consecutive podium finishes between the Mid-Ohio doubleheader and Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader in 2020. 

Romain Grosjean had an accident in round two of qualifying and this cost Grosjean his fastest two laps. He will start 12th. After finishes of 17th and 31st between the two Indianapolis races, Grsojean is looking to avoid his first top ten drought of three races this weekend. The bad news is he was 23rd and 24th between the two Belle Isle races last year. 

Conor Daly leads an all-Ed Carpenter Racing row seven. Daly missed out on advancing in group one by 0.0087 seconds. He has consecutive top ten finishes for the first time since the 2020 Gateway doubleheader. Daly has not had a top ten finish on a street circuit since he was sixth in the second Belle Isle race in 2016. 

Rinus VeeKay was 0.1571 seconds shy of advancing from group two. VeeKay could become the sixth driver in history to finish last in the Indianapolis 500 and then win the following race. Scott Sharp was the last to do it in 2001. The first driver to do it was Cliff Woodbury. Woodbury was 33rd in the 1929 Indianapolis 500 and then he won the 100-mile race in Detroit ten days later.

Last year, both Belle Isle races were won from row eight. Kyle Kirkwood and Will Power occupy row eight for the lone Belle Isle race this year. Kirkwood's only top ten finish was tenth on the streets of Long Beach. Kirkwood won yesterday’s IMSA race in the GT Dayton class sharing a Lexus with Ben Barnicoat. Power has not won a street course race since 2016 when he won at Belle Isle and Toronto that season.

Santino Ferrucci takes 17th on the grid. Ferrucci fills in the #77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet in place of the injured Callum Ilott. Ferrucci has six top ten finishes in his last seven starts, which includes top ten finishes in the two Belle Isle races last year. Juncos Hollinger Racing will be the fourth team Ferrucci has driven for in his IndyCar career and his third different team in his last three starts. 

Álex Palou has his worst starting position of the season in 18th. Palou has three consecutive top five finishes and he has five consecutive top ten finishes in street course races, three of which are podium results.  

Christian Lundgaard leads an all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing row ten, and Lundgaard was the best RLLR qualifier. At no point has Lundgaard been the worst RLLR finisher this season, but the only time he has been the top RLLR finisher was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, where he finished ninth.

Jack Harvey will start to Lundgaard’s outside. Harvey was outside the top fifteen in the two Belle Isle races last year, his first two starts on the circuit. The worst starting position for a Belle Isle winner is 20th. Carlos Muñoz won from 20th in changing conditions during the first race in 2015. 

Devlin DeFrancesco will start 21st. DeFrancesco was seventh and fifth in the Indy Lights races at Belle Isle last year. He has finished outside the top twenty in three of four road/street course races this season. 

Jimmie Johnson gets his best starting position this season on a road/street course in 22nd. Johnson’s only lead lap finish this season was the Texas race in March. Johnson's only lead lap finish on a street course in his IndyCar career was last season's Long Beach season finale. 

Graham Rahal matches his worst Belle Isle starting position in 23rd. Rahal has five consecutive top ten finishes and 12 top ten finishes in the last 16 Belle Isle races, which includes his run from 23rd to ninth in the first race in 2013. 

Tatiana Calderón gets her best starting position of the season in 24th. Calderón was the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher in her last start at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Calderón was 15th and it was her first lead lap finish in IndyCar.

Felix Rosenqvist had his fastest two laps erased for interference in round one of qualifying, dropping Rosenqvist to last in his group and 25th on the grid. He has consecutive top ten finishes for the first time since he had a three-race stretch in 2020 between the Gateway doubleheader and Mid-Ohio. The only time Rosenqvist has had consecutive top five finishes were at Portland and Laguna Seca in 2019, the final two races of his rookie season. He is ninth in the championship, the first time he has been ranked in the top ten since after the second Harvest Grand Prix race in 2020.

Dalton Kellett suffered and accident in second practice and was unable to qualifying. However, Keller also has a six-spot grid penalty due to an unapproved engine change. This drops Kellett to last on the grid. He has finished outside the top twenty in five of six races this season. 

USA's coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. The race is scheduled for 70 laps.

Track Walk: Belle Isle 2022

The seventh round of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season takes place at Belle Isle. The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix comes after Honda has picked up a head of steam this IndyCar season. Honda swept the Indianapolis races and will look to make it three consecutive victories this season to counter the four consecutive victories Chevrolet had to open the season. Things have also balanced out in the championship picture. The manufactures each have five drivers represented in the top ten of the championship, and Honda has taken seven of 12 podium finishes over the last four races.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday June 5 with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dave Burns will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:30 p.m. ET (60 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 8:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 12:35 p.m. ET 

Sunday:
Warm-Up: 10:15 a.m. ET (30 minutes)

Race: 3:30 p.m. ET (70 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Ericsson Goes Full Circle

The last time IndyCar visited Belle Isle, it was a doubleheader weekend and a stubborn Chevrolet engine would not start behind Will Power after a red flag was lifted to pick up Romain Grosjean's stranded car late in the Saturday race. With Power unable to restart, he lost the lead and Marcus Ericsson inherited the top spot with five laps to go. Ericsson held off Rinus VeeKay in the closing laps and scored his first career IndyCar victory. 

Nearly a year later, Ericsson returns to Detroit as the Indianapolis 500 winner. The Swede led 13 laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including the final 11 laps and held off a late charge from Patricio O'Ward when the race restarted with two laps remaining. It was Ericsson's first career oval victory, his third career victory overall, and it was the first time he has won from a top ten starting position. His first two victories were from outside the top ten, including from 15th in the Saturday Belle Isle race last year. 

In 359 days, Ericsson won three races after going 2,891 days between victories. His last victory prior to his Belle Isle triumph was the 2013 GP2 Series feature race at the Nürburgring.

Strangely, Ericsson's 13 laps led at Indianapolis were his second highest in a race behind only the 37 laps he led at Nashville last year on his way to victory. Only four times has he led a double-digit number of laps in a race and three of those were this season. He led ten laps at Texas and ten laps at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

In the last 16 races, Ericsson has 13 top ten finishes, six of which were top five results. Eleven times he has finished better than his starting position, but he has only started in the top five twice in that span, including fifth last week at Indianapolis. In six races this season, Ericsson has been the top Ganassi finisher in three of them while Álex Palou has been the top Ganassi finisher in the others.

Ericsson will have a chance to do something last done by a Ganassi driver. It has been 22 years since the winner of the Indianapolis 500 followed it up with a victory in the next race. Juan Pablo Montoya is the last driver to do it, winning at Indianapolis in 2000 and then Montoya won at Milwaukee the following weekend. 

The Indianapolis 500 winner has regularly had a hangover in recent years. Since 2013, the only time an Indianapolis 500 winner has finished in the top five at the following race was Takuma Sato in 2020 when Sato was second at Gateway charging down Scott Dixon in the closing laps. Going against Ericsson's favor is after each of his first two victories he finished ninth in the next race. 

In four Belle Isle starts, Ericsson has two podium finishes and three top ten finishes, however, he has never started better than 12th at the track, and he has only led seven laps, five of which were in his victory last year.

The Championship Flip

As has been usual in recent years, double points have flipped the IndyCar championship picture after Indianapolis. 

Ericsson went from eighth, 53 points off the championship lead, to first on 226 points and he has a 13-point championship lead. It was a 66-point swing thanks to his Indianapolis victory. This was the sixth time in nine seasons the championship lead has changed after the Indianapolis 500. Ericsson's jump from eighth to first is the largest leap besting Will Power's improvement from seventh to first in 2018. Fifty-three points is also the largest margin overcome for a driver taking the championship lead after Indianapolis. The previous largest margin overcome was 44 points by Simon Pagenaud in 2019. 

While Ericsson went from eighth to first, Patricio O'Ward's runner-up finish jumped him from seventh to second with O'Ward on 213 points. Ericsson and O'Ward split the Belle Isle weekend last year and both drivers have two podium finishes and three top five finishes this season. 

Álex Palou's comeback at Indianapolis from an emergency pit stop to finish ninth kept Palou in the championship fight. Palou dropped from second in the championship to third, but he lost no points to the championship leader, remaining 14 points off the top spot. Palou has been in the top three of the championship for 22 consecutive races.

Will Power dropped from first to fourth in the championship after finishing 15th at Indianapolis, snapping his top five finish streak at five races, and he is 24 points behind Ericsson. Power has split results at Belle Isle. In his last 12 Belle Isle starts, he has five top five finishes, but he has also finished 18th or worse five times in that timeframe. 

Rounding out the top five in the championship is Josef Newgarden, who is 52 points back despite having finished outside the top ten in four of six races this seasons. Newgarden's two victories are propping up his season so far. He has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive races, the first time has had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten driving for Team Penske and this is his longest top ten drought since 2014 when he went three races without a top ten between the Toronto doubleheader and Mid-Ohio. 

One speeding penalty knocked Scott Dixon down to sixth in the championship. If Dixon held on for victory at Indianapolis, he would have scored the maximum 115 points. Instead, he wound up 21st and scored 33 points. Instead of leading the championship on 248 points, Dixon is sixth on 166 points. Instead of being up 35 points, Dixon trails Ericsson by 60 points, a 95-point swing. Dixon might have found the right place to rebound. He has two victories, five top five finishes and nine top ten finishes in his last ten Belle Isle starts.

Scott McLaughlin has fallen to seventh in the championship, 64 points back after finishing 29th at Indianapolis. McLaughlin has dropped positions in the championship after the last two races and last year he finished 19th and 20th at Belle Isle. Simon Pagenaud's quiet eighth-place finish at Indianapolis moved him up three spots in the championship and he is 69 points back. 

Felix Rosenqvist was another big gainer at Indianapolis. Rosenqvist's fourth-place finish moved him up five spots from 14th to ninth, 72 points off his fellow Swede Ericsson. Despite retiring from Indianapolis, Colton Herta remains in the championship top ten, but Herta drops four spots, and Herta is now 84 points back. Herta's Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi moved up from 15th to 11th with his first top five finish of the season and Rossi is a point behind Herta.

Conor Daly's sixth-place finish at Indianapolis has him up to 12th in the championship, the first time Daly has been in the top fifteen of the championship since after the second Gateway race in 2020. Daly is 89 points back. Rinus VeeKay dropped three spots after being the first retirement in Indianapolis and VeeKay is 92 points back in the championship. Graham Rahal was 14th in Indianapolis and Rahal is 14th in the championship, trailing by 96 points. Romain Grosjean rounds out the top fifteen, 98 points behind Ericsson. 

Hélio Castroneves is 103 points back in 16th, Christian Lundgaard is the top rookie in 17th, 123 points behind Ericsson, Takuma Sato fell from 13th to 18th and has 126 points between him and the lead, David Malukas is ten points behind his teammate Sato in 19th and with his third-place result in Indianapolis, Tony Kanaan rounds out the top twenty in the championship with only one start to his name.

Kanaan is ahead of Kyle Kirkwood, Jack Harvey, Callum Ilott, Jimmie Johnson and Devlin DeFrancesco, who have all started in at least five races. Ilott will miss Belle Isle due the broken hand he suffered in his accident at Indianapolis. Santino Ferrucci will drive the #77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet this weekend. 

Passing Around the Pole

Through six races this season, there have been six different pole-sitters from five different teams. Dating back to the end of the 2021 season, there have been seven consecutive different pole-sitters. 

Josef Newgarden rounded out the 2021 season on pole at Long Beach. Scott McLaughlin opened 2022 with a shocking qualifying run that turned into his first career victory. Felix Rosenqvist followed it with another surprise at Texas. Colton Herta did what was expected at Long Beach. Rinus VeeKay was a semi-stunner at Barber. It was busy as usual at Indianapolis with Will Power on pole position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis while Scott Dixon won his fifth Indianapolis 500 pole position. 

Who could continue this streak at Belle Isle?

Álex Palou has the best qualifying average this season at 5.1667 and he has yet to start on a pole position. Palou has started second in the last two races and he started third at Long Beach and Barber. Palou's only pole position in his IndyCar career came at Portland last year and he won that race, though it was far from a straightforward.

The top two drivers in average starting position this season have yet to win a pole position as Josef Newgarden has averaged a seventh-place starting position through six races. Newgarden's 14th-place starting position at Indianapolis was his worst of the season.

Romain Grosjean and Patricio O'Ward both have an average starting position of 8.5 and neither have a pole position this season. Grosjean has started in the top ten of five of six races this season, and he started third and fifth last year at Belle Isle. O'Ward has four top ten starts through six races. 

Marcus Ericsson could continue the trend, but his fifth-place starting position at Indianapolis was just the third time in his IndyCar career he has started in the top five for an IndyCar race. Ericsson could become the third driver to score a first career pole position at Belle Isle. The other two were Scott Pruett and Mike Conway.

Hélio Castroneves is the all-time leader in pole position at Belle Isle with three. Nineteen drivers have won pole position at Belle Isle, including Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato, who have all won two Belle Isle pole positions and do not have a pole position this year. O'Ward and Graham Rahal each have one pole position at Belle Isle but none in 2022. 

Rossi has started in the top five for six of ten Belle Isle starts. Pagenaud won pole position for both races in 2016, but he has not started in the top five at Belle Isle since. Sato has started outside the top fifteen in four of the last five Belle Isle races. Rahal has one top five start in the last 32 races.

Surprisingly, Will Power's only Belle Isle pole position was in the first race in 2015. Scott Dixon won pole position in 2008 and in the Belle Isle return in 2012, but he hasn't won pole position again at the track. Colton Herta has never started worse than sixth here, and he is still looking for his first Belle Isle pole position. 

Final Trip to the Isle

This will be the 31st and, as of now, final IndyCar race held on Belle Isle. Starting in 2023, IndyCar will move at a 1.7-mile, ten-turn circuit located in downtown Detroit. 

Belle Isle first hosted IndyCar from 1992 through 2001 with the CART series. In 2007, Belle Isle returned with a shorter 2.07-mile configuration on the Indy Racing League schedule and it hosted two races before withdrawing from the schedule due to the recession. In 2012, with the return of Chevrolet to IndyCar, Belle Isle returned to the schedule, but it had a race that was marred with the track coming apart, which forced a lengthy red flag and shortened the race distance. 

In 2013, after an extensive repave and returning to the longer 2.35-mile configuration, Belle Isle became a doubleheader event and hosted two races for eight seasons. This year the weekend returns to a single-race format. 

Twenty-two drivers have won on Belle Isle with Scott Dixon and Hélio Castroneves tied for the all-time lead with three victories apiece. Dixon has also started 20 Belle Isle races, more than any other driver. Unsurprising to anyone, Team Penske leads all teams with seven Belle Isle victories, four of which have come since Belle Isle returned to the schedule in 2012. 

Belle Isle was the location of Danny Sullivan's final victory and Hélio Castroneves' first. Newman-Haas Racing won its final race at Belle Isle in 2008 with Justin Wilson. We have seen surprises, such as Mike Conway's victory in 2013 driving as part-timer for Dale Coyne Racing. Carlos Muñoz scored his one and only IndyCar victory with a smart drive in changing conditions in 2015. 

Graham Rahal was the only driver to sweep a Belle Isle doubleheader in 2017. Ryan Hunter-Reay famously charged down Alexander Rossi in the second race in 2018 with Hunter-Reay on a three-stop strategy to Rossi's two. Hunter-Reay's speed caused a Rossi lock up, sealing the victory for the 2012 IndyCar champion. 

Of the 22 Belle Isle winners, 15 have at least one IndyCar championship to their name, but only five times has a Belle Isle winner gone on to win the championship that season. Two of those came in the last three years with Scott Dixon in 2018 and Josef Newgarden in 2019.  

While it is Chevrolet's backyard, Honda has made itself quite at home at Belle Isle. In the 17 races since engine competition returned to IndyCar, Honda has won ten times at Belle Isle, including six of the last eight races. 

Though it developed a reputation for dull races, Belle Isle has had a variety of outcomes in recent years. Four of the last five Belle Isle races have been won from outside a top five starting position and since Belle Isle reverted to the 2.35-mile configuration, ten of 16 races have been won from outside a top five grid position, including five victories from outside the top ten and three victories from outside the top fifteen. Last year, the two winners combined to lead eight laps. 

IMSA

For the second and final time this season, IndyCar and IMSA share a weekend. Belle Isle marks the sixth round of the IMSA season, the halfway point for its season. As in previous years, this will be an hour and 40-minute race with the Daytona Prototype international and GT Daytona classes competing. 

Wayne Taylor Racing has won the last two races and the #10 Acura of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor lead the championship. The Portuguese-American duo has 1,707 points and is 22 points ahead of the other Acura on the grid, the #60 Meyer Shank Racing entry for Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis. Meyer Shank has been runner-up the last two races. 

General Motors has dominated at Belle Isle, winning eight of nine races since 2012. Last year, Chip Ganassi Racing scored its first DPi victory in this race and Ganassi has the #02 Cadillac of Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber third in the championship, 104 points off the #10 Acura. Sébastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande won at Long Beach in April, but the #01 Cadillac has finished fifth or worse in every other race this season. Bourdais and van der Zande are 207 points off the championship lead.

Sandwiched in-between the Ganassi cars in the championship are the JDC-Miller and Whelen Engineering Cadillacs. Tristan Vautier and Richard Westbrook is fourth in the championship with 1,583 points for the #5 Cadillac. There has been a change at Whelen Engineering Racing. Olivier Pla will replace Tristan Nunez as Pipo Derani's co-driver in the #31 Cadillac. Derani and Nunez had finished third in three races this season. They scored 1,575 points together. 

In GT Daytona, it is Stevan McAleer who sits alone leading the championship despite finishing off the podium in the last three races. McAleer was second at Daytona and third at Sebring in the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG. McAleer has 1,237 points and Mike Skeen will be his co-driver at Belle Isle. 

Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen have won twice, Daytona and Laguna Seca, and they have the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 12 points behind McAleer. Turner Motorsport was awarded the Mid-Ohio victory after the Inception Racing McLaren failed post-race inspection. The victory lifted Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley to third in the championship with the #96 BMW on 1,161 points. It was a BMW 1-2 at Mid-Ohio, as the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow followed the #96 BMW on track. Sellers and Snow lead the WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship and won at Long Beach in April.

Robert Megennis and Jeff Westphal are fourth in the championship and has scored 1,012 points in the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini. Megennis and Westphal have finished in the top five of the last two races after finishing outside the top ten in the first three races. Heart of Racing Team won at Belle Isle last year and Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn both return in the #27 Aston Martin. Heart of Racing Team is still looking for its first top five finish this season.

Lexus won this race in 2019, but it will be without Jack Hawksworth, who suffered injuries in a motocross accident and will not be able to compete. Kyle Kirkwood will have double duty this weekend and share the #17 Vasser Sullivan Lexus with Ben Barnicoat. The #12 Lexus lineup remains unchanged. Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz continue together and they have finished third in two of the last three races.

Winward Racing has won two pole positions this season, but the #57 Mercedes-AMG of Phillip Ellis and Russell Ward has one top five finish. Ryan Eversley and Aidan Read are back in the #51 Rick Ware Racing Acura as a WeatherTech Sprint Cup-only entry. 

The Chevrolet Sports Car Classic will take start at 3:10 p.m. ET on Saturday June 4.

Road to Indy

Indy Lights will have a doubleheader at Belle Isle, the second of three doubleheaders this season. 

Linus Lundqvist extended his championship lead with a fifth and first at the IMS road course doubleheader last month. Lundqvist has 175 points, 34 points ahead of Danial Frost, who won the first IMS road course race. Sting Ray Robb has finished third in the last three races and Robb is third in the championship on 137 points. Benjamin Pedersen is six points behind Robb in the championship. 

Matthew Brabham has fallen to fifth in the championship after finishing outside the top five in the last three races. Brabham has 119 points and is six points ahead of his Andretti Autosport teammate Christian Rasmussen. Rasmussen bounced back in Indianapolis with finishes of fourth and second after failing to crack the top ten in the first two races. Hunter McElrea makes its tic-tac-toe, three Andretti drivers in-a-row in seventh. McElrea was second and sixth at Indianapolis after not finishing in the top ten in either of the first two races as well. McElrea has 105 points. 

Jacob Abel has 102 points and is eighth in the championship. Antonio Serravalle and Ernie Francis, Jr. round out the top ten in the championship on 93 points and 92 points respectively. Kyffin Simpson is a point outside the top ten. Christian Bogle and James Roe, Jr. round out the championship on 80 points and 68 points respectively. Roe, Jr. has finished 13th in all four races. 

The first Indy Lights race will be at 11:25 a.m. ET on Saturday June 4. The second race will be at 12:05 p.m. ET on Sunday June 5.

Fast Facts

This will be the 12th IndyCar race to take place on June 5 and the first since Will Power won the second Belle Isle race in 2016. 

Six current IndyCar teams have won at Belle Isle (Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Autosport, Arrow McLaren SP, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Dale Coyne Racing).

Besides Hélio Castroneves, Carlos Muñoz and Marcus Ericsson, the only other driver to have his first IndyCar victory come at Belle Isle was Simon Pagenaud in the second Belle Isle race in 2013.

Only four of the first 21 Belle Isle races had an American winner. There have been four American winners in the last eight Belle Isle races.

Through six races this season, there have been five winners, 11 podium finishers, 14 top five finishes and 23 top ten finishers. 

Twenty-four drivers have led a lap this season, but only ten drivers have led ten laps or more.

In each of the odd-numbered races this season, the driver who has led the most laps has won the race.

Kyle Kirkwood could join Tony Kanaan as the only drivers to win at Belle Isle in Indy Lights and IndyCar. 

The average starting position for a Belle Isle winner is 6.3103 with a median of fourth. 

The average number of lead changes in a Belle Isle race is 4.413 with a median of five. 

Last year, the first Belle Isle race had ten lead changes, matching the most every at the circuit, and the second Belle Isle race had one lead change. It was the second consecutive year at least one of the Belle Isle races had exactly only one lead change. 

Thirteen of the last 16 Belle Isle races had at least five lead changes. 

Three of the last six Belle Isle races have had the final lead change come in the final ten laps.

Only once has the lead changed on the final lap at Belle Isle. Greg Moore passed Maurício Gugelmin on the final lap of the 1997 race after Gugelmin ran out of fuel.

The average number of cautions in a Belle Isle race is 4.034 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 14.31 with a median of 14 laps. 

There has never been a caution-free at Belle Isle. 

The most cautions in a Belle Isle race was eight on two occasions. The first was the 1999 race and the second was the Saturday race in 2015, which was also shortened due to weather.

Predictions

Josef Newgarden makes it three victories from seven races and he will not get the tire strategy wrong. There will also not be a string of late cautions to close the field on him. Marcus Ericsson finishes in the top ten, but he loses the championship lead. Scott Dixon recovers and has his best finish of the season. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has at least one top ten finishers. Andretti Autosport will end the weekend with at least two drivers in the top ten of the championship. There will be no red flags during the race. Romain Grosjean will not catch on fire. Sleeper: Takuma Sato.

First Impressions: Belle Isle 2021 Race Two

1. Patricio O'Ward better buy Jimmie Johnson dinner, and maybe Romain Grosjean as well, because without the late cautions O'Ward was going to settle for a top five finish. The cautions allowed O'Ward multiple chances to attack and in the final 12 laps he went from fifth to first, including a paint-trading pass on Josef Newgarden with three laps to go. 

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.

Morning Warm-Up: Belle Isle 2021 Race Two

Marcus Ericsson continued the trend of new winners in race one

Marcus Ericsson was one of the few men smiling after the first Belle Isle race on Saturday, as the Swede picked up his first career IndyCar victory. It was Ericsson's 37th start and it came at the track of his only other podium finish. He was second to Scott Dixon in the second Belle Isle race two years ago. It is Ericsson's first victory in 2,898 days. His last victory was the GP2 feature race at the Nürburgring on July 6, 2013. This is the fourth different first-time winner this season and Ericsson is the seventh different winner through the first seven races. This is also the first time Chip Ganassi Racing has had three different winners in a season. Ericsson set a career-high for laps led yesterday. He led all of five laps, inflating his career total to 15 laps led. Ericsson won from 15th on the grid in race one. It was the fourth time a Belle Isle winner started outside the top ten in 28 races.

Rinus VeeKay ended up second in his first Belle Isle start. VeeKay's previous best finish on a street course was ninth at St. Petersburg in April. He is one of two drivers to finish in the top ten of six of seven races this season. Scott Dixon is the other. VeeKay is the first Ed Carpenter Racing with multiple podium finishes in a season since J.R. Hildebrand was third at Phoenix and second at Iowa in 2017.

Patricio O'Ward has three podium finishes and five top five finishes after his third-place result yesterday. O'Ward leads all drivers in top five finishes this season. He also picked up his second pole position of the season ahead of race one. O'Ward is tied for the second-best average finish this season, as he and Álex Palou have each averaged a seventh-place finish. Scott Dixon leads the way at 6.7143.

 

Takuma Sato scored his first top five finishes in 12 starts with his fourth-place result in race one. It was Sato's fifth top five finish at Belle Isle. It has lifted him into the top ten of the championship and Sato is the top driver without a victory this season. If there is a new winner in the second Belle Isle race, it would be the first time a season opened with eight different winners since 1911.

Graham Rahal joined his teammate Sato in the top five with Rahal in fifth. It was Rahal's fourth top five finish of the season. He has four consecutive top ten finishes at Belle Isle and six top ten finishes in his last seven Belle Isle starts.

Santino Ferrucci picked up his best street course finish in sixth. Ferrucci's previous best was ninth at St. Petersburg in 2019. He also finished sixth at Indianapolis and he is looking for three consecutive top ten finishes for only the second time in his career. He was ninth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last year ahead of a pair of sixth place finishes at the Road America doubleheader. 

Ferrucci is one of ten drivers in this race without an IndyCar victory. The last time there were five first-time winners in a season was the 2002 Indy Racing League season when Jeff Ward, Airton Daré, Alex Barron, Tomas Scheckter and Felipe Giaffone all won a race. It was the only victory for three of those five drivers. 

Alexander Rossi was seventh in race one, but he did lead his first laps of the season after starting second. Rossi has started on the front row of four consecutive Belle Isle races now. Rossi has not finished in the top five and yet he has been the top Andretti Autosport finisher in four of seven races this season. Andretti Autosport has not had a top five finisher in the last three races. The team had the same streak last year between the Iowa doubleheader and the Indianapolis 500. This is Rossi's longest top five drought since his rookie season when he went nine races between top five finishes. 

Scott Dixon was eighth and he has six top ten finishes from seven races. Dixon led 16 laps yesterday and he has led 395 laps this season. He has not led 400 laps in a season since 2012, when he led 456 laps. The most laps he has led in a season was 899 laps in 2008. 

Ed Jones ended up ninth yesterday, his first top ten finish in 14 starts dating back to a sixth-place finish in the 2019 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Jones led two laps yesterday and they are only the second and third laps led of his career. He led one lap at Texas in 2018, a race where he also finished ninth.

Josef Newgarden was the top Team Penske finisher in race one in tenth. Team Penske had at least one top five finisher in ninth consecutive races before yesterday. Team Penske had put at least one car on the podium in the previous three Belle Isle races before yesterday. Newgarden did pick up fastest lap in race one, his first fastest lap since his Iowa victory last year.

Sébastien Bourdais was 11th in race one, snapping a streak of four consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen. It was the fourth time in the last five Belle Isle races Bourdais has finished outside the top ten. Bourdais has won the eighth race of the season three times in his career, most recently in 2015 at Belle Isle.   

Simon Pagenaud fell to 12th in the closing stages of race one. Twelfth is Pagenaud's worst finish this season. Among the 21 drivers that have run every race this season, Pagenaud has the best worst finish this season. The other 20 full-time drivers have finished at least one race outside the top twelve.

Conor Daly was 13th for his second consecutive start on Saturday. Daly has not had a top ten finish in his last 12 starts and he has still not been the top Ed Carpenter Racing finisher in his season-and-a-half with the team. 

Colton Herta has finished outside the top ten in his last three starts and in five of seven races this season. This is the first time Herta has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive races since a seven-race slump in his rookie season two years ago. 

Álex Palou's races led streak ended yesterday at six. Palou was 15th, but he retains the championship on 263 points, 15 points ahead of O'Ward. Palou has not finished in the top ten yet on a street course in his IndyCar career. Yesterday was only his third street course start. 

The good news for Jack Harvey is for the second consecutive race he finished ahead of his starting position. The bad news is Harvey only went from 19th to 16th in race one. For the second consecutive season, Harvey has a four-race stretch of finishes outside the top fifteen. He was outside the top fifteen in the first four races of the 2020 season. 

James Hinchcliffe was looking at a possible top five finisher before needing to pit for emergency service under the red flag yesterday. This dropped Hinchcliffe out of the running, and he ended up 17th, which actually matched the best finish of his season. 

Dalton Kellett matched his career best finish of 18th yesterday, but he finished one lap down. Kellett is the worst driver in the championship to have started every race in 26th on 74 points. He is five points behind Tony Kanaan, who has only started three races. 

Scott McLaughlin had his hands full and brought the car home in 19th. McLaughlin started a career-worst 23rd in race one. His previous worst was 21st on debut at St. Petersburg last year. 

Will Power suffered a crushing defeat yesterday when his car would not start when the red flag was lifted, and Power was leading the race at the time. Power has finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races, his worst slump since he ended 2016 with a pair of 20th-place finishes and opened 2017 with finishes of 19th, 13th and 14th. Power did lead 37 laps yesterday, the most laps he has ever led in a Belle Isle race.

Ryan Hunter-Reay snapped a streak of four consecutive top five finishes at Belle Isle after he slapped the wall on an out lap after his first pit stop. It was Hunter-Reay's worst finish at Belle Isle in 21st. He has finished in the top ten in the eighth race of the season the last three years. 

Max Chilton was 22nd and he has finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive races. Chilton did start 18th, his best starting position of the season. He has started outside the top fifteen in seven of nine Belle Isle starts. 

Romain Grosjean's accident in turn eight left him with his first retirement of his IndyCar career. Grosjean did lead a lap for a second consecutive start. He did start third in race one, his second consecutive top five start. 

Jimmie Johnson suffered a sensor issue in the first race and only completed 49 of 70 laps. Johnson did win one NASCAR Cup Series race on June 13. It came at Pocono in 2004. He led 126 of 200 laps that day. His only other Cup start on June 13 was at Michigan in 2010. He ended up sixth. 

Felix Rosenqvist stayed overnight at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital. Evaluation revealed no life or limb threatening injuries and Rosenqvist remained awake and alert the entire time. Rosenqvist did post a message on Twitter last night saying he was ok, except for soreness.

Oliver Askew has been called in to substitute for Rosenqvist in race two. Askew made 12 starts in the #7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet last season. His best finish was third in the first Iowa race, but his best finish on a road/street course was 15th in the first Road America race and the second Mid-Ohio race. 

Qualifying for race two takes place at 9:00 a.m. ET. The qualifying groups will flip their order from race one. 

Group one will be Bourdais, Dixon, Herta, Newgarden, Hunter-Reay, Sato, Askew, Rahal, Chilton, Jones, Ferrucci and McLaughlin. 

Group two has Power, O'Ward, Rossi, Ericsson, VeeKay, Hinchcliffe, Grosjean, Palou, Daly, Pagenaud, Harvey, Kellett and Johnson. 

As with race one, the top six drivers from each group will advance into round two, where the top driver will earn pole position. 

NBC's coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix race two begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 70 laps. 

First Impressions: Belle Isle 2021 Race One

1.  It was one of those races and after the red flag for Felix Rosenqvist's accident it completely reset the race we had been watching. After developing into a chaotic battle between the teams adopting the three-stop strategy as early as possible and those who were going to try and stretch the alternate tires on the opening stint, while some start on the primary tie and were going to run two-stop strategy, Rosenqvist's accident and red flag negated all of that and instead of a 70-lap battle, it turned into a 40-lap sprint. 

With everything reset, it played into the favor of Will Power, who tried to go as long as possible on the alternate tires. He had just made his stop when Rosenqvist had his accident and it positioned him for a shot at victory. Then Romain Grosjean had an accident in turn six with six laps to go. IndyCar red flagged the race for an attempt at a restart. When it was time to restart, Power's car could not re-fire, and the Australian dropped from the lead to off the lead lap. 

Power's misfortune gifted the lead to Marcus Ericsson with four laps to go and Ericsson held on. 

I cannot say much about Ericsson's race. He benefitted from the Rosenqvist caution and was set up for a podium finish afterward. Then Power's car fails to restart, and Ericsson just has to keep his nose clean for four laps, which he did. He has been good over the last two seasons, a regular top ten finish, but he has yet to have that stellar day where he controls a race. Even after his victory today, Ericsson has not had a race in IndyCar where he has been one of the three or four fastest cars. He only led the five laps and that is the most laps he has led in an IndyCar race. 

I cannot stress this enough; Ericsson has been good in IndyCar. He has been a solid top ten driver since joining Chip Ganassi Racing and he has had a few races get away from him for things out of his control. He has had poor pit stops cost him top tens at Texas, a rear wing on the verge of failing take him out of a top five spot at Gateway and he may have been in the top five at Iowa two years ago if he doesn't have an improper pit entry. 

This victory will feel good to him, but it will also feel a little hollow. I think no matter who won today this victory would have felt underwhelming.

2. I am going to level with you, this is not going to be deep analysis of this race. It is going to be more stuff from the gut and reacting to the results. 

Rinus VeeKay was second. It feels like it is about ten positions better than he was going to finish. He was another guy who leaped into the top five after the Rosenqvist accident and he held off a charging Patricio O'Ward late.

3. Patricio O'Ward would have been in the top five if the Rosenqvist accident never happened, but he was on a three-stop strategy. He lost out to Alexander Rossi during the first pit cycle, but O'Ward was still going to be at the front. This result feels fitting.

4. All the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars overachieved today, and we will cover those in one go because they were fourth, fifth and sixth with Takuma Sato ahead of Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci. 

Maybe one of these cars could have been in the top ten, but there was no sign all three cars would have made the top ten. Sato even had to give up a spot for blocking. Somehow, they pulled this out. Rahal needed a good result, especially after Indianapolis. 

5. I wish we could have seen this race played out without the Rosenqvist accident because Alexander Rossi was incredible after his got off the alternate tires. He stopped very early and he was flying, carving up traffic. It would have been interesting to see how Rossi on a three-stopper would have battled with Scott Dixon, who was on a two-stopper and had started the race on the primary compound, in the closing laps. We didn't get to see it.

6. Scott Dixon was eighth. This is two consecutive races where a caution bites Scott Dixon while he is leading. This result is at least respectable, but it feels like things are not shaking out in his favor this season.

7. Ed Jones was ninth and he looked good all race. He qualified fourth. His team did try to go the longest on the alternate tire and he lost ground. Ninth is probably better than he would have been if the Rosenqvist accident didn't happen. Jones might have ended up 14th or 15th, but in this scenario he fought hard and had a top ten car.

8. Josef Newgarden brushed the barrier on his out lap after his first stop and it looked like he was out of this race. Newgarden only loses a lap and gets the wave around after the Rosenqvist caution and he pulled out a top ten. That sounds about right for a Team Penske driver.

9. I am going to break up the rest of the field in bunches:

Sébastien Bourdais was 11th, but he should have picked up a top ten. He didn't do anything wrong all day. 

Simon Pagenaud dropped to 12th after restarting late in the top ten. I don't know if his tires were junk or if contact damaged his car. Either way, the result could have been better.

Conor Daly was 13th. That is it. 

Colton Herta cannot get a break. He looked good for a possible top five finish. It just feels like every race Herta's team gets caught out on strategy or he gets caught in traffic at the worst possible time. 

10. Álex Palou has struggled this weekend and he was not a factor in this one, finishing 15th. But Palou is still the championship leader! 

11. Jack Harvey has been out of his element this weekend. I think 16th is where he should have finished. 

James Hinchcliffe also cannot get a break. He was running second when the Rosenqvist accident happened. Hinchcliffe was out of fuel when he stopped on pit lane for the red flag. The team had to re-fuel the car and taking emergency service sent him to the rear. He never recovered and was 17th. He should have been in the top ten.

12. Dalton Kellett was 18th... good for him. I think this is the third time he has matched his career-best finish. 

Scott McLaughlin is getting a workout this weekend. Belle Isle is a difficult track. Almost everybody struggles here in their first race.

13. Will Power... oof. Power was angry after this one, and I get it. 

IndyCar has been red flagging races late for almost a decade. Each time we have feared what happens if someone does not start. It happened today and it just had to be the leader that could not getting fired up. 

This race was a mess. It was delayed for over an hour. There was the accident late. It has been hot and humid all weekend. I thought IndyCar could have run four laps under caution and had a restart with two laps to go. Romain Grosjean's accident wasn't that serious and his car was not in a difficult position. But I understand why IndyCar red flagged it and it got an extra green flag lap out of the race. 

Power did not deserve this. It is fickle trying to restart a race and making sure there is a green flag finish. It is damned if you do, damned if you don't. Should IndyCar wait until all the cars are restarted? Should IndyCar give that time? 

People get on Formula One for the free tire changes under red flags, but Formula One makes sure the cars are properly taken care of so they can continue in the race. In North America, a red flag is seen as hands off. No one is allowed to touch the car. No one is allowed to alter the race. Well, not touching the cars altered the race today. 

Power couldn't even get a fan on the car to cool himself and the ECU unit. If Power had gotten a fan in there from the start, perhaps his car doesn't overheat and fail to restart. This was a tough race with the conditions and the aeroscreen does make hot days worse. 

I think it is time for a philosophical change from IndyCar. The car has changed with the aeroscreen, and it has changed more for the better. Drivers feel safer. That is a good thing, but with that change IndyCar must consider altering its procedures. 

14. Ryan Hunter-Reay looked like a contender at the start and then he walloped the barrier on his out lap after stopping early to get off the alternate tire. Hunter-Reay overdrove the car. He could have been in the top five today. He might have been on the podium. At Indianapolis, he locked up the brakes entering pit lane, and that is not entirely his fault, but these are too many unforced errors from Hunter-Reay.

15. Max Chilton was 22nd. I don't know what happened. Jimmie Johnson had a throttle sensor issue put him behind the wall early. Johnson was able to rejoin the race, but this was a glorified test session for tomorrow, completing only 49 laps.

16. Romain Grosjean is one of probably 22 drivers that had a rough day. Grosjean looked strong at the start. He was shuffled back after the Rosenqvist caution and then contact cut down a tire and forced an extra pit stop. It only got worse from there when he got into the barrier in turn eight. 

17. And we get to Felix Rosenqvist, who fortunately is fine. Rosenqvist was taken to hospital under precaution, but he was awake and alert the entire time and went to the infield medical center. 

It is a scary accident when the throttle stick. It stuck in turn six. Fortunately, it didn't stick at the end of the straightaway at turn seven. This has been a tough year from Rosenqvist. The results have not been there. O'Ward has beat him every race for the most part. This doesn't help his year. 

We have to wait and see if anything is found after this hospital visit. I think we are all thankful we only heard good news after this one. Ten years ago, it could have been a lot worse. 

18. Let's hope tomorrow is a much calmer and quicker day. Less than 24 hours until the next race. We don't need any red flags tomorrow. I think we are sick of them.