Musings From the Weekend: A Complicated Brick in the Wall

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Spain is European champions. Álex Palou could not add to the Spanish triumphs, but Scott McLaughlin and Will Power had the Antipodean nations covered with a split of the Iowa doubleheader. There were cars at Goodwood, simultaneous sports car races in the Western Hemisphere, and a fuel mileage race that wasn't in Pocono. Of course, rain made an appearance. Firestone had a weekend. Ed Carpenter said some things. There is an event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and that is where our attention will be focused.

A Complicated Brick in the Wall

A summer tradition returns this weekend as the Brickyard 400 will take place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NASCAR's date at 16th and Georgetown started 30 years ago, and the series is back for its final race before a two-week break for the Olympics. However, this year's race is back on the oval, a 160-lap race around the 2.5-mile circuit, after the last three years were run on the IMS road course. 

This is a move that is largely celebrated as the Brickyard 400 is seen as one of NASCAR's "crown jewel" events alongside the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500. It is an event every driver has wanted to win since year one, when 86 cars attempted to qualify for 1994 and saw Jeff Gordon take a pivotal victory in NASCAR history.

Since Gordon, all the major names of late-20th century NASCAR and early-21st century NASCAR have won the race. Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Bill Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch. All past Cup champions, all Brickyard 400 winners. 

Along with some of the all-time best, there have been feel-good stories in Jamie McMurray winning it the same year as he won the Daytona 500. Paul Menard scoring his only Cup Series victory at a track his father spent a lot of time and money in an effort to win the Indianapolis 500. South Bend, Indiana's Ryan Newman winning in 2013 and Kasey Kahne ending a winless streak in an extended Brickyard 400 in 2017. 

For all the good, the Brickyard 400 has had some bad moments. Once a race that rivaled the Indianapolis 500 in crowd size, the event never recovered from the 2008 tire debacle where tire wear in practice led to cautions being called every ten to 12 laps. The crowd started to thin out, which coincided with the recession. The Brickyard 400 started to have more critics over the lack of passing and good racing. This hit an apex in 2016 after Kyle Busch led 149 of 170 laps. 

From that point forward, a roar grew for the race to change, and moving the race to the IMS road course was the easy fix that many wanted just to see something different and hopefully more competitive. Though the race remained on the oval, those calls change only increased, and there was more visible aluminum in the grandstand with each passing year. 

The wish came true in 2021, but even after getting what they wanted, the voices turned. There was a melancholy over the lost of the Brickyard 400, a landmark event in NASCAR's rise in the 1990s. When the new generation car was introduced in 2022, the road course race was not as lively as past road course races. More people wished for a Brickyard 400 return, especially with the new vehicle putting on better races at intermediate tracks where the previous generation of car struggled. 

When the return of the Brickyard 400 was announced for 2024, it was met with overall approval and many saw it as a return of a crown jewel event. However, there is a complicated legacy that must be addressed before we get to this weekend.

It is hard to call it a crown jewel event when the Brickyard 400 was gone for three years. 

Big events don't go away. The Masters isn't taking a three-year break. The Rose Bowl isn't going to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood for a change of scenery. Churchill Downs isn't changing up the Kentucky Derby and running it with greyhounds instead of thoroughbreds just for something different. 

If the Brickyard 400 mattered and racing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval was valued, the race would have never moved to the road course, even if the quality of racing was not outstanding. 

When the NASCAR Cup Series first visited Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was seen as a "we made it" moment for the series. It was on the biggest stage for motorsports in the United States, a place once kept to one race a year. If a driver wanted to compete on the hollowed grounds, they had to show up in May. With NASCAR's introduction, it brought drivers to the track who would never have otherwise had a shot to compete there. These weren't rum-dum drivers either. These were some of the best in the country who grew up in stock car racing and were never on the open-wheel path to the Indianapolis 500. A divide was bridged and it was celebrated. The Brickyard 400 became the hottest ticket in the series. 

It was never a stellar race with side-by-side racing or slingshot drafting, but it was a special race because of the location. A winner had accomplished something remarkable. Every team gave that little bit extra even though it was worth the same amount of points as any other race on the schedule.

Somewhere that got lost along the way. A tire debacle can erase the illusion quickly, but NASCAR was also changing. Race craft was deemphasized in favor of drama. A winner had to be more than the best man and machine. Every race needed a memorable  finish, a "game seven moment." It had to go to the wire and be thrilling with two, three, maybe even four-wide across the line all the time, at every race. 

The Brickyard 400 never lent itself to that kind of race. Many were happy to see it gone. Then everyone wanted it back. 

This is not as simple as picking up as business as usual. The Brickyard 400 went from being one of NASCAR's cornerstone races and then it was tossed to the curb for a carnival trick. It sacrificed every shred of history for a flash in the pan. It is back, but it cannot be ignored that it was disrespected because it didn't fit a mold it was always bigger than. 

Anyone calling it a crown jewel without acknowledging the last three years is telling a lie. No one is allowed to wax on about the prestige and importance of Indianapolis Motor Speedway when this race was deemed worthy to be discarded for something that in no way could come close to matching what the race once was. Switching to the race course was an act of desperation and anyone with half a brain knew it wouldn't be a bump upward.

This might the 30th anniversary celebration of the Brickyard 400, and it might be back on the oval, but let's not act like this was a couple that spent three years separated and sleeping with other people. The celebration should be dialed back at least 30% because there is a three-year period where this race was cast aside that we can never ignore.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, but did you know...

Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup race from Pocono, his second victory of the season. Cole Custer won the Grand National Series race. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his fifth victory of the season. 

The #8 Toyota of Sébastein Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa won the 6 Hours of São Paulo. The #92 Manthey Pure Rxing Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm won in LMGT3.

The #52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Nick Boulle and Tom Dillmann won the IMSA race from Mosport. The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Alexander Sims won in GTD Pro. The #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Roman De Angelis and Spencer Pumpelly won in GTD. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu swept the World Superbike races from Donington Park. Adrián Huertas swept the World Supersport races.

Louis Foster won the Indy Lights race from Iowa, his fifth victory of the season.

Coming Up This Weekend

The aforementioned Brickyard 400.

IndyCar's final street race of the season from Toronto. 

Formula One will be in Budapest. 

Formula E concludes its season in London.

GT World Challenge America is at Virginia International Raceway.

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is at Hockenheim.

World Superbike goes to Most for a back-to-back.

Supercars heads to Sydney Motorsports Park.

Super Formula has a round at Fuji. 

Latvia hosts the World Rally Championship.

How Did Scott Dixon Win on the IMS Road Course?

It should make more sense with time, but days later and it is still remarkable Scott Dixon won Saturday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course. In his record-breaking 319th consecutive start, Dixon won for the 54th time in his career, which also made him the first driver to reach the 200 top five finish milestone, but it is not as simple as that.

Let's lay out the pieces.

Dixon started 15th...

He was spun on lap one...

Topped off on fuel under caution on lap four...

Restarted in 23rd on lap seven...

And there were no more caution periods...

And Dixon won the race.

Dixon winning is not unfathomable even after his start, but there is a piece missing. Shouldn't there be a caution after a well-timed pit stop or a change in weather conditions and Dixon switched to wet tires at the right time while the rest of the field slipped and slid on slicks and tip-toed back to the pit lane while Dixon chugged along at full bore?

You would think so, but that didn't happen. 

So how did Scott Dixon, after facing the wrong direction seven corners into 1,190-corner race take victory? Let's get into the details. 

There is an obvious answer, but we aren't going to jump right to that. 

Fifteenth was not an advantageous starting position to begin with. Dropping outside the top twenty before you even complete a lap doesn't make it any easier, but that is where Dixon stood when he crossed the start/finish line at the end of lap one. 

The #9 Chip Ganassi Racing team kind of had its hand forced at that point. At best, the team would get two or three positions under that caution as some teams would use it to top off on fuel and try to stretch fuel and make it to the finish with two more stops. Instead of stopping within the next ten laps, Dixon's crew decided to get the first stop out of the way, and hope some cautions would go their way. 

Dixon's first stint was four laps. 

When the race restarted, Dixon was in 23rd on lap seven. With the plan to conserve fuel, Dixon did not run blistering lap times, but he still gained group. He was 22nd second at the end of lap eight, 21st at the end of lap ten, 20th at the end of lap 13. By lap 14, the first round of pit stops began for the rest of the field. He was up to 17th at the end of that lap, 13th the lap after that, 12th on lap 16 and he cracked the top ten on lap 17. Twelve of the cars that restarted ahead of him had made a pit stop. 

Again, Dixon was not running exceptionally quick. From lap eight to lap 17, his average lap time was 74.44203 seconds. Lap 17 was the first time he ran a sub-74 second lap (73.6952 seconds). In comparison, Graham Rahal's SLOWEST lap in that ten-lap period was a 73.5596 seconds. Rahal's average was 73.07919 seconds.

However, at lap 18 is when Dixon turns it up a bit. From lap 18 to lap 24, his average picks up to a 73.987-second lap. On lap 24, Rahal pits from the lead. At the end of lap 25, Dixon is third and Rahal has completed his out lap in seventh position. 

Starting on lap 23, Dixon runs six consecutive laps in the 73-second bracket after running only three in the first 22 laps of the race, albeit the first seven of those were effectively under caution, so six in the first 15 green flag laps. 

Rahal remains quicker. Dixon might be in the 73s, but barely. Lap 25 through lap 27 are all 73.9s. On lap 27, Dixon inherits the lead through the pit cycle. By lap 28 he back into the 74s. On fresh tires, Rahal runs an average of 73.58935 seconds from lap 26 to lap 31. 

On lap 32, Dixon enters pit lane, completing his second stint, a 27-lap run of which 25 were green flag laps. There were only 54 laps remaining in the race when Dixon's second pit stop occurred, meaning one more 27-lap stint and Dixon should make it to the finish on one more pit stop. 

Rahal inherits the lead while Dixon resumes racing in 14th, but the second round of pit stops is soon to start for the rest of the field. Despite averaging a 0.172-second slower lap from lap 34 to lap 39, Dixon moved up to eighth. But from lap 39 through lap 47 is where the race starts to turn for Dixon. The lap times between the two drivers are near identical, with Dixon holding the slight edge, 73.958 seconds to Rahal's 73.998. On lap 48, Rahal makes his second pit stop, returning to the track in third behind Dixon. Once Christian Lundgaard makes his second stop on lap 51, Dixon is back in the lead, 20 laps into Dixon's third stint. 

Despite Dixon being 20 laps into a stint and Rahal having just started a new stint, this is where Dixon finds time. The New Zealander increased his lead by 0.8019 seconds from lap 53 through the end of lap 55, 25 laps into his stint while Rahal was only eight laps in. When Dixon took the lead on lap 52, his advantage was 6.0598 seconds. At the end of lap 58, the lap prior to him entering for his final stop, the lead was 6.1749 seconds. A tenth of a second may be minuscule, but Dixon held serve at the end of his penultimate stint when even a half-second lost could have changed the outcome of this race.

But that isn't where it gets interesting. It what Dixon does in the immediate aftermath of his third, and ultimately, final pit stop. 

On lap 61, Dixon's first flier after his out lap, he runs his fastest lap of the race, a 73.3339-second lap. Up to that point, Dixon's fastest lap was a 73.6746 from lap 24. Dixon's lap 61 is 0.6902 seconds quicker than Rahal's lap 61. On lap 62, Dixon runs a 73.3656, his second fastest lap of the race, while Rahal runs 0.9906 seconds slower. At this point, it appears Rahal is losing time to Dixon, and he is. Rahal comes in on lap 63 for his final stop after only a 15-lap stint. On lap 63, Dixon runs a 73.5381, his third fastest lap of the race. The gap was about 29.5 seconds between the two drivers when Rahal entered pit lane.

Immediately after Rahal's stop, Dixon's lap time drops to a 74.3166 on lap 64. He runs five consecutive laps in the 74s.

Dixon was always going to inherit the lead once Rahal made his final pit stop, but it was a matter of how big the gap would be and how much time would be left in the race. But Rahal's team falls for Dixon's bluff. The #15 team sees it is losing time after Dixon changed tires, but it should have known Dixon could not afford for run 73.3s and 73.5s for the final 27 lap. The #15 crew should have sacrificed more time and then forced a greater fuel save in the closing laps. 

Consider that on Rahal's second stint, his average lap time from lap 26 (the lap after his out lap) through lap 47 was a 73.805. That was only a 24-lap stint and was on average nearly two-tenths slower than Dixon's three laps from lap 61 to 63. Rahal's crew could have dared Dixon's team to keep up that pace because both sides knew Dixon could not keep it up for 27 laps. At that pace, Dixon was going to fall multiple laps short of the finish. Even if Dixon kept it up for only four or five laps more, the time he would lose coasting in the final laps would be too significant to win the race. Yet, the #15 RLLR crew played into the #9 Ganassi crew's hand.

From lap 65 to the finish, Dixon's average lap time is a 74.1909. Disregarding caution laps, in-laps and out-laps, seven of Dixon's slowest 12 laps occur during this portion of the race. 

On the flip side, Rahal's average lap time over the final 21 circuits was a 73.878, just over three-tenths quicker than Dixon's average. During this 21-lap period, Dixon is fastest head-to-head on only three of the final 21 laps, lap 72, lap 73 and lap 84.

In case you are wondering, lap 72 is where Rahal is stuck behind Agustín Canapino and lap 73 is when Rahal is behind Marcus Armstrong. Over those two laps, Rahal lost 0.4372 seconds. Remember that number. 

Despite more lap traffic to come, Rahal is faster than Dixon on the next ten laps, gaining on average 0.3753 seconds per lap over that period. Despite what you may think, Rahal didn't lose time stuck behind Ryan Hunter-Reay. Rahal still scrapped back 0.0132 seconds on lap 80, the lap where it appears Hunter-Reay should have let Rahal through going into turn seven but doesn't until they have finished the lap on the main straightaway. Would Rahal likely have made up more time if Hunter-Reay let him through a half-lap earlier? Probably, but Rahal still gained on Dixon despite the interference. 

Where it goes wrong for Rahal is the penultimate lap. At the end of lap 83, the gap is 0.2689 seconds between Dixon and Rahal. Again, Rahal was averaging running 0.3753 seconds quicker than Dixon per lap over the previous ten laps, and then Rahal lost 0.595 seconds on the penultimate lap. The lead increased to 0.8639 seconds. In those previous ten laps, Rahal never ran a lap faster than 0.7076 seconds quicker than Dixon. That one bad lap set Rahal up to run faster than he had been able to run against Dixon. 

What happens on the final lap? Rahal runs 0.386 seconds quicker than Dixon, slightly better than his average over the ten laps from lap 74 to lap 83, but Dixon held on by 0.4779 seconds. Remember how much time Rahal lost over lap 72 and lap 73 when stuck behind Canapino and Armstrong? It was 0.4372 seconds.

The three laps Dixon runs faster than Rahal in the final 21 laps is what decided it. Traffic helped Dixon, but it didn't not help Rahal either. Rahal was on point, but that penultimate lap where he lost nearly six-tenths of a second did more damage than any back-marker.

But there is one obvious answer on how Dixon won this race... he made one fewer green flag pit stop. 

That is the obvious answer. Dixon didn't have to make six in-lap and out-laps under green flag conditions. He made four. Rahal made six. 

If you take the final 78 laps of the race into consideration, Dixon's average lap time was 75.04417 seconds to Rahal's 75.13899 seconds, a difference of 0.09482 seconds. Multiple that over 78 laps and you get Dixon being 7.3983 seconds quicker. What was Dixon's lead on lap 64 after Rahal's final pit stop? It was 7.0590 seconds. 

But if you remove the in-laps and the out-laps, Rahal has the faster average lap time at 74.2526 seconds to Dixon's 74.3721. A difference of 0.1194 seconds. 

It is a combination of things that won Dixon this race. The caution at the start hurt Dixon but it bought him time. If that caution period was a lap short, perhaps Dixon cannot hold off Rahal in the final laps, but that caution took care of one pit stop for Dixon while it didn't take care of any for Rahal. On-track, Dixon ran at a precise pace to stretch the fuel while not sacrificing speed to get to the end of an 85-lap race, but he knew when to push it and spooked his competition.

The #9 team stuck to its plan and made the most dominant car on the day react when the #15 RLLR crew should have stuck to its guns and realized it was in control all along. 

A pure hustle, plan and simple. 

First Impressions: Brickyard Weekend 2023

1. It was a glorious finish, one unimaginable at the end of lap one, not because of the players but the circumstances. Scott Dixon spun off at the opening lap after contact with Romain Grosjean. When the race restarted, Dixon was at the back of the field, topped off on fuel and looking for some help to pull out a result.

But this is Scott Dixon. He has made his living popping out from behind the eight-ball and stunning us all. Dixon did it again. He stretched every stint to get himself in position to make it on three stops while gaining ground in the process. His final pit stop came on lap 59, 26 laps from the finish, not impossible, but not easy when Graham Rahal would be charging with plenty of fuel to make it to the finish. 

Rahal lost the lead at the initial start, but soon made it back to the lead and this race appeared to be his... until Scott Dixon did what Scott Dixon does. 

It wasn't easy. Dixon's lead evaporated from just over seven seconds when Rahal emerged from his final pit stop on lap 63 to fractions when the checkered flag waved.

Traffic benefitted each and hindered both over those final 22 laps. Dixon hit his marks while Rahal gave chase. On the final lap, Dixon had enough and in his record 319th consecutive start, Dixon wins his 54th race, extending his streak to 19 consecutive seasons with a victory and extending his record to 21 years with a victory. 

Before today, there wasn't a race where you felt Dixon should have won through the first 13 races of this season. Even today, this was never Dixon's race until he made his final pit stop. Once he made it to lap 59, Dixon was in control. He could make it to the finish and the pressure would be on Rahal to chase. 

Dixon drove the perfect 85-lap race. If it was 86, he probably does not win. If it was 87, he likely definitely doesn't win. This Chip Ganassi Racing crew was put in a corner before a lap was completed and it pinpointed a route to victory. In the hands of one of the greatest drivers to ever set foot on this planet, Dixon carried this group to the top of the podium. 

This was rightfully Dixon's day. On top of becoming IndyCar's ironman with his 319th consecutive start, Dixon took an outstanding victory, which is not only his 54th victory, but doubles as his 200th top five finish, a milestone nobody in IndyCar had ever reached. Looking back at what transpired, this should have been seen as inevitable. After all, this is Scott Dixon we are talking about, a genius behind the steering wheel. 

2. A glorious finish means a glorious defeat for Graham Rahal. Rahal was flawless, and trying to find any error he made is a pointless exercise. Rahal did not lose this race. It was won by one of his greatest competitors. 

This hurts to think about because this should have been Rahal's day. He was untouched for the first two-thirds. The race was lining up for him, and then, you know, Scott Dixon. 

Rahal did nothing wrong. The crew did nothing wrong. If there is one critique to make is the team made Rahal's final pit stop about four laps too early on lap 63. If he stops at lap 67 or even lap 68, Rahal can make a shorter pit stop and he can go harder for the final 17-18 laps. 

The gap between Dixon and Rahal would not have been larger than it was if Rahal stopped four laps later. If anything, it might have been closer as Dixon could not run blistering lap times. That is the only critique you could make, and even then it doesn't hold up considering Rahal was only 0.4779 seconds short of victory on the strategy they played. 

If lapped traffic moved out of the way quicker, perhaps that would have also been the difference, but Rahal drove brilliantly. Considering how his season has gone, the crushing low of missing the Indianapolis 500, to be in control of a race, clearly the best driver today, this is a significant swing upward for him and this team. The team has been making the strides in the right direction. Today did not end in victory, but it should boost Rahal's confidence. 

3. It was really a race for first and second, as Patricio O'Ward was over eight seconds back in third. It was a good day for O'Ward. He spent much of the race in the top five. He leapfrogged ahead of Christian Lundgaard during a pit cycle and that battle went to the checkered flag, but O'Ward didn't quite have it for Rahal, and that is a little bit of a surprise. Not many would take Rahal in a head-to-head matchup versus O'Ward. Credit to the RLLR guys.

4. One long pit stop cost Christian Lundgaard a podium finish. That penultimate stop saw Lundgaard's crew have a delay on the fuel and it allowed O'Ward to slip ahead. I don't think Lundgaard would have been able to maintain pace with Rahal, but if he gets out ahead of O'Ward, Lundgaard is likely finishing third. It is still a great day for RLLR.

5. Alexander Rossi's issues with the less ideal tire compound have been well documented. This was another case. This time it was the primary tire, and on Rossi's second stint, after staying in Rahal's tire tracks for much of the opening stanza, Rossi lost ground on the primary tire, and he went from sniffing the lead to hanging onto the top five.I don't think Rossi cannot escape this. This has been a problem for really his entire IndyCar career. If he hasn't been able to correct his flaw of having one guaranteed bad stint every race, he isn't going to do it now, which means victories will be rare and we should get used to that.

6. How did Will Power finish sixth? At one point, Power was about eighth or ninth, just a good day. Nothing special. He finished sixth, and we were all distracted from seeing how Power got there. This is Power's issue though in 2023. He has having quiet drives to finish sixth, but if you aren't winning or at worst finishing on the podium more times than not, then a quiet sixth is another forgotten finish. When results are scattered, it is not good enough.

7. With a seventh-place finish and Josef Newgarden being caught in an opening lap accident that trapped Newgarden two laps down for the entire race, Álex Palou is on the verge of clinching the championship at GATEWAY! Forget one race early, we could be handing over the Astor Cup with two races to spare. 

Newgarden's misfortune combined with Dixon's triumphant means Palou is 101 points ahead of Dixon and 104 points clear of Newgarden. 

Once Newgarden was effectively out of it, all Palou and to do was keep it on the road, and he was between fifth and eighth for most of this race. Palou caused the opening lap mess when he nudged Marcus Armstrong. It was interesting that nothing was mentioned about Palou being under investigation for that contact. I was kind of ready for Palou to get sent to the back, not that it would have mattered as Newgarden was trapped a lap down, but Palou got away with one a little bit. 

Palou had no reason to push the envelope. Seventh is plenty today, and will likely be plenty at Gateway as well.

8. Eighth was the best Scott McLaughlin was going to do today. That's all I can say. McLaughlin didn't really run that much better than that at any point. He didn't run worse. Eighth it is. 

9. The same can be said for Kyle Kirkwood in ninth. At one point it looked like Kirkwood was going to be challenging for a top five, but he went the wrong direction over his middle two stints and ended up ninth.

10. When you are starting 17th, tenth is the first goal. Marcus Ericsson achieved that. This is Ericsson's biggest flaw. He can constantly finish in the top ten, but it is frequently in the back half of the top ten. It is good, but it isn't going to win championships. But he hasn't had a top five on a permanent road course since Road America last year. This is now nine consecutive permanent road courses without a top five finish. 

Ericsson is making it hard for Chip Ganassi not to bring him back, but he is also leaving room for Ganassi to search for someone just a little better.

11. Let's run through the rest of the field by teams. Rinus VeeKay had a strong drive to finish 11th, and he was flirting with a top ten before Ericsson got him late. It isn't stellar, but it is better for this group. 

It is better than Ryan Hunter-Reay a lap down in 20th. Ed Carpenter Racing's issues have always been deeper than the drivers. Hunter-Reay hasn't looked better than Conor Daly, and Hunter-Reay held Rahal up a lap longer than he should have. That is also on the team. The team should have said the top two are right behind you and once Dixon was through, Rahal should have been let through on the next straightaway. 

12. Linus Lundqvist had another great day, finishing where he started in 12th. He didn't quite have it to fight for a top ten, but he didn't go backward. Lundqvist has boosted his stock in these two starts. Hélio Castroneves also went forward from 18th to 15th. Nothing Meyer Shank Racing will be popping champagne over, but this was been better than most other races this season for MSR. 

13. Colton Herta suffered a puncture in that opening lap incident. That was a tough set back. It was a good recovery to finish 13th, but another lackluster result for the #26 Gainbridge Honda group. 

Romain Grosjean got into the back of Scott Dixon at the start after Dixon was stacked up behind the spinning Marcus Armstrong. So I guess Grosjean gets an assist for the victory? Either way, Grosjean tried the same strategy as Dixon but bailed and made this a four-stopper, meaning Grosjean was 18th. 

Remember that Iowa race, I believe it was 2014, where Sebastián Saavedra out of nowhere drove into the top five and was threatening the lead before brushing the wall or something broke that ended this race? That was Devlin DeFrancesco's race was today. There was no sign DeFrancesco was going to qualify in the top five, and then he did. And then he goes from fifth on the inside to taking the lead with a pass around Graham Rahal on the outside of turn one at the start. Nobody saw that coming. It was staggering.  

Unfortunately for DeFrancesco, it was all sizzle and no steak, as Rahal quickly retook the lead and then DeFrancesco dropped like a rock and ended up finishing a lap down in 19th. But what a burst it was! 

14. It has become easy to dump on Jack Harvey when the two other RLLR cars run well. Both those cars were in the top five today. Harvey started and finished 14th. It is a good day for Harvey considering his season. Not great, but not worth taking a shot at him about either.

15. David Malukas was not mentioned once, but he went from 27th to 16th. Sting Ray Robb was a lap down in 22nd. Nothing to write home about for Dale Coyne Racing. 

16. Callum Ilott was 17th, the last car on the lead lap. Agustín Canapino was 21st, one lap down. Neither driver did anything stupid. Juncos Hollinger Racing has had a low damage bill this season. We don't see these drivers in many accident. We also don't see them finishing in the top ten that often either. 

17. Comedy of errors for A.J. Foyt Racing today. I was actually thinking this morning that Santino Ferrucci really hasn't made an error this season... and then Ferrucci decides to leave with the air gun attached and he stripped the air hose out of the pit stand. That could fall on the crew, but we never got a clear replay of that stop. Somehow, Benjamin Pedersen was immediately four laps down and Pedersen wasn't even in the opening lap incident. I was never mentioned how he lost all those laps. There must have been some problem. 

18. I am going to cover Marcus Armstrong and Josef Newgarden here because they were both caught in the opening lap incident. That was harsh for Armstrong, because he did nothing wrong. Newgarden had nowhere to go. 

The tough thing to watch was seeing about a dozen safety workers just standing around. The IndyCar safety team deserves the praise it gets, but it could do a much better job getting cars restarted. It wasn't an incident that should have taken that long to clear nor that long to restart the two cars. 

Newgarden was parked on Armstrong, but Newgarden just had to be slightly pushed back. The lack of urgency from the safety team decided the result for these two drivers. If they get both cars restarted quicker and they stay on the lead lap, their races are different, and it could be the difference between Newgarden keeping the championship alive into the finale or not. 

This was a weekend from hell for Newgarden. The team could not find the pace. It made an engine change taking a six-spot grid penalty today to avoid a nine-spot penalty at Gateway. Everything is now on Gateway for Newgarden. He cannot lose any ground. He must gain. 

19. Felix Rosenqvist suffered a mechanical issue in the final stint and it cost him a top ten finish. That was brutal because all three Arrow McLaren cars were running around each other for most of this race. At worst, this should have been a top ten for Rosenqvist. 

20. And now the final off weekend of the IndyCar season. After next week, it is three consecutive weekends to close out the season. The end is here folks.

Morning Warm-Up: Brickyard Weekend 2023

For the first time since Saturday June 3, 2017 at Belle Isle, 104 races ago, Graham Rahal will lead the field to the green flag for an IndyCar race, as Rahal took pole position for the Gallagher Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with a time of 70.1132 seconds. Rahal has not won in 103 races, as he swept that Belle Isle weekend in 2017, winning the second race on Sunday June 4 from third on the grid. This is his second front row start of the season. He started second at Mid-Ohio last month. The only other time Rahal has started in the top five at the track was fourth in the July 2020 race. Rahal has finished seventh in four of the last seven IMS road course races. He has finished seventh in at least one IMS road course race in each of the last three seasons. 

Christian Lundgaard makes it an all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing front row, as the Danish driver was 0.1154 seconds off his American teammate. This is the second consecutive IMS road course race Lundgaard has started from the front row. He has started on one of the first two races in three of five appearances at the IMS road course. The Dane has finished on the lead lap in every road and street course race this season. 

For the first time this season, Alexander Rossi is the top Arrow McLaren qualifier, as Rossi takes third on the grid, 0.1800 seconds off Rahal's pole position time. It is Rossi's best start since Texas, where he started third. Rossi has nine top ten finishes in 12 IMS road course starts. He has finished on the podium in the last two races on the track, including his victory last July from second on the grid. 

Patricio O'Ward swept row two for Arrow McLaren. O'Ward was 0.2321 seconds off the fastest time in the final round. O'Ward enters this race with six consecutive top ten finishes, the longest top ten finish streak of his IndyCar career. O'Ward had two five-race streaks prior, from the Indianapolis 500 through Mid-Ohio in 2021 and then a streak that spanned the final three races of 2022 and the first two races of this season.

Devlin DeFrancesco gets his best IndyCar starting position in fifth, 0.2806 seconds behind Rahal. It is also DeFrancesco's first Fast Six appearance. The Canadian's previous best starting spot was ninth at Gateway last year. His previous best on a road or street course was 12th, which happened at Toronto last year and at Road America this past June. DeFrancesco is one of five drivers in IndyCar history to make 30 starts but not have a top ten finish. He has finished outside the top twenty in four consecutive races, the worst slump of his IndyCar career. 

Romain Grosjean makes it three consecutive of team pairs, as the Andretti Autosport driver ended up 0.0083 seconds off his teammate DeFrancesco on row three. This was Grosjean's sixth Fast Six appearance of the season, and his second consecutive. His average finish in his first five Fast Six appearances is 10.4 with a median of sixth. Since finishing runner-up in both IMS road course races in 2021, Grosjean's average finish in the last three races here is 14.667.

Marcus Armstrong fell 0.0008 seconds short of making it to the Fast Six for the first time in his career. Seventh is still the best starting position in Armstrong's IndyCar career. The New Zealander will be making his tenth career IndyCar start this weekend. Notable drivers to have their first career victory come in their tenth career start are Danny Sullivan (Cleveland 1984), Tony Stewart (Pikes Peak 1997) and Billy Boat (Texas 1998). 

For the fourth consecutive row, one team takes both positions. This time it is an all-Chip Ganassi Racing row four. Álex Palou missed out on the Fast Six for the second time in the last three road/street course races, and Palou will start eighth. The Catalan driver enters this race with an 84-point lead. If he takes the green flag, at worst, his championship lead leaving this race will be 36 points. 

For the eighth time in ten IMS road course appearances, Felix Rosenqvist starts in the top ten, and it will be from ninth in this race. The Swede has three consecutive top ten finishes on the IMS road course. At 9.9, this is one of four courses where Rosenqvist has an average finish inside the top ten. The other three tracks are Toronto (6.0), Portland (6.0) and Laguna Seca (9.3). 

Scott McLaughlin rounds out the top ten on the grid. McLaughlin was second at Nashville last week. There has not been a driver to win after finishing second in his previous start since Marcus Ericsson was second at Mid-Ohio and then won at Nashville in 2021. The most recent time tenth starting position won an IndyCar race was Ryan Hunter-Reay in the second Belle Isle race in 2018. 

Colton Herta was 0.0279 seconds off advancing from the first group in the first round of qualifying. However, grid penalties for some other competitors moves Herta to 11th starting position. This is the third time in the last four IMS road course races Herta has missed the second round of qualifying. The Californian has not won in his previous 25 starts. Prior to this slump, his longest winless drought was 14 races, which occurred during his rookie season. Herta has finished worse than his starting position in five of the last six races. The only time he finished better was going from 14th to third at Toronto. 

Linus Lundqvist's second IndyCar start will come from 12th position. Lundqvist was 0.0873 seconds shy of making it two-for-two on second round qualifying appearances in his IndyCar career, but benefits from a few others having grid penalties. The Swede won twice in four Indy Lights starts on the IMS road course. He was fifth in the other two races. 

The most recent IndyCar winner, Kyle Kirkwood, is starting from 13th. Kirkwood only won once in six Road to Indy starts at the IMS road course. That one victory was the second race of the May 2018 U.S. F2000 weekend. He has finished 26th, 23rd and 14th in his first three IndyCar races on this circuit.

Jack Harvey ended up eighth in round two of qualifying, but Harvey is one of three drivers to have a six-grid spot penalty due to using a fifth engine this season. Instead of starting eighth, Harvey will start 14th. The Briton has finished in the top ten of the 14th race of the season the last two years, including his most recent top ten finish, a tenth at Nashville last year. 

Scott Dixon takes 15th on the grid. This is the sixth time in the last seven IMS road course races Dixon has failed to advance from the first round of qualifying. Dixon is on the verge of making a record 319th consecutive start. When Jimmy Vasser surpassed Al Unser, Jr.'s record of 192 consecutive starts at Montreal in 2004, Vasser finished eighth. When Tony Kanaan surpassed Jimmy Vasser's record of 212 consecutive starts at Baltimore in 2013, Kanaan finished 15th.

For the first time Will Power did not make it out of the first round of qualifying at the IMS road course, and Power will start 16th. Power leads all drivers with five victories on the IMS road course. All five of those have come from the front row. Power has never gone more than three consecutive IMS road course races without a victory. He has finished third, third and 12th in the last three IMS road course races.

Marcus Ericsson made it two Chip Ganassi Racing cars to fail to advance from round one. Ericsson occupies 17th on the grid, the seventh time in ten IMS road course appearances he has not advance to round two in qualifying. Ericsson has six top ten finishes in nine IMS road course starts, but his only top five finish was fourth in the May 2022 race. Ericsson hasn't had a top five finish on a permanent road course since he was second at Road America in June 2022. 

Hélio Castroneves made it to the second round of qualifying for the first time this season, and he qualified 12th, but Castroneves is knocked down to 18th on the grid due to a six-grid spot penalty for using his fifth engine this season. The Brazilian had finished no worse than sixth in his first five IMS road course starts. He has finished outside of the top ten in his last seven, including six finishes outside the top fifteen. 

This will be Josef Newgarden's worst starting position of the season, as Newgarden ended up 19th in qualifying. He has finished outside the top ten in two of four permanent road course races this season. Newgarden was second at Road America in June and seventh in the IMS road course race in May. He has four top five finishes and seven top ten finishes in the last eight races at this track, but his only podium finish here was his victory in the first race of the Harvest Grand Prix weekend in October 2020. (Update: 9:04 a.m. ET. Newgarden will serve a six-spot grid for an unapproved engine change and he will start 25th). 

Rinus VeeKay rounds out the top twenty. VeeKay had three top five finishes in his first four IMS road course starts, including his victory in May 2021, and he had an average finish of 6.5. In his four IMS road course starts since that victory, VeeKay has an average finish of 16.5.

Ryan Hunter-Reay ended up 21st in qualifying, his third consecutive race starting outside the top twenty and fifth time in the seven races he has appeared for Ed Carpenter Racing. Hunter-Reay has finished outside the top ten in seven consecutive starts on the IMS road course. Hunter-Reay had finished no worse than 11th in his first four starts on the IMS road course, including two podium finishes. 

Santino Ferrucci takes 22rd on the grid, five spots better than where Ferrucci started at this track in May. He had two top ten finishes in his first two IMS road course starts. His average finish in his last three IMS road course starts is 16.667.

Agustín Canapino is the top Juncos Hollinger Racing qualifier for the fourth time this season, and for the second time in the last three races. Canapino takes the inside of row 12. The Argentine's only finish in the top twenty on a permanent road course was 19th at Road America in June. 

Sting Ray Robb was slowest in the first qualifying group, but a grid penalty bumps Robb up to 24th. This is only the second time Robb has been the top Dale Coyne Racing starter this season. The other race was Long Beach. The Idahoan completed only one lap back in the May IMS road course race after contact with his Dale Coyne Racing teammate David Malukas. 

Callum Ilott has his worst starting position on a road/street course this season in 25th. Ilott has finished better than his starting position in ten of 13 races this season. The good news is he can only go back two positions from here. In Ilott's previous six starts this season from outside the top twenty, he finishes on average 9.833 spots better than where he started.

Benjamin Pedersen starts 26th, his third time starting outside the top 25 in the last four races. Pedersen has finished outside the top twenty in five consecutive races. He was 24th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May after starting 23rd.

After starting three consecutive races in the top ten, David Malukas rolls off from 27th position in this race. Malukas qualified 21st, but he has a six-grid spot penalty for using his fifth engine this season. Malukas is coming off his four finish outside the top 25 this season after an engine fire and subsequent rear wing failure took him out of the Nashville race. Malukas has yet to finish in the top ten in a IMS road course start. 

USA's coverage of the Gallagher Grand Prix from Indianapolis Motor Speedway will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Brickyard Weekend 2023

The 14th round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. This is again the shared weekend for IndyCar and NASCAR's top two series. Over the weekend, 104 cars will start the three races held on the 2.439-mile road course. Just over 558.5 miles worth of racing, 229 laps, is scheduled over these three events. Things are tightening up in each of these series. For NASCAR, the playoffs are approaching. For IndyCar, this is the start of the final quarter of the season with the Lagunea Seca season finale only 29 days after this race.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday August 12 with green flag scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET.
Channel: USA
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 9:00 a.m. ET (90 minutes)

Qualifying: 12:30 p.m. ET 

Final Practice: 4:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)

Saturday:

Race: 2:30 p.m. ET (85 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

The Championship Picture

With four races left in the IndyCar season, only 216 points are left on the table. After Nashville, only eight drivers remain mathematically eligible for the championship.

Álex Palou leads the championship on 513 points. Palou has finished in the top ten of all 13 races this season. He is the first driver to open a season with 13 consecutive top ten finishes since Tony Kanaan finished in the top ten in all 16 races in the 2004 Indy Racing League season. Palou has finished on the podium in six consecutive road/street course races, dating back to his victory in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. 

Josef Newgarden lost four points in the championship, and Newgarden enters Indianapolis 84 points behind Palou with four races remaining. Newgarden has yet to finish ahead of Palou on a road or street course this season. Newgarden has fourth consecutive top five finishes, the first time he has had four consecutive top five finishes since the 2019 season. 

Scott Dixon has finished in the top ten in 12 of the first 13 races this season, and over half of those results have been top five finishes, but despite the success Dixon is 126 points behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Palou in the championship. Dixon has yet to be the top Ganassi finisher in a race this season, but he has been the second best Ganassi finisher in 11 of the first 13 races, including last week at Nashville. 

Scott McLaughlin is on a run of good form with three consecutive top five finishes and seven top ten finishes on the spin, but McLaughlin is 142 points behind Palou. Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top five in the championship, 156 points behind his Ganassi teammate. While Ericsson has 11 top ten finishes this season, the Swede has only one top five finish in the last seven races. 

Patricio O'Ward has only two top five finishes in the last eight races, and despite having six consecutive top ten finishes, O'Ward is sixth in the championship, trailing Palou by 160 points. Defending IndyCar champion Will Power is seventh, 176 points off the top spot. 

The last driver with a mathematical shot at the championship is Christian Lundgaard, who is exactly 216 pants back. The only way Lundgaard could win the championship is to win the remaining four races with the maximum of 54 points per victory and Palou would have to not start any of the final four races. Unfortunately for Lundgaard, his championship hopes will likely end when the green flag waves on Saturday afternoon. 

Five drivers were eliminated from the championship after Nashville. Despite his second victory of the season, Kyle Kirkwood fell seven points shy of being in Lundgaard's position. Colton Herta was also eliminated as was Alexander Rossi. Romain Grosjean made it a hat trick of Andretti Autosport knocked out of the championship fight, and Andretti Autosport's championship slump continues. The team's most recent title remains Ryan Hunter-Reay's 2012 achievement. Felix Rosenqvist made it two Arrow McLaren drivers eliminated at Nashville. 

After this race from the IMS road course, only 162 points will remain available over the final three races. Entering this weekend, O'Ward and Power are both on the wrong side of elimination and have ground to make up. 

Iceman Becometh Ironman

If Scott Dixon takes the green flag on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it will be Dixon's 319th consecutive start, giving Dixon the record for most consecutive IndyCar races started. This streak dates back to August 1, 2004, when Dixon started at Michigan in the Indy Racing League. The New Zealander missed the prior race at Milwaukee after a few accidents in practice left him with injuries to his thumb and ankle and kept him from competing. 

When this streak started, Dixon had four career victories, 12 podium finishes and he was the 2003 IRL champion. Since then, Dixon has added 49 victories, and he is ranked second all-time. He is also second all-time in podium finishes with 133. His six championships are second only to A.J. Foyt. After finishing fifth last week at Nashville, Dixon now has 199 top five finishes in his IndyCar career, one away from becoming the first driver to 200 top five results.

This record streak has taken place over 40 different circuits, 19 ovals, 11 road courses and ten temporary/street courses. Those tracks range from Indianapolis Motor Speedway's oval and Texas, which have been in each season throughout this streak, to the likes of Circuit of the Americas in Austin, NOLA Motorsports Park and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, all of which appeared only once.

The streak has taken Dixon to 22 different states, two Canadian provinces and four different countries spread over three continents. 

Over the last 318 races, Dixon has raced against 169 different drivers. Those drivers have represented 27 different countries. The United States has produced most of Dixon's competitors during this streak (56) while the United Kingdom is second (22). He has raced against three of his fellow New Zealanders, including two that will be on the grid Saturday in Dixon's record breaking attempt. 

Dixon has raced against drivers from China (Ho-Pin Tun) and Monaco (Stefano Coletti). He has raced against half the Czech driver in IndyCar history (Tomáš Enge), half the Russian drivers in IndyCar history (Mikhail Aleshin), and half the South African drivers in IndyCar history (Tomas Scheckter). Dixon raced against all three Venezuelans to start an IndyCar race (Milka Duno, E.J. Viso and Rodolfo González). 

During this streak, Dixon has competed against three Andrettis, two Foyts, two Hertas, two Laziers, a Brabham, Fittipaldi, Rahal, Villeneuve and an Unser. 

Dixon has competed against two World Drivers' Champions, two 24 Hours of Le Mans winners, two NASCAR Cup Series champions, two sons of World Drivers' Champions, three grandsons of World Drivers' Champions, four sons of Indianapolis 500 winners, five Formula One grand prix winners, 19 Indianapolis 500 winners and 19 IndyCar champions.

Of the 169 drivers, Dixon raced against 22 of them just once, but one of those drivers he will get to compete against for a second time as this weekend as he attempts to break the record (Linus Lundqvist, who will make his second start in the #60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing).

Dixon's streak began in the #1 Target G-Force-Toyota. He has made 311 consecutive starts in car #9. Honda has been the engine behind Dixon in 279 of the last 318 races. Chevrolet powered him 32 times. Toyota was the engine for the first seven races of this streak. He has been in a Dallara chassis for every race since the 2006 season finale at Chicagoland, 281 consecutive races. Dallara has been the chassis for 293 of these 318 races. Eighteen of these races were in a Panoz and seven were in a G-Force badged chassis. 

Darren Manning was Dixon's teammate when the streak began at Michigan, one of 20 different teammates Dixon has had during this streak. While Dixon has won 49 times during this streak, his teammates have combined to win 33 races. Dario Franchitti is responsible for most of those victories with 13. Álex Palou has eight of those victories while Dan Wheldon has six. Marcus Ericsson can claim three of those victories. Charlie Kimball, Tony Kanaan and Felix Rosenqvist each won once. 

If Dixon starts on Saturday, he will break Tony Kanaan's record, which was set nine years, 11 months and 11 days prior. When Kanaan broke Jimmy Vasser's record with his 212 consecutive start at Baltimore in 2013, Dixon was on 154 consecutive starts. Vasser claimed the record on August 29, 2004 at Montreal when he made his 193rd consecutive start, surpassing Al Unser, Jr. in the process. Vasser's streak began at the 1993 Laguna Seca season finale. Unser, Jr.'s streak began at the 1983 CART season opener at Atlanta and ran through Nazareth on April 23, 1995.

Dixon's 100th consecutive start was July 25, 2010 at Edmonton. He won that race. His 200th consecutive start was June 26, 2016 at Road America. An mechanical failure ended his race after only completing six laps. The 300th consecutive start happened just last year, July 24, 2022, a fourth-place finish at Iowa.

While we are looking at Dixon's streak, the one Milwaukee race Dixon missed is the only time he missed a race in his career. The New Zealander has started 381 of 382 races he has entered since his debut in 2001, and he is ranked fourth all-time in career starts.

Another IMS Road Course Race

IndyCar has become quite familiar with the IMS road course. This weekend will mark the ninth race around the circuit since the start of the 2020 season. During that time, the only other courses to host more than five races is Iowa, which has hosted three doubleheaders and was not on the 2021 calendar. Overall, this will be 15th IndyCar race on the IMS road course.

Through the last eight IMS road course races, there have been seven different winners from four different teams. The one repeat winner is Will Power, who won the second race of the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader held in October 2020 and the Brickyard weekend race in 2021. 

Scott Dixon won the first IMS road course race during the 2020 season while Josef Newgarden won the first race of the Harvest Grand Prix weekend. Rinus VeeKay scored his first career IndyCar victory in May 2021. Andretti Autosport swept the races in 2022 with Colton Herta winning a wet race in May before Alexander Rossi won in July, albeit with a car that violated the minimum weight rule. This past May, Álex Palou scored his first victory of the season at the IMS road course. 

Since 2020, Power and Rossi are tied for most podium finishes at the IMS road course with four apiece. Herta has finished on the podium three times during this run. Herta and Rossi each have five top five finishes in the last eight IMS road course events. Newgarden and Power are the only other drivers to finish in the top five in at least half the races. 

No driver has finished in the top ten in all eight IMS road course races since 2020. Dixon, Newgarden and Graham Rahal each have seven top ten finishes during that span. Marcus Ericsson, Herta and Rossi each have six. Power has five. 

Among the drivers with at least three starts in the last eight IMS road course races, Christian Lundgaard has the best average finish at 6.75 through four starts. Rossi is second with an average finish of seventh, slightly better than Power's 7.125 and Herta's average is 7.5. Newgarden and Rahal are tied on average finish at 7.625 while Dixon has an average of 8.5, just ahead of Marcus Ericsson, who is on 9.125 and Romain Grosjean is the final driver with an average inside the top ten for IMS road course races since 2020. Grosjean's average is 9.6 in five starts. 

One name that has yet to be mentioned is Álex Palou. Palou is the most recent winner on the IMS road course, and he has competed in all eight races since 2020. However, things started slow for the Catalan driver. In 2020, while driving for Dale Coyne Racing, he had finishes of 19th, 17th and ninth at the IMS road course. While he was third in the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May, Palou suffered an engine failure in the race that August and finished 27th. In May 2022, Palou was 18th after he spun and stalled the car after pulling from the damp grass, trapping him a lap down for the rest of the race. He was tenth last summer in the Brickyard weekend race. 

Among all tracks where Palou has made at least three starts, the IMS road course is Palou's second worst on average finish at 13th ahead of just Gateway, where he has an average finish of 14th. The only other track where he has an average finish worse than tenth is the Indianapolis oval, and his average finish there is only 10.75. 

Another RLLR Pick-Me-Up

It has been a feast or famine season for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2023. RLLR has experienced the greatest low from having a car miss the Indianapolis 500 while all four of its entries were in danger of missing the race, to the tremendous high of victory at Toronto, and the team technically has a driver mathematically alive for the championship entering the final four races of the season.  

The IMS road course has been one of RLLR's better racetracks. In May, Christian Lundgaard won pole position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, his first career pole position. In that same race weekend, Jack Harvey qualified fourth and Graham Rahal qualified eighth. In the race, Lundgaard ended up fourth while Rahal rounded out the top ten.

Lundgaard has never started worse than eighth on the IMS road course, and he has started in the top six in three of those races. His worst finish here was 12th, which was his IndyCar debut in August 2021. Since then, Lundgaard has three consecutive top ten finishes at this track. The Dane was second last year at the Brickyard weekend, and he led 13 laps in the May race. Lundgaard has finished in the top ten of all four natural-terrain road course races this season. 

Rahal has started all 14 races on the IMS road course and he has finished in the top ten on 12 occasions. Twice he has been runner-up, going from 17th to second in 2015 and he went from fourth to second in the July 2020 race. These finishes have come despite poor starting positions. Rahal has started outside the top ten in ten of 14 IMS road course races, and he has finished in the top ten in eight of those races. He has led 48 laps on the IMS road course, tied for the eighth most all-time. 

In May, Harvey spun on his own and ended up 20th, his second consecutive 20th-place finish in an IMS road course race. He has finished outside the top ten in the last three IMS road course races. However, prior to this slump, Harvey had four top ten finishes in his first six IMS road course starts, including a third in his IMS road course debut in 2019. Harvey has started in the top ten in eight of nine appearances, including four trips to the Fast Six. His worst starting position was 13th in last year's Brickyard weekend race. 

RLLR has had at least one top ten finisher in the last 13 IMS road course races, which includes three runner-up finishes, six top five finishes, and the team has had multiple top ten finishers in five out of ten IMS road course races since the team expanded to two full-time entries in 2018. 

The team has not won multiple races in a season since 2019 when Takuma Sato won at Barber Motorsports Park and Gateway. The only time RLLR has had multiple drivers win a season was in 2001 when Kenny Bräck won four races and Max Papis won twice. 

Indy Lights

Leading off proceedings from the Speedway on Friday will be Indy Lights, which has its race scheduled for Friday August 11 at 4:50 p.m. ET for 35 laps.

A second consecutive victory at Nashville has extended Christian Rasmussen's lead to 45 points over Nolan Siegel with five races remaining. In the last three races, Rasmussen has an average finish of 1.667 while Siegel's average during that time is 11.667.

Hunter McElrea has five consecutive top five finishes, but McElrea is 59 points behind Rasmussen. McElrea's runner-up finish at Nashville is his best finish this season. Jacob Abel has finished on the podium in three of the last four races, and Abel is 61 points off the championships lead. 

Louis Foster rounds out the top five on 256 points, 31 points ahead of Reece Gold. James Roe, Jr. is up to seventh in the championship on 219 points. Danial Frost has dropped to eighth on 207 points after Frost has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive races. Kyffin Simpson has finished outside the top ten in the last two races and he is down to ninth on 191 points. Ernie Francis, Jr. round out the top ten on 194 points. 

Rasmus Lindh has three consecutive top ten finishes and he has 179 points, 13 points clear of Jagger Jones. Christian Bogle is 13th on 165 points while Jamie Chadwick is coming off his best finish of the season in eighth, and Chadwick is on 163 points. 

Kiko Porto will make his Indy Lights debut this weekend in the #47 Cape Motorsports entry. Porto won the 2021 U.S. F2000 championship, a season where he won a race on the IMS road course, and he is currently second in the USF Pro 2000 championship. 

In May, Matteo Nannini won the Indy Lights race on the IMS road course driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Foster was second while Simpson was third. McElrea and Rasmussen rounded out the top five in the championship. Siegel was 13th in the May IMS road course race.

NASCAR

For the fourth consecutive year, NASCAR and IndyCar are racing together at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year, there are only three races left in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season and we know at least one playoff spot will be available on points.

After missing the playoffs last year despite being ranked in the top five in points, Martin Truex, Jr. leads the championship on 799 points with three victories. Truex, Jr. is 57 points ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin while William Byron, who leads the Cup Series with four victories, is 96 points back. Christopher Bell makes it three Gibbs cars in the top four of the championship, 122 points behind Truex, and Kevin Harvick rounds out the top five despite not having a victory. Harvick is 136 points back. 

One point behind Harvick is Kyle Larson, who is six points clear of Ross Chastain. Brad Keselowski sits in eighth, 148 points off the top with Kyle Busch two points behind Keselowski. Ryan Blaney rounds out the top ten on 651 points, two points ahead of Chris Buescher, who has won the last two races. Joey Logano is three points behind Buescher in the championship.

Last year's Indianapolis winner Tyler Reddick is 13th in points, 190 points behind Truex, Jr. Bubba Wallace currently holds the penultimate playoff spot. Wallace is 58 points above the cutline with Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. sandwiched between Wallace and Ty Gibbs in 16th on 486 points. 

Gibbs provisionally holds the final playoff spot by three points over Michael McDowell. Daniel Suárez is five points on the outside while 2021 Indianapolis winner A.J. Allmendinger is 24 points out. Alex Bowman is 44 points back with Austin Cindric 53 points behind Gibbs. Chase Elliott is 55 points outside the playoffs with three races remaining.

Besides the playoff picture, Indianapolis will see a number of one-off entries. Shane van Gisbergen returns for his second career start, six weeks after van Gisbergen won on debut in the inaugural Chicago street race. Van Gisbergen will be back in the #91 Chevrolet for Trackhouse. 

There will be two debutants in this race. Fellow Supercars competitor Brodie Kostecki will drive the #33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. Le Mans winner and two-time World Endurance Drivers' Champion Kamui Kobayashi will be in the #67 Toyota for 23XI Racing. Jenson Button will be back for his third race of the season. Button continues in the #15 Ford for Rick Ware Racing. 

The NASCAR Cup race will be at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday August 13.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will follow IndyCar on Saturday August 12 at 5:30 p.m. ET. NASCAR's second division has five races left in its regular season. 

John Hunter Nemechek leads the series in victories with five, the most recent coming at Michigan last weekend. Nemechek leads the championship on tiebreaker, as he and Austin Hill are tied on 811 points, but Hill has only won four times this season. 

Justin Allgaier is 34 points back in third while Cole Custer is 106 points back in fourth. Josh Berry is 151 points off the top in fifth. Sam Meyer is 30 points behind his JR Motorsports teammate Berry with Chandler Smith in seventh, 199 points off the top. Daniel Hemric is eighth on 601 points with Riley Herbst in ninth on 574 points with Sammy Smith rounding out the top ten on 558 points. Sheldon Creed is in 11th on 552 points. 

Jeb Burton takes the final playoffs despite being 14th in points thanks to his victory at Talladega. Parker Kligerman is the first driver outside the playoffs, 18 points behind Creed for the final spot at this time. Brandon Jones is 45 points outside with Brett Moffitt 86 points out. 

Along with the regulars, Allmendinger, Gibbs and Chastain are entered in both races at IMS this weekend.  Conor Daly and Sage Karam will be teammates for Alpha Prime Racing in the #44 and #45 Chevrolets respectively. 

On Friday night, the NASCAR Truck Series playoffs begin at Indianapolis Raceway Park. That race will start at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Corey Heim leads the championship on 2,030 points, eight points clear of defending Truck Series champion Zane Smith. Carson Hocevar leads the series with three victories this season and he is nine points off Heim. Christian Eckes is in fourth on 2,019 points, two more than Grant Enfinger and five points ahead of Ty Majeski. 

The 2021 Truck champion Ben Rhodes is seventh on 2,013 points, eight points ahead of Nick Sanchez in eighth. Matt DiBenedetto and Matt Crafton will start the playoffs as the two drivers below the cutline. Each driver is on 2,002 points, three points below the threshold to make round two. 

Shanve van Gisbergen will make his Truck Series debut at IRP driving the #41 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports. 

Fast Facts

This will be the eighth IndyCar race to take place on August 12 and the first since Sébastien Bourdais won at Road America in 2007.

Hélio Castroneves won on August 12, 2001 at Mid-Ohio. 

This Saturday's race will fall on Parnelli Jones' 90th birthday.

Nine drivers have won on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They are Alex Lloyd, Jack Harvey, Dean Stoneman, Colton Herta, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi.

A list of possible drivers who could become the tenth driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend are Hélio Castroneves, Marcus Ericsson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Tyler Dillon.

Rinus VeeKay, Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta are the only drivers to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indy Lights and IndyCar. VeeKay and Herta are the only driver to win on the IMS road course in both Indy Lights and IndyCar. Jack Harvey, David Malukas or Linus Lundqvist could join VeeKay and Herta as drivers to win on the IMS road course in Indy Lights and IndyCar.

Rinus VeeKay is the only driver to have a first career IndyCar victory occur on the IMS road course. 

Patricio O'Ward or Sting Ray Robb could become the first driver to win on the IMS road course in Indy Pro 2000 and IndyCar. 

Kyle Kirkwood could become the first driver to win on the IMS road course in U.S. F2000 and IndyCar.

The average starting position for an Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course winner is 3.857 with a median of second. 

Eight of 14 IMS road course races have been won from the front row. 

The average number of lead changes in an IMS road course race is 8.642 with a median of tenth.

Eight of 14 IMS road course races have had ten lead changes or more.

Only two IMS road course races have had fewer than five lead changes. The 2017 Grand Prix of Indianapolis had four lead changes and the second race of the 2020 Harvest Grand Prix had zero lead changes. Will Power won both races. 

The second race of the 2020 Harvest Grand Prix is the most recent occasion of a driver leading every lap in an IndyCar race.

The average number of cautions in an IMS road course race is 1.928 with a median of 1.5. The average number of caution laps is 7.285 with a median of 4.5.

Only three IMS road course races have had more than two cautions. The inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis had four cautions for 19 laps in 2014 and the 2019 race had three cautions for 12 laps. Simon Pagenaud won both those races. The 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis had a record eight cautions for a record 31 laps in mixed conditions, which Colton Herta won. 

Predictions

To cap off this historic weekend, Scott Dixon wins in his 319th consecutive start, and his 54th victory will double as his 200th top five finish. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will have only one top ten finisher. Colton Herta will not break down. At least four teams are represented in the Fast Six. The gap between first and second in the championship will be greater than 75 points after this race. At least three of the top five finishers from the May IMS road course race do not finish in the top five this weekend. Linus Lundqvist finishes within two positions of Marcus Armstrong. Sleeper: Graham Rahal.

First Impressions: Brickyard Weekend 2022

1. After plenty of heartbreak over the last three years, Alexander Rossi had one go in his favor today, though it was due to a teammate's misfortune. Rossi spent much of the first half of the race in second place, first behind Felix Rosenqvist and then behind teammate Colton Herta. Herta was on fire, moving from ninth to first in the first eight laps. Herta remained in front over the next two stints, and Rossi was second but never far off Herta.

Just before the halfway point, Herta slowed through the turn eight and nine section and Rossi took the lead. From there, Rossi picked up where Herta left off. Rossi held a comfortable lead without much threat from the field. 

We have seen Rossi have good days over the last three years. He probably should have won at least three or four of the last 49 races, but breaks went against him or just somebody was slightly better. He hasn't been that lost, though this has been a frustrating period for the American. 

Andretti Autosport has declined during this period despite the talent behind the wheel. Rossi even said earlier this year he needs to go somewhere where he can win a championship, and that was before the Arrow McLaren SP deal was announced. I think the best has yet to come for Rossi in IndyCar. It is surprising it didn't happen at Andretti Autosport, but IndyCar is changing as we get deeper into the 2020s. 

Rossi got off the snide on a day he might not have been the clear best driver, but he will be a force in the near future. 

2. Christian Lundgaard was a darling last August when he raced Brickyard weekend in his IndyCar debut. About a year later, Lundgaard is the darling again, but this time it is a second-place finish, ten spots than his debut. 

This might be the best example of how spending time in IndyCar can take you a long way. Lundgaard knows the tires and the car better. Last year was going to be daunting even when he was starting fourth. There were so many unknowns that were going to slow him during the race. Most of those are cleared up now. It has still been a tough year for Lundgaard, but he has been one of the better rookies this year. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has struggled across the board for the most part. The last three weeks have seen the team make great strides. 

I am not sure we will see Lundgaard repeat this performance later this season, but it is a start. When presented with the opportunity, Lundgaard made the most of it. He has a future in IndyCar and I think RLLR is pleased with its decision to bring him under its tent. 

3. Like Mid-Ohio, Will Power did something incredible to get a great result. But instead of being all-out, Power watched his pace. He stopped early for full and went on big fuel save. Cautions were in Power's favor and he turned a first stop on lap four into a three-stop race. Power had lost spots early when Hélio Castroneves drove in hot to turn seven and disrupted Power's momentum. The team took a chance and it turned into a podium finish. 

And that gives Power the championship lead. It feels like this is going in Power's favor. He does the smart things and pulls out results when other drivers would be knocked out. Compared to ten years ago, this is impressive. Power was the guy who would find way to lose races and championships. In 2022, he is finding ways to score maximum points and put distance between himself and his championship rivals. I think Power is the guy to beat. He is collecting podium finish. Unless you are winning every race, you aren't going to beat Power at this rate.

4. Scott McLaughlin took a calculated risk today starting on the alternate tire instead of getting the primary tire out of the way. It worked in that McLaughlin caught a caution in the middle of his primary tire stint, the second stint of the race and instead of suffering for ten laps, he could jump off the primary tires before they got bad and it turned into a top ten result. 

If that caution doesn't come, McLaughlin might be seventh or eighth in this race. It was going to be a good day, but not feel as good as this. I think McLaughlin should be happy. He is leaps and bounds better than last year. He wasn't even in this position a year ago and now he is regularly fighting for top five results. 

5. Considering we went into Thursday uncertain if Josef Newgarden would even be racing this weekend, a top five result is a great weekend. Iowa was crushing because Newgarden looked ready to grab control of the championship before his suspension failed while leading. Instead, Newgarden had a great gap to overcome. 

Today, he made up a portion of that. He is still in the fight and he looks great. He needed a strong day for his confidence. All eyes were on him due to his fall and possible injury. If he was off everyone would murmur about Newgarden's condition. A top five result keeps everyone quiet. 

6. Rinus VeeKay is putting together good results. Today was a sixth-place finish, his third top ten finish in five races. The problem is he is alternating good and bad results. Fourth, 13th, fourth, 19th, sixth. It is better than last year but VeeKay hasn't been able to repeat the consistency of the start of his 2021 season. 

It is lofty expectations to hold a driver to that standard, but that is what it takes to be a championship contender in IndyCar. Ed Carpenter Racing can be in that fight. We saw Newgarden pull the team into it. VeeKay has had moment where he looks ready to be that guy, but then he falters. The team might not be as good as the Newgarden period, and that could be part of it, but VeeKay is the best driver the team has had since Newgarden. He has won races and been on the podium multiple times. His contract is up at the end of the year and he is interested in what is next. 

Many teams would like the best of him, but can he limit his bad habits? I don't think ECR can do better than VeeKay at this point. The driver has the advantage. 

7. Graham Rahal went from 17th to seventh. He has 11 top ten finishes in 13 IMS road course starts. This is now the eighth time Rahal has started outside the top ten on this course and finished in the top ten. We mention qualifying pace basically every race for RLLR and Rahal. This result doesn't surprise me. I see Rahal qualify 17th or 19th or 15th and think, "Yeah, he will finish eighth." I want to see him and RLLR do better because they have pace. They are a competitive group. If this team every unlocks qualifying pace, it will be in the championship fight again. For now, another impressive top ten finish will do. 

8. Chip Ganassi Racing did not have a great weekend. None of the drivers were all that competitive today and the best finisher was Scott Dixon going from 20th to eighth. It is good, but Dixon isn't going to be pleased. He expects better than starting 20th. He wants to win races and he knows if he wants another championship it will require better days than eighth. There are no moral victories in this group.

9. This is a bit of a bummer for Felix Rosenqvist because it is another race he has started on pole position but not really been a factor. Rosenqvist was really poor on the primary tire at the start and he plummeted down the order. The team kept him out there longer than it should and it was questionable what it was waiting for. There was some advantage to shorter stints on alternate tires and being more aggressive, but that didn't feel like a winning strategy today. That feels like a ninth-place strategy and that is what Rosenqvist gets today.

10. Álex Palou was a non-factor and finished tenth. That's all we can say. These days happen. Palou is doing a lot during a difficult period for his career. If the team didn't want him to succeed they would have replaced him. If Palou is still in the car, those guys still want to win and they are trying. 

11. Marcus Ericsson prevented what could have been a disastrous weekend with an 11th-place finish from 25th on the grid. Ericsson loses the championship lead, but it basically flips from the position entering today. Ericsson goes from eight up to nine points behind Power. 

Starting 25th, Ericsson had to know he likely wasn't going to keep the championship lead today and all he could do is limit the damage. I think he did that today. Exiting within nine points of the top is good considering. This was a good drive. The team called a smart race, but Ericsson is now chasing and Power isn't going to give up much. The battle has only gotten tougher for the Swede.

12. Speaking of limiting the damage, Patricio O'Ward spun on lap one and recovered to finish 12th. O'Ward was on the Power strategy of stretching fuel but couldn't match that pace while conserving fuel. But considering what happened to O'Ward, 12th is decent. He shouldn't be happy, no one should after being spun out from a third starting position, but perspective is important. He could have finished 23rd today and basically needed to win three of the final four races to have a shot at the title. He doesn't need to do that much now. On to Nashville. 

13. Let's breeze through the field. David Malukas was ok and finished 13th. That kind of feels like most of Malukas' races, and that is fine. He made some passes, he lost some positions, it evened out mostly. Callum Ilott made some passes in the middle of the field and finished five spots than his starting spot. Fourteenth is a good day for Ilott. Takuma Sato bounced around all race and fell to 15th. Romain Grosjean had a long weekend and stalling on a pit stop didn't help his cause. That left him in 16th.

14. Conor Daly had an immature day. Daly stalled on a pit stop, banged into at least three or four drivers, and got penalized for blocking. Daly is approaching 100 IndyCar starts. He should be above what we saw today. One driver Daly tussled with was Devlin DeFrancesco, who was, brace for it, 18th. That is DeFrancesco territory. Hélio Castroneves is done as a full-time driver. Meyer Shank Racing should move on. MSR has potential to be a top team. It needs another driver to build its future around. Castroneves isn't it. Castroneves is more than up for another Indianapolis 500 attempt, but we can see he no longer has it as a full-time driver. It was a good run.

15. Jack Harvey's 20th-place finish looks worse today. Twentieth never looks good. Harvey hasn't been a factor once this season. I know the team said Harvey is fine for next year. I think Harvey is a good driver and something just hasn't clicked, but you couldn't blame the team if it replaced him. 

16. Dalton Kellett was 21st and Kyle Kirkwood was 23rd. A.J. Foyt Racing is bad. Plain and simple. The best thing that could happen to this team is for someone rich to purchase it.

17. Jimmie Johnson was back in his familiar position of 22nd, as expected. Simon Pagenaud ran out of fuel in the middle of his second stint, which is painful considering this could have been a top ten day for Pagenaud. This has been a rough for few weekends for Meyer Shank Racing. 

18. This was brutal for Colton Herta. Herta went from ninth to first in the first eight laps. No rain. No funky pit stop strategy. One caution, but Herta made up seven of those eight spots on speed. He was gone. Rossi was the only car remaining close, but Rossi wasn't going to beat Herta. Herta was that smooth today. Clipping the curb at the inside of turn eight was just enough to break the car while in the lead. 

This is two consecutive races where the leader has retired from the race, we don't see it that often. For Herta, this is another painful race lost, and it is too common for him. This was mostly out of his hands today, but in his still brief IndyCar career, this is at least the third or fourth race he has fallen through his hands when it has otherwise looked to be his. 

He lost Gateway last year with a mechanical failure. He put himself in the wall at Nashville last year. He went overboard at Long Beach when fighting from behind but still in contention. The car failed him in the 2020 season finale at St. Petersburg when coincidentally Rossi had an accident while leading and Herta was there to take the lead, but overboost dropped him from the top spot and then he got into the tires to add insult to injury. This happens too often for Herta. Just when you think he has figured it out, he stumbles again. The talent is there, but is it in the healthiest environment for growth?

19. In eight days, IndyCar races at Nashville, the sixth race in 36 days for the series. The final four races are about to begin. Power is nine points up on Ericsson, 32 points clear of Newgarden, 38 points ahead of Dixon, 46 points above O'Ward and 52 points separated from Palou. This picture will change over the next six weeks. 

Morning Warm-Up: Brickyard Weekend 2022

Felix Rosenqvist picked up his second pole position of the season and his second ever at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course after the Swede ran a lap of 70.2265 seconds in the final round of qualifying for the Gallagher Grand Prix. Rosenqvist is only the second driver to win multiple IndyCar pole positions at the IMS road course after only Will Power, who has won six of the first 12 pole positions on the IMS road course. Rosenqvist's first career pole position was at this track in 2019, his fifth career start. His second career pole position was earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway. He has only led 12 laps this season, four of which were on the IMS road course in May. He also led seven laps at Road America and one at Toronto.

Alexander Rossi was over a quarter second of Rosenqvist's pole position time and Rossi will start on the outside of row one. This is the second time Rossi has started on the front row this season. The other was his pole position at Road America in June. This is his best starting position ever on the IMS road course. Rossi's winless streak is up to 49 races. His most recent victory was from second on the grid way back at Road America in 2019. The second starting position has produced five winners this season. Second on the grid has won twice on the IMS road course. Rossi has four consecutie finishes outside the top ten for the first time since his rookie season. He has never had five consecutive results outside the top ten in his IndyCar career. 

Patricio O'Ward was 0.3872 seconds off his Arrow McLaren SP teammate Rosenqvist and he will start third. This is only the fourth time O'Ward has started behind Rosenqvist this season. On three of those occasions did Rosenqvist start in the top five. This is the first time O'Ward has qualified in the top five and not been the top AMSP start. After finishing second and first at Iowa, O'Ward enters this weekend hoping to score three consecutive podium finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. All four of his consecutive podium finish streak have come at doubleheader weekends. This is the third time one of O'Ward's victories is followed by an IMS road course race. He finished 15th and 19th in the previous two IMS road course races after one of his victories.

Will Power will have to wait another week for his potential 67th IndyCar pole position, but Power will start fourth after qualifying 0.3959 seconds behind Rosenqvist. Coincidentally, Power started fourth at Texas, the other race Rosenqvist started from pole position. Power has won from fourth four times in his career, first at Long Beach in 2008 then at St. Petersburg in 2014 before Toronto in 2016 before finally Gateway in 2018. Power is eighth all-time in laps led with 4,681. He is 202 laps behind Bobby Unser in seventh. Power scored fastest lap in both Iowa races.  The last time a driver scored fastest lap in at least three consecutive races was Sébastien Bourdais in the 2007 Champ Car season when Bourdais had six consecutive fastest laps at Houston, Portland, Cleveland, Mont-Tremblant, Toronto and Edmonton.

Josef Newgarden comes back after an accident in the second Iowa race to start fifth for this IMS road course race. Newgarden was 0.4703 off Rosenqvist. He is coming off his worst finish on the IMS road course in May when he finished 25th after contact with Will Power and Jack Harvey during the race. His only podium finish on the IMS road course was his victory in the first Harvest Grand Prix race in 2020. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top twenty since the 2015 Sonoma season finale and 2016 St. Petersburg season opener. Newgarden is 16th all-time in laps led with 3,286. Last week, he became the 17th driver to reach the 3,000 laps led milestone. 

Christian Lundgaard returns to the place of his IndyCar debut just under a year after he started fourth in his first time in IndyCar. Lundgaard will start sixth after qualifying 0.5015 seconds behind Roseqnvist. This is the first time Lundgaard has made the Fast Six since his debut last year. Lundgaard is the first time a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car has made the Fast Six this season. This will be Lundgaard's 14th career start. Seven drivers have had their first career victory come in their 14th career start. The most recent two are Jacques Villeneuve in 1994 and Bruno Junqueira in 2001, and both won at Road America.

Álex Palou was 0.0269 off of advancing to the final round of qualifying and Palou will start seventh. He has never won from outside the top five in his IndyCar career. He has only one podium finish in his last eight starts after having five podium finishes in his previous eight starts and 11 podium finishes in 20 races. 

Rinus VeeKay will start eighth for the third consecutive race and for the fourth time this season. VeeKay's previous three times starting eighth were all on ovals. VeeKay won from seventh in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The last IndyCar race won from eighth on the grid was the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with Hélio Castroneves as the victor.

Colton Herta is starting ninth, five spots better than where Herta started in his Grand Prix of Indianapolis victory this May. Herta also started ninth at Texas, the other race Rosenqvist started on pole position this season. Herta was outside the top ten in both Iowa races. He has not had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten since from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis to the Indianapolis 500 and Belle Isle race one last year.

Conor Daly rounds out the top ten, the third consecutive races Daly has started inside the top ten. It is the first time he has started inside the top ten in three consecutive races in his IndyCar career. This is the fourth consecutive IMS road course race Daly is starting in the top ten. He has only two top ten finishes at this track, sixth in 2016 and fifth this past May.

David Malukas made it out of the first round of qualifying and Malukas will start 11th. He has made it out of the first round of qualifying in four of the last five occasions after not making it out of round one in the first five chances this season. Malukas won on the IMS road course last year in Indy Lights. Dale Coyne Racing has had at least one top ten finisher in four consecutive IMS road course races and in seven of the last eight.

Simon Pagenaud rounds out row six. IndyCar has not had a race won from 12th on the grid since the 2013 Indianapolis 500 with Tony Kanaan. The 12th-place starter has finished in the top ten only once this season, eighth in the first Iowa race with Marcus Ericsson. Pagenaud has three victories and five podium finishes on the IMS road course, including a runner-up result in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. 

Jack Harvey starts 13th, his fourth consecutive race starting 13th to better. Harvey was 0.0653 seconds shy of making it to round two. Prior to this four race stretch, Harvey had started in the top thirteen only once this season. He has four top ten finishes in seven IMS starts and he was 13th on this track in May. Harvey has finished in the top twenty in ten of 11 starts this season but he has zero top ten finishes. 

Devlin DeFrancesco qualified 14th, his second best starting position of the season after making the second round of qualifying at Toronto two weeks ago. DeFrancesco was 0.0834 seconds short of making it to the second round of qualifying for the second time in his IndyCar career. He was 21st in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May.

Scott McLaughlin starts 15th, his worst state position outside of the Indianapolis 500 this season. McLaughlin's three worst striating positions this season have all been at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After starting fifth and finishing eighth in his first IMS road course appearance, he has finished 23rd and 20th.

Hélio Castroneves joins the driver who has replaced him in the #3 Chevrolet for Team Penske on row eighth. This is the ninth time this season Castroneves is starting outside the top fifteen this season. He has finished outside the top fifteen in seven races, including the last three. He has finished outside the top fifteen in four of the last five IMS road course races.

Graham Rahal qualified 17th, his eighth time starting outside the top fifteen this season. Rahal had ten consecutive top ten finishes on the IMS road course before he finished 16th here in May. In seven of those ten races, he started outside the top ten and got a top ten result. On four of those occasions, he went from outside the top fifteen into the top ten. 

Takuma Sato joins his former Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate on row nine. Sato has never started in the top ten on the IMS road course. He picked up his best finish on this track in May when he finished seventh. It was his sixth top ten finish on the IMS road course.

Callum Ilott starts 19th. This is Ilott's worst starting position on a road/street course since Long Beach, where he started 21st. He started 19th and finished 19th at St. Petersburg in February. His one and only top ten finish in IndyCar came at the IMS road course in May when he finished eighth, but he started seventh in that race. 

Scott Dixon finds himself 20th on the grid, only one starting position better than he was in May, but Dixon finished tenth that day. This will be the sixth consecutive IMS road course race he has started outside the top ten. Is one of four drivers tied for the all-time record of IndyCar victories from outside a top ten starting position. Dixon, Al Unser, Jr., Dan Wheldon and Sébastien Bourdais have all won four times from outside the top ten.

Kyle Kirkwood is looking for his second top ten finish of the season and Kirkwood will search for it from 21st starting position. He has retired from six of 12 races this season, but only twice has he failed to make it through the first half of a race, Texas and Mid-Ohio.

Romain Grosjean had started in the top ten of all three of his IMS road course starts, but this time Grosjean will roll off from 22nd position, the worst starting position of his IndyCar career. He has three top ten finishes in the last five races. 

Jimmie Johnson has qualified in 23rd, the ninth time he is starting outside the top twenty this season. Johnson is coming off his first top five finish in IndyCar. It took him 24 starts to get a top five finish in IndyCar. It took him seven races to get his first top five finish in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Dalton Kellett is starting 24th, his 12th consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. Kellett had started 23rd or 26th in six consecutive races. He has only three top twenty finishes this season. He has been the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher in three of the last six race.

Marcus Ericsson had a mechanical issue in qualifying and Ericsson was unable to complete a lap in his qualifying group. Because of that, Ericsson will start 25th, his worst starting position in IndyCar. He is also taking an engine change ahead of this race. Only three IndyCar races have been won from 25th in its over century worth history, the 1974 Indianapolis 500 with Johnny Rutherford, the 1981 Milwaukee race when Mike Mosley won as a promoter's option, and the 2001 Laguna Seca race when Max Papis won.

NBC's coverage of the Gallagher Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:20 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.