Musings From the Weekend: 2017 IndyCar Midseason Review

IndyCar tore up a lot of equipment in Texas. Some blinking lights caused some confusion on Friday night in Texas. Force India perhaps dropped the ball in Montreal. The Formula E championship looked like it was getting enticing on Saturday and then it went back to status quo on Sunday. MotoGP had another great race in Barcelona. There was a first time winner in the World Rally Championship and it was a long time coming. There was also a first time winner in the Cup series at Pocono and there were a lot of brake issues. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

2017 IndyCar Midseason Review

IndyCar finally gets a week off after five consecutive weekends at a race track and while some head to Le Mans on the off weeks, others will get some relaxation. We are 9/17ths through the IndyCar season and eight race weekends remain. In honor of the midway point to the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season, let's look back team-by-team at the first four months.

Chip Ganassi Racing

You wouldn't guess that Chip Ganassi Racing switched manufactures midseason. Scott Dixon leads the championship and Tony Kanaan is eighth in the championship but in a sense Dixon has been carrying the load. He has been the top Ganassi finisher in seven races and he was the top Ganassi qualifier in seven of the first nine races. Kanaan has two top five finishes this year. Max Chilton has made a big step forward from 2016 but he still isn't regularly challenging at the front and Charlie Kimball has taken a massive step back from his consistent top ten form of last year. This hasn't been bad this season but it has been far from a great season for Ganassi despite having a legitimate championship contender once again. 

Team Penske

Let's see, Penske drivers are second in the championship, fourth in the championship, fifth in the championship and seventh in the championship. Team Penske is where Team Penske should be. Four wins from three different drivers and you could argue this is a down year for Penske. Simon Pagenaud has struggled in qualifying but has turned poor starting positions into results. Will Power finished outside the top ten in three races and he has since won twice and stood on the podium a total of four times. Josef Newgarden has proven this isn't too big of a spotlight for him and Hélio Castroneves had finished in the top ten of every race this season before his tire failure at Texas. This might not have been the Penske walkover some of us were expecting but the team is in a great position for a second consecutive championship.

Andretti Autosport

This has been an odd two years for Andretti Autosport. It has won the Indianapolis 500 the last two years but last year that was the team's only victory. The team has two of its four drivers in the top ten in the championship, which is the same amount it had in the top ten at this point last year but the team has looked much more competitive. Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi have picked up the ball while Ryan Hunter-Reay lingers outside the top ten in the championship and has been dealt a cruel hand twice this season with mechanical failures while in positions for victory. Marco Andretti has also been bitten by mechanical gremlins a few times this year and while he has looked more competitive he still has some room for improvement. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

The season didn't start well for the only single-car team on the IndyCar grid but it has rebounded ever since the Indianapolis 500. Graham Rahal finished 12th in the Indianapolis 500 but he had worked his way into the top five before a flat tire dropped him to the back late in the race. Last year, all eight of Rahal's top ten finishes were top five finishes and five of those were in the six natural-terrain road course races. He hasn't had that same pace at the front, his best finish on a natural-terrain road course was sixth, but it is getting there, he has three consecutive top five finishes and there are four natural-terrain road courses in the remaining eight races.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

The best way to describe 2017 for SPM is good but not great. James Hinchcliffe did win at Long Beach and he had three top ten finishes from the first three races but he has finished outside the top ten in four of the last five races with the exception being a third in Belle Isle I. Mikhail Aleshin has been aggressive but the results haven't been there with two top ten finishes. The team wasn't able to replicate the pace it had at the big ovals last year. Hinchcliffe is tenth in the championship and Aleshin is 15th. It is going to be a uphill battle to get both those drivers in better championship positions by the end of the season.

Dale Coyne Racing

This has been the most improved team through the halfway point and this is after a heaping dose of adversity. Dale Coyne Racing won the first race of the year with Sébastien Bourdais and he was seventh in the championship and on his way to topping Indianapolis 500 qualifying before his accident. However, Ed Jones was in the Frenchman's footsteps for the first five races and he has done well in the absence of his champion teammate. The second Belle Isle race is Jones' only bad race this season, he was collateral damage at Texas and he has been to five of the final eight tracks previously in Indy Lights. It appears the team wants Esteban Gutiérrez to be the driver of the #18 Honda for the rest of the year but he will still need to pass an oval test for that to become reality and Tristan Vautier made a great audition at Texas. Unfortunately for Dale Coyne Racing is the team has had a lot of race cars torn up through the first half of the season and he will likely be on pins and needles until September.

Ed Carpenter Racing

In year one of the post-Josef Newgarden-era, Ed Carpenter Racing has had good moments but it has also clearly taken a step back. Spencer Pigot has been a wonder for this team with three top ten finishes from six starts and he could have had five top tens in that period. J.R. Hildebrand finished third at Phoenix but he is still off pace on road and street circuits although he has had a few respectable finishes taken from him because of contact or penalties. Ed Carpenter has been respectable on the ovals after a few years of tearing up his own equipment. 

A.J. Foyt Racing

New manufacture, new drivers, same results for A.J. Foyt Racing. The split team with Carlos Muñoz being run out of Houston, Texas and Conor Daly being run out of Indianapolis hasn't shown to benefit the team. Daly was the only full-time driver without a top ten finish prior to Texas and Daly more or less finished seventh at Texas because he was off the pace and avoided the big accident. Muñoz has three top ten finishes but all of those have been high attrition races. Even more difficult for A.J. Foyt Racing is it doesn't even have one track style where the team has shown some muscle. It has struggled everywhere.

The Rest of the Grid

Harding Racing has entered two races this year and the team didn't exist when the calendar changed over to 2017. It finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 with Gabby Chaves in the team's maiden voyage by avoiding the melees and working strategy to their advantage and then this combination finished fifth at Texas. The team has it sights set for full-time in 2018. That seems a bit of a bold move for such a new team and considering how established teams have struggled to find funding but the team has looked good in its early days. The team has stated it intend to run at Pocono later this year.

Sage Karam was competitive in the Indianapolis 500 with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing before a battery failure ended the race while he was on the cusp of the top ten with 75 laps to go. 

Juncos Racing got both its cars to the finish of the Indianapolis 500 on the team's first IndyCar race. Neither car got to a competitive pace and Spencer Pigot was struggling with speed throughout the race but Sebastián Saavedra did finish on the lead lap. The team might return for Pocono later this year.

Buddy Lazier returned for the Indianapolis 500 with his own team for the fifth consecutive year and while he got off the final row of the grid for the first time in five starts, his race ended in the turn two barrier after 118 laps.

What to Look Forward to?

Through nine races last year, Pagenaud led the championship by 74 points over Castroneves. This year, after nine races 72 points cover nine drivers and 98 points cover 12 drivers and the leader of the championship still hasn't won a race this season. After last year when it appears Pagenaud could have locked the title up a race early, we are potentially looking at four to six drivers being alive for the championship entering Sonoma. You have Dixon and Pagenaud, the last two championships ahead of Sato, a 40-year-old driver who has finally found consistency, and Castroneves, a 42-year-old driver who has finished runner-up in the championship four times.

Behind the top four drivers are Power and Rahal, the only drivers with multiple victories but Power has finished outside the top ten five times this year and Rahal has finished outside the top ten four times. Then there is Newgarden in seventh, 49 points behind Dixon. With seven different winners through nine races it appears unlikely anyone is going to runaway with the championship in the second half of the season.

Four natural-terrain road courses, three ovals and a street course make up the second half of the season. Two of those ovals are short ovals, which Chevrolet has dominated but Gateway could be a different animal. The tires were significantly wearing at the open test at Gateway in May and drivers seemed to think the extra quarter-mile in length compared to Phoenix made passing possible. Honda has won all four street course races this year. Road America and Watkins Glen could be toss-ups as Honda has the power advantage while Chevrolet has the edge on downforce. 

Another thing to keep an eye on is the upcoming testing of the 2018 universal Dallara aero kit. It will be first tested on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval on July 25-26th. The first road course test for the universal kit will be at Mid-Ohio on August 1st. Additional tests will be held on August 28th at Iowa with one postseason test scheduled for September 26th at Sebring.

Winners From the Weekend

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

Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix. 

Andrea Dovizioso won MotoGP's Catalan Grand Prix, his second consecutive victory. Álex Márquez won in Moto2, his second career Moto2 victory and he has won both Moto2 races in Spain. Joan Mir won in Moto3, his fourth victory of the season.

Felix Rosenqvist and Sébastien Buemi split the races at the Berlin ePrix.

Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup race from Pocono. Brad Keselowski won the Xfinity race. Christopher Bell won the Truck race from Texas on Friday night.

Ott Tänak won Rally d'Italia Sardegna, his first career World Rally Championship victories in his 73rd rally. 

Dušan Borkovic and Roberto Colciago split the TCR International Series races from Salzburgring.

Coming Up This Weekend

The 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

NASCAR head to another large race track, this time it is Michigan International Speedway.

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters heads east to the Hungaroring. 

World Superbikes will be at Misano, the series second stop in Italy. 

Supercars treks to the Northern Territory and Hidden Valley Raceway. 

First Impressions: Texas 2017

1. Where to start? Let's just get the results out of the way and we will start with Will Power, who won but I am not sure if he had the best car or if he was the best survivor. Tonight, being the best survivor was all you needed to be. I feel like Will Power led 150 laps. I have no clue. He may have only led 50 laps. This race was chaotic. He gets a big boost for his championship hopes.

2. Tony Kanaan finished second. We will talk about Tony Kanaan in a moment.

3. Simon Pagenaud finished third. He seemed to be in third all night.

4. Nobody passed more cars tonight than Graham Rahal. He went ninth to fourth at least three times in the final dozen laps.

5. Gabby Chaves and Harding Racing survived and for the second consecutive race they get a phenomenal finish. Tonight was fifth-place, a career best for Chaves and Harding Racing in the team's second race.

6. Marco Andretti just survived and finished sixth.

7. Even when Conor Daly finishes seventh he gets taken out. A career-best for him on an oval and he still hasn't finished on the lead lap on an oval.

8. Max Chilton nearly finished this race without a front wing in eighth.

9. Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato got together with five laps to go. It cost both of them a shot at the victory. I would say it hurt both of their championship hopes but everyone was taken out tonight so it really didn't hurt either of their hopes tonight as they rounded out the top ten.

10. Bravo to Ed Carpenter Racing for repairing its cars and getting back out on track and finishing 11th and 12th with Ed Carpenter and J.R. Hildebrand respectively. Both deserved better than that though.

11. Josef Newgarden was just a bit too ambitious tonight and he ended up in the wall. He still finished 13th.

12. This was a pretty good race for the first 150 laps and then it hit the fan. Let's start with the accident. Tony Kanaan came up on James Hinchcliffe entering turn three; Hinchcliffe was pinched into Mikhail Aleshin, Hinchcliffe and Aleshin spun across the race track and collected Ed Jones, Tristan Vautier, Carlos Muñoz, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Carpenter and Hildebrand.

Kanaan was handed a stop and hold penalty for 20 seconds and it put him two laps down. I thought he should have been parked. It was a dangerous move and he may have not intended to take out seven cars but he did. And Kanaan has a history of over-aggressive moves at Texas. Last year, he walked the line. He has been penalized for blocking before at Texas. He is a veteran and one of the most respected guys on the grid but he has this tendency on ovals.

13. I don't know what to go to next. Let's go to what transpired after the red flag for the lap 152 accident. Firestone did not have a great weekend. The tires were blistering at the test in April and Firestone didn't have enough time to come up with a solution. And I won't peg this one on Firestone. They get it right 9,999 times out of 10,000 and this was the one time in 10,000 they got it wrong and there were tire failures, most notably to Hélio Castroneves. It was bound to go wrong once but I am sure there are plenty of Firestone workers annoyed after this one.

It was a mixture of things that led to tonight: not enough time for testing, Texas Motor Speedway putting down a chemical compound for the NASCAR race, IndyCar being in the gut of its season and not allowing additional testing. It was a combination of things going wrong.

With the tire issues in mind, IndyCar threw two competition cautions within the final 90 laps of the race over concerns about the tires. I understand that but never in motorsports history has the decision to implement competition cautions mid-race been successful. Fans don't applaud competition cautions being added to the race especially mid-race. I understand IndyCar did it on the grounds of safety but I would have rather IndyCar not thrown the caution and rather told the teams they had to pit under green every 30 laps just to keep the race going. Competition cautions come off as the race being too controlled by the officials. People don't like an over-officiated game in any sport. Motorsports is no different.

Amazingly, because IndyCar only held Tony Kanaan for 20 seconds and because there were two competition cautions it allowed him to cycle back onto the lead lap and finish second. That is just dump luck for the series. If they held him for an addition ten to 15 seconds he is three laps down and he still finishes in the top ten but not second.

14. Let's get to the racing on the night and for the first 150 laps, it was really good but I hesitate to say it was great. To me, the entire field shouldn't be covered by five seconds the entire night and that was the case. Maybe that would have changed if we had an extended green flag run and had two or three green flag pit stops but that didn't seem it would ever be the case.

I liked the racing Texas had the last few years because drivers really had to drive the cars and fight when tires were falling off. You really got to separate the field and the cream rose to the top. You don't get that when everyone is within five seconds of each other. It is a tough balance to find but I think IndyCar went too far in the direction of the IRL-era racing we had at Texas. I don't know what next year will bring but if Firestone figures out the tire issues and I am sure Firestone will fix it and if IndyCar runs less downforce (and not add push to pass on ovals but that is another story but does anyone think after this race that it needed more passing?), I think the racing can get back to that happy medium.

15. I got to say, this felt like IndyCar circa 2005-2011 where everything was done on the fly and everyone wasn't sure what was going on or what would happen next and any sliver of great racing was soiled by uncertainty in the procedure and that sucked tonight because it seemed like a fair amount of the motorsports world was watching and enjoying the first third of the race and then it all went to hell. Hell, Fernando Alonso called into the race and Kevin Lee got a "why not" out of him when asked if he would ever consider joining IndyCar full-time. Do you really think after what happened in this race after he hung up the phone he is seriously considering it?

16. I will say that IndyCar did a great job under the red flag getting all the drivers interviewed not just on TV but on radio as well and it filled the time nicely. This wasn't IndyCar's greatest night but there were a lot of people working hard at their jobs and they deserve praise because they stepped up in a bad situation and made the series look good despite everything that was happening on the race track.

17. And one final one, I almost forgot to mention Dale Coyne Racing, which had a great night and saw both its cars in contention for the victory and it was led by Tristan Vautier, who had been out of a IndyCar since August 2015. Vautier made it very tough on Coyne on whether or not Esteban Gutiérrez should be the full-time substitute for Sébastien Bourdais.

18. Let's take a week off, watch Le Mans and get back to it at Road America in a fortnight.

Morning Warm-Up: Texas 2017

Charlie Kimball is the sixth different pole-sitter in the last six IndyCar races

Charlie Kimball won his first career IndyCar pole position at the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 from Texas Motor Speedway. Kimball ran a two-lap average of 222.556 MPH, the fastest pole position at Texas Motor Speedway since Gil de Ferran took pole position for the autumn race in 2003. Kimball's only other front row start came last year in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he finished fifth in that race. Kimball's previous best starting position on an oval was fourth at Fontana in 2013 and at Phoenix last year. In his seven previous top five starts, Kimball has finished in the top ten in six of them. Kimball could become the first driver to win from his first career pole position since Ryan Hunter-Reay did it at Milwaukee in 2004. Scott Dixon makes it an all-Ganassi row one, the first time the team has shut out a front row since Iowa 2014. Kimball was 0.0083 seconds faster than Dixon in qualifying. Dixon started second last year at Texas and he led 97 laps. This is only the second time Dixon has not been the top Ganassi qualifier this season. Tony Kanaan started sixth at Phoenix while Dixon started eighth.

For the second consecutive oval race, Alexander Rossi will start third. This is Rossi's sixth top ten start of the season through nine races. He had three top ten starts all of his rookie season. Texas has been won four times from third position on the grid, most recently by Will Power in the second Twin 275 in 2011. Tony Kanaan joins Rossi on row two. Only once has Texas been won from fourth position and that was by Hélio Castroneves in 2009. The surprise of the qualifying session was Tristan Vautier ending up fifth in his IndyCar return with Dale Coyne Racing. His previous best starting position on an oval was tenth at Milwaukee and Pocono in 2013. Vautier's best career starting position was third at Barber in 2013. Max Chilton made it four Ganassi cars in the top six and this is his fourth top ten start of the season. Chilton had four top ten starts all of last year.

Mikhail Aleshin qualified seventh in the #7 Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Aleshin has been the top qualifying SPM car on all the ovals this season. He started seventh at Phoenix in April and failed to complete a lap. Takuma Sato made it a clean sweep of the top eight for Honda. This is Sato's fourth consecutive race starting in the top ten, the longest streak of his IndyCar career. He will be aiming to get four consecutive top ten finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career tonight. Will Power and Hélio Castroneves swept the fifth row for Team Penske. This is Power's worst starting position at Texas. Power has twice won from ninth on the grid, 2012 at Barber and 2013 in the second Houston race. Castroneves has never won from the tenth position and his only victory from the fifth row of the grid was the 2002 Indianapolis 500 when he started 13th.

Last week's double winner Graham Rahal will start 11th next to his 2006 Atlantic Championship rival Simon Pagenaud. Rahal won last year's Texas race from 13th and he led only one lap. Arie Luyendyk won the inaugural Texas race from 11th on the grid in 1997. This is the fifth time in 2017 Pagenaud has started outside the top ten. In the previous two seasons Pagenaud had only started outside the top ten on three occasions. Ryan Hunter-Reay will start from the lucky 13th starting position. This is the fourth consecutive Texas race Hunter-Reay has started outside the top ten. Hunter-Reay started 13th the last time Chip Ganassi Racing swept the front row and Hunter-Reay went on to win that race from Iowa. Ed Carpenter qualified 14th for the second consecutive year at Texas. This is the 16th time Carpenter has started 14th in his career. He has five top ten finishes from 14th on the grid and his best finish was second at Kentucky in 2009.

Former teammates Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe will start on row eight. Like his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, this is Andretti's fourth consecutive year starting outside the top ten at Texas. In his five previous times starting 15th, Andretti has finished better than his starting position, including at St. Petersburg earlier this year when he went from 15th to seventh. Hinchcliffe has twice finished on the podium from 16th on the grid, third at Long Beach in 2012 and he won from 16th at NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015. Josef Newgarden will start 17th and this will be the third time he is the worst starting Penske driver this season. The other two races were Barber, which he won from seventh on the grid and the second Belle Isle race, where he finished second from 13th. J.R. Hildebrand rounds out row nine and this will be the third consecutive race Hildebrand has started 18th.

Ed Jones will make his Texas debut from 19th on the grid in the #19 Honda. A Dale Coyne Racing entry has started 19th in three consecutive races. Gabby Chaves returns with Harding Racing for the second time in 2017 and the team will start 20th. Chaves started 20th at Texas in 2015 and he finished tenth that night. A.J. Foyt Racing swept the final row of the grid for the team's home race. Conor Daly will start 21st for the second consecutive year. Daly has the worst average finish of drivers to have run every race this season at 18.333. Carlos Muñoz will start 22nd after his team failed to get the car through inspection before qualifying. Muñoz starts last one year after he picked up his first career pole position at Texas.

NBCSN's coverage of the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 begins at 8:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 248 laps.

Track Walk: Texas 2017

Graham Rahal could make IndyCar history at a new look Texas Motor Speedway

IndyCar returns to Texas and this year the series hopes to complete this race before the month of June ends. Last year's race will be forever remembered for the multiple rain delays and postponement until August 27th. However, the completion of the race made up for the two-and-a-half month delay as Graham Rahal won the race by 0.0080 seconds over James Hinchcliffe, the fifth-closest finish in IndyCar history and Tony Kanaan finished third, 0.0903 seconds behind Rahal. Eight different drivers have won the last eight Texas races.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday June 10th. Green flag will be at 8:30 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Kevin Lee will be in the booth (Leigh Diffey has Formula One duty) with Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy. Marty Snider, Jon Beekhuis, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller will be working the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 11:00 a.m. ET (75-minute session).
Qualifying- 3:15 p.m. ET
Final Practice- 6:45 p.m. ET (30-minute session).
Saturday: 
Race- 8:30 p.m. ET (250 laps).

New Track, New Tires
This will be IndyCar's 29th trip to Texas Motor Speedway but this one will be unlike any of the previous 28 trips to the Denton County track.

Since IndyCar was last at Texas in August the track has seen at slight reconfiguration to turn one and turn two and a repave of the entire circuit. The banking in the first two corners has been lowered by four degrees from 24 degrees to 20 degrees and the first two corners have been widened by 20 feet.

Ed Carpenter participated in the open test at the track in April and said the tire degradation wasn't on the same level as previous years at Texas but he did leave the door open should the temperature be warmer than usual. Firestone has brought a new tire for the race weekend after concerns from blisters that developed on the tires after a few laps of running at the April test. Firestone will also bring a softer left-side tire due to the re-profiled turns one and two as the less banking will cause less load on the left-side tires.

Top Two Are Winless
Through eight of 17 races of the Verizon IndyCar Series season, Scott Dixon and Hélio Castroneves top the championship with the New Zealander on 303 points, eight ahead of the Brazilian but while Dixon holds the advantage over Castroneves on points, the two drivers are leveled on victories at zero.

Dixon has finished on the podium in every odd-numbered races this season including three runner-up finishes. Outside of his 32nd-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 after his accident with Jay Howard, Dixon's worst finish was sixth in race two from Detroit. Castroneves' runner-up finish in the Indianapolis 500 is his only podium this season but Castroneves heads to Texas as the only driver with top ten finishes in all eight races this season.

Castroneves is the all-time leader in Texas victories at four while Dixon has won at the 1.5-mile oval twice. Castroneves is also the all-time leader at Texas in top five finishes with 11 and top ten finishes with 15 and Castroneves has seven consecutive top ten finishes at the track. Dixon has 11 top ten finishes at Texas but he has retired from three of the five Texas races in the DW12-era, twice because of accidents.

Not only is Scott Dixon winless but also the entire Ganassi team has not won through the first eight races of the season despite five different teams having already earned a victory this season. Tony Kanaan has the best average finish at Texas among active drivers at 5.4 and he has finished on the podium at Texas in three of the last four races but Kanaan's only Texas victory came in the June 2004 race. Charlie Kimball has three consecutive top ten finishes at Texas after failing to finish in the top fifteen in his first four starts at the track. Max Chilton finished 15th last year at Texas, five laps down. It was Chilton's first race at the track.

Team Penske's Texas Ranch
While Castroneves is winless this season, Team Penske is not and it has three victories and it heads to a track the team has dominated. Team Penske has won eight times at Texas, more than any other team. The only other teams with multiple Texas victories are Chip Ganassi Racing, which has four victories, the defunct Panther Racing, which also won four times at Texas, and the defunct Kelley Racing, which won three Texas races.

Besides Castroneves, Will Power is the only current Penske driver with a victory at Texas. Power won race two of the 2011 Twin 275s. The Australian has three podiums at Texas and six top ten finishes. Power did win three consecutive pole positions at Texas from 2014-16 and he has never started worse than eighth at the track and he has been running at the finish in all nine of his Texas starts.

Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden each have five starts at Texas. Pagenaud has completed all but four laps in his five starts and he has finished fourth twice and Texas was the site of Pagenaud's first career top ten finish on an oval when he finished sixth in the 2012 race. Newgarden has not had quite the same fortune as his French teammate. Newgarden has only one top ten finish at Texas, an eighth-place finish in 2013. He retired with an engine failure in 2015 and he suffered a broken collarbone and hand after an accident with Conor Daly last year.

While Penske has been the most-successful team at Texas it has not won at the track the last three years and since Team Penske joined the IRL in 2002 it has never been winless in four consecutive Texas races.

Rahal Looks to Repeat and Three-Peat
Graham Rahal heads to Texas not only as the defending Texas race winner but the winner of the last two IndyCar races after he swept the Belle Isle doubleheader. Rahal's dominant weekend in Michigan vaulted him from 15th in the championship, 101 points off the championship lead to sixth in the championship, 52 points off the championship lead.

Rahal looks to become the first driver to win three consecutive races since Simon Pagenaud did it last year at Long Beach, Barber and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Other drivers to win three consecutive races in the DW12-era include Will Power, who has won three consecutive races twice in this era when won at Barber, Long Beach and São Paulo in 2012 and won the final two races in 2013 at Houston and Fontana and the 2014 season opener at St. Petersburg. Ryan Hunter-Reay won three consecutive races at Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto in 2012. Scott Dixon won IndyCar's return race at Pocono in 2013 and the following weekend swept the doubleheader at Toronto.

What Rahal could do this weekend that no one else has ever done is win consecutive Texas races. Texas has hosted 28 IndyCar races in 21 IndyCar season. The track hosted two races from 1998 to 2004 but never has a driver won back-to-back races at Texas. Twice has a Texas winner returned and finished second in the next race. Scott Sharp won the June 2001 race and finished second to Sam Hornish, Jr. that October by 0.19 seconds. Tony Kanaan won the June 2004 race and finished second to Hélio Castroneves that October in the final autumn Texas race

Andretti Sits On a Century Mark
Marco Andretti heads to this weekend's race 14th in the IndyCar championship with two top ten finishes this year. At Texas, Andretti has 12 starts, four top five finishes and five top ten finishes. Andretti also heads to Texas having made 100 starts since his most recent IndyCar victory at Iowa in 2011.

In Andretti's 100 starts since that Iowa victory he has finished on the podium eight times with three runner-up finishes, most recently in the first Belle Isle race in 2015 and his most recent podium finish being a third at Fontana in 2015. He also has 15 top five finishes in that time period with that third at Fontana being his more recent top five finishes and he has 46 top ten finishes with his eighth-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago being the most recent. Andretti has won three pole positions in that time frame, all on ovals and the most recent was at Pocono in 2013.

Only one other driver in IndyCar history has had more than 100 starts behind victories. That was Graham Rahal, who went 124 starts between victories at St. Petersburg in 2008 and Fontana in 2015.

Since Iowa 2011, Andretti Autosport has won 18 races with Ryan Hunter-Reay leading the way with 12 victories. James Hinchcliffe won three races with the team in 2013 and Carlos Muñoz, Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato all won once with the team with Rossi and Sato having won the last two Indianapolis 500s.

Sato is the top Andretti car in the championship in third but in eight Texas starts he only has one top ten finish, a fifth in the first Twin 275 in 2011. Last year, he matched his career-best Texas starting position when he qualified fourth. Hunter-Reay has not had a great track record at Texas with only three top finishes and three times starting in the top ten in ten starts. He has finished outside the top fifteen in six of those starts. Rossi started ninth and finish 11th last year in his Texas debut and finished two laps down.

Texas has not been a great track for Andretti Autosport. The team's only victory at the 1.5-mile oval was by Tony Kanaan in June 2004 in what was a 1-2 finish for the team with Dario Franchitti in second. In the DW12-era, Andretti Autosport has only had four top five finishes with Hunter-Reay's runner-up finish in 2013 being the team's lone podium finish at the track in that time.

Vautier Returns
Tristan Vautier returns to the Verizon IndyCar Series this weekend as he will drive the #18 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing. Vautier fills in for the injured Sébastien Bourdais and Esteban Gutiérrez, who was not approved to race this weekend due to a lack of oval experience and the inability for him to test in the lead up to this weekend's race due to testing being not permitted during this portion of the season.

Vautier has not competed in an IndyCar race since 2015 when he completed the final 11 races of the season for Dale Coyne Racing after Carlos Huertas developed an inner ear condition prior to the Indianapolis 500 and was unable to compete. In 30 IndyCar starts, Vautier's best finish was fourth at Belle Isle in race two in 2015 and he has three top ten finishes. He has two starts at Texas and he finished 18th and 20th in those respective starts.

Vautier has spent the better part of the last two years driving sports cars. He currently splits his time between the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in IMSA's GT Daytona class and the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Fast Facts
This will be the 12th IndyCar race to take place on June 10th and first since 2007 when Sébastien Bourdais won at Portland. Hélio Castroneves won at Texas on June 10, 2006.

Last year's Texas race averaged a speed of 144.901 MPH and it was the slowest at the track since the October 1999 race won by Mark Dismore at 135.246 MPH.

The average starting position for a Texas winner is 5.035 with a median of third-place.

Last year, Graham Rahal won from 13th and became just the fifth Texas winner in 28 races to win from outside the top ten.

Justin Wilson won from the furthest back on the grid at Texas when he won in 2012 from 17th position.

In the DW12-era, only once has Texas been won from inside the top five. That was Ed Carpenter in 2014. He started fifth that night.

The pole-sitter has not won at Texas since Ryan Briscoe in 2010.

In the DW12-era, the most lead lap finishers at Texas was six in 2012 and 2014. The average amount of lead lap finishes at Texas in the DW12-era is 5.4.

James Hinchcliffe led 188 of 248 laps last year before finishing second and failing inspection for too much wear to the domed skid.

J.R. Hildebrand finished fifth in his most recent Texas start in 2012 after starting 23rd.

Ed Carpenter has been running at the finish of his last two starts. He was running at the finish of only one race last year.

Mikhail Aleshin started and finished 16th in last year's race after he was involved in an accident with 16 laps to go.

Conor Daly made his first career Texas start last year. Unfortunately, he started 21st and was classified in 21st after his accident with Josef Newgarden after completing only 42 laps.

Carlos Muñoz has finished in the top ten in the last two Texas races and he started on pole position last year and led 37 laps. Muñoz has been running at the finish in all three of his Texas starts but he has never finished on the lead lap at the track.

Ed Jones will be making his Texas debut this weekend. The best finish for a rookie in a Texas race in the DW12-era was Simon Pagenaud's sixth-place finish in 2012.

Gabby Chaves returns with Harding Racing for their second race of the season. They finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago. The only time Chaves has had consecutive top ten finish was in 2014 when he finished ninth in the second Belle Isle race and tenth at Texas.

The average amount of lead changes at Texas is 14 with a median of 14.

The average amount of cautions at Texas is 4.312 with a median of four. The average amount of caution laps is 34.285 with a median of 32.

Possible Milestones:
Ryan Hunter-Reay is one top ten finish away from 100 career IndyCar top ten finishes.

Hélio Castroneves needs to lead 113 laps to surpass Al Unser for fourth most laps led in IndyCar history.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 59 laps to reach the 5,000 laps led milestone.

Marco Andretti needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 153 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Ed Carpenter needs to lead 90 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Alexander Rossi makes it six Honda victories from the first nine races but he will have three Chevrolets challenging him down the stretch. More than six cars finish on the lead lap but the number will be fewer than ten. Graham Rahal finishes ninth or worse. At least three drivers that start outside the top fourteen finish in the top ten and at least three drivers that start inside the top five finish outside the top ten. Sleeper: Max Chilton.

Musings From the Weekend: About Those Kits/You May Be Disappointed

Graham Rahal had a great weekend. Italians had a great weekend in Italy. Belgians had a great weekend in Belgium. You can probably guess who won the IMSA race at Belle Isle. Two women stood on the podium and one manufacture got its first victory. You can probably also guess who won the NASCAR race a Dover and guess what absurd rule pissed off all of its fans this week. Toyota went 1-2-3 at the Le Mans test day. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

About Those Kits
In honor of IndyCar's doubleheader at Belle Isle I am giving you two topics this Monday to ponder.

We entered this year's IndyCar season doubtful over it being an exciting season as it was a lame-duck year for aero kits. There had been a development freeze placed on the aero kits and Chevrolet was coming off winning 14 of the 16 races in 2016 and Team Penske finished 1-2-3 in the championship and had just signed the fourth place finisher from the 2016 championship to join the team for 2017. It felt like it was a four-horse race. It has been anything but a four-horse race.

Honda has won five of eight races. It has won all four street course races and it won the Indianapolis 500 for the second consecutive year. Through eight races, Honda has taken 13 of 24 podium positions. Scott Dixon leads the championship. Takuma Sato is third. Honda has six of the top ten in the championship. The four Chevrolets are the four Penske drivers. Honda hasn't just won the street course races, it has dominated them having led 299 of the 335 laps. Honda even swept the two pole positions at Belle Isle after having not won a pole position on a street circuit is almost three years.

The first eight races of this season have made me realize it was never Chevrolet vs. Honda. It was Penske vs. the field. Ganassi left to Honda and the team did have a fair amount of success while running Chevrolet engines but Chevrolet was always going to be fine if it had Penske. All three of Chevrolets victories this year have been by Team Penske. Ten of Chevrolet's 11 podium finishes have come at the hands of Team Penske. Team Penske is responsible for 459 of Chevrolet's 466 laps led this season or another way to put it is 98.4%.

Ed Carpenter Racing and A.J. Foyt Racing didn't pick up where Ganassi left off. ECR had a really good race at Phoenix with J.R. Hildebrand and had a decent run at Indianapolis until Ed Carpenter had to pit after contact with Pippa Mann and Hildebrand was penalized for jumping a restart. Foyt is still where it was when it was a Honda team.

We worried about another beat down in the year before the introduction of universal aero kits. Now we have to ask if universal aero kits are needed at all? We are too far down that road to go back but IndyCar has reached the point it had to have been hoping for with aero kits and now they will be going away from them. IndyCar had to have wanted this kind of balance where one kit was superior at one type of track and the other kit was superior at another. It is an organic balance not brought on by balance of performance but by the manufactures developing it on their own.

Now all the teams will be spending more money for more parts and a bunch of pieces will be deemed obsolete even though those pieces are less than three years old. IndyCar isn't going to drop the universal aero kit but after watching this season I hope the series at least considers grandfathering those bits into the new formula to allow teams to save some money.

You May Be Disappointed
We are one week removed from Fernando Alonso's IndyCar debut and that race was more than just a Spaniard running on an oval. That Spaniard attracted more people to the broadcast in Europe than any other IndyCar race in recent memory. The ratings in the United Kingdom were up from 12,000 average and 31,000 peak audience in 2016 to a 129,000 average and 203,000 peak audience this year. In Spain, this year's Indianapolis 500 had double the TV rating of the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the day. For many, it seemed to be not only the first IndyCar race they had ever seen but the first oval they had ever seen and it appears some loved it and couldn't believed they had missed this for so long.

Steve Fowler, editor-in-chief of the UK publication Auto Express, said he not only wants to watch more IndyCar but also wants to go to a race. This is just one guy and I don't know how many will follow his lead and keep turning on IndyCar races but he can't be the only one but I have to warn Mr. Fowler and all other people who got hook after watching this year's Indianapolis 500: You may be disappointed from time to time.

Not ever IndyCar race is the Indianapolis 500 as you probably saw with Belle Isle this weekend. IndyCar has boring races too. The two Belle Isle races weren't that bad but thankfully Phoenix didn't follow Indianapolis otherwise it would have killed any international momentum IndyCar had made. IndyCar road and street courses can be just as big of duds as Formula One races. I am sure some turned on Belle Isle off the high of Indianapolis and were let down a bit because a street race rarely can hold a candle to the action of a big oval race like Indianapolis, Pocono or Texas and unfortunately, those are the only big ovals on the IndyCar schedule.

This should not cause IndyCar to have an identity crisis but it should cause the series to consider what makes it special and what it has that no other series can provide. No other series puts on the kind of races that IndyCar does at Indianapolis, Pocono and Texas. Hell, the 2015 Fontana race might be one of the top ten greatest IndyCar races of all-time and Fontana is no longer on the schedule.

Many, especially non-Americans, may have fallen in love with Indianapolis and it might be tough to get them to love Belle Isle, Toronto and Mid-Ohio because they already have enough road course racing for their heart's desire and IndyCar road and street course racing isn't that much different. But the one thing European-based series don't have is the thrill of a 220 MPH roller coaster ride and IndyCar is where they get their fix for that balls-to-the-wall action.

IndyCar must consider beefing up the oval portion of the schedule because it is what makes IndyCar the series it is and makes it different from the rest of the series around the world. That doesn't mean adding eight more oval races. There can be too much of a good thing but simply adding Fontana and Michigan could provide enough of a fix for the oval junkies IndyCar just got hooked.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Graham Rahal sweeping the weekend at Belle Isle but did you know...

Andrea Dovizioso won MotoGP's Italian Grand Prix from Mugello. Mattia Pasini won in Moto2, his first victory since the 250cc race at Mugello in 2009. Andrea Migno won in Moto3, his first career victory.

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan and Ricky Taylor won at Belle Isle, their five consecutive IMSA victory. The #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca of James French and Pato O'Ward won in Prototype Challenge and they are four-for-four this season. Acura picked up its maiden win the GT Daytona with the #93 Michael Shank Racing Acura of Andy Lally and Katherine Legge taking the victory.

Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR Cup race from Dover, his 83rd career victory, and it was his 11th Dover victory. Kyle Larson won the Grand National Series race. Johnny Sauter won the Truck race.

The #2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi of Will Stevens and Markus Winkelhock won the Blancpain Sprint Series race from Zolder. The #17 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi of Stuart Leonard and Robin Frijns won the qualifying race on Saturday.

Coming Up This Weekend
Texas heads to Texas and hopes to get this race in before the end of June this year.
Lance Stroll gets to race in his home country for the first time in his Formula One career at Montreal.
NASCAR makes its way slightly north to Pocono.
MotoGP makes its second trip to Spain, this time to Barcelona.
World Rally Championship will contest Rally d'Italia Sardegna.
The TCR International Series will be at the Salzburgring.

First Impressions: Belle Isle 2017 Race Two

1. Whoa. Graham Rahal seemed to be cruising to sweeping the weekend and then James Hinchcliffe lost an engine and then Spencer Pigot lost an engine and IndyCar red-flagged the race with three laps to go to create a two-lap shootout. Rahal held on but it had to be nervy for him. He didn't dominate this one like he did yesterday but he controlled this one once he jumped Takuma Sato and Will Power on the first pit cycle. It was a great weekend for him and he heads to Texas, where he won last year, on a great wave of momentum. Could he go three-for-three?

2. Josef Newgarden had a great weekend, arguably the second-best weekend of them all. For the second consecutive day, Newgarden was top driver on the three-stop strategy and he picked up fastest lap again. A lot of people worried Newgarden would have a slump in year one with Penske just like Simon Pagenaud in 2015. That doesn't appear to be the case.

3. Will Power finished third but he has to be kicking himself because he blew his flyer during qualifying and had to start seventh. He likely would have topped his group and won pole position. It was a good points day for him after he finished 18th. 

4. Takuma Sato didn't let the Indianapolis 500 hangover get the best of him as he finished fourth today the day after finishing eighth. He didn't waste the double points and qualifying points he earned at Indianapolis. Did it take him until he was 40 years old to gain control over his aggression and turn his speed into results? The man is at the highest point of his career.

5. Simon Pagenaud finished fifth but was never really a factor in this one. Like his teammate Will Power, this is a great day after a dismal Saturday when he finished 16th. 

6. Scott Dixon finishes sixth in what was a quiet day for him going with the three-stop strategy over the two-strategy he worked yesterday. Not bad for him since he is driving with a bad left ankle.

7. Alexander Rossi with another solid finish in seventh. He just didn't seem to have that little bit extra speed and this is a pretty good day considering he started 14th. 

8. Charlie Kimball finally gets a good day with an eighth-place finish. He didn't put a wheel wrong and he kept his nose clean. What else can you ask from a driver? 

9. Hélio Castroneves cut a tire after contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. He was fortunate to rebound to a ninth-place finish. 

10. Tony Kanaan did nothing and finished tenth.

11. Carlos Muñoz finished 11th and Conor Daly finished 12th but Daly spent most of the day in the final few positions of the top ten and he was ninth on that final and only restart and he lost three positions. Daly finally finishes a race on the lead lap but it has to be frustrating that a top ten slipped through his fingers and even worse is he finished behind his teammate.

12. Marco Andretti had an average day in 13th. He started in the top ten and the strategy choice didn't go his way. 

13. Esteban Gutiérrez picks up his best career IndyCar finish in 14th. He really wasn't noticed at all this weekend, which is a good thing considering he didn't put it in the barriers. For a guy who didn't get into the car until Friday this is a good debut weekend on what couldn't have been a more physically demanding weekend.

14. Max Chilton finished a lap down in 15th. Mikhail Aleshin was in the top ten and had an improper pit exit force him to serve a penalty and kill his day. Ryan Hunter-Reay wasn't the same after the contact with Castroneves and this seems like a missed opportunity after starting second. J.R. Hildebrand was hit by Ed Jones and that killed all his hope of a top ten finish on the three-stop strategy. Oriol Servià was penalized for pit lane speeding for the second consecutive day. You know about Hinchcliffe and Pigot and this was the first bad day of Ed Jones' IndyCar career but I still think he has the IndyCar Rookie of the Year locked up.

15. Normally this is the point where I celebrate the ABC portion of the schedule ending and get one final chances to tear apart Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear and as much as I really want to I won't because Allen Bestwick is officially unemployed and so is Dr. Jerry Punch. We don't know what the ABC team will look like next year for what will be its final year of this current television contract. That is a hell of a lot scarier than if we had another year with the status quo. 

And it sucks. It sucks to see Bestwick is out. He did a really good job for his relatively short stint as IndyCar's voice on network television and Dr. Punch has become a face I just always expected to see. I hope they find work. They both are too good to be unemployed. 

16. I will tear apart Davey Hamilton though. During the qualifying session on Sunday, after one of the commentators accidentally said Esteban Guerrieri when meaning Esteban Gutiérrez, Hamilton said he had been struggling with Gutiérrez's name and said we need to "Americanize" it. 

I don't know where Hamilton has been the last week but the last week's Indianapolis 500 got more buzz not because it was a great finish or a great story that Sato won but it got attention because a sports reporter sent out a racist and ignorant tweet about the winner. Then in the middle of the week Andretti Autosport had to address racist and xenophobic comments left on its Facebook page. Suggesting we need to "Americanize" a name to make your job easier is unprofessional. If you want to be a broadcaster take the time to learn the name and pronunciation and practice it over and over and over again and if you are not sure you are pronouncing it correctly ask said driver. If you don't want to do that Mr. Hamilton than quit. There are plenty of drivers out of rides that I am sure would love to be the driver analyst on the radio broadcast.

17. Now we head to Texas. Let's hope the rain isn't waiting. 

Morning Warm-Up: Belle Isle 2017 Race Two

Graham Rahal's victory means IndyCar is on the verge of doing something not done in 106 years

Graham Rahal heads into race two fresh off dominating race one of the weekend from Belle Isle. The Ohioan led 55 laps from pole position on his way to his fifth career IndyCar victory. It was his first victory from pole position and he became the first winner from pole position at Belle Isle since the race adopted the doubleheader format. Rahal became the seventh different winner from the first seven races of the IndyCar season. IndyCar has not had eight different winners from the first eight races of the season since 1911 when 13 different drivers won the first 13 races of the then sanctioned AAA national championship season. One driver who could be responsible for making that bit of IndyCar history is Scott Dixon, who finished second in race one. Dixon took the championship lead after that result and the New Zealander has finished on the podium in all odd-numbered races this season. Dixon has finished in the top five at Belle Isle in the Sunday race every year of the doubleheader-era.

James Hinchcliffe recovered nicely from a lap one spin in race one to finish on the podium in third, his best career finish at Belle Isle. That was Hinchcliffe finish top ten finish after three consecutive finishes outside the top ten. The Canadian has never finished on the podium in consecutive races. Josef Newgarden finished fourth in race one, the top Chevrolet on Saturday. That result matched Newgarden's career best finish at Belle Isle. He has three top five finishes this season, all of which have come on road and street courses. Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five yesterday, his career best finish on a street circuit and third top five finish on a road/street circuit. Rossi has three consecutive top ten finishes, matching the longest streak of his career. Mikhail Aleshin finished sixth, a career best for him at Belle Isle. Six of Aleshin's 14 top ten finishes have come on street circuits.

Hélio Castroneves started second in race one but finished seventh and that finished dropped him to second in the championship, two points behind Dixon. Castroneves is the only driver to finish in the top ten of all seven races this season. Dating back to last season, Castroneves has ten consecutive top ten finishes. Takuma Sato finished eighth yesterday and he is third in the championship, 17 points behind Dixon. Sato's finish was the best for an Indianapolis 500 winner at Belle Isle since the race adopted the doubleheader format. Ed Jones finished ninth in race one, his fourth top ten finish of the season. He started 21st in race one. Jones is seventh, just one point ahead of Hinchcliffe. Spencer Pigot rounded out the top ten. It was his third top ten finish of the season with Pigot finishing in the top ten in every one of his even-numbered starts this season.

Max Chilton missed out on three consecutive top ten finishes after needing a late splash of fuel, dropping the Brit to 11th. Andretti Autosport teammates Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 12th and 13th respectively in race one. Andretti is ten laps away from the 1,000 laps led milestone. He has not led a lap since Sonoma 2015. Hunter-Reay's next top ten finishes will be the 100th of his IndyCar career. Hunter-Reay finished third in race two last year. Hunter-Reay's last six top ten finishes have either been finishes of third or fourth. Fourteenth in race one was Carlos Muñoz. The Colombian driver has finished in the top ten in every even-numbered race this season. Tony Kanaan rounded out the top fifteen. In the doubleheader-era, Kanaan has never finished in the top ten in race two at Belle Isle if he finished outside the top ten in race one.

Simon Pagenaud finished 16th in race one, his fifth finish outside the top ten in ten Belle Isle starts. The Frenchman does have four podiums at Belle Isle. J.R. Hildebrand ended up 17th after being handed a late drive-through penalty for improper exit. Will Power finished one lap down in 18th and it was the first time Power did not lead a lap in a Belle Isle race since the first race in 2013. This is the second time Power has finished 18th at Belle Isle. He finished 18th in the race one in 2015 after an accident with Castroneves. He would finish 20th in race two. Esteban Gutiérrez finished 19th after starting 19th in his IndyCar debut. He is hoping to continue with Dale Coyne Racing for the rest of the season but if he cannot test prior to Texas race next week it appears Oriol Servià will drive the #18 Honda at the 1.5-mile oval. Servià finished 20th in race one after being had a penalty for pit lane speeding.

Charlie Kimball and Conor Daly rounded out the results in 21st and 22nd respectively. Kimball has finished outside the top twenty in the last three races and in four of seven races this season. Daly's retirement ended a run of three consecutive top ten finishes at Belle Isle.

Qualifying for race two will take place at 10:45 a.m. ET and like yesterday there will be two groups. The fastest time will start on pole position and the remainder of the cars from that group setting the odd-numbered positions on the grid. The other group will then set the even-numbered positions on the grid.

ABC's coverage of race two of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:50 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 70 laps.

Qualifying Update
Takuma Sato took his sixth career pole position after he ran a lap at 73.6732 seconds, just over 0.1373 seconds faster than Graham Rahal in the second group of qualifying. Sato will be joined by his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay on row one after the American driver top an abbreviated group one session. This is Hunter-Reay's first front row start since last year's Sunday race at Belle Isle. This is the first all-Andretti Autosport front row since Long Beach in 2014 when Hunter-Reay was on pole position and James Hinchcliffe started second.

Rahal will be joined on row two by Hélio Castroneves, who started next to him on row one yesterday.  James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin make it an all-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports row three with Will Power and Scott Dixon on row four. Power blew his final lap of qualifying as he went off at turn seven but suffered no damage. Marco Andretti and Conor Daly round out the top ten. This is Andretti's third top ten of the season and Daly's best start of the season.

Simon Pagenaud will start 11th and it is only the second time he will start outside the top ten at Belle Isle. He started 17th for race one in 2014 and that race ended for the Frenchman after an accident on lap five. Charlie Kimball joins Pagenaud on row six ahead of Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi. For the second consecutive race Tony Kanaan will start 15th and Max Chilton will be to his outside on row eight.

Ed Jones improved four positions from his starting position yesterday but he will still be rolling off from 17th position next to J.R. Hildebrand. Esteban Gutiérrez is at least being consistent in the dawn of his IndyCar career and he will start 19th for the second consecutive race. Oriol Servià finished 20th yesterday and he will start 20th today. Spencer Pigot and Carlos Muñoz round out the final row. Muñoz hit the wall exiting turn two in the first qualifying group, which brought out a red flag.

Both sessions were able to be completed without an interference from rain and it appears the chance of rain during the race has dropped to about 25%.

ABC's coverage of race two of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:50 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 70 laps.