“They ruined a wonderful race.”
Welcome back to another edition of Dre’s Race Review, on this edition, we’re talking about the second half of the IndyCar season, and the doubleheader of Iowa oval races, the HyVee Homefront 250 and the HyVee OneStep 250. It was the first oval running for the new hybrid car, and a track that was only partially repaved due to a clash with NASCAR plans. It led to… a difficult weekend. Let’s get into it.
Teething Problems
I don’t normally talk about Qualifying on a Race Review, one because of the name and two, if I did, these posts would be 5,000 words long instead of 3,000. But the Qualifying in Iowa demanded special attention because man was it a hot mess. And not in a fun way.
Multiple cars had hybrid issues with it being the series’ first serious race weekend with the system on an oval. Jack Harvey’s hybrid unit was disconnected from IndyCar Race Control and wasn’t working twice. He eventually got a third run after everyone else had finished their efforts, but it called several things into question.
First of all, at what point does the advantage of more rubber on the track by going last, outweigh the disadvantage of a hybrid system that wasn’t working? This also happened to Colton Herta, whose hybrid unit wasn’t regenning, but still qualified on the Race 1 pole despite it not working properly. More on him in a moment.
But it also brought Harvey’s health into question. I mentioned it last week but I was very concerned that Harvey, who to his credit has been very open about his struggles, is still suffering from the back and neck spasms that plagued him in Mid-Ohio. I said back then he probably shouldn’t have raced given the unpredictable nature of the injury and the nature of pulling G-Forces for a prolonged period with those injuries, but he did all three runs, despite at one point looking like he was in serious discomfort, struggling to walk in the pitlane and barely being able to get out of the car without support.
I’ve always been quick to praise just how good IndyCar’s medical and safety team are, they’re the best in the business. But at what point do they interfere and pull the plug on this, even more so given Conor Daly is on standby and ready to go if need be? Why are we doing this?
I fear I know the answer, and it links to one of Twitter’s discussions earlier this week. Max Verstappen recently contributed to a Red Bull article ranking all his victories. In the Top 10 was his win at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas during the 2021 season, and he openly admitted that in that race he was still suffering from vision problems, caused by his infamous 51G barrier clash with Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone earlier in that year. That was 7 races, and four months after the initial impact.
Whether we as an audience want to admit it or not, elite athletes either hide or play through injuries. In Motorsport, it’s far more often than we give it credit for. MotoGP has had a horrible reputation in dealing with head injuries, going as far as having multiple team bosses and riders admitting they’ve either ridden concussed or let one of their riders do it. I remember Jack Miller once admitting that if they checked riders for it more often “no one would be allowed to race”. It’s far behind the standards of the sporting leaders in Rugby, where a suspected head injury would have a mandated break before returning to competition.
Motorsport and sport in general, are still barely scratching the surface of head injuries and their short, medium and long-term impact. Drag Racing legend John Force is recovering from one at the time of writing. A concussion led to Alex Bowman in NASCAR missing a handful of races, but similar symptoms ended the careers of Kurt Busch and likely IndyCar’s Simon Pagenaud. We’ve also seen delayed symptoms from concussions, like in Cricket when Steve Smith played through one at the famous Lord’s Test against Jofra Archer in the 2019 Ashes. He came back to continue after a 94mph delivery hit his helmet but was withdrawn from the rest of the test the following day. It led to the rise of Marnus Labschagne’s test career.
Why do these athletes do it? Because the risk of missing time is often too great. It’s no different to those young NFL players on a practice squad, or a cheap, easily movable contract. If you miss time and are deemed unreliable, you’ll be cut and the next man comes in off the couch. It’s why the average NFL player’s career is less than 4 years. Same for Max Verstappen, who if he were pulled from an F1 race weekend or two due to a concussion if properly assessed, or if he “did the right thing” and sat out, wouldn’t have won the 2021 World Championship.
IndyCar has already had a concussion scandal of its own when Oliver Askew was booted out of McLaren’s team for racing with the symptoms from his crash at the Indy 500 in 2020, and not telling them about it. McLaren never gave an official reason for parting ways with Askew, and ultimately, it ended his racing career in 2022 after a year in Formula E with Andretti.
Jack Harvey’s IndyCar career has been hanging by a thread for over a calendar year. He was fired early from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2023, and his time at Dale Coyne this season hasn’t been spectacular, with the risk always being there that a decent talent with more money can come in like Katherine Legge is doing in the #51 car this weekend. If Jack’s cut now, there’s a reasonable chance he never gets another opportunity again. If you’re him, are you falling on your sword? Or fighting through the pain knowing it might be the last chance to save your career?
Motorsport needs way more people in it who are brave enough to take that decision out of the drivers’ hands because, given the choice, chances are they’ll take the risk. But there’ll always be that ethical conflict between the athlete and they’re desire and will to win, and where the responsibility of safety intertwines. Welcome to elite sports. I don’t agree with it, but I understand.
As for Colton Herta, no one from the team, to the driver, to the commentary team and Race Control could make sense of what was happening and key questions were being asked:
- Does Colton get another set of tyres at the series’ discretion because they’ve taken responsibility for the failure?
- Do you lose your time, like the two-line system in the Indy 500 if you go again?
- What happens if the system keeps failing?
Hinchcliffe, Diffey and Bell did a genuinely good job asking the right questions on the broadcast, but chaos and confusion reigned with fans’ trackside tweeting me not knowing what was going on. And in the end, Andretti elected NOT to run again despite the series giving them the option. It was never made clear if Herta lost his time or not if he attempted a second run. And given more rubber was on track than his first attempt, and was fast as heck despite having no hybrid working, I’m not sure that was the right call, even if I understood the risk.
And I’ve barely even mentioned the alleged failures in Josef Newgarden and Alex Rossi’s cars, that weren’t deemed worthy of another run. That needs to be clarified too.
We also had the drama of whether Harvey would even take the start. By all accounts, IndyCar Medical and Harvey didn’t want to be there. But a withdrawn car that close to the start scores zero points and Coyne needs all the scoring it can get in the Leader’s Circle. Even starting a race gets you five. So, Harvey contested Race 1 before being sat down for Conor Daly for Race 2.
All in all, a messy, ethically questionable sequence of events. And this was just qualifying. Not for the first time, the sport’s good intentions are being undermined by those at the top.
PS: If a concert is taking priority over a simple demo run to make sure Daly could get some laps in to replace Harvey, is this a sport, or an entertainment company?
#FinishTheRepave
Otherwise, the story of the weekend was a questionable partial repave of the track, turning Iowa into a one-lane racing affair. Similar to the PJ1 tarmac situation we got when the series used to race in Texas. The series had an extra half an hour of practice added in so drivers could run the high line, but it didn’t lead to much as Marcus Ericsson crashed in practice with Katherine Legge and Scott McLaughlin also spinning.
Race 1 had a messy start with a Lap 1 wreck with David Malukas spinning into both Juncos’ of Romain Grosjean and Agustin Canapino, with Christian Lundgaard spinning out on his own for good measure. After that we got a lot of single-file racing where passing on the dirty air and not having a high-line option led to a lot of status quo racing. Beyond the first two or three laps of a stint, passing came at an ultra-premium.
The big shocker? Alex Palou was human. He made another poor getaway from his pit box for the second weekend in a row and lost a Top 4 spot, and then coming back from 19th on a restart, he got to 11th and then lost control of his car and crashed on the main straight. A bizarre humanising moment for the reigning champ and his first crash out of an IndyCar race since Road America 2022, where Marcus Ericsson took him out, 37 races ago.
Scott McLaughlin nailed the final restart and went around the outside on the edge of the revamped surface on Colton Herta to eventually take his first IndyCar Oval win, one that felt overdue after his Texas 2022 photo-finish heartbreak.
As for Race 2… I’m going to be real with you here, very little happened. Scott McLaughlin led from pole position and we had a caution-free first 100 laps until Agustin Canapino spun out of the exit of pit lane. Once again, we got another delayed caution as Alex Palou was in the pits at the time of the incident and waited with Canapino’s car stricken until he was out. It had a huge impact on the front, with McLaughlin dropping to third, Palou now in the lead, and Power who stayed out as the last man standing, gaining a lap on the field and was able to pit and come out in second under caution.
With Power on 6 laps less fuel than Palou, it was only a matter of time until Palou tried an undercut for the win. The pitstop was key, and Team Penske came through with Power on the overcut and came out in front. After that, Palou had no chance to pass with Iowa’s dirty air, and Will could coast behind the back of the pack for the remaining 40 laps to the flag.
The race’s only real highlight was a huge end-of-race wreck. Alex Rossi ran out of fuel on the final lap, it caught out a following Sting Ray Robb who drove over the back of his car and cartwheeled in the air, landing upside down and sliding down the back straight, with Rossi, Ed Carpenter and Kyle Kirkwood all caught up in the wreck. Robb had to be stretchered out of his car but gave both thumbs up on the way into the ambulance. He’s since been released from the hospital, so thankfully, everyone was fine. Another win for the aeroscreen.
This weekend’s action was not good. The drivers agreed that the partial repaving harmed the racing. Ed Carpenter has called for the hybrid to be shelved until the end of the season. Pato O’Ward said that they ruined an incredible race. Even Alex Palou, the man who smiles when someone overcooks his fried chicken said that the race was like “putting a MotoGP bike on dirt”. Alex Palou said that. Yikes. I can’t even add anything to that, it’s just brutal.
The Lightning Round
A huge salute to Leigh Diffey who for now, called his final pair of IndyCar races this weekend in Iowa before he heads to the Olympics, and then NASCAR’s coverage. IndyCar’s loss will certainly be NASCAR’s gain, he’s a tremendous commentator, versatile, gets the big moments right and always brings the right amount of energy for a series that often delivers it in spades. All the best Leigh, it’s been a pleasure.
Alex Palou leaves Iowa with a 35-point lead. That is not ideal for the field given by all accounts, this is his worst track. The good news for the field is, it has closed up a bit:
Alex Palou (379)
Will Power (-35)
Pato O’Ward (-52)
Scott Dixon (-57)
Scott McLaughlin (-66)
Colton Herta (-79)
Kyle Kirkwood (-105)
Alexander Rossi (-114)
It was starting to look like it was going to be a three-horse race, but realistically, I think we can say everyone down to Herta in sixth place has a chance of the Astor Cup. But they need to start taking chunks out of Palou, with only six races to go. And Palou was unlucky not to win in Toronto last year…
Josef Newgarden has seven Iowa wins. He didn’t come close to adding to his count this weekend. That might be the death sentence for his Astor Cup campaign. And he should not be on the fringes of the Top 10.
Speaking of which, Santino Ferrucci IS now in the Top 10. Just how much help is Foyt getting from Penske is up for debate, but there’s no argument here, Ramen-head is wheeling that thing.
Dre’s Race Rating: Well… this wasn’t great. It goes fast because it’s only a 17-18 second lap at full racing speed, but the action just didn’t happen. Race 1 was mildly interesting due to the timing of the cautions. Race 2 was a total stinker and one of the quietest races of 2024, period. I’ll take an average of the two races for my overall score here, but trust me, these races were perfect for YouTube highlight film. See you in Toronto.
Race 1: 5/10 / Race 2: 3/10 / Average: 4/10 (Poor)
