Road America 2023, the order of arrival
POS. | PILOT | TEAM | LAPS |
1 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi | 55 |
2 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | |
3 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | |
4 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi | |
5 | Colton Hertha | Andretti | |
6 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi | |
7 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman | |
8 | Scott McLaughlin | Chip Ganassi | |
9 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti | |
10 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren | |
11 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman | |
12 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter | |
13 | Will Power | Chip Ganassi | |
14 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank | |
15 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank | |
16 | Santino Ferrucci | AJ Foyt | |
17 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Dreyer & Reinbold | |
18 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger | |
19 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger | |
20 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren | |
21 | Benjamin Pedersen | AJ Foyt | |
22 | Sting Ray Robb | Dale Coyne with HMD | |
23 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti | |
24 | Marcus Armstrong | Chip Ganassi | |
25 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti | |
26 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman | |
27 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne with HMD | Retired |
Race report
In the last four races of the season, three of these saw the same driver on the top step of the podium: Alex Palou. With the exception of the Indianapolis 500, the Spaniard of the Chip Ganassi team won his seventh career victory, the second in a row after his last success on the Detroit street circuit. A race that, for long stretches, actually seemed destined for poleman Colton Herta, very skilled at the start in maintaining his leadership not only at the start, but also after the various cautions decreed in the first 20 laps: the first was immediately decided by Race Direction for the contact that took place in turn 1 between O’Ward and Kirkwood, with the latter who, finding himself in front of the McLaren of the Mexican in braking, was unable to avoid the collision in any way, thus ending up off the track and compromising his race, also as a result of a subsequent penalty. Once the yellow flag regime ended, two more followed in the space of a few laps, first due to yet another mistake this season by Romain Grosjean (already protagonist in the second free practice session for a controversial defensive maneuver on Will Power, such as to push the Australian to insult him on live television) and subsequently for that of Harvey. A series of interruptions which, however, prompted several riders to play the tire change card, but which did not ruin Herta’s leadership, constantly leading the race ahead of Newgarden and Palou. At the restart, the Spaniard also attempted to attack the winner of the Indianapolis 500 to take second place, with the American however reacting decisively by closing the door on the championship leader, who was forced to postpone his plans , even more after the fourth caution this time exposed for the withdrawal of Malukas, betrayed by technical problems.
In this circumstance, with the exception of Armstrong and Power, all the other drivers returned to the pits again to discard the red tyre, in a context that gave the first twists: in this circumstance, Herta in fact lost the leadership at due to a slower pit stop than those of Palou and Newgarden, thus relegating to virtual third position and allowing the Catalan to take the lead in the standings. However, immediately after the green flag, the Andretti team rider only took one lap to get the better of Palou again, showing all his feeling on one of the most popular tracks on the calendar. However, the decisive moment for the final outcome took place 15 laps from the end, with the last pit stop by Herta, followed the next round by Palou, who returned to second position ahead of Newgarden and Palou. At that point the race seemed to go definitively in favor of Herta, with the latter however drastically losing pace compared to that of the Spaniard, so much so that the latter, at the braking point for turn 1, completed the decisive overtaking for the victory with an overtaking on the outside. A real low blow for Herta, who then lost the chance to fight for the podium, also being overtaken by Newgarden and O’Ward, even falling to fifth position.
IndyCar / Drivers’ standings after Road America 2023 (round 8)
POS. | PILOT | TEAM | POINTS |
1 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi | 324 |
2 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi | 250 |
3 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | 243 |
4 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi | 226 |
5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | 226 |
6 | Scott McLaughlin | Chip Ganassi | 199 |
7 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren | 196 |
8 | Will Power | Chip Ganassi | 190 |
9 | Colton Hertha | Andretti | 183 |
10 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti | 164 |
11 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman | 162 |
12 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren | 158 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti | 150 |
14 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger | 128 |
15 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter | 126 |
16 | Santino Ferrucci | AJ Foyt | 119 |
17 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman | 118 |
18 | Marcus Armstrong | Chip Ganassi | 108 |
19 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne with HMD | 96 |
20 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank | 95 |
21 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank | 88 |
22 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter | 88 |
23 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti | 88 |
24 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger | 88 |
25 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman | 83 |
26 | Benjamin Pedersen | AJ Foyt | 70 |
27 | Sting Ray Robb | Dale Coyne with HMD | 63 |
28 | Takuma Sato | Chip Ganassi | 37 |
29 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Dreyer & Reinbold | 33 |
30 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter | 27 |
31 | Tony Canaan | Penske | 18 |
32 | Marco Andretti | Andretti | 13 |
33 | Katherine Law | Rahal Letterman | 5 |
34 | RC Enerson | Abel Motorsports | 5 |
Next appointment
With this result, Palou increases his lead in the general standings to 74 points over his closest rival Marcus Ericsson, all while waiting for the next round on the calendar, once again on a road circuit. In two weeks, from June 30 to July 2, IndyCar will arrive in Mid-Ohio for the ninth round of the championship.
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