Like a lot of you, I spent this past weekend at America’s National Park of Speed, Road America. Outside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Road America is my second-favorite track on the schedule.
If you’ve never been, put it on your list, because it is well worth it. The area around the track is beautiful, there are plenty of great places to watch the action — I became a big fan of Canada Corner yesterday — and it’s all connected by a series of roads and trails, so it is very easy to navigate.
Oh yeah, and since it’s Wisconsin, the track food is awesome.
I spent the weekend camping with Abby and some other friends, and while we had to take cover a couple of times because of rain, a good time was had by all.
Oh yeah, and there was some racing! Here are a few of my thoughts from the XPEL Grand Prix.
Who Impressed Me
Jamie Chadwick — Here at FCFG we are big supporters of women in motorsports, and so the 26-year-old Brit leads us off after becoming the first woman to win a pole and a race in the Indy NXT Series since Pippa Mann accomplished both back in 2010. Chadwick was on the point during the entire 20-lap, 80-mile race, and picked up her second podium in the last four races. Awesome.
Will Power — Had it really been two years since Power last won a race? Yep, and knowing what we know now about his wife Liz’s health issues over the last year-plus, it did make a little more sense. But with three runner-up finishes so far this year, it was only going to be a matter of time before Power got one in 2024, and he sealed the deal Sunday by using a lightning-fast pitstop to gain track position, and led the way of a Team Penske sweep of the podium. He’s now the points leader, and given the next two stops on the schedule, Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio, are tracks were he’s had a ton of success over the years, he could be set to make a bit of a run.
The win also tied him with Michael Andretti for the fourth-most wins in IndyCar history (42). That tie shouldn’t last that long.
Kyle Kirkwood — For a guy that is sitting in sixth place in points, Kirkwood is having a very quiet season, but he’s also working on the best season of his career. His fifth-place finish Sunday was his second consecutive top 5, and he has finished in the top 10 in ever race this season except for the Indy GP, where he finished 11th. Not spectacular, but solid and consistent.
I’ve always been a believer that it takes a driver around 50 races to get a really good base to move forward. Yesterday was Kirkwood’s 41st career IndyCar race, and while he of course already knows how to win, now he’s figuring out how to be consistent and run up front.
Linus Lundqvist — On paper, a 12th-place finish doesn’t normally fit into the “who impressed” category, but Lundqvist makes the list for a couple of reasons. First, of course, was the fact that he won the pole Saturday afternoon, a session run in the wet with constantly changing track conditions. Then, after being punted by teammate Marcus Armstrong in the first corner of the race, he fell to the back of the field but methodically worked his way back to a respectable finish. In the process, he stopped the bleeding of three disappointing performances. After finishing P3 at Barber, he P14 in the Indy GP, crashed at the Indianapolis 500 and finished 28th, then finished a lap off the pace at Detroit in P22. Given his success at Barber and Road America, it seems like natural road courses fit him well, so let’s see what he’s got at the next two races.
Who Struggled
Marcus Armstrong — The weekend seemed to be off to a great start for Armstrong, who made the Firestone Fast 6 and would up qualifying third. Coming off a P3 finish at Detroit, he looked to be in position for another good finish Sunday. That all went down the drain in the first turn when he committed one of the cardinal sins of racing: wrecking a teammate. That dropped him all the way to DFL in P27, and then his day ended just over 30 laps later with a mechanical issue and he came home in 25th. Through seven races, he has crashed out of two and retired with mechanical issues in two others. After winning IndyCar Rookie of the Year in 2023, Armstrong is struggling to find consistency in his sophomore season.
Scott Dixon — Staying with the Chip Ganassi Racing theme, Dixon was coming off of a win in Detroit and showed up at Road America as the points leader. He started in 10th Sunday after going P3 in the morning warmup, and scooted up to fifth amongst the chaos at the start of the race but his day was undone on lap 22 when his left-rear tire blistered and he had to make an extra stop under the green flag. The result was a P21 finish and now he heads to Laguna looking up at teammate Alex Palou and Power from third place in the points.
Alexander Rossi — Like Armstrong, Rossi came in having finished fourth at the 500 and fifth last week in Detroit. Unlike Armstrong, Rossi’s problems Sunday were of the mechanical variety. He was running well through the midway point of the race, where he was in sixth, but then his No. 7 machine started suffering wastegate issues, and he ended up finishing in 18th place.
Editor’s note: While I have known about a wastegate since the beginning of my racing fandom, I’d forgotten what its function was, so I looked it up:
A wastegate is a valve that controls the flow of exhaust gases to the turbine wheel in a turbocharged engine system. Diversion of exhaust gases regulates the turbine speed, which in turn regulates the rotating speed of the compressor. The primary function of the wastegate is to regulate the maximum boost pressure in turbocharger systems, to protect the engine and the turbocharger.
So now you know.
What did you think of the race? Let me know @15daysinmay on Twitter and Insta, and of course the FCFG socials @fastcarsfastgirls on Insta and @FastCarsin317 on Twitter
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