Patricio O’Ward would pace the IndyCar field to green on Belle Isle. However, it would be Marcus Ericsson to take home the spoils of victory for the first of two races this weekend in dramatic fashion. With his win, there have now been a record seven different winners in the opening seven races. Three of the top five drivers in points have never won a championship. In setting up for another great race on Sunday, here is the recap of the first Detroit Duel.
Early Pit Strategy
Almost as soon as the race started, a slew of cars came in to almost immediately take their opening pit stops. This was in an effort to get off the Firestone red tires and onto the whites. For those not familiar with IndyCar, the red tires are softer, producing faster lap times but they fall off more quickly. The white tires do not produce as fast lap times but last longer. Cars that did so included pole sitter O’Ward, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, and Scott McGlaughlin. McGlaughlin ended up having a slower than usual pit stop, forcing him a lap down early. Newgarden never got his new right rear wheel fully tightened, and it fell off before he could get back to pit road. Rossi and O’Ward came in and out without incident.
Johnson’s Struggles Continue
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson’s IndyCar maiden voyage has gotten off to a less-than-stellar start. Unfortunately for him, that would continue in Detroit. Johnson would make an unscheduled stop around 10 laps in and reported to his team that he had a stuck throttle pedal. This would take some time to repair and would put him multiple laps down. In his road course only schedule to this point, Johnson has yet to record a top-15 result and has now three finishes below 20th. It is also worth noting that Johnson has not won a race of any kind since the 2017 June NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover.
Horrifying Wreck for Rosenqvist
The first caution of the day would come out around Lap 25. It would be one of the scariest road course wrecks IndyCar has seen since Dario Franchetti’s career-ending crash in 2013 at Houston. Felix Rosenqvist had his throttle stick in a straight shoot. He would then hit a tire barrier (backed up by concrete) almost head-on, at close to 100 miles per hour. The race would be red-flagged officially on Lap 28 and the AMR safety team would proceed to get him out of his car. From there he was taken to the infield care center. Thankfully, a good sign seeing as he was not taken straight to a hospital.
The update from IndyCar on Rosenqvist was that he was alert the entire time. Even more importantly, he had no loss of function in any of his extremities and suffered no major structural damage in his legs; a great sign for this kind of accident. He would, however, be going to a local hospital to get checked out on his lower body (legs assumedly). An all-around horrifying scene and we hope for nothing but the best for Rosenqvist, one of the bright newer faces on the IndyCar scene. Track repairs to where Rosenqvist hit would take considerable time after the car was removed from the track.
Back to Green
Scott Dixon was at the point when the red flag was lifted after close to a 90-minute delay. He (along with around a dozen cars) came to pit road when they came back around. This included Rossi, Graham Rahal, Alex Palou, and Colton Herta among others. Will Power would, as a result, cycle to the lead with Ericsson and Takuma Sato in tow. Former F1 driver Romain Grosjean made an unscheduled pit stop about five laps into this stint. He would report that he thought something was broken and took four tires on this stop. Sato seconds later got hit with a blocking penalty on Rinus Veekay and was forced to give up third.
Money Stops and Late Race Dash
After a string of crucially important stops with around 25 to go, Power would come ahead of cars on the same cycle. O’Ward ended up coming in later than most at lap 52 and dropped back to eight when he came back on track. From there, Rahal and Santino Ferrucci were the last of the leaders to hit pit road. Both seemed to be hoping for caution or just trying to stretch the fuel. Power was not too far behind them with around 18 to go regardless, and both ended up heading in.
With all of that happening, the presumable race for the win was very much on. You could throw a blanket over Power, Ericsson, and VeeKay in the top three spots, as they were all separated by just a second with 15 laps remaining. However, Veekay shortly thereafter would begin to lose touch with the top two. He even lost third to Sato, who was in the middle of a mad dash at the end of this race. The final few laps would then take a dramatic turn, as Grosjean would wheel hop out of a corner and nail a wall resulting in a caution. IndyCar brought out a red flag again in an attempt to have the race finish under green.
For The Win
As if this race was not dramatic enough, Power (who was leading) would lose the lead in soul-crushing fashion. Hia car would not re-fire as the yellow flag came back out. It would be an ECU issue that caused this, and Power through no fault of his own was out of a win. Once the field came back around to the start/finish, Power would be told that his race is over. An absolutely brutal way to lose a race. Despite that initial call, Power did come back out with two laps to go, so it will not be a complete points disaster.
Ericsson in the chaos would inherit the lead and would not let it go. As the Sweed would secure his first-ever IndyCar win in the process. Ericsson’s last win of any kind came all the way back in 2013 in the GP2 series. That was the precursor to the now Formula 2 Championship before the former folded in 2016.
Sato would lose second and third in a matter of moments to VeeKay and O’Ward in a dramatic pair of passes. Then the later two drivers would battle to the stripe for second with VeeKay edging out O’Ward. After the Rosenqvist incident, this would turn out to be a fantastic race. The turnaround for the next race is next to nothing, as well. The IndyCar lads are back at it Sunday, once again from Belle Isle.
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