The first half of the IndyCar Series race on the Streets of Detroit was quite frankly ridiculous but predictably, Mike Hull put Scott Dixon on a strategy to stay ahead of all the carnage and chaos with just enough fuel to reach the checkered flags first.
And through it all, the six-time champion became the first to reach two victories and now has the championship lead with his 58th career victory. That’s nine behind AJ Foyt all-time, who Dixon is also seeking to tie in all-time championships.
This is just what Dixon and Hull do together.
“I made the comment on the radio at about lap 50, I said, ‘I think we can make it with no more stops from this point if we do one now,’” Dixon said. “Obviously it was risky, but the team called it perfectly. We’re on the right strategy. Honda did a superb job is always. And we won, man. How cool is that?”
But again, behind them, it was pure chaos as the a majority of the first half of the race was contested under full course yellow flag conditions with crashes that changed the course of the championship as the likes of Alex Palou, Colton Herta and Josef Newgarden were all involved in incidents.
Here’s a rundown of every wild thing that happened in the Grand Prix of Detroit.
Turn 1, Lap 1
Théo Pourchaire tagged two-time champion Will Power in the very first corner and it led to a parking lot that stacked up the entire outside line.
Santino versus the World
And then there’s Santino Ferrucci, who has drawn the ire of Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood over the past month, who can now add Helio Castroneves to that list with this Lap 18 incident. Kyffin Simpson had nowhere to go.
McLaughlin bins it in the rain
By lap 30, it started to rain, ever so lightly but enough for second running Scott McLauglin to spin it into a tire barrier under braking, where he would fall off the lead lap and out of contention.
Slicks or Wets?
At this point, most of the field pitted to take wet tires, except for Christian Lungaard, Kirkwood, Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Grosjean, Power and Rinus Veekay but some scoring issues up in the race control kept the race under caution long enough to begin drying the track, earning the scorn from some of the teams who chose to take wet tires.
“Let’s stay out. Let’s see where this goes,” Lundgaard said on the radio.
Herta was kept out initially too but was called in the next lap, and that lack of track position would bit him shortly thereafter.
This is where Dixon earned his race winning track position, by the way.
Newgarden’s disaster race
The Indianapolis 500 triumph, and a contract extension celebration, was short lived as Josef Newgarden was penalized for this pit stop and the lack of track position then led to an incident that collected points leader Palou.
So many crashes
The middle stage of the race just could not stay green and it actually aided Dixon get to the finish on his fuel gambit.
Ericsson charges
Marcus Ericsson had enough fuel to abuse the push-to-pass button and used it to charge from fourth to second over the final stint and was perhaps a lap or two from catching Dixon. The gap was 2.5 seconds with two to go and it was 1.8 when they took the white.
Another second was taken off the lead over the final lap.
“We had so much pace…one more lap and I might have been able to get the win,” Ericsson said. “Great day. I’m really happy with that.”
Results
- Scott Dixon
- Marcus Ericsson
- Marcus Armstrong
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Alexander Rossi
- Will Power
- Pato O’Ward
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Santino Ferrucci
- Theo Pourchaire
- Christian Lundgaard
- Agustin Canapino
- Pietro Fittipaldi
- Rinus VeeKay
- Graham Rahal
- Alex Palou
- Jack Harvey
- Tristan Vautier
- Colton Herta
- Scott McLaughlin
- Sting Ray Robb
- Lindus Lundqvist
- Romain Grosjean
- Kyffin Simpson
- Helio Castroneves
- Josef Newgarden
- Christian Rasmussen
Standings
- Scott Dixon
- Alex Palou -18
- Will Power -31
- Pato O’Ward -56
- Alexander Rossi -66
- Kyle Kirkwood -68
- Colton Herta -69
- Scott McLaughlin -75
- Felix Rosenqvist -76
- Josef Newgarden -88
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.