Practice Shots: Drivers Start To Tame Beautiful Beast Road America
INDYCAR
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will reach its halfway point midway through Sunday's XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, and with that comes several aspects to assess.
Like Alex Palou's pursuit of a third consecutive series championship and fourth title in the past five years. Like the challenges of Palou by Pato O'Ward, Kyle Kirkwood and others. Like how beginning Sunday there will be nine races staged held over the next 11 weekends.
There's a lot to consume, for sure.
Meantime, drivers and their teams warmed up at Road America with the first practice of the weekend. These three things stood out in the session:
The Return to Road America
Let's start with this middle-of-Wisconsin facility. You roll through the first half of the season with an assortment of racetracks – some located in prettier settings than others – and then you roll up to Road America, and you wonder why you haven't been camping with the family in years. If an artist were to create scenery around a motorsports venue, he'd proudly draw this place, then celebrate with a brat lathered with mustard.
The track is 4.014 miles, with one breathtaking location after another. Canada Corner isn't just the best-named spot in INDYCAR, it's stuck deep in the woods with horsepower reverberating through the trees. Cars sprint to that spot before darting hard right up the hill to what seems like civilization. It's exhilarating.
But be warned: Road America can bite like few other tracks in this country. Speeds are high; the trappings consequential. This is beauty and a beast.
Turn 1 was the scene of the worst accident of A.J. Foyt's career in 1990. Parker Johnstone barrel-rolled through that corner in 1996. The bridge at Turn 4 is what Memo Gidley smashed in 2001. At the end of that long straight, Bryan Herta was facing backward after a spin in 1998 and watched Alex Barron's car squarely land on top of his. And then there was Katherine Legge's indescribable ride down the backstretch in 2006. View the replay at your discretion.
Palou and Josef Newgarden both crashed at Road America last year. Scott Dixon and Will Power tangled in a big one a couple years back. At these speeds, high alert is advised.
Team Penske Needs Bounce-Back
The most successful organization in the history of this sport is coming off its worst weekend in more than three decades, and it was maybe worse than that when considering Team Penske drivers finished 24th, 25th and 27th in the 27-car field last weekend in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The cars driven by Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Power each failed to finish the race, something that hadn't happened to Roger Penske's team since 1994. But here's the difference between those years: When cars driven by Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy failed to finish that day at Michigan International Speedway, they still finished eighth, 10th and 15th in that 28-car field, and they went on to finish 1-2-3 in the championship. Unser also won the Indianapolis 500 that year.
Eight races into this season, Power ranks seventh, McLaughlin eighth and Newgarden 16th in the standings, and each is seeking his first race win of the year.
Here's the good connection between those two seasons: The 1994 gang bounced back to finish 1-2-3 in the ensuing race, held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. This Penske bunch stood together on last year's Road America podium with Power winning the race followed by Newgarden and McLaughlin, and they were three of the fastest six cars in Friday's practice.
Power and Newgarden are each two-time series winners at Road America.
Palou Ready for Road America
Palou was the overlooked driver in last week's World Wide Technology Raceway incident that saw Newgarden smash into the wounded car of rookie Louis Foster on the frontstretch. Palou was first on the scene of Foster's lazy spin, but had the advantage of seeing what Newgarden couldn't.
'I was lucky there,' Palou said. 'I had to take a decision of going up (the track) or going low, and I went up because I saw that the car was potentially going to go down, and Josef unfortunately didn't have that option. Those moments sometimes you are lucky and you get it right, and sometimes you don't. I'm glad I was on the right side there.'
Palou said the expansive Road America circuit and its numerous passing opportunities could offer a lot of incidents in a race or none at all. But he also has noticed that many of his fellow competitors have started 'playing a little bit more aggressive than probably at the beginning of the season' as goals haven't yet been achieved.
Palou's goal is to win at Road America for the third time, and the fact he has won in recent odd years (2021 and 2023) has him optimistic about this visit in 2025. Palou had a pair of subpar results in this season's past two races – 25th after being punted into the tires in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear and eighth at WWTR – but he still holds a sizable lead over second place O'Ward (73 points) and third place Kirkwood (75 points).
Kirkwood has been the driver on the charge, winning each of those two races. Kirkwood also posted the fastest lap of Friday's practice (1 minute, 44.9881 seconds). Palou's best lap ranked ninth. Keep an eye on these two drivers and more this weekend.
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