After much anticipation, we finally saw IndyCars on the 2.73-mile, 14-turn street course at Arlington Friday afternoon. While practice isn’t racing we did learn a few thing that will set the table for tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.
1. The Drivers Love This Place
In the post-practice press conference both Alex Palou and Scott McLaughlin raved about the layout. McLaughlin said the only time he had more fun at a track was his first time driving an Indy. “It’s the fastest street course ever. It’s sick.” he said. Alex Palou added, ” I love it. It’s insane. It’s a lot more fun than I thought it would be with corners you can really attack.” They both went on to comment about the width of the track and their being at least four obvious passing opportunities: into turn four, before the infield complex, at the end of the nearly mile-long back straight at turn 10, and in the braking zones for turns 12 and 14. With this kind of enthusiasm expect to see a lot of exciting wheel-to-wheel action on Sunday.
2. The Teams Are Still Figuring It Out
If you just look at the lap times from today, you might be inclined to think drivers like Scott Dixon and David Malukas struggled while their teammates shined. Don’t be fooled. As Malukas said before the practice, all three Penske cars were running different set ups and they would use the data from each car to determine the best set up for everyone. Everyone knew the track layout, but no one had any idea about the track surface and the transitions from old asphalt to new asphalt to concrete and even painted surfaces. We saw a lot of lock ups and missed corners and a few kisses with the walls. This session was about sorting that out and optimizing the cars for tomorrow’s qualifying. The only thing that really matters is that each driver’s times got faster as the session went on showing that they were learning the nuances of the track and getting more confident as the practice went on.
3. The Pit Lane Is Gnarly
As in Detroit, IndyCar has set up a split pit lane for this race with thirteen cars pitting on one side and 12 on the other. This will make for some interesting action at pit exit when the two lanes blend into one. The other challenge on pit out will be merging with traffic on the track. The cars enter on the outside of turn two and cars on a hot lap will have to make sure the track is clear before using all the track in the turn. The blend line will keep the merging traffic to the left, but the potential for conflict exists every time a car exits the pit.
4. The Track Is Bumpbumpbumpbumpbumpy!
We don’t know why, but for some reason we expected the surface of the new track to be smooth and pristine. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The first radio message from Scott McLaughlin to his team on the first lap of practice was about raising the ride height of the car. There’s a big bump in the braking zone on the racing line in turn four that caught Sting Ray Robb by surprise, launching his car into the wall and ending his practice early. Louis Foster was launched airborne by a big bump in the middle of the front straight causing him to pit for a thorough inspection of his suspension. The back straight is a mile-long washboard tossing the drivers’ heads from left to right for a full at least 15 seconds. It’s going to be a punishing 70 laps for both the drivers and the cars on Sunday.
5. Keep An Eye On Ed Carpenter Racing
While we expected drivers from Penske, Andretti, Arrow McLaren, and Ganassi to top the timing charts, we weren’t sure what to think about Rassmussen and Rossi. Both were very strong in Phoenix but had less than stellar races in St. Petersburg. It looks like whatever issues they had on that street course seem to have been solved. Rossi finished practice 1 a respectable seventh. The other team to keep an eye on is Meyer Shank Racing with Felix Rosenqvist running fifth behind McLaughlin, Palou, Power, and O’Ward.
While we keep preaching practice isn’t racing, we did learn enough in the first few laps at the new Arlington street circuit to guarantee that IndyCar will deliver a very entertaining race on Sunday, even if we don’t know who’s going to end up on the podium.
