The month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway blew past with newly crowned Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden closing out an adrenaline-filled month in victory lane.
Now, the series invades the streets of Detroit for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. It’ll be the first time the series has competed within the streets of the Motor City since 1991.
IndyCar raced at nearby Belle Isle Park annually from 1992-2001 before a six-year hiatus halted action. Belle Isle hosted events in 2007 and ’08, before the circuit became an annual tradition since 2012 on the IndyCar Series schedule.
Now with the sport heading back to its roots, a new race track awaits them. The track will be a 1.7-mile, ten-turn street circuit.
Through six races, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou holds a 20-point lead in the standings over St. Petersburg (Fla.) Grand Prix winner and teammate Marcus Ericsson.
Here are some of the storylines to watch this weekend.
Quick Facts
Distance: 100 Laps / 170 Miles
Most Wins: 2, Emerson Fittipaldi (street circuit)
Sunday’s race is scheduled to be Meyer Shank Racing’s 100th start in IndyCar competition. Drivers Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves currently compete full time for the team.
Indy 500 Hangover?
Winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing is a life-changing experience for any driver who’s had the opportunity to kiss the yard of bricks.
Though backing up that performance after nearly a week of endless appearances and media obligations can take a toll on a driver.
To make matters more challenging, attempting to learn a new race track for the first time when cars hit the track on Friday for practice is another hurdle.
After giving team owner Roger Penske his 19th Indianapolis 500 triumph as a team owner, Newgarden looks to hit the reset button. Newgarden is fourth in the standings, 37 points behind Palou.
While its a new race track for everyone in the paddock, Newgarden’s street course prowess is lethal. Of his 27 IndyCar wins, six have come on street circuits, including two at Belle Isle.
In the heart of the Motor City, Newgarden would like nothing more than to back up his Indy 500 win with another triumph in his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet.
Arrow McLaren Looks Ahead
As the calendar turns to June, Arrow McLaren will seek to leave behind the disappointment of the Indianapolis 500.
Yes, Alexander Rossi earned the team a top-five result (fifth), but the four-car May operation came up short after showing blistering pace throughout the month.
Racing in his final Indy 500, Tony Kanaan finished 16th after starting ninth.
On the third-to-final restart, Pato O’Ward made a late dive underneath Ericsson for second-place in turn three, but lost control and crashed out of the event.
Prior to that, Felix Rosenqvist, who started third, triggered a two-car accident with 17 laps to go while running fourth.
As Kanaan exits the cockpit, the three full-time drivers now look to shake off a ‘what could’ve been’ month.
Notably, O’Ward won at Belle Isle in 2021 and finished runner-up in the season-opening event on the streets of St. Petersburg. The 24-year-old is 34 points out of the points lead in third.
Rossi has been quietly gaining on the competition in his maiden season with McLaren, with three consecutive top-eight finishes.
After a dismal start to the year of finishes no better than 19th, Rosenqvist was on a three-race string of top-10 results before crashing at Indianapolis.
A.J. Foyt Racing Looks To Build On May Performance
What A.J. Foyt Racing put together at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was nothing short of remarkable. Both Santino Ferrucci and rookie Benjamin Pedersen qualified for the Fast 12, with Ferrucci qualifying fourth.
Building off a strong qualifying run, Ferrucci hung around the front all day. After leading 11 laps, the 24-year-old finished third in the Indy 500. While Pedersen’s day didn’t go as planned, he finished 21st to earn Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors.
Now, the question looms – where does the team go from here?
Outside of Ferrucci’s third-place result, the team hasn’t finished in the top-10 all season.
After finding tremendous speed on the 2.5-mile oval, a big storyline to follow will be how the team translates the success to road and street courses, where their best result is an 11th-place finish in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.) with Ferrucci.
Drivers Needing Good Runs
Plenty of drivers had a successful day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday. Though for some competitors, the streets of Detroit can’t come soon enough.
Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean entered Indy 500 race day fifth in points after two second-place finishes in the last three races. However, a wreck on lap 149 negated Grosjean to a 30th-place result.
Slipping to eighth in the standings, Grosjean will be looking to regain his early-season form.
Defending champion Will Power had a promising day early at Indy. After starting 12th, Power raced into the top 10 before a broken weight-jacker started the free fall for the 2018 Indy 500 winner.
Power slapped the wall later in the race and brought the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet home five laps down in 23rd.
The performance sent Power back to ninth in points, the lowest of the three Team Penske entries.
Arguably the driver who needs a refreshing weekend the most is Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal.
Rahal’s up-and-down month of May started with getting bumped from the 33-car field during qualifying. After Stefan Wilson’s accident in practice forced Wilson out of the seat, Rahal was tapped to pilot the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Rahal’s day was all but dead in the water before it started, after his car failed to launch off the grid for pace laps. The No. 24 team would change a battery in the car on pit lane, with Rahal heading back out on track already two laps down.
He would end the race in 22nd, five laps down.
Now back with RLL, Rahal and the No. 15 team’s search for speed and momentum continues with the second-generation racer mired 17th in the standings entering the weekend.