IndyCar’s Rossi feels he can rebound from frustration
If it was bound to happen, if Alexander Rossi's 2020 IndyCar campaign was stamped for a bout of horrid luck at one point or another, he's happy it's over and done with.
Because it certainly can't happen three straight races, can it?
“I don't think I've even had two mechanical failures in my four years of being an IndyCar driver, combined,” said Rossi, the twotime series championship podium finisher, Tuesday in an exclusive interview with IndyStar. “It's crazy to think it happens back-to-back. You'd expect maybe two to happen over the course of the year, but for it to happen in the first two is weird. But ultimately good, in a way.
“As much as it sucks, you'd rather that than two DNFs 'cause you crashed twice. Ultimately, when you can't do anything about it, it's easier to swallow.”
Now, headed into a rapid-paced pair of weekends on the IndyCar calendar, a pair of doubleheaders awaiting him at Road America and Iowa totaling four races in eight days, he certainly can do something about it. But there's no more time to wait.
For three years now, the Andretti Autosport driver has been painted as the series champion-in-waiting, ever since he won the 2016 Indianapolis 500 as a rookie and never faded from the fold. When 2018 wasn't “his year,” despite eight podium finishes and three victories, it was going to be 2019. And when eight consecutive starts inside the top-6 couldn't cut it, well, 2020 was going to be the time to change that.
And he may achieve that, but he has an Everest-like climb to do it, after his engine failed to start initially at the Texas Motor Speedway season-opener, taking him out of contention with the waving of the green flag. Four weeks later, he didn't even finish this past Saturday at the GMR Grand Prix. Good enough for 15th and 25th-place finishes in the two races and a tie for 22nd in the championship standings with Tony Kanaan, who didn't even step in the cockpit over the weekend.
He trails Ed Carpenter by six spots and 10 points, after the owner/driver took in Saturday from pit lane.
The remedy to it all, Rossi hopes? A completely clean slate.
Yes, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, is the location of his last win on the circuit a year ago – and his last led lap at that – but Rossi said the completely new machine meshes nicely with the mindset he would have already gone into this weekend with. Along with the addition of the aeroscreen, ever-changing tire combos and new team lineups, it never makes a ton of sense to ride too high into a weekend while resting on your laurels of a year ago.
Momentum from race-to-race is real, but it always has to start somewhere, and Rossi has reason to believe this will be his spark.
“There's really no guaranteed performance. The only really good thing is we know we have a good baseline to start from,” he said. “There's other races we kind of go into the weekend trying to be a little creative with our approach to the car setup, based on not having a great weekend last year, so Road America is different from that standpoint. We're going to roll off with a car that was obviously very dominant a year ago.”
“Very dominant” doesn't quite cut it, when you look at his 28.4second win over Will Power.
There's no waiting for luck. He has to start making his own. If this uncontrollable, frustrating stretch for Rossi had to happen sometime in 2020, Rossi knows it's fortunate to have happened now.
“All it does is it forces you to be in the mindset that you can't make any mistakes anymore – whether it's strategy or car setup or me in the car. Our mulligans are already used up,” he said.