More than just a Sunday drive
Road America doubleheader has challenges
IndyCar went 21⁄2 months between an almost-race and the season's first actual green flag. Then it waited another month between its first event and second.
Now the REV Group Grand Prix doubleheader this weekend at Road America is a microcosm of the schedule ahead.
The series will fit the entire program – two races, two qualifying sessions and one practice – into a span of 27 hours. Saturday's checkered flag should fly just before 6 p.m.; Sunday's green comes a little after 11:30 a.m.
For teams and drivers, the challenges will come in all shapes and sizes, from the physical to mental to mechanical.
“In the wider circumstances we're dealing with at the moment, there's a desire to keep the number of people at the racetrack to a minimum and also to keep the time of those people at the racetrack to a minimum,” said Rob Edwards, COO of Andretti Autosport, which won at Road America with Alexander Rossi last year.
“It isn't just the fact that we're doing a doubleheader, it's the fact that we're doing a doubleheader in a very compressed schedule. … That does add some additional challenges to just doing a doubleheader. But as the saying goes, it is the same for everyone. It's the job of people like myself to make sure we have a good plan and we execute that plan.”
Saturday's race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course showed how the 2020 Indy car, with its protective aeroscreen, holds heat in the driver compartment. Many competitors said that race on a humid, 92-degree day left them more drained than any they'd done before. Conor Daly said he lost 12 pounds during the event.
With several long straightaways, Road America is less physically demanding. The forecast also calls for temperatures 5 to 15 degrees cooler in Elkhart Lake than it was in Indy. But this time drivers will have hours, rather than days, to get ready to go again.
“Even just to recover for the next week going to Iowa, it's going to be tough,” said Colton Herta, the polesitter last year at Road America. “We have practice, qualifying and a full race all in one day. That's tough on its own. Then you do that twice.”
Teams are working on ways to keep water bottles cooler and get more air to the driver, but Herta wasn't expecting any quick fixes. After this doubleheader – with full, 55lap, 220-mile races each day – the series races twice the following weekend at Iowa Speedway, a short oval.
“I think a lot of guys these next few weekends will get IVs after the first day, and that will be good for the second day,” Herta said.
Belle Isle outside Detroit has hosted doubleheader weekends since 2013 – this year's was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic – but two-race weekends are a rarity in IndyCar. Rarer still are sweeps. Graham Rahal won on consecutive days at Belle Isle in 2017, and Scott Dixon did in Toronto in 2013.
In addition to providing full championship points and a trophy, the first race of this weekend also can serve as a test for the second, strategically.
No teams had the opportunity to get onto Road America since the addition of the aeroscreen, which changes the car's aerodynamic properties and the center of gravity, both of which affect setups.
Tires tend to behave differently from one year to the next and also will react differently to the extra weight and forces.
“The key is, if you have a decent day in the first race, how do you make it an even better day for Day 2?” Daly said. “Each time on track, you're going to have to do the best job possible.
“We want to go there with a strong package immediately because you have two opportunities for points. But realistically you never know what could happen.”
While teams will have four opfor
– REV Group Grand Prix Race 2 (55 laps/220.77 miles) (NBC) portunities to adjust their cars after on-track sessions, the schedule doesn't do them any favors.
“The things that will get compromised will be the ability of the engineers to make some of the changes they might want to make based on what they learned from qualifying or the day before,” Edwards said. “In terms of making sure the integrity of the car and so on, that's the areas we'll focus on.
“At the same time, that limited time and some of the adjustments that the engineers would make (but can't) will change the characteristics of the second race and will maybe add to the entertainment and the fact that Day 2 won't look just like Day 1.”
The post-coronavirus schedule, with its five races in 12 days, puts pressure on the teams to stay ready. Given the roots of the current car can be traced to 2012, having parts available isn't likely to be an issue. But keeping the team healthy and having backups ready pit crews could become a challenge.
“I think the big teams might have an advantage for sure because of the amount of people they have working with them,” said Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud. “The smaller teams, on the other hand, it's going to be hard for them because of all the work they have to do for all these weeks.”
Similarly, there's subtle pressure on the drivers to avoid creating extra work for their crews. A car damaged Saturday might be tougher to drive Sunday, and a second wreck could jeopardize the next weekend, as well.
“Historically if we look at doubleheader scenarios we've had previously, I do think it's a fair observation that, shall we say, people tend to be better behaved on Day 1 than they tend to be on Day 2,” Edwards said.
“It would be hard to pick it out in what you see going on on the racetrack, but I think it is human nature and it's an intangible that the drivers are certainly cognizant of the fact, hey, I have to do another race tomorrow and I'm going to need the car to be able to do it.”
So, how will this first-time doubleheader play out?
Preparedness will be crucial, as will weathering the elements. Caution flags might cause the races to flow differently and alter strategy. The only certainty is endless challenges will be packed into an incredibly compact weekend.
“Two races at Road America,” Daly said, “I don't think any driver in the world would complain about that.”
Sunday
11:42 a.m.