Champ Sato shifts gears to doubleheader
Detroit event has not been kind to Indy 500 winners
The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Detroit this weekend for a doubleheader on the street course at Belle Isle a week after wrapping up its most prestigious race on the circuit’s grandest oval.
Five story lines to consider as drivers and teams move on from the Indianapolis 500 and into the Detroit Grand Prix: The Indianapolis 500 hang
over is real: Coming off his historic victory in the 101st running of the Indy 500, Takuma Sato is the unquestioned king of IndyCar right now. But with the crown comes the heavy weight of responsibility.
The Andretti Autosport driver slept a precious few hours after his thrilling win Sunday before being dragged in 101 directions. There was the winner’s photo shoot at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday morning, the 500 banquet later that night, the trip to New York to visit the Empire State Building and ring the NASDAQ opening bell in Times Square, the stop in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to promote an upcoming race at Texas Motor Speedway and dozens more media engagements.
And now he has to prepare for a pair of physically demanding races in Detroit.
“Detroit (is an) incredibly bumpy track, very physical,” Sato said Monday. “So you have to physically prepare a lot more than here.”
History suggests Sato’s chance at scoring a victory in Detroit are slim to none. In fact, based on the way past Indy 500 winners have performed at the Detroit double, a top-10 finish would be an accomplishment.
Since the inaugural Bell Isle doubleheader in 2013, no 500 winner (Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Juan Pablo Montoya or Alexander Rossi) has finished better than 10th — Montoya in both 2015 races and Rossi in the first race of 2016. Honda rolled the dice and
won: The IMS crowd looked on in bitter disappointment as a pair of top contenders to win the 500, Hunter-Reay and Formula One star Fernando Alonso, saw their Indy dreams die along with their engines. Honda has suffered more than a dozen engine failures this year, and while some might think that’s a black eye for the manufacturer, it was a risk Honda deemed worth taking.
Honda made it clear this year that it was willing to sacrifice reliability for speed. It was a risky proposition and a plan that easily could have backfired had Helio Castroneves’ Chevrolet found its way around Sato’s Honda. It didn’t, of course, and Honda’s big gamble paid off with a win on motor sports’ most historic stage.
And there will assuredly be more sad faces to come as the season rolls on, as Honda has yet to fully understand what’s causing the engine failures. However, for Honda, each engine failure to come will be a lot easier to swal-
low knowing that the biggest win of the season already is in the bag. The championship chase is
going to be a lot of fun: Threetime Indy 500 champion Castroneves entered this season with two goals: Put his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy for a recordtying fourth time and win the first series championship of his career. He missed out on the first goal by two-tenths of a second, but if there were a silver lining to his runner-up finish, it’s that it propelled him to the top of the points standings.
“Yes, finishing second again sucks,” Castroneves said Sunday. “So close to getting the fourth. I really am trying. I will not give up this dream. I know it’s going to happen. (But) the good news is we’re leading the championship.”
Castroneves’ 245 points put him 11 points ahead of a three-way tie for second among Sato, fourtime series champion Scott Dixon and defending series champion Simon Pagenaud. At this time last year, Pagenaud owned a 57-point lead that would prove to be insurmountable. This year, there are eight drivers within 60 points of Castroneves’ lead. This year’s championship chase should be a lot more exciting. Ed Jones has a chance to shine: After finishing third at the 500, the Dale Coyne Racing driver was snubbed in the rookie of the year voting, with the award going to Alonso.
Jones, though, took the high road, saying on Twitter: “Appreciate the support from everyone. At the end of day ROY would have been nice but having fought for the overall win is truly special!”
The response was a classy way
to handle disappointment, but there is a silver lining for Jones: He has been the talk of the IndyCar world this week, even stealing some of the spotlight from Sato. The 22-year-old needs to capitalize on that.
With a good showing in Detroit, Jones could thrust himself into the next level of stardom. He has the talent, and with Sebastien Bourdais on the sideline, he’ll be the top priority at DCR. Has Scott Dixon’s bad luck
run out? Few have had worse weeks than the one Dixon had last week. After a thrilling qualifying effort gave him the fastest pole speed in 21 years, he was held up at gunpoint in a Taco Bell drivethru. Then the Chip Ganassi Racing star was involved in a spectacular crash at the Indy 500 that ended his race.
Fortunately, Dixon walked away from both life-threatening instances relatively unscathed. He was fitted with a walking boot for his left foot after the crash and was on crutches. A team representative told The
Indianapolis Star that doctors have told Dixon to protect the foot as much as possible. “His foot is sore but he’s been cleared to race,” the person said.
Dixon won the race at Belle Isle in 2012, and in the eight races IndyCar has run at Detroit since instituting the doubleheader, he has posted five top-five finishes.
What’s more, Dixon is due for a win. Before Jay Howard took him out after 52 laps in the 500, Dixon had scored five top-five finishes in a row, including three podiums.