Indycar: Dixon and Hunter-reay strike
Scott Dixon hadn’t won for a long time; Ryan Hunter-reay hadn’t won for a very long time. Each of the Indycar old guard ended their droughts in dramatic Detroit
Two of Indycar’s aces made their way back to the top step of the podium last weekend after too long away – far too long, in one case. Scott Dixon delivered Chip Ganassi Racing his (and the Honda-powered team’s) first victory since last June at Road America.
The next day in this ‘Dual in Detroit’, Ryan Hunter-reay earned his and the #28 Andretti Autosport crew’s first victory since August 2015 – but it had greater significance even than that. After scoring two wins and a string of podiums since last July in Toronto, there was a feeling that Alexander Rossi had become AA’S de facto team leader, a position Hunter-reay has held since he joined the team eight long years ago. That impression was heightened when Rossi took pole in Sunday morning’s wet qualifying session as Hunter-reay spun and lined up 10th. Yet come the race, Hunter-reay’s flawlessness and ultra-fast pace enabled him to carry out his three-stop strategy to perfection, and he ultimately pressured erstwhile race leader Rossi into a major blunder with just a handful of laps to go.
The unique qualifying system for the Detroit double-headers sees the field divided in half with 12 minutes of track time apiece, and whichever group’s leader is faster gets the ‘odd’ side of the grid, including pole. Marco Andretti was almost half a second quicker than his nearest rivals in Group 2, and 0.6 seconds quicker than Group 1 topper Dixon, earning himself his first pole since 2013.
Through the first stint of what was for them a two-stop race, Dixon stalked Andretti while saving fuel and looking after the red ‘alternate’-compound tyres on which everyone
but last year’s Detroit dominator Graham Rahal had started. When Andretti stopped, Dixon gunned it hard in clean air, and slick pit work from the #9 crew saw him emerge comfortably ahead – albeit temporarily behind the three-stopping Hunter-reay.
Dixon then spent his second stint pulling away from Rahal to the tune of 13s, while the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver had to keep his eyes on his mirrors as the recently stopped Hunter-reay drew nearer.
When rookie Rene Binder went down the Turn 7 runoff, Dixon and Rahal were called to the pits, to cover for the possibility of a full-course caution, not wishing to be stranded on track when the pitlane closed. While the Austrian struggled to extricate himself, the rest of the frontrunners also pitted. But then the yellows flew – Rahal had clipped the Turn 13 kerbing and been spat hard into the outside wall.
The restart that followed with 18 laps remaining featured Dixon chased by Hunter-reay, Andretti, Rossi, the second Ganassi car of Ed Jones, RLLR man Takuma Sato and Team Penske’s Will Power. By the time the yellows flew again four laps later for Charlie Kimball punting debutant Santino Ferrucci into a tyre wall at high speed, Sato had got around Jones for fifth. The final restart gave Rossi the chance to pass Andretti around the outside of Turn 3 for third, but he had nothing for Hunterreay, who in turn couldn’t quite threaten Dixon, who won with relative ease.
If the Honda engine’s power curve was ideally suited for the Belle Isle course, still Chevrolet might have hoped for more than a best result of seventh (Power) on Saturday. Rain in qualifying for race two on Sunday morning gave the Bowtie drivers a chance to make up for their deficit, and Power responded in characteristic fashion with third on the grid behind only Rossi and the Honda-engined car of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Robert Wickens, and just ahead of the Ganassi cars of Jones and Dixon. After battling hard to hold off Jones in the opening four corners, Power became a factor in the race, but would have no answer to the three-stopping Hunter-reay.
There was an early caution when Spencer Pigot was struck by Ferrucci and spun and stalled. The restart was clean, the first
“If the Honda engine ideally suited Belle Isle, Chevy might have hoped for better than seventh”
significant change coming when Hunterreay made an exceptionally bold pass on Penske’s Simon Pagenaud to grab 10th at Turn 1, although the #28 would make its first stop on lap 10 when RHR couldn’t find a way past rookie team-mate Zach Veach.
Wickens had discovered he couldn’t keep the reds under him, the same problem he suffered the day before, and he stopped early from second place, leaving Rossi with a 6.3s lead over Power. This pair, along with Dixon, Jones, Rahal and Sebastien Bourdais, would stop between laps 20 and 22, leaving the three-stoppers temporarily in control – Wickens and Hunter-reay in close proximity out front and 6s ahead of Rossi. Wickens soon stopped again, and now Hunter-reay had five laps on a clear track, setting some lightning-fast lap times before he made his next stop.
Up front, Rossi’s lead over Power, which had stretched to 14s while the threestoppers were in the mix, now started coming down rapidly, so that by the time this pair stopped, the Penske driver was a mere 5.1s behind the leader. But on rejoining the track, Rossi was able to stretch his advantage once more. Hunter-reay’s searing laps at the front meant that by the time he pitted and was served with an excellent 6.3s pitstop, he’d done enough to clear Power by 4s, and had a straight shot at Rossi.
Rossi set his fastest time yet with 16 laps to go, but Hunter-reay trimmed the deficit, then demolished it. Rossi was told over the radio by team manager Rob Edwards to think big-picture, but Rossi wanted to fight and, ultimately, it cost him. With Hunter-reay under his rear wing with seven laps to go, Rossi locked up his left-front as they braked from 170mph for Turn 3. A lap later at the same spot, Rossi locked both fronts and skated down the escape road. He’d limp to the pits with shredded fronts and finish 12th.
Hunter-reay reeled off the remaining laps without problem, beating Power to the flag by more than 11s, as the Aussie reclaimed the points lead with his second place ahead of Jones, Dixon, Rahal and Wickens. Bourdais, who had reached his position of prominence after switching to the durable primary tyres after getting a puncture in his ‘reds’ on the opening lap, brushed a wall just past mid-distance. He damaged a toelink and looped into a spin at Turn 1, his race effectively over.