World of Sport: Indycar; IMSA; DTM; Pure ETCR; NASCAR Cup; NASCAR Xfinity; Motogp
INDYCAR SERIES NASHVILLE (USA) 8 AUGUST
ROUND 9/14
To say that a Marcus Ericsson victory seemed unlikely going into last Sunday’s inaugural Indycar race on the streets of Nashville would be to understate the facts.
The Detroit race winner had looked fast in practice, like Chip Ganassi Racing team-mates Alex Palou and Scott Dixon, but clipping a wall in the first segment of qualifying had left him 18th on the grid.
And besides, no one looked capable of beating the Andretti Autosport Dallara-honda of Colton Herta.
Such was the 21-year-old Californian’s pace advantage around this new 11-turn, 2.17-mile course that he was able to run hard primary Firestones in the first segment of qualifying, leaving him a fresh set of softer ‘reds’ for the Fast Six shootout.
That enabled him to land his sixth pole position by over half a second from Dixon.
Tight windows for a two-stop race, allowing less likelihood of one of Herta’s pursuers stopping substantially earlier and getting a chance to vault to the front should caution flags come out, meant the #26 team appeared to have a strong chance of devastating the field. But that was not counting on multiple cautions slowing the pack and allowing everyone to get creative with strategy.
The race was started on the return leg of the bridge: the start and finish line, as at Mid-ohio, are different because the front straight is too short to accommodate 27 starters in grid formation and adequately spaced, and Herta took the lead ahead of Alexander Rossi, who outbraked Dixon.
At the end of lap one, the caution flew for Dalton Kellett’s car stopped and stalled on course. Then, as Herta led them to the green for the first restart (held on the short front straight), Ericsson smacked into the back of Sebastien Bourdais, was launched upwards, then crashed back down with his broken front wing tucked under the front wheels, causing Ericsson to strike a wall as he limped to the pits. The team didn’t lose a lap as they fitted a new nose wing to the Honda-powered car, but Ericsson would have to serve a stop/go penalty for avoidable contact, and so rejoined 25th and a considerable way behind the field.
He’d have to wait only until lap 16 to catch back up, as Ed Jones tipped Scott Mclaughlin into a spin, and the Penske driver was unable to get going without assistance, bringing out the third caution. Some drivers pitted at this point, enabling Ericsson to reach 19th. At the next restart, Will Power dived inside Penske team-mate Simon Pagenaud for eighth place, but the Frenchman ended up nosing into the Turn 11 tyre wall, creating an 11-car jam that brought out the red flag.
Ericsson, who had tiptoed through this mess up to 12th, reached 10th on the restart and, now firmly off-sequence, went into the lead under the next caution (on lap 31, caused by Rinus Veekay stalling at Turn 1) as Herta led Rossi, Dixon and more into the pits. Such was the reduced speed of the pace car while Veekay was retrieved, and the shortness of pitlane, that Herta was able to rejoin in fourth, which within two laps he’d converted to second place after dismissing team-mates James Hinchcliffe and the electronics-troubled Ryan Hunterreay. But he didn’t take the lead until Ericsson pitted under the laps 41-46 caution (Power had spun Mclaughlin to a standstill and the Kiwi was collected by Kellett).
Seven laps later and under a seventh caution (O’ward/rossi coming together), Herta made his second and final stop and emerged ninth. On the restart he dismissed Graham Rahal and Cody Ware, who soon spun, bringing out the eighth caution.
After this, Herta zapped Felix Rosenqvist, Hunter-reay and Hinchcliffe on consecutive laps, and took just two laps more to outbrake Dixon to claim second.
Ericsson was much harder to crack, despite having made his final stop seven laps earlier than Herta and therefore now needing to save fuel while running older tyres. The Ganassi driver stymied Herta’s
huge pace through Turns 3 and 8 – the two corners leading onto the bridge – by backing off, then briefly hitting his push-to-pass boost and using his red rubber (Herta was on primaries) to gain better traction. That gave him enough breathing room to coast into Turns 4 and 9 to save fuel, while Herta tried to regain the deficit by staying on the power longer and braking later.
With 12 laps to go, Herta came an inch away from understeering into the wall on the exit of Turn 9. And on lap 75 of 80 at the same turn, he locked up his left-front wheel and hit the wall hard. Again the race was neutralised to clear up the mess.
The yellow-flag laps helped ease Ericsson’s fuel situation, and so on the restart all he needed to do was hold off Dixon, who had been running the same set of tyres since lap 46 and was content with second on a day when points leader Palou could salvage only seventh.