Does anyone have a shot at challenging Power?
If you’re anything like Tony Kanaan, this weekend is what you’ve long been yearning for.
“To me,” the 22-year IndyCar veteran said, “the IndyCar Grand Prix, it’s our opening day. I think it’s the perfect way to kick off the month.”
No matter if you agree with Kanaan, racing has officially returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The NTT IndyCar Series is firing up May with 24 cars set to tackle the 2.5-mile, 14-turn road course Saturday.
As the IndyCar Grand Prix (3 p.m., NBC) enters its sixth year as the Indianapolis 500 prelude, here are three of the biggest storylines:
I think two of the favorites could each use a win this weekend
Dominant as Will Power has been in qualifying this year — picking up two of the four poles while starting on Row 2 at Long Beach — Lady Luck hasn’t allowed him to translate excellent starting position into wins. Despite not starting lower than seventh this year, Power has just one top-five finish.
If he’s going to continue adding to his hall-of-fame-caliber resume by winning a second championship, he needs to enjoy a May similar to last year, when he swept the month, winning both the grand prix (for the third time) and the 500. He doesn’t need to conquer both races — though he’d sure like to and is more than capable — to climb back into the championship hunt, but at 73 points back amid a cluster of other contenders, he needs to use May, once again, to separate himself from the pack.
The other driver who could use a good month is Power’s Penske teammate, Simon Pagenaud. The winner of the 2014 and ‘16 editions of the grand prix has plummeted to 11th in the championship after failing to record a top-five finish so far. Road and street circuits gave him trouble last year, and while he’s not struggling to the extent he did in 2018, he also hasn’t resembled the same dominant driver who cruised to a championship three years ago. As he’s struggled to produce top results, the whispers about an uncertain future at Penske have grown louder. Of course, Pagenaud didn’t forget how to drive. He remains one of the series’ top talents, but his struggle to adapt to the new era of Indy car has been well documented. Perhaps, though, he’s begun to get a handle on it. Last year, he finished 13th, ninth and 24th at St. Pete, Barber and Long Beach, respectively. This year, he finished seventh, ninth and sixth at those races. Maybe he’s feeling comfortable in the cockpit again. As we all know, a comfortable Simon Pagenaud is a dangerous Simon Pagenaud.
I think Graham Rahal sees a chance to pounce on some points
With the biggest race in the world approaching, it can be tempting for teams and drivers to overlook the less ballyhooed race at the same venue. Very tempting.
“Oh, it’s so easy,” confessed Rahal earlier this month. “It is easy to overlook the GP. And it’s easy to not be able to get in the zone of a race weekend. Most of us are staying at home. I never stay at home for a race, so it doesn’t quite feel like normal. It’s hard to get your mindset right. … It’s so different.”
But overlooking the grand prix would be a critical mistake, Rahal added, especially for him. Though the 500 looms large, the grand prix is still worth as many points as 14 other races on the calendar, and Rahal needs to stash as many as possible. Because of a flat tire at St. Pete, his run-in with race stewards at Long Beach and an electrical issue robbing him of a likely podium at Barber, Rahal is playing catch-up. With 90 points, he sits ninth in the championship, but that sounds worse than it is. He’s just six points behind fifth-place Ryan Hunter-Reay. A good day Saturday, and he’s right back in the hunt.
Rahal has reason to feel optimistic. Not only did he gather valuable information at the Honda test a week ago, his team has been superb on road course races this season. Rahal and teammate Takuma Sato locked out the front row at Barber before Sato cruised to victory; and at Circuit of the Americas, Sato finished seventh and Rahal fourth.
“Give me those points back from those other races, and I’m second right now,” the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver said. “That’s shoulda, coulda, woulda, I know, but the point is, we’re still a damn good contender this year, and we’re looking at the GP as a good opportunity to set off into the 500 well. The GP, this is a big race. It’s going to set the tone for the month.”