Coming out of the June hybrid test at the Milwaukee Mile, NTT IndyCar Series drivers and engineers spoke with concern about the quality of racing that would be on display at the Hy-Vee Milwaukee doubleheader if some changes weren’t made. Drivers spent the day running single-file and passing was a rarity.
With softer left-side tires for the field of 27 entries to use this weekend, and 30 minutes of dedicated running to try and apply rubber to the second lane in the corners, drivers were more optimistic on Friday about what lies ahead in the twin 250-lap contests on Saturday and Sunday. Most importantly, the revised tires brought for the race by Firestone degraded after 30-40 laps, which should prevent the races from being processional affairs.
“You can pass, but you have to commit hard,” Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, fourth-fastest on Friday, told RACER. “You have to dive bomb and stay in clean air, and then get side by side on exit. That’s the way you pass in [Turns] 3 and 4. In [Turns] 1 and 2, you can’t really do anything, but you can work the inside line of [Turns] 3 and 4. You need a tire difference, though. Like, if you have 10-20 lap newer tires than the other guy, it helps a lot. If you’re equal on tires, it takes a mistake from them to really get past.”
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Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, 17th in the event’s lone practice session, was encouraged by what he found.
“We did some race running at the end; it was mostly qualifying focus, but I actually could pass some guys and fit the car in a comfortable window where I’m comfortable pushing without overstepping anything,” he said. “It felt pretty good out there. Made a lot of good improvements.”
One thing the Swede and the Dutchman disagreed on was which end of their cars provided the biggest problem.
“The car just wants to understeer, as soon as you get close to someone,” Rosenqvist said of his No. 60 Honda. “The aeroscreen and the hybrid weight, it has a big understeer effect, especially on power. Like, you’re in the corner, you pick up the throttle and the front tires just can’t hold the load.”
VeeKay smiled when he heard about Rosenqvist’s handling predicament.
“I’ve got oversteer, myself; we were low on grip at the back of the car,” he said of the No. 21 Chevy. “For the racing, there are five or six cars that I think are a little bit more off pace, and I think that’s going to stack up the field and make accordions happen, which I think is gonna create some good racing. We can get by them, but we’ll be doing different speeds, so I think there’s gonna be some racing. It’s good. This is an interesting place.”