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IndyCar setup sheet: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

What: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey / Race 17 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif. – 2.238-mile natural-terrain road course When: Sunday, Sept. 10, 2:30pm ET (green flag @ 3:19pm ET) The classic, …

What: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey / Race 17 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series

Where: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif. – 2.238-mile natural-terrain road course

When: Sunday, Sept. 10, 2:30pm ET (green flag @ 3:19pm ET)

The classic, 11-turn WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in scenic Monterey County will not feature a championship showdown this year: honors were clinched last weekend in Portland by Alex Palou with his fifth win of the season, while his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda teammate Scott Dixon also put the runner-up spot beyond reach of his nearest pursuers.

But coming into the 17th and final race of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season, there’s still plenty to play for. Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) and Scott McLaughlin (Penske) are locked in a close battle for third in points, while Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi) and outgoing champ Will Power (Penske) are fighting for sixth. Plus, there’s much to be settled at the other end of the table, too, as teams scramble to get into the top 22 to earn Leaders Circle money as a financial boost for 2024.

And with big guns such as O’Ward, Power, Alexander Rossi (Arrow McLaren) and Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport) all desperate not to end their 2023 campaigns winless, we’re set for an intense 95 laps on Sunday afternoon.

All arrive at a new-look WeatherTech Raceway: the layout is the same, but the track has been resurfaced, so tire data accumulated from 2019 through ’22 is pretty much junk. Hence, the five-hour test held Thursday should prove invaluable for all 27 entrants, for there is a huge amount to learn.

Eddie Jones, race engineer for Graham Rahal, has played a large part in Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s resurgent competitiveness in recent races, “his” No. 15 entry starting from pole at both of IndyCar’s most recent road courses. But Jones (below, with Rahal) is well aware of the major challenge ahead in replicating that form at Laguna Seca, even once he’s collated the test data and feedback from the RLL trio of Rahal, Lundgaard and new arrival Juri Vips.

“We believe that what we arrive with will be pretty good,” Jones tells RACER, “but as a team with three cars and the test session being five hours, there’s time for us to make radical changes if we need to. Frankly, we have more time than tires — only three sets — and because you can carry one of those sets through to the race weekend, I imagine it’s most teams’ intention to do that. So, effectively we could be testing with just two sets, and maybe run one qualifying sim on a third set before taking that set into Friday.

“At the same time, IndyCar has allowed us to run a set of primary tires from Portland in this test, so we’re planning to use that in our first run, but it’s a different construction and compound than the Laguna Seca tire, meaning we can’t read too much into the data. But it should give the drivers a sense of what the new track has to offer.”

Despite the resurfacing work making WeatherTech Raceway smoother, Jones doesn’t anticipate the cars being able to ride any lower and therefore more aerodynamically than before. He points out: “The problem is, there are a couple of major compression areas at fairly quick corners here — Turns 6 and 10 — and so they dictate the ride height. And because the track surface is going to be giving us so much more grip, we’ll be going quicker through those sections, so the cars will compress that much more.”

To onlookers, the most obvious result of the resurfacing work is the much darker hue of the new asphalt — something Jones spied from high above as his flight into Oakland airport passed over the legendary course. The result is that it will warm far more rapidly on a clear day.

“There’s plenty of bright sunshine around here,” notes Jones, “so, yes, we’re going to have to monitor track temps pretty closely to get a feel for the effect on the tire. Theoretically, it should get the tire up to temperatures quicker, but at the same time, the track will offer less grip as the surface gets hotter. This isn’t the tire we used last year here; it’s the tire we used this year at Mid-Ohio (below) — which is quite encouraging for us because Graham put it on the front row! But how that tire works with this surface, we still don’t know.”

Although the best drivers in the series loved the old surface because it was harsh on tires and therefore rewarded those who could go quickly while looking after their rubber, the new surface may well prove more conducive to racing. If the grip level is uniform across the track width, it might embolden drivers into trying a variety of lines to tackle an opponent ahead.

“Yes, I think that will open more opportunities into Turn 2, the big wide hairpin (below), and into and out of Turn 5,” says Jones. “But longitudinal grip on new tires will be up, too, so brake zones may be shorter, which makes things tough… Honestly, at this stage, it’s hard to tell how it will go, but I’m optimistic.”

Also still open to question is what effect — if any — the extra grip will have on fuel consumption. Will going three seconds a lap quicker raise consumption? Or will a driver carry so much more momentum into the turns that it reduces the amount of fuel-burning acceleration? And if consumption has increased and tires are easier to warm, then in qualifying we may see participants in the Firestone Fast Six putting just one flying lap’s worth of fuel in, running a flyer, pitting for another squirt of fuel and another flyer on another tire set. Because on that long climb from Turn 5 to the Corkscrew, even a lap’s worth of fuel is extra weight being dragged uphill that can cost time.

And speaking of fuel consumption, there’s another matter to ponder come race day. Running in someone’s wake is a good way to save fuel, but of course it means running in dirty air and sliding through the faster, long-duration corners so prevalent at WeatherTech Raceway, thereby hurting the tires. Will the track’s fresh pavement offer up enough grip to make the loss of downforce in dirty air less of an issue?

“Whatever the track surface, you are going to be sliding more, the closer you get to the car in front,” says Jones, “but there’s still an overall benefit to running close-ish to the car ahead. A fair amount of the track is high speed, so it will help your fuel consumption. And, yeah, the increased grip may make it easier for the driver to manage in the dirty air and not use up the tires so quickly.”

One downside for Jones and Rahal is that by qualifying on pole at the last race, the No. 155 RLL Honda will this weekend be pitting at the last pit box before pit exit. That’s traditionally beneficial, but at Laguna Seca it puts them on the surprisingly steep uphill section of pitlane, which can make smooth departure from standstill quite difficult.

“Yeah…but we’ll take it!” says Jones. “It’s a shame, but it’s part of the success. And at the same time, just being at the front of pit lane helps on race day because under a caution when everyone pits together, you can time your departure to slot back in front. And it’s most helpful in qualifying, because it means Graham can get out and get the cleaner laps without someone in front backing up to him.

“In the meantime, we’ve got the test to run and as we’ve discussed, there’s a lot to investigate. But with three cars and a lot of potential track time, I think we can get a lot done.”

You can follow all the practice and qualifying action from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Peacock on Friday, Sept. 8 and Saturday, Sept. 9, with NBC your go-to location for 95 laps and 212.61miles of race action on Sunday, Sept. 10. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Friday, Sept. 8 / 5.30pm – 6.45pm ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, Sept. 9 / 1.00pm – 2:00pm ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, Sept. 9 / 5:00pm – 6:30pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Sunday, Sept. 10 / 12:00pm – 12.30pm ET – Warm-up – Peacock

Sunday, Sept. 10 / 2:30pm ET – RACE – NBC, Peacock

• All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Taking you inside the action, 14 drivers will be carrying in-car cameras. During the race, you can live-stream every one of them with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA. You choose who you ride along with, and you can switch drivers at any time. The App’s free to download for fans worldwide and you can find out more HERE. If you’re not already onboard, take your viewing experience to a whole new level HERE.

Bringing you the onboard action from the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey are…

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Rossi (below) rise above the level of his car, but if Arrow McLaren is on point as a team this weekend, expect him to shine. His last three qualifying attempts here with his former team, Andretti Autosport, produced third, second and third on the grid, and if there’s a driver brave enough to fully exploit the extra grip here this year, it’s Rossi.

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
McLaughlin wants to finish as top Penske driver this year, and having stretched out a big enough gap over Will Power to ensure he’s at least second best, he now lies only 22 points behind Josef Newgarden. With 50 points on offer for a win, it’s feasible he can overhaul the two-time champ, but a more realistic ambition is matching the fourth place in the championship that he achieved last year. To do that he must overcome a 13-point deficit to the next guy on our list.

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
Yes, O’Ward sits between Newgarden and McLaughlin on the strength of seven podium finishes in 2023. But he’s still looking for his first win of the season, and that is a big surprise — as is his failure to capture a pole. Yet it’s hard to recall a race where he was anonymous: it seems that the No. 5 Chevy is always at the forefront, its occupant banging at the door to victory lane. Expect something similar this weekend.

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda
This is not a season that Herta will remember with much fondness — aside, that is, from (below) sampling father Bryan’s Laguna Seca-winning Reynard on Wednesday! He’s only 10th in the championship standings, one point ahead of teammate Kyle Kirkwood and one point behind the guy who Kirkwood replaced at Andretti Autosport, Alexander Rossi. But if any track can offer him solace with a victory, it’s this one, where he conquered with pole and the win in both 2019 and ’21.

Josef Newgarden / No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet
His mistake in qualifying here last year was incomprehensible, but his charge from the back to the front on race day was unforgettable. Yup, Newgarden has been through every emotion at Laguna Seca, including the elation of clinching his second NTT IndyCar Series championship back in 2019. Without a title to consider this year, it will be interesting to see how much tougher an opponent he might be. We can be reasonably sure that his team will give him a potentially race-winning car.

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Last year, this was the venue where Lundgaard put in one of his finest drives to date, climbing from 16th to fifth, and thereby clinching IndyCar’s Rookie of the Year title. He’s been one of the bright lights of 2023, and if he remains eighth in the championship, it will mean he’s beaten two of the Arrow McLaren drivers — unthinkable a couple of months into the season.

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
In his final race for the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team, Rosenqvist has the chance to tackle his ferocious friend O’Ward in equal equipment one last time, and he stands a good chance of going out on a high, for this is one of the Swede’s best tracks. He’ll doubtless also feel a boost of self-confidence after climbing from 12th to second in last week’s race at Portland (below) without anything going wrong. A good bet for a podium.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda
The Grosjean-Andretti Autosport partnership that sporadically promised much appears set to end on a muted note: since April, he’s achieved just one top-10 finish. However, with his IndyCar future by no means certain, Grosjean has plenty to prove this weekend at one of his favorite tracks, and he absolutely has the latent speed to end the AA portion of his career on a high. His poles at St. Petersburg and Barber this year were no flukes, and he’s started from the second row here before.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda
He won once here in Indy Pro 2000 and twice in Indy Lights (now Indy NXT), and in his rookie season last year, Kirkwood wrestled a recalcitrant AJ Foyt Racing car to 17th on the grid, just a quarter-second slower than Scott Dixon in a Ganassi machine. He should have a much easier time in an Andretti car, and he’ll have the perfect guy with whom to share data in the form of Herta. Expect a strong showing.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Two pole positions in the last two road course races suggest that Rahal found his mojo not long after the team revitalized itself. As Portland’s race proved, all parties still have things to learn, but Rahal’s race engineer Eddie Jones has admitted to RACER that, unlike last weekend, if they land pole again at Laguna Seca, but collectively feel that starting on primaries is the way to go, they will defy convention and go for it.

Rinus VeeKay / No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
One of the happiest surprises at Portland was seeing VeeKay dancing his Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy toward the front once more (below), failing to be intimidated by some crass blocking moves from a couple of his rivals, and eventually finishing sixth. This has been a trying year for the whole ECR organization, but if he works industriously with the team over this extended race weekend and makes progress, VeeKay can absolutely be a star for a second straight race.

Helio Castroneves / No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
Handkerchiefs at the ready: We are about to witness what will probably be the last-ever IndyCar race (outside of the Indy 500, of course) for one of the sport’s legends, a 31-time race winner. Chances of Castroneves making that 32 this weekend? Slim. Yet the Meyer Shank Racing team does have a technical partnership with Andretti Autosport, a team we expect to shine here, so there may be a kick in the old horse’s final dash.

Agustin Canapino / No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet
Again and again we’ve praised Canapino for his amazing adaptation to IndyCar at the age of 33, after a career in touring cars. We were all surprised to see him loop into the boonies at Portland, so rare have his errors been. But still he finds himself part of the desperate struggle to get into the top 22 at season’s end and help earn Juncos Hollinger Racing some much-needed Leaders Circle dollars. The No. 78 entry currently sits 25th, but just 15 points out if 21st. It’s a nail-biter for all concerned.

Juri Vips / No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Vips played himself in well as an NTT IndyCar Series debutant in Portland (below), outpacing five cars in Q1, and actually falling only 0.15s short of transferring to Q2. He started the race 18th and finished 18th. Now, with a test session at Laguna Seca turning this into a four-day weekend, expect him to shine despite a dearth of track knowledge, since even the veterans have to recalibrate due to the new track surface. Vips is a very good driver who just needs time and laps.

The INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA is free to download and access, so don’t miss out – CLICK HERE to get started.

IndyCar setup sheet: Grand Prix of Portland

What: BITNILE.com Grand Prix / Race 16 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Portland International Raceway, Portland, Ore. – 1.964-mile natural-terrain road course When: Sunday, Sept. 3, 3:00pm ET (race starts 3:30pm ET) When topline U.S. …

What: BITNILE.com Grand Prix / Race 16 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series

Where: Portland International Raceway, Portland, Ore. – 1.964-mile natural-terrain road course

When: Sunday, Sept. 3, 3:00pm ET (race starts 3:30pm ET)

When topline U.S. open-wheel racing returned to Portland International Raceway in 2018, after a 10-year absence, it was a relief that a) the NTT IndyCar Series had a race in the Pacific Northwest, and b) that a track so eminently suitable for the series had found a way to make it work, thanks to the foresight from Green Savoree, the promotions company that also brings you St. Petersburg, Toronto and Mid-Ohio.

This will be the 29th time that IndyCars have raced on the Oregon road course, and the basic layout hasn’t changed much. It’s still a track that demands low drag thanks to its long pit straight and back straight (which, in reality, is a long, gentle curve).

But the handling dynamics of the car are also important. Once past the difficult chicane that forms Turns 1-2-3, the track’s curves demand a neutral car for maximum speed. An understeering car in Turn 4 will put a driver progressively offline all the way through to the exit of Turn 7 if they try to maintain their pace, but ease off the throttle too much and tire scrub will slow them down significantly. Understeer can only be made to work coming out of the final turn as the entry onto the pit straight is wide and allows the driver to get the throttle down early.

The current-season statistics might suggest that Honda power will be an advantage in Portland: Chevrolet cars have yet to take a pole on a road or street course this year, and all but one of the Bowtie contingent’s five victories have been on ovals. However, Honda’s apparent torque advantage – believed to be worth 0.2s per lap on some tracks – should be less apparent here. That’s because the aforementioned final turn means the drivers can be hard on the power early and the corner sequence at the other end of the track is about flow, while keeping the engine in its power band. Only when nursing worn tires on corner exits will the HPD cars have a possible edge.

So, despite those two straights, a great handling setup is the predominant factor here. Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing Honda had it in 2021 and Chevy-motivated Team Penske in 2022 (below, ’22 polesitter and race winner Scott McLaughlin).

This year? Right now, it’s anybody’s guess, and that adds an extra frisson of excitement to the championship battle, which was confirmed as an all-Ganassi affair when Scott Dixon won at World Wide Technology Raceway last weekend, points leader Alex Palou finished seventh, and Penske’s Josef Newgarden was eliminated from title contention after being classified 25th for the second consecutive race.

Palou starts the race with a 74-point advantage over Dixon, but it’s doubtful that any of their rivals care much about the title battle – in fact, they’re likely to feel unleashed, a tad more gung-ho, as they no longer have to think big picture. Those 110 laps of this 12-turn, 1.964-mile course will be full of tension for Chip’s championship challengers, but full of excitement for the others – and for us.

You can follow all the practice and qualifying action from Portland on Peacock on Friday, Sept. 1 and Saturday, Sept. 2, with NBC your go-to location for 216.04 miles of race action on Sunday, Sept. 3. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Friday, Sept. 1 / 6.00pm – 7.15pm ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, Sept. 2 / Noon – 1:00pm ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, Sept. 2 / 3:30pm – 5:00pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Saturday, Sept. 2 / 8:15pm – 8:45pm ET – Practice 3 – Peacock

Sunday, Sept. 3 / 3:00pm – 6:00pm ET – RACE – NBC, Peacock

* All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Bringing you the onboard action from the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland are…

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
The defending polesitter and race winner is doubtless one of the favorites going into the weekend in Oregon. He’s fighting hard to be top Team Penske driver in the championship and is now only 14 points behind his teammate and Bus Bros buddy Josef Newgarden. In fact, he’s closer to fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon in the standings than the latter is to points leader Alex Palou. If the car’s on the pace, expect another podium at the minimum.

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

O’Ward, currently fourth in the championship, scored two wins at Portland in his brilliant Indy Lights campaign back in 2018, but since graduating to the big cars, his fortunes here have been relatively poor. He led several laps in 2021 while the faster Ganassi cars were still storming through from the back, but ended up 14th after strategic mishaps, and last year he was penalized for blocking Dixon and was dropped to fourth (below).

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

Another driver whose best Portland result is fourth, Herta can at least console himself with the thought that he snatched his second ever NTT IndyCar Series pole here in his rookie season of 2019. Finding satisfaction this season on race days has been harder – just one podium for the No. 26 machine – but there are reasons to be optimistic. Andretti Autosport has taken pole at three of the road course events held this year.

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Rossi has looked very strong around Portland in years past – two podium finishes included – and he may prove extremely helpful in bringing Arrow McLaren fresh perspective from his seasons spent at Andretti Autosport. He also shows bravery and good judgment when it comes to outbraking maneuvers into Turn 1, not letting himself be intimidated by those who squeeze him to the inside or crowd him to the outside. That could prove crucial.

Will Power / No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet
The Portland track holds a special place in Power’s heart. It was here where he first tested an IndyCar in 2005 and convinced Derrick Walker that he would be a great addition to Team Australia/Walker Racing in CART. On the NTT IndyCar Series’ return in 2018, he grabbed pole position with a lap record; the following year he clinched victory, and last year he finished just 1.2s shy of winner McLaughlin. The reigning champ (below) has yet to win in 2023, but could that change this weekend?

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Lundgaard has become someone we expect to see near the front of the pack on road and street courses – that’s a credit to him and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team – and he could be a potential winner this weekend. Last year at Portland, the Dane qualified fourth and was a real thorn in the side to the otherwise dominant Penske team, with only an inferior pitstop and a rare error preventing a podium finish.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda

Knowing how much the front wheels are gripping is crucial for speed around Portland, so we’ve yet to see the best of RoGro at this track as he struggled to get good steering feel in his first two years of IndyCar (the breakthrough not coming until Laguna Seca last year). Reaching Q2 will be refreshing for the F1 veteran, and matching his Andretti teammates would be considered a big step forward.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda

A driver who amassed five wins here on the Road To Indy ladder – including arguably his greatest drive in Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) – Kirkwood should arrive in confident frame of mind. But the two-time NTT IndyCar Series race winner definitely needs to add a Portland podium to his achievements this year if he’s to stand a chance of vaulting from 11th to a more representative top-10 in the points race before the season is out.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Given Lundgaard’s pace here last year and the fact that RLL managed to win here with Takuma Sato (albeit on strategy) back in 2018, plus the team’s ongoing revival in 2023, Graham Rahal should be a contender. Pole position on the Indy road course a couple of races ago has re-convinced him he can get the job done in both qualifying and the race, and to hell with his natural weight disadvantage. He was fifth in Portland last year (below) and will be looking to better that this time around.

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Portland is one of several venues where Rosenqvist has shown he can match friend and teammate O’Ward for pace, so expect a strong weekend from the Swede who finished runner-up here in 2019 in his rookie season with Ganassi. One trait on which we can rely is that he will remain impervious to the speculation surrounding his future at Arrow McLaren, and will instead run hard while trying to dodge his usual bad luck.

Ryan Hunter-Reay / No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

A former runner-up here, this year Hunter-Reay will consider it an achievement if he can outpace his teammate Rinus VeeKay, who was spectacular here in Indy Lights, but has yet to find a strong Portland setup in an Ed Carpenter Racing IndyCar. Can RHR help? That’s been the idea since he took over the No. 20 car from Conor Daly, but the progress is not (yet) obvious.

Agustin Canapino / No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

Having outqualified teammate Callum Ilott on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, Canapino can hopefully show similar form this weekend. However, JHR’s giant-killing days are looking evermore distant so the chances of getting through to Q2, for example, appear somewhat remote for the Argentinian rookie.

Tom Blomqvist / No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

The reigning IMSA champion’s second start in the NTT IndyCar Series will make for a fascinating study, not only because it will provide Meyer Shank Racing with a form guide for his full rookie season in 2024, but also because his predecessor in this seat, the Chip Ganassi Racing-bound Linus Lundqvist, set an extremely high bar. MSR teammate Helio Castroneves – his future boss! – will also provide a good yardstick. And hopefully Blomqvist’s second IndyCar race will last longer than his first in Toronto.

Juri Vips / No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

It’s not unreasonable to expect a lot of the 23-year-old Estonian making his series debut this weekend. He shone in testing for RLL at both Sebring and Barber Motorsports Park, so he has a good feel for the car already, and his resume suggests he can win on any type of track. Teaming with another ex-F2 driver, Lundgaard, can only help, and with the RLL cars’ increasing pace, we’re thinking a Q2 appearance is on the cards. What happens thereafter will rather depend on what happens at that tricky chicane on the opening lap…

The INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA is free to download and access, so don’t miss out – CLICK HERE to get started.

IndyCar setup sheet: Gallagher Grand Prix

What: Gallagher Grand Prix / Race 14 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ind. – 2.439-mile, 14-turn permanent road course When: Saturday, Aug. 12, 2:00pm ET There are three road courses and one short oval left on the …

What: Gallagher Grand Prix / Race 14 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series

Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ind. – 2.439-mile, 14-turn permanent road course

When: Saturday, Aug. 12, 2:00pm ET

There are three road courses and one short oval left on the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series schedule, and the championship-deciding home stretch begins with Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. It’s the second IndyCar race of the year to be held on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn track which was first used by the series back in 2014.

Its relative smoothness and lack of gradient might lead one to believe that it’s one of the simpler courses on the IndyCar calendar, but perhaps that very “simplicity” makes finding an edge in basically equal cars such a brain teaser for all involved. In qualifying, the margins between cars appear almost as thin as on an oval.

Gavin Ward, racing director at Arrow McLaren, will have the reassurance of running the last two polesitters at the season’s second IMS road course race — Pato O’Ward in 2021; Felix Rosenqvist in ’22 (above) — as well as last year’s race winner, Alexander Rossi, who scored his eighth and final victory for Andretti Autosport there (below), before making the switch to McLaren in the off-season. But as Ward tells RACER, there are several complex equations to unravel at the Indy road course, and racing on the same track in May isn’t necessarily helpful in zeroing in on the answers.

“One of the things that’s unique about the course is that we race there twice,” he says, “and it’s not like the Iowa doubleheader happening on the same weekend. Here we have a three-month gap between the races, and you can go back there in August, run the same car you did in May and have amazingly different handling characteristics and problems. There’s just not a ‘dead cert’ setup for the place.

“We’ve seen it so many times: teams that shine in May can come back in August and not be competitive, and vice versa. It’s one of those infuriating — but also wonderful! — things about race engineering. It’s so complicated with the way the tires work, different track conditions, how wind direction affects the car, different temperatures…

“But this track is also a bit of an anomaly among the road courses we go to. There’s not a lot of elevation change and it doesn’t really have high-speed corners. Turn 14 onto the front straight on fresh tires is flat, but a wind change in the race can make it more of a corner. Generally, though, the track is all about medium- and low-speed turns. The drivers also take a lot more curb than at most road courses, particularly through Turns 8-9-10.”

The road course uses the half-mile start/finish straight of the legendary IMS oval (albeit running in the opposite direction), and even though the current IndyCar aerodynamic package with aeroscreen is now in its fourth year, this flat-out blast — and a lengthy back straight from Turns 6 to 7 — requires a delicate balancing act from the teams. How much can the car be trimmed out to reduce drag, yet still have adequate downforce for the twisty sections?

“Oh yeah, that’s still a source of debate for both qualifying and the race,” says Ward (above), “and it’s a little wind sensitive, too. If you’re having to lift off out of the final turn because you haven’t got enough downforce to stick, then you end up falling back from whoever you’re chasing, and your trim-out is only barely getting you back on his tail at the end of the straight. So that’s an interesting part of the puzzle. Then you have to make changes to the front of the car to keep your aero balance. You can run the car lower here than on any other road course because the surface is so smooth and because there’s no high-speed corners where you could bottom out or roll, so you’re operating in a little bit different a window than on most other tracks.

“You also have big braking demands because of the speeds down the straights and the nature of the corners at the end of those straights. And there’s some really interesting corner sequence tradeoffs, where you’ve got to give up a little bit here to gain a little there, over and over throughout the lap.”

With the race being 85 laps, it’s possible to tackle it on two or three pit stops, depending of course on the length and timing of caution periods, tire degradation, and whether you feel that the performance gain from a fresh set of tires is worth the 38 seconds eaten up in a pit stop here.

“Yeah, that figure is on the higher side, although obviously not as bad as Road America,” Ward says. “But recently we’ve had a fair amount of tire degradation here, so that can mean it’s not always a bad thing to lose an extra 38 seconds. Doing three stops allows you to eliminate fuel save and stop early for the undercut, or stop later for the overcut, depending on the degradation of Firestone’s primaries and alternates. And that’s another unknown: although the primary is the same as the one we used in May, Firestone are giving us an alternate that is more similar to the 2021 tire here. That means slightly less grip, slightly better abrasion resistance, but taking slightly longer to warm up.”

Speaking of rubber, the fact that this race weekend is shared with NASCAR and its Goodyear rubber has been less of a factor than was originally expected, and there hasn’t been a major incompatibility issue between the Firestone and Goodyear compounds in terms of the track gripping up.

Ward observes: “The condensed schedule [see below] is probably a bigger deal than the NASCAR rubber, to be honest. The first time we were running on the same weekend as NASCAR here, there were some worries that their rubber would be a big curveball for us, but it didn’t play out that way.

“Whereas with just a couple of hours between sessions, you’re always thinking, ‘Should I change this now?’ You almost have to rule out the idea of making big changes, and carefully consider the risk-reward ratio in terms of experiments. You try not to deviate from what you know. I think having three cars is the optimal amount — it’s not information overload, so you can study it all in detail and make educated decisions. The good thing is, Pato, Felix and Alex are all pretty suited to the Indy road course, even though their techniques are different, and they all have plenty of experience now to get the best from themselves and their cars.”

You can watch every practice and qualifying session from the Gallagher Grand Prix on Peacock on Friday, Aug. 11, while the USA Network and Peacock will deliver the race day action, Saturday, Aug. 12. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Friday, Aug. 11 / 9:00am – 10:30am ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Friday, Aug. 11 / 12:30pm – 2:00pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Friday, Aug. 11 / 4:00pm – 4:30pm ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, Aug. 12 / 2:00pm – 5:00pm ET – RACE – USA Network, Peacock

• All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Bringing you the onboard action from the Gallagher Grand Prix are…

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

At Nashville, having qualified in the top four, Herta looked set for a strong showing come race day. But finding himself on the marbles on a restart and being elbowed aside by rivals sent him down an escape road and down the order, and so his star-crossed season continued. He sits only 10th in the championship, but we know his potential and he’s returning to a track where Andretti Autosport has upped its game considerably in the last 18 months. Fingers crossed, this could be the breakthrough weekend.

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

The IMS road course has been a very good track for Lundgaard, who made his debut there in 2021 and qualified fourth, scored his first podium there a year later, and then took pole for the GMR Grand Prix back in May (below). He returns with the confidence of having notched up his first series win — last month on the streets of Toronto — and he’s making RLL look like a real force once more. There’s no reason to expect him to be in anything other than podium contention.

Rinus VeeKay / No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

Like Lundgaard, VeeKay has happy memories of this place — his first pole and podium in 2020, and his first (and so far only) win in 2021. But as McLaren’s Gavin Ward mentioned earlier, being strong in one event on this track is by no means a guarantee that you’ll be fighting for the win on your return, and Ed Carpenter Racing has had some highly anonymous days at this venue. That said, if the Dutch driver is to score only his second top-10 finish of the year, it’s perhaps more likely to come here than anywhere else.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda

Another European import who’s found the Indy road course very much to his taste, Grosjean scored a pole and two runner-up finishes here in his rookie season with Dale Coyne Racing. His starts with Andretti have been more fraught, both here and across the board, but he has at least now finished three straight races without incident. If he and engineer Olivier Boisson can make the car fast while also providing all the feedback that RoGro requires from the front end, then he’ll fight for pole. Thereafter, who knows?

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
While McLaughlin has proved there are certain events when he’s got an edge over his champion teammates at Team Penske — last round at Nashville, for instance — he’s yet to put it all together on the IMS road course. But given his rate of learning and his determination, it’s hard to imagine this situation will last long, and those folks at Gallagher who sponsor the event can expect to see “their” car riding high this weekend.

Josef Newgarden / No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet
The Indy road course used to be one of the few tracks where Newgarden didn’t feel on top of his game. Then he won here in 2020, and it was added to the long list of venues the two-time champion has mastered over the past eight years. That will add a flicker of encouragement for a driver trying to trim down Alex Palou’s 84-point lead in the championship after finishing on the podium, but behind the Spaniard in last weekend’s street race in Nashville (below).

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

The defending winner of this event, Rossi is still looking for a breakthrough result in 2023, or the sort of weekend where he’s Arrow McLaren’s guy to beat. Even his lone podium finish this year — scored here, incidentally — was slightly marred by the fact that both his teammates outqualified him and Pato O’Ward was ahead of him at the checkered flag. But Rossi and race engineer Craig Hampson both know how to shine here and will doubtless come back stronger. Will this finally be the big weekend?

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Without wishing to decry the efforts of race engineer Will Anderson, nor any of the super-talents in the Arrow McLaren engineering brain trust, O’Ward’s qualifying lap at Nashville to land himself a front row slot appeared to be down to a driver carrying his car through sheer skill and force of will. It was a reminder, if anyone needed it, just how special he can be. But if he is to clamber back into the top three in the championship — he’s currently sixth — it’s time to convert that potential into a win. He finished second in May’s GMR Grand Prix (below), so can he make the final step on Saturday?

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Rahal’s quest to find a car that actually rolls off the truck in competitive form, with handling that suits him right off the bat, has been thwarted on so many occasions this year. And the need for that immediate performance, where a driver just seeks small fine-tuning tweaks, is never more necessary than on a weekend that comprises just one practice session before qualifying. Rahal is still seeking his first top-five finish this year, but has twice finished on the podium here.

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

This is one of those “special” tracks for the quiet Swede. He scored his first pole here in 2019 for Chip Ganassi Racing, took pole for Arrow McLaren in 2022, and last May he started on the front row having been beaten to P1 by an infinitesimally small margin. Yet the place owes Rosenqvist, too: he might have won this race last year but for a mechanical problem that caused too much friction and drag, making him a sitting duck. There is no driver in the field who deserves a strong IMS road course weekend more than this guy.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda

The rising star’s stats for 2023 now look even stranger than they did a week ago — two wins, but no other top-five finishes! That explains why freshly-minted Nashville winner Kirkwood (below) is only ninth in the championship right now, but it still makes him top Andretti Autosport driver in the standings. Given their pace in previous years on the Indy road course, it would be a significant feather in Kirkwood’s cap were he to again outpace teammates Grosjean and Herta, as he did in May’s event.

Callum Ilott / No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

Ilott served notice of intent on his first race on the Indy road course last year, qualifying seventh and finishing eighth in the pre-Indy 500 GMR Grand Prix. Such results have been far harder to come by in 2023, at least since the third round, and it’s not entirely clear why. But this is a track where the ex-Formula 2 ace can punch above his weight.

Linus Lundqvist / No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Until his late-race shunt at Nashville, Billy Corgan lookalike Lundqvist (below) was doing everything expected of him and more on his NTT IndyCar Series race debut after qualifying in the top dozen. It’s little surprise, therefore, that Meyer Shank Racing has elected to keep him in the No. 60 Honda for a second event as it waits for Simon Pagenaud to get medical clearance to return to action following his Mid-Ohio shunt. Lundqvist won on the Indy road course twice while in Indy NXT (formerly Indy Lights), so watch out for another strong showing.

Jack Harvey / No. 30 Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

There’s no doubt he’s fighting for a ride in 2024, but Harvey stands a great chance of a strong result this weekend. This is where he scored a fine podium in 2019 for Meyer Shank Racing, and he qualified fourth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan three months ago. The headlines and plaudits for RLL’s revival have mostly gone the way of teammate Lundgaard — and deservedly so — but if Harvey can still find an edge over the Dane somewhere, it could be here.

The INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA is free to download and access, so don’t miss out – CLICK HERE to get started.

IndyCar setup sheet: Streets of Nashville

What: Big Machine Music City Grand Prix / Race 13 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Nashville, Tenn. – 11-turn, 2.1-mile temporary street course When: Sunday, Aug. 6, noon ET (green flag 12:30pm ET) When it comes to the NTT IndyCar Series, …

What: Big Machine Music City Grand Prix / Race 13 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series

Where: Nashville, Tenn. — 11-turn, 2.1-mile temporary street course

When: Sunday, Aug. 6, noon ET (green flag 12:30pm ET)

When it comes to the NTT IndyCar Series, there’s a well-proven mantra: “It’s IndyCar — anything could happen.” And that’s never truer than in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.

In IndyCar, the margins between triumph and disaster, confidence and confusion, and winning and losing, are fine ones, but they’re seldom finer than on a weekend in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

The 2.1-mile street course that zips past the Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans NFL team, and crosses the Cumberland River via the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge, is one of the most distinctive race tracks in the world, and the first two IndyCar races there have been suitably memorable.

The first, in 2021, saw Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson caught up in an accident in the opening laps — one violent enough to lift his nose almost to the vertical after running into the rear of Sebastien Bourdais’ AJ Foyt Racing machine. But after limping to the pits for makeshift repairs, then suffering a drive-through penalty, and spending the remainder of the race with askew steering and bent suspension, the Swede came home the winner.

Remarkably, another Ganassi driver, ageless master Scott Dixon, won last year’s Nashville race (below) after suffering early damage and dropping way down the order. He shrugged off the seemingly debilitating effects of major damage to his car’s floor and multiple early pit stops to run a very long final stint. Despite extremely worn tires, he survived a late-race restart to hold off fellow Kiwi and polesitter Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske on the run to the checkered flag and his 53rd career IndyCar win.

Can the third Music City GP produce similar drama this weekend? You better believe it. It’s as if track designer Tony Cotman of NZR Consulting devised the layout in the heart of country music land to throw as many challenges as possible at the drivers, engineers, engine manufacturers and tire supplier Firestone.

Damper setup is key as the cars pitter-patter over the bumps in the braking zones, and the differentials need to help a driver rotate the car on turn-in, yet be forgiving enough to help settle it and allow the outside rear to dig in rather than spin away its 750hp-plus. The Firestones are worked hard too, the green, guayule-infused sidewalls of the alternate compound and the black “primaries” providing enough stiffness to maximize the footprint, but enough flexibility to work with the suspension and grip the pavement even when lightly loaded or on off camber turns.

The engines, too, must provide enough lowdown torque to push the cars hard out of the tight corners, yet the power must arrive progressively enough not to leave the rear tires scrabbling for grip and burning off their shoulders. The long “straight” of the gently curving bridge, particularly on the return leg from Turn 8 to Turn 9, sees the engine working hardest, from a slow (greater than 90-degree) right-hander taken at 47mph onto a flat-out blast that sees the cars reach 177mph before braking for the left-hander.

The back-and-forth blasts across the bridge are so key to the lap that, however tempting, engineers and drivers won’t dare to load up the cars with downforce for the tight, tricky, weaving run between the buildings on the remainder of the track. That means the drivers must live with their cars running loose, and must judge how much speed they can take into the turns to leave enough space to catch the tail on exit. It’s a quite mesmerizing sight in qualifying, and adds to the drama on race day as the drivers seek alternate lines to catch the car in front or hold up the one behind.

There’s another mantra in IndyCar, and it’s that “cautions breed cautions.” Again, Nashville’s the poster child for that one. The tight track and the “Hail Mary” nature of some of the passing attempts mean an incident is never too far away. In 2021, nine cautions accounted for 33 of the 80 race laps, and despite a growing familiarity with the track and its challenges, eight cautions ate up 36 laps last year. If it’s more of the same this time around, race strategies can change with every full-course yellow, but it’s also a chance to shine for the brain trusts calling the plays on the pit stands and their abilities to react, improvise and second guess.

You can follow the action on Peacock — practice on Friday, August 4, practice (x 2) and qualifying on Saturday, Aug. 5, while NBC (and Peacock) will provide the race day action. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

https://youtu.be/z1DtMHS782w

TUNE IN

Friday, August 4 / 4:00pm – 5:15pm ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, August 5 / 11:40am – 12.40pm ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, August 5/ 2:45pm – 4:15pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Saturday, August 5 / 6:25pm – 6:55pm ET – Practice 3 – Peacock

Sunday, August 6 / Noon – 3:00pm ET – RACE – NBC

• All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Bringing you the onboard action from the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix are…

Josef Newgarden / No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet
His pair of wins at Iowa Speedway (below) have helped two-time IndyCar champion Newgarden trim the gap a little to runaway 2023 points leader Alex Palou — the Chip Ganassi man who beat him to the 2021 title. But the canny Spaniard’s podium finish in the second race in Iowa still leaves the Penske driver with an 80-point gulf to traverse, despite now matching Palou’s victory tally of four. Although this is his home race, Nashville has not yet been a happy hunting ground for Newgarden, who finished only 10th and sixth in the first two editions of the Grand Prix here. That form must improve for any chance to catch Palou in the points with only five races to go.

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
O’Ward is a threat on any type of track — his fast hands and deft feet can make a car dance like Fred Astaire. However, with the exception of the new track in downtown Detroit, the Arrow McLarens haven’t looked quite on par with the best of the opposition on bumpy street courses in 2023. On the basis of his lost victory in the season opener at St. Petersburg, when O’Ward was clearly punching above his weight until stymied by a transient engine issue, it’s fair to say a temporary track owes him.

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda
Herta (below) was eye-poppingly fast at Nashville in 2021, and so confident that he was able to save a set of fresh Firestone alternate tires for Q3 and take pole by half a second. Unfortunately, the timing of caution flags left him with much work to do on race day, and as he tried to pursue surprise leader Ericsson in the closing stint, he made hard contact with the wall. Last year, a mistake in qualifying left him 23rd on the grid, yet he climbed to fifth in the race. At some point, Herta’s sheer pace around here should pay off with a podium finish: given Andretti Autosport’s pace on temporary tracks this year, this could be his weekend.

Will Power / No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet
The defending NTT IndyCar Series champion boosted his pole tally to 70 with P1 for both races at Iowa Speedway last time out, and also scored his fourth podium finish of the season. But like fellow series veteran Scott Dixon, Power is still seeking his first win of 2023. He’s plenty fleet on the streets — witness his strong runner-up finish in Detroit — and he has an uncanny knack for late braking on uneven surfaces, meaning that he’s not intimidated by a lowly start position. But doubtless he’d rather tackle this Sunday’s race from a 71st pole…

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda
It’s an extremely strange season for the young man who had the greatest junior formula results, had a fast but fractious time in his rookie IndyCar season with AJ Foyt Racing, and then won — in fact, dominated — only his third outing at the top level for Michael Andretti’s team. That Long Beach victory is not only his sole podium finish of the season, it’s his only top-five result in a dozen races. Yet he’s done enough to suggest he can be at the sharp end of the AA attack this weekend.

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
McLaughlin returns to the scene of the second of his three pole positions in his still-young IndyCar career (below), and he has good reason to feel optimistic. He personally continues to shine between the concrete walls of temporary tracks and he also has the car to give the street course benchmark Andretti cars a sizable challenge. As well as rapid, the Kiwi’s tidy and neat, and this composure can reap huge dividends in the type of scrappy races we’ve come to expect at so-called “Crashville.”

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Last year at Nashville was when Lundgaard confirmed that Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s impressive pace at Toronto three weeks previously had been the start of a genuine surge in form on street courses, the Dane qualifying third for the second Big Machine Music City GP. Last month, of course, he famously grabbed pole and victory in Canada, so it’s not unreasonable if the IndyCar sophomore expects to be a major contender again this weekend. The margins are fine, the demands of the crew in a tight pitlane are high, but all on the No. 45 car believe in themselves and each other now.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda
Looking at Grosjean’s results on street courses as a form guide is quite useless: he was taken out, an innocent victim, and finished 18th after earning pole and deserving victory at St. Petersburg. The Frenchman (below) was a strong second at Long Beach, but then had self-induced accidents at Detroit and Toronto. He can’t even console himself with memories of Nashville in 2022, for on that occasion he was side-swiped into the Turn 9 wall by Newgarden. Yet he absolutely has the talent to win this weekend, especially given the speed of his Andretti Autosport machine.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Still seeking his first top five of the season, Rahal does at least know that RLL should provide him with a package somewhere in the ball park. The veteran is also a smart cookie as a driver, and tends not to push beyond the limits of what is and isn’t possible. If he finds himself down a setup cul-de-sac, he won’t shunt the car trying to overachieve, but will instead glean intel from his teammates and apply it to his own efforts. His race day efforts can rarely be faulted.

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
For five straight races, this former championship contender has been unable to finish higher than 10th. And yet Rossi remains in the top 10 in championship points and should never be counted out — and as a two-time Grand Prix of Long Beach winner, especially not on a street course. That said, he may find himself looking wistfully at the performance of his former team, Andretti Autosport — or he may also bring very useful insights from that team that boosts Arrow McLaren in the Music City.

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
His sole IndyCar win so far came on the vast open sweeps of Road America back in 2020, but Rosenqvist’s forte — in this writer’s opinion anyway — is street-course performance. He can often outpace his teammates in qualifying on a temporary course and his two podiums for Arrow McLaren have come at Toronto and Detroit. For whatever reason, he seems remarkably unlucky, too, but give him a car with a stable rear end and the Swede will get the job done.

Linus Lundqvist / No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
The driver who should never have been left on the sidelines this year — the reigning Indy NXT champion — is set to make his “big car” debut at one of the toughest venues of all, as former champion Simon Pagenaud misses his fifth race since his heavy Mid-Ohio shunt and Tom Blomqvist is busy on IMSA duty for Meyer Shank Racing at Road America. The good news for Lundqvist is that he knows the Nashville track, having taken pole and victory here last year (below). Nonetheless, he faces a daunting task.

Callum Ilott / No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing ChevroletIlott’s two top-10 finishes this year came in the opening two rounds of the season. But he has generally put on a strong effort in a field where the haves and have-nots are highlighted by the incredible tightness of the grid. Ilott’s pace and consistency has left him above several more fancied names in the points table and he’s eliminated most of the errors we saw in his rookie season. He could surprise this weekend.

Ryan Hunter-Reay / No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

While the 2012 IndyCar champion is searching for the one-lap pace he used to produce on a regular basis at the height of his powers, he is still a racer at heart and is hoping that having been brought into the Ed Carpenter Racing fold midseason, he can find a setup window in which he can display his old magic. Teammate Rinus VeeKay is a tough but useful benchmark, and Hunter-Reay did finish fourth on IndyCar’s Nashville debut.

The INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA is free to download and access, so don’t miss out — CLICK HERE to get started.

IndyCar setup sheet: Mid-Ohio

What: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio / Race 9 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Ohio – natural-terrain road course When: Sunday, July 2, 1:30pm ET (green flag 1:53pm ET) Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which hosts Sunday’s …

What: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio / Race 9 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series

Where: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Ohio – natural-terrain road course

When: Sunday, July 2, 1:30pm ET (green flag 1:53pm ET)

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which hosts Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, provides a thorough workout for the drivers and cars of the NTT IndyCar Series, with several turns that rely heavily on showing the kind of commitment that only comes from huge amounts of bravery and intricate track knowledge.

Turn 1, for instance, requires absolute precision on turn-in. Come from too wide on the front-straight slice toward the apex, and your right-hand wheels will pick up enough track dust that you skitter wide on exit, find more dust, lose momentum and find yourself a sitting duck for your closest pursuer on the long run down to Turn 2. Turn in too early and clip the inside curb, and the car will again be nudged out wide on exit, possibly sending you out beyond the exit curbs.

Retaining maximum velocity through the dip then climb toward the second-gear hairpin of Turn 2 — also known as the Keyhole — is crucial because it’s a heavy braking zone, and there are a variety of lines one can take through there. The asphalt at the apex isn’t always in the rudest of health, and because the Firestone rubber has barely recovered from the longitudinal forces under braking, it can be a real tire shredder when it’s forced to deal with the lateral loads of a hairpin.

If you try and pass the car ahead on the outside, they’re going to leave you in the boonies for as long as possible before turning in, and even then they can run you out of road at the exit. If you dive down the inside, they can pinch you tight to the entry curb, costing you speed…and there’s a very long straight (incorporating the slight kink of Turn 3) that follows immediately afterward.

That second straight is where the race starts (below), and it’s ample for 27 Indy cars — although you wouldn’t guess that when you see the pack brake, change down to second gear, condense, compress and run three-wide into right-hand, 100-degree Turn 4. Oftentimes, some unfortunate souls fall off the edge, right and left.

As IndyCar has proven in recent years, it’s possible to then run two-wide through the uphill left-hand switchback of Turn 5, and downhill right-hand Turn 6 — which you have to get right or the blind turn-in for Turn 7 will be wrong. It’s a similar tale at Turn 8: get it right or it will leave you all wrong for the blind turn-in for Turn 9, where the car goes light and your momentum tries to drag you left and into the dirt. Then it’s the high-speed kink of Turn 10, climbing to the high-commitment, left-hand Turn 11, which will determine if you have it right into the long, neck-pulling right-hand Carousel, Turn 12, from which you can duck into the pitlane or commit to the dash downhill and hard left onto the pit straight.

In short, Mid-Ohio packs a lot into its 13-turn, 2.258-mile course, and the grandstand seating and grass banks offer thrilling viewing spots, whether you want to see Indy cars at maximum velocity, or braking hard and making passes.

Last year at Mid-Ohio, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet looked the most likely winners after qualifying, with Pato O’Ward on pole and Felix Rosenqvist lining up fourth. But both would suffer mechanical failures — Rosenqvist’s early and sudden while running third; O’Ward’s gradually debilitating — which left the door open for front-row starter Scott McLaughlin to claim his second win of the year for Team Penske (below).

The Kiwi was chased home by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who’d raced his way from seventh on the grid. But the biggest climber was Will Power. He and the No. 12 Penske had looked the fastest combination until qualifying, when he was docked his two fastest laps for inadvertently blocking his former teammate Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda. That consigned Power to 21st on the grid, and he compounded his issue by spinning to the back of the field on the opening lap after backing out of a maneuver he realized was overambitious. From the very back of the field, he climbed all the way to third, giving the lie to those who claim it’s too hard to pass at Mid-Ohio…

You can follow all the practice and qualifying action on Peacock on Friday, June 30, and Saturday, July 1, and the warmup on the morning of Sunday, July 2. Then the 80-lap/180.64-mile race will be carried on the USA Network and streamed on Peacock. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Friday, June 30 / 3:05pm – 4:20pm ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, July 1 / 9:45am – 10:45am ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, July 1 / 2:45pm – 4:15pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Sunday, July 2 / 10:30am – 11:00am ET – Warmup – Peacock

Sunday, July 2 / 1:30pm – 4:00pm ET – RACE – USA Network, Peacock

* All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Taking you inside the action, 14 drivers will be carrying in-car cameras in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. During the race, you can live-stream every one of them with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA. You choose who you ride along with, and you can switch drivers at any time. The App’s free to download for fans worldwide and you can find out more HERE. If you’re not already onboard, take your viewing experience to a whole new level HERE.

Bringing you the onboard action from Mid-Ohio are…

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
The defending Mid-Ohio race winner seems able to dig deep and shine on any road course, matching the pace of his Penske teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden. McLaughlin’s triumph at Barber Motorsports Park this season — the track which most closely resembles Mid-Ohio — is another indicator that he’ll be a threat in the Buckeye State. Generally wise in attack, solid in defense, he’s the complete driver. And he started on the front row here last year. You wouldn’t bet against him.

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Knocked sideways at Turn 3 at Road America, O’Ward lost some hard-earned spots from his front row grid slot, and then some more as punishment for blocking on the run down to Turn 5. Yet despite this, and a malfunctioning weight jacker, he pressed on to finish an impressive third, ahead of Scott Dixon. At Mid-Ohio, O’Ward (below, in 2022) is always spectacular to ride onboard with, such is the swiftness with which he reacts when the car goes light and sideways over the crests, and his pole position last year was impressive. Keeping the tires alive is a bigger ask — for everyone — but Arrow McLaren appears to be on top of that in 2023.

Josef Newgarden / No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet
Mid-Ohio is a track that Newgarden’s conquered twice, in 2017 and ’21, the latter from pole position. So while we’ve yet to see Team Penske enjoy an outright speed advantage at any tracks this year, in the way that we saw occasionally in ’21 and ’22, you can expect the two-time IndyCar champ and newly crowned Indy 500 winner to make the most of what he’s got on any given race day. It’s never a surprise to see Newgarden in victory lane, so watch for fireworks this weekend.

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

Herta would have made a worthy winner of the last NTT IndyCar Series round at Road America, but the pole winner made his final stop a lap earlier than his fastest pursuers, obliging him to make judicious use of his fuel in the final stint and leaving him defenseless in the closing stages as he fell to fifth. Still, he can take heart from the knowledge that Andretti Autosport has retained its road course pace, and from the fact that he won here at Mid-Ohio in 2020.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda

For a driver who’s scored two second-place finishes and twice started from pole this year, Grosjean’s Road America performance was a messy one, producing his third-straight result outside the top 20. However, having dropped to 13th in the championship, the former Formula 1 ace has nothing to lose now. Combine that attitude with his talent and a dexterous Andretti Autosport car, and he could very well be in the thick of the fight this weekend.

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Rossi continues to build momentum with Arrow McLaren, and topped two practice sessions at Road America. He shines on natural-terrain road courses, and took a superb win from pole position at Mid-Ohio back in 2018 and second place in 2020. What he needs to show now are a few weekends of supremacy over teammate Pato O’Ward — no easy matter, especially at this track. But Rossi is resilient as well as quick and it would be no surprise to see him scoop the team’s first win of the season.

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Rosenqvist’s Scandinavian politeness and civility were stretched to their limits at Mid-Ohio last year, when an unexpected engine failure put him out while running third — the leading driver on the harder compound Firestones, yet able to keep up with the alternate compound cars. Tactically, it had looked like the Swede was going to see his luck turn around. As it is, he still seeks his second IndyCar career win, but if Arrow McLaren finds its Mid-Ohio sweet spot, so can he.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda

However strong we expect Herta and Grosjean will be this weekend, it’s entirely plauisble that neither of them will be Andretti Autosport’s pacesetter. In the ladder series, Kirkwood owned Mid-Ohio — three wins in USF2000, two in Indy Pro 2000, and three in Indy Lights (now Indy NXT). After a Lap 1/Turn 1 faux pas at Road America and after seeing himself slip to 10th in points, there could be no better time for the Long Beach winner to reboot his season.

Helio Castroneves / No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

The four-time Indy 500 winner has a strong record at Mid-Ohio, having won in 2001 and ’02, and taken pole in ’07 and ’08. Even in IMSA sports cars, Castroneves’ affinity for the place shone through with victories in 2018 and ’20, while last year he enjoyed one of his best IndyCar races of the season with an eighth place. With both Meyer Shank Racing entries on the fringes of the top 20 in points, this isn’t a stellar year for the Ohio-based squad, but there could be no better place to turn things around.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

If New Albany, Ohio-born Rahal feels pressure at his home race, he hides it well, making himself available to the public, soaking up the atmosphere, and rarely making mistakes on track. He won here in 2015, on his way to fifth in the championship, but such results must seem an eternity ago right now, to all at a struggling RLL. But Graham has taken it upon himself to help rally the troops and, with the right calls on Sunday, could pull off a home-state surprise.

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

You definitely get the impression that Lundgaard’s first IndyCar win is most likely to come at a road course. This year he’s qualified and finished sixth at Barber, took pole and finished fourth at the Indy Grand Prix — on a track where he scored his first podium in 2022 — and two weeks ago qualified and finished seventh at Road America. RLL is not totally out of the woods yet, but isn’t way off the pace on road courses, either. If it homes in on a decent setup this weekend, Lundgaard could just score himself another podium.

Ryan Hunter-Reay / No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

The 2012 champ and 2014 Indy 500 winner endured a tough return to IndyCar road racing at Road America after a 20-month absence, spinning into a gravel trap during qualifying and therefore having to fight from the back row. He did this, finishing 17th on his ECR debut. Now Hunter-Reay (below) returns to a track at which he has a pole position and several podium finishes, but where he’s still seeking his first win. A top-10 at Mid-Ohio would be stout enough, but if he can help guide ECR into the top five, he should consider it some kind of victory.

Callum Ilott / No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

The former Formula 2 ace has endured a tough season since starting with a fifth-place result in St. Petersburg and ninth at Texas Motor Speedway. Considering he regards qualifying as something of a specialty, an average grid position of 20th suggests the innate pace of the car needs improving or better tailoring to his preferences. In a field as competitive as IndyCar, starting on the 10th row leaves you with way too much work to do, especially if the race doesn’t deliver a bunch of caution periods.

Jack Harvey / No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Much of what is said of Ilott can be applied to fellow Brit Harvey, too, although for him the situation is compounded by an average finish of 19.75 in 2023. RLL is seeking consistency rather than occasional bouts of competitiveness, and so is Harvey, a two-time runner-up in the Indy Lights category. Just one strong weekend, one where he outraces his teammates, would be a huge confidence booster.

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IndyCar setup sheet: Road America

What: Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America / Race 8 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Natural-terrain road course at Elkhart Lake, Wis. When: Sunday, June 18, 1:00pm ET (green flag 1:15pm ET) From the near-flat and often flat-out turns of …

What: Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America / Race 8 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series

Where: Natural-terrain road course at Elkhart Lake, Wis.

When: Sunday, June 18, 1:00pm ET (green flag 1:15pm ET)

From the near-flat and often flat-out turns of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to the first and second-gear point ’n’ squirt, bump ’n’ grind street course in Detroit, to the hold-your-breath open sweepers and technical medium-speed turns at Road America this weekend. There’s no sequence in the 17-race NTT IndyCar Series schedule where the series more obviously demands its drivers to be the most versatile racers on earth.

People — drivers and fans alike — wax lyrical about Road America, calling it the United States’ greatest road course, with frequent comparisons to Formula 1’s Spa-Francorchamps. And with good reason, too: huge elevation changes, varied track surfaces, and unforgiving corners. Even where there’s runoff it can be hard to return to the asphalt without damaging the car; and where there is runoff, it’s often a gravel trap. Road America has barely changed since the year it was opened in 1955 — certainly its 4.048-mile configuration remains as it was, with only the curbing and the amount of asphalt and grass on either side of it shifting over the decades.

This venue is a mecca for campers, who are spoiled for choice as far as sightlines are concerned. Stay for the full three days, and you can move around the track and capture hugely different views for all five of the IndyCar sessions.

At Road America, race engineers who’ve seen their cars qualify badly tend to look gloomy on Saturday evening as they contemplate the chances of getting their car back up front through strategy. The length of the course means the race is only 55 laps long, which makes it a fairly obvious three-stop strategy, especially given the yawningly long pitlane. The scope for strategic variations is naturally limited.

Yet, time after time, we’ve seen that it takes just a single yellow in any of the three stints to allow the drivers to turn up the fuel mixture and let fly. And a driver who’s struggling on fuel strategy or who’s burned off their Firestone alternate-compound tires too soon cannot indefinitely fend off a close pursuer, for the track is wide, making for obvious passing opportunities at Turns 1, 3, 5, 6 and 10.

Last year at Road America, the top four teams looked very evenly balanced in terms of pace, with the top 10 on the grid containing three cars from Andretti Autosport and Chip Ganassi Racing, and two from Team Penske and Arrow McLaren. Andretti’s Alexander Rossi took his first pole for three years, putting himself in frame to score his first win over the same period.

Fellow front-row starter Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Penske crew scotched that idea at the first round of stops, when he emerged from pit lane ahead of Rossi — as did Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson when he stopped a lap later, although Rossi got past him when the Swede ran wide at Turn 7.

Through the second and third stints, Rossi kept nibbling at Newgarden’s lead, and a late caution gave him a last chance to get fully on terms. Instead, he turned from hunter to hunted, with Ericsson slipping past him to claim second, 3.3710s behind winner Newgarden (below). Still Rossi headed a 3-4-5 for the Andretti team, followed home by Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta.

You can follow all the practice and qualifying action on Peacock on Friday, June 16, and Saturday, June 17, and the warmup on the morning of Sunday, June 18. Then the 55-lap/220.55-mile race will be carried on the USA Network as well as Peacock. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Friday, June 16 / 4:00pm – 5:15pm ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, June 17 / 10:55am – 11:55am ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, June 17 / 1:55pm – 3:25pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Sunday, June 18 / 10:15am – 10:45am ET – Warmup – Peacock

Sunday, June 18 / 1:15pm – 3:45pm ET – RACE – USA Network, Peacock

• All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Bringing you the onboard action from the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America are…

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Rossi deserves to be excited about this race, for it’s the scene of his most recent pole position, in 2022, and the seventh of his eight NTT IndyCar Series wins, in 2019. The high-commitment corners are his forté and his willingness to get the throttle down early and clamber over curbs can produce considerable rewards on Road America’s medium-speed turns. He’s still seeking his first win for the Arrow McLaren team, after seven years with Andretti Autosport, and currently lies sixth in the championship.

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

Herta has endured a difficult year so far, with his highest finish a fourth at Long Beach, but reassuringly he knows that Andretti Autosport has good road course setups and he can be exceedingly quick around Road America. In his rookie season of Indy NXT — then called Indy Lights — he took pole position and a podium finish here, while in IndyCar, he took his first-ever pole here in 2019. He used up his tires a tad too enthusiastically come race day, but he learned, and has since delivered top 5s each time, including a runner-up finish in 2021.

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

After finishing runner-up in three of the first five races, O’Ward knows that DNFs at Indy and Detroit (below) have been a setback in his championship quest. As well as his outright pace, the spectacular Mexican is also very smart, and has a genius race engineer in Will Anderson. He occasionally lets his emotions steer his racing instincts, but nowhere near as often as his critics suggest. He took pole and finished second at Road America in his first full IndyCar season in 2020; he has every right to believe he can take the “W” this weekend.

Will Power / No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet

Since Road America reappeared on the IndyCar calendar in 2016, Penske’s reigning and two-time champion Power has shown pretty well here, notching up a pole, a win, two seconds, a third, a fifth, and a couple more less satisfying results. The Aussie, like all the aforementioned drivers, is seeking his first win of 2023 but as last year proved, he has a resolute calmness to simply get the best out of any given day, whatever fate throws at him. Is he a potential winner? Always.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda

Statistics suggest he’s going to finish on the podium this weekend. The former F1 driver took fifth at Road America in his rookie year of 2021 with Dale Coyne Racing and he backed this up with fourth in his first year with Andretti Autosport. Now? Well, his pole position at Barber Motorsports Park this year suggested he and engineer Olivier Boisson have made the breakthrough required for road courses, where Grosjean needs the front end of the car to feel positive and planted. After six podium finishes, this weekend could see Grosjean’s first open-wheel win in a dozen years,

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

If you want to see how keen Rosenqvist is to remain in IndyCar next year, regardless of decisions made by McLaren CEO Zak Brown, just watch the final 20 laps of the Detroit Grand Prix in which he finished third. Then savor the prospect of the Swede trying to beat his teammates O’Ward and Rossi this weekend. Road America is of course the site of the Swede’s sole win at this level, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing back in 2020, when he outdueled none other than Pato to snatch victory.

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
With four wins and three seasons under his belt, McLaughlin should feel comfortable pretty much everywhere, but never more than on road courses. An immensely strong addition to the Penske stable, he doesn’t merely scoop up the remains when his teammates have bad days; the Kiwi is a bona fide star. He led Power and Newgarden at Barber, the most recent undulating road course on the calendar, to take his first win of the season, and could grab a second on Sunday.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda

Two wins in USF2000 for Cape Motorsports, two wins in Indy Pro 2000 for RP Motorsport, and one win in Indy Lights for Andretti Autosport. Safe to say that the 2021 Indy Lights champ Kirkwood knows how to be a contender around the varied turns presented by Road America. The American’s pole and victory at Long Beach displayed his composure, but Detroit was arguably a bigger test. His crash in qualifying was his fault, his lap 1/ Turn 1 tangle emphatically not, but he stormed from last to sixth after that, and was the most impressive driver of the weekend aside from winner Alex Palou and Power.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

If you want to know what frustration looks like, watch Graham Rahal interviewed on TV or follow him on Twitter. Yet we know there’s a talented driver trying to shake off the shackles of recalcitrant cars, self-inflicted snafus, and uncertainty when heading into a race weekend. A buildup of all three can certainly sap the confidence. Yet Rahal, like Rossi, always drives with a certain sense of liberation at Road America, unafraid to make bold passing attempts, and this is a track that can reward such self-belief.

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Like teammate Rahal, Lundgaard seems very at home around Road America, and in his rookie season last year he qualified 13th and finished 10th. While this has been a very trying year for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan squad, the Dane should be heading into this weekend with some confidence, given his performance on natural road courses in the recent past. In 2022, he qualified fourth at Portland and finished fifth at Laguna Seca; this year he qualified and finished sixth at Barber and took pole and finished fourth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Simon Pagenaud / No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

The 2016 NTT IndyCar Series champion has never looked completely comfortable at Road America, despite three top 10s in 2017-19. Thing is, Pagenaud likes a stable rear end to his car in order to commit and show his fabulous precision, and this course’s long straights require the removal of drag-inducing downforce. That said, he remains an impeccably smooth driver and should it rain this weekend, he could even be contending for his 16th career IndyCar win and his first for Meyer Shank Racing.

Jack Harvey / No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Harvey qualified on the front row at Road America in 2020, and was third on the grid in ’21, but in ’23 he’s struggling to show his form, especially in the RLL team, which is suffering the same paroxysms of competitiveness and recalcitrance. On his best days, the Brit (below) remains a force to be reckoned with, and this track is more likely than most to bring out his best.

Agustin Canapino / No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

One of the most talented touring car drivers of the current era continues to prove he’s one of the most surprisingly adept open-wheel converts. Three times in seven races this year, rookie Canapino has finished in the top 15 from a field of 27 cars, and how many so-called experts would have predicted that pre-season? The 33-year-old Argentinian can also enjoy a confidence boost knowing that his teammate, Callum Ilott, qualified 12th and finished 11th last year.

Ryan Hunter-Reay / No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

The 2012 champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner was far from a spent force when he was cut loose by Andretti Autosport at the tail end of ’21. Now Hunter-Reay, at the age of 42, gets to make his comeback as replacement for Conor Daly at ECR. Despite his impressive outing for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the Indianapolis 500, this weekend will be a challenge for Ryan after 18 months away from an IndyCar cockpit on a road course. But he’s a highly motivated former champ and has a fine reference point in teammate Rinus VeeKay.

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IndyCar setup sheet: Long Beach

What: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach / Race 3 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Streets of Long Beach, Calif. When: Sunday, April 16, 3:00pm ET (green flag 3:30pm ET) The contrast couldn’t be greater. Two weeks on from the 220mph high banks of …

What: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach / Race 3 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series
Where: Streets of Long Beach, Calif.
When: Sunday, April 16, 3:00pm ET (green flag 3:30pm ET)

The contrast couldn’t be greater. Two weeks on from the 220mph high banks of Texas Motor Speedway, round three of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season heads to Long Beach, Calif., for a tight, twisting street fight.

The SoCal classic is a race they all went to win — outside of the Indianapolis 500, it’s the most prestigious and storied event on the calendar — but to do that, a multitude of factors come into play, starting with the lockup-inducing bumps and unforgiving walls that contrive to punish even the smallest of errors.

As you’d expect on a track where passing is fraught with jeopardy, a strong qualifying position is hugely desirable, with seven of the last 10 winners starting on the first two rows of the grid. But the constant threat of caution periods means nailing the strategic calls — often of the “Hail Mary” variety — has its rewards, too, with Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta winning from 14^th on the grid in 2021, and Mike Conway coming home all the way from 17^th in 2014.

Last year, Josef Newgarden headed to California hot on the heels of a last-lap pass for the win in Texas, qualified second for the 47th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, then led 32 of 85 laps to secure back-to-back race victories (above). And with the Team Penske driver fresh off another Texas win, could it be déjà vu all over again in 2023?

Maybe. But first he’ll need to outrace the likes of 2021 winner Herta and two-time Long Beach victor Alexander Rossi, as well as his Penske teammate and reigning champ Will Power and the Chip Ganassi Racing trio of Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and St. Pete winner Marcus Ericsson,

And don’t rule out Andretti’s Romain Grosjean, runner-up in Long Beach last year and pole winner at the St. Pete’s 2023 season opener, to take his first series win, or points leader Pato O’Ward to post his first victory of the season.

Whatever the outcome, get set for 85 frantic laps of the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course on Sunday afternoon, with drama and plot twists guaranteed.

You can follow all the practice and qualifying action on Peacock on Friday, April 14, and Saturday, April 15, with NBC taking over as race day delivers another brawl at the beach on Sunday, April 16. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Friday, April 14 / 6:00pm – 7:15pm ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, April 15 / 11:45am – 12:45pm ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Saturday, April 15 / 3:05pm – 4:20pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Sunday, April 16 / Noon – 12:30pm ET – Warmup – NBC, Peacock

Sunday, April 16 / 3:00pm – 6:00pm ET – RACE – NBC, Peacock

* All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Bringing you the onboard action from the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach are…

Josef Newgarden / No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet

Team Penske driver Newgarden would be totally fine with recent history repeating itself. Last year, he followed up a Texas Motor Speedway win with victory in Long Beach, leading a race high 32 laps. This time around, fresh off another thrilling Texas win, the two-time series champ could be the guy to beat again.

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

It’s a street race, so it’s pretty much a given that 2021 Long Beach winner Herta (below) will be in the mix for another victory on his home asphalt. Regard last year’s trip into the wall while pushing hard on an in lap as an aberration and watch out for the Andretti Autosport ace to make amends on Sunday.

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet

It hasn’t been a terrible start to 2023 for McLaughlin, but as one of the pre-season title favorites, it’s time to lay down a real marker. The Kiwi knows how to win on a street course — and was in the thick of the lead battle in St. Pete before a tangle with Romain Grosjean — so expect him to be a big factor in SoCal.

Will Power / No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet

This time last year, Power couldn’t finish outside of the top 4 even if he tried, and it was that incredible consistency that laid the foundations for his second NTT IndyCar Series title. So far, 2023 has fallen a little short, but the Aussie is a former Long Beach winner and almost guaranteed to be a factor again this weekend.

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

A two-time Grand Prix of Long Beach winner with Andretti Autosport, Rossi has made the switch to Arrow McLaren for 2023, but still heads to his home state as one of the pre-race favorites. Fourth in St. Pete was a strong start for the new alliance, and the season’s second street race should take things to a whole new level.

Helio Castroneves / No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Meyer Shank Racing continues to regroup and refocus after its struggles in 2022. Don’t expect Castroneves, or teammate Simon Pagenaud, to be challenging for a podium this weekend, but if the veteran Brazilian (who qualified third and led laps as recently as 2021) can put together a top-10 kind of weekend, that would point to genuine progress.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda

But for his late-race altercation with Scott McLaughlin in St. Pete, we might have been asking if Grosjean could make it two 2023 street-race wins in Long Beach this weekend. The Andretti Autosport driver grabbed the pole at St. Pete and traded the lead with Penske’s McLaughlin until their coming together. If he picks it up in California where he left off in Florida, a first NTT IndyCar Series race win for last year’s Long Beach runner-up (below) is a distinct possibility.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

It’s fair to say that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing isn’t anywhere near the level it wants to be at the moment. But Rahal and the No. 15’s brain trust strategized their way to an under-the-radar sixth in the season opener on the streets of St. Pete from 20th on the grid. So, qualify a few places higher and anything might be possible…

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

It’s been a strong start for the spectacular Mexican, with two second-place finishes from the opening two races and the NTT IndyCar Series points lead. Last year’s fifth place was the Arrow McLaren driver’s best Long Beach finish, but can his current momentum take him to the podium, or even a win?

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

The Swede’s 2023 campaign is yet to really take off, despite earning the pole at Texas last time out. His best Long Beach finish was 10th, back in his 2019 IndyCar rookie campaign, but if Arrow McLaren is in the ballpark on setup, watch for Rosenqvist to be closer to the sharp end on Sunday.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda

He’s still looking for his breakout moment after taking over Andretti’s No. 27 entry for 2023. But Kirkwood showed his street-racing prowess in a dazzling climb up the Road to Indy ladder and finished 10th at Long Beach for AJ Foyt Racing in his IndyCar rookie campaign last year. If you’re looking for a SoCal shock, Kyle could be your man.

Callum Ilott / No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

Yes, that is Ilott sitting seventh in NTT IndyCar Series points after a hugely impressive start to the season for the Brit (below) and his Juncos Hollinger Racing team. Fifth in St. Pete followed by ninth on the high banks of Texas says this is a combination coming of age. Another weekend of punching above its perceived weight and Ilott could be a genuine podium contender in Long Beach.

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

With top-10 finishes in his last two street race starts, RLL sophomore Lundgaard will be looking for another strong showing in Long Beach. But like his teammate, Graham Rahal, that could depend on what kind of shape the team rolls off the hauler in.

Conor Daly / No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

After a disappointing St. Pete weekend for Ed Carpenter Racing, albeit one where Daly and the No. 20 crew cajoled themselves to a 14th-place finish from 26th on the grid, the merest hint of a top-10 finish in Long Beach would be a major step — but not an impossible one.

The INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA is free to download and access, so don’t miss out — CLICK HERE to get started.

IndyCar setup sheet: Texas Motor Speedway

What: PPG 375 / Race 2 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Texas When: Sunday, April 2, noon ET (green flag 12.10pm ET) First oval of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season, and it’s a daunting one. Texas Motor Speedway provides …

What: PPG 375 / Race 2 of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series
Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Texas
When: Sunday, April 2, noon ET (green flag 12.10pm ET)

First oval of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season, and it’s a daunting one. Texas Motor Speedway provides incredible, wheel-to-wheel, 220mph action, but it’s always ready to bite hard. Winning in the Lone Star State isn’t just about mastering the draft and picking your moments to perfection; it’s also about risk vs. reward, daring to ride the sketchier high groove, and having a sixth sense for trouble.

Last year, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden played it all to perfection, putting a last-lap slingshot move on teammate Scott McLaughlin to win in Texas for a second time (above). Prior to that, McLaughlin had dominated the race, leading 186 laps. But Texas is all about being in the right place when it counts most, and Newgarden’s move saw him edge the Kiwi by 0.0669s at the checkered flag.

Can Newgarden do it again, or will McLaughlin make amends and land a first oval win on a track where he’s twice finished on the podium in just three starts? Or could it be a day when Pato O’Ward tightrope walks on the high line and scores his second Texas victory? And will the other former winners in the field, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter, feature in the mix, too?

Throw in potent wild cards such as Ganassi debutant Takuma Sato, 2022 pole winner Felix Rosenqvist, and even a fast-learning Romain Grosjean, and anything’s possible over 250 laps and 375 miles of 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.

You can follow all the practice and qualifying action on Peacock on Saturday, April 1, with NBC taking over for what should be another Texas thriller on Sunday, April 2. And to get even closer to it all, grab the best seat in the house with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA and its 14 race day live onboard cameras.

TUNE IN

Saturday, April 1 / 9:00am – 10:00am ET – Practice 1 – Peacock

Saturday, April 1 / 12:15pm – 1:15pm ET – Qualifying – Peacock

Saturday, April 1 / 1:45pm – 3:30pm ET – Practice 2 – Peacock

Sunday, April 2 / Noon – 2:30pm ET – RACE – NBC, Peacock

• All sessions and the race are also available as audio commentary on SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio.

Ride along with the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA

Bringing you the onboard action from Texas Motor Speedway are…

Josef Newgarden / No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet

Newgarden only led three laps at Texas last year, but that included the lap that mattered most — the final one. With two wins and two other podiums from his last five Texas starts, expect the Penske ace to be in the mix once again.

Scott McLaughlin / No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
The Kiwi’s three Texas starts have already delivered two second-place finishes, and last year he led 186 of the 248 laps. Will Sunday deliver the third-year Penske driver’s first career oval win?

Colton Herta / No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

Herta’s yet to win on an oval in his NTT IndyCar Series career, and hasn’t really been a factor in his five Texas starts so far. But as his experience and oval smarts build, don’t rule him out of contention this time around.

Alexander Rossi / No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

St. Pete showed that Rossi was dialing in quickly with his new-for-2023 Arrow McLaren gig. He’s finished second and third at Texas with Andretti Autosport, so don’t rule him out for a strong showing.

Helio Castroneves / No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Scott Dixon excepted, nobody else in the 2023 field even comes close to the Brazilian’s superspeedway experience and smarts. OK, Meyer Shank Racing hasn’t been a major factor in recent races, but give Castroneves even a sniff of a chance and he’s got what it takes to do the rest.

Romain Grosjean / No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda

The former F1 driver has already shown that he isn’t fazed by ovals. His Texas debut last year ended early with an engine issue, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him hanging at the sharp end on Sunday.

Graham Rahal / No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Good or bad, don’t concern yourself with the speeds Rahal runs in practice and qualifying. Come the race, we can almost guarantee that 2016 Texas winner Rahal and the No. 15 will be right up there once again.

Pato O’Ward / No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Texas-based Mexican O’Ward goes where others fear to tread on the super-fast, 1.5-mile oval. A race winner here in 2021 thanks to his nerve and dexterity opening up a second groove, the Arrow McLaren ace should be a factor again.

Felix Rosenqvist / No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

After taking the pole in Texas last year, a technical issue stymied Rosenqvist’s race day, but the Swede should be a factor once again. If you want to ride along with the weekend’s surprise package. Arrow McLaren’s No. 6 could well be it.

Kyle Kirkwood / No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda

Still finding his feet with Andretti after a rookie season with AJ Foyt Racing, Kirkwood will be looking to put in a solid weekend in his first oval start with his new team.

Christian Lundgaard / No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

After accruing valuable oval experience last season, the 2022 Rookie of the Year will be looking to take it up a notch this time around. A top-10 finish for the impressive Dane would be decent enough, but maybe there’s more in store on Sunday?

Callum Ilott / No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

Ilott’s 2022 Texas debut was decent enough, the Brit finishing a lapped 16th, but with five laps in the lead under his belt. Like Lundgaard, taking it up a step and posting a top 10 would be progress.

Conor Daly / No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

With two top-10 finishes and a wild, upside-down ride among his starts, Daly’s certainly experienced a lot at Texas Motor Speedway. But if superspeedway specialist ECR is in the zone, look out for the No. 20 Chevy to be a real factor on Sunday.

Jack Harvey / No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Last year, Harvey missed the Texas race following a practice crash and concussion. This time around, having recovered from his heavy impact in the St. Pete opener, he’ll be looking to put a decent run together to get his season started.

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