Q: I was wondering if you spoke to Santino Ferrucci after the 500 and how you would describe his emotions?
Greasy Goblin
MP: Yes, we even posted an interview with his face as the main image of the video:
Q: Given the earlier restart wave-off for O’Ward, if Ericsson had seriously jumped the restart, or have gone too slow (like O’Ward), would IndyCar have waved off the start, thus allowing Ericsson to win since it was the last lap?
Norcal Rob
MP: I thought about that as well, and while I don’t think they’d have waved it off, Ericsson could have been penalized and moved behind Newgarden in the final results if he’d taken off super early.
Q: It seemed to my untrained eye that O’Ward’s banzai move on Ericsson at Indy had zero chance of success unless Ericsson backed out of the throttle. His front wheels were not even midway and he left Ericsson no room to complete his arc. When interviewed, Pato put all the blame on Ericsson and made a veiled threat of retaliation. Help me understand if Pato has a valid point or if he just got caught up in the emotion of the moment?
Steve O
MP: Pato forced the issue and when you do that, you place your fate in the hands of the person who’s leading into the corner. At opposite ends of the track, and 11 years later, this wasn’t too far removed from Sato firing it down the inside of Dario Franchitti and praying he was given ample room to make it out the other side. In Taku’s case, of course you try — it was for the win if it worked — but when you make a last-lap-style move as Pato did at the Indy 480 instead of the Indy 497.5 like Sato, you’re just inviting a bad result.
Q: I know this will sound a bit catty, but I mean no malice. Dreyer and Reinbold had to come out of pocket, I’m guessing high six digits if not more, to pay Ryan Hunter-Reay to drive an under-sponsored car to finish about as good as Sage did when he drove it. I’m assuming Sage paid for that ride. What’s the story behind that?
Bernardo, Canyon Lake, TX
MP: I love Sage as much as anybody, but it would take a serious suspension of reality to suggest he and RHR are on the same level. What DRR got for its money at the 500 was a veteran who kept a car that was often diabolical out of the wall and got it to the finish line in 11th. Presented with the same challenges, I’m not sure we’re saying the same about young Mr. Karam who’s finished less than half of his Indy 500s. The kid’s a blast to watch, no doubt, but there’s no scenario where he’s thought of in the same way as RHR.
“We had one of those days where everything went wrong,” RHR told me after the race.
The team missed the starting setup on the car and RHR dealt with the same kind of vibrations that ruined Scott Dixon’s opening stint and sent him rearwards. Then the front wing adjuster broke, so there was a massive aero imbalance and inability to add downforce and the only option, at a time when you would have wanted to raise downforce, was to decrease rear downforce to match the front, which left RHR slipping and sliding for the rest of the race as big understeer kept trying to introduce the front of his car to the walls.
But he didn’t let that happen, and didn’t trail around at the back all day like some other drivers in larger teams with similar problems, and nearly cracked the top 10. I’d say RHR has a ride for life there, provided he isn’t snapped up by a bigger team next year.
Q: I noticed during Kyle Kirkwood’s huge wreck at the Indianapolis 500 that he lifted his visor as the car was sliding across the track with sparks flying. Is there a reason why?
CQ from PA
MP: You bet—read this.
Q: After watching this year’s Indy 500 with its three red flags, I wondered if it that was the most red flags in history of the race? I Googled “most red flags in Indy 500 history” but found no results.
Do you know if this year’s race had the most red flags, or were there other 500s with more?
PDE, Palm Coast, FL
MP: If it isn’t, I can’t think of one that had more in a continuous manner, discarding multiple days of rain delays and whatnot.
Q: I found it interesting on the last lap restart at Indy that while Ericsson was accelerating and snaking down the front straight, Newgarden remained on a committed line high on the straight. As Ericsson came back up the track, by definition, could that be considered blocking since the lead car committed low but the trailing car committed high? Curious how this would be viewed and ruled on in review.
This is more of an observation for safety, but exiting Turn 4, Newgarden snaked low and crossed over the pit lane blend line. I recall that there are no track limits considering the dashed line along pit entry, but it does get concerning when the pit lane attenuator is just ahead. Doesn’t crossing that line promote an unsafe practice that could result in the attenuator being a pick to the tune of a huge accident?.
Jamie Doellinger, York, PA
MP: You’re one of many people to highlight the potential risks of playing chicken with the pit lane entry attenuator, Jamie, and for good reason. If the driver weaving over there doesn’t hit it, all it takes is for another driver to fill that space on the weaver’s right and block their return to the front straight, and in that scenario, we have someone forced to turn left and fire down pit lane at 225mph and put themselves and others at risk as they violate the speed limit and try to shed a ridiculous amount of speed to get down to the limit. If IndyCar doesn’t end the weave-to-your-heart’s-desire deal before the next 500, it might be time for some personnel changes.
Ericsson’s folly on the one-lap dash was killing his accelerative momentum by weaving from Turn 4 to Turn 1 because it let Newgarden accelerate without scrubbing his tires/covering all that extra distance and then draw closer than he would have if he’d done the same amount of weaving. There’s a reason IndyCar gives drivers two laps to wind up to speed before taking the green in qualifying — they need that second lap to get all the way up to maximum velocity. You won’t get it in one lap, which is why robbing yourself of small amounts of acceleration while the guy behind you does not is how Indy 500 leads turn into second-place finishes.
For the umpteenth time, kill the weaving with fire and let’s get back to sane driving standards. If it’s allowed at Indy, should we look for weaving down Shoreline Drive at Long Beach or all the long straights at Road America or back and forth across the Nashville bridge to be accepted by IndyCar?