Alonso, Dixon Phoenix and More.
After spending the last week
in Las Vegas at a Television Expo and Conference (my real job) what better
thing to do than jump in the car and shoot over to Phoenix for two days it’s
only a short little drive just a few hours so easy.
Worth it? Heck yes. This
great one-mile dogleg oval in the desert is demanding interesting scary and
cool all wrapped up into one that’s for sure. Even the pit lane for the
IndyCars stretches along the main straightaway and into turn one so some teams
are even pitting on a curve. Now that requires focus from the driver that’s for
sure. More on that soon.
News surrounding the 101st
Indy 500 seems to be all focused around one thing ‘Alonso’ and anything about
him. News from a very good source is that at the Honda simulator test he did
last week before heading back to Europe for this weekends Russian F1 Grand Prix
he was on it. Not in a little way either he was straight into his work and started
really turning good times and positive feedback to everyone at Honda. Naturally
of course come May 3rd and his private test at the speedway it might be a different
ball game but the gut feeling is this guy could be on the verge of something
very special indeed. I watched him last week at Alabama and his associated
press conferences and I have never seen him so relaxed, so free to talk and
meet the fans and that can only mean one thing to me, take note everyone this
guy is here to turn heads and win a race that’s for sure.
Recently in the US Media he
commented how amazed he is from the fan base in the US. He spoke of his F1
trips here where hardly anyone knew who he was, while this trip during a flight
delay at a New York airport he had masses of people come up and wish him the
best and complement him on the road ahead. Such a different thing for him. He
is in for many different things in the coming weeks the U.S. media do things
different to F1, the fans are different as well and above all the series is different
but its one he is welcomed to and one he seems to be very happy with and so
very relaxed about the job in hand. It all bodes well for a great showing at
Indy that’s for sure. The pressure will really be on for the Andretti Autosport
team as the prepare a total of six cars for the 500 that’s a massive
undertaking at any time but now with the world watching on around this one
driver the task will be no mean feet for the team to cope with along with
looking after its regular drivers and the additional fifth car for Jack Harvey
which was always planned for.
Now to Phoenix and Dixon the
defending winner here and he is firmly after his first win for season 2017. On
the podium every race this season but not the top step (yet) but this is a
great start for him in the quest for another championship. Clearly the number
one at Ganassi as well when you judge it on pure performance over his teammates
in my view.
Friday saw a new twist in
the Indy Car series a single two-hour practice session and then a two-hour break
and then straight into qualifying.
Practice was mid afternoon
and it was hot very hot and several dust storms halted the running at times as
the wind built but Dixon was strong in this session and rounded out the
afternoon in the sixth spot but it was last weekends race winner Newgarden that
topped the afternoon timesheets.
Come qualifying and the
evening cooled rapidly as the teams lined up for the single car dash. It was
Helio Castroneves that simply stunned every one taking pole position "People don't realize that qualifying is
extremely difficult. I took it to the limit - I had one eye closed and one eye
open. Experience is a big part of this and today was really, really good. The
conditions were really difficult today in practice - the gusting winds were
horrendous. We worked mostly on the race setup (in practice). My engineer did a
phenomenal job and obviously everybody at Team Penske - the REV Group car was
really fast. Qualifying is one thing - the race is another - but I'm really
confident going into tomorrow."
As for Dixon they slightly
miss read how cool it was going to get and he lines up in the eight spot for
the race "The ambient
conditions changed a lot from practice to qualifying. We found a lot and
learned that we were a bit too conservative in qualifying. We came up a little
short and we know we can trim out a bit more for the race in the NTT Data No.
9. It was a little bit too easy which means we have room to go faster which is
good for the race tomorrow."
Race
day dawned another typical day for the area and was in the upper 20s temperature
wise. 4pm saw the 100 lap race for the USAC Silver Crown Cars featuring regular
visitor to the New Zealand Speedway scene Jerry Coons Jr, he was to finish the
race 5th “The big thing obviously is the change in the back straightaway.
When we first started running it, we were kind of used to being really flat.
You could run flat-footed through the dog leg and then back up out of it. In
first practice with a full load of fuel you could flat-foot it through there,
but in practice it was a little bit hairy trying to run through it flat-footed.
Our car got a little bit light coming out of it, so that was probably the
biggest change, just having to kind of breathe it though there.”
Bobby Santos took the win in
a great last 12-lap battle amongst the top 4 cars. It was awesome to see Silver
Crown cars return to the track and the history they have with this track and
the return of growth to the USAC pavement series.
As the skies darked and the
sun set it was time to get into the 250-lap IndyCar race and the fourth of the
season for the series. Just as it had the night before as the sun went down the
temperature went with it.
It was to become the story
of the bright yellow car of Pagenaud that claimed this one and control the race
from a pitstop that fell at just the right time. New Zealand’s Scott Dixon
battled hard all race and become the “best in class” as he called it becoming
the first Honda powered car home in 5th but the big thing for Dixon
fans is the points haul and the fact only Dixon and Pagenuad are to have top
five finishes in every race this season. One can kinda sense where this might
be heading even now.
So it was the reigning series
champion Pagenaud who drove away from the field in the final half of the Desert
Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix taking the race win by 9.1028 seconds
over teammate Will Power and assuming the points lead after four races of the
2017 season.
He collected his 10th win of his
IndyCar career and led a Chevy sweep of the top four positions on the
1.022-mile oval that has hosted 63 Indy car races dating to 1964. It was also
win No. 450 for Team Penske in all racing competitions and its 100th on Indy
car ovals.
"I can't explain how
excited I am," Pagenaud said. "Ovals are not my specialty - I grew up
in Europe racing go-karts. I learned about ovals when I was 26 years old so I
had to learn the skill and the technique that I didn't know.
"Man, this is incredible.
What a win!"
Pagenaud really took control
midway through the 250-lap race, running longer while other frontrunners had to
stop for fuel and tires. Pagenaud pitted on Lap 140 with a one-lap advantage on
the field under a caution period caused when Takuma Sato's car made contact
with the Turn 4 barrier. Pagenaud returned to the track in first place and led
the final 114 laps. It certainly is a track that did not provide a lot of
passing that’s for sure and there was a lot of talk about the drivers saying
let us have more power and less down force here and force us to race harder and
pass. Running the road course spec aero on this little oval proved that the
grip was there but sadly the passing wasn’t.
Team Penske's four drivers led
all 250 laps, the first time a team has paced every lap in a race since Team
Penske did the same thing in the first race of Belle Isle doubleheader last
year. Power led 59 laps in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet before
finishing second. "It was
good night considering where we've finished the last few races," said
Power, whose best result this season prior to tonight was 13th. "I'm happy
to finish second and get some points."
Pole sitter Helio Castroneves
led 73 laps in the No. 3 REV Group Team Penske Chevy and finished fourth. Josef
Newgarden, the winner of last week's Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, led two
laps in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevy and ran up front most of the night
until contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay forced an unscheduled pit stop and
Newgarden finished ninth.
JR Hildebrand finished third in
the No. 21 Fuzzy's Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet the best result for
Hildebrand since his memorable runner-up finish in the 2011 Indianapolis 500
when he crashed while leading on the final lap. Hildebrand was pleased with the
nights showing after he sat out last week's race at Barber Motorsports Park
while a broken bone in his left hand mended from an April 9 crash in the Toyota
Grand Prix of Long Beach. "The car was just awesome all day,"
Hildebrand said. "Excited to get the result for the team, for sure. The
car was bitchin'. I think at the end of the race we had obviously one of the
top three, but I think we might have had the best car on the track."
Pagenaud now holds an 18-point
advantage in the championship over Scott Dixon, who moved up to second in the
points table. Newgarden sits third in the standings, 26 points out of first
place.
After the race
Dixon said "Obviously, it was
a tough night for the No. 9 NTT Data car, and all the Honda entries I think.
Chevy had a leg up on us here and they showed that tonight. We tried to keep
our nose clean but just didn't have anything for them tonight. Hopefully we can
get some momentum back at the Grand Prix of Indy next month."
Sebastien Bourdais of Dale
Coyne Racing, who led the points entering the night, was caught in a five-car
incident on the opening lap when Mikhail Aleshin spun and collected the cars of
Bourdais, Marco Andretti, Max Chilton and Graham Rahal in Turn 2. No drivers
were injured. Bourdais finished 19th and dropped to fourth in the standings.
The Verizon IndyCar Series
heads to an open test on Tuesday at Gateway Motorsports Park, where the series
will race under the lights on Aug. 26th so busy times ahead as the
month of May kicks off.
The season is now and truly
alive and kicking and now we will see who is strong and can cope and who gets
lost along the way.
Phoenix great track that’s for
sure just needed some passing added to the mix but as for the venue a gem in
the sand that’s for sure.
Photos all David Turner Phoenix 2017
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