Off the heels of another fantastic Indianapolis 500, IndyCar made the usual post 500 stop at Belle Isle, just outside of Detroit. Marcus Ericsson with his monster win took home a record-winning purse of over three million dollars. Perhaps more importantly, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver jumped eighth to first in points in just about three and a half hours of work. Ericsson won the first of two races here a season ago, could he do it again?
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IndyCar Says Goodbye Belle Isle, Hello Detroit
Not much of a secret at this point, but this would be the final go at Belle Isle for the foreseeable future. Next year IndyCar is moving back into the streets of Detroit on an all-new street course circuit. Sad to see a pretty good venue like Belle Isle go, but IndyCar had run on the streets of Detroit in the ’80s and ’90s. Here is the look of the all-new 10-turn circuit.
A Tad Off Camber
It didn’t take long for the first race incident whatsoever. Graham Rahal completely pancaked the outside wall in turn two, after snapping lose behind Jimmie Johnson. You could see a local yellow on lap one, but we didn’t know why that was the case until Rahal was shown with his right rear off-camber by about 15 degrees. As he pulled off his No. 15 machine, the right rear wheel was cartoonishly shaking before he got to a more reasonable speed. Rahal would officially be out by lap 10.
Once Rahal got to the pits, several drivers joined him from a strategy standpoint very early on. The notables were Alexander Rossi, who is officially confirmed for Arrow McLaren SP next season, along with Rinus VeeKay, and David Malukus who was running strong early. Up at the front was pole-sitter Josef Newgarden, along with the two Meyer Shank drivers Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves. All of which started on the red tires. However, Will Power and Scott Dixon were quickly making their way to the front. The pair eventually got by Newgarden, along with Alex Palou, but lap 15.
Avoiding Catastrophe
Sunday was nearly a disaster for Scott McLaughlin. Just shy of lap 20, he spun via locking up the tires going into turn seven and went well into the run-off area. Then trying to get back on track, Scotty Mac nailed a tire barrier and was at serious risk of stalling the engine. Noting short of a miracle, McLaughin got back going, and not only that, he did not force a caution either. The bad news is McLaughlin ended up in 25th a lap down as a result.
Redemption on Belle Isle
If you remember from a year ago, Power had the first Detroit duel for sure won before a mechanical issue under a red flag had him DNF’ing. This year the former series and Indianapolis 500 Champion once again found himself in the catbird seat on Belle Isle. After opting to take some Firestone reds to close out, Rossi behind him was on four-lap older standard black/white tires.
With the quicker grip delegation, Power was anything but out of the woods with around 15 laps to go. A dozen second lead dropped, stabilized, increased, then dropped again significantly over that span. Rossi put up a super drive but came up 1.0027 seconds short. For Power, this is career win No. 41, putting him one back of Michael Andretti for fourth all-time.
2022 IndyCar Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Top 10
1st No. 12 Will Power
2nd No. 27 Alexander Rossi
3rd No. 9 Scott Dixon
4th No. 2 Josef Newgarden
5th No. 5 Pato O’Ward
6th No. 10 Alex Palou
7th No. 8 Marcus Ericsson
8th No. 26 Colton Herta
9th No. 60 Simon Pagenaud
10th No. 7 Felix Rosenqvist
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
