IndyCar Recap: June 2017 Pt.1 – Detroit Belle Isle

The Dual In Detroit: two Grands Prix in one weekend on the challenging and bumpy Belle Isle street course, just one week after the Indy 500. Find out how the points race changed during this difficult double.

With 4 races in June being too many for one post, I’ll look at the Texas oval and Elkhart Lake road course races in the next recap.

Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 1

3rd June 2017 – Race 7 of 17 – The Raceway at Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Michigan

Video: Full Race (1h44m)

James Hinchcliffe spun at turn 1 on cold tyres as they slowed a little for the corners. He was restarted and able to join the back of the back because the Safety Car came out.

Straight after the green it became a strategic contest, 3 stops vs 2 stops, the latter theoretically faster but exposes you to the risk of Safety Cars.

Graham Rahal was fast, pole position and quick all day. And it fell well for him. A mid-race SC – Kimball and Daly made contact putting a fast-running Daly out – left Rahal with one stop to make against others’ two, so from about lap 30 the race was effectively decided. He was fast enough that he probably would’ve won anyway.

This being Belle Isle it was never guaranteed, team and driver still had to execute and to hope there were no more yellows which would’ve changed it all.

Esteban Gutierrez made his IndyCar debut on one of the toughest tracks of the year having never driven an IndyCar. In those circumstances it was no surprise he finished 19th, a lap down.

One week after that massive accident and nursing foot injuries, Scott Dixon finished 2nd. And Hinchcliffe having restarted last drove brilliantly to recover 3rd.

Worth watching? Decent strategic race early on but not particularly interesting past halfway.

1. 15 Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Honda);
2. 9 Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Honda);
3. 5 James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Honda);
4. 2 Josef Newgarden (Team Penske Chevy);
5. 98 Alexander Rossi (Andretti Herta Honda);
6. 7 Mikhail Aleshin (Schmidt Peterson Honda);
7. 3 Helio Castroneves (Team Penske Chevy);
8. 26 Takuma Sato (Andretti Herta Honda);
9. 19 Ed Jones (Dale Coyne Chevy);
10. 20 Spencer Pigot (Ed Carpenter Chevy);

Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2

3rd June 2017 – Race 8 of 17 – The Raceway at Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Michigan

Video: Full race (1h48m).

The second race was more fun, in that there was actual on-track passing on TV!

Sato started on pole with Hunter-Reay second, the start was very tight but everyone got through. Contact a little later between Hunter-Reay and Castroneves gave the latter a puncture and the former some damage necessitating a front wing change.

Somewhere around this time some early takers went to the 3-stop strategy, one of which was Dixon with a long stop with refuelling problems.

Rahal and Newgarden were quick in the middle of the race, getting into clear air in the middle stint when Sato had pitted really made their race.

Everything strung out until the last 10 laps when Newgarden was 8 seconds down but 1sec per lap faster. It looked close – but then a Safety Car was out, James Hinchcliffe had electrical failure and just as that was cleared away Spencer Pigot’s turbo blew. Race over? No – a Red Flag!

A two lap restart then, which Rahal dominated on cold tyres, just drove away from Newgarden. Impressive.

Another race of recoveries: Dixon back to 6th, Castroneves to 9th.

Worth watching? A lot more action in the first half of this one, but again I got bored in the second half, until that restart.

1. 15 Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Honda);
2. 2 Josef Newgarden (Team Penske Chevy);
3. 12 Will Power (Team Penske Chevy);
4. 26 Takuma Sato (Andretti Honda);
5. 1 Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske Chevy);
6. 9 Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Honda);
7. 98 Alexander Rossi (Andretti Herta Honda);
8. 83 Charlie Kimball (Chip Ganassi Honda);
9. 3 Helio Castroneves (Team Penske Chevy);
10. 10 Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Chevy);

Points Scored at Detroit Belle Isle

	BI1	BI2	DETROIT
Graham Rahal	54	53	107
Josef Newgarden	32	41	73
Scott Dixon	41	28	69
Takuma Sato	24	34	58
Alexander Rossi	30	26	56
Helio Castroneves	28	22	50
Will Power	12	35	47
James Hinchcliffe	36	10	46
Simon Pagenaud	14	30	44
Mikhail Aleshin	29	14	43
Tony Kanaan	15	20	35
Marco Andretti	18	17	35
Carlos Munoz	16	19	35
Max Chilton	19	15	34
Charlie Kimball	9	24	33
Ryan Hunter-Reay	17	14	31
Ed Jones	22	8	30
Spencer Pigot	20	9	29
Esteban Gutierrez	11	16	27
Conor Daly	8	18	26
JR Hildebrand	13	12	25
Oriol Servia	10	11	21

• Two great performances from Graham Rahal and his team nearly maximum points from the weekend – Sato robbed the point for pole in race 2.
• Newgarden and Dixon were most consistent among championship contenders.
• Sato isn’t considered a title contender but he and Rossi scored well. Meanwhile, Hunter-Reay did not have a good weekend.
• It is interesting that most of the field had one good race and one bad race (or one bad race and one good race). The likes of Rahal, Newgarden and Dixon maximised their chances in both.

Points Total To June 4th

Pos	Pre	+/-	Name	Pre	Det	Total	Wins
1	3	2	Scott Dixon	234	69	303
2	1	-1	Helio Castroneves	245	50	295
3	4	1	Takuma Sato	234	58	292	1
4	2	-2	Simon Pagenaud	234	44	278	1
5	7	2	Josef Newgarden	186	73	259	1
6	15	9	Graham Rahal	144	107	251	2
7	5	-2	Alexander Rossi	190	56	246
8	8	0	Will Power	186	47	233	1
9	6	-3	Tony Kanaan	188	35	223
10	10	0	James Hinchcliffe	170	46	216	1
11	9	-2	Ed Jones	185	30	215
12	11	-1	Max Chilton	170	34	204
13	12	-1	Ryan Hunter-Reay	152	31	183
14	14	0	Marco Andretti	147	35	182
15	17	2	Mikhail Aleshin	134	43	177
16	13	-3	JR Hildebrand	148	25	173
17	18	1	Carlos Munoz	133	35	168
18	16	-2	Sebastien Bourdais	136		136	1
19	20	1	Charlie Kimball	99	33	132
20	21	1	Spencer Pigot	95	29	124
21	23	2	Conor Daly	88	26	114
22	19	-3	Ed Carpenter	105		105
23	22	-1	Juan Pablo Montoya	93		93
24	26	2	Oriol Servia	40	21	61
25	24	-1	Gabby Chaves	53		53
26	25	-1	Fernando Alonso	47		47
27	27	0	Sebastian Saavedra	33		33
28	28	0	Pippa Mann	32		32
29	35	6	Esteban Gutierrez	0	27	27
30	29	-1	Jay Howard	24		24
31	30	-1	Zach Veach	23		23
=	31	-1	Sage Karam	23		23
33	32	-1	James Davison	21		21
34	33	-1	Jack Harvey	17		17
35	34	-1	Buddy Lazier	14		14

• Dixon takes the points lead, up from 3rd. The model of consistency, this is how he wins his Championships. No wins but he leads the field in podium finishes with 4.
• Pre-event points leader Castroneves drops to 2nd. Helio is the only driver to have finished all 8 races in the top ten and that’s why he’s 2nd despite no wins and 1 podium. When others have bad days, Helio keeps going!
• Sato is up to 3rd. Pagenaud drops to 4th.
• Newgarden continues his march forward, up 2 to 5th.
• Obviously the double-winner makes the biggest move, Graham Rahal is up nine positions to 6th, all of a sudden within range of the leaders.

In the graph you can see the black line of Rahal jumping places and also the top three in the points race making a break for it. [Click for open full size.]

Part 2 & Next Month

June Part 2 will feature the Texas speedway and the Road America Elkhart Lake road course.

There are another three races in July before the poor mechanics and truckies finally get a summer break.

All this coming soon on the IWTMR IndyCar Catchup.