INDYCAR homestretch

By ZECH YODER

INDYCAR heads to Portland this weekend for the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland. This will be the final road course of the season with only two races at the Milwaukee Mile and the finale at Nashville Superspeedway remaining. Appropriate that the race this weekend is in Portland, the 2024 INDYCAR season is best described as “weird.” Thinking back through the past six months, so many novel things have occurred.

The first race of the season at St. Petersburg was dominated by Team Penske and specifically, Josef Newgarden. However, both Newgarden and McLaughlin, who finished second, were disqualified when it was discovered that the team had failed to disable the push-to-pass feature on their cars during restarts, a bizarre and blatant rules violation.

INDYCAR had its first non-points race in more than 15 years at the Thermal Club in Southern California. The Thermal Club, a country club of sorts for wealthy racing and sports car enthusiasts, was not open to the public, but billed as a made-for-TV event. Though rating were not particularly impressive, the event must have been successful because INDYCAR plans to be back in 2025 for a points race.

The debut of the hybrid power unit came at Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course in July. Much anticipated and delayed on several occasions during the 2024 season, the hybrid power unit came with hopes of increasing the racing quality. While it has certainly made more work for the drivers inside the car, its full potential has not been realized as teams and INDYCAR need time to understand the new power unit and how it is best utilized for racing.

Probably the weirdest aspect of the 2024 season has been the rotating door of drivers. I cannot remember a year in which more driver changes have occurred. Most notable among the conveyer belt of driver changes has been Arrow-McLaren. Its biggest acquisition of the off-season was Dale Coyne overachiever, David Malukas. Malukas was involved in an off-season bike accident and was not able to race in the first four races of the INDYCAR season. He was then released by Arrow-McLaren and promptly hired by Meyer Shank Racing, who fired rookie Tom Blomqvist after the Indianapolis 500. Malukas, however, found greener pastures at A.J. Foyt Racing where he will, presumably, replace Sting Ray Robb in 2025. Malukas was not the only notable firing. Agustin Canapino was released by Juncos Hollinger Racing and has been replaced with Noblesville native Conor Daly for the remainder of the 2024 season. On top of the in-season driver changes, the off-season will feature even more driver moves.

The latest weird occurrence came at World Wide Technology Raceway when Alexander Rossi sent his car over the back of Will Power, sending both he and Power into the wall. Power, upon exiting his car, gave his teammate and race leader, Josef Newgarden, the one finger salute for what Power believed was a dirty move by Newgarden. The incident sparked controversy over restarts, green flags, and driver etiquette as Newgarden defended his move, stating that he was still in the “restart zone” when accelerating.

Getting back to Portland. Although the championship is not particularly close and Palou appears poised to take his third INDYCAR title in four years, I wouldn’t get the Champagne bottles out quite yet. If the 2024 season has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected. INDYCAR concludes the season on three ovals. The chaos at World Wide Technology Raceways goes to show that know body is safe, especially on ovals. Team Penske is very strong on ovals and Power has an oval win at Iowa this year. He has a lot of work to do but don’t count the Wiley veteran out. He came from behind in 2022. He can do it again.

Zech Yoder is a local resident, an attorney at Adler Attorneys in Noblesville, and a lifelong race fan.