When race fans debate the value of racing today, it usually comes up that back in the "old days" drivers would win race by multiple laps. The implication is that kind of racing was boring.
That argument took a hit today at the Milwaukee Mile as Sebastien Bourdais at one point lapped the field on his way to a dominating victory, one that was thrilling to watch nonetheless.
Before we get to that, a quick backtrack: I took my father to the Nationals/Orioles game at Camden Yards. Thanks to traffic, I missed the start of the race. However, this week I finally joined the 21st century and got a smartphone, and thus had access to the IndyCar 15 app. It worked perfectly! I could follow the race on the app with the radio broadcast, and that's without getting into all the other bells and whistles. Thanks to that I "saw" Josef Newgarden dominate the early going, pulling away from the field into hitting traffic. Interestingly enough, the traffic that gave Josef problems and allowed the field to catch up was his teammate and boss, Ed Carpenter.
Shortly after I made it home and fired up the race on TV, the first caution came out when James Jakes had an engine let go. Most of the top contenders to that point - Newgarden, Dixon, TK, and the like - pitted, but a couple of cars did not. That group was led by Bourdais, who assumed the lead of the race. At the time, I tweeted that Bourdais needed to run and hide before his pit stop.
The restart happened, and suddenly it was like we were back at Fontana with two and three wide action, with Newgarden and Graham Rahal provided much of the excitement. While we focused on that though, Bourdais was using clean air to beat everyone else. Next thing we knew Bourdais led by nine seconds. Then it was 10, then 12, then 14, then 17, then 19. It was fascinating. He was so far ahead that when he finally pitted, he only dropped to 8th. He no longer had clean air, but he did have fresh tires, and that's just made him more unstoppable. In just a few laps, Bourdais blew through the rest of the field to take back the lead! That was mesmerizing and put Bourdais in the mix for Drive of the Year.
With Bourdais having taken back the lead before the rest of the field pitted, that just meant that when they did pitted, they would all become lapped. That's exactly what happened. The reason for this is while the rest of the field was saving fuel to make only one more stop after their stop under yellow, Bourdais and KV Racing took the opposite tack. Thus, Bourdais was flat out while his competitors were in fuel saving mode. Normally, you wouldn't expect making one more pit stop on a short oval to be the winning strategy, but here we were.
Bourdais's full lap lead was not meant to last once he made his final pit stop, but when we came out back in the lead, it looked like nothing could stop him. The surprise was that Helio Castroneves, who started last after not passing tech and being able to qualify, had moved up to 2nd place. Good for him, but it was clearly Seabass's to lose.
Unfortunately for him, Justin Wilson's mechanical problems brought out the yellow, and suddenly everyone had a chance at Bourdais. The field (for the most part) collectively decided that to take the chance, they needed new tires. The exceptions were Bourdais, Montoya, and Carpenter. Those three led the top pitters: Helio, Rahal, Dixon, Kanaan, and Newgarden.
I suspected Montoya and Carpenter would give Bourdais a buffer, and that's what happened. Carpenter dropped like a stone and fell to 10th, but JPM held tough for enough laps to keep Helio and Rahal at bay. Once those two got by Montoya, it was down to those three for the win. Helio got close for a little bit, but Bourdais weathered the challenge and pulled away for his second win of the year. He owned the second half of the race, so there is no other conclusion other than that it was well deserved.
Other Observations
So, the crowd. I didn't think it looked that bad, but I was contrasting with the all but apocalyptic language that was coming out before the weekend. Was it enough to keep the race? I have no idea. I hope the title sponsor (thanks ABC Supply!) helped. What I'm not going to do is blame paying customers, and I'll explain why later this week.
Nice donuts SeaBass.
Josef Newgarden looked like he'd be the dominant winner in the first half, but the strategy didn't work in his favor, and he lost positions on each yellow flag pit stop. Still, it was an impressive weekend for a team that needed an oval result. In contrast, Carpenter looked lost all day but still pulled out a 10th.
Montoya is living a charmed life. He was penalized for a pit speed violation early, but used strategy to get to the front and held on for 4th. Meanwhile, Will Power crashed and Dixon faded late to 7th (possibly helped by JPM). Thus, his lead is 54 points on Dixon, 69 (huh huh huh) on Helio and Graham, and 70 on Power.
Hard not to feel bad for Ryan Briscoe. Early on, he was battling for the lead, but a jack problem on his first pit stop cost him, then he spun out and collected Power. That's #5 Schmidt Peterson team has been luckless all year.
On Tap
Iowa, the race that those in IndyCar bemoan having to go to, because well, it's Iowa, but the racing is good and the crowd usually isn't terrible, so they can just suck it up. Some good old Saturday night short tracking coming up.
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