The month of May is here, and as many NTT IndyCar Series fans know, this means the sport is headed home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, the Indianapolis 500, on the horizon, teams must first navigate the road course of “The Brickyard” in the GMR Grand Prix. Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Scott Dixon has reclaimed the points lead after the doubleheader at Texas Motor Speedway, with a 22-point lead over Patricio O’Ward.
This race will also feature the season debuts of Juan Pablo Montoya, O’Ward’s teammate at Arrow McLaren SP, and Charlie Kimball for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, making up the largest grid of the season at 26 drivers. With an exciting month of IndyCar action ready to begin, here’s everything you need to know ahead of the GMR Grand Prix.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?
Will Power took his fourth pole in the event on Saturday to lead the field to green, and led the way for the majority of the first stint. Meyer Shank Racing‘s Jack Harvey, who also started on the front row, kept close behind until the pit stop phase. Higher than usual track temperatures meant that many switched to a three-stop strategy, the first of whom were the Chip Ganassi Racing cars of Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson. Only Graham Rahal, Spencer Pigot, Conor Daly and Santino Ferrucci stayed out on a two-stop strategy.
As the pit stops cycled out, Power reclaimed the lead while his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden undercut Harvey to take second place. Power continued to cruise through the next stint until his race was turned upside-down on lap 35. Arrow McLaren SP rookie Oliver Askew lost control of his rear end exiting the final corner, smashing into the outside wall and bringing out a caution.
Teams on the three-stop strategy were in the middle of their second pit stops at this time and teams making the two-stop had recently pit, but the leading trio had not pit yet and had to do so under caution. This forced them out of the top ten, as the two-stoppers of Rahal, Pigot and Daly led the field to the restart on lap 41. Dixon was the lead car on the three-stop strategy, restarting fourth, and quickly gained the lead on lap 47.
From there, Dixon was untouchable. By lap 50, he would hold a lead of over five seconds, and after making his last pit stop he cycled back to the front and continued to grow his lead. By the time he crossed the finish line, he had a lead of over 20 seconds on second place Rahal. Simon Pagenaud finished in third place and was a huge beneficiary of the mid-race caution.
You can read the full race report here.
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS WEEKEND?
Driver changes are at the top of the docket for this race much like at Texas last month. Tony Kanaan will hand the reigns of the Ganassi No. 48 back to Jimmie Johnson for this race, while Pietro Fittipaldi will relinquish the Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing No. 51 back to former Haas F1 Team teammate Romain Grosjean. Max Chilton returns to Carlin after Daly piloted the No. 59 car at Texas, and Daly will move back to the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in place of team owner Ed Carpenter.
More intriguing will be the additions to the grid of Montoya and Kimball, who will also be competing in the Indy 500 later this month. Montoya, a two-time Indy 500 winner with Penske, moves to Arrow McLaren much like Helio Castroneves did last year for a few races. He will pilot the No. 86 car, paying homage to Peter Revson, who put his McLaren on the pole for the 1971 Indy 500 one half century ago, shattering the track record at the time in the process.
Kimball, a ten year veteran of the IndyCar Series, makes his return in the No. 11 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt after racing with the team full-time last season. Kimball will join Sebastien Bourdais and Dalton Kellett for the entire month of May, while J.R. Hildebrand will join the trio for the Indy 500 later this month.
There was plenty of action last season at the IMS Road Course, with three of the 14 races being held on the circuit. After Dixon’s win, it was all Penske with Power and Newgarden winning the two races of the IndyCar Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader. Prior to last season, all six GMR Grands Prix/Indy GP were won by either Power or Pagenaud, so expect the Penske cars to be towards the front of the pack.
It gets mentioned every week, but the poor results of Alexander Rossi and the No. 27 Andretti Autosport team remain a talking point. The Harvest GP was kind to Rossi last season, as the 29-year-old American walked away with two podium finishes, but in last year’s GMR Grand Prix he was forced to retire with mechanical issues. It remains to be seen which hand Rossi is dealt, but this could once again be a great opportunity to turn his luck around.
Rossi’s teammate Colton Herta also had a strong Harvest GP with a second place and fourth place finish. The winner of the 2021 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg could also be a name to watch for a strong finish this weekend.
Two other names that could be slated for solid weekends are Jack Harvey and Rinus Veekay. Harvey’s best career finish of third came at this race in 2019, and despite the unfortunate caution at the 2020 GMR Grand Prix ruining a strong race, he finished in the top ten at both Harvest GP events. Meyer Shank Racing are having an incredible season so far, sitting tenth in the points and being consistent front runners all year, so watch for Harvey to have another strong race.
Veekay made a name for himself as a rookie at Ed Carpenter Racing with his performances at IMS last season. After a disastrous start to the season at Texas, Veekay rebounded with a fifth place finish at the GMR Grand Prix and claimed his first career IndyCar pole in the first race of the Harvest GP that ended in his first podium finish of third. A much quieter second race saw Veekay finish seventeenth, but it goes to show that we know how quick the 20-year-old Dutchman is around the circuit.
And as always, the inevitable Dixon will be a threat for another victory.
WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEKEND?
Friday 14 May
0930 EST / 1430 BST – Practice 1
1300 EST / 1800 BST – Practice 2
1630 EST / 2130 BST – Qualifying
Saturday 15 May
1400 EST / 1900 BST – Race
WHERE CAN I WATCH?
Coverage in the UK for qualifying and the race will be provided by Sky Sports F1.
In the United States, coverage for the race will be on NBC. Practice and Qualifying will be streamed exclusively on the Peacock streaming service.
HOW CAN I KEEP UP WITH ALL THE ACTION?
You can follow all the all the action here at The Checkered Flag. We will be providing coverage of the practice, qualifying, and race sessions. You can also follow IndyCar on Twitter (@Indycar) for live updates during the sessions.
