Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing‘s Romain Grosjean told the Associated Press Tuesday that he will be adding the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, an oval race held at World Wide Technology Raceway, to his road and street course program in the NTT IndyCar Series this August.
“It is strange to be home watching it and not being part, knowing your friends are doing it,” Grosjean said.
“So we’ll see what the situation is and then family-wise what do we think of doing. Initially, I said I did not want to do ovals, now I would like to try one and then see if I want to do more.”
Following the event, Grosjean will then make a decision on a potential Indianapolis 500 run in 2022 based on how he feels after the race at Gateway.
The thirty-five-year-old Swiss-born Frenchman came to IndyCar initially stating that he would not run ovals, a decision influenced by the toll his crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix took on his family.
“If I was 25 and had no children I would do the whole season, no doubt,” he told Motorsport.com.
“But I am the father of three children, and for two minutes and 45 seconds in Bahrain I know they thought they had lost their father.
“So if I was younger, yes, I would do it all and accept that all motorsport involves risks. But being a parent, I can’t put my family through that again , and in Indy you can have big accidents.
“I think my kids have already had a feeling that nobody really wants to have and I can’t put them through that again.”
But now Grosjean has continued to embrace the sport of IndyCar, collecting his first pole and podium finish at the 2021 GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Now, as Conor Daly states, he can’t wait to get behind the wheel again.
“He hates watching,” said Daly.
“He’s like, ‘I can’t wait to get back in it.’ He’s embracing it as much as possible, which is really, really cool.”
Grosjean agreed with the Ed Carpenter Racing driver, stating that he hasn’t had this much fun at a racetrack since 2013.
“When you are passionate about something and it is like a fire, and maybe that fire has been shaken down through the last few years, but when you get a pole and you are leading a race again, it’s like, ‘Hell yeah,’” he said.
“It’s hard to do, but when you do it you want to do it again.”
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 will take place on 21 August. Grosjean’s next race will be the doubleheader Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit at Belle Isle on 12-13 June.
