IndyCars - Barber: The season begins!

[MarkyS]

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Sunday midday at Barber - the Indy Lights close out their weekend with Race 2…

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…and it will be known as the redemption of David Malukas, as the HMD Motorsport driver put a beat-down on everyone else to make it clear he was over his getting knocked out of Saturday’s race. P2 at the end was yesterday’s WINNER, David’s GRG w/HMD teammate Linus Lundqvist while P3 went to a very deserving Devlin DeFrancesco for Andretti Steinbrenner.

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Maklukas led the field away from pole and immediately got a good jump on P2 starter Linus Lundqvist. Behind them, Rob Megennis for Andretti Autosport held onto his P3 starting spot, while Alex Pironi for Carlin made great moves to go from P8 to P4 by the time he was at Turn 5, passing Kyle Kirkwood for Andretti, Benjamin Pedersen for GRG w/HMD, Toby Sowery for Juncos Racing and DeFrancesco. Devlin fell to P6 and Pedersen fell to P7 but Kirkwood dropped all the way to P9 from his P7 start, with teammate Danial Frost in P8 ahead of him. The order for the TOP NINE by the end of the Lap 1 was Malukas, Lundqvist, Megennis, Peroni, Sowery, DeFrancesco, Pedersen, Frost and Kirkwood.

Malukas and Lundqvist slowly started to pull away from the others, as it was clear that Rob didn’t have the speed to stay with them, but had enough to keep everyone else behind him. By lap 6 David was also gapping Linus while Peroni got right on Rob’s tail, trying to either upset him into a mistake or pass him outright. For many laps Rob stayed in P3 but locked up his tires at times in the doing. On Lap 18 Alex suddenly lost power temporarily and dropped to P6 behing Toby and Devlin. On Lap 19 Toby made a stab at Rob in Turn 5 and the two ran beside each other all the way to Turn 8, where Rob again maintained P3, but with more tire lock-ups. Meanwhile, David and Linus ran away and hid, with David inching away from Linus, too.

On lap 25 it was Rob, Toby and Devlin all battling inches apart from Turn 5 to Turn 8. Again, Mergennis maintained P3. On lap 27 Kyle Kirkwood finally took P8 past Danial Frost in Turn 8 after several attempts to do so. One lap later he also collected Benjamin Pedersen to take P7. On lap 29 as the scrum entered Turn 1, Rob’s left front tire finally gave up after all the torture and Devlin and Toby bracketed him, with Devlin going into P3 and Toby grabbing P4. At the same time Kyle passed Alex to take over P5 as Rob pitted. On lap 34 Danial also had a tire failure and dropped out for a new left front. One lap later David crossed the checkers 6 seconds ahead of Linus who was 25 seconds ahead of Devlin.

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Notable:

• David not only handily WON the race but set Fastest Lap in the doing.

• HMD and sister team GRG w/HMD did more testing at Barber than any other team and it paid off handsomely. Once we get to St. Pete that advantage goes away, so while they do have some outstanding drivers in Pedersen, Lundqvist and Malukas, the outstanding drivers for Andretti - DeFrancesco, Megennis, Kirkwood and Frost - will likely show better. And Toby Sowery is always a threat.

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David Malukas

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With these results, here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving Barber:

1 - Linus Lundqvist, 47
2 - Devlin DeFrancesco, 44
3 - David Malukas, 40
4 - Benjamin Pedersen, 39
5 - Toby Sowery, 38

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Next up for Indy Lights will be Season Rounds 3 and 4 at St. Petersburg, Florida in support of the IndyCars, April 23-25.

Next is the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, carried LIVE on NBC starting at 3:00 pm EASTERN time. The grid for this race is in post # 17…

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M

[MarkyS]

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Sunday afternoon at Barber - A great race also becomes a first series WIN…

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…for Chip Ganassi Racing’s newest pilot Spaniard Alex Palou, who beat Will Power for Team Penske to the checkered flag by a mere 0.40 of a second - the closest margin of victory in the 11-year history of this race. P3 went to Palou’s experienced teammate Scott Dixon, 2.9881 seconds behind Alex.

Sophomore Alex Palou takes his first series WIN

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The race started out ugly as hell when P8 starter Josef Newgarden for Team Penske put a wheel off in the grass while approaching Turn 5, and immediately pirouetted in front of more than half the field, taking out himself, Colton Herta and Ryan Hunter-Reay for Andretti, Felix Rosenqvist for Arrow McLaren SP and Max Chilton for Carlin, while showering everyone else with flying debris. The shunt looked more dangerous than it ended up being as no one was hurt and only Newgy and RHR were completely out of it. Herta was repaired well enough to collect P22 points, 65 laps down, while Chilton and Rosenqvist were sent back out 4 laps and 28 laps down, respectively.

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NTT INDYCAR SERIES

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On the restart the TOP SEVEN leaders resumed in their same qualifying positions, with pole-sitter Pato O’Ward for Arrow McLaren SP leading. On lap 10 Jimmie Johnson for Chip Ganassi spun on his own at Turn 13 and brought out the only other yellow flag.

On lap 18 O’Ward and Rossi dived into the pits, signifying a 3-stop strategy while Palou, Power and Dixon, among others, stayed out on a 2-stop strategy. Ultimately and despite a near perfect execution, the O’Ward strategy was the loser, as Pato ended the day charging as hard as he had all day, only to end up P4. It was thrilling to see him try to execute the strategy at full tilt, but despite all his extreme efforts, he came up short because of tire wear in the first stint.

A very exciting and well-played-out start to the season.

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Notable:

• Both O’Ward and Palou started on red alternate tires, but the three-stopper required that Pato run them as hard as possible for 20 laps and his were shredded long before he could pit to make the strategy work, whereas Alex was able to coddle his reds to ten more laps than Pato, so he was not as fast initially but fast enough through the whole stint to ultimately take the WIN when it all played out. Both drivers were heroic and superb, but there’s only one WINNER.

• Pato earned the Fastest Lap of the race and in the closing stages took a more than seven-second deficit to 3.9741 at the finish line.

• Alexander Rossi’s three-stop strategy wasn’t even as good as Pato’s as the Andretti driver started P2 and ended P9

• A number of guys who survived the lap 1 shunt by weaving through it went on to great races. Sebastien Bourdais started 16th and ended 5th, Rinus VeeKay started 14th and ended 6th and Graham Rahal started 18th and ended 7th.

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Pato O’Ward (left) and Alex Palou - each magnificent in their own way

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With this result here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving Barber:

1 - Alex Palou, 53
2 - Will Power, 41
3 - Scott Dixon, 35
4 - Pato O’Ward, 34
5 - Sebastien Bourdais, 31

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The next outing for the IndyCars is next weekend, as they do the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, April 23-25.

Look for full race highlights here, when they are released.

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M

[GrandWazoo]

My wife and I both got our second vaccine shots last Friday. So I am finally feeling good about getting out and about. We have our tickets to the two day event at TMS. Really looking forward to it. I haven’t been to a Indycar race in a few years. And TMS is always a great place to see a race.