WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was reborn over the past winter and now has new paving on its 2.238 mile surface, marking 11 corners. From its Andretti turn through its famous Corkscrew and down through Rainey Turn, there’s grip that produced speeds in the season finale and 17th race of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season that would, only last year, have been unachievable. In Thursday testing open and attended by all teams, Helio Castroneves’ 1998 lap record of 67.722 seconds finally fell, courtesy of former Team Penske squadmate Will Power’s 67.2762 second lap.
It’s one thing, however, to break lap records but quite another to compete 95 laps around this track without incident. That wasn’t possible during this 17th and final race of the season, held under clear skies and with balmy temperatures. From the moment pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren, making his final start of the year before heading to Meyer Shank Racing for the 2024 season, led the 27 cars to the green flags, there was activity as everyone broke ranks. At the second, Andretti turn (turn one is just a kink in the road) five cars got together and the first of eight cautions flew.
This really wasn’t unexpected and the entire weekend had been chaotic, with red flag conditions permeating the first two days of practice and qualifying Trying to find just what the new surface would accept was a challenge for engineers, crew members and their drivers. Hardly anyone had real experience with Firestone’s red side walled alternate tires before the green flew around 12:30PM PT
Caution was the theme of this race as yellows bred yellows. There were a record 17 penalties for the field as well, as exceeding the track’s limits was the order of the day. Few cars were exempt from either being part of the yellow flag conditions or earning penalties. Speaking of penalties, even before the race began there were several for changed engines, including one for Scott Dixon, who’d qualified fifth but started 11th after the team had to install a new engine race day morning, his sixth of the four that would count towards manufacturer points. Driver finishes are ineligible for manufacturer points after the fourth engine is used, which gave the title to Chevrolet over Honda for the second straight year, 1437 to 1425.
There wasn’t a good number of green flag laps until the eighth and final yellow flag period was over at the 77th of those 95 laps; it ran clean to the finish as Chip Ganassi Racing’s six time champion Dixon secured his 56th series victory in his Honda/Dallara, prevailing by 7.318 seconds over Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin’s Chevy, which boomeranged through the field after finishing where it started.As he aptly put it, “I think I hit everything but the pace car today. Dixon’s teammate and newly crowned double champ Alex Palou secured the final podium spot for Ganassi. “I wanted to win, honestly,” the Spaniard said, “to celebrate more… “
Dixon didn’t appreciate the drive through penalty incurred when he had contact during the first lap caution and said, “Race control was drive through penalty pretty happy today.” After the tough morning with his engine change, “Obviously getting a grid penalty wasn’t the way you wanted to start the day.” After the first two days of chaos Dixon surmised, “I figured that the race was either going to go green to checkered or have a bunch of yellows. We had the yellows. The restarts were very tough; it was difficult to get your space right. It was a tough race, but it worked out for us,” he grinned.
Fourteen of the 27 starters completed the full race distance, while three cars retired due to contact. The first of those was Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal in his Honda powered Dallara, who began the race in 10th spot but was one of those five cars involved in the first yellow flag, joined by Josef Newgarden’s Team Penske Chevy, Dixon, Rinus Veejay’s Chevy from Ed Carpenter Racing and newcomer Juri Vips, driving a Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Newgarden’s bid to win a road course race this year ended when he caused the second yellow for contact in the fourth turn, while Rosenqvist and newly crowned 2023 Rookie of the Year Marcus Armstrong of Ganassi’s team got together. Both would continue, with Armstrong finishing a strong eighth, Rosenqvist 19th, while Newgarden was four laps down in 21st. On the second restart, both Dixon and Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s departing Christian Lundgaard received avoidable contact penalties and had to drive through the pits, Dixon falling as low as 22nd in the process. From there, the Iceman put his head down, listened to the plans of team strategists Mike Hull and Chris Simmons as he made his way back to the front.
The festival of cautions continued with contact between Helio Castroneves (in his final full time race for Meyer Shank Racing; he’ll be a part owner and run Indy next year), Team Penske’s Will Power, A.J. Foyt Racing’s rookie Benjamin Pedersen in his Chevy and the similar car of Juncos Hollinger’s Callum Ilott, all of them coming together in the final turn on the restart from the previous caution!
There were 18 laps of green followed by another yellow for Dale Coyne Racing’s departing David Malukas, whose Honda had sandy contact with Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco’s Honda in the third corner, followed by another two laps of green and the sixth yellow for Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci, who had been amongst the top 10 before getting together with Meyer Shank’s Tom Blomqvist in the final, 11th corner.
Cautions seven and eight followed shortly thereafter for more contact: the first between Ganassi’s current two Marcus’: Armstrong and Ericsson got together at the pit entry and then Castroneves spun several times and ended up collecting the hapless Colton Herta, who has won here twice but not today, even as he wore colors from his father Bryan’s victory at this track 25 years ago. Herta’s Andretti Autosport with Curb Agajanian Honda was done for the day; Castroneves continued to finish 13th.
The final short period of green flag running saw Dixon move to the front and stay there, allowing him to gain his third win of the year and 56th of his career, placing A.J. Foyt’s 67 victories within achievement for a veteran racer who is driving exceptionally well. At age 43, Kiwi Dixon has plenty of good years ahead of him and will be a contender for quite a long time.
Following the race, the series gave full recognition to Palou for his second title, with separate victory stands to commemorate both the race win and the championship. Chip Ganassi bounced between both podiums to celebrate with his two top racers with that recognizable Cheshire cat grin on his face.
The 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season may have ended under a somewhat sour note, considering the lack of rhythm to this race and the fact that only 14 drivers completed the full distance, with Juncos Hollinger’s Argentinian rookie Augustin Canapino the last driver finishing the full, 95 laps. Beyond our podium came last year’s champ Power in fourth, Callum Ilott’s excellent drive from 20th to fifth, the man who officially broke Castroneves’ lap record during the second round of qualifying, Lundgaard, whose clocking of 66.461 (121.226mph) was jaw dropping.
Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi was seventh from his 15th place start, with Armstrong (starting 14th), Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward finishing where he started in ninth and Ryan Hunter-Reay bringing Ed Carpenter’s No. 20 Chevy home in 10th. Andretti’s departing Romain Grosjean was 11th, Sting Ray Robb secured his best result with Dale Coyne Racing’s Honda in 12th, followed by Castroneves and Agustin. Ganassi’s departing Marcus Ericsson was a lap down, as were Pedersen (despite collisions today) and teammate Ferrucci. Two laps in arrears were VeeKay, Rosenqvist and Malukas.
Testing for next year starts this week with Armstrong’s first oval test before he becomes a full season driver for Ganassi next year; two time Indy winner Takuma Sato drove his car on the ovals this year. Beyond that, series testing for INDYCAR’s new hybrid engines begins as well and is expected to be intense for both Chevrolet and Honda.
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