2016 Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit

History was made in Speedway, Indiana this past weekend with the running of the 100th Indianapolis 500. The excitement and anticipation that was seen in the weeks leading up to the race was unlike anything that we have witnessed in IndyCar in a very long time, and the event successfully lived up to its billing as The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

But now it's time to get back to business. Only six days after the checkers waved over Alexander Rossi as he crossed the yard of bricks, the Verizon IndyCar Series heads to the streets of Belle Isle Park for the only double-header weekend of 2016. Race 7 takes place on Saturday, while Race 8 takes place on Sunday, and both will be contested over 70 laps on the scenic and fast-yet-technical street circuit.

Last year, the weather wreaked havoc on the field during the Saturday race before imminent thunderstorms forced it to end after 47 of 70 scheduled laps. Carlos Muñoz, Marco Andretti, and Simon Pagenaud were the only three who hadn't pitted for rain tires at that point despite dry conditions, and Muñoz was scored with his first IndyCar victory. The wet roads didn't take long to dry following the start on Sunday, but there was still an unusually high number of crashes. Sébastien Bourdais would win his 33rd national championship race (and second sanctioned by IndyCar).

Entering the weekend, however, there hardly appears to be a clear favorite for the win(s). Nine individual races have been held at Belle Isle since 2007, and no driver during that time has won more than once. It's hard not to consider points leader Simon Pagenaud, who has won half of this season's races, but Hélio Castroneves is looking to end a winless streak that has existed ever since he won the Sunday race at this very track in 2014. Not to mention that he's third in the standings, has an average finish of 4th on the road/street courses this year, and with three wins, he's the only driver to have ever won at Belle Isle more than once. The other former winners of the race in the field this week are Muñoz, Bourdais, Will Power, Scott Dixon, and Tony Kanaan. As for the other two-thirds of the grid, they are looking to add their names to that list, including Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal, and Marco Andretti, all of whom have run well here in recent years.

Also, despite having orginally thought that my schedule would not allow me to do so until yesterday, the Saturday race this year will once again be attended by yours truly! Unfortunately my grandfather will not be attending the race with me this year.

Wonder if ABC will pre-empt the race in the Chicago area for a goddamn Cubs game again.

Thankfully radio is still a thing...

Sunday looking wet.

Alta wrote:Sunday looking wet.

It's Michigan. You can have all four seasons in one day. You can have sunshine and a downpour at the same time.

day500champ1 wrote:

Alta wrote:Sunday looking wet.

It's Michigan.  You can have all four seasons in one day.  You can have sunshine and a downpour at the same time.

That's usually what we say about Ohio, too.

day500champ1 wrote:

Alta wrote:Sunday looking wet.

It's Michigan.  You can have all four seasons in one day.  You can have sunshine and a downpour at the same time.

Not quite, we have all 4 seasons in an hour, 2 hours if lucky

The_Wall_91 wrote:

day500champ1 wrote:

Alta wrote:Sunday looking wet.

It's Michigan.  You can have all four seasons in one day.  You can have sunshine and a downpour at the same time.

Not quite, we have all 4 seasons in an hour, 2 hours if lucky

I'd say that that's more of a spring/autumn thing when we can see every season in a day. I actually wanted to go to the race on Sunday solely to witness a rain race in person, but my family wasn't too excited about the idea of sitting in the rain for a couple of hours.

Anyway, after his winning streak finally came to an end last weekend, Simon Pagenaud is already back on form, having won the Verizon P1 Award for Race 1 of the weekend. It's a Penske 1-2-3 with Castroneves in 2nd and Montoya in 3rd (Hinchcliffe will start from 4th). Of the eight cars fielded collectively by Ganassi and Penske, seven of them will start from the top nine. Indianapolis 500 champion Alexander Rossi qualified 17th (NAPA Auto Parts is back on the #98 car for this weekend's races, by the way).

Also, earlier this week, Ed Carpenter Racing signed defending Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot (who started three of the season's first six races in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan car #16) to drive at all of the remaining road courses and street circuits, while Carpenter drives on the ovals as originally scheduled. This means that there will now be at least 22 cars at each of the remaining races this year.

Qualifying Results - Race 1:

There's been a very serious accident in the Stadium Super Trucks support race involving Matt Mingay. He's currently in critical condition.

http://www.racer.com/north-american-racing/item/130413-sst-mingay-in-hospital-after-first-lap-crash

Thinking good thoughts for him...

Traffic caused me to miss the start of the Stadium Super Trucks race. When we first arrived on the island, I heard the announcer talking about the race having been cancelled after a major accident, but I heard nothing about how serious that it was. Thinking good thoughts for Matt Mingay.

Below are spoilers for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic.

Spoiler:

Up next is the first race of the weekend for the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Ben Atkins wrote:There's been a very serious accident in the Stadium Super Trucks support race involving Matt Mingay. He's currently in critical condition.

http://www.racer.com/north-american-racing/item/130413-sst-mingay-in-hospital-after-first-lap-crash

Thinking good thoughts for him...

His condition has been upgraded from critical to serious, so very good news.

Helio's pace is godawful now, losing 1.5-2 seconds to Daly in a lap. He's killing Pagenaud's race as well with this.

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:Helio's pace is godawful now, losing 1.5-2 seconds to Daly in a lap. He's killing Pagenaud's race as well with this.

That's because they're both trying to save fuel.

Sebastian Bourdais!!!!

PackerMan71 wrote:

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:Helio's pace is godawful now, losing 1.5-2 seconds to Daly in a lap. He's killing Pagenaud's race as well with this.

That's because they're both trying to save fuel.

Yeah, a fat lot of good that did them. They were running so slow by the end I'm not convinced Pagenaud wasn't actually out of fuel. Every time it looks like Penske are about to stop throwing away so many races, they go and pull a blinder like this.

Suppose I shouldn't complain though, a win for Bourdais and a podium for Conor Daly are always awesome things.

2016 DUAL IN DETROIT RACE 1 REVIEW

Interesting race.

The beginning was a bit bland, with Pagenaud dominating early, along with the rest of the Penske brigade, but with the threat of rain looming, strategery was the name of the game pretty much all day, with guys pitting on lap 2 to change tires, because the red tires were just wearing too quickly, although Pagenaud might have something to say about that.

In the end, Power ended up losing a right rear wheel, JPM finished third, and Helio and Pagenaud ended up having to save fuel, and Pagenaud ended up 13th, so he's not gonna really take advantage of Scott Dixon's DNF after Dixon's gearbox broke. Still, he's in command of the championship, but it is a little worrying.

The fight for the win came down to two guys driving mid-level teams: Sebastian Bourdais and Conor Daly. Both only took gas on their final pit stop, and both finished 1-2, far ahead of third place JPM. Great job by both guys, and Bourdais' victory ties him with Bobby Unser for sixth all time in open-wheel victories.

Star of the Race: Conor Daly. I know Bourdais won the race, but he's won at Belle Isle before. I'm gonna give the nod to Conor this time, because he doesn't have as much experience as Bourdais and came home with a podium on one of the most difficult courses he'll face all year.

Reject of the Race: Penske Racing. At one point, they were 1-2-3-4, and they let it get away from them.

FINAL RATING: Not the most exciting race in the world, but plenty of strategy about in this one. I'll give it a 6/10.

Tomorrow, we hit up Race #2.

Ok race. Penske was playing the rain game and that didn't happen, Bourdias with the splash n dash to win!

Also helluva run for Conor Daly, pulling miracles in that Coyne car.

Very relieved to read that Mingay's condition is no longer critical. No telling what his exact condition is at this point but hopefully he'll be able to return to good health as soon as possible.

That wasn't necessarily the greatest of races (and it was disappointing to see Hinchcliffe crash from 5th-place), but it was good enough to be interesting the whole way through, and of course the experience of being there made it an absolute blast! When we all noticed that six cars had stayed out of the pits, I wasn't sure whether or not strategy wouldn't work. Fortunately it worked wonders for them! I as also personally pleased to see Rahal score another great finish as one of the four drivers whose strategy paid off.

I'm not sure how it looked on TV, but around lap 45 it began to rain lightly, and for the entire last 10 laps it was actually raining pretty steadily, but it was just light enough to where it didn't affect the roads. The heavy, "slicks-are-now-useless" rains came about 20 minutes after the finish. I was hoping that it would have rained earlier but I am still very satisfied!

Also had a fun time exploring all of the fan accomodations areas. Managed to get some souvenir merchandise and also got a signature from Pippa Mann! She was very friendly, and told me that she was hoping for more out of Indy last week but is hopeful for next year. It was a great experience!

Tell us how you really feel Hinchy

Can't blame James. He got screwed over yesterday by a failure. That's mostly on Kimball. He probably only saw Munoz moving over.

So, how does Castroneves lose this race?

EDIT: Caught out by an ill-timed yellow, it would seem.

Solid 2nd race. Power break his winless streak and Pagenaud almost has 2 races up.

2016 DUAL IN DETROIT RACE 2 REVIEW

Another interesting race.

Once again, Pagenaud with the pole, sweeping the weekend. I believe that is four poles on the year for him. With the way he's been running, we might as well give him the championship trophy right now. Granted, we still have half a season to go, but not even sub-par performances at Indy and Detroit Race 1 put a dent in his point lead. so really, who can stop him right now from winning the championship? Answer? Himself at this point.

Not really as much strategy in this one as yesterday, but there was some pretty good racing, and calculating fuel was once again the story, although not as much this time around. In the end, in came down to Will Power and Pagenaud, and Power's brilliant pass of Pagenaud on the final restart would end up being the race winning move, as everyone else had to come in for fuel. Power was able to hold Pagenaud at bay, but only slightly, as he wins for the 26 th time in his career, and his first win since the Indy GP last year. Of course, Pagenaud finished second again, so that's six top two finishes, and he's led the most laps in five of the first eight races, with four poles, and he has an 80 point advantage over Scott Dixon.

I think it's only a matter of time before we crown Pagenaud as champion.

Star of the Race: Will Power. Made a brilliant pass on his teammate, and held him off for the win. Nicely done.

Reject of the Race: Carlos Munoz... again. For the third time this year, he's my reject of the race for the lap 1 schmazel that took Hinchy out of the race. I felt bad for him after Indy, but this guy's lack of spatial awareness this season really baffles me, because I know he has more talent than this.

FINAL RATING: About the same as yesterday, so I'll give Race 2 a 6/10 as well.

Next week, it's... Texas. Oh, joy.

Matt Mingay has come out of 5 hour surgery in a serious but stable condition. But the sounds of it, his lower jaw has been completely destroyed, and doctors have put in a prosthetic chin.

This also might end SST, as both Gordon and Creed weren't racing, and Burt Jenner has immediately retired from the series.

Spannerhead29 (Nelson) wrote:Matt Mingay has come out of 5 hour surgery in a serious but stable condition. But the sounds of it, his lower jaw has been completely   destroyed, and doctors have put in a prosthetic chin.

This also might end SST, as both Gordon and Creed weren't racing, and Burt Jenner has immediately retired from the series.  

God that sounds absolutely gruesome.  

I'm glad he's still with us as any other roof first into the fence crash i know about has ended up being fatal, I've heard concerns about safety ranging from Roof protection to over-realiance on street course races (Being Indycar and V8 Supercar support races) so hopefully Robby abd the boys take a good hard look at it.

Robby and Creed were running Baja so that's why they weren't there.

Alta wrote:

Spannerhead29 (Nelson) wrote:Matt Mingay has come out of 5 hour surgery in a serious but stable condition. But the sounds of it, his lower jaw has been completely   destroyed, and doctors have put in a prosthetic chin.

This also might end SST, as both Gordon and Creed weren't racing, and Burt Jenner has immediately retired from the series.  

God that sounds absolutely gruesome.  

I'm glad he's still with us as any other roof first into the fence crash i know about has ended up being fatal, I've heard concerns about safety ranging from Roof protection to over-realiance on street course races (Being Indycar and V8 Supercar support races) so hopefully Robby abd the boys take a good hard look at it.

Robby and Creed were running Baja so that's why they weren't there.

Here's an article with further updates on Mingay's condition. If that crash was severe enough to cause the horrifying injuries that it did to his head, then he is really, really lucky that his brain and nervous system are essentially unharmed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3630222/Australian-stunt-driver-Matt-Mingay-loses-jaw-horror-truck-crash-Belle-Isle-race.html

I wouldn't expect this to end SST, but I certainly hope that they can figure out how to keep the driver's as well-protected as possible. The concept of the series (not to mention the racing, itself) is really interesting to me, and it's gotten the attention of some very big names among racers.

Regarding the Sunday race of the Dual in Detroit, I thought that it was a rather average race. I was surprised by the comments that Hinchcliffe made towards Muñoz without having seen a replay, but then again, Hinch had an awesome start to the weekend before crashing on his own in Dual #1, so crashing before turn 1 in Dual #2 must have been extremely upsetting. Power did a fantastic job to take the victory.