DETROIT - Here’s some notes gathered from the paddock ahead of the Verizon IndyCar Series’ Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear doubleheader this weekend. The second IndyCar practice session follows this afternoon.
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The joy of being the Indianapolis 500 champion does come with the side effect of the work required to go on the media tour in the two days that follow.
Takuma Sato has kept his seemingly eternal effervescent smile throughout the tour of New York and Texas, although he admitted to NBC Sports how happy he was to be back in his No. 26 Ruoff Home Mortgage Honda for Andretti Autosport in first practice this morning.
Thank you, TX! Onward to #DetroitGP! #Indy500 #IndyCar #Taku500
— Andretti Autosport (@FollowAndretti) May 31, 2017
📸@IndyCar @ChrisOwens500 pic.twitter.com/Roa7KcY5s5
By contrast, Alexander Rossi was very laid back when we caught up with him this morning ahead of his second Detroit weekend in the No. 98 ShopAndretti.com Honda for Andretti-Herta Autosport. Rossi came to Detroit this time last year after winning last year’s 100th running, and was so relieved to be back in the car.
“There’s some things you miss about not winning... and some things you don’t,” Rossi laughed on Friday. “This year, I got sleep this week.”
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Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull told NBC Sports he estimated it took more than 350 combined man hours to build up a new car for Scott Dixon this weekend, the No. 9 Camping World Honda appearing for the first time in road course trim with the new signage. The new tub was built up after the previous car was, obviously, written off in Dixon’s savage looking accident last week in the Indianapolis 500.
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On another Ganassi note, Tony Kanaan will to have a busy couple weeks after being confirmed Wednesday as Sebastien Bourdais’ injury replacement at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the no. 68 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Ford GT.
After he races at Detroit this weekend, Kanaan said he’ll head to Charlotte early next week for Ford simulator work, then to Texas for the next IndyCar race next weekend (Saturday, June 10, 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN) and then straight to France for his ACO simulator work. His first time in the Ford GT on the Circuit de la Sarthe will be Wednesday, June 14.
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After missing out at the Indianapolis 500 Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors last week, Dale Coyne Racing had a fun make-up prize for Ed Jones, who lost the honor to Fernando Alonso.
Engineer Craig Hampson then created an in-joke “you did well!” piece, or trophy, and presented it to him on Thursday.
We thought @Edjonesracing deserved his own trophy, so one of our engineers made him one #EdsArmy #EdsOurROY pic.twitter.com/8eg0YjJnr0
— Dale Coyne Racing (@DaleCoyneRacing) June 1, 2017
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On another Coyne note, the No. 18 Honda chassis that Esteban Gutierrez is racing this weekend was Pippa Mann’s oval chassis last weekend at the Indianapolis 500. The No. 18 Honda chassis run by James Davison at the ‘500 is repairable, but the team’s backup car this weekend.
Gutierrez is set to continue with Coyne for further races this year, although the formal details of which haven’t been finalized yet.
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Jimmy Vasser is again here this weekend, with a GEICO hat on. Vasser, unfortunately, joins Sebastien Bourdais in not being able to defend his victories of the last two years here. Bourdais, driving for the Vasser co-owned KVSH Racing, won the 2015 second race and 2016 first race at Detroit.
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There have been a couple livery changes this week. Magneti Marelli returns to Andretti Autosport - it was on Carlos Munoz’s car here last year and it will be on Marco Andretti’s this weekend.
We are excited to continue our partnership with @MagnetiMarelliT and to introduce the No. 27 Magneti Marelli Honda! #IndyCar #DetroitGP pic.twitter.com/4TTJSfs03p
— Andretti Autosport (@FollowAndretti) June 1, 2017
Ruoff Home Mortgage has continued as primary sponsor aboard Indianapolis 500 champion Sato’s No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda.
Mark Music, President & CEO of Ruoff Home Mortgage stated, “What you can definitely feel is the excitement that has been built around Takuma’s win at the Indianapolis 500 and we wanted to continue that partnership with Sato and Andretti Autosport for this race. Our 450+ employees, in particular, are extremely excited with the incredible performance of Takuma Sato and are happy to continue our relationship into Detroit.”
The Alexander Rossi car features ShopAndretti.com signage on his No. 98 Andretti-Herta Autosport Honda, and is back in the red and blue colors last seen at Barber Motorsports Park.
DXC Technology takes over as primary sponsor for Simon Pagenaud’s No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet, now white, black with chrome accents. Helio Castroneves is in the white and black colors of Hitachi on his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet.
New look for us this weekend at the #DetroitGP! @DXCTechnology colors are looking pretty slick. #indycar pic.twitter.com/vmSNNSVz1S
— Simon Pagenaud (@simonpagenaud) June 2, 2017
Dixon’s No. 9 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing continues with Camping World signage.
Graham Rahal is back in the No. 15 SoldierStrong/TurnForTroops.com colors as he ran at the INDYCAR Grand Prix. Rahal led first practice.
At Ed Carpenter Racing, JR Hildebrand’s No. 21 Chevrolet is in the green Fuzzy’s Vodka colors. Spencer Pigot returns to the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet after his time with Juncos Racing.
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From the “things that make you go hmm...” department, we spotted two Honda Performance Development senior officials outside the Team Penske transporter in the paddock this afternoon.
HPD is strongly hinted but not formally confirmed to be part of Penske’s strongly hinted but not formally confirmed upcoming sports car prototype program set to debut in 2018.
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Tire management this weekend is crucial, because of limited sets for the two races. From Firestone, each entrant gets eight sets primary, and four sets alternate for the weekend. Teams must use one new set of primary and alternate tires in each race.
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The qualifying format is also different with two groups for both days, rather than the traditional Firestone Fast Six format as is used on all other road and street courses. Today, IndyCar just had two practice sessions and no qualifying sessions.
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IMSA
- A number of drivers will be en route to France for the Le Mans Test Day, which takes place Sunday, following the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic IMSA race on Saturday afternoon. Some of them will be on Cooper MacNeil’s private jet that will transport them to Le Mans from Detroit.
- Among those drivers planned to go to Le Mans, it includes Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, Cooper MacNeil, Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan.
- CORE autosport drivers Jon Bennett and Colin Braun and a handful of crew, including Jeff Braun, will depart Detroit for Thompson, Ct. after Saturday’s race for GRC Lites duty.
- This is the second street race hometown race for 3GT Racing and its Lexus RC F GT3 this year. While at Long Beach, the Lexus cars ran in the shadow of Toyota on the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend, and here, the 3GT team runs not far from its Lansing, Mich. headquarters (about 100 miles away). The team visited the HARMAN North American Automotive Headquarters in Novi, Michigan earlier this week.
- Don’t expect the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson to run much if at all this weekend. Kenton Koch and Ryan Lewis’ names were listed on the car on Friday as Jose Gutierrez is in Le Mans preparing for his first test in the No. 22 G-Drive Racing Oreca 07 Gibson (run by DragonSpeed).
- Lewis had an incident in the morning’s first practice while in his No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09, one of the three PC cars entered this weekend. The car was repaired in time for second practice.
- Not as fortunate was Ozz Negri, who sustained an impact in first practice as well in his No. 86 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3, and the car was being repaired during second practice after Negri contacted the Turn 1 wall with both the left front and left rear of his car.
- The PC class hits the halfway point of its final season, and both active team owners here this weekend, Brent O’Neill (Performance Tech Motorsports) and Brian Alder (BAR1 Motorsports) are beginning their respective processes of determining their next steps as a team with the Orecas being retired at the end of this season.