Rodolfo Gonzalez gives Dale Coyne Racing a team first in 2015 - MotorSportsTalk

At Dale Coyne Racing, there’s been a revolving door of drivers for both of its teams in the No. 18 and No. 19 Honda’s.

The No. 19 has been piloted by three different drivers through 10 races. Francesco Dracone in the first five, then James Davison in the Indianapolis 500 and Tristan Vautier has been in the cockpit in the four races that followed.

It’s been worse in the No. 18. Five different drivers have taken sporadic turns in the the entry, starting with Carlos Huertas and ending with Rodolfo Gonzalez. Sunday in the Honda Indy Toronto, the Venezuelan driver drove the No. 18 car for the fourth time this season.

While his 18th-place finish doesn’t look like much, Gonzalez can leave Toronto knowing he gave DCR something none of the other seven drivers have: laps led.

Thanks to pit strategy that kept him out during the race’s first caution flag, late in the race Gonzalez found himself leading. The No. 18 was in the top position for five laps around the 11-turn, 1.755-mile street-course.

Too bad no one took the time to tell him.

“It is funny, I didn’t even know I was leading there at the end with (Josef) Newgarden,” Gonzalez said. “I was told I was leading all those laps after I got out of the car. I was just driving my race and knew I had a black car behind me. I thought maybe it was Gabby Chaves because we had been racing together earlier in the race. At one point, I was asking myself, ‘Why do I keep getting Penske cars behind me?'”

Gonzalez was able to stay ahead of eventual race winner Josef Newgarden until he had to pit for fuel.

“I think we took a big risk on our strategy and, in the end, it didn’t pay off because we got that second caution so quickly and it screwed us up a little bit,” said Gonzalez. “It was certainly fun. It is only my (fourth) race and to be spending any time leading is great.”

Sunday was only the second race Gonzalez has been able to finish of the four he’s been in. He was unable to finish either of the Detroit dual races.

Dale Coyne Racing is now no longer on the short list of full-season teams that have not led laps in 2015. That list is now down to one with Bryan Herta Autosport, which fields Chaves.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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