Indy 500 winner’s fiancée had premonition he was going to win

By May 29, 2019, 5:18 PM EDT
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Bruce Martin Photo
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INDIANAPOLIS – When Hailey McDermott woke up early on Race Day, Sunday, May 26, she had a premonition that her fiancée, Simon Pagenaud, was going to win the Indianapolis 500 that day. It’s the same feeling Liz Power had the year before when her husband, Will Power, won the 102ndIndianapolis 500.

“I felt so confident coming into this weekend,” McDermott admitted. “I’m the type of person who never says they have a feeling.

“I had a feeling.

“We both had the feeling. It’s the weirdest thing. How can you have a feeling? I believe this place chooses you. I now understand it.

“To be blunt, I practiced ‘Kissing the Bricks’ in my dress before we came out, just in case. And it worked.

“I’m in shock. I think it’s going to take a while. This is place is magic.”

The relationship between McDermott and Pagenaud got off to a rather inauspicious start, however.

When McDermott was asked in 2012 if she wanted to have dinner with a race driver, who immediate reaction was decisive.

“No,” she said firmly. “No Thank You.”

The native of San Diego, California is a typical Southern California girl and she was working for Bowers & Wilkins – a high-end brand of stereo speakers that was sponsoring Sam Schmidt’s NTT IndyCar Series team.

“I was in Indianapolis with my Dad at a speaker convention and our company sponsored the team,” McDermott recalled to NBC Sports.com. “I was having dinner with some of my sales guys and they were having dinner with their sales guys and they happened to know each other. They came to say hi to my guys.

“They asked me if I wanted to meet a race car driver and I said, ‘No. No Thanks. No Thank You.’”

That driver was a young Frenchman named Simon Pagenaud. He was part of the old Champ Car Series in 2007, but after that series folded and many of its teams were absorbed by the Indy Racing League to form what is today’s NTT IndyCar Series, Pagenaud was out of a ride.

He went Sports Car racing with Gil de Ferran and didn’t get back to IndyCar until 2011, when he drove three races for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

In 2012, he ran all 15 races for Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports and that is the year he had his chance encounter with a Southern California blonde who had no interest in meeting a race driver.

“I just wasn’t sure,” McDermott told NBC Sports.com. “I wasn’t sure if he was going to be pretentious. Somehow, they got him over to my table.

“We sat there for three or four hours and just talked.

“It sounds so cheesy, but it was like we were the only ones in the room. After that, it was so easy. It wasn’t awkward at all. And we weren’t even talking about racing. I had heard of the Indy 500, but I had no idea what it was. I had never seen an IndyCar race.

“Now, it’s my whole life.”

That dinner was at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis in 2012. The two have been together ever since.

Pagenaud asked McDermott to marry him this past January. The two are currently engaged but won’t reveal the wedding date.

The two will enjoy a wedding celebration one day, but for now, they have an Indianapolis 500 victory to celebrate for a lifetime.

“You don’t usually want to lead the Indianapolis with more than one lap to go,” McDermott said. “Alexander Rossi was right there and put up a hell of a fight.

“I wasn’t sure.

“I was concerned about fuel. Simon’s car has been on rails all month. If you can fight with anybody, you want to fight with Rossi, because he is one of the best. When you are racing with your teammates, like Josef Newgarden and Will Power, there is a certain level of respect, kindness and love.

“Rossi, he is a Badass and he has won this before. It’s always harder to get your first Indy 500 than your second. I’m just happy we got our first one. I couldn’t be more proud of Simon for racing hard, racing safe, racing smart, being responsible and sticking to his guns.”

It’s the second-straight year that two full-time residents of North Carolina won the Indianapolis 500. Power lives in Troutman, North Carolina on the Northern edge of Lake Norman. Pagenaud lives in nearby Cornelius, North Carolina on the Eastern edge of Lake Norman.

That is one reason why they named their prized puppy, “Norman.” The Jack Russell Terrier is their constant companion and was part of the Victory Lane Ceremony.

“Norman freaked out,” McDermott said. “He is very excited and thought, ‘I want to lick some of that milk off your face, Dad.’ Norman is enjoying all of the attention.”

While Pagenaud was posing for photos with the winning crew in Victory Lane, McDermott got a big, slobbery, wet kiss from Norman. He is the most famous dog in IndyCar and has his own Twitter account — @NormanPagenaud.

Her premonition was a strong one and she was confident it would end up in Pagenaud’s favor.

“When I found out Simon got Roger Penske’s 18thpole here, I thought we could get his 18thIndy 500 victory because 18 is Simon’s lucky number,” she said. “I thought, ‘c’mon.’”

It was especially gratifying considering Pagenaud entered the month of May considered to be in jeopardy of losing his ride at Team Penske at the end of the season. With a “May Sweep” with wins in the INDYCAR Grand Prix and the 103rdIndianapolis 500, team owner Roger Penske said his driver will “absolutely” be part of his team next year.

“Last year was difficult,” McDermott said. “He always went out and tried his best but wasn’t comfortable. He always knew what his potential was. It’s nice to come out this year and show everybody, ‘Hey, he didn’t leave. He didn’t go anywhere.

“’It just took him a second.’”

McDermott is friends with Rossi’s girlfriend, Kelly, and said she has nothing but love for both of them.

For now, however, McDermott is riding that wave like the Southern California surfer that she is.

INDYCAR Photo“It comes in waves,” McDermott said of her emotions. “We will look at each other and say, ‘We won the Indy 500.’ It doesn’t feel real yet.

“When I saw Simon stop on the ‘Yard of Bricks’ after he won the race, I was asking myself, ‘Did I pass out?

“Is this a dream?

“Is this real?’”

‘It’s gnarly, bro’: IndyCar drivers face new challenge on streets of downtown Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 7:32 PM EDT
IndyCar Detroit downtown
James Black/Penske Entertainment
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DETROIT – It was the 1968 motion picture, “Winning” when actress Joanne Woodward asked Paul Newman if he were going to Milwaukee in the days after he won the Indianapolis 500 as driver Frank Capua.

“Everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indianapolis,” Newman responded near the end of the film.

Milwaukee was a mainstay as the race on the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 for decades, but since 2012, the first race after the Indy 500 has been Detroit at Belle Isle Park.

This year, there is a twist.

Instead of IndyCar racing at the Belle Isle State Park, it’s the streets of downtown Detroit on a race course that is quite reminiscent of the old Formula One and CART race course that was used from 1982 to 1991.

Formula One competed in the United States Grand Prix from 1982 to 1988. Beginning in 1989, CART took over the famed street race through 1991. In 1992, the race was moved to Belle Isle, where it was held through last year (with a 2009-2011 hiatus after the Great Recession).

The Penske Corp. is the promoter of this race, and they did a lot of good at Belle Isle, including saving the Scott Fountain, modernizing the Belle Isle Casino, and basically cleaning up the park for Detroit citizens to enjoy.

The race, however, had outgrown the venue. Roger Penske had big ideas to create an even bigger event and moving it back to downtown Detroit benefitted race sponsor Chevrolet. The footprint of the race course goes around General Motors world headquarters in the GM Renaissance Center – the centerpiece building of Detroit’s modernized skyline.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

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Motor City is about to roar with the sound of Chevrolet and Honda engines this weekend as the NTT IndyCar Series is the featured race on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street course.

It’s perhaps the most unique street course on the IndyCar schedule because of the bumps on the streets and the only split pit lane in the series.

The pit lanes has stalls on opposing sides and four lanes across an unusual rectangular pit area (but still only one entry and exit).

Combine that, with the bumps and the NTT IndyCar Series drivers look forward to a wild ride in Motor City.

“It’s gnarly, bro,” Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward said before posting the fastest time in Friday’s first practice. “It will be very interesting because the closest thing that I can see it being like is Toronto-like surfaces with more of a Long Beach-esque layout.

“There’s less room for error than Long Beach. There’s no curbs. You’ve got walls. I think very unique to this place.

PRACTICE RESULTS: Speeds from the first session

“Then it’s a bit of Nashville built into it. The braking zones look really very bumpy. Certain pavements don’t look bumpy but with how the asphalt and concrete is laid out, there’s undulation with it. So, you can imagine the cars are going to be smashing on every single undulation because we’re going to go through those sections fairly fast, and obviously the cars are pretty low. I don’t know.

“It looks fun, man. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. It’s going to be learning through every single session, not just for drivers and teams but for race control. For everyone.

“Everybody has to go into it knowing not every call is going to be smooth. It’s a tall task to ask from such a demanding racetrack. I think it’ll ask a lot from the race cars as well.”

The track is bumpy, but O’Ward indicated he would be surprised if it is bumper than Nashville. By comparison to Toronto, driving at slow speed is quite smooth, but fast speed is very bumpy.

“This is a mix of Nashville high-speed characteristics and Toronto slow speed in significant areas,” O’Ward said. “I think it’ll be a mix of a lot of street courses we go to, and the layout looks like more space than Nashville, which is really tight from Turn 4 to 8. It looks to be a bit more spacious as a whole track, but it’ll get tight in multiple areas.”

The concept of having four-wide pit stops is something that excites the 24-year-old driver from Monterey, Mexico.

“I think it’s innovation, bro,” O’Ward said. “If it works out, we’ll look like heroes.

“If it doesn’t, we tried.”

Because of the four lanes on pit road, there is a blend line the drivers will have to adhere to. Otherwise, it would be chaos leaving the pits compared to a normal two-lane pit road.

“If it wasn’t there, there’d be guys fighting for real estate where there’s one car that fits, and there’d be cars crashing in pit lane,” O’Ward said. “I get why they did that. It’s the same for everybody. I don’t think there’s a lot of room to play with. That’s the problem.

“But it looks freaking gnarly for sure. Oh my God, that’s going to be crazy.”

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing believes the best passing areas will be on the long straights because of the bumps in the turns. That is where much of the action will be in terms of gaining or losing a position in the race.

“It will also be really easy to defend in my opinion,” Palou said. “Being a 180-degree corner, you just have to go on the inside and that’s it. There’s going to be passes for sure but its’ going to be risky.

“Turn 1, if someone dives in, you end up in the wall. They’re not going to be able to pass you on the exit, so maybe with the straight being so long you can actually pass before you end up on the braking zone.”

Palou’s teammate, Marcus Ericsson, was at the Honda simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana, before coming to Detroit and said he was shocked by the amount of bumps on the simulator.

Race promoter Bud Denker, the President of Penske Corporation, and Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix President Michael Montri, sent the track crews onto the streets with grinders to smooth out the bumps on the race course several weeks ago.

“They’ve done a decent amount of work, and even doing the track walk, it looked a lot better than what we expected,” Ericsson said. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad. I hope not. That’ll be something to take into account.

“I think the track layout doesn’t look like the most fun. Maybe not the most challenging. But I love these types of tracks with rules everywhere. It’s a big challenge, and you have to build up to it. That’s the types of tracks that I love to drive. It’s a very much Marcus Ericsson type of track. I like it.”

Scott Dixon, who was second fastest in the opening session, has competed on many new street circuits throughout his legendary racing career. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion for Chip Ganassi Racing likes the track layout, even with the unusual pit lane.

“I don’t think that’s going to be something that catches on where every track becomes a double barrel,” Dixon said. “It’s new and interesting.

“As far as pit exit, I think Toronto exit is worse with how the wall sticks out. I think in both lanes, you’ve got enough lead time to make it and most guys will make a good decision.”

It wasn’t until shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday that the IndyCar drivers began the extended 90-minute practice session to try out the race course for the first time in real life.

As expected, there were several sketchy moments, but no major crashes during the first session despite 19 local yellow flags for incidents and six red flags.

Rookie Agustin Canapino had to cut his practice short after some damage to his No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet, but he was among many who emerged mostly unscathed from scrapes with the wall.

“It was honestly less carnage than I expected,” said Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was third fastest in the practice after coming off his first career IndyCar victory in the most recent street race at Long Beach in April. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall (too hard), which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.

“It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into Turn 3 than everyone expected. But overall they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.”

Most of the preparation for this event was done either on the General Motors Simulator in Huntersville, North Carolina, or the Honda Performance Development simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana.

“Now, we have simulators that can scan the track, so we have done plenty of laps already,” Power told NBC Sports. “They have ground and resurfaced a lot of the track, so it should be smoother.

“But nothing beats real-world experience. It’s going to be a learning experience in the first session.”

As a Team Penske driver, Power and his teammates were consulted about the progress and layout of the Detroit street course. They were shown what was possible with the streets that were available.

“We gave some input back after we were on the similar what might be ground and things like that,” Power said.

Racing on the streets of Belle Isle was a fairly pleasant experience for the fans and corporate sponsor that compete in the race.

But the vibe at the new location gives this a “big event” feel.

“The atmosphere is a lot better,” Power said. “The location, the accessibility for the fans, the crowd that will be here, it’s much easier. I think it will be a much better event.

“It feels like a Long Beach, only in a much bigger city. That is what street course racing is all about.”

Because the track promoter is also the team owner, Power and teammates Scott McLaughlin and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden will have a very busy weekend on the track, and with sponsor and personal appearances.

“That’s what pays the bills and allows us to do this,” Power said.

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500