IndyCar Road America Friday: Rising heat & Newgarden on Gateway
- Archie O’Reilly
- 15 hours ago
- 7 min read
IndyCar’s latest visit to America’s National Park of Speed is underway, with Friday at Road America playing host to the opening practice session. DIVEBOMB recaps some of the essential stories…
In-form Kirkwood continues hot streak
Off the back of successive race wins for the first time in his career - including his first on an oval at Gateway last weekend - Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood led the way in Practice 1.
He still trails Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Álex Palou by 75 points and sits two points behind Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, but Kirkwood - yet to even record a podium on a road course - was top of the pile by 0.1533s to kick off the weekend. Palou was ninth and O’Ward 17th, albeit a disrupted end to the session preventing some alternate-tyre runs.
“Good start,” Kirkwood said. “Definitely a session that was hindered a little bit by the timing [of a late red flag]. Happy to be quick once again here. We were quick last year, so I guess that’s a good positive to take away from today and hopefully that trend continues.
“But the weather is going to be so much different [hotter] that I’m not sure what we learned from today is going to be applicable tomorrow or the next day.”
Devlin DeFrancesco, 25th in the standings, was a surprise second place for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, for whom Louis Foster was the quickest rookie in eighth. The Briton’s fellow rookies, Dale Coyne Racing’s Jacob Abel and PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman, were 24th and 25th.
Team Penske, who locked out the Road America podium last year, showed well after a disastrous Gateway weekend where all three cars failed to finish the race when contending for victory. Will Power was third, Josef Newgarden fourth and Scott McLaughlin sixth.
“I felt like our lap wasn’t the best,” Newgarden said. “Other than that, the car was in a pretty good window. Happy to start out.”
Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top five, with McLaughlin followed in the order by AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas, Foster, Palou and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson.
Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta were surprise strugglers - as far as the time sheets suggested - in 20th and 23rd as their teammate led the way.
The entire field was split by only 1.9030s despite, at 4.014 miles, Road America being the longest track on the IndyCar calendar. Sting Ray Robb was in 27th for Juncos Hollinger Racing, over 0.3s back from Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)’s Christian Rasmussen in 26th.
The session was without major incident, albeit plagued by lock-ups - particularly at the troublesome Turn 5. A red flag was brandished in the final 20 minutes for Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci, who was third at the time and finished 11th, as a lock-up and subsequent spin between Turns 13 and 14 saw him stuck on the grass and in need of recovering.
Then in the closing moments, ECR’s Alexander Rossi went long in Turn 1 in a slightly peculiar fashion, finding himself beached in the gravel. He was able to return to the pits after being recovered but that spelled the end of any timed laps for the session.
Road America “a marquee IndyCar track”
Every year, the Grand Prix of Road America is an event circled on the calendars of fans and drivers alike. A technical, challenging and extremely fun track in the most idyllic of settings, it is one of the finest venues the series visits.
“This is such a marquee IndyCar track,” said two-time Road America winner Newgarden. “If you want to go to a place to see what an IndyCar can do, it’s like IMS and Road America. This is the road course version of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to me.
“It’s got everything you want: huge straightaway, big high-speed corners, good brake zones, really good race-ability. It’s awesome when you show up here. This is where you want to race in IndyCar. I love that about the place.
“I think it suits my style - I always like high-speed stuff. We always have great cars here - have for the last 10 years. Makes a big difference.”
Drivers gearing up for the rising heat
It was a relatively hot Friday in Elkhart Lake. But that is about to be elevated to a brutal level on Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures nearing 100 Fahrenheit (mid-to-late 30s in Celsius).
The heat is set to be a key part of this weekend’s proceedings. And knowing the forecast in advance, drivers have altered their preparation somewhat to be best-prepared for the conditions.
“I try to just drink more, hydrate more, drink some salty stuff… not too much because then you wake up three times every night and have to go pee,” said Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who finished 13th in opening practice.
“You try to keep a balance. You don’t want to do any big exertion where you’re sweating a lot right before; two days out, you don’t want to be doing a two-hour bike ride or something like that. Just keep it in the AC if you can, just build up your reserves.”
For the teams, there will have to be adaptation to the rising heat in terms of how the car reacts on track.
“Trying to understand not just from a personal standpoint but how the car reacts… the temperature is going to be a big deal,” Newgarden said. “It’s normally never this sort of temperature around this place. That will be the tricky part to get right.”
The Thermal Club event in March also saw teams and cars tested by high temperatures. Coupled with other factors, it makes it all the harder for teams to strike a balance.
“The brakes have been tough this year to dial in. The hybrid is more mass to stop. The brake temps are higher. That’s more get it in the right window,” Rosenqvist said. “There is a long straight [at Road America] so I think that helps.
“Tomorrow’s going to be way hotter though. It might be a challenge in all regards: track temp normally means more slippery, running harder on brakes, engine, hybrids and stuff.”
Can the hybrid cope with the heat?
Thermal saw a number of hybrid-related issues in the higher temperatures, which was found to be a result of blockers which aided aerodynamic performance but hindered cooling. It is unknown how the hybrid will cope with possibly its toughest test yet temperature wise.
“That’s a good question for all of us to understand this weekend,” Newgarden said. “Thermal, there was some mitigation that had to happen there. We don’t want to see that. It’s a big performance loss [if the hybrid is not working correctly], especially around this track because of the long straights.
“It is a question mark in front of us right now that we’re trying to make sure we have covered.”
With temperatures still warm on Friday, even if set to rise, Rosenqvist’s Honda passed the test without issue.
“I think we’ll be in good shape,” he said. “I don’t expect it to be as bad as Thermal. I think it was more of a Chevy thing in Thermal. We didn’t really have an issue. Hasn’t really been a topic. We’re definitely keeping an eye on things.”
This is the first time IndyCar has visited Road America with the added weight of the hybrid system. Newgarden admitted that difference is something to understand and expects lap time loss of around a second-and-a-half compared to last year given the length of the track.
Palou’s opening practice-topping time last year was around 1.8s quicker than Kirkwood’s this year. But still, Rosenqvist suggested the car has performed better than he expected with the balance shift.
“When we came to Barber, it was quite a big difference on how the car behaved,” he said. “I expected the same thing. It was pretty good. The lap times are a little bit slower but it didn’t feel as tricky as Barber to drive.”
Newgarden reflects on Gateway flip
After practice, Newgarden met with the media for the first time since his massive Lap 130 crash from the lead at Gateway. He was unable to avoid Foster’s No.45 machine sliding down the track with damage, leading to an at-speed impact to the side of Foster’s car and sending Newgarden abruptly upside down down the frontstretch.
“I didn’t see him,” Newgarden said. “I didn’t see him come across the track. I saw Louis up against the wall as I was exiting [Turn] 4. This is happening in like a couple seconds… wasn’t really focused on him. I went through [Turn] 3.
“As we’re getting out of [Turn] 4, I was trying to make a move on Palou [to lap him]. I was actually going to try to go underneath him. When I was making that move, I could see that Louis was sort of there but it was still green. I didn’t see Louis until Palou went right.
“As soon as he went right, then I saw him coming across the track. There wasn’t much else to do. If I go right, I was going to go into Palou - I had a big jump of speed on him. He had the advantage of seeing him before I did.
“Just bad timing. Really bad timing.”
It was one of the biggest accidents of Newgarden’s career. But he does not think about it as he gets back in the car.
“It sucked,” said Newgarden, for whom the accident compounded a disastrous season in which he sits 16th in points after eight races. “But the only thing you’re thinking about is that race is done. I’m happy to be back at the track.
“It’s kind of awesome to smoke a car into the wall and then come back and race at Road America. I love it. I’m happy to be here.”
There was some criticism for the slow speed at which the caution was deployed after Foster initially hit the Turn 4 wall, leading to the damage that saw him lose control of his car. But Newgarden has not spoken to IndyCar about this issue.
“It’s just bad timing,” he said. “Wrong place, wrong time. That happens.”
Rosenqvist keen to prevent 2024 repeat
Rosenqvist currently sits sixth in the standings after five top-10 results in the opening six races. This matches what he managed in the same spell last season, but the Swede only finished in the top 10 once more in the final 11 rounds.
He is keen to avoid a repeat of that drop-off in 2025 and quell a current run of consecutive finishes outside the top 10.
“It’s been ironic in that way. It has been a little bit of copy/paste from last year so far,” Rosenqvist said. “We had two tough weekends after Indy - Detroit and St. Louis. I think in general we’ve been quicker though. We had more pace to show - been pretty good both qualifying and race.
“I’m not super worried about it. It’s a tough time for everyone. The crews are working really hard; just a lot of back-to-back stuff, have an Iowa test coming up. You want to keep that balance, keeping everyone happy and sharp - not only drivers but mechanics and engineers and stuff.
“It was a little learning lesson last year. I think we’re in good shape.”
