INDYCAR: Canapino’s early crash, Daly’s stand-in effort headline Iowa weekend
by William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: Diario Expres
Agustin Canapino finished last for the 1st time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at Iowa Speedway when his #78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet crashed out without completing any of the race’s 250 laps.
The finish came in Canapino’s 26th series start. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the fifth for the #78, the 115th for Chevrolet, and the 230th due to damage-related reasons.
Though in only his second season of IndyCar racing for one of the field’s smallest teams, most IndyCar fans are likely aware of the name Agustin Canapino. Familiarity with the name first came in fall 2022, when rumors first began percolating that Canapino would be the make-or-break driver for a potential second Juncos Hollinger entry in 2023. When that came to fruition, a pair of impressive twelfth-place finishes in his first two contests – staying out of trouble at St. Petersburg and Texas while also showing good pace – prompted some to look into the Argentine’s extensive racing record in his homeland. That included boatloads of success in touring cars and also the occasional venture to neighboring Brazil, where he notched two wins in stock car competition there.
However, his third race brought a different sort of attention. A controversial call by JHR not to pit teammate Callum Ilott during a caution to bring the #77 on the lead lap while keeping Canapino out near the front of the field led to a situation where Canapino crashed trying to lap Ilott on the restart. After the race, a subset of Canapino fans sent public and private death threats to Ilott, leading both IndyCar and JHR to issue statements asking for civility online. The results and online fervor cooled throughout the summer, though Canapino posted good results on street circuits at Detroit (14th) and Toronto (12th). During the season finale at Laguna Seca, Canapino and Ilott once again found themselves battling, though this time it was late in the race and inside the Top Ten. There, Canapino slid into Ilott and eventually finished 14th. The death threats from the fans came back, and many viewed the response from both Canapino and JHR to be noncommittal at best and abandonment at worst. A difference in viewpoints over the situation eventually caused Ilott and JHR to split in the offseason with one year remaining on his contract.
Despite previous funding from the Argentine government no longer available for 2024, JHR kept Canapino in the seat of the #78. He posted a string of results between 15th and 22nd in the first five races of the season, broken only by a tenth at the Thermal exhibition. At Detroit, Canapino was once again impressive, finishing 12th. However, he was victim of a dive bomb by Theo Pourchaire at one point in the race, although both drivers soldiered on relatively unimpeded. Threatening messages from fans returned for a third time, egged on by ‘likes’ that Canapino made on posts most would describe as derogatory. Like the second instance, the third also had significant implications. Due to what it viewed as inaction by the team over the situation, Arrow McLaren terminated the alliance it made with JHR in advance of the 2024 season. The controversy carried on several days, to the point where Canapino was still mentally embroiled in the scandal by the time cars took to the track at Road America. Team executives made the choice to pull him out of the car and put Nolan Siegel in for the race. While Canapino returned to the car for the next race at Laguna Seca, there were questions about his future in IndyCar. It also indirectly led to Nolan Siegel getting signed by Arrow McLaren shortly after the Road America race.
As expected, Katherine Legge was announced as the driver of Dale Coyne Racing’s #51 car for the Iowa doubleheader in the week leading up to the race. Somewhat surprisingly, she was only announced for Iowa and not for the remaining ovals. Other than that, the IndyCar entry list seemed to be headed for an apparent lull, as the only other change was a scheduled one. Ed Carpenter began in earnest his oval-heavy back half of the season, taking the reins of the #20 from Christian Rasmussen.
Despite only running ovals for the past decade, Carpenter has at times recently struggled to find pace when driving a part-time schedule. His was the slowest car in the weekend’s only practice session - 1.1 seconds off session leader Scott McLaughlin and a tenth off 26th-place Kyffin Simpson. Canapino showed a surprising amount of pace, finishing seventh on the charts. Jack Harvey, battling neck and back spasms, was 22nd.
In qualifying for Race 1 of the Iowa doubleheader, which was simply the first lap of a regular single-car, two-lap oval qualifying round for each car, the field shook up a bit from practice times. Carpenter jumped from 27th to 25th, while Simpson, making his first IndyCar short oval start, fell to last place. Canapino slipped to 17th but was still four spots better than teammate Romain Grosjean.
At the start, Harvey elected to drop to the rear of the field in a planned start-and-park effort. He would rather not have raced due to his pain, but that decision was reached after the practice session. A clause in the IndyCar rulebook states that in order for a driver to start a race, they must have participated in one of the prior sessions that weekend. Although Conor Daly was flown in with a seat to replace Harvey, there was not enough time in between stage teardown from the prerace concerts and the start of the race to get him in the car for a shakedown session.
On the opening lap, and in the middle of Turns 1 and 2, David Malukas dropped his left-side wheels under the white line and onto the apron. Malukas started 14th and was in his second race of the season after recovering from a wrist injury sustained mountain biking in the offseason. His Meyer Shank Racing car spun around, and while Canapino slowed and drifted high to avoid it, the #78 was caught up in the carnage as both slid towards the outside wall on the exit of Turn 2. Grosjean barreled into the action as well, clipping both cars but continuing on. Behind them, Christian Lundgaard spun trying to avoid them and sustained damage as well.
The damage was terminal for both Malukas and Canapino. Harvey drove through the ensuing caution period, then retired. Grosjean was only able to muster 48 laps with his damage. Alex Palou crashed on the front straightaway on Lap 176, rounding out the Bottom Five.
Jack Harvey is helped from his car after completing 28 laps of Saturday’s race. PHOTO: Autosport
RACE 1 BOTTOM FIVE
27) #78-Agustin Canapino / 0 laps / crash
26) #66-David Malukas / 0 laps / crash
25) #18-Jack Harvey / 28 laps / retired
24) #77-Romain Grosjean / 48 laps / damage
23) #10-Alex Palou / 175 laps / crash
While several teams were up late into the night repairing cars, another race awaited on Sunday. Conor Daly was able to get on track for a shakedown, making him eligible to drive the #18 in the race. It was the latest in what has been a long journey since being released from the Ed Carpenter Racing #20 car in the middle of last season. Daly spent time with Meyer Shank Racing as a sub for the injured Simon Pagenaud and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as a sub for, ironically, the released Jack Harvey. He also drove sparingly in Nitrocross for Dreyer & Reinbold, and had a couple of NASCAR outings after a part-time Cup deal with The Money Team evaporated. During the offseason, he chased a full-time NASCAR Truck ride but was denied. An Indiana boy at heart, he linked with Dreyer & Reinbold again for the Indianapolis 500. After facing some adversity in the lead-up to the race, including a plenum event in qualifying, he used an off-sequence strategy to nab a top-ten finish.
Since there was a driver swap in the #18 entry, Daly was forced to start from the rear of the field. However, he made up several positions at the start of the race, moving to 24th by the end of the opening lap. Carpenter was last at the end of the first lap before passing Pietro Fittipaldi. In a race with little passing, Fittipaldi settled into last place and was not lapped before the first pit stop of the race on Lap 85.
The pit stop was Daly’s. He slid into last place for about ten laps until Marcus Ericsson inherited the spot following a pit stop. Last place then turned over to Canapino after this stop. To add insult to injury, Canapino spun coming out of the pits and caused a caution. He went multiple laps down in the process. It was a sucker punch after the early disappointment the day prior, as the Argentine had not logged a Bottom Five finish this year before the Iowa weekend. He continued on as the reshuffled Bottom Five of himself, Ericsson, Legge, Daly and Fittipaldi set out on the next green-flag run.
Daly, however, made a pit stop on Lap 141, and was soon shown getting out of the car. No further details were provided besides some speculation that it perhaps had to do with the engine.
The last-place finish was the sixth of Daly’s career. It came in his 101st career start and was his first since Portland in 2022, 29 races ago. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the 26th for the #18, the 116th for Honda, and the third for a general ‘mechanical’ reason.
Felix Rosenqvist and Canapino also fell out with mechanical issues. Legge and Ericsson, both two laps down at the finish, rounded out the Bottom Five. The scary last-lap incident involving Alexander Rossi, Sting Ray Robb, Kyle Kirkwood and Carpenter did not impact the Bottom Five standings as all cars involved were either on the lead lap or only one lap down at the time of the crash.
RACE 2 BOTTOM FIVE
27) #18-Conor Daly / 140 laps / mechanical
26) #60-Felix Rosenqvist / 184 laps / suspension
25) #78-Agustin Canapino / 221 laps / mechanical
24) #51-Katherine Legge / 248 laps / running
23) #28-Marcus Ericsson / 248 laps / running
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Agustin Canapino is the first driver from Argentina to finish last in the NTT IndyCar Series (1996-present).
*A Meyer Shank Racing car finished 26th in both races of the doubleheader.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #18 on an oval since Ed Jones crashed out of the 2021 Gateway race after two laps.
2024 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS STANDINGS (AFTER 11 RACES)
1st) Honda (6)
2nd) Chevrolet (5)
2024 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS STANDINGS (AFTER 11 RACES)
1st) Chip Ganassi Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing (2)
2nd) A.J. Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske (1)
2024 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS STANDINGS (AFTER 11 RACES)
