INDYCAR: Engine problems, not damage, sideline Christian Rasmussen in Detroit
by William Soquet, LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: Christian Rasmussen via Instagram
Christian Rasmussen finished last for the 2nd time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix on the streets of Detroit when his #20 GuyCare Chevrolet experienced an engine failure after completing 24 of the race’s 100 laps.
The finish came in Rasmussen’s sixth series start and was his first since Long Beach, four races ago. Across NTT IndyCar Series history, it was the 15th for the #20, the 114th for Chevrolet, and the 44th due to engine problems.
Rookie Christian Rasmussen has again seen the highs and lows of rookie life since his spin at Long Beach. After a solid midpack qualifying effort at Barber, he faded to 24th in the race. He was again mostly a nonfactor at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, hovering around 20th for most of the time. However, things turned around at the Indianapolis 500.
Rasmussen was shuffled to Carpenter’s third entry, but the prowess he showed on ovals in Indy NXT still shone through. After being caught in the massive shuffle that was qualifying on Saturday and starting midpack, Rasmussen used the right blend of tact and assertiveness to make moves throughout the race. He generally kept his nose clean and finished 12th, highest of all rookies. However, the voted Rookie of the Year award went to NASCAR star Kyle Larson, whose attempt at “The Double” was spoiled by rain. That brought Rasmussen to Detroit, the seventh of his twelve scheduled starts. It’s an odd year to be an IndyCar rookie only running road and street courses, as there are only three such races after the end of June.
The post-Indy 500 shuffle was very real in 2024. Meyer Shank Racing plucked rookie Tom Blomqvist out of the #66 on Wednesday, putting part owner Helio Castroneves in for Detroit and Road America. However, on Sunday, the television broadcast offhand mentioned that Blomqvist was out for the rest of the year. All of a sudden, the #66 became the next question mark for the 2024 season. The other main question mark also had some movement. Dale Coyne Racing filled its #51 with Tristan Vautier for the time being. It was the 2012 Indy Lights champ’s first start since 2017 – although his seat sat in the DCR hauler for many of the races during that time.
Opening free practice was a little bit of a nightmare for drivers trying to get an appropriate gap to get good laps. Vautier, stepping in for the first time in nearly 10 years, was slowest, although he was only a few tenths off his Coyne teammate Jack Harvey. The drivers swapped spots in second practice, as Vautier rose to 26th, a few tenths ahead of Harvey. Rasmussen was 18th in both practices, out of the 20s throughout the weekend.
Vautier drew Group 1 and Harvey Group 2. Both were again the slowest in their respective groups. Rasmussen was in Group 1 and performed admirably, placing seventh in the group and missing advancing to the Fast 12 by a mere tenth to the star of the weekend, Santino Ferrucci.
However, neither of the Coyne cars would take the final position on the grid Sunday. Kyffin Simpson’s team executed an engine change in the week between Indianapolis and Detroit. It was the fifth engine for the #4 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda for the 2024 season. IndyCar engine rules state that teams are supposed to use four engines to cover the approximately 10,000 miles of competition in the season. In Simpson’s case, his fifth engine change rendered his car no longer eligible to score manufacturers championship points. Worse, each engine additional change would result in a grid penalty. Thus, his 23rd-place qualifying effort turned into 27th following the penalty. Graham Rahal, also a Honda, also took a grid penalty for a fifth engine this week.
Simpson barely spent any time in last, however. The field took the green flag on the long straightaway between Turns 2 and 3 and immediately lost the ability to drive cleanly. The majority of drivers were unable to remember and execute this skill for more than a couple of laps until late in the race. In this opening instance, Theo Pourchaire decided too late to back out of a three-wide situation going into the hairpin. He tagged Will Power, who spun around and stopped perpendicular to the turn in the outside lane. Half a dozen cars stacked up beside him, and the caution waved.
As the field went back to green, Power lined up in last. He was 25 seconds back on Lap 6, three seconds back of Harvey. Power was then 28 seconds back on Lap 8 and closing on Vautier. Power made the pass on Lap 9 and never looked back, eventually finishing sixth.
At that point, it was Vautier’s time to run at the back of the field. He was 32 seconds back of Colton Herta on Lap 11 and 41 seconds back on Lap 15. Vautier was also losing touch with Power, falling more than five seconds in arrears. He noted postrace that the opening stint was run at a conservative pace to try and minimize tire degradation.
Meanwhile, Rasmussen gained two spots on the opening lap, going from 13th to 11th. He then quietly made passes on Alex Palou and Agustin Canapino to put him ninth.
The race shook up in a big way on Lap 16. Ferrucci, who was caught in the opening stackup, was running 20th. Coming down the hill into the left-hand Turn 5, he swung out to take an arc into the turn but clipped the car right in front of him, driven by Helio Castroneves. Castroneves spun to the inside of the apex, straight into the path of the oncoming Simpson. Both cars took time to untangle, re-fire, and be repaired. Castroneves broke a right-rear toe link and lost five laps over the course of the incident, and Simpson lost four.
The race went back to green on Lap 22. Castroneves was on his own lap, set to ride out the stint. However, a couple laps later, blue smoke started coming out of the right-side header of Rasmussen’s car. It was quite the unfortunate event, as he was running eighth at the time, a handful of spots above his teammate Rinus VeeKay. The promising run came to an untimely end, as Rasmussen pitted on Lap 25 and the team parked the car.
Mere laps later, the third caution period of the day started on Lap 33. It began an embarrassing 26-lap stretch where not one single complete green-flag lap was completed. From several hairpin incidents to botched officiating regarding weather and scoring lineups, it was a span of the race that answered any and all questions regarding why the viewership drop-off following the Indianapolis 500 is so steep.
Despite the pace car leading 45 laps of the race, Rasmussen was the only retiree. Josef Newgarden was 26th, a handful of laps down after the back end stepped out and he brushed the wall, leading to a broken back-end component that was fixed in the pits. Castroneves was 25th, Simpson 24th, and Romain Grosjean was 23rd after a day that pulled no punches, including having Christian Lundgaard’s car stacked on top of him at one point.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Rasmussen’s engine failure is the first last-place attributed to the engine since David Malukas at Nashville last year.
*Ed Carpenter Racing previously finished last at Belle Isle in 2018, when Spencer Pigot’s #21 fell out with suspension issues after 21 laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #20-Christian Rasmussen / 24 laps / engine
26) #2-Josef Newgarden / 94 laps / running
25) #66-Helio Castroneves / 95 laps / running
24) #4-Kyffin Simpson / 96 laps / running
23) #77-Romain Grosjean / 97 laps / running
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (4)
2nd) Honda (2)
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ed Carpenter Racing (2)
2nd) A.J. Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske (1)
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
