INDYCAR: Fittipaldi’s DQ headlines trio of last-place finishes at Thermal
By William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: F1mania.net
Pietro Fittipaldi, Romain Grosjean, and Colin Braun all took last in their respective races in IndyCar’s $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club.
Had the Challenge been a points-paying race, Fittipaldi’s disqualification would have been his third last-place finish and his first since Pocono in 2018. Grosjean’s crash in his heat would have been his second (first since Portland last year) and Braun’s finish would have been his first.
The Thermal Club hosted IndyCar’s first non-points paying race since 2008, when the tour made an appearance at Surfer’s Paradise in Australia. It came about as Texas Motor Speedway dropped off the schedule, leaving a six-week gap in between the first and second series events for the season. IndyCar conducted preseason testing at Thermal in 2023 and came back for a weekend of testing and a little bit of racing as well this year.
From St. Petersburg, the only change to the entry list in terms of drivers was courtesy of Dale Coyne Racing. Indy NXT driver Nolan Siegel stepped in the car for the first of his four events this season. Of note, Callum Ilott remained in Arrow McLaren’s #6 entry, as David Malukas remained sidelined with an injury sustained in the offseason.
Four testing sessions were held in advance of the weekend’s competitive action. At the end of it all, new A.J. Foyt Racing driver Sting Ray Robb anchored the charts. The Idahoan’s best lap was a 1:44:89, about a half-second slower than 26th-place Tom Blomqvist.
Drivers were divided into qualifying groups by random draw. Robb was significantly off the pace in Group 1, finishing a second and a half behind Kyle Kirkwood, the next closest car. Grosjean was seventh in Group 1. Braun was 12th in Group 2, and Fittipaldi was sixth.
On the initial start to Heat 1, Robb dropped back noticeably from the rest of the field. Colton Herta pulled out of line, and Scott Dixon followed suit immediately ahead. However, before their part of the field even reached the entry to Turn 1, Dixon bumped the rear end of Grosjean, who launched into the sand on driver’s left, did a full 360-degree turn and spun back on track into the apex of the corner, where he tagged Rinus VeeKay in the sidepod. The damage to both cars was enough to sideline each for the rest of the day. IndyCar classified Grosjean last. Dixon was served with a drive-through penalty for causing the incident, and he was the last car running in the heat. The sprint was shortened to eight laps due to time constraints.
HEAT 1 BOTTOM THREE
14) #77-Romain Grosjean / 0 laps / crash
13) #21-Rinus VeeKay / 0 laps / crash
12) #9-Scott Dixon / 8 laps / running
Andretti Autosport driver Marcus Ericsson started 13th and last in Heat 2, as his car suffered some damage in an incident on Saturday that needed to be repaired. He remained last through Turn 1, but then drew even with and passed Braun. From there, the action at the back was like the action at the front – nonexistent most of the time. At points, Braun pulled within a second of either Ericsson or Kyffin Simpson, but never advanced past 13th. He steadily lost time to the leaders as well, finishing 29 seconds in arrears at the end of the ten-lap heat. Despite that, he stayed in touch with the other cars the entire time, a big win for a driver that is still extremely green in the IndyCar circuit.
HEAT 2 BOTTOM THREE
13) #51-Colin Braun / 10 laps / running
12) #28-Marcus Ericsson / 10 laps / running
11) #4-Kyffin Simpson / 10 laps / running
Colton Herta was the sixth and final transfer car from Heat 1 to the main event. From the opening corner, Herta’s strategy became very clear: save tires for the first ten laps before the halftime break, then bust out in the second half. He aimed for about eight seconds slower per lap than leader Alex Palou. However, on Lap 3, Fittipaldi wound up dropping pace. It came to light that his team miscalculated the amount of fuel they needed for the race, and that he would not make it to the halftime break running full-out. On that same lap, his teammate Graham Rahal also reported issues. Rahal was running seventh when he complained of a stuck throttle. By Lap 8, Fittipaldi had dropped to such a slow pace that even Herta passed him, leaving the #30 last. In fact, the gap grew to almost 95 seconds between him and Palou.
However, Rahal made a dive to the pits late in the segment, saying that his sticking throttle was too much to handle. He retired the car, and that was seemingly the last-place battle. At the break, things went from bad to worse for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team. Fittipaldi was instructed to get out of the car by race control. He was disqualified for his team’s failure to fill the car full of fuel before the race. As such, Fittipaldi’s race was over and he was credited with 0 laps completed. The move puzzled some who watched, wondering why IndyCar would disqualify a midpack-at-best car during a made-for-television race with no points on the line. Regardless, things somehow managed to get even worse for the team during the halftime break. Christian Lundgaard sustained sidepod damage during the opening Heat 1 incident and had been nursing that damage for a while. However, work done to his car during the halftime break was deemed ‘emergency service’ by IndyCar officials, relegating him to the bottom of the running order to start Heat 2.
Agustin Canapino, a surprise qualifier into the main event, drifted back to the end of the running order during the second half of the event. It was simultaneously enough for an unofficial first top-ten in IndyCar and a spot in the Bottom Three since there were only 12 cars in the race.
MAIN EVENT BOTTOM THREE
12) #30-Pietro Fittipaldi / 0 laps / disqualified
11) #15-Graham Rahal / 8 laps / throttle
10) #78-Agustin Canapino / 20 laps / running
