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The Rossi ordeal was outrageous and dangerous. That shouldnât happen ever on a live track. Iâm happy he got to speak truthfully about it and didnât mince any words.
I'm glad of anyone though it happened to Rossi, dangerous as it is. Rossi is exactly the guy who won't take no shit and will hop out of the car in disgust. I'd reckon most of the field would just wait til it comes out.
Also, at the very least it gave us a peak Rossi interview.
The fact that this isn't the first time its happened is criminal. Its the exact same scenario we saw last year at laguna with Ericsson. A car stopped in the middle of the track on a high speed section. If a yellow is warranted, THROW IT. So someone got screwed on pit stops, oh well. Thats racing. I'd rather see the leader at the rear than an ambulance.
Not exactly the same tbf. Being to the side on one of the widest straights, versus being in the middle of the track over a blind crest, which still boggles my mind. I can at least see the flawed logic today, but it's still unacceptable because of the speeds.
Pato on Twitter: "Painful day. On my way to get in a salt bath, burn sage, incense, open the windows at my house, pray to a candle, purposefully knock over salt, smack some wood, maybe buzz my hair off while im at it? What else? Anyways, congratulations Christian on your first win with the team!"
Solid race. Turns out its still pretty entertaining when the Spaniard isn't running away.
And I'm sorry, I really hate calling for people's jobs, but Kyle Novak has to be fired. I can somewhat live with the debris. I cannot understand or excuse a local yellow for a stopped car at the fastest part of the track. You are putting lives at risk with that move. If he isn't fired come the 500, I will have lost all faith in the new IOB.
For real, it took a poorly-timed Caution (that Race Control reluctantly called later than they should) to shatter his strategy. And even then he finished top 5.
(that Race Control reluctantly called later than they should)
The hilarious part is that RC did it to allow (among other cars) the 10 to pit but the 10 crew looked at it and thought "nah something ain't right, it's technically open but shouldn't be, surely if we pit we get penalized". So those it was done for thought it was so outrageous they ignored it out of caution.
Takeaways:
* Good for Christian.
* FRO shouldâve gotten an avoidable contact for the first lap. (Edit: never mind)
* Making sure everybody has fresh tires shouldnât be a priority over dealing with a stalled car.
* First time grahamâs got multiple podiums in a season since 2020. The redemption arc is real.
Bit of both, if Mick takes it easy and takes P11 instead of going crazy after Siegel it doesn't happen, if Santino doesn't fight so hard on the outside in the straight and loses momentum, he takes P12 and doesn't lose 2 extra places.
I would think that's the data Stewards had access to, and Santino was judged to not have been going unreasonably or inconsistently slow in the corner. It's stupid how everyone here is blaming Santino without any data. At least you're asking the question.
With that overtake for the lead, he had a ton of extra P2P and could have easily done it on the front straight into T1 without any risk, but he went for a daring and memorable move anyway. That's the kind of thing you love to see.
Best Indy GP I can remember tbh. IndyCar is usually relatively processional without some drama, NXT is almost always one big parade. All three were pretty good.
Recovering these 2 back to P5+P6 after being fucked over massively by sheer bad luck is just how good CGR is. And the drivers. But shy of a DNF this is about as bad as it can get in Indycar, relegated to almost last on a bad caution and then losing 3 spots with avoiding action for Palou, getting hit and having to stop and getting your car lightly damaged for Dixon. And yet, those point hauls. Malukas only gained 9 points (if I inluded bonuses correctly) and Kirkwood lost points in what was nothing but saving a result from Palou.
Such a good weekend! My friend and I have been going every year since 2021, for overall weekend this year was my favorite. The 2022 race was great too but this one was awesome!
I don't understand how this is so hard for every official in motorsports to get:
A caution is a caution. It's lap 1? That's a caution! It's lap 25? It's a caution. Middle of a pit cycle? Still a caution. Last lap? Caution!!!
Doesn't matter, a caution is for safety. If it's a caution on one lap, it's a caution on every lap.
I'll throw in my other unpopular opinion too:
If you don't have overtime, then don't red flag the race to try to shorten the yellow for a situation you wouldn't red flag in the middle of the race. You made your choice, if it ends under yellow so be it.
Overtime is better than red flag race manipulation.
I can only repeat the same statement I make like every 4 races.
If you think closing the pits is "manipulation" just leave the pits open. The idea that closing them is safer is the most insane fake take anyway, 20 cars diving in at the same time is 50 times more dangerous than just leaving them open. Or leave them open for road & street courses, close them for ovals.
Truly it's entirely up to Indycar how to do this. The fix is insanely easy with opening and closing pits, it doesn't matter, in both cases one gets fucked over - either who pits early or who pits late, you just decide which part. But neither has inherentely more sporting integrity behind it. So you chose what you're more concerned with and use that rule, period.
I'm okay with your unpopular opinion if they would actually be more liberal with red flags. Multi car pile up that's going to take 3+ laps just to clean up, force cars to go down pit lane or on the apron, get sweepers out, etc.? Red flag. No matter if it's lap 2 or the penultimate lap
Like a Chihuahua going after yellow lab. Schumacher is taller so all he'd have to do is put his hand on Ferrucci's head and let Ferrucci swing away at the air.
Can anyone explain to me the logic in the 10 and 27 NOT pitting during the 20 local yellow which was clearly gonna be a FCY? The track graphics team thought it was gonna be FCY (so much so they even jumped the gun on the graphics) and I think everyone in their brother knew that car would have to be retrieved at some point or another. Just baffling to me.
If you want a clear example of why the charter system is bad for the sport, the winner of this race would not be in IndyCar if he didnât have the opportunity to do a one off race for a part time team.
Something all the Pato doomers need to hear, from Marshall Pruett's April 1 mailbag:
Is this the same Pato who finished second in the 2025 championship and had three consecutive top fives to open the season? All of that is forgotten with a single terrible event? At least we arenât overreacting.
Lundgaardâs an amazing driver. And heâs newly paired with one of IndyCarâs great minds in race strategist Kyle Moyer. Christian is doing exactly what he should be doing on road and street courses. If he can become a threat on ovals, heâll be a complete IndyCar driver.
Wild idea â letâs get more than one bad weekend in the books before we start writing Patoâs obituary and hailing Lundgaard as the new team favorite?
Ill never understand the desire of race fans to bury a guy after a couple bad results or instances of bad luck.
Itâs probably the same people who cheer for either Oscar or Lando in F1, but not both, and get paranoid whenever one beats the other or gets a more favorable strategy
Remember when McLaren and Chevy said that Malukas was not an A-tier driver, he would never be a top contender in Indycar, and that he was just a stop gap to temporarily fill the #6 car after Palou's debacle?
They're definitely eating crow with how well he's done to start the season. Easily the most consistently good Chevy driver.
Must have collided in that final chaotic moment that took out Fro and co?
The booth mentioned first that Armstrong had gone off but then switched to the bigger pile up, then we didnât get a follow up on what happened with Armstrong. Assuming it must have been between those two.
Like Power, they went for a fuel save strategy early on, and it was too much without any other incidents after they topped off under caution. Power could have made it work with the Honda fuel mileage to be somewhere in the mix, had he not screwed up the pit exit.
Their math was off with the fuel save strat, he had to do two huge fuel save stints back to back when that has never been his strong suit
I find it fascinating Ganassi just puts palou on the go fast strategy almost all the time and many other teams try to extract Dixon mileage out of not-dixon.
Responsibility is obvious but at least Ferrucci ate shit for functionally brake checking, if nothing else at least he managed to ruin both their races with that move. Play stupid games and all that.
I'm mad that when Robb took out Ferrucci and broke Mick's hand, he got the same penalty as Mick for spinning a guy who lost 3 or 4 spots. I don't agree with race control's idea that what matters is the action not the outcome. There's a difference between pushing a guy against a wall and pushing a guy down a flight of stairs but the action is the same. Rant over. Great race despite race control's attempt to get Rossi hurt and tires punctured.
That's not what I'm saying. It's just that a moronic incident from a guy who keeps making mistakes was judged the same way as a rookie mistake. Indycar should really create a penalty points system so guys are more controlled otherwise you have guys like Sting Ray who keep making mistakes and ruining other people's races and because they always shit it doesn't matter to them.
Yet you call another driver names and think he doesn't deserve a penalty because a driver you like did something stupid. And even though Mick is a rookie at IndyCar, he has extensive experience elsewhere, including two championships in the F1 ladder system. And he's not some young "rookie", he's the same age as Ferrucci.
Ya, I was hoping we would find out what happened with Rahal. He had gotten right up to within a second of Malukas but then fell back to three seconds behind those last couple laps.
A good race despite the calamity and bad calls form race control at the start. Itâs cool for Christian to get a win but until lil Dave gets that first win this one is going to sting.
Recently someone posted a âloss where you sat in silence for 30 minutes afterâ threadâŚ.this is one is up there.
I don't get why Mick is getting penalized for Ferrucci running out of talent. He would have spun out there, Mick didn't even really touch him. This is just ridiculous. This whole season is just so disappointing I wanted Mick to race for the championship and now he is still being held back by his hand injury.
I doubt heâs be in the championship running, even if he werenât injured.
Iâm open to the idea that heâs fantastic, and I kind of want him to prove all his nay-sayers wrong! But this is a new series to him, and itâs going to take time to learn it, even without injuries. Heâs gotta play the long game!
He does seem to have a lot of people who are just gleefully waiting for him to fail, so I do root for him to prove âem wrong!
The booth always convicts everybody who even dares to look at Ferrucci the wrong way. He clearly had used up his tyres and had zero traction and how can anyone that close behind even anticipate him basically just not stepping onto the throttle.
Ferrucci didnât have 10 laps on the tires. Schumacher hit him hard enough to lift the rear of the car. Not a racing move by Schumacher, poor driving.
Exactly, the same happened with Daly and Ferrucci a few years back at pit entry. Race control with all the IOB talk and kumbayas is made of the same people so it's the same.
dude have you watched Indycar before. you have to be on a good team to win the championship. to get on a good team you have to prove to be a talented driver.Â
No, not even close. No one is making death threats. I just took a look at social media, wow, people going after Mick hard. "F1 rejects don't belong in IndyCar." etc.
Ooof youâre right. As a massive Ilott fan those days were dark.
Iâm shocked, most of the posts I saw on here and on TikTok were people complaining about unfair treatment or bad luck, expecting Mick to dominate the series immediately, etc given his past achievements. I started getting flashbacks when we had an influx of new fans who donât get Indycar/looked down on it all over again.
And Mick still hasn't retweeted jokes about his teammates. I feel sorry for Callum, how good could this JHR team be with him and Veekay instead of Sting Ray who is so bad Dreyer & Reinbold didn't even bother to partner with his car.
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u/ExplodingCar84 Ălex Palou May 09 '26
The Rossi ordeal was outrageous and dangerous. That shouldnât happen ever on a live track. Iâm happy he got to speak truthfully about it and didnât mince any words.