Scott Dixon scored his second victory of the IndyCar season in an incident-strewn race on the streets of Detroit.
A spate of collisions plus a mid-race shower caught out a string of drivers, giving Dixon the opportunity to rise from fifth on the grid to win.He dived for the pits during the sixth caution of the day, which came shortly after half-distance in the 100-lap race. The Ganassi driver resumed in 13th place, but aware he had enough fuel to run to the end, which he duly took advantage of, hit the front of the field when his rivals ahead pitted on lap 65.
Pole-winner Colton Herta led the early stages but took himself out of contention with a rash lunge on Dixon’s team mate Alex Palou at turn five. Only quick-thinking by series returnee Tristen Vautier ahead avoided a worse collision, while Palou dodged trouble entirely.
Marcus Ericsson took second ahead of Marcus Armstrong, who ran so low on fuel he came to a stop on his in lap after the chequered flag.
The race was punctuated by too many rash moves which often resulted in penalties. Scott McLaughlin, who spun out of victory contention early on, later knocked Sting Ray Robb into the wall. Kyle Kirkwood, the leader when Dixon made his race-winning pit stop, fell to fourth at the flag.
Next came three drivers who were all badly held up by a collision at the start: Alexander Rossi, Will Power and Pato O’Ward. Felix Rosenqvist took eighth ahead of Santino Ferrucci. Theo Pourchaire came 10th after clashing heavily with Agustin Canapino on the lap 60 restart.
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Romain Grosjean ran in the top three for Juncos Hollinger before being overtaken by Alexander Rossi at one of the restarts. He was later collected by Christian Lundgaard at turn three, which last year proved a major trouble spot. Grosjean’s head dropped after that clash and he finished three laps down in 23rd, telling his team at one stage: “I don’t care, the championship is done for me.”
He at least came in ahead of Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, who suffered a litany of misfortunes. One pit stop was ruined due to a problem with his refuelling rig and in another he sent a wheel gun flying as he left his pit box, in violation of the rules, injuring a Rahal Letterman Lanigan crew member. He came 26th.
Race result
| P. | No. | Driver | Team | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi | Honda |
| 2 | 23 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti | Honda |
| 3 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | Ganassi | Honda |
| 4 | 22 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti | Honda |
| 5 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 6 | 12 | Will Power | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 7 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 8 | 29 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 9 | 13 | Santino Ferrucci | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 10 | 6 | Theo Pourchaire | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 11 | 27 | Christian Lundgaard | RLL | Honda |
| 12 | 33 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 13 | 24 | Pietro Fittipaldi | RLL | Honda |
| 14 | 18 | Rinus VeeKay | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 15 | 14 | Graham Rahal | RLL | Honda |
| 16 | 10 | Alex Palou | Ganassi | Honda |
| 17 | 16 | Jack Harvey | Coyne | Honda |
| 18 | 28 | Tristan Vautier | Coyne/WR | Honda |
| 19 | 21 | Colton Herta | Andretti/Curb-Agajanian | Honda |
| 20 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 21 | 26 | Sting Ray Robb | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 22 | 8 | Linus Lundqvist | Ganassi | Honda |
| 23 | 32 | Romain Grosjean | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 24 | 4 | Kyffin Simpson | Ganassi | Honda |
| 25 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 26 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 27 | 25 | Christian Rasmussen | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
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Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
2nd June 2024, 20:39
That was a ridiculous race… Too long yellow flag periods, drivers bumping others like it was an arcade game…
Asd
2nd June 2024, 21:29
It’s called racing on a tight street circuit. It is not a procession.
But the long yellow when the rains was subsiding was strange. The rain itself was strange too.
DaveW (@dmw)
3rd June 2024, 12:26
For people complaining about the Monaco procession this was the alternative I suppose. Poor quality driving with poor judgment and lots of fuel management. Grass is always greener on the other side. I love close racing but watching people just drive into the side of another car like a video game lobby race is tiresome eventually.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
4th June 2024, 15:58
Another typical Indycar lottery.
bull mello (@bullmello)
2nd June 2024, 20:46
Glad for Dixon.
Much trouble in this race.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd June 2024, 3:57
Nice that they race at detroit, if I recall f1 raced there at senna\prost times at least, I wasn’t born yet, so I should probably check some full race from those times.
Chip Hilton
3rd June 2024, 4:13
I wish race reports would go back to using wreckage to describe what happens when cars collide. Carnage should be reserved for terrorist attacks, bomb dismemberments and the like.
Terrion (@terrion)
3rd June 2024, 6:56
Ferrucci being homophobic during practice
Herta binning it during the race
Everyone changing the tires to wet while yellow being so long they were able to return back to slicks
“Hey, diving on the inside of two cars into turn one is a great idea. I wonder why nobody tried that?” saying half of the field, then crashing
Power pitting 8 times, recieving 2 penalties. Still P6
Dixon winning by doing 47 laps while fuel should be enough for 35 laps
Peak indycar experience.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
3rd June 2024, 7:26
This race had everything the Monaco GP did not have. But this race was not an advertisement of the driver quality of Indycar, my goodness. I have seen bumper cars that made less contact.
MacLeod (@macleod)
3rd June 2024, 7:57
I couldn’t NOT agree with you that was sloppy and same niveau as FE :)
Doh
4th June 2024, 16:55
People call it poor quality driving and I can agree a little but I respect that they actually try to race instead of F1 drivers pointing around most of he time.
It’s not like F1 doesn’t have the occasional race where it all goes crazy. Including the last race.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
3rd June 2024, 8:44
Is the track not good enough for IndyCar, or are the drivers not good enough for the track? 47 out of 100 laps under FCY is not just troublesome, but outright unacceptable. Dixon played it smart, perhaps not the fastest driver anymore but easily the most clever and calculating. If he ends up winning the championship, it is down to outsmarting everyone else and simply doing the right things at the right time.
Mark in Florida
3rd June 2024, 16:39
I really, really dislike this track. It’s narrow and has a very poor layout. It’s so bumpy the cars keep getting tossed into the walls or each other. The background is dismal looking as well. They could film the walking dead episodes here it’s so empty. Roger Penske insisted on using this track instead of Belle Isle. Indy needs to do better than this. This was a race to promote American car manufacturers. It’s held in GMs backyard with the Rencen building in the background. But guess what Honda won the Indy race and the GTP race with Acura. This race was a joke. They need to get rid of it.
Alesici
3rd June 2024, 21:18
So true. To think they went from Belle Isle to this… One of the world’s best street circuits to one of the worst. It really made Indycar look pretty bad, which makes me sad. Still, Monaco was infinitely worse, and this weekend’s circuit is my fave of the year – Road America is the closest they have to Spa.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
4th June 2024, 8:03
I’d love to see these cars in Monaco though. That would be 50% yellows too, but at least a pretty backdrop!
Radoye
5th June 2024, 21:46
IndyCars at Monaco would be a blast!
skydiverian (@skydiverian)
4th June 2024, 8:16
@chrischrill it’s the layout. Technically restarts are after turn 2 so it’s turn 3 but one massive straight into a hairpin is asking for trouble, especially on a narrowish track. The Nashville street circuit had the same problem, the 2022 race ended with a shot of a flatbed lorry with at least 10 front wings that had disconnected for a car at some point during the race.
@Alesici / @Mark in Florida – I thought that Indycar we pushed to leave Belle Isle. Locals were organising a protest movement similar to the Formula E race in Battersea Park, basically they didn’t want it anymore and Indycar had to move the race somewhere. I’d prefer Michigan speedway but can accept that’s a pipe-dream in the current climate.
On re-reading the announcement of the race moving back to it’s downtown roots it’s spun in terms of downtown regeneration in agreement with the city council but with Penske and Chevrolet wanting a race in Detroit and a decent discussion about protests with the race being in the park, it can be read that they moved before they were pushed.
This article explains a good deal of the local sentiment regarding using Belle Isle for the race.
Don
3rd June 2024, 15:52
Ok, that was a street brawl on a crazy tight – short course. Yeah a ton of cautions, and way better than any F1 race. The last half was very good racing.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
4th June 2024, 16:02
Are you being serious? That race was a debacle.
Doh
4th June 2024, 16:58
And 9/10 F1 races aren’t? Most F1 races aren’t even races. Enjoy your gallery this Sunday
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
5th June 2024, 12:46
There must be a middle-ground between almost 50% of the race being under caution, or the top 10 all finishing where they started.
Monaco and Detroit were both awful races. IndyCar can produce fantastic racing and usually does, but you have to recognize that so many cautions is not, and will never be, fantastic.
Doh
5th June 2024, 18:41
You do realise there were also sprinkles of rain the contributes to it? F1 has had it’s fair share of similar races both wet and dry
Monaco wasn’t a race and Detroit was an outlier that’s perfectly acceptable as it’s an occasional thing in all motorsports.