Detroit Sunday Morning Update
06/05/16 This morning, the weather is expected to ruin our perfect day. It has rained quite a bit through the night making things soggy and muddy today. The sun is peeking out now but rain is forecast to start by 11 am and continue through the end of the race.
Qualifying today is at 10:45 am with a different twist for the road course. The 2 groups that were set on Friday will be used for today's format. Group 2 will all go out first and will have 12 minutes, with a guaranteed 5 minutes of green time, to set a fast lap. Then Group 1 will go out for their 12 minutes. The pole position will be awarded to the best overall lap in Race 2 qualifying sessions. The remainder of the cars from the polesitter's qualifying group will occupy the odd-numbered positions on the starting grid, ranked by lap time, beginning with third. Even numbered starting positions will be filled by the other group, ranked by lap time, starting with second.
Yesterday for Race 1, we saw all the cars start the race on the red (alternate) tires, except for Carlos Munoz, the second place finisher at the Indy 500. And we saw pits stops start at lap 3 so the drivers could get the faster black (primary) tires on. In the final 20 laps, the teams were counting on the rain falling harder and making it necessary to switch to the wet tires. But is continued to drizzle lightly and resulted in Sebastien Bourdais and Conor Daly keeping their black tires on for the final pit stop, only taking on fuel.
Conor Daly, driving the #18 entry for Dale Coyne Racing, finished his best ever in IndyCar with a second place in Race 1. He commented on his final pit stop that got him out in second place, "I think the black tires are fantastic. We just kept going and got quicker and quicker every lap. It was really impressive. As the fuel went down, we keep getting rewarded with lap time. We were just pushing as hard as we could. I thought, Why change tires? They were still fine."
"Once the tires got hot, it was all about keeping them hot. I learned that racing in Europe in GP3. As long as you kept the tires hot, you did not have to pit, you could stay out. Tire heat was of the maximum. "
Sebastien Bourdais commented on his tires, "I think, honestly, the car was getting quicker and quicker. It's like the more I was pushing the car, the more I was getting out of it with these Firestone tires. To not be overdriving is the key."
This win moves Bourdais into him a tie with Bobby Unser for sixth all time wins. This win was his 35th career win for the 4 time champion.
More to come…
Lucille Dust reporting from Belle Isle