After 16 races, 2,173 laps, and numerous warning intervals and bruised egos to match the highs of standing on the highest step of the rostrum, the 2022 NTT IndyCar Sequence comes all the way down to 95 laps at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, Calif. Will Energy enters the weekend with a 20-point lead on his nearest challenger, Workforce Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon. Behind them are Dixon’s CGR teammate, Marcus Ericsson, and the third Workforce Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin.
Energy want solely end third or higher to win the Astor Problem Cup for the second time in his profession however involves a observe that he completed twenty sixth ultimately 12 months. Not that any of the ultimate 5 had an awesome end result at Laguna in 2021, with Ericsson ending sixth, Newgarden seventh, McLaughlin twelfth and Dixon thirteenth as Colton Herta received the race from pole for the second 12 months in a row.
Nonetheless, Energy’s lack of success final 12 months, mixed with the truth that Workforce Penske made its remaining take a look at of the season at Portland Worldwide Raceway (which clearly labored out fairly effectively for them) whereas Chip Ganassi Racing selected to check at Laguna Seca, means the storage door actually appears open to somebody passing Energy for the crown — particularly with so many different drivers within the discipline of 25 needing to impress to both hold their present seat or discover one other one in 2023.
Find out how to watch the IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey
- Date: Sunday, Sept. 11
- Location: 2.238-mile (3.602-kilometer), 11-turn highway course; WeatherTech Raceway; Laguna Seca; Salinas, Calif.
- Time: 3 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC
- Stream: fuboTV (attempt free of charge)
What to anticipate
House to the well-known “Corkscrew,” Laguna Seca is the traditional North American highway course. Initially constructed in 1957 round a lake, which had dried up, there are actually two water-retaining ponds on the lowest elevation of the observe, which sports activities 300 toes (91 meters) of elevation change.
Springing out of the unique Pebble Seashore Street Races (1950-56), which had been deemed unsafe because the competitors speeds had been frequently climbing, Laguna Seca is assessed as a FIA Grade 2 circuit and has hosted all kinds of collection and racing, together with System 5000, IMSA, Can-Am, American Le Mans Sequence, CART, Tremendous Bike, and MotoGP, simply to call just a few.
The 8 and 8A flip complicated, often known as the “Corkscrew,” is likely one of the most difficult in motorsport, that includes a blind method to its entrance on the apex of a hill earlier than twisting down the bottom of the hill in an 18m drop that takes you left-right, then a brief chute to Rainey’s Curve (named after bike champion Wayne Rainey) at Flip 9, one other brief straight to a right-hander at Flip 10, and your abdomen often catching as much as you in some unspecified time in the future by the you attain the ultimate hairpin at Flip 11 that delivers you to the beginning/end line.
Laguna isn’t just in regards to the “Corkscrew,” although. The Flip 2 hairpin, often known as the “Andretti Hairpin,” is a tough and technical flip because of a double apex, and it additionally offers a possibility for passing.
Yet one more factor to bear in mind is that the pit stall assignments are handed out in keeping with the earlier race’s beginning grid, a giant issue for a pit lane that’s amongst the smallest the collection has on the calendar.
So McLaughlin, the pole-sitter at Portland, could have an unencumbered return to the observe on the pit field simply on the exit of pit lane.
