IndyCar

Grosjean denied by McLaughlin at Barber despite gorgeous pass

by Jack Benyon
9 min read

Scott McLaughlin survived a second wheel-banging episode of the year with Romain Grosjean to take his first 2023 win at Barber for Team Penske, with Grosjean unable to convert a third IndyCar pole to victory despite a spectacular race performance.

The race traditionally encourages a two-stop strategy but a three-stopper can also be successful – usually if there’s a timely caution to help that work.

After Grosjean weathered early challenges from Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward, the three Penske-run cars of Josef Newgarden, McLaughlin and Will Power along with the Arrow McLaren duo of Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist committed to the three-stop on laps 13-15 of the 90-lap event.

Newgarden had complained of an issue with his right rear after he was hit by Rosenqvist on the first lap at Turn 2, from which Rosenqvist spun and went to the back of the field.

Despite that, Newgarden passed team-mate McLaughlin on his outlap after pitting from sixth on lap 13 of 90 and, liberated of any fuel saving, set about driving back into the top eight before the two-stoppers dived for the pits around lap 30.

Grosjean emerged from the pits – while O’Ward undercut Palou behind – about 22 seconds behind Newgarden, but Newgarden pitted shortly after being passed by McLaughlin on lap 37.

One lap later, Dale Coyne’s Sting Ray Robb pulled to the side of the road bringing out a yellow flag, and before the pace car came out, the leader McLaughlin and Alexander Rossi pitted from the top two spots.

Grosjean resumed the lead, having stayed out with nine laps on his tyres, but because McLaughlin didn’t have to do a full outlap like Newgarden, it was he who took second.

It was the second time of the year Grosjean and McLaughlin fought for the lead after St Petersburg where McLaughlin took Grosjean out, and Grosjean did a phenomenal job in holding McLaughlin – on used softs – at bay while running a full 30-lap stint on the hards.

But as Grosjean pitted, McLaughlin used his extra fuel to stay out and attempt rapid laps before pitting three laps after Grosjean.

He emerged just ahead of Grosjean and held him at bay for almost the whole lap until Grosjean waited for the last corner to absolutely send his car around the outside of Turn 13, taking the inside of Turn 14. The two touched, but McLaughlin gave Grosjean the room to stay on track and take the lead.

But, once his tyres were up to temperature, McLaughlin looked assured and rapid behind the ex-Formula 1 driver.

He finally pressured Grosjean into an error at Turn 5 on lap 72 and pulled away.

McLaughlin moves up to fourth in points with his first win of the year – Penske’s second after Newgarden at Texas, and Chevrolet’s second to evenly split the four 2023 races with Honda so far.

Reigning champion Power started 11th but stuck to his three-stop strategy and jumped into third at the end, aided by a combination of stunning laps in clean air before his final stop and O’Ward and Palou getting traffic.

He then erased a gap of 12 seconds to Grosjean, making use of his used softs compared to Grosjean’s new hards, but Grosjean held him at bay.

With two Penskes on the podium and one Andretti in the top 11, it’s clear Grosjean was the exception in his team – and the fact he was 19 seconds clear of the next-best two-stopper showed the strength of his drive.

O’Ward’s last-stop undercut gave him fourth ahead of Palou – although Palou pushed to overtake him until the last corner – while one of the stars of the race finished sixth.

That was ex-Renault/Alpine F1 junior Christian Lundgaard, who had shocked Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, diving past him at the last corner, Turn 14, with an epic move.

Lundgaard had ascended up the order thanks to being the only driver committing to the two-stop who went long on the hard tyre in the first stint. It marked easily Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s best result of the year.

Dixon narrowly fended off Rossi and Rosenqvist for seventh, with points leader Marcus Ericsson using his two-stop to round out the top 10.

Ericsson and Dixon’s Ganassi team-mate Marcus Armstrong should have qualified in the top 15 but lost his two fastest laps for an impeding penalty, but drove from 26th to 11th with a two-stop in the race on his first IndyCar permanent road-course appearance.

Newgarden finished 15th and called his car “evil” due to the contact on the first lap with Rosenqvist. He said it was drivable on fresh tyres but his left rear was being over-worked due to his handling issue.

“Pretty demoralising for the whole group,” he concluded.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 24 1h47m58.94s 1m08.494s 3 51
2 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 90 57 +1.785s 1m08.682s 2 44
3 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 3 +3.27s 1m07.802s 3 36
4 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +20.574s 1m09.239s 2 32
5 Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +20.976s 1m09.089s 2 30
6 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +23.532s 1m09.427s 2 28
7 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +24.277s 1m08.723s 2 26
8 Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +25.058s 1m08.597s 3 24
9 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +25.51s 1m08.43s 3 22
10 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +26.019s 1m08.938s 2 20
11 Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +28.552s 1m09.132s 2 19
12 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +36.366s 1m08.868s 2 18
13 Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +42.444s 1m08.675s 3 17
14 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +43.778s 1m08.695s 2 16
15 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 6 +45.734s 1m08.244s 3 16
16 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +55.111s 1m09.484s 2 14
17 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +56.442s 1m08.983s 3 13
18 Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +56.75s 1m09.513s 2 12
19 David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing/HMD Motorsports Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +57.765s 1m09.22s 3 11
20 Santino Ferrucci AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +58.51s 1m09.271s 3 10
21 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +1m0.084s 1m09.435s 2 9
22 Benjamin Pedersen AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +1m01.306s 1m09.133s 3 8
23 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +1m03.192s 1m09.721s 2 7
24 Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 90 0 +1m04.539s 1m09.72s 2 6
25 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +1m05.605s 1m08.446s 3 5
26 Agustín Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 90 0 +1m06.148s 1m09.403s 3 5
Sting Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 36 0 DNF 1m09.155s 2 5
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