Best/ Worst of Times for Chevy in Detroit

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Welcome back to the sadly not long for this world renaissance center here in Detroit, Michigan for coverage of day two of the Indie Cars here at Detroit as well as the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship 100minut knockdown slugout beat him up race uh that we just saw uh take place here on the streets of Detroit. So, if you enjoy coverage of either or or both of those things, uh be sure to like the video, comment, and subscribe. Uh those are the most important things you can do to support the channel. Uh today was quite interesting. I mentioned that IMSA race.

[00:00:37]We'll have a little bit of IMSA coverage a little bit later in this video. Uh but it was wild, particularly in the GTD category where if you've kind of followed along with some of my coverage of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship recently, there's been a lot of talk about driving standards. And I don't know if the driving standards were lower than they were in the final 20 minutes of that race. Uh we'll talk about that a little bit later. Uh but what is kind of interesting that has come out of uh today's IMSA race is that today was kind of the best of times and the worst of times for General Motors.

[00:01:10]The Renaissance Center that I stand in here was up until very recently the world headquarters of General Motors. Uh that is no longer the case. But uh GM had a bad day in Indie Car racing and a good day in IMSA. And for GM, they have uh this would today marks the first day that they have scored a win on the new version of the downtown Detroit uh street circuit. Uh they had actually been uh beaten every time, whether it's uh WeatherTech competition or uh in the Indie Cars by the Honda/acura brand. So a big day for GM. They're hoping to kind of complete the weekend tomorrow, but it's going to be quite a uh uphill battle as we'll kind of talk about through the rest of the video. Should also follow up on a story that we were talking about yesterday. Joseph New Garden uh injured at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the running of the Indianapolis 500. Uh continues to walk around in a a brace on his uh on his right foot, but I believe uh that Joseph will compete the rest of the weekend. uh he's been a little bit non-committal in his answers. He spoke to Jack Harvey of Fox Sports uh said essentially, hey, we we win and lose as a team, but didn't say, "Yeah, yeah, I'm totally going to finish the weekend." I think most of us expect that he will finish the the weekend. Despite the fact that Felipe Nasser is on standby duty if Joseph cannot go, but at this point, he's got a morning warm-up to get through and then of course uh the Detroit Grand Prix tomorrow, which is really going to be quite a test. And for Joseph, I don't know, you never want to, you know, comment about health. The the the thing that I would say is uh which I think was a great observation by Towns and Bell on on Fox today, which is the fact that Joseph has one of his better chances to get another win at Gateway, not at Detroit. And as you'll see with the race or with the qualifying results today, Joseph well down the field. So, what are you getting out of this? I guess we'll find out. But Joseph Newarten definitely one of those intriguing stories and I suppose will be until this injury heals.

[00:03:19]I I spoke about the worst of times for General Motors and the car that everybody kind of expected would be up at the front is up at the front. Alex Pollo on the pole in the Honda Honda which you know I'll be honest I think it's hilarious that they ran that livery here. Um it's petty. It it's it's it's stirring so to speak but I can't hate it. I think it's hilarious. uh and uh you know when you when you talk a little bit of smack you got to back it up and so the 10 car is going to start on the pole position but it's not going to be a shoein and I wanted to talk about the the strategy with Alex Pollo in particular because uh the the strategy as it is right now in Indie car racing in on the street courses is that you have to use two sets of the alternate tire. We know that Alex Pollo p prefers the harder black sidewall tire. Um, so I asked Alex, uh, we saw a little bit of conditions today seem to favor, um, the primary. Would you use the primary? And then with the yellow situation that we learned at the INDGP, the yellows are now going to be called a lot more consistent consistently. The pits are no longer be just going to be kept open willy-nilly. Uh, if it's a yellow, it's going to be a yellow. So, Alex answered both of those questions and hopefully it creates some intrigue about what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't know. I I think it's going to be a red race basically because of the rules of running to reds. Um I think if it was if we didn't have that rule, it would be different for sure. Like we saw um P on the five car like going on alternate on primaries in Q1 like you could see that he made it. So it's it's on speed there quite close. I think nobody knows what uh the tires feel like on like the 30 lap st. So I guess we'll see tomorrow a little bit in warm up but especially in the race. But um honestly I have no idea and that's a very honest answer. Like it's going to be red because we're forced to run two reds but otherwise I think it would be like 50/50.

[00:05:20]>> Will also brought up a good point about the the change to the yellow flag procedure. One of the things one of the advantages that you guys have had has been stretching the the sequences. Now every time you do that that is going to be a risk. So how do you manage the race tomorrow knowing that a yellow could come out at any time?

[00:05:35]Uh like honestly even until now we we didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know if it was going to be a yellow or if they were going to wait. So it was like trying to anticipate of what somebody else was going to think. Now at least it's clear uh it might be it might not be a benefit for us in the next two races but on the long term I think it's going to be a benefit for everybody. not only the tank car, I think for everybody uh when everything is consistent and it's the same for everyone on the long term, it's going to be better. Um just so we don't have to be guessing. So like it was quite clear on drivers um briefing or meeting that if there's uh another um debris like we had at Indoor entry of turn seven, a big one in the middle of the track, that's going to be a yellow. So now we know, you could see that there was only like four or five cars in Indoor spitting and we didn't know. It was like should we pitch should we not pit like I think it's better to avoid confusions but um yeah to wheels spo um it's going to be a little bit worse for the people that is leading um now it's going to be beneficial to just go crazy pit early and hope for a yellow um but at least it's going to be the same for everyone >> so let's take a look at that starting grid Alex Pollo on the pole position for his 16th career poll his third pole position in a row but crucial to understand that the last two pole positions he scored have not resulted in a win. But the last time he started on the poll at Detroit, it did. Will Power on the outside nearly scored his first poll since the oval at Gateway last year. Will Power always so strong in these street courses as well as Andredy Global. Will Power be able to break through in his first win for Andredy tomorrow? We'll have to see. Scott McLaughlin leads the bow tie brigade.

[00:07:25]Leads team Pensky number three, position three for car number three. Scott McLaughlin, that's where he finished for the Indy500. Scott Dixon on the outside uh looking for his first win of the season. He's been a little bit behind Pollo this year. We'll see if he can step it up. Christian Lungard lost an engine in the morning practice session.

[00:07:45]One of several Chevys to lose engines today, but he recovered with a backup engine and put it fifth on the starting grid. had the fastest McLaren in the field. Kyle Kirkwood rounds out that fast six. He's always so good here on the street courses. He probably would have been much higher up the field uh but had a couple of screw-ups in qualifying. PTO Award who just loves the Detroit street course is in the seventh position alongside Marcus Armstrong who was leading on the final restart at Indie. Christian Rasmusen with a great qualifying effort for ECR will lead off the inside of row number five alongside Marcus Ericson, the slowest of the Andretti cars, but all three of them are in the top 10. Louisie Foster, great qualifying effort. Will start alongside his teammate Graham Ray Hall. Ray Hall, Letterman Lanigan, uh on row six. Nolan Seagull in 13th, quietly continuing his pretty decent season so far. Alexander Rossy playing hurt alongside of him.

[00:08:36]Dennis Hoger's the fastest rookie in the field alongside the IND500 winner Felix Rosenquist on eight. Row nine is Kein Simpson alongside Rian VK who's also on a secondary engine because he blew one up in the morning warm-up. Kaio Klette alongside Roman Grojan in row 10. Row 11, Joseph Neward. Of course, I mentioned a couple of times he's playing hurt alongside the second place finisher of last year, Santino Fucci. And then we get into the uh the real tough part of the grid, Mick Schumacher crashed during qualifying. He starts 23rd. Stingray Rob lost an engine in the morning warm-up.

[00:09:08]He starts 24th. And David Malucas had the biggest crash of the weekend so far, and he will roll from last place in a backup car. So, that's a tough situation for David Malucas. Let's talk a little bit of IMSA before we get into the Indie Car preview. Um, really, uh, it was a tale of, if you look at the box score, the two cars that were on the poll, which were the number 31 wheel and engineering Cadillac and the number three Corvette racing or Prattton Miller by Corvette racing uh, machine won the race. It's a double up for General Motors. The first time they've done that since Long Beach in 2018. the first time they've done it here on the streets of Detroit. Um, but uh the race itself was pretty much anything but that. Well, not in GTP. Uh, Wheel and Engineering absolutely had it covered all day. Uh, they led essentially the entire race wire towire. Uh, Earl Bamber and Jack Aken winning that. It's their seventh podium in a row, by the way. Some great stats coming from IMSA. seventh podium in a row. Uh going all the way back to their win at Indie last year, which of course they then backed up at Petite Lama, a back-to-back win to end the season. The number 31 really kind of the gold standard right now uh in IMSA. Uh they also took tires, interestingly enough, uh when no other GTP car was able to on their pit stop. Of course, the one pit stop strategy here on a 100minute race that is so important. But it is very curious that you know you you hear so much about the Michelin tires.

[00:10:35]They've changed them this year from last year where cold tires aren't as big of a penalty as they used to be. So the fact that uh the Wheelan team chose to change right side tires uh shows what kind of an advantage they have, but also the confidence they have in the new design of the tire that they weren't going to lose too much time. And clearly they didn't. Um, the real story uh was uh GTD. We'll talk really quick about the winners. Number three Corvette, Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia. Uh they're the first uh this the first time a Corvette has won in Detroit. And this is a stat that I love a lot because I get to talk about 2008 Alms. Uh the first time a Corvette has won in Detroit since 2008 Bell Isle ALMs. That was the GT1 Corvette. So a very very long time ago. I think Andredy Green racing with I think Frank Montagnney won overall uh with an LMP2 Acura. So, it's been a little while since that happened. Um but the quote of the day was from Antonio Garcia who finished the race for Corvette. And he described the the racing at the end of the race like Mario Kart. And I would say the best example of that is the fact that the FAF motorsport car, which was essentially running last all day, finished second after there was just tremendous amounts of contact. Way more than I kind of expected there to be, believe it or not.

[00:11:53]I mean, last year, yes, was RG Bargie times a million. But the fact that you had Rexi go into the wall with Nick Tandy and that set up a restart or actually a yellow flag in which then Jack Hawksworth under the yellow hit the back of Antonio Garcia's Corvette and and then that was a penalized. So Hawksworth was taken out of the running.

[00:12:14]Then uh then the second Corvette, the number four moved in the breaking zone uh in the path of the second Lexus of Aaron Titz. There was contact there. the McLaren of Ray Hall Letterman Lanigan came from about 20 stories back and took out one of the Mustangs. It was it was about as wild there at the end uh as I've seen at an IMSA race. Um and and here we are right back to the driving standards question that really kind of became raised uh when I covered Road America last year. It just seemed like it was getting out of hand. And I get that this is Detroit and it's a a track that's very very hard to pass on, but uh that was GT Demolition Derby, not GTD Pro today. Um so we'll see what happens.

[00:12:57]Uh the WeatherTech cars are back on track at Watkins Glenn for the 6 hours.

[00:13:01]Of course, they take a break here for the 24 hours of Lama here in the next couple of weeks. So I'll certainly be tuned into that. Not going this year. Um I think I'm planning on going back to Lama next year. Uh but some of the teams from the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship are going. Ironically enough, Wheel and Engineering is not one of those teams. For the first time in several years, but if you want to cheer for a Cadillac that's out of IMSA, Wayne Taylor Racing is uh going back for the second year uh consecutively. So, I don't know. I I think this is going to be one race from now on that the at least the GT teams and probably some of the prototype teams don't look forward to very much because of the crash damage bill uh that comes out of it. Speaking of of damaged goods, boy, uh Chevrolet right now on the Indie car side has got to get something going here because uh obviously they had a lot of mechanical failures at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Indy500. Uh and they've had a couple of spectacular engine uh expirations this weekend here on home soil. And this is something that I I kind of realized in the post Indy500 examination when we were talking about fuel mileage and the fact that the Honda gets a way better fuel mileage and that seems to really affect uh you know it seems to just be a huge advantage to the IN500. And while I was thinking about that, I said, "Uh-oh, there's a there's a development freeze in 2027. Not a lot of us are talking about that, but in 2027, the 2.2 L engines you're not going to be able to touch anymore." So, if Chevy has not only a fuel mileage problem, which we know they do on the Super Speedways, but now some reliability issues starting to creep up towards the end of the lifespan of this 2.2 L engine. Um, I hope you get that solved before 2027 because um this could be something that we we just kind of experience for two years and uh that could be a story line to really keep an eye on. So, we'll certainly be keeping an eye on it throughout the rest of the season. Uh, is it is it are you we just assuming that Alex Po is going to win tomorrow? I think all things being equal, he probably does. Um, but this is Detroit and not a lot of things are equal here.

[00:15:07]It seems like this race will get turned upside down several times. I think most of us are expecting a lot of yellows tomorrow as is kind of tradition at Detroit. So, we'll see. Thank you guys so much for watching coverage of course of the Indie Car Grand Prix tomorrow.

[00:15:21]Thank you guys so much for watching and sticking with me from the Renaissance Center here in Detroit. This has been David Land and I'll see you tomorrow evening for coverage of the Indie Cars.