Race Report: 2021 GMR Grand Prix

Session Notes:

• All cars but those of Romain Grosjean, Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Conor Daly, Ed Jones and Ryan Hunter-Reay started on Firestone Firehawk primary tires.
• Prior to the start of the race, the ambient temperature was 72 degrees under cloudy skies. The track temperature was 104 degrees according to Firestone engineers.
• While Grosjean led the field to the green, several cars went wide including Conor Daly in the No. 20 Chevrolet, who stalled and brought out the race's first and only full-course caution.
• Grosjean led a field high 44 laps before giving way to Rinus VeeKay, who went on to lead 33 laps including the final one.
• VeeKay's win marked his first NTT IndyCar Series victory. His first podium finish and NTT P1 Award were also at the IMS road course, in October 2020.
• VeeKay became the sixth-youngest winner in Indy car history at 20 years, 8 months and 3 days old.
• The last win for Ed Carpenter Racing was on July 10, 2016 when Josef Newgarden won at Iowa Speedway.
• Through five races this season, there have been three first-time IndyCar race winners: Palou, Pato O'Ward and VeeKay. The last time there were three or more first-time winners was 2013, when James Hinchcliffe, Mike Conway, Takuma Sato and Charlie Kimball all earned their first series victories.
• The series will begin practicing for the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on Tuesday, May 18.

Session Notes:

• Morning warm-up began under mostly cloudy skies and an ambient temperature of 69 degrees. According to Firestone engineers, the track temperature was 79 degrees.
• No major incidents occurred during the session, allowing it to run its entire 30-minute duration under green-flag conditions.
• While just over 0.3 seconds separated the top five, the field of 25 drivers covered 2.0024 seconds on the timesheet with Jimmie Johnson bringing up the rear in the No. 48 Honda.
• Next up for the NTT IndyCar Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the 85-lap race, set to go green Saturday, May 15 at 2:45 p.m. EDT with live coverage on NBC.

Session Notes:

• The six minutes of the Firestone Fast Six were completed without incident.
• At the conclusion of the session, Romain Grosjean's 1:09.4396 earned the former Formula One driver his first NTT IndyCar Series pole. Dale Coyne Racing's last pole came in 2018 with driver Sebastien Bourdais.
• Behind Grosjean, Josef Newgarden, Jack Harvey, Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin and Conor Daly will start in positions two through six.
• Daly made his first appearance in the Firestone Fast Six.

Session Notes:

• Round 2 began with an ambient temperature of 70 degrees and partly cloudy skies. The track temperature was 109.0 degrees according to Firestone engineers.
• Three minutes into the 10-minute session, Will Power caused a red flag when his car stopped off course near Turn 13. He was penalized his two fastest laps and the ability to advance to Round 3.
• Alex Palou, Jack Harvey, Romain Grosjean, Conor Daly, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden advanced to the Firestone Fast Six.

Session Notes:

• Group 2's 10 minutes ran without incident.
• Juan Pablo Montoya was assessed a penalty for qualifying interference, robbing him of his two fastest laps and his ability to advance to Round 2. He ended Group 2 with the 13th fastest lap.
• Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Conor Daly, Romain Grosjean and Will Power advanced to Round 2.

Session Notes:

• At the start of Round 1, the ambient temperature was 70 degrees with partly cloudy skies. The track temperature was 110.3 degrees according to Firestone engineers.
• No red flags occurred during Group 1 qualifying and no penalties were issued.
• Rinus VeeKay, Colton Herta, Ed Jones, Jack Harvey, Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud advanced to Round 2.

Session Notes:

• At the start of the session, the ambient temperature was 68 degrees with partly cloudy skies. The track temperature was 108.9 degrees according to Firestone engineers.
• Practice 2 ran for its entire 45-minute duration without any major incident and no need for a red-flag condition.
• The fastest driver of the session was Josef Newgarden with a 1:09.3323. He will have the option of selecting if his group goes first or second in the first round of knockout qualifying.
• Next up for the series in Indianapolis is qualifying including the Firestone Fast Six, set to begin at 4:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage on Peacock Premium.

Session Notes:

• Two cars on the entry list did not participate in the first practice session of the GMR Grand Prix race weekend:
  • Due to travel issues, Max Chilton is unavailable to race on Saturday prompting Carlin to withdraw the No. 59 Chevrolet from the event.
  • Alex Palou did not turn any laps in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda due to a team-reported water leak. The car was brought back to the paddock for repairs.
• A short 45-minute session, Practice 1 was punctuated by a single red flag when Sebastien Bourdais' No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet stopped on track due to a crew-reported electronics issue. The red-flag condition paused action for four minutes and Bourdais was issued a five-minute time penalty for causing the stoppage.
• A second five-minute time penalty was issued to Jimmie Johnson for completing a lap after the checkered flag. Johnson turned a session-high 22 laps in the No. 48 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
• At the conclusion of practice, Alexander Rossi's 1:09.8784 proved fastest while Bourdais, who only completed three laps, remained mired at the bottom of the timesheet.
• While just less than 0.3 seconds separated the top five, the gap grew to 0.6213 seconds for the top 10 and 1.0871 seconds for the top 20.
• Next up for the series in Indianapolis is Practice 2, set to go green at 1 p.m. EDT Friday with live coverage on Peacock Premium.