2023 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey

Race Notes

• The 2023 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey was 95 laps on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca road course totaling 212.61 miles.
• The pit road speed limit was 45 mph and the race started the third time past the start-finish line. Pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist gridded drivers' left.
• All cars but those of Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Graham Rahal, Kyle Kirkwood, David Malukas, Sting Ray Robb, Devlin DeFrancesco and Helio Castroneves started the race on Firestone Firehawk primary black tires. Each car was required to use one set of new alternate red tires and once set of primary black tires during the race.
• At 12:15 p.m. PDT, the ambient temperature was 72 degrees with 62% humidity and fair skies. The track temperature was 116 degrees according to Firestone engineers.
• At 12:19 p.m., content creator Truitt Batton gave the command, "Drivers, start your engines." All cars fired and rolled off the grid.
• On Lap 1, Rosenqvist led the field into Turn 1. There was a multi car incident in Turn 2 involving the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet of Newgarden, the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Scott Dixon, the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda of Graham Rahal, the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet of Rinus VeeKay and the No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda of Juri Vips. The race's first caution was five laps in duration and resulted in Rahal's retirement from the race. Dixon and Christian Lundgaard were later penalized for avoidable contact and made to serve drive-through penalties.
• The race restarted at the conclusion of Lap 6 with Rosenqvist continuing to lead. However, approaching Turn 11 on Lap 7, Palou challenged for and than took the lead from Rosenqvist with a pass through the final turn.
• Palou was scored the leader and went on to lead a race-high 51 laps, including during four more of the race's eight total cautions.
  • On Lap 8, the Newgarden's car spun and made contact with the Turn 4 barrier. Leaders at the time of the race's second full-course were Palou, Will Power, Rosenqvist, Pato O'Ward and Dixon. The caution lasted for three laps.
  • On Lap 29, the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Rosenqvist and the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Marcus Ericsson came together in Turn 2 bringing out a seven-lap caution period. Notably, Palou pitted just before the caution began which allowed Herta to take the lead on Lap 29. Herta, who had not yet stopped, was forced to pit under caution which returned the lead to Palou.
  • The restart on Lap 36 was foiled when multiple cars came together in Turn 11, bringing out the fourth full-course caution on Lap 37. The No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda of Castroneves, the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet of Will Power, the No. 55 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of Benjamin Pedersen and the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Callum Ilott were all involved in the incident. The caution period was four laps in duration and the race restarted on Lap 41.
  • The fifth full-course caution period began on Lap 58 when contact sent the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda of Malukas and the No. 29 Andretti Autosport Honda of Devlin DeFrancesco off course at Turn 3. Palou pitted under this caution, promoting Pato O'Ward to the race lead on Lap 59.
• With O'Ward out front, the race restarted at the conclusion of Lap 62 but was quickly back to yellow due both the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda of Tom Blomqvist and the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of Santino Ferrucci being off course after contact with other cars in Turn 11. The caution lasted for four laps, during which Dixon, Marcus Armstrong and Christian Lundgaard made their final pit stops on Lap 64.
• O'Ward led the field again on the Lap 67 restart, but like the previous attempt, a full-course caution came out immediately, this time for Ericsson and the No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Armstrong which were stopped on course in Turn 11. The leaders at the start of the caution were O'Ward, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Romain Grosjean, Alexander Rossi and DeFrancesco. The race's seventh caution, it was five laps in duration with Hunter-Reay and Rossi making pit stops on Lap 71.
• O'Ward led the field on the Lap 72 restart and was passed by Grosjean for the lead entering Turn 1. Grosjean went on to make contact with Herta, sending the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda into the tire barrier in Turn 3. The incident brought out the race's eighth and final caution on Lap 75 during which Grosjean and O'Ward pitted. The stops promoted Dixon to the race lead.
• Dixon led the field on the Lap 78 restart and easily led the final 20 laps of the race, taking the white flag with a 5.8405-second lead over McLaughlin.
• Dixon took the checkered flag with a 7.3170-second margin of victory, securing his third victory of 2023 and the 56th victory of his NTT IndyCar Series career. It also marked Dixon's first win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
• The result marked Dixon's fifth podium, 10th top-five finish and 15th top-10 finish of the season.
• McLaughlin finished second, his fourth podium finish of the season and the 12th top-three result of his career.
• Palou finished third and ended the season with 656 points. He clinched the series championship following the previous round at Portland International Raceway.
• Armstrong finished eighth, his fifth top-10 finish of 2023. He ended the season with 214 points, enough to secure Rookie of the Year honors. He bested Agustin Canapino by 34 points.
• Official points after the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey:
  1. Palou 656
  2. Dixon 578
  3. McLaughlin 488
  4. O'Ward 484
  5. Newgarden 479
  6. Ericsson 438
  7. Power 425
  8. Lundgaard 390
  9. Rossi 375
  10. Herta 356
  11. Kirkwood 352
  12. Rosenqvist 324
  13. Grosjean 296
  14. VeeKay 277
  15. Rahal 276
  16. Callum Ilott 266
  17. David Malukas 265
  18. Helio Castroneves 217
  19. Santino Ferrucci 214
  20. Marcus Armstrong 214
      

Session Notes

• The start of morning warm-up was placed on hold due to fog covering the racetrack .
• The fog cleared enough to start the session at 9:41 a.m. PDT but INDYCAR determined it would be checkered at 9:50 a.m. in order to maintain the integrity of the remainder of the day's schedule.
• While there were no red flags during warm-up, two drive-through penalties were issued for improper pit entry or exit. The drivers impacted were Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson.
• Kyle Kirkwood ended the short session with the fastest lap, a 1:07.8939 in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda.
  

Qualifying Notes

• Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award consists of three segments. In the first round, each group receives 10 minutes of track time with the clock starting when the first car hits the alternate start-finish line. The fastest six cars from each group advance to Round 2 while the remaining cars are assigned positions 13 to 27. Group 1 drivers will occupy the odd-numbered positions while Group 2 drivers will occupy the even-numbered positions based on their fastest lap times. During Round 2, the 12 advancing cars receive 10 minutes of track time with the fastest six cars advancing to the Firestone Fast Six while the remaining cars are ranked in positions seven through 12 based on their fastest laps. During the Firestone Fast Six, the six cars receive six minutes of guaranteed green-flag time. At the end of session, cars are ranked one through six based on their fastest laps.
• Group 1 ran green until a red flag for the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet of Ryan Hunter-Reay, who spun and stopped on course in Turn 11. After resuming, all cars were given the opportunity to complete one timed lap.
• Group 2 was green for less than three minutes when the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda of Helio Castroneves went off course in Turn 3. With the clock stopped, the session resumed with more than seven minutes remaining.
• Round 2 was green through the checkered flag. After the flag, the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Pato O'Ward was stopped on course in Turn 4 after a spin.
• Hunter-Reay and Castroneves were stripped of their two fastest laps and the ability to advance for causing red flags. Since O'Ward's incident happened after time had expired, he caused a local yellow which stripped him of his fastest lap to that point.
• During Round 2, Christian Lundgaard set a new track record with a 1:06.4610 in the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.
• Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden advanced to the Firestone Fast Six.
• At the conclusion of Round 3, Rosenqvist's 1:06.6416 in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet earned the Swedish driver his second NTT P1 Award of 2023 and his fifth career NTT IndyCar Series pole.
  

Session Notes

• Practice 2 was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. PDT but was delayed due to rain and lightning earlier in the morning, which initially delayed Indy NXT qualifying. NTT IndyCar Series cars took to the track at 10:25 a.m. and the session ran for its full duration: 45 minutes of green-flag running or one hour, whichever came first.
• Like Practice 1, the weekend's second practice session featured red flags for off-track excursions:
  • Nine minutes after the green flag, the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Pato O'Ward went off course at Turn 3 and made left-front contact with the tire barrier. The resulting red flag was eight minutes long. O'Ward, who was not able able to continue in the session, was later checked and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit.
  • Seven minutes after the session's resumption, the red flag reappeared when the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet of Will Power spun and stopped at the top of Turn 8 also known as the Corkscrew. Power was able to drive his car back to the pits after being removed from the gravel by the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team. The red flag for Power's incident was five minutes in duration.
  • At 11:10 a.m., the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of Santino Ferrucci stopped on course in Turn 2 with smoke trailing from the car. The red flag lasted for 11 minutes causing the session to resume with just under four minutes remaining on the clock.
• All drivers involved in red flags were penalized five minutes of practice time.
• At the conclusion of practice, Christian Lundgaard was fastest with a 1:07.6154 in the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.
  

Session Notes

• Practice 1 for the 2023 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey started on time at 2:30 p.m. PDT and was scheduled to run for 75 minutes.
• Fifteen minutes after the green flag, the ambient temperature at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was 74 degrees. The track temperature was 124 degrees according to Firestone engineers.
• The session was slowed by five red flags:
  • At 3:02 p.m., the No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda of Romain Grosjean made contact with the tire barrier in Turn 4. The resulting red flag was 10 minutes in duration. Grosjean was later seen and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit.
  • At 3:15 p.m., the No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda of Juri Vips was stopped off course in Turn 6 with a reported engine issue. The second red flag was six minutes long.
  • At 3:24 p.m., the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet of Scott McLaughlin went off course in Turn 2 which caused a five-minute red flag.
  • At 3:34 p.m., the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Agustin Canapino who went off course in Turn 6. The red flag for this incident was 10 minutes in duration.
  • Four minutes before the scheduled end of the session, the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet of Will Power stopped on course in Turn 5 after running off course and making contact in Turn 4. The session did not resume. Power was later checked and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit.
• All four drivers involved in red flags were penalized five minutes of practice time.
• At the conclusion of Practice 1, Colton Herta was fastest with a 1:07.5382 in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda.