PREVIEW: Sonsio Grand Prix (Indy Road Course)

The IndyCar Series begins its biggest month of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, with this weekend being the standalone road course race at Indy for the first time since 2019. May coincides with a moment of controversy in the series, as Team Penske deals with the blowback stemming from the disqualifications of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin at St. Pete.

Two weeks ago at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, McLaughlin recovered from his lost third-place finish, taking back-to-back wins at the track and propelling himself from last to ninth in the championship standings. Colton Herta currently occupies the top spot in the standings, with Will Power and Alex Palou trailing one and two points behind, respectively.

Power and Simon Pagenaud have owned the road course at Indianapolis since IndyCar started racing on it in 2014, with the former claiming four victories at the track and the latter owning three. Pagenaud is no longer competing full time in IndyCar, but Palou is, who won this race in dominant fashion last year.

A Lap Around the Indianapolis Road Course

Built in 2000 to accommodate Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course measures just under 2.5 miles long. In addition to Formula 1, the road course has hosted MotoGP, autonomous racing, and various other series over the years.

Running clockwise opposite the oval, a lap around the road course begins with a trip down the 5/8 mile frontstretch, before taking drivers into a 90-degree right immediately followed by a long left that makes up Turns 1 and 2. Turn 3 is an arching right-hander which slowly brings drivers back around to another right-hander, the Turn 4, which presents another overtaking opportunity.

Turns 5 and 6 make up the now-infamous chicane that wreaked havoc amongst the NASCAR field in 2021’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the circuit. After the chicane comes the back straight, which splits the IMS infield in two, running just behind the NASCAR Cup Series garages.

The final part of the lap starts with the hard left of Turn 7 before drivers are swung back and forth with Turns 8 and 9. Then, it’s a right back onto the oval with Turns 10 and 11. Turns 12 and 13 slow drivers down before they make their way back onto the frontstretch, while Turn 14 swoops drivers right back to the finish line to complete the 2.439-mile lap.

3 Things to Watch For

Pourchaire Back With McLaren

While he won’t be with the team for the Indianapolis 500 in two weeks, Theo Pourchaire will occupy the No. 6 Chevy for Arrow McLaren this weekend on the road course and for the rest of the 2024 season following the 500, according to a Thursday press release from the team. The Frenchman completed an oval test last week at Gateway and received approval from IndyCar to race in all non-Indy oval races despite rain delays. Pourchaire finished 11th at Long Beach and 22nd at Barber earlier in the season with McLaren.

Newgarden, Penske Without Key Team Members

Earlier this week, Team Penske announced two-race suspensions for multiple senior race officials, including Team President Tim Cindric and Luke Mason, Josef Newgarden’s race engineer. These stemmed from disqualifications handed out to Newgarden and teammate Scott McLaughlin after both were found to have illegally used the push-to-pass system at the season opener in St. Petersburg. Newgarden and Will Power will be shorthanded on the stand for the Month of May.

Herta Holding on to Points Lead

Colton Herta currently holds a slim one-point advantage over Power in the standings after the first three races. One of four drivers to score a top 10 finish in every race so far, the California native goes into Indianapolis as a one-time winner at the Road Course. Despite that, Herta has just one top 10 in the Indy 500, that being a ninth-place finish in last year’s race.

Weekend Schedule and How to Watch

Practice 1: Friday, 5/10 – 9:30 a.m. EST/13:30 GMT on Peacock/Sky Sports F1

Practice 2: Friday, 5/10 – 1:10 p.m. EST/17:10 GMT on Peacock/Sky Sports F1

Qualifying: Friday, 5/10 – 2:30 p.m. EST/18:30 GMT on Peacock/Sky Sports F1 

Warmup: Saturday, 5/11 – 11:15 a.m. EST/15:15 GMT on Peacock/Sky Sports F1 

Sonsio Grand Prix: Sunday, 5/11 – 3:00 p.m. EST/19:00 GMT on NBC/Sky Sports F1 (Green flag at 3:45/19:45)

You can find a full list of IndyCar broadcasters outside of the United States and the United Kingdom here.

Follow Along with the Action

You can keep tabs on all of the weekend’s action by following @gabe_perrin and @thecheckerflag on X.