Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | Chris Owens
The 2023 IndyCar season ended with a series of bangs at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, with 8 cautions over 35 of the 95 laps, and with the typically unchaotic Scott Dixon overcoming an avoidable contact penalty to take his third win in four races for Chip Ganassi Racing. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin survived two early incidents to bring his car home in second, while newly-crowned champion Alex Palou, who led 51 laps, had to settle for third after being caught out by one of the race’s numerous caution periods just before his pit window. Penske’s Will Power came in fourth while Callum Ilott equaled his and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s best finish ever in fifth, as virtually nobody made it out of the race unscathed.
Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca had been repaved just before this race weekend, and it had been causing numerous mishaps throughout the weekend. This pattern continued almost immediately on raceday, as multiple cars went off in multiple incidents in the first few corners: first Christian Lundgaard came together with McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, then–most severely–Marcus Armstrong, Juri Vips, and Graham Rahal made contact; while Vips and Rahal would be eliminated, Armstrong would recover to finish 9th and clinch Rookie of the Year honors. Slightly further up the road and slightly before the yellow flew, Dixon made contact with Rinus Veekay, causing the Dutchman to spin and the Kiwi to serve a drive-through penalty.
The green came back out on lap seven, and Alex Palou–who had moved up from fifth to third before the yellow came out–narrowly avoided disaster as he took the lead from polesitter Felix Rosenqvist, who then slid to third behind Will Power, one of the few drivers left who had started on alternate tires. While there was uncertainty over how long those red tires would last, Power kept them on for the first third of the race. Another yellow would come out on the following lap after Newgarden spun and hit the tires, but after the restart on lap 12, the race would stay green for another 18 laps, one of the longest stretches of the day.
Palou would build up an almost nine-second lead when Pato O’Ward pitted from second on lap 29. Palou came in next, but, in shrewd timing, just came in after Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson came together at the first hairpin, and right before the full course yellow was called, allowing him to maintain the lead. The restart came on lap 37 and ended almost immediately, as Power tagged Benjamin Pedersen, who sent Ilott and Helio Castroneves into the gravel. All would continue, though Power would be assessed a penalty for avoidable contact. On the restart at lap 42 Romain Grosjean, up to third, tried to move on both Palou and O’Ward, but ran too wide and lost a position.
The race would stay green as the next pit window opened up on lap 55, but on lap 58 O’Ward would receive the same turn of pitstop fate that Palou had earlier, as he came in just in time to beat a yellow when David Malukas and Devlin DeFrancesco came together, while Palou was forced to take his stop under yellow. Shuffled further back on the restart on lap 62, Palou’s race nearly met a disastrous end when he and Santino Ferrucci came together, but both cars would continue while Tom Blomqvist would also go off and not continue, bringing another full-course yellow.
The next restart was another brief one, on lap 68, as Armstrong and Ericsson came together and were stuck together at the nose for a short time before both cars dislodged and continued. The race restarted on lap 74 and the lead swapped as Grosjean pulled ahead of O’Ward heading into the first corner, and a lap later another yellow came out after Castroneves spun, hitting Colton Herta and taking him out of the race.
O’Ward and Grosjean pitted under yellow, but would not be a factor as, somewhat amazingly, there would be no more caution periods this race. Dixon, who had moved up from seventh to third on the previous restart, inherited the lead, and was unchallenged in the final stretch as he led the last 20 laps and won by over seven seconds from McLaughlin. Despite Honda taking the win–and two of the top three positions–engine change penalties resulted in Chevrolet overtaking Honda for the engine manufacturers’ title.
