The first visit to a road course of the season, after two races on street circuits. The complex Barber Motorsports Parkin Alabama, was the scene of the third date on the calendar of IndyCarcategory that arrived at the appointment wrapped by the scandal that splashed the legendary Penske team in the season premiere: far from being entangled by the sanctions applied, Scott McLaughlin, driver of the team that received the punishment, won in a vibrant finale.
Agustín Canapino, from Juncos Hollinger Racing, had a messy performance: A mistake on pit road and a touch that led to a penalty were the situations that sank him to 20th place in the classifier. A race with multiple yellow flags and an unusual act, such as the fall from a bridge of a doll, whose name is Georgina, one of the several decorative figures such as lions, spiders, ants… that are presented in the gigantic park in which the place the circuit.
A qualifying in which the car did not feel good relegated Canapino to twentieth place. The No. 78 car had proven to be more reliable in training, although the man from Reef reported that a certain discomfort invaded him. He Warm-up placed him ninth, a position that could offer expectations for performance during the 90 demanding laps of the circuit of 17 curves, some challenging, blind, where errors are paid for with mistakes, jumps or hits against the containment barriers. The start had some rough patches between the last cars in the peloton and the Titan He came out successful, a sign of the difficulties that the route would teach him.
From an acceptable start, with soft tires, the tangles and a couple of overtaking maneuvers – on Alexander Rossi (Arrow-McLaren) and the rookie Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) – allowed him to climb to 14th place. A progress that he was enthusiastic about, although from the second stop in the pits the situation began to get complicated and, surely, the error in the next stop undermined his confidence. The yellow flag that the race management ordered for the departure of the left rear wheel of Rossi’s car, due to a poor adjustment in the spare, shook up the task in the pit-lane. Canapino made the entrance and, at the moment he applied the power to restart the march, he lost control of the car and almost missed Blomqvist and his mechanics..
Unusual moment of the race: the fall of the Georgina doll
The tension that the fight to climb in the classifier showed in different sectors of the platoon had an unusual passage, when The mannequin that is part of the circuit decoration fell off the bridge that crosses the track: the doll fell next to the asphalt strip and one of the cars was unable to avoid it and cut off its left hand.. The new neutralization altered the strategies and the race had three types of planning to achieve victory. While several chose to return to the pitsothers remained on the track, among them Canapino. The Argentine advanced to fifth place, with 16 laps to go.
The tactic indicated a last pass through the pits, which specialists speculated to be minimal time. He lost ten positions, although the aspiration to climb positions was intact. Until the collapse came: the ambition to surpass Christian Rasmussen (Ed Carpenter Racing) condemned him to a bad calculation and when braking he collided with the Dane’s car.. The error was penalized and Canapino fell to 22nd position, with 11 laps to go: the opportunities to advance were diluted and the checkered flag found him twentieth, the same place from which he started 90 laps before. The worst finisher of the three dates and also of the exhibition race in Thermal, California, where he was tenth.
“A car that was fast with red tires. The team did a great job with the strategy, but unfortunately I made a mistake leaving the pit, for which I apologize. Then I received a penalty that I don’t agree with at all, because they hit me like that last year and they didn’t punish me. A shame because the car was ready to fight. top-ten”said Canapino, disenchanted by a lost opportunity to make an important harvest of points. “Many yellow flags, unusual on this circuit, and we risked a three-stop strategy with the No. 78 car. It was working very well, but we had complications. It wasn’t the position we expected, because the car was fast. We did not have a good balance in the classification“, was the analysis of Ricardo Juncos, owner of the team, about the reef’s task.
The summary of the race in Barber
In the battle for victory, the last restart, with two laps to go, found McLaughlin and Will Power, two of the three Team Penske drivers who were sanctioned, in a head-to-head battle. In the duel between New Zealanders, the first one won, which marked the pole and was disqualified at the premiere in St. Petersburg, where he had finished third; In that first event of the year, the winner was Josef Newgarden, who was also punished for illegally using the system Push to Pass and lost first place. A scandal that did not alter the calendar, although it takes credit away from IndyCar: the owner of the team that was suspected is Roger Penske, owner of the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
IndyCar will enter the most hectic and legendary month on the calendar: the next event will be on May 11, with the Indianapolis Road Course, a unique preview for the legendary Indianapolis 500, which will be run two weeks later.