{"id":14763,"date":"2023-06-18T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=14763"},"modified":"2023-06-18T02:20:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T06:20:44","slug":"indycar-breaking-down-a-rough-and-rowdy-saturday-at-road-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/06\/18\/indycar-breaking-down-a-rough-and-rowdy-saturday-at-road-america\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar: Breaking Down a Rough and Rowdy Saturday at Road America"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Road America, this weekend&#8217;s stop for the IndyCar Series, tends to be a favorite for fans and drivers alike. On Saturday, for many drivers at least, that wasn&#8217;t the case.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indycar.com\/News\/2022\/11\/11-15-RA-Repave\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">With a freshly repaved surface<\/a>, the IndyCar field already knew they were in for something different at Road America Saturday. For the most part, it has been a (literally) smooth ride for all involved. That is, if you stay on track. Saturday showed that outside of the white lines, things can get rough.<\/p>\n<p>As a matter of fact, Team Penske&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Scott McLaughlin\u00a0<\/strong>foreshadowed yesterday&#8217;s turbulent event in a tweet last week following IndyCar testing at the track:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Turn 1 \/ Road America. <\/p>\n<p>Speed bumps on racetracks are bad.. flew car 85ft and put a hole in the underwing, but we good. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/thirsty3s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#thirsty3s<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rpNhYybYWq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rpNhYybYWq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/smclaughlin93\/status\/1666789691146792961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>(In case you were wondering, Scott is right. Speed bumps on racetracks are indeed bad.)<\/p>\n<h3>Power&#8217;s Troubles<\/h3>\n<p>But McLaughlin didn&#8217;t seem to have too many issues on Saturday in Elkhart Lake. Those issues transferred over to his teammate\u00a0<strong>Will Power<\/strong>. During the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/06\/17\/indycar-rossi-leads-red-flag-filled-second-practice\/\" target=\"_self\">second practice session<\/a> of the weekend yesterday morning, the Aussie was on the wrong end of a rare\u00a0<strong>Scott Dixon\u00a0<\/strong>blunder, as the Ganassi driver turned into Power&#8217;s line near Turn 12, sending both drivers into the concrete wall.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14775\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Scott Dixon and Will Power collide at Road America on Saturday. (James Black\/Penske Entertainment)\" width=\"553\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/06\/Will20Power20and20Scott20Dixon20-20Sonsio20Grand20Prix20at20Road20America20-20By_20James20Black_LargeImageWithoutWatermark_m84868-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 553px) 100vw, 553px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The incident prompted the return of the infamous &#8220;double bird&#8221; from Power, a gesture made famous at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/nascar\/2011\/8\/14\/2363064\/will-power-flips-off-indy-car-officials-new-hampshire-race-2011\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Hampshire<\/a> all the way back in 2011. The driver of the No. 12 proceeded to strut over to Dixon&#8217;s car, push the Kiwi around, and even kick the side of his N0. 9 machine.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Will Power was MAD at Scott Dixon.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at what led to their practice crash. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/INDYCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#INDYCAR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/si5KX5WGLD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/si5KX5WGLD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndyCaronNBC\/status\/1670110311192338433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>More Issues in Qualifying<\/h3>\n<p>It only got worse for Power later in the day. The reigning champ ran off track in the first round of qualifying, sending him for a bumpy ride in the grass, leading to a starting position of 22nd for today&#8217;s race.<\/p>\n<p>His interview on Peacock after the fact resulted in what can only be described as another infamous moment, as the 42-year-old blasted Road America for doing a &#8220;terrible job&#8221; at keeping the areas off the racing surface safe and called\u00a0<strong>Romain Grosjean\u00a0<\/strong>a &#8220;piece of crap&#8221; for a near miss in practice, calling for the Frenchman to be punched in the face.<\/p>\n<p>I can imagine most of us had better days than Will Power.<\/p>\n<h3>A Day Full of Spins<\/h3>\n<p>Power and Dixon weren&#8217;t the only ones handling the quick new surface at RA. Grosjean,\u00a0<strong>Ryan Hunter-Reay<\/strong>, pole winner\u00a0<strong>Colton Herta<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>Alex Palou\u00a0<\/strong>each had their own issues throughout the day.<\/p>\n<h5>Featured Image Credit: Travis Hinkle\/Penske Entertainment<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Road America, this weekend&#8217;s stop for the IndyCar Series, tends to be a favorite for fans and drivers alike. On Saturday, for many drivers at least, that wasn&#8217;t the case.\u00a0 With a freshly repaved surface, the IndyCar field already knew they were in for something different at Road America Saturday. For the most part, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4174,"featured_media":14776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,1663],"tags":[1154,634,319,169,237,1661,167],"class_list":["post-14763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-indycar","category-ntt-indycar-series","tag-colton-herta","tag-road-america","tag-romain-grosjean","tag-scott-dixon","tag-scott-mclaughlin","tag-sonsio-grand-prix-at-road-america","tag-will-power"],"modified_by":"Gabe Perrin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}