Postcards from the Paddock - Detroit

With the Indianapolis 500 in the rear view mirror, I was back on the road last weekend for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. It was my first trip to the new downtown venue and my first opportunity to work with the folks from RACER alongside my usual IndyCar Radio duties which, combined with a couple of chaotic races, made for a memorable event!

I arrived on Thursday afternoon and spent most of the day exploring every nook and cranny of the track. There are a few touchstone locations you need to know at every circuit: the media center, the pit lane, the paddock, etc. At a traditional track these are usually easy to locate but street courses tend to be more convoluted. The circuit designer is often repurposing space from a limited number of options, which means convenience can't be counted on.

The media center at the Detroit track, for example, was located in one of the towers in the Renaissance Center, which required walking through multiple parking garages and winding your way through the labyrinthine skyscraper any time you needed to attend a press conference, grab lunch, or get results sheets. On the bright side the facilities were as well appointed as any purpose-built race track and the view was undeniably better than most but it did mean committing at minimum 20 minutes round trip any time you wanted to make your way there from the paddock.

I used Thursday to learn my way around the venue. I'll often go so far as to time myself going from the paddock to the media center or the pit lane to the TV compound so that I know what to expect if I need to get somewhere in a pinch later in the weekend. With the help of the event volunteers, who were undeniably some of the friendliest and most helpful I have ever encountered, I felt like I had a good sense of the place by the time work began in earnest on Friday.

I had no radio duties until Saturday in Detroit which allowed me to focus on my additional role for the weekend helping RACER with their on-site video coverage. I've long been a consumer of RACER's content, I've subscribed to the magazine since 2013 and frequented their website at least as long, which made it all the more special to be asked to contribute. Especially enjoyable was the chance to do longer interviews than I'm used to on live radio. Talking to Felix Rosenqvist post-race about a voiceless Helio Castroneves (see the video below) stands out as a prime example of the fun that can be had in a longer, more relaxed format. I'm grateful so many folks were understanding and willing to play along!

My sincerest thanks go out to the team at RACER and CoForce for being so supportive and fun to work with. I'd especially like to thank Molly Binks from RACER whose help was invaluable in coordinating the weekend as well as Nick Leo who shot and edited the videos and put up with me learning the format on the fly. Thanks as well to Paul Pfanner, RACER president and executive publisher, for putting his faith in me to stand in for the weekend while Marshall Pruett, absent from the track, was tending to far more important matters at home.

By Saturday the weekend returned to a normal rhythm as I jumped back into IndyCar Radio mode with most of the video work wrapped up. The tone for the race was set in the practice sessions and into qualifying with tempers flaring in the close-quarters of the 1.7-mile course. It's merely speculation but I do wonder if the fact that the series is coming off of three weeks of near-constant track activity in Indianapolis also contributed to the heightened tensions that were on display in Detroit. The fatigue in the paddock after Indy was palpable; not only is the Month of May physically exhausting, it is emotionally draining. Taken together, it probably helps explain the short fuses that were on display last weekend.

That the races were full of chaos came as no surprise. A tight track with limited passing opportunities and even less room for a mistake is a recipe for the kind of races we saw last weekend. Throw in multi-class racing in the case of IMSA and a little rain in the IndyCar race and the resulting antics were predictable. Credit where credit is due, the up-and-comers of Indy NXT proved a thoroughly entertaining and largely clean race could be had given the right amount of respect and circumspection.

Three individual performances stood out to me from the weekend. In the IMSA race Saturday, Ricky Taylor's incisive pass for the lead in the final 30 minutes was a masterclass of street course racecraft. That it resulted in the first win for the team's flagship No. 10 car since 2022 made it all the more sweet. In Indy NXT, Myles Rowe atoned for his qualifying miscue to drive to fourth from nineteenth on the grid. His charge displayed the kind of controlled aggression that belies the fact that it was only his fifth race in the series. And from the IndyCar race, Marcus Armstrong's ability to emulate, if not totally match, his teammate Scott Dixon's combination of speed and fuel economy en route to his first career podium was proof positive that the 2023 Rookie of the Year has taken another big step forward in his development.

With Detroit in the books, my season has hit a milestone of sorts. Last weekend marked the midpoint in a run of fourteen consecutive weekends calling races, the longest such streak in my career. This stretch, which started back at Long Beach in April, includes stops at some of the most special places in the sport: Monaco, Sebring, Indy, Watkins Glen, Spa-Francorchamps, and London. I'm still not entirely sure how it all came together but I'm very grateful for the opportunities my employers have given me to somehow make that previous sentence a reality rather than a pipe dream.

While the mid-season fatigue is undoubtedly starting to set in, my enthusiasm to chase this wonderful sport around the world has never been greater and I hope it shines through when you watch, listen, or read my work. Right now I'm enjoying a couple of days at home recharging the proverbial batteries but in just a few days I'll be heading up the road to my favorite road course on the continent in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the next IndyCar event. Looking forward to talking to you from Road America this weekend!