INDYCAR at Sao Paul: One hot mess

The INDYCAR Series loaded up their gear onto planes and flew south last weekend to put on a race at one of the most exciting street courses in the world in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And while this year’s version of the race had amazing potential, Mother Nature found a way to turn it into just a typical, crazy wet race.

Sao Paulo produced some very exciting and *interesting* action last year due to a fantastic layout with some very iffy pavement. This year, however, the diamond-grinders were put to use before the race cars went on track, and the table was set for some very exciting racing. While not very technical, the Sao Paula track has two long straightaways that provide passing opportunities. This track is the absolute antithesis the “gorgeous” facilities like Barber Motorsports Park the have scenic and interesting layouts without many opportunities to pass. In my book, “gorgeous” is ok, but more often I’d prefer the “non-technical with a lot of passing” tracks. I don’t necessarily desire 84 meaningless passes for the lead like NASCAR had at Talladega this year, but I digress.

Sunday’s start was odd. The field came to the green flat on slicks. At the exact same time, rain began falling heavily all around the circuit. It was odd watching every car dive for the pits before actually completing a lap, but there was hope that a wet race would provide some interesting racing. And as the TV guys from VERSUS kept saying, rain is supposed to be “the great equalizer”. They forgot to mention that rain can also just be really, really wet. It was so wet on Sunday that the pair of Iitapava sponsored cars (the same title sponsor of the race) driven by the Brazilian duo of Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan had early contact that put them out of contention. To make things worse, the rain storm became a monsoon. And due to the dangerous and almost impossible racing conditions, the officials postponed the race until Monday morning.

So fast-forwarding to Monday, I was sitting in the left lane on the 605 freeway during my morning commute to work while the race was wrapping up. All I could hope was that my trusty DirecTV DVR was capturing all of the action and mayhem going on. And boy did it catch some eye-candy. Sato’s pass for the lead on the outside of row one during a restart was the highlight (although totally meaningless in the outcome of the race), while all around the course crashes and spins were breaking out like wildfire. And while a lot was going on at the front of the field, it was all just for show. Marco Andretti drove his heart out. Takumo Sato made an incredible pass. EJ Viso actually led the race! But none of it mattered in the end. The race came down to strategy, and guess who won?

Penske. Imagine that.

Will Power found himself in the lead after watching the field in front of him burn too much fuel, and crash too many cars to win. Power patiently rode around in fifth or sixth place most of the race waiting for the front runners to cycle through their final pit stops as he saved fuel. Like a surgeon with a scalpel, Power ran a precise Monday strategy and showed that he can win with pure speed, and also win with savvy. So while most of the field was just a hot mess, Power was cool as usual.

Graham Rahal and Ryan Briscoe also followed suit on Monday, both finishing on the podium behind Power. Rahal honestly looked terrible all day. He was passed left and right by most of the field, and he even spun out late in the race. But his pit strategy paid off, much like Briscoe’s.

Wet races can either be incredible or incredibly bad. And as I sit here sipping some medium-grade scotch and thinking about this year’s race, I would say that this year’s race at Sao Paulo leans more toward the incredibly bad category. However, INDYCAR is committed to this race (and apparently a second Brazillian race), so let hope that three is a charm for everyone involved there, especially the fans.

On a closing note, it’s May. It’s time for the road course wings to come off, for the yellow shirts to yell at the rowdy bunch, and for the Indy 500 to mark it’s 100th year as an American icon. This does not suck.