Pit strategy is how teams plan when to stop and what to do while they’re in the pits. The goal is to keep the car fast and in the best position when the race restarts.
A caution is when the race slows down because of something unsafe on track, like an accident. When that happens, cars get closer together and teams often adjust their pit plans.
IndyCar uses a hybrid setup that adds extra energy/power on top of the regular engine. If there’s a hybrid problem, the car may not perform as strongly and can lose time quickly.
Boost is extra pressure from the turbo that helps the engine make more power. Turning it up means the engine is set to produce more power for qualifying.
Engine trim is like adjusting the engine’s settings so it runs the way the team wants. For qualifying, teams tweak it to help the car make its best power.
Fast 15 is the qualifying cutoff. If you’re in the top 15, you get to keep going for a better starting spot; if you’re not, your qualifying is basically over.
Fast 12 is the next step in Indy 500 qualifying. The cars that qualify into it get another chance to set times, and only the best from there move on again.
Fast 6 is the final qualifying round that decides the very front of the starting grid. The best six cars get one more chance, and that’s where pole position is determined.
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Indycar Dad Podcast: Welcome to the IndyCarDad podcast. The big news this week is the Indy GP was wild. Man, it was everything I love in an IndyCar race. We had that late race pass for the lead. We had all the different pit strategies going on, which meant fast cars were buried in the back of the field and they were charging to the front.
⁓ Palo and Kirkwood were battling it out. was great. Scott Dixon charging through, loved it. There were cautions. There were cars going airborne, cars. Braking drivers going off track and rejoining.
I was just I Loved it. I loved it. Loved it. There was even that first corner first lap mayhem that always makes it interesting this race had ⁓ Even had people running into each other before the start finish line on the first lap It was also beautiful weather.
I was at the race. The attendance was strong. There's a surprise winner It was really just a great Indy car race It's races like these that remind you that IndyCar puts out a great product so and that there's nothing wrong with a mostly spec series like IndyCar when the cars are fast the drivers are Highly skilled and the racing is great.
So I really liked it. All right. Let's look at some of the results Christian Lundgaard won the race in fine style I mean he hunted down David Malukis for that win and that late race pass was beautiful.
So Graham Rayall was third. That's the second podium this year for Graham. He's looking really good. Joseph Newgarden was fourth, not usually a strong road course contender these last couple years. So it was nice to see Joe New up there.
Alex Palo made it up to fifth. Scott Dixon, who was involved in a first turn, first lap incident and his car had to be like pulled apart from Caillou Collette's car, ends up finishing sixth, which was just an amazing Iceman type performance where he just charged from the back They had all these crazy pit strategies and it just really worked out for him smart team over there Louis Foster was seventh Dennis Hauger got his Dale coin car up to eighth place Fantastic, Kyle Kirkwood was looking strong there, but he ended up ninth and Nolan Siegel got his first tap 10 of the year So great top 10 never would have predicted it.
I don't know how your fantasy league did but mine was all over the place So and great Let's do winners and losers. always say the winners think people that had it go right and losers, maybe not so right.
So Christian Lundgaard is obviously a winner. He's actually a two time winner and he's won races for two different teams for Rahal Letterman and for McLaren. I think it's a contract year too for Christian Lundgaard.
So it's looking pretty good, my friend. So also everyone in the top five of this race really showed some great survival skills. You know, it's such a mayhem filled race. that it's nice to see those people go on.
Scott Dixon, I've already mentioned that I really found his performance ⁓ really amazing. And Dennis Hogger, to get eighth place in that Dale Coin car in his rookie year is really nice. ⁓ Also winners in this race, the fans.
It was great racing, it was great weather, and it was lots of fun. It was just a great day to be at the track. So, hate to do losers, but you know, that's part of what the news is about. ECR, man, Ed Carpenter racing, whew.
Man, their cars finished last and second to last. DFL and 2DFL. So that's rare even for the worst teams in IndyCar to pull that off. So an ECR is a well-funded team. it's sad. I know that Rossi's car supposedly was a hybrid problem.
I don't know what happened with Rasmussen, but not good. So and the other losers, the Swedes. My guy Felix had a bad turn one and then later got wrapped up into something that wasn't his fault. Marcus Erickson ended the race with a mechanical problem.
So not a great day for the Swedes. So what's next? This is an exciting week. So we have some great things coming up. It's Indy 500 practice all week. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from noon to I think about 6 PM there's practice.
Tuesday has some like refreshers and things thrown in there. And then later in the afternoon, it's just open skate. Wednesdays open skate, Thursdays open skate. Friday is called frass Friday and that's because they turn up the boost and make more power for the cars in qualifying ⁓ engine trim So they try that out on Friday Get the car set up for qualifying that we trim in the cars out making them absolutely as fast and dangerous as possible on Friday because Saturday qualifying starts 830 a.m.
Is a practice on Saturday, but between 11 and 5 p.m. Is the qualify And that will set who gets into the fast 15 new fast new fast 15. We'll talk about that and who ends up position 16 through 33. So 16 through 33 is set.
If you don't if you're not in the top 15 on Saturday, you're done. You're done qualifying. If you do make it in the top 15. Here's how it's going to work on Sunday. So on Sunday starting at 1 there's a practice but at 4 p.m.
is whole day and there's three segments I'll explain it's not like anything they've done before so it's all new so the first segment takes six cars these are the 10th 11th 12 13 14th and 15 fastest cars from Saturday and they're gonna run them three of those cars the three fastest will be put into the top 12 the fast 12 the other three cars are gonna have positions 13 14 and 15 on the grid does that make sense so they take six cars three cars go out and they do four lap qualifying runs so the slowest car first second slowest third slowest they go out and do four lap qualifying runs so then three cars of those six are going to go into the fast 12 which comes up next so their cars aren't going to have a lot of time to cool down they're also going to run the slowest cars.
So those three cars will be going out first in the Fast 12. Again, not an advantage, but they run the Fast 12, four laps each. So that's plenty of time. It's going to take a while. And then the fastest six of those cars go into the Fast 6.
That will be segment three. The Fast 6 shoot it out for positions one through six, including the pole. So Sunday should be very exciting. That starts at 4 PM. That's on Fox. I think they expect it to take two hours total to go through.
So we don't have a bump day. So they're adding this extra segment in. Sounds pretty exciting. I'm willing to go with it now that I know how it works. Seems pretty good to me. I don't think the cars that squeak into the top 12, Fast 12, are going to have much of a chance to advance any further than that.
But once you know that, you know, you can see a car that made it squeaked into the top Fast 12. And if they end up qualifying like eighth or even get in the Fast Six, you'll know that they got something special.
So, that's it for the news. I want to say thank you to everyone who saw me at the track and said hello. I always send these videos say, hey, if you see me at the track, say hi, I'm friendly. But you know what?
Who else is friendly? You guys are friendly. So if you do see me at the track, say hello. I'll be at a lot of races this year, including the 500, of course. I'll be at Detroit as well. And the list keeps growing.
So I'm IndycarDad, thanks for listening to my podcast. Also, you can follow me on social media. I'm IndycarDad. And actually I got on Stingray Rob's Instagram this week because I made Stingray Rob a Stingray robe.
It was a big robe with a Stingray and he really liked it. And I gave it to him in person and they, someone from the social media team got video of that and put it out there and put my name to it. So that was very nice to them.
So. ⁓ Great, thanks again everybody, see you next week.
About this episode
After a chaotic Indy GP, the hosts recap the top finishers and pivot to what’s next at Indy 500 qualifying. They break down the format step by step—starting with “frass Friday,” when teams turn up the boost for more qualifying power. Then they explain the Fast 15 cutoff, the Fast 12 round where cars don’t have much time to cool down, and the Fast 6 shootout that decides positions one through six, including the pole.
The IndyCarDad podcast discusses the thrilling Indy GP race, highlighting the winners and losers, and provides a detailed overview of the upcoming Indy 500 practice and qualifying events.
