RTI REPORT

Whatever wasn’t working for Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti Autosport to open the Indy Lights season has been adequately addressed. Claiming one win from the first six races, the reigning Indy Pro 2000 champion has won five of the last six and moved to the top of the standings. Following a pair of wins to sweep Mid-Ohio, Kirkwood’s teammate Danial Frost — another rookie — helped himself with a pair of seconds as HMD/GRG’s David Malukas took a pair of thirds and his teammate Linus Lundqvist claimed a pair of fourths.

In Indy Pro 2000, Jay Howard’s Christian Rasmussen took a win and a P5 to extend his championship lead over Braden Eves, and Pabst Racing’s Hunter McElrea did good things with a P4 and a win to close the weekend.

And in USF2000, which has become a celebration of badass talent, Kiko Porto left with his championship lead, pole streak extended to five, and a win in the middle race for DEForce Racing while Cape Motorsports’ Michel d’Orlando won the first and third races to tighten the title battle.

We look to Lights for the next-generation stars, which makes sense, but don’t sleep on the remaining USF2000 races of 2021. The pool of talent is extremely deep.

MR. INVISIBLE

This award that nobody wants to win is often rather easy to hand out, but Mid-Ohio presented a few challenges. It seemed destined for Takuma Sato, but then he rallied somewhat to take P10, which wasn’t too far removed from his teammates. It makes Penske’s Simon Pagenaud a repeat winner of Mr. Invisible for being at the race, but not really in the race after qualifying P15, finishing P14, and watching his teammate Newgarden show what was possible by turning pole position into a dominant victory.

LEADERS CIRCLE

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s No. 45 entry piloted by Santino Ferrucci is up to P21 (127 points) in the Leaders Circle race, which doles out $1 million contracts to the top 22 entries at the end of the season. It’s his last race of the year, we’re told, so barring a change to those plans, or another skilled driver climbing into the No. 45, it will quickly fall out of the top 22.

Jones and his Vasser Sullivan team are on the bubble in the key Leaders Circle race, and this didn’t help… Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

That will ease the agita being experienced by Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan as its No. 18 entry driven by Ed Jones is currently on the bubble in P22 (125 points). Assuming the No. 45 will be out of the way after the next race or two, that would move the No. 18 up to P21 and promote the adversity-ridden No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP entry driven by Felix Rosenqvist up to P22 (106 points).

But the road is far from clear for the No. 7 as right behind them is the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing entry for Helio Castroneves (103 points), who’s returning to run five of the last six races. If Castroneves has better results to close the season, it’s conceivable the part-time MSR car could take P22 from AMSP.

Once the championship resumes, that’s the real Leaders Circle race to track. After the No. 06, the only entries of interest are the No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing car driven by Dalton Kellett (95 points) and the No. 59 Carlin Racing machine of Max Chilton (92 points), who would need big runs to get a whiff of that $1 million.

MISC.

• Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal has done 10 races this year and earned seven top 10s (70%). RLL’s Takuma Sato has done 10 races this year and has earned five top 10s (50%). RLL’s Santino Ferrucci has done four races this year and earned four top 10s (100%). The latter also is making it hard to ignore the case being made for earning full-time employment in the near future.

• In the war among auto manufacturers trying to steal each other’s races, it’s all tied at an even 1-1 with Chevy taking a win to defend Round 2 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix (Pato O’Ward) and the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (Josef Newgarden). Honda defended and won its Honda Grand Prix of Alabama (Alex Palou) and Round 1 at Detroit (Marcus Ericsson). The season finale’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will break the tie and deliver the coveted and highly informal competition between the two brands.

• Scott Dixon was kind to apologize for hitting and spinning Penske’s Will Power on the first restart, but it was unnecessary. Although Dixon left Power the bare minimum of room on the inside of Turn 5, the footage made it rather clear that Power rode over the inside curb, which bounced the front of his car over and into Dixon. It’s semantics, of course, but it’s what actually happened.

• That was the smallest team in the series — Carlin Racing — qualifying P17 with Max Chilton, directly ahead of Romain Grosjean, Takuma Sato, and Pato O’Ward. Their race wasn’t super rewarding, but Chilton did come home in P18 to lead all the cars on alternate pit strategies, including Jack Harvey in P19.

• Speaking of Harvey, the Meyer Shank Racing driver embodied the narrow margins between success and failure these days in IndyCar. Primed for another run to make it inside the Firestone Fast Six, his spin and subsequent loss of his best lap turned qualifying into a miniature nightmare. That one mistake relegated Harvey to P23, and unlike Road America where there was no reason to go for an alternate strategy, the MSR team went for three stops instead of two with the hope of catching a break that never materialized. It’s also been a while since Harvey caught a break in a race; since the second Texas oval round on May 2, each of the seven ensuing finishes have been between P16-P23. Coming out of the break, this is the one team in the series that needs to take a hard look inward and start delivering on its potential.

• NBC’s use of James Brown’s song “Living In America” during the pre-race package was most excellent.

While the series’ veterans have had their ups and downs, Ganassi’s Alex Palou continues to bring the No. 10 home among the top points-paying places. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

• Credit to Alex Palou for pushing like mad in P4 ahead of his final stop to eke out an advantage and return in P3 to limit Newgarden’s big points haul. Even so, an 88-point margin to Newgarden shrank to 69, but if there was a positive, Pato O’Ward’s good-bad day where he rallied from a dismal starting position of P20 to finish P9 added to the championship gap. By placing six spots behind the CGR driver, the AMSP man went from a deficit of 28 points leaving Road America to 39. For Dixon, P3 in the standings, his run to P4 saw a gap to Palou go from 53 points to 56. What does all that mean? Provided Newgarden stays on this performance streak, Palou, O’Ward, and Dixon will need to start winning if they don’t want to be overtaken in the standings.

• Hard not to feel gutted for Felix Rosenqvist. The AMSP cars weren’t sharp in qualifying, but that didn’t stop the returning ace from beating O’Ward with a fine run to P13 on Saturday. And, as we’ve come to expect, something cruel and undeserved found the Swede, who was hammered in the Lap 1 melee, lost a couple of laps to repairs, and circulated all day to finish P23.

• Ugly trip for Ed Carpenter Racing. There was a bright spot for Conor Daly, who improved nine positions, but after starting P24, it meant an unheralded drive to P15 was in order. Rinus VeeKay started a somewhat promising P11, but a late mistake with an off-track moment saw a drop to P16 at the checkered flag.

• Ryan Norman’s IndyCar debut was unremarkable, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. His fastest race lap of 1m09.693 was within a tenth of Grosjean and O’Ward, and faster than Pagenaud, Daly, and Sato.

• All right, it’s a long haul until we race again, so channel some positive energy and maybe share some kind and reflective words for my IndyCar reporting partner and colleague of 15 years. Robin Miller’s been going through the wars with health challenges, and he hates compliments, so don’t be afraid to stir the pot in a message by clicking here.