Five Things To Watch at REV Group Grand Prix presented by AMR

O’Ward Brimming with Confidence

O’Ward became the first INDYCAR driver to win multiple races this season, ending a run of seven different winners to start the year. The way O’Ward muscled past four other standout competitors in the final seven laps of Sunday’s race illustrates the strength his No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet should have in the second half of the season. He also snared a third-place finish the weekend’s first race, one of six top-four finishes in eight races this season.

A return to Road America should push O’Ward’s confidence to yet another level. He won his initial NTT P1 Award for last year’s second race at the picturesque 14-turn, 4.014-mile circuit, then finished second to Rosenqvist – then driving for Chip Ganassi Racing – in the race. That effectively was O’Ward’s breakout moment in INDYCAR, and he has seven top-three finishes since then. He has a pair of poles this season and has won two of the past five races.

O’Ward was not surprised to learn he had taken the series points lead when asked about it just after driving away from the field late in Sunday’s Detroit race.

“Yes, I can (believe it),” he said firmly. “The (crew has) been doing a great job. They deserve this. There’s still so much to go; we just need to stay on it and continue pushing.”

Like O’Ward, Palou (No. 10 NTT DATA Honda) is in his second full INDYCAR season and is in the championship fight for the first time. Palou won the season-opening Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park on April 18 and has remained in the top three of the standings since. He finished 15th and third, respectively, in the Detroit races. He earned his first career podium in Race 1 at Road America last year.

Track of Champions

Road America stands out as a track where INDYCAR champions reign.

The circuit in central Wisconsin, which opened in 1955, has hosted 31 races for U.S. open-wheel racing’s top division, and 25 times the winner was either a champion at the time or soon would be. That included a streak of 13 consecutive years from 1986-1998.

The championship-winning drivers to have won there includes three-time winners Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti, double winners Jacques Villeneuve, Paul Tracy and Scott Dixon along with single winners Danny Sullivan, Alex Zanardi, Dario Franchitti, Cristiano da Matta, Sebastien Bourdais, Will Power and Josef Newgarden.

The Variety Show

There have been seven different winners in eight NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season. Palou (Barber Motorsports Park), Colton Herta (Streets of St. Petersburg), Dixon (Texas Motor Speedway-1), O’Ward (Texas Motor Speedway-2, Raceway at Belle Isle Park-2), VeeKay (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course-1), Helio Castroneves (Indianapolis 500) and Marcus Ericsson (Raceway at Belle Isle Park-1) have all won in 2021.

The modern era record (1946-2021) for most different winners in a season is 11 in 2000, 2001 and 2014.

There are a handful of conspicuous absentees on the 2021 win list who all could contend for victory Sunday at Road America. The Team Penske trio of past season champions – Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power – each are looking for their first victories. So is the Indy 500-winning duo from Andretti Autosport – Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing duo of Graham Rahal and two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato also are still looking to enter Victory Lane for the first time this season.

An impressive variety of winners is a trend that started at the end of the 2020 season. Stretching back into last year, there have been nine different winners in the last 10 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, adding Power (Harvest GP-2) and Newgarden (St. Petersburg) from last October.

This Weekend’s Schedule

INDYCAR returns to its regular three-round knockout qualifying session, which will air live on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, at 2:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday. NBCSN will televise the replay at midnight.

Unlike in Detroit, there will be two 45-minute practices, at 5 p.m. (ET) Friday and 11:10 a.m. (ET) Saturday. A final 30-minute practice, which serves as the race warmup, will be held after qualifying Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (ET). All practice sessions can be viewed on Peacock.

Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000 and USF2000 will have two races each, the first on Saturday and a second on Sunday.