Oh Monterey.
The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca is the eighth round in the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. The race is holding its fifth IndyCar event since returning in 2019 after it had been a frequent stop in the CART days.
Over 2.2 miles of one-year old asphalt awaits the drivers of IndyCar as they prepare to tackle the grueling elevation change around the 11-turn circuit. The track is most famous for the Corkscrew section, a blind left-hand dive that Alex Zanardi made famous, to the chagrin of the Herta family dynasty.
This is just the third time Monterey has been held in mid-summer for America’s top open-wheel series, as its usual end-of-season date was swapped with the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.
Last Year
Firestone was the sponsor of the race in 2023, but it should have been the manufacturer of the yellow flags that IndyCar officials wave. Owing to a new pavement much like Road America and the highly competitive field, the race was plagued by cars running off track, getting spun in turn 11 before restarts and incidents in turn 2, the best passing opportunity on track. Mayhem was the storyline as the race was run behind the pace car under yellow (there were eight of them) for a third of its distance.
Scott Dixon won, displaying great grit in overcoming an earlier penalty and fighting to the end in his pursuit of Alex Palou, who had already clinched the title. But his win was overshadowed by the plethora of contact on track and the survival mode required for the drivers to make it to the finish.
Does all the contact and aggression return for this year? The drivers, most notably Dixon, have been vocal about the lack of respect on the racing circuit among one another in recent rounds, which was a topic of conversation in a recent The Pit Straight podcast episode. If the drivers race like they’re in a UFC ring, then the yellows will be in full force again, like Detroit earlier in season which Dixon won, coincidentally.
As for Laguna Seca’s second-year pavement, the wear over one year under the California sun will be a significant storyline to observe. Road America’s surface lost a lot of grip in the single winter that Wisconsin unleashed upon it, which caused the alternate red tires to blister if pushed before gathering enough temperature early in the stint. Drivers will find out soon after the first practice how much wear Laguna Seca can pack on over one off season.
Chasing Number Three
Will Power’s victory last time out at Road America was a relief for the two-time series champion. It snapped his longest winless drought and released 18 months of personal stress that he had shouldered as his wife recovered from medical challenges. Now, he is atop the championship points standings for the first time since he won it in 2022.
These types of wins are very valuable for confidence, almost like everything ends up going more smoothly from a competitive standpoint knowing a victory was just clinched. While Palou is still the favorite based on his historic run of consistency, Power has something in his kit that gives him great odds to clinch a third title this year – after the next two road courses at Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio, six of the last eight races remaining are ovals. Besides Indianapolis, Palou has yet to show he has learned how to be a front-runner at places like Iowa Speedway and Worldwide Technology Raceway. Power on the other hand is probably the fourth-best oval driver in the paddock along with Josef Newgarden, Dixon and, more like a legacy pick, Ed Carpenter.
In four career starts at Laguna Seca, Power has three top fives, so even with the upcoming ovals, he’s in fine form to stay up front in the title chase.
No Place Like Home
Returning to one of two home tracks couldn’t come at a better time for Colton Herta after an eventful Road America race. While 2024 has been one of the most consistent seasons in his career, the manic day he had from start to finish was enough to unleash an outpouring of frustration at race control. After race control deemed contact between he and Newgarden that sent him around was not a penalty offense, Herta had some choice words to Frontstretch’s own Christopher DeHarde.
While the quote was confirmed to be on-the-record, despite some initial confusion from others near the situation, the comment felt more like a release valve of all the incidents Herta has dealt with since the Indy 500 that set him back further in points. In the last three races, he has been involved in three on-track accidents, however he was able to climb to sixth by the end at Road America.
If any track was a sure-fire selection in the “Herta-stomp-the-field Derby,” it’s Laguna Seca. Two of his seven wins have come at this historic track, and with the way the last few weeks have gone, there isn’t a better place to get things turned around.
Next Man Up
Does Nolan Siegel actually want to be in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet? It seems cursed, considering all the drivers who have stepped into it and then had the ride pulled out from under them.
Regardless, the young American is going to get a long-term (which in McLaren’s world is about 14 minutes) taste of the big league, jumping head first into the rapids that is IndyCar. The pressure will immediately be on his shoulders while in the cockpit as many questions will drift in the shadows over his hiring vs. the backtracking on Theo Pourchaire who had been announced to be taking over the ride the rest of the year.
The Rest of the Field
This weekend will be a bounce-back opportunity for the Chip Ganassi Racing pair of Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist. Both qualified up front at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, but then Armstrong made a boo-boo and spun his teammate at the turn 1 exit. There won’t be any rain to assist Lundqvist to make the Firestone Fast Six this time, so he will have to do it on pure pace.
Pato O’Ward has had the quietest season of any driver who has won a race – but some of that is owed to the fact he was given the victory after the Newgarden penalty from the opening round. After St. Petersburg, he amassed a string of results outside the top 10, before his emotional runner-up at Indy got him back in the title fight. Two more top 10s have followed, but that won’t get him close enough if he wants to take on Power and Palou. He needs podiums.
David Malukas returns to the track for the first time since his offseason mountain biking accident. He’s found a good place to finish the year at Meyer Shank Racing, under the Honda umbrella again, and will look to get acquainted with his new teammate Felix Rosenqvist quickly. While Rosenqvist has meshed well with MSR and produced, the second car has been further back in the standings. If Malukas can get the car in the top 22 of the standings for the Leader Circle program, then it will be a good finish to his third IndyCar season.
Frontstretch Predictions
I’m getting scared about these because my boss Alex Gintz is now asking me how they are turning out on our The Pit Straight podcast. Last time I wasn’t expecting it, because I usually drink some rum and Coke to move on beyond the misguided decisions I make heading into each race. I did get one driver in the top three at Road America, with Newgarden predicted for third but finishing second. But I didn’t nail any positions exactly right.
For this week, it’s going to be a native Californian up front.
- Herta – He won’t be denied a bounce back win after his Road America punt.
- Palou – He’s not letting Power get away that easily.
- O’Ward – Talk about somebody who needs a good run.
The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Racway Laguna Seca will start at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 23, with coverage on the USA Network and Peacock.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.