Romain Grosjean managed to smile after another bittersweet runner-up finish. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – At some point, Romain Grosjean will break through as an NTT INDYCAR Series race winner.
Entering Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, the 37-year-old Geneva, Switzerland racer did everything to achieve his first series victory. On Saturday afternoon, Grosjean roared to his second pole of the season.
A day later, Grosjean rocketed to the lead and essentially held serve, leading the way especially for those on the two pit stop strategy. Nary putting a foot wrong around the 2.38-mile, 16-turn Barber Motorsports Park, the third-year competitor led 57 laps, the most of any competitor during the 90-lap race.
Typically, the two pit stop strategy pays off in terms of minimizing time on pit road and making up lost ground with the three pit stop tactic. However, with the latter, it results in a driver and team not having to concern themselves plentiful about fuel mileage while being on the offense.
However, a battle was brewing between Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin, the 2021 Rookie of the Year winner, as both made their final pit stops respectively on Lap 61 and 64.
From there, it became a bit of a cat and mouse game with Grosjean initially having the advantage over the New Zealand native. With 19 laps remaining, Grosjean went wide in Turn 5, opening the door for McLaughlin to be on the attack.
It was a bit of a helpless moment for Grosjean as McLaughlin put the spurs to his No. 3 Good Ranchers Chevrolet for the race winning pass for the lead.
Beyond the decisive pass, McLaughlin still had 21 seconds with his push-to-pass while Grosjean exhausted his allotted seconds. As McLaughlin drove on to his first win of the season, Grosjean settled for a strong but stinging second place finish.
Grosjean will not have to wait too long for his next opportunity for his much anticipated maiden victory in INDYCAR competition. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
Understandably, much like his other runner-ups at Indianapolis and Long Beach in 2021 and 2022, it was a bittersweet moment for Grosjean to ruminate over.
“It hurts,” Grosjean said. “I’m gonna be honest. The three-stop never wins at Barber, but today, the pits stayed open. That gave McLaughlin and Power the edge on the three-stop. Look at the two-stop (cars) behind us – 20 seconds behind us. We had an incredible car, drove really well, gave it 100 percent, but we just got unlucky with that yellow.
“It’s just good. I gave it all. I was good with Scott. Congrats to Scott. He deserved that win.”
Like his runner-up at Long Beach on Apr. 16, the driver of the No. 28 Delaware Life/DHL Honda considered the big picture, jumping from seventh to fifth in the championship standings, just 15 markers behind points leader Marcus Ericsson.
“We got good points today,” he said. “Our day will come. Today was like St. Pete for us. But we got unlucky with the yellow. Anyway, onto the next one.”
The next NTT INDYCAR Series race is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, May 13. While Grosjean’s recent results of 17th and 16th at the 2.439-mile road course have been middling, he possesses an impressive average finish of 9.3 thanks to his two runner-ups in 2021.
In the meantime, with the Month of May fast approaching, Grosjean reflected on the quick disbursement of his push-to-pass seconds while trying to conserve his fuel to nab his sixth career podium finish.
“I’m wondering if it didn’t have a glitch on the dash,” Grosjean said. “I believe I had 99 seconds left. The next time I looked, it was zero. I was just gonna look.
“Maybe I used it more than that. I wasn’t too worried about it. I was really more worried about the fuel number and the tires getting cold than making a mistake.”
