BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Rain wasn’t the issue, per se, but the amount of it certainly was.
A persistent, heavy rain that created standing water and moving streams on the surface of Barber Motorsports Park forced the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by America’s First to be suspended on Lap 23 today. The race will resume at noon ET Monday (coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. on NBCSN and noon on the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network).
Had the intensity of the rain remained at the level it was at the start of the 90-lap race, it could have been completed, drivers said. But once intensity increased, it created dangerous hydroplaning conditions.
“When we started the race, the conditions were OK,” said pole sitter Josef Newgarden, who will restart from the front in the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet when the race resumes. “You could run at that level of rain. … It got to the point where it was just too much. There was too much puddling and pooling of water on every straightaway.”
After the first caution flag of the race, Will Power spun when his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet hydroplaned on the frontstretch on the green-flag restart. He narrowly missed Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car, and several drivers complained about visibility, standing water and streams of water moving across the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course.
“I think everybody did a pretty good job of looking out for each other despite not being able to see, and not do anything crazy,” said Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, who will restart fourth in the No. 27 Kerauno / MilitaryToMotorsports.com Honda when the race resumes. “I’m glad we’re pretty much in one piece.”
Power criticized the decision to restart the race before his spin, saying he complained over the team radio about standing water and the lack of visibility before the green flag waved.
“I could not see a thing, and I had just one car in front of me,” said Power, who was running second behind Newgarden. “It just hydroplaned on me and was out of control. I just can’t believe they went green on that with how bad it was and the amount of standing water. So yeah, very disappointing, but to me, very dangerous.”
A 37-minute red flag period followed Power’s spin. The cars then returned to the track and circled under caution for four laps before being called back to the pits for a second red flag. After a lengthy delay, INDYCAR officials announced postponement of the conclusion.
Drivers indicated that conditions were too dangerous to continue.
“Rivers started to form in the high-speed compression areas,” Newgarden said. “We’re talking Turns 1 and 2, which is a very fast corner, and Turns 12 and 13, where rivers started to form. It’s just tough. We love racing in the rain. It has nothing to do with not wanting to run in the rain, it’s just this type of track with this water level was just too much today.
“We’ve run here in the rain successfully before. It just intensified to the point where you were starting to take it out of the drivers’ hands.”
Prior to Power’s spin, two other incidents marred the opening laps. Marco Andretti spun but recovered without requiring a caution, though he dropped from seventh place to 21st. On Lap 12, Ed Jones ran into the back of Charlie Kimball, sending him into a wall and out of the race. Kimball was fuming over the contact afterward.
“(Conditions are) pretty tough, especially down some of the straights,” Kimball said. “Once it got spread out and the wind picked up, it was blowing a lot of the spray off, but we were starting to get a lot of hydroplaning down the front straight. Especially out of (Turn) 5 and back into (Turn) 8, the car was moving around a lot.”
Drivers also noted heavy spray from the new universal aero kit, which ran in the wet for the first time today.
“It was very bad,” Rossi said. “But I don’t know if that’s because of the new generation car or not.”