Double Podium for Honda in Detroit

It was a double podium finish for Honda on the streets of Belle Isle Park, with Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon scoring second and third in today’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at the Detroit city park.

The strategy was the word of the day at Detroit, with all three podium finishers using different race and pit strategies to make their way forward—choosing different stint lengths, as well as other times to use the Firestone Black (primary) and Red (alternate) tires—in a race that ran completely caution-free. Rossi’s strategy of choice allowed him to close more than 15 seconds to the leader in the closing stages, finishing just one second back at the checkered flag.

Alex Palou moved up 12 positions after struggling in qualifying to finish sixth, and his Chip Ganassi teammate—and newly-minted Indy 500 winner—Marcus Ericsson crossed the line seventh. Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud would also notch top 10 finishes for Honda. In contrast, David Malukas would finish just outside the top 10 in 11th but score the highest-finishing rookie honours for the second week in a row and the fastest lap of the race.

Detroit Grand Prix Honda Race Results

2nd Alexander Rossi     Andretti Autosport Honda

3rd Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

6th Alex Palou  Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

7th Marcus Ericsson      Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

8th Colton Herta          Andretti Autosport Honda

9th Simon Pageaud      Meyer Shank Racing Honda

11th David Malukas-R  Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda

13th Takuma Sato        Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda

15th Jack Harvey          Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda

14th Christian Lundegaard-R    Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda

17th Romain Grosjean  Andretti Autosport Honda

18th Devlin DeFrancesco-R       Andretti Autosport Honda

22nd Jimmie Johnson   Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

25th Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda

26th Graham Rahal       Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda

R – Rookie

Alexander Rossi (#27 Andretti Autosport Honda) Finished 2nd: “One more lap, and it might’ve been a different story. But it was a good day for the team and Honda. We come here with the fastest car every year but can’t seem to get a win. Will [Power, race winner] did a fantastic job, so we will take second and move on to Road America.

Scott Dixon (#9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Finished 3rd: “That was a decent run for us. Maybe we were a little too conservative on the opening stint [on the softer “Red” tires]. I knew the Reds would be fast at the start and was probably biding my time a bit too much. Congratulations to Will [Power]. He drove a fantastic race. But happy for Honda and to be back on the podium for them. And a great job by the #9 crew all day long.”

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Finished 6th: “This is almost a win for us today. Today was great! No cautions [in the race], but we still made it from 18th to sixth. That [result] was all on pure pace, strategy and perfect pit stops. [The middle stint on degrading “Reds”] was tough! It was tough to keep [the Red tires] alive, but there are so many people going so fast and challenging you for the position, so you tend to go faster than you should with those tires. But, I thought it was amazing that the drivers made a difference in how we treat the tires and strategies. There were people on the podium with three strategies, so I thought it was an excellent race. It was hard to keep the pace up without overheating those tires, but I’m happy! Next, we’re heading to Road America, a track I won last year, so I’m thrilled to go back.”

Kelvin Fu (Vice President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s Detroit Grand Prix: “That was a great job by Alexander Rossi today, to carry over his strong performance from the Indianapolis 500, and the whole Ganassi team as well—with three cars finishing in the top 10 here at Detroit. This race is always difficult on the cars and teams with the bumps and short turnaround time from Indy, but we are happy to have placed six cars in the top 10 and 10 of the top 15 for Honda in our last visit to Belle Isle. Looking forward to making a move to the streets of downtown Detroit next year!”

Fast Facts

Honda and Honda Performance Development, the North America racing arm of Honda Racing and Acura Motorsports, come to the Detroit Grand Prix seeking to continue a run of primary race wins in 2022, including last weekend’s 15th – and third consecutive – Indianapolis 500 triumph for Marcus Ericsson in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

In 2021, HPD became the first engine build firm to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona overall (with Wayne Taylor Racing) and Indianapolis 500 (Helio Castroneves’ historic fourth Indy win) in the same calendar year.

The company repeated that feat in 2022, with Meyer Shank Racing leading a 1-2 finish for Acura at Daytona in addition to Ericsson’s thrilling victory at Indianapolis last Sunday.

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