Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta locked out the front row, Kyle Kirkwood started fifth, and 18th place on the grid in a 27-car field was actually not a fair reflection of Devlin DeFrancesco’s potential. Yet the best finisher among the quartet was 15th, three laps down and had been involved in two of the incidents.
Trouble started on the opening lap when DeFrancesco was an innocent victim of the Santino Ferrucci-triggered shunt exiting Turn 3, when the AJ Foyt Racing driver tagged Helio Castroneves into a spin, and the Meyer Shank Racing entry spun into DeFrancesco’s path. He had just slid to a halt when his car was rammed hard by rookie Benjamin Pedersen in the second Foyt entry, sending the Andretti machine high into the air in a 180deg spin, before crashing down.
“I saw Helio spinning in front of me and really was on the brakes - there was nowhere to go. I saw the #55 [Pedersen] coming and knew it was going to be a big one.
“I just braced up the best I could. It was a wild ride, but we're OK and we'll focus ahead on Texas."
Through the first stint, Grosjean, Herta and Kirkwood ran first, second and sixth, but in dirty air, the altlernates of Herta and Kirkwood dropped off rapidly so they lost time and places before pitting for the first of two scheduled stops. When they emerged, Kirkwood got away with a slight nudge on Daly that spun the Ed Carpenter Racing to a standstill, but within two laps of the restart, he too was flying, after launching off the rear of Jack Harvey’s stationary car which had rammed into Rinus VeeKay’s crashed car in the Turn 4 tire barrier. Rubbing salt in the wound was that Kirkwood was pinged by Race Control for service – major repairs – in a closed pit, so had to serve a drive-through penalty. He would eventually come home 15th.
Following the next restart, Herta tried to pass Team Penske’s Will Power for sixth place through Turns 6 and 7 and thought he had the job done, only to find the defending champion retaliating at Turn 8 and pushing wide, sending the 2021 St. Pete winner into the tire wall. Power was penalized for the contact, Herta was out on the spot.
"I thought I was pretty far ahead of him,” said Herta to NBC. “I left room and felt a tag in my right-rear, and he wanted to use the next state over for track room on the exit. I don't know what I can do there, apart from hit the wall.
“It sucks because we were fast on the black tires when a lot in front were on the [alternates], and we were going to be able to make some passes there when they fell off. It felt good, it's unfortunate."
He later added: “We had a good opportunity for a podium and maybe even a win. It sucks because I don't want to start the season off like this."
Grosjean still looked a good bet for victory, having had the pace to run on primaries and stay with new leader Scott McLaughlin on Firestone’s alternates. He made his final pitstop just before McLaughlin got held up by traffic, and so although McLaughlin emerged from his final pitstop just ahead and held the inside line down to Turn 4, the Frenchman had warmed up tires and momentum as the pair ran side-by-side on Lap 72. McLaughlin braked just a touch later than his cold primaries could handle, the rear stepped out and smacked into Grosjean’s car, sending the polesitter into the tires. McLaughlin was penalized, and apologized after the race.
“We all race, we all make mistakes,” said Grosjean. “Scott came over and apologized, which means everything to me. He did get a penalty. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really change anything for my race, but the fact that he comes here and says he’s sorry is a big deal.
“I know that we were the fastest car on track by a long way and that’s all that matters. We were competitive, we were up there and we have 16 races left. We showed today with Andretti that we can be up there."
Team COO Rob Edwards stated: “They say it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish - so it’s obviously disappointing to see how today went.
“When you take a step back and think about the weekend as a whole, there was obviously a lot of progress from last year. We had a lot of speed. I think the way that the team is working really well together – the drivers are all working together – everyone is working really well. We definitely made gains and improved on all of those areas.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t our day but we’ll take the positives on to Texas and keep building on that."
