THERMAL, Calif. (AP) — IndyCar's exhibition Thermal $1 million Challenge got off to a rocky start Sunday when Romain Grosjean was crashed on the opening lap of the first heat race.
“I mean, who is going to pay for the damage? We come here with no points on the line and do nothing wrong and the car is completely smashed," Grosjean fumed after walking from his crashed car along the private members-only road course back to pit road.
“It’s not what I signed (up for) with IndyCar.”
The no-points all-star race is filling a hole in IndyCar's early-season schedule and actually only pays $500,000 because the Thermal Club members shied away from participating in the event with a matching buy-in. Club members instead were randomly paired with teams for an embedded weekend experience with an IndyCar organization.
IndyCar's first non-points race since 2008 has a unique format in which only 12 drivers will participate in the main event. The dozen all-stars advance into the “A Main” by finishing in the top six of one of two heat races. The heat races are 10 laps, or 20 minutes, whichever comes first.
But it went awry minutes after the first heat began on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile raceway when Scott Dixon ran into the back of Grosjean, causing Grosjean to spin into Rinus VeeKay, who clipped Christian Lundgaard. Dixon was given an avoidable contact penalty as Grosjean, who moved to IndyCar from Formula 1, seethed.
Grosjean is in his first season with Juncos Hollinger Racing — the third team in four years for Grosjean — and the tiny organization doesn't have the same operating budget as the top IndyCar teams. JHR was boosted, though, when Agustín Canapino advanced into the race that pays through the first heat.
Felix Rosenqvist won the first heat from the pole in the eight laps he was able to complete in the allotted time. Also moving out of the first heat were Team Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, Lundgaard, Canapino and Colton Herta.
Nolan Siegel, a 19-year-old making his IndyCar debut, just missed the final transfer spot by finishing seventh in the heat. Also eliminated in the first heat were Dixon and Will Power, who had to go wide off course to avoid the first-lap accident.
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