Fansided

2018 Dual in Detroit: Our takeaways

By Brittany Frederick

DETROIT, MI - JUNE 3: Ryan Hunter Reay #28 of Andretti Autosport (L), winner of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, part of the Verizon Indy Car Series, stands on the podium with yesterday's winner Scott Dixon #9 of New Zealand during 2018 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle on June 3, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - JUNE 3: Ryan Hunter Reay #28 of Andretti Autosport (L), winner of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, part of the Verizon Indy Car Series, stands on the podium with yesterday's winner Scott Dixon #9 of New Zealand during 2018 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle on June 3, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Verizon IndyCar Series proved experience and Honda reigned in the 2018 Dual in Detroit. Here are our takeaways from IndyCar’s Detroit doubleheader.

It’s been a busy weekend for the Verizon IndyCar Series, with not one but two races in the only doubleheader of the 2018 IndyCar season. The Dual in Detroit gave teams and drivers double the work, but only some rose to the occasion.

It was a pair of former champions who got to the top step: Scott Dixon on Saturday and Ryan Hunter-Reay on Sunday, each earning their first victories of the year. Behind them, there was utter craziness, including an accident that involved the ceremonial pace car!

This was not any other race weekend, so what can IndyCar fans take away from it as we’re now approaching the midpoint of the season? What can we learn going into next Saturday’s night race at Texas Motor Speedway?

Here are our 2018 Dual in Detroit takeaways:

1. Experience before youth

We’ve talked a lot about how IndyCar is experiencing a youth revolution, with a lot of great young drivers coming into the fold over the last few seasons. That is fantastic, but Detroit proved that the experienced veterans are still just as powerful as they have ever been.

Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay are two of IndyCar’s most tenured athletes, and they both won a race and finished in the Top 4 in the other one. Not only that, but they won on the back of all that they know; they didn’t start up front and run away with the race. Dixon’s win came because of his flawless teamwork that created a lightning-fast pit stop, while Hunter-Reay gutted it out and pressured Alexander Rossi into burning his brakes and getting a flat tire.

Nothing was handed to either of them; they earned their wins and reminded us just why they’re both IndyCar champions. Now both of them are in position to potentially add another title to their long lists of accomplishments.

2. Honda has an edge on street courses

The 2018 IndyCar season is the first with the universal aero kit, but what we’ve seen is that each manufacturer has a distinct edge on certain types of courses. Chevrolet won both oval races this year, but Chevy was seriously outslugged by Honda in Detroit.

Will Power was the top Chevrolet driver in both races, finishing seventh on Saturday and third on Sunday, and you could tell how hard he was working on both days to hold those positions. Part of that is because Detroit is a seriously punishing course, but Honda cars clearly had a pace that their rivals did not. It’ll be interesting to see if that continues throughout the season, because the last race of the year is a double-points race at Sonoma — on a road course.

By the way? Seven of the Top 10 drivers in the current IndyCar standings are Honda-powered. That’s a far cry from when Chevy was beating the stuffing out of Honda just a year ago.

3. Don’t let celebrities drive the pace car

The most surprising moment from Sunday’s Dual in Detroit Race 2 happened before the race even started. The doubleheader is sponsored by Chevrolet and takes place in the manufacturer’s home town, so IndyCar let General Motors executive Mark Reuss drive the pace car instead of regular driver Oriol Servia.

Reuss proceeded to put the pace car into a wall by going over one of the bumps in the street course, delaying the start of the race by over 30 minutes. No one was injured, but it caused a headache for teams who had to check their cars for potential flat tires from debris and deal with the delay.

Servia went out in the backup pace car and started the race without further incident, proving that we ought to leave pace car driving to the professionals.

What makes this moment even more awkward is that Chevrolet put out a statement after saying that “weather and track conditions” contributed to the crash. As Road and Track pointed out, the crash happened on a dry track when it was 70 degrees and sunny.

Next: Updated IndyCar standings after Detroit

The 2018 IndyCar season continues Saturday, June 9 in Texas. For complete coverage of the 2018 IndyCar season, follow the Motor Sports category at FanSided.