Race Two
| Race Finish | Driver | Grid | Laps Led | Completed | Race Score | RSWC Points |
| 1 | Pagenaud | 6 | 18 | 70 | 77.37 | 25 |
| 2 | Jakes | 2 | 4 | 70 | 60.27 | 8 |
| 3 | Conway | 1 | 31 | 70 | 73.64 | 18 |
| 4 | Dixon | 7 | 0 | 70 | 61.47 | 10 |
| 5 | Franchitti | 16 | 0 | 70 | 68.21 | 15 |
| 6 | Andretti | 14 | 0 | 70 | 58.95 | 6 |
| 7 | Kimball | 18 | 3 | 70 | 64.86 | 12 |
| 8 | Castroneves | 9 | 0 | 70 | 46.51 | |
| 9 | Rahal | 15 | 0 | 70 | 49.79 | 1 |
| 10 | Saavedra | 11 | 0 | 70 | 41.92 | |
| 11 | Bourdais | 22 | 0 | 70 | 52.55 | 2 |
| 12 | Kanaan | 19 | 10 | 70 | 55.39 | 4 |
| 13 | Briscoe | 13 | 0 | 69 | 32.74 | |
| 14 | Vautier | 20 | 1 | 69 | 44.03 | |
| 15 | Carpenter | 23 | 0 | 66 | 36.21 | |
| 16 | Newgarden | 24 | 0 | 64 | 32.11 | |
| 17 | Viso | 5 | 0 | 61 | 10.93 | |
| 18 | Hunter-Reay | 4 | 0 | 59 | 7.16 | |
| 19 | Hinchcliffe | 10 | 0 | 57 | 11.95 | |
| 20 | Power | 3 | 3 | 53 | 6.40 | |
| 21 | Tagliani | 25 | 0 | 27 | 12.00 | |
| 22 | Wilson | 8 | 0 | 27 | 6.93 | |
| 23 | Sato | 21 | 0 | 23 | 7.43 | |
| 24 | de Silvestro | 17 | 0 | 8 | 3.22 | |
| 25 | Allmendinger | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1.33 |
So, here are my observations from Race Two:
- TK had a good drive, and it could have been even better. He was running up front for a good while there, and after starting back P19 on the grid, just surviving was good enough to get him a good score, but it could have been even better if it weren't for a late pit stop...
- Dario Franchitti quietly had a good weekend. Qualified up front for Race One. Finished sixth. Didn't qualify as well for Sunday, but still finished P5, while stretching his fuel. Bagging 21 RSWC Points is pretty good too.
- If any owner has a driver out, and if the weekend that driver is out happens not to be an oval (or triangle, I'm looking at you Pocono), that owner should hire Mike Conway to fill in. If an owner can fund a partial season next year for just twisties (or wants to do a ride-share) that owner should hire Mike Conway to drive those twisties. Mike Conway, in short is a destroyer of worlds, as long as by worlds we mean road/street courses.
- Speaking of destroying worlds. Don't make Will Power mad. No seriously, Sebastien Bourdais, if you read my blog, don't make Will Power mad.
Race Score World Championship
Here's the update on the RSWC:
| Driver | RCWC Points | Points Back |
| Castroneves | 63 | 0 |
| Andretti | 63 | 0 |
| Hunter-Reay | 61 | -2 |
| Pagenaud | 60 | -3 |
| Dixon | 58 | -5 |
| Sato | 50 | -13 |
| Conway | 43 | -20 |
| Newgarden | 41 | -22 |
| Wison | 41 | -22 |
| Kanaan | 41 | -22 |
| Kimball | 28 | -35 |
| Franchitti | 27 | -36 |
| Hinchcliffe | 20 | -43 |
| Viso | 15 | -48 |
| Rahal | 13 | -50 |
| Munoz | 12 | -51 |
| Servia | 12 | -51 |
| Power | 10 | -53 |
| Bourdais | 8 | -55 |
| Jakes | 8 | -55 |
| Tagliani | 7 | -56 |
| de Silvestro | 6 | -57 |
| Hildebrand | 4 | -59 |
| Allmendinger | 4 | -59 |
| Carpenter | 1 | -62 |
| Briscoe | 1 | -62 |
| Beatriz | 0 | -63 |
| Vautier | 0 | -63 |
| Saavedra | 0 | -63 |
- Well, that tightened up considerably. After 7 of 19 races, basically a third of the way through, it looks like you have some tiers.
- Tier One: Castroneves, Andretti, RHR, Pagenaud, Dixon, and I'll throw in Sato (based on Taku's ability to score in bunches)
- Tier Two: Newgarden, Wilson, Kanaan (I realize that I could also have named this Tier 41, since they all have that many points)
- Tier Three: Everyone else not named Mike Conway.
- Mike Conway gets his own tier, since he's in the sixth spot here after driving in less than half of races this year. That and he is a destroyer of worlds.
Prediction Recap
- #DetroitGP Prediction 3) A Penske or Ganassi finally gets a win in Race 2.
- VERDICT - Nope. I really feel like Power had a shot at it, but he got tangled up in some of the first-half mess... The Ganassis looked good too. But, score one for Schmidt, and none for Guido...
- #DetroitGP Prediction 4) RHR and Castroneves leave Detroit in the top two places in the RSWC.
- VERDICT - Half right. Helio sits atop the RSWC, tied with Marco Andretti. RHR sits right behind them, so I give myself half credit, but I feel good about this call.
That makes me 2.5 out of 4 for Detroit. Certainly better than I did at Indy...
Stay Tuned
I'm excited for the Texas race coming up. I'm not excited about the sheer amount of data entry that ovals require. But, this should be a speed-fest.
Expect the Hondas to qualify better than they did at Indy. Expect the Hondas to perform better than they did at Indy. If this happens I will feel super-validated in my boost theory.
See you on Friday!
-- Guido
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