Grip Strip Podcast Episode 222 - The Greatest Day In Motorsports V

One of the traditions that take place yearly is The Greatest Day In Motorsports, which is a national holiday for us at the GSP! Phil and Josh recap Josef Newgarden making a last lap pass on Pato O'Ward to win his second consecutive Indianapolis 500. 

Newgarden becomes the first repeat winner since Helio Castro-Neves in 2001-02 while Chevy dominated the oval portion of the month at Indy with Penske, McLaren and others like Conor Daly, SRR, RBFH, etc. Kyle Larson stayed to race Indy even with a rain delay and finished 18th, but he ran way better than that for the majority of the race.  Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood picked up the pieces for Honda after a brutal couple of weeks as the IndyCar teams head off to the streets of Detroit.

While Larson was racing at Indy, the Coca-Cola 600 started at Charlotte and raced through halfway and nearly three stages before Yung Money flew back and arrived at the track.  In the end, NASCAR waited a few hours to call the race and declare Christopher Bell the winner in what ended up as the Coca-Cola 373.5.  Social media and fans were angry after numerous clips and pictures showed a drying or dry track, the delay in calling the race and the disappointment in not seeing Larson get into a fast car that Justin Allgaier had driven to 13th. 

On the XFinity side, William Clyde Elliott II took the win for Hendrick and the 17 car in what was a Cup benefit like the old days.  Allgaier won both stages for a second consecutive race, but got wrecked on a restart in the third stage.  JRM still faired pretty well in spite of Allgaier's misfortune. Nick Sanchez used track position and good timing to hold off a hard charging Corey Heim for his second win of the 2024 Truck Series season.  Heim would later be disqualified for three loose lugnuts, after dominating the majority of the race.  

Formula 1 held their annual procession at Monaco, with Charl Eclair becoming the first driver from Monaco to win in the 93-year history of the event.  Josh watched the regular broadcast while Phil enjoyed the kids broadcast.  Fish Lips actually struggled and finished sixth.  All of the top-10 in the starting order finished exactly where they started. The only major issue was a crash involving Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars.

The GSP Roundup looks at F2/F3 at Monaco, MotoGP/Moto2, Formula E, NHRA, IMSA and Indy NXT before Josh and Phil come back to preview and make picks for Cup/Trucks at Gateway along with XFinity at Portland.  They also preview and make picks for the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix.  Josh provides plenty of insight into his trevails during the iRacing Coke 600 along with Indy 500 prep in his Sim Segment prior to Show Close.