By 
- This weekend, it's back on the ground floor for Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and the NTT IndyCar Series for the first Detroit street race in two decades following a long and successful run on Belle Isle.
- The track, while shorter than the 2.35-mile Raceway on Belle Isle Park, will have a few distinguishing features.
- Among those is a two-lane pit that will be a first for IndyCar.
First things first. We actually learned something about 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden during Thursday's media day for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear.
The driver, who proved once again last Sunday that he's not afraid to barrel into Turn 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at nearly 240 mph, has a fear that reared its head this week during a New York City media tour to celebrate the 500 win.
The dude is afraid of heights.
"The Empire State Building definitely freaked me out, going to the top of that," Newgarden said on Thursday in Detroit. "I'm not a heights guy. We went to the very, very top. Yeah, that was fun, but I don't want to do that again.
"I swear I felt the building swaying. Nobody else did, but I did."
This weekend, it's back on the ground floor for Newgarden and the NTT IndyCar Series for the first Detroit street race in two decades following a long and successful run on Belle Isle. The street circuit along the waterfront is a nine-turn, 1.7 miles circuit—much shorter than the 2.5-mile downtown that last hosted the CART series from 1989-91, and before that seven Formula 1 races from 1982-88.
Newgarden, who grew up near Nashville has served as an ambassador of sorts for the Detroit street race for much of the past 18 months since the idea of moving the race from nearby Belle Isle Park to downtown was hatched. He spent time during the offseason promoting the new race for organizing committees, volunteers and Detroit-area media.
"This is like coming home here," Newgarden told Autoweek. "This is our backyard at Team Penske. I'm excited. I think this is going to be a tremendous event. It's a big win for the city. Obviously, Roger Penske cares tremendously about this town and wants to put on a great event for everybody. And I think that's what we're going to get here."
The track, while shorter than the 2.35-mile Raceway on Belle Isle Park, will have a few distinguishing features that are giving even the best IndyCar drivers in the world cause for pause. How about the .8-mile straightaway (nearly the same length as the main straight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) that goes right into a hairpin curve. That means hitting something close to 200 mph and then trying to out-brake your neighbor at the end of the straight. Not exactly for the faint of heart.
Then there's a first for IndyCar—a split pit lane.
Drivers will be assigned the left lane or the right line (pit assignments will be determined in qualifying). The two pit lanes funnel at the end, meaning an exit strategy could be key to victory on race day.
"The track itself is always hard to predict until you drive it," Newgarden said. "Let's see, but I think it could be very exciting. It's got great potential, and I'm hoping for a strong weekend.
"Even when you simulate these places, you don't fully know how to attack them until you are in there and on the circuit in real life," he said. "And that's exciting in itself. There's not one particular part of it—it's not this corner or that corner—we just don't know anything. I know we have great simulation technology, but it's truly difficult until you see it and drive it in person. We're all just trying to take educated guesses about the best way to run a corner here."
Newgarden won on Belle Isle in 2019 and had runner-up finishes in 2017 and 2021. He won three of the last four poles there.
"We've always been pretty sporty at Belle Isle," Newgarden said. "It's one of my favorite circuits that we race on, street-course wise, and the only thing that will be similar in my eyes is the surface type. There's a lot of concrete around here, which is similar to what we had on Belle Isle. There will probably be some transfer there, but outside of that, it's definitely a new challenge for each of us."
And the pits?
"I think it will be simpler than it looks," he said. "You're going to enter into the pits, you're going to find your pit stall and you're going try and leave. It's that simple. It should be wide enough, and there should be enough merge points."
What if the two leaders of the race hit the merge zone at the end of the pits at the same time?
"That's the thing," Newgarden said. "There will probably be some discussions on etiquette, etc. I think visually it will look exciting, but in the car it will be a little more of a normal process."
