Turns: 14
Length: 2.439miles (3.925km)
Laps: 80
Fastest Lap: Josef Newgarden – 1:09:388 – 2017
Most Wins: Simon Pagenaud, Will Power (3)
2019 Winner: Simon Pagenaud
The 2020 NTT IndyCar Series heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for round two of the championship in what is to be the first of three visits to the Brickyard.
Due to the rescheduling of the 2020 schedule thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, Saturday’s race will also be the first of five races for IndyCar over the next two weeks with double-headers at Road America and Iowa Speedway.
The GMR Grand Prix will also be held in-conjunction with NASCAR who will be hosting their annual Brickyard 400, which has been renamed as the ‘Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400’
Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon will head into the event as the championship leader after an imperious victory at the season-opening round at Texas Motor Speedway.
Since the inception of the roadcourse race at Indianapolis in 2014, Team Penske has won all but one of the previous six races as Simon Pagenaud claimed the victory at the inaugural event for Sam Schmidt Motorsport.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will enter their first roadcourse race since the 2013 Sao Paulo Indy 300 with Sage Karam at the wheel of the No.24 WIX Filters entry.
Indy Lights graduate Dalton Kellett will also make his IndyCar debut for A.J Foyt Enterprises in the No.14 entry.
Double Supercars Champion Scott McLaughlin was meant to make his IndyCar debut at this event for Team Penske – originally scheduled for May. It is currently unknown if the Kiwi will still be able to make an appearance in 2020 due to his prior commitments in Australia.
2019 Recap
While the qualifying session on Friday was held in the dry which saw last year’s event saw then rookie Felix Rosenqvist claim his first pole position in the No.10 NTT Data Ganassi-Honda.
After contention for the majority of the race despite two pitstops which contained issues relating to the fuel hose, the Swede would eventually drop down the field due to being on slicks as more rain moved over the circuit in the final laps of the race.
Despite an unusually tough weekend for the Team Penske outfit, Simon Pagenaud would come on strong in the final laps of the race having pitted for fresh wet tyres in his final stop, the Frenchman put a superb move on Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon on the penultimate lap to snatch the victory.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey also managed a sublime performance to claim the final spot on the podium – his best result of his IndyCar career to date.
| GMR Grand Prix Schedule (All Times Local) | Session | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, July 3 | Practice 1 | 11:30 |
| Qualifying | 16:30 | |
| Saturday, July 4 | Final Warm-up | 09:30 |
| Race | 12.00 |
