Romain Grosjean will make his oval racing debut this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway, racing an IndyCar around the egg-shaped track in a Saturday night event.
The former F1 driver has had plenty of racing experience over the years, but he has always been focused on learning the road course craft throughout his career.
Now racing stateside, Grosjean is dipping his toes into the oval waters after only having one test day under his belt.
The differences between racing a road course and an oval are not limited to the different mindset, but also include many different setup differences on the car.
“The headrest pushes your head to the left, your steering wheel is completely to the right, and you only turn left, and then you’re dizzy when you jump out of the car,” said Grosjean ahead of the weekend’s running.
“We [practiced having a spotter] at the testing, that went well. My spotter was really good.
“I’m going to talk to him tomorrow, tell him a little bit more of things I want to know from watching the races from the previous years. Then work as a team.
“It’s not only one, but it is very, very different. You see some drivers only do ovals, they’re very good at ovals and maybe not so good at road courses. Someone like Scott Dixon is really good everywhere.
“Obviously it is different, but I’m happy to be here, and happy that I get to experience. It was very different from anything I have been racing before.
“The key was to get experience to learn about racing on ovals. Experience is the key this weekend. We’ll see how the weekend goes.”
Grosjean will have to put his adaptability to the test, as most of the rest of the field has vastly more experience on oval courses than he does.
Practice, qualifying, and the race all take place on Saturday, with the green flag flying for the Bommarito 500 at 7:30 PM Central Time.
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