"RacinBob" (racinbob)
09/03/2018 at 12:30 • Filed to: None
0
7|
"RacinBob" (racinbob)
09/03/2018 at 12:30 • Filed to: None | 0
| 7 |
But even I don’t see how Rossi’s 3 stop strategy works on a road course when you can’t ever build up a lap advantage to cover the time needed for the stop. Passing is just too difficult. When I saw Power drop back, and Dixon dead last, I thought 2 stops and reap in the points. But no....
Dixon was on a 2 from the beginning. So it turns out Sato and RHR were too . Can someone explain why Rossi chose to run a 3 stop strategy and why it would ever work?
AntiSpeed
> RacinBob
09/03/2018 at 12:51 |
|
I’m just taking a shot in the dark but the commentators said before the race that there was no way to go the distance on two stops. So I’d guess the others made a mid-race strategy change because of all the yellows (and Dixon got to top-off after the lap 1 incident) and Rossi’s team didn’t?
I also remember Rossi’s strategist saying that the yellows fell at unfortunate times that didn’t help him.
blacktruck18
> RacinBob
09/03/2018 at 12:54 |
|
Maybe they were hoping r eds and light fuel loads for most of the race would even out?
|
RacinBob
> AntiSpeed
09/03/2018 at 14:05 |
|
I think you make good points. My frustration is to win the championship, you badly needed to finish ahead of Dixon. With a 20 car lead, the only way to lose to Dixon was to go with a different strategy and have Dixon be lucky.
I would have shadowed Dixon’t pit stop strategy and let the cards play as they may. Had they done that, they not only would have beaten Dixon, but they also likely would have won.....
|
RacinBob
> RacinBob
09/03/2018 at 14:24 |
|
It’s interesting, I guess to do a three stop, you have to bet that there will not be 2 yellows allowing 20% of the race to be at exceptional economy. The frustrating thing is, fast guys keep making that bet and losing....
|
AntiSpeed
> RacinBob
09/03/2018 at 14:29 |
|
But Rossi couldn’t shadow Dixon exactly. Dixon being at the back after the lap 1 incident gave him the luxury of topping up, if Rossi did that he’d have lost 20 positions. That means Dixon faced the restart with a few extra laps of fuel that would put him off-sequence from Rossi. There may have been a point where their strategies intersect and Rossi could change course, but it would probably be hard to detect, and also may not be obviously faster .
|
RacinBob
> AntiSpeed
09/03/2018 at 14:59 |
|
Undertstood . I didn’t mean he would on purpose give up the 2- places on lap 1. But he could have come in the same lap as Dixon for the first “race” stop at lap 30 or so. Even had he come in 2 laps earlier assuming Dixon was attempting to run a full tank. he would have been ahead of Dixon throughout the race, which was really their goal here.
I guess my point is, Rossi’s strategist assumed a green race, which in retrospect seemed unlikely given the incidents in practice.
|
AntiSpeed
> RacinBob
09/03/2018 at 16:14 |
|
I just looked at the pit stop summary and the caution summary on the results sheet. I t sheds some light on things.
There’s no way Rossi could stretch his fuel from the planned 1st stop on lap 28 to match Dixon’s first stop on lap 40.
Excluding Dixon’s pitstop after the lap 1 incident, he stuck to a 3-stop. He was helped by the caution on lap 43, which was soon after his first pitstop on lap 40 and too late (or too early) to help Rossi. Stopping before the yellow allows Dixon to catch the tail of the field (regaining the ~26 seconds he lost on his pit stop ) and pass the cars that are pitting under yellow.
They key moment in the race between these two looks like it’s that yellow on lap 56. It was right in the middle of Dixon’s fuel stint and just at the end of Rossi’s. So Dixon could stay on track and gain track position while Rossi is forced to shuffle to the back in the pits.
Thier last stop were a lap apart so by then they’re both back on sequence, but it’s too late for Rossi.
What’s interesting, is if you account for the 1st lap yellow, the top 3 all made 2-stop races, with RHR on a real two-stopper. But if you remember at the end of the race he wasn’t able to attack Sato because of Sato’s pitting on lap 4. So it almost seems like pitting on lap 4-6 was the right strategy, even if it shuffles you to the back. That’s probably why Tracy said that this race was totally up-side-down!
http://www.imscdn.com/INDYCAR/Documents/5237/2018-09-02/indycar-boxscore.pdf
http://www.imscdn.com/INDYCAR/Documents/5237/2018-09-02/indycar-race-pitstopsummary.pdf