The 2020 GMR Grand Prix, was an IndyCar Series event scheduled for July 4, 2020 and was the second of fourteen rounds of the 2020 IndyCar Series Season. It was originally scheduled for May 9, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the postponement, the race was run as a double-header event with the NASCAR Xfinity Series, with IndyCar sharing the card with the Shell 150 NASCAR Xfinity Series event, the day before the NASCAR Cup Series Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400. The race was also reduced from 85 laps to 80 laps to compensate for the compacted schedule, and was the first of two meetings held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The second road course meeting was held October 2–4 as part of the Harvest Auto Racing Classic featuring the Intercontinental GT Challenge. It was the inaugural NASCAR meeting race for INDYCAR.
Qualifying Qualifying was held Friday, July 3, with the first session beginning at 4:30 p.m. EST. With temperatures much higher than the normal May date the event had normally been run at, qualifying times were slower than in years previous. Will Power qualified on pole position with a time of 1:10.1779, besting Jack Harvey and Colton Herta. Rookie Oliver Askew set the fastest time of the day in the second round of qualifying with a 1:09.8780, but wore out his tires in doing so, causing him to only manage 5th place in the Firestone Fast 6 session.
KeyMeaningRookiePast winner
PosNo.NameGrp.Round 1Round 2Fast 6 1 12 Will Power 2 1:10.2548 1:10.1313 1:10.1779 2 60 Jack Harvey 2 1:10.5157 1:10.0238 1:10.3653 3 88 Colton Herta 2 1:10.4114 1:10.0985 1:10.5197 4 15 Graham Rahal 2 1:10.5647 1:10.0707 1:10.5844 5 7 Oliver Askew 1 1:10.5306 1:09.8780 1:10.8404 6 1 Josef Newgarden 1 1:10.6188 1:10.1420 No Time 7 9 Scott Dixon 2 1:10.5000 1:10.1990 8 20 Conor Daly 1 1:10.5658 1:10.2169 9 10 Felix Rosenqvist 1 1:10.5558 1:10.2310 10 59 Max Chilton 1 1:10.5465 1:10.3055 11 27 Alexander Rossi 2 1:10.5947 1:10.3426 12 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 1 1:10.5880 1:10.5764 13 5 Patricio O'Ward 1 1:10.7333 14 8 Marcus Ericsson 2 1:10.6287 15 18 Santino Ferrucci 1 1:10.7902 16 45 Spencer Pigot 2 1:10.6350 17 30 Takuma Sato 1 1:10.8853 18 21 Rinus VeeKay 2 1:10.7070 19 29 James Hinchcliffe 1 1:11.1478 20 22 Simon Pagenaud 2 1:10.7438 21 55 Álex Palou 1 1:11.1815 22 26 Zach Veach 2 1:11.2762 23 24 Sage Karam 1 1:11.7774 24 4 Charlie Kimball 2 1:11.4026 25 98 Marco Andretti 1 1:12.0513 26 14 Dalton Kellett 2 1:11.5876
Race DriverTeamEngineLapsTime/StatusPitStopsGridLapsLed 1 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 80 1:41:59.3232 3 7 26 51 2 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 80 +19.946 2 4 18 41 3 22 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Chevrolet 80 +20.564 3 20 35 4 88 Colton Herta Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Racing Honda 80 +25.088 3 3 32 5 21 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 80 +25.636 3 18 30 6 8 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 80 +25.713 3 14 1 29 7 1 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Chevrolet 80 +31.897 3 6 4 27 8 5 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet 80 +33.836 3 13 24 9 18 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing w/Vasser-Sullivan Honda 80 +43.046 2 15 22 10 30 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 80 +44.891 4 17 20 11 29 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Honda 80 +46.167 3 19 19 12 20 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 80 +49.977 2 8 18 13 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda 80 +50.489 3 12 17 14 26 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport Honda 80 +52.217 4 22 1 17 15 10 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 80 +56.688 3 9 15 16 59 Max Chilton Carlin Chevrolet 80 +1:00.231 3 10 14 17 60 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Honda 80 +1:03.845 3 2 1 14 18 4 Charlie Kimball A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 80 +1:05.519 3 24 12 19 55 Álex Palou Dale Coyne Racing w/Team Goh Honda 80 +1:06.478 3 21 11 20 12 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 80 +1:11.612 3 1 28 14 21 14 Dalton Kellett A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 79 +1 Lap 3 26 9 22 98 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco Andretti & Curb-Agajanian Honda 79 +1 Lap 3 25 8 23 24 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet 79 +1 Lap 3 23 7 24 45 Spencer Pigot Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing w/Citrone/Buhl Autosport Honda 74 Mechanical 2 16 1 7 25 27 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Honda 41 Mechanical 2 11 5 26 7 Oliver Askew Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet 34 Contact 1 5 5
Race statistics
Average speed:
Lead changes: 10
Lap leader breakdown Fromlap Tolap Totallaps Driver 1 16 16 Will Power 17 17 1 Jack Harvey 18 26 9 Graham Rahal 27 38 12 Will Power 39 47 9 Graham Rahal 48 54 7 Scott Dixon 55 55 1 Spencer Pigot 56 56 1 Marcus Ericsson 57 60 4 Josef Newgarden 61 61 1 Zach Veach 62 80 19 Scott Dixon
Cautions: 1 for 4 laps Fromlap Tolap Totallaps Reason 36 39 4 #7 (Askew) accident turn 14
Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Scott Dixon 104 2 Simon Pagenaud 75 3 Josef Newgarden 64 3 4 Colton Herta 58 12 5 Graham Rahal 54
References