Motor car race
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 .[ 1] 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 .[ 2] 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.[ 3]
Key
Meaning
R
Rookie
W
Past winner
Race
Race statistics
Average speed: 114.789 mph (184.735 km/h)
Lead changes: 10
Lap leader breakdown
From lap
To lap
Total laps
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
From lap
To lap
Total laps
Reason
36
39
4
#7 (Askew) accident turn 14
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings
References
^ Malsher, David (March 26, 2020). "Indianapolis 500 rescheduled to August" . Motorsport.com . Motorsport Network . Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
^ Malsher, David (June 30, 2020). "Daly, Pagenaud: IndyCar, NASCAR double-header at IMS is "awesome" " . Motorsport.com . Motorsport Network . Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
^ Miller, Robin (July 3, 2020). "Power soars to pole on Indy road course" . Racer.com . Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. Retrieved July 3, 2020 .