Asterisk Mark Report – Road America

Kyle Larson – Kyle Larson had a great car last year at Road America and was clearly a top five contender, but when the race reached its conclusion, Larson finished an asterisk mark 16th. In the race, Larson finished 3rd in Stage #1, 4th in Stage #2, had a race best 6.7 average running position but then late in the race while he was running in 4th, Larson was spun after contact with teammate Alex Bowman.

Daniel Suarez – How good was Daniel Suarez at Road America last year? Nobody knows. On lap 3, Suarez had some sort of transmission issue that brought his car to a stop, which also brought out the first caution. His team later repaired the issue and he returned to the track to finish 36th.

Alex Bowman – Alex Bowman was a top five contender last year at Road America, but when the race reached its conclusion, he finished a misleading 22nd. On lap 56 (62 lap race) while running in 5th, Alex Bowman spun Kyle Larson. His car didn’t look bad at all, but he chose to pit which led to his misleading finish. In terms of speed analytics, Bowman was the Fastest Driver Late In A Run (think that late unexpected pit stop skewed him in that analytic), had the 5th best Total Speed Ranking and had the 7th best Green Flag Speed.

Austin Cindric – Austin Cindric was fast last year at Road America and was likely a factor, but he finished a clunker 38th after having rear gear problems after just pacing the field for 2 laps around lap 23. Over the opening two segments of the race, Cindric had speed rankings of 5th and 3rd, so it’s more than clear he was going to be quite good.