Difficult set of races for Andretti Cape at IMS double-header

It was a hometown affair for Andretti Cape INDY NXT as the team set up shop at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a double-header weekend. The famous Pagoda overlooks the 2.44-mile track and provided a scenic backdrop for a busy couple of days.

In the first IndyNXT by Firestone race late in the afternoon on Friday, the team’s two drivers Seb Murray and Ricardo Escotto battled next to each other in the mid-pack. Murray had a relatively poor start in his #2 Dream Racing Dubai entry and fell back one position to 14th. He stayed in that position for much of the event, struggling to make up positions.

A late caution period moved Murray up one position, then he took advantage of a mistake from Bryce Aron with three laps to go to secure a 12th place finish.

Escotto got a good jump at the green flag in the #3 Frank’s Red Hot entry, and quickly moved ahead five places from his 16th place starting position. He fought hard with Nikita Johnson for the first couple laps while attempting to move into the top 10.

A large lockup on lap 14 moved the young Mexican driver back down the order, however, and he had to start his progression all over again from 16th. Escotto did successfully work his way forward in the laps that were left despite the vibration from his tires, and finished the first race in 14th position.

The crew worked overnight to prepare the cars for a second full length race, and just 18 hours later the team’s two drivers were back on track for more action. Murray and Escotto raced wheel to wheel through the first corner on the first lap, keeping their cars free from damage despite being embroiled in a three-wide battle.

Murray momentarily won the battle with his team-mate, but slid backwards while avoiding two other spinning cars on lap 3. He quickly jumped back up to 15th while taking advantage of even more mistakes by drivers around him.

The Scottish driver continued to run a clean race, picking up positions throughout the 35-lap event as others made mistakes. By time the checkered flags flew, Murray had made his way up to 12th.

Escotto was also forced to avoid chaos around him, skillfully avoiding other drivers who were touching wheels just ahead on track. On lap 7 an aggressive overtake attempt led to a front wheel lockup similar to the first race, which sent him driving through the grass at Turn 7 and cost him several positions.

From that point on, Escotto ran a controlled race and moved forward incrementally. He ended the second race in 16th after fighting hard all afternoon.

In all, both Andretti Cape drivers did an admirable job to avoid collisions throughout both races of the weekend. The team will use that as a focal point as they prepare for the next race, a scrap on the streets of Detroit on June 1.

Seb Murray

Tough weekend here. We never really felt like we had proper pace like we did at Barber. But yeah, the team has done a great job to get the car to where it was on track today. It’s been a messy race, I had to avoid a collision that dropped me all the way to the back of the grid. But then we had the pace to make our way back up, so that was good.

We finished P12 in both races. I was able to save the tires really well and the car was great by the end. Big thank you to the Andretti and Cape teams, they did a great job this weekend.

Ricardo Escotto

Finished up here in Indy. A very disappointing weekend, and not what we hoped for. Thanks to the Andretti Cape guys, and wish we could have earned some better results. We have to reset and look at the data. We’ll start again in Detroit, which is a circuit that I like. Always looking forward.