2018 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix

The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Corporation was the lone doubleheader event of the 2018 IndyCar Series season, consisting of the 7th and 8th rounds of the championship. The event was held at The Raceway at Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. Scott Dixon won Race 1, and Ryan Hunter-Reay won the Sunday race.

This event also marked the final IndyCar Series broadcast for ABC, ending a half-century stint covering the series (and its predecessors), as starting in 2019, NBC Sports was the series' only broadcaster. This would ultimately mark the end of Scott Goodyear's commentary career after 17 seasons with ESPN.

Race 1 – Saturday, June 2

Results

Qualifying

Race

Notes:
Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps. For Detroit only, 1 bonus point was awarded to the fastest qualifier from both groups.

Championship standings after Race 1

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Manufacturer standings

* Note: Only the top five positions are included.

Race 2 – Sunday, June 3

Results

Qualifying

Race

Notes:
Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps. For Detroit only, 1 bonus point was awarded to the fastest qualifier from both groups.

Championship standings after Race 2

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Manufacturer standings

* Note: Only the top five positions are included.

Pace car incident

During the opening pace laps of Race #2, the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 pace car leading the field and being driven by General Motors executive Mark Reuss lost control and crashed head-on into the left-hand retaining wall coming out of the exit of turn two of the track, shortly after leaving pit road. Neither Reuss nor Mark Sandy, an IndyCar official who was a passenger in the car, were injured in the crash and were able to exit the vehicle after the crash. Because the race cars had just left pit road and were being led by the pace car, all of the drivers in the race, except for Alexander Rossi, stopped on the track behind the wrecked car as safety crews and track workers cleaned up debris from the accident and removed the damaged vehicle. Rossi, who was to start the race from the pole position and was directly behind the pace car when the incident occurred, was the only driver to drive past the crash and returned to pit road afterwards. Approximately 20 minutes after the crash, the cars still on the track had their engines re-fired and were directed to drive to pit road in order to reset the starting grid for the race start. An identical back-up pace car of the same make and model was brought out to pace the field, this time driven by former IndyCar driver and official Oriol Servià who regularly drove the pace car during caution periods. The incident delayed the start of the race by over 30 minutes from its scheduled start time of 3:50pm local time. The race eventually went green sometime past 4:20pm.

An official statement from General Motors, of which Chevrolet is a division of, read in part, "It is unfortunate that this incident happened. Many factors contributed, including weather and track conditions. The car’s safety systems performed as expected." Reuss, who had previous experience driving high powered cars in his tenure at General Motors, posted his own statement onto his Facebook page apologizing for the mishap: "I have driven this course many many many times. I have paced this race in the wet, cold, hot, and calm. On Z06’s, Grand Sports, and other things. It is never a casual thing for me, but an honor to be asked. Today I let down my friends, my family, IndyCar, our city and my company. Sorry does not describe it. I want to thank our engineers for providing me the safety I know is the best in the world." IndyCar drivers Will Power and eventual race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay were sympathetic to Reuss in their comments on the incident following the race, with Power saying, "I felt really bad for whoever was in the pace car. It's very easy to do, and the traction control must have been turned off. Wasn't really his fault."

The unusual incident garnered massive amounts of attention on social media and news outlets, with Adam Stern of ''Sports Business Journal'' tweeting that the exposure that the crash gave to Chevrolet was " more than 70 times" worth the exposure Chevrolet earned from the race itself. The incident was briefly mentioned by television presenter Jeremy Clarkson in series 3, episode 8 of the Amazon Prime Video motoring show ''The Grand Tour'' while Clarkson was test driving a Corvette similar to the one Reuss had crashed. Nearly one year after the crash, Reuss was given the opportunity to drive the pace car for the opening laps of the 2019 edition of the race, this time doing so without incident.

References

{{IndyCar Series on ABC

Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix
2018 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix
Detroit Indy Grand Prix
Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix
2018 in Detroit