IndyCar drivers share keys to surviving and thriving in a rain race

LEEDS, Ala. — On a radiant Saturday afternoon with just a handful of clouds in the sky, rain was the subject of nearly every conversation taking place throughout the Verizon IndyCar Series paddock.

Despite back-to-back picturesque days of racing at Barber Motorsports Park, storm clouds are plotting an invasion. According to the National Weather Service, there is a 100 percent chance of precipitation beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, about 40 minutes before the green flag flies on the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

IndyCar officials have discussed firing up engines earlier, but with showers expected even before the scheduled start time, there’s little doubt the fourth race of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season will be a wet one. And that could make for a wild Sunday at the track.

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Rain racing means unpredictability. It means more passing and machines spinning off track. It sometimes means smaller gaps between the quickest cars and the slowest, and it means throwing the setups teams have worked on all weekend out the window.

It also means the way the grid looks at the start of the race could be entirely different from the way it looks at the end. 

“If it rains the whole time, it’s crazy the whole time,” said defending Barber champion and pole-sitter Josef Newgarden. “Rain racing means more courage and high anxiety.”

What these drivers are preparing for Sunday is a bunch of questions mark. If it rains, how much will it rain? Will it be a steady rain or on-and-off rain? Will the water collect at the bottom of hills? How quick will the track dry if it does stop raining?

Then, of course, there's the biggest question of all: How will the 2018 Indy cars handle in the rain. These machines, with so much of the downforce stripped away and already on the ragged edge, will be a crapshoot, so many of the drivers said after Saturday’s qualifying.

However, some offered a few keys to surviving and even thriving during a rain race.

Among the biggest are confidence and composure. Experience helps, too, but with new cars and no real rain race in IndyCar in almost three years (Detroit, Dual 1), there isn’t a lot of know-how to go around.

“So you just have to trust your (instincts),” Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Takuma Sato said, explaining that a honed ability to feel the car's every movement becomes invaluable. “Trusting yourself is the number one thing, because you can’t have confidence in what you’re seeing.”

That’s because you might not be seeing much at all. These drivers will be turning laps around Barber with peak speeds around 175 mph, and might not be able to see what’s right in front of them. Between the expected downpour and the rooster tails shooting off the back of the cars ahead, the track can all but vanish. Peripheral vision becomes vital, Sato said, as does keeping an eye on the LED lights on the car ahead.

Rain, some say, is the great equalizer. At a dry circuit, setup and mechanical superiority are trump cards, but on a wet track, the emphasis shifts heavily to a driver’s ability to decipher a constantly evolving track.

From a dry circuit to a wet one, top speeds change. Braking points change. Everything changes, including, and most especially, the track itself. As waters falls and crawls across the pavement, the racing line that was clear the lap before is not necessarily clear the next time around. That makes the first few laps especially tricky, since all 23 on the grid are trying to figure out where it’s safe to drive.

“You have to track people and see where the dry spots are,” said Graham Rahal, who’ll start Sunday’s race 15th. “It’s more about staying off line, staying away from the slick spots where the oils are from the rubber that’s been put down over the past couple days of racing.”

“The start of the race will take a lot of courage for sure,” Sato added. “It’s going to be very risky.”

Speaking of risks, among the biggest will be the setup of the car. If steady showers affect the race, the setup is fairly straightforward. Teams will try to create as much grip as possible. Where this gets tricky is if the rain lets up. Those cars that are fully committed to a wet setup as the track is drying up will get passed as if they're standing still by cars that have shifted to a dry setup. 

Finally, one of the last keys to having a successful race in the rain is not trying to do too much. While aggressive driving can be rewarded, oftentimes the driver who makes the fewest mistakes is the one who ends up with a good result. 

"Sometimes, if you’re the most consistent guy, you can end up looking like a hero even if you’re not the fastest guy on track," said former full-time driver Conor Daly, who finished fifth in that Detroit race in 2015. "Make the least mistakes. 

"I love rain racing. I love the chance it gives everybody. It can either go incredibly well or it can go incredibly terrible. There's sort of no middleground, and it's so hard to predict." 

Follow IndyStar Motor Sports Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter and Facebook: @jimayello.