Connect with us

Detroit, MI

Unpredictable fun or embarrassing? IndyCar's Detroit chaos

Published

on

Unpredictable fun or embarrassing? IndyCar's Detroit chaos


To see Oriol Servia – who last raced in 2019 – lead the most laps in the Detroit IndyCar street race was hardly a surprise, especially given the unpredictable nature of the race.

Of course, Servia is the IndyCar pace car driver, and his Corvette needed refuelling such was the hive of activity, as caution laps made up 47 of the 100 laps of the race.

It was a race featuring eight crashes – well, there were more, those were just the ones that caused a caution – rain, strategic gambles on fuel and tyres, and drivers like Will Power receiving four penalties and still ending up sixth. It just beggars belief.

Advertisement

It left fans with a mix of opinions, ranging from celebrating the unpredictability to demanding for a return to the old Belle Island circuit – a view shared by some drivers too. But this isn’t the first time we’ve had races like this in IndyCar recently.

Why was this race so messy? How does IndyCar’s stewarding play into what we saw? Is this type of race good for IndyCar? Let’s take a look at the event as a whole to try to draw some conclusions.

What the drivers made of it

There was some immediate reaction from drivers who had admittedly not watched the race back at that point, so they saw things through their own blinkered views.

Marcus Ericsson made a late charge to second (showing why Andretti wanted to sign him, as he was some way off his team-mates in qualifying but beat both in the race) and has won similar races before, including in Nashville in 2021 when he came from last and literally launching over the back of another car to victory.

Advertisement

“I think people are driving reckless on the restarts,” he said.

“Obviously [there are] opportunities on restarts.

“I think more than 50% [of the race was spent] on yellow [47/100 laps in reality].

Advertisement

“I’m sure it was dramatic and fun to watch. At some point also we need to have a bit of a better standard. We’re one of the best racing series in the world. We shouldn’t be driving on top of each other every single restart.

“I saw in my mirrors every time on the restart, four, five-wide. I was just praying not to get hit pretty much every restart.

“I need to watch it before I comment more on that.”

As previously mentioned a host of drivers and fans were left yearning for a return to Belle Isle, the venue before the current city track was introduced last year.

Advertisement

This new layout is just fundamentally too short for IndyCar. In practice and qualifying, you have drivers backing up halfway through the lap to try to get a clean run through the next lap, but the 1.645-mile track just can’t support that.

People are easily out of place in qualifying.

And then with just nine corners in the race, it breeds desperation in the few passing zones that are afforded, the Turn 3 hairpin being the only obvious and ‘safe’ passing point. Turn 8 is relatively popular but very easy to get wrong and put the car you’re passing in the wall after a downhill braking zone into the left-hander.

“The track, I don’t know what word to use, but it’s…challenging, let’s put it that way,” added Ericsson. “It has some great characteristics with the bumps, the walls are close. That is good.

“But it is very short and twisty for IndyCar. That’s for sure. It’s on the limit of what we can do.

“I wish we could have a couple more corners and a little bit longer lap. It seems to create good drama, like we saw last year and this year.”

Advertisement

Scott Dixon offered a slightly alternative opinion to his ex-Ganassi team-mate Ericsson, whom he’d beaten to the win.

That victory was underpinned by pitting earlier than it should have been possible to reach the end on fuel, but he gambled correctly that there would be more cautions that would allow him to save.

Asked where the line was between the race being action-packed versus embarrassing, Dixon replied: “I don’t think it’s ever embarrassing.

“I think you do a survey, most people go to races to watch crashes. I don’t.

“I know when I watch some kind of NASCAR race, they have a similar kind of effect. It’s obviously exciting. Obviously you don’t want to see the caution laps and them taking over.

“I didn’t see a lot of it. Obviously once I watch the race back and see what happened. But you’re in confined streets here. It’s tough, man. You make any kind of mistake…

“The tyre was pretty hard here. Very hard to turn the black [harder compound] tires on, makes it easy to lock the fronts. Colder conditions than last year. That probably definitely played a factor, as well.”

Advertisement

Last year there were still 32 laps run under caution, which makes a grand total of 79 laps of the 200 run on this track under caution.

Given part of the logic of having a race the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 – much to the detriment of the exhausted teams and drivers – is to capitalise on any carryover TV ratings, it begs the question: is this the kind of race you want to have as a follow-up?

Especially when the Indy 500 is more important than the championship to some – so if they had a bad Indy 500, they can come into Detroit pissed off and feeling like there’s nothing to lose by just going all out without thought of the consequences.

Advertisement

The Indy 500 is a perfect demonstration of the skill and bravery of the drivers, the work of the crews both in preparing the cars and in the pitstops, the strategists, and trusting the competitors around you. You could be forgiven for thinking Detroit was an alien sport in comparison.

As Ericsson points out, this is supposed to be a demonstration of what people regularly refer to as one of the best single-seater racing championships in the world. You could certainly be forgiven for baulking at that observation if you were watching Detroit.

Stewarding claims assessed

I actually think the stewards got most of the decisions in this race correct.

There is only one major one I would argue against and that was the Rinus VeeKay-Will Power incident, where Power did make contact with VeeKay – but that felt like a racing incident where VeeKay was on the outside and cut across the front of Power. VeeKay could argue he was just going about his business and was hit but, on the outside, he had a responsibility there to leave Power enough room, especially as they were three-wide with Romain Grosjean in a sandwich.

But honestly, that was a tough call.

The much, much greater problem for IndyCar with the penalties in races like this is that, whereas on a standard road and street circuit a drivethrough that drops you to the back of the pack or costs a handful of positions would be fatal for your chances of a good result, here it didn’t matter at all!

Let’s use Josef Newgarden as an example. He made his last pitstop with Dixon, so matched the winner’s strategy, but he ran over a wheelgun in his stop which warranted a drivethrough.

Advertisement

But because he’d just pitted, he served his drivethrough, then there were another few cautions, the drivers ahead pitted and Newgarden could stay out, so he vaulted from the back to fifth, with his penalty totally negated.

Like in Nashville, the short pitlane here means drivethrough penalties aren’t as costly, so you’ve got drivers yo-yoing all over the place. Like Alex Palou, who pitted twice in the early running and was 21st, pitted again for wets, pitted again for dry tyres mere laps later, and was behind Newgarden in sixth when they crashed.

Advertisement

You can’t mandate the length of the pitlane being longer for that reason, it’s just happenstance, but it did contribute to the issue of the race being messy and tough to understand.

The IMSA SportsCar Championship race later on Sunday was a perfect example, where Nick Tandy was able to serve a drivethrough and emerge in fourth, then pitted just as a caution came out and emerged at the front of the field. That wouldn’t be possible at a lot of other tracks, especially in IMSA with driver changes.

There’s also the need for IndyCar drivers to take responsibility for avoiding some of this chaos.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the restarts were a lottery, and plenty of drivers avoided any issue. But as we’ve seen in countless incidents recently, some drivers need to be more heads-up about being overtaken and just getting out of the way.

Advertisement

I imagine it’s annoying to be divebombed at Turn 3 at Detroit, but just get out of the way and live to fight another lap, especially with so many cautions going on.

It feels like there’s a habit of drivers either not reacting quickly enough to overtakes or just steadfastly refusing to move and instead taking the contact. My zoomed out perspective of that is I’d rather give up one position in an overtake than 20 by retiring.

Ericsson’s right when he says drivers have to do better when racing wheel-to-wheel in the series. Just because the car is robust, doesn’t mean it’s a weapon.

As much as we praise IndyCar drivers for their ability and feats, it’s fine to question them in races like this, too.

As for the stewards, there’s plenty of races I think they’ve performed poorly at and there’s far too much generally letting contact go or allowing drivers to make overtakes to shunt the other car off in the process. But they’ve set a precedent for that and, in this race, they did dish out hefty penalties to drivers involved in incidents. It just didn’t matter because of the number of cautions and the short pitlane.

It’s worth considering if one race per year like this is a good thing or not. It’s not what most fans would call pure racing, but the unpredictability is certainly very appealing to a neutral tuning-in hoping not to see the same driver win every week.

Only, IndyCar already does a pretty good job of providing that anyway.

Advertisement





Source link

Detroit, MI

Terrion Arnold ‘maintains complete innocence’ in kidnapping, theft case

Published

on

Terrion Arnold ‘maintains complete innocence’ in kidnapping, theft case


I represent Mr. Terrion Arnold in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred on February 4, 2026, in Tampa, Florida, which resulted in the arrest of five individuals on serious felony charges.

To be clear, Mr. Arnold had no involvement whatsoever in the activities that led to those arrests. He did not participate in, nor was he present for, any conduct related to the alleged offenses. There is no evidence in police reports, text messages, or witness statements that implicates Mr. Arnold in any way.

In fact, after direct communication with the lead prosecutor, it has been confirmed that no charges have been filed against Mr. Arnold in connection with this matter.

Recent media coverage has referenced an Order issued by Circuit Judge J. Logan Murphy, which improperly suggests Mr. Arnold’s involvement in the incident. That same Order also incorrectly identifies Ms. Devalle as Mr. Arnold’s girlfriend. Both assertions are false, misleading, and entirely unsupported by the record.

Advertisement

Mr. Arnold categorically denies these unfounded claims and maintains his complete innocence. He was not involved in the crimes allegedly committed on February 4, 2026, in Tampa, Florida.

​We strongly urge members of the media to refrain from perpetuating inaccurate or speculative narratives. The facts are clear, and they do not support any claim of wrongdoing by Mr. Arnold.



Source link

Continue Reading

Detroit, MI

Robert ‘Fish’ Jenkins helped Detroit students soar in sports and life

Published

on

Robert ‘Fish’ Jenkins helped Detroit students soar in sports and life



There was a time when many Historical Black Colleges had swimming teams. The late Robert ‘Fish’ Jenkins benefited from that era and then he spent much of his adult life lifting up youths in Detroit.

play

  • Robert ‘Fish’ Jenkins Sr. was a longtime Detroit educator and coach who created opportunities for young people.
  • Jenkins led teams to 24 championships in less common sports like swimming, golf, and soccer.
  • He mentored countless students who went on to become community leaders, doctors, and educators.

The celebration of Black History Month throughout February provides an opportunity to share stories about Detroiters that have positively impacted the lives of others in a variety of ways.

And included among those stories that have been shared this month is a “Fish” story that is unique, without exaggeration. 

That is because this story is about the late Robert “Fish” Jenkins Sr., a longtime Detroit educator and a groundbreaking coach, whose superpower was his ability to create life-changing opportunities for young people in unconventional spaces.

Advertisement

In 1969, Jenkins arrived at Detroit’s Northern High School as a physical education teacher and coach. During Northern’s heyday, the high school, formerly located on Woodward Avenue at Owen in the city’s North End, produced a host of high-profile sports stars, including basketball greats Bill Buntin — a two-time All-American center at the University of Michigan during the 1960s — and Derrick Coleman — the first overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft. And record-breaking sprinter Marshall Dill, Track & Field News’ High School Athlete of the Year in 1971, who set world records in the 300-yard dash while running for Michigan State University.

However, Jenkins specialized in coaching sports that were a little less popular among young people in Detroit, particularly Black students. Jenkins coached teams at Northern — and for one year at East English Village Preparatory Academy after he retired from teaching in 2001 — to 24 Detroit Public School League championships in swimming, golf and soccer. 

“No matter what the sport was, he had the formula to make a team a champion,” Robert Jenkins Jr. said about his father, who died on Jan. 14 at the age 86.

Advertisement

“But more than that, my father had a profound impact on the minds of every student he touched. He brought golf, and all the lessons golf teaches, to the North End. And, in the summer, he had members of the swim team teach the younger kids in the neighborhood how to swim, which taught his swim team members how to give back to the community.”   

During the evening of Feb. 22, Robert Jenkins Jr. took pride in sharing stories about young people who were coached and mentored by his father across multiple decades that went on to become “doctors, educators, business leaders, and parents” that have made positive contributions to the city of Detroit.

Robert Jenkins Jr. also described some of the friendly interactions that his dad had with notable people like U.S. Olympic sprint champion Wilma Rudolph and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Dick Barnett at Tennessee State University, where the elder Jenkins received the education and training that he needed to teach and coach student-athletes in Detroit.

But earlier that day, an equally compelling “Fish” story was told by another community member.  

Advertisement

“Mr. Jenkins was a very important person in my life and he is one of the reasons why I have always tried to do my part when it comes to providing opportunities for young people in our city,” said Gary Peterson, who has coached young swimmers in Detroit for 47 years, including at Detroit’s King High School, where he coaches boys and girls swimmers today. 

Long before Peterson coached high school swimmers — and youth swimmers of virtually all ages when he was a full-time swimming instructor for the city of Detroit’s Recreation Department — Peterson was on the swim team at King High School (Class of 1974), when Robert Jenkins Sr. came into his life. 

“There were coaches at other schools that helped young swimmers that wanted to improve and go to another level, and Mr. Jenkins was one of those coaches,” said Peterson, who was coached at King High School by Clyde James, a lifelong friend and teammate of Jenkins on the Tennessee State University swimming team during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when they brought national attention to the school’s swimming program.

“Mr. Jenkins would make his pool at Northern available to students from other schools that wanted to get in extra practice. Then, as I got closer to going to college, Mr. Jenkins was the person who introduced me to the colleges that were recruiting Black high school swimmers.

Advertisement

“At that time, there were more than 20 HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) that had competitive swimming programs. Today, there is only one (Howard University in Washington, DC). But back then, Mr. Jenkins wanted to make sure we had the opportunities and exposure, which included sending a small group of us to South Carolina State for a recruiting trip.

“Afterwards, Mr. Jenkins even came over to King from Northern to present me with my scholarship to South Carolina State, while I was sitting in a King classroom. I couldn’t believe it and I was ecstatic, but everything that he did for me and other young swimmers in the city he did so willingly. And that’s what I always thought I was supposed to do as a coach.” 

Peterson said he would do even more with Jenkins when Peterson returned to Detroit from Orangeburg, South Carolina, after graduating from college. 

“In the late 1980s, a team I was coaching at Johnson Recreation Center and Mr. Jenkins’ team at Northern, traveled to Washington DC as one team in February to compete in the Black History Invitational Swim Meet. And that tradition of Detroit competing as one team at that meet continued every year until COVID,” said Peterson, who also recalled that Jenkins coached softball and even junior varsity football for a time, in addition to swimming, golf and soccer.

“Just as Mr. Jenkins thought it was critical for us to come together and take our kids to DC for that swim meet because it was the biggest showcase for Black swimmers, he wanted all the young people he coached to have good training and exposure. And in my case, as the son of sharecroppers, I can say that Mr. Jenkins inspired me as well, as a swimmer and a coach.” 

Advertisement

Every time Peterson walks into King High to coach the current group of swimmers at the school, he said he is reminded of Jenkins and other important people that paved the way for Black swimmers in Detroit.

For example, in 2023, the natatorium at King was rededicated as the Clyde James Natatorium by the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Peterson says the renaming was not only a salute to James, who was a finalist in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Championships in the 100-yard butterfly during the 1960-61 season while swimming for Tennessee State, but also a tribute to the fabled swimming program that was once housed at the Brewster Recreation Center, which helped to develop James, Jenkins and many other Detroit swimmers that competed nationally. Brewster’s early swimming program was led by the legendary Clarence Gatliff, an all-city swimmer at Cass Tech during the 1920s.

Another pleasant reminder of the history and evolution of Black swimmers in Detroit that Peterson sees when inside King High is 54-year-old Robert Jenkins Jr., an educator like his father, who is teaching personal finance this school year at King and hopes to honor his father’s legacy this summer by offering a swimming and golf program to students.  

“I want to make sure that Detroiters understand my father’s legacy,” said Jenkins, a 1989 graduate of Northern High School, who explained that his father and mother (Norma Jean Jenkins) taught him and his sister (Dr. Marlo Rencher) that “we don’t half do anything.”

Advertisement

And that includes community service.

“My father was a servant leader and he would offer encouragement to any young person he was around, not just the students he coached. And paying it (that support) forward was a lesson he always taught in the process.” 

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber. 



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Detroit, MI

Fox 2 Detroit anchor Amy Andrews updates viewers on her medical leave

Published

on

Fox 2 Detroit anchor Amy Andrews updates viewers on her medical leave


play

  • Amy Andrews posted on Instagram that for now, “my focus is following my doctors’ guidance so that I can return safely and consistently” to work.
  • Andrews told viewers, “I miss our mornings together more than I can say.”

Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK-TV) morning news anchor Amy Andrews took to social media on Thursday, Feb. 26, to share with viewers why she has been off the air again.

Andrews posted on Instagram that she is on a “physician-directed medical leave” as she continues treatment for dysautonomia, which she described as “a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that affects things like heart rate, blood pressure, and circulation.”

Advertisement

Wrote Andrews, “For me, it can cause significant dizziness, vision changes, brain fog, and sudden drops in blood pressure, making live television unsafe until it’s properly stabilized.”

According to the Dysautonomia Project, a nonprofit collaborative effort to provide education on the condition, an estimated 70 million people across the globe have some form of dysfunction to the autonomic system that regulates “functions that are automatic in nature such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, excretion, perspiration, temperature regulation, pupil dilation, circulation, and respiration” and more. 

“Often dysautonomias are invisible illnesses. Patients may not look sick, and yet they have symptoms that make it difficult to work, go to school, and perform activities of daily living,” the collaborative effort says.

Advertisement

Andrews explained on her post that she doesn’t take her decision to step back from work lightly “I love what I do, and I love serving this community. Right now, my focus is following my doctors’ guidance so that I can return safely and consistently.”

She added, “I miss our mornings together more than I can say. Please know I am working hard, I am not giving up, and my goal is to return as soon as I am medically able. Thank you for the incredible support so many of you have shown me over the years. It means everything.”

Andrews received several supportive comments to her posting, including from Local 4 News (WDIV-TV) anchors Rhonda Walker, Karen Drew and Jason Colthorp.

Advertisement

“From your friends and competitors across town: Get well soon. Hope to look up and see your face soon,,” wrote Colthorp.

Andrews, who is an anchor of “Fox 2 News Mornings,” returned to work in September 2025 after an extended absence for what she said at the time on social media were health issues, describing symptoms like “extreme dizziness, balance issues, brain fog and blurred vision.”

Before that, in July 2025, she wrote online to thank staffers at the Michigan Institute for Neurological Disorders (which has several locations in metro Detroit) for taking “amazing” care of her and wrote shortly afterward in August 2025: “My neurologist was able to rule out what would’ve been a devastating diagnosis! … However, that means I move on to different specialists and different tests until we figure this out.”

Andrews has been open about her medical challenges in the past and is also an advocate for mental health awareness. Through social media, she revealed in 2022 and 2024 that she had taken medical leaves to deal with depression and anxiety.In 2021, she underwent back surgery to remove herniated disc fragments in her lower back after an injury suffered during a vacation in Florida.Andrews is an alum of Indiana University, Oakland University and the Specs Howard School of Media Arts. She worked at TV stations in Colorado, Nevada, California and the Flint and Saginaw market before joining Fox 2 Detroit in 2011.

She is involved with many community causes including Gleaners Community Food Bank, C.A.T.C.H Children’s Charity, the Crohn’s Colitis Foundation of America, Habitat for Humanity, the American Heart Association and Angels of Hope, according to her Fox 2 Detroit biography.Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending