No Place For Second
Nick Tandy and the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 has a shot at two IMSA championships. Winning both will require balancing risk and team strategy.
Any driver in contention to win a race finds little consolation finishing anywhere else.
Raise the stakes to a full-season championship and the desire to come out on top rises exponentially.
The win-or-bust mentality makes strategy calls for the IMSA TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks somewhat easier for the Porsche Penske No. 6 Porsche 963 team--at least from the drivers' perspective.
Porsche factory drivers Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway second in the season-long GTP drivers' standings, 100 points behind teammates and fellow factory employees Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr in the No. 7. The 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R duo of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais is 85 points behind the second-place Porsche, with the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R pair of Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani another 57 points back.
While the third-place Cadillac is closer than the points-leading Porsche, Tandy doesn't plan to be looking over his shoulder much during Indy's 6-hour event.
"I'm not interested in finishing second or third [in points]," Tandy told reporters. "If there's a chance to do something risky and potentially lose points to the 01 or any of the others, against the smaller chance of something else paying off [against the No. 6], we would probably go for it."
Recent history points to a Penske showdown for the top step on Indy's podium. The team’s two Porsche 963s finished 1-2 there last year and enter this season’s event as the hottest two GTP-class entries.
Since finishing ninth at Sebring six races ago, the No. 6 has put together a run of five straight top-four finishes, including two wins and four podiums in the last four outings. The four-race run helped Tandy and Jaminet cut 79 points off their teammates' lead, even as the No. 7 finished no worse than fourth, at Detroit, in the same span.
The No. 7's slightly better season-long showing--Detroit is its worst finish through seven races--is the difference so far. With a 100-point lead--the gap between a first and sixth-place race finish--and two races to go, the Porsche Penske No. 6's game plan isn't likely to change much. That puts pressure on the No. 7 to shift its approach at Indy and the Oct. 12 Motul Petit Le Mans finale at Road Atlanta.
"I would imagine the normal tactics would be the No. 7 car will play the safe strategy, being ahead on points," Tandy said. "If there's a situation where it might pay to split strategies, we'd probably tend to go [with] the option."
Last season's winning Brickyard moves will only get Porsche Penske so far this year. IMSA's 2023 return to Indy after a decade away brought a 240-minute sprint race. While last year's data will be useful, a 6-hour endurance event introduces new wrinkles.
"I've always enjoyed the longer races because it gives more opportunity to do something different," Tandy said, "Make a difference as a team, rather than just down to pure pace of each individual car."
Now in his 10th full season of IMSA competition, Tandy has never won a drivers' title. But as much as an individual award would mean, he knows he's playing an important role in an even bigger championship push. Porsche leads Cadillac by 89 points in the coveted manufacturers' title fight, with Acura 146 points back in third and BMW a distant fourth.
While the two Porsche Penske squads will be focused on each other, the bigger priority is watching out for each other.
"The main aim is to get a Porsche car to the front...and win a manufacturers' championship," Tandy said. "Don't take each other out, and then see what happens.
"If we lose ground at Indy, it'll be tough to do anything but support [the No. 7] for Road Atlanta," he added. "The main thing is to get one of the cars to the front, beating the other three manufacturers."
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