I love Indycar, IMO best racing today But this weekend was garbage due to the broadcast Captured laps 41-68 of yesterday's 70 lap race on DVR
Agreed. NBC really boned fans. Pato O'Ward is such an impressive driver and what a charge at the end of the race to take that win. I could watch his in-car all day. Lighting fast hands.
A lot of people asking questions about how he managed to be so much faster at that restart. He pulled out a 7 second lead in the last 3 laps once he got around Newgarden. I really hope it is nothing other than he is just that good.
I found that curious also, how all the drivers commented on O'Ward's speed immediately after the race like they met about it before hand.... Luckily I was watching the end of the tennis match and got to record the first of the race on CNBC.
He's been fast for the most part all season and it's a spec series. What could rules could they bend to make him faster I wonder?
I think it's down to getting the tires switched on, on the restarts. Maybe they've learned a trick or two from F1 and the drivers are using that. Also, just because the ECU is a stock McLaren piece, doesn't mean they all have their own calibration. There are certain locked down values, but not everything. Teams can and do make changes. Shocks (dampers) are free in the series and there's a lot to be gained there. Pato was on sticker primaries at the end while others were on scrubbed tires and Newgarden was stuck with reds which was a strategy call that didn't pay out. Finally Pato is just an effing animal, in a good way. People keep talking about Herta, another great driver, but forget Pato beat him in Indy Lights while with the same team. As a life long McLaren fan, it makes me happy, even if I'm still sore over how the Schmidt Peterson side of the team treated Hinch a couple of years ago, especially the ARROW side after they lost their **** over him appearing in Sports Illustrated.
Agree with you about the tires. During the final yellow there was a broadcast of the team manager [Sam Scmitt?] talking Pato through what he had to do on restart. He said that with his tires he would be the fastest on the track. And he went on to say you are running P5. You need to pass 4 and 3 and then later 2 before chasing down Newgarten. And to make the effort to pass as quickly as possible. He immediately passed Rahal for 4th on the first turn and Palou on the 2nd turn to run 3rd. With 2+ laps to go he flew by Herta to begin his chase of Newgarten. It was amazing how Schmitt wrote the script and Pato followed it perfectly.
Thank you for the correction. This is the first year I have been following Indycar. And am loving it!! Real racing w/ many different winners, strategies, surprises and more. Taylor Kiel knew what should happen. Very cool.
Interesting to see how K Mag adapts with zero prior practice. Indycar at Elkhart Lake is as good and pure as racing gets, love this race weekend!
not great, but they did have a brake bleeding issue in the first practice. also....what's up with Hinch this season? best finish of 14th (last weekend), struggled in practice and qualifying everywhere...and in an Andretti (affiliated) car. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Road America is the Spa version in the States. While I have no expectations for K Mag he is premiering with a lot of experience under his belt. Unlike JJ who seems to contribute at least one yellow per appearance. While I do appreciate the success of Jimmy Johnson he is out of his league in these Indy cars. Too many unforced errors to the point he becomes an influence on race results. But I think he should keep doing his best. For sure Penske evaluated bringing JJ into this series. Roger probably determined more plusses than minuses. We look at JJs performance. Penske looks at a much bigger picture. To have a racing series with 7 different winners in 9 races makes it so fun to watch. After leading almost the entire race Newgarten in his interview was really downtrodden finishing second. It was painful to watch Joseph "have" to talk to the interviewer to re-live how he was leading for the race only to finish 2nd. Of the vets I like Newgarten and Dixon. They have their challenge with the amazing young talents with O'Ward, Herta, Palou and VK. What a great series of racing!!
Well it was a hell of a challenge and if he had issues on top of that...I just almost fell off my chair, Romain P1 wow, Kevin will take solace from that since they are about equal in talent. Regarding Hinchclif he never made any special impression in my humble opinion and his problem this year is most likely that there are a lot of new major talents in the series. My bet for the title is still Herta and I would like to see him in F1...but he will need a haircut;-)
It's just practice not qualifying. But Grosjean does know how to drive [not street] road courses. Tomorrow I think qualifying will show the talent. I watched Hinchcliffe out my LR window in the St Pete GP. Not only was he a non-factor he seemed to get in the way of the faster drivers/cars. Ultimately after an unschedule pit stop he punted it right in front of us on turn 6. Not impressive at all.
I've never been a huge fan of Hinch, but he's always been an solid midpack guy (10th-15th), occasionally he'd put it together and be competitive. but he's nowhere this year, in decent equipment (this was Colton's seat from last year). and yes, Indycar has had a major upgrade in talent the last two years
I have been following Indycar in its various guides since the late 80's when I was racing in the UK based right near Silverstone and in May 89 my ex teammate then young hopeful Gil De Ferran said did you see, Emerson just won Indy! That triggered my interest as most indycars were built in that region: the UK Midlands. Indycar has of course always been far more competitive than F1 and the talent level now is off the charts.
My first time at the St Pete GP was 6 years ago viewing from the top of one of the condo buildings overlooking the street-track below. St Pete has always been known as having more yellow-flags since the track is narrow and flanked by concrete barriers. At that race there was the typical collision at Turn 1 at the race start. A carbon-fiber shard flew out of the fenced-in race area and struck a girl in the head 100 yards outside the fence. Like F1 cars the Indy cars at that time were fragile. Somewhere along the line some sharp Indycar exec changed how the cars were built. Today they don't splinter apart when cars touch. At this year's St Pete GP Jimmy Johnson spun out 2x. Once at the airport tower hairpin where he nosed into the tire wall and later when he put the power down too quickly and put the nose into the concrete barrier. However each time he was able to keep driving the car to finish the race. Indycars have a new design-strength that can keep them on the track after minor shunts. Makes sense to me!!
I look forward to seeing more of Hinch on tv next year. He is actually pretty good. I agree with others that JJ is way out of his league. Is there a point where he gets pulled for just being too far off the pace?
I truly hope JJ can gradually learn enough with more seat time to become engaged in the race. With his current skill level in an Indycar he has only become relevant in a negative way through his repeated mistakes. And these mistakes have affected the others racing. He brings out the yellow flag which does have an affect on driver positions due to the NASCAR bunching and restarts. Most of JJs spins or shunts have involved just his car while driving at the back of the pack. Sure hope his mistakes stay relatively harmless and he doesn't take out other cars. JJ is a star that most everybody appreciates for his success and his open friendly attitude. I like that he was brought in to add to the line-up. And I would guess bringing Carvanna money made a difference financially for the series. Just hope he gets up to speed!!
What time does the race start, unclear whether the time indicated here and there is eastern or central time? Thanks.
Im really liking Grosjean in Indycar. What a driver. Also really liking Indycar over F1. Dirtier driving but the rawness is really exciting
The two biggest irritants for me are the unnecessary fuel limits and F1-like tire silliness. Get rid of these two things and IndyCar would be a far better series. Tire “management” and economy runs don’t make for the best racing in my opinion.
Any thoughts on what Jimmie Johnson's motivation is to do this series? The only thing I can think of is he has the sponsorship so . . . why not?