All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

Well, they do just often call it "the 500 mile race," so whatever modifier/sponsorship is covered.

 

CNN with the huge swing and a miss.

 

OK, the lack of a crowd is a buzz kill here, maybe more so than any race in any series I've watched since they came back.

 

Indy starts/restarts are such a joke. Dixon was passing the pole sitter before they even got to the start/finish line, and the field is stretched out back to turn 3.

 

The travel agency advertising how cheap international travel is for Americans right now on the IMS radio broadcast is completely unclear on the concept this year.

 

Wow. That was a Michael Waltrip-at-Brisol hit for Pigot.

Damn it, I had the top 5 in order at Lap 100. But still wound up with Sato, Dixon and Newgarden, plus O'Ward in sixth. Good run for Rahal because that car seemed awful on Friday.

Man, I feel for Rossi. Sato chopped him all race and then he's the one who gets the pit road penalty.

And yeah, they should have immediately red flagged and "could have" fixed it with two laps to go, but I've never seen IndyCar not have a full caution lap to green, which would have been Lap 199.

Sucks.

 

How do we know how long that attenuator repair would have taken? Would it have been as safe as it was when Pigot hit it?

I think they talked about that, the number of laps remaining and such before ending under yellow. Which is the way it happened much more frequently in the more distant past. NASCAR has red-flagged entirely too many races, IMO, in the name of manufacturing end-of-race excitement.

Flame away ... I'm kind of expecting it.

 

That was less than satisfying.

 

I agree on NASCAR. I've said it a hundred times, race the advertised distance. In this case, it seemed they paused, restarted, then finished under caution anyway. The hit the motherlode of how to not end a race.

 

Yeah, I think they were looking at that repair and didn't want to wait 90 minutes to have tow or three laps under green.