The 2021 Running NASCAR/IMSA/other racing things thread

IndyCar gets the 2021 season under way today at Barber with a 24-car field. Pato O'Ward set a new track record and won the pole. Jimmie Johnson's open-wheel debut and didn't qualify last! Grosjean didn't hit a guardrail and catch on fire, which is already better than his last F1 start.

The most interesting thing about the day was that the track lost electricity, which delayed activities for a time. (Still haven't heard the reason why.)

 

It wasn't caused by weather. I really ought to get my butt out there. That's a gorgeous track and a great event. Barber's is two exits down from my house.

 

They opened a Buc-ee’s at that exit earlier this year, which is a chain of ginormous convenience stores just now starting to creep out of Texas. There’s already a Bass Pro Shop and an outlet mall there. If they could have somehow swapped Barbers for Talladega (about a half hour away), Exit 140 would be Redneck Valhalla.

 

Given the current Covid climate here with lockdowns, cases skyrocketing and quarantines for those arriving from elsewhere this isn't surprising. if they did have it it would have to be behind closed doors. I am hoping to get to the race in 2022.

 

Hell, never mind. Apparently they did move Talladega to Leeds.

 

If they swapped it for Talladega the twice annual weekend traffic jam would be far closer to home.

 

There have been races where the stop-and-go on I-20 East didn't let up until Six Flags. Buncha drunk rednex, mix in the usual 18-wheeler traffic, plus lane closures for construction and you've got yourself one lovely little ride home. How many times can you press replay on the Skynyrd's Greatest Hits CD? I found out sitting next to a pickup truck that night. (I think I memorized the fingering to the Freebird solo by about 20 miles out of Villa Rica.)

 

My wife's best friend (who we house and cat sit for fairly often) lives off of the Lincoln exit where the main gate to 'Dega is. The turn to her house is perhaps as much as a mile and half from the gate, just across the river as you drive toward Talladega. Trust me, we already have next weekend all planned out so far as that goes.

 

Maybe it comes from watching almost 50 years of open-wheel racing, but I wind up yelling at the television set no matter which network is covering the sport. How can I be sitting on the couch and see obvious things when the people paid to describe the action are clueless?

Sunday was a perfect example. NBC -- who is infinitely better than ABC at covering IndyCar -- couldn't figure out why Will Power wasn't using up his "push to pass" advantage to catch Alex Palou over the closing laps. Because Power had barely enough fuel to make it to the finish himself, you jokers! That's the tradeoff with a two-stop strategy. You have to go into fuel management mode just to finish the race. You can't use more fuel than what's in the tank so you can't push to pass. Marcus Ericsson ran out after taking the checkers, so the margin was that slim.

Sometimes strategy wins over sheer speed. O'Ward and Rossi never got passed on the track and still lost, because those yellow-flag laps after Newgarden went into pinball mode allowed Ganassi and Penske tacticians to employ different strategies that worked out in this instance. It could have easily gone wrong had there been another caution after O'Ward and Rossi had pitted, but them's the breaks. Rossi won an Indy 500 on fumes, so he's been on the other side of the equation.

It was really fun to see the No. 14 leading instead of being lapped by the leaders. Jimmie Johnson survived and learned a whole lot about how steep the learning curve is. Grosjean posted a top 10. Hunter-Reay still can't catch a break.

Off to St. Pete.

 

Was it my imagination or did they backload a lot of commercial breaks into the back half of the race?

 

Holy crap. I don't think they got three full laps in before the next set of ads there for a stretch between laps 50 and 80. Glad NBC had to plug Carvana or they might have had to show race cars.