Running 2023 Motorsports thread

That Mr. Aumann is more excited about Indy time trials than North Wilkesboro coming back to life says everything you need to know about U.S. motorsports today.

 

I would not be surprised in the least to see both horse and auto racing disappear by 2040. I'll be 82 and drinking steak from a blender by then.

 

Nine out of 12! Never expected Andretti to suck that badly. And Rahal has three of the four cars in tomorrow's Last Row debacle. On the other hand, A.J. Foyt Racing outqualified Penske, Andretti and Rahal.

1. Rosenqvist
2. x-Rossi
3. x-Palou
4. x-Veekay
5. x-Dixon
6. Kanaan
7. x-Sato
8. x-O'Ward
9. x-Ferrucci (!)
10. x-Ericsson
11. Pederson (!)
12. x-Power

 

Jeremy has written a lot about North Wilkesboro over the years. Passing along for anyone interested: North Wilkesboro was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

 

Nicely done. North Wilkesboro was a victim of NASCAR's insatiable lust for relevance. The fact that it was reborn to such positive response when stealing Cup races from it and Rockingham and Darlington and Atlanta have for the most part spectacularly failed is a big middle finger to NASCAR, although nobody actually in the corner offices at Daytona Beach is old enough to know better.

The hundreds of millions of dollars International Speedway Motorsports/France family threw at racetrack proposals in New York, Denver, Seattle and wherever else they thought would share in their delusion is a prime reason why they're hemorrhaging fans. Brian Z. adored Madison Avenue suits and despised Main Street folks who made his family rich.

 

Katherine Legge runs into Stefan Wilson during Indy 500 practice today, sending both cars hard into the Turn 1 wall. Wilson has a lower back fracture which will put him out of Sunday's starting lineup.

There's enough time to repair the cars -- unless the tubs were damaged -- for Friday's Carb Day practice. Legge, a one-off entry, has no backup ride. Possibly J.R. Hildebrand or maybe Sage Karam could get into the No. 24 as Wilson's replacement.

I'm wondering if either entry cannot be presented, would Graham Rahal's No. 15 be considered first alternate? I don't know if he'd do it, but Bobby Rahal could withdraw Legge's qualified car now and get his son in the race.

 

The closure of North Wilkesboro is entirely on Bruton Smith’s head.

Entirely.

 

Also Bob Bahre.

 

As it turns out, there are no alternate positions. Dropped a few years ago, so it's only Wilson's misfortune, and Honda and Chevy deciding to play nice, that allows Rahal to take Wilson's spot in the D&R car. (And if that deal wasn't made, I have no clue who might have been allowed to run. Only 34 drivers took the wheel this year, so a refresher practice would have been necessary for someone else before Carb Day, or perhaps early in the morning of it.)

 

Covering the Saturday session, where there were over 80 attempts – a "new track record," Tom Carnegie would have intoned – it was clear you only need one day to get this done after three or four days of practice. Seven hours to get in the show, and that's it. You don't need two days, much less four (which was the standard for years partly because it drew fans all four days and was used to sell tickets to the race). Use Sunday for a rain day and the practice that was on Monday. Or convince RP to bring back the Freedom 100 and run that on Sunday.