The 2024 running motorsports thread

A great question and something I posed to Lee Montgomery while we were watching the race. Indianapolis was built nearly 120 years ago, has long and narrow straights and almost flat corners. Daytona and Talladega are wide and have massive banked turns. And yet, because of the current rules that IndyCar and NASCAR have in place, the racing at the 500 is almost vintage slingshot racing from NASCAR's heyday.

IndyCar on ovals has become open-wheel IROC because of several factors, mainly due to cost and driver safety. Dallara's chassis design dates from 2012 and the engines have been around long enough to where neither manufacturer has a discernable edge.

There's just nothing that engineers haven't uncovered at this point to get a significant advantage. IndyCar won't allow teams to manufacture their own wings and add-on pieces so teams have basically the same tiny box of adjustments on Race Day. Stagger, wing adjustments, Gurney flaps, etc.

With little aero or mechanical advantage, the farther back in the pack you are, the more you're at the mercy of dirty air. However, there's enough draft for a single trailing car to make a huge difference. The leader is pushing enough air out of the way for the second-place car to suck back up and get a slingshot pass done at the end of the 5/8ths-mile straights. So you see the leader snaking in an effort to break the draft, or two cars swapping places to keep the rest of the field at bay.

Now, I'd argue the finish is more about strategy than aerodynamics at that point. Teams are working those first 475 miles trying to put their driver in the best possible place to be one of those two cars at the end. And that's where guys like Colton Herta (before his crash), Alex Palou and Helio Castroneves were earning their keep. They were slashing their way through the field after every restart, making passes nearly every lap despite zero aero. That's something you notice in the stands that the TV cameras are missing.

It was the opposite for Scott McLaughlin, who got stuck behind the likes of Sting Ray Robb and Conor Daly on several green-flag stints -- perhaps on orders from the race strategists to conserve some fuel. And Scott Dixon had a mid-pack car all race long, until his off-cycle pit strategy got him to the front.

So unlike the complete randomness of a Daytona 500 Big One, it wasn't by chance that Palou, McLaughlin, Newgarden, Rossi, O'Ward and Dixon were the top six with 10 laps to go. The only question to be answered was who would pull off the last pass.

Dixon and Palou were in Hondas. McLaughlin had aero push running in traffic. Rossi was in great position until O'Ward pulled off an incredible pass for second. So that left O'Ward and Newgarden.

O'Ward might have waited until the backstretch to make his pass, but Turn 1 was the preferred corner all day and he had the run. Newgarden was just brave and lucky enough when he threw it on the outside going into 3 and hoped the Firestones would stick.

It was a repeat of Little Al and Emmo from 1989, except in this case both cars came out the other side.

Bravery and luck gets your face on that trophy.

 

USA Today will sponsor the Cup race at New Hampshire. No word on how many copy editors GateNett will have to lay off to cover the check.

 

I don't think USA Today sells 300 papers a week in the entire state. Including hotel room copies.

 

They will have to hire a Stringer in order to cover the event.

 

How to alienate your biggest star.



Good job, NASCAR. Good effort.

 

Great analysis.

Many think the 500 is like the old NBA adage where you only have to pay attention to the last two minutes. Apply 20 laps in the case of the 500.

Those who know know that all of that running in the previous 180 laps matters so much as far as track position, fuel mileage, etc. It’s a sort of stage-setting “Survivor” of sorts.

It was a great finish helped in massive part by something no one I know of has pointed out … the IndyCar drivers didn’t drive like idiots and wreck each other when the laps checked down. A sharp contrast to 2023 when they did.

The biggest blessing for that three-way duel was the long stretch of green to finish the race. Shame Rossi had to save fuel or it could have been even more interesting.

The lament of the IndyCar fan is that no one seems to care how good the racing can be in this series. Not every race is as taut or even close, IndyCar can drop clunkers just like any other series can, but the competitiveness throughout the field is the best its ever been.

Of course, IndyCar does itself zero favors by going to a shit Detroit street course after the 500. Thanks Roger!

 

Isle of Man TT going on now, all other racing is for pussies.

 

I miss when Milwaukee and later Texas were the first post-Indy races. I’m sure the drivers don’t miss putting their lives in their hands at Texas.

 

The Indy-Milwaukee back-to-back was cool and I think most IndyCar fans who were around when it was the natural order of things would love to see it return.

Unfortunately, it is yet another victim of the Split.

By the time re-unification occurred, Eddie Gossage was strident in keeping that post-Indy slot for Texas. Then, Penske decided he was equally strident about Detroit following Indy. In the Belle Isle days, Detroit could be decent, but it’s still a far cry from Indy.

Of course in the wake of all of this, Milwaukee had plenty of its own problems. Seemed inevitable it was going to be shut down/renovated out of existence.

I really hope the revived IndyCar date this season there does well, but on Labor Day weekend? I have doubts.

 

The Santino Ferucci sideshow has been entertaining, but I'm ready for it to be done before he hurts somebody on the track. With his on-track record in other series, IndyCar should have him on the shortest of short leashes.

Where it started:


Where it got awkward:


Where Colton Herta ended it: