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

Apparently not, according to the track president.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/future-indycar-pocono-serious-jeopardy-191905247--irl.html

 

Wow. That's not good at all. Sounds like maybe they need to move the date off July 4 weekend. I hope they'll give it another go.

 

If Will Power cut his number of mistakes this year in half, he'd be close to wrapping up his first title instead of being tied with his teammate.
At this rate, their other teammate has some big momentum and is close to joining the battle for the title.

 

Kudos to Ed Carpenter for pulling the bonehead move of the night Saturday in Iowa. Ed had been running the high line, but when Montoya passed on the low side, Ed suddenly went low and caused Montoya to wreck. That caution totally changed things. Most of the frontrunners ran better on old tires and struggled on new tires; guys in the back were just the opposite. RHR took full advantage and stole the win. Kudos to him and the Andretti team, but what a bummer for Kanaan. Five straight wins in Iowa for Andretti, plus the team won the first race there in 2007. Penske empty handed again, fading badly at the end.

 

I enjoyed seeing Josef Newgarden get a podium. I hope he's able to pull out a win for Sarah Fisher before his contract is up and he gets snatched by one of the bigger teams.

 

Sarah Fisher's and Ed Carpenter's teams are merging. Seems like a logical partnership and hopefully they can put together a consistently competitive team.

I hate that Fisher wasn't able to grow her program to two cars on her own, though, because this seems more like Carpenter taking over her program so that both can survive. Looks like it'll also free up a Honda engine lease, and some are speculating that Andretti might snatch that up for a 5th car next year.

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/motor/indy-car/2014/08/16/ed-carpenter-sarah-fisher-merge-indycar-teams/14172723/

 

We finally have another American F1 driver!

Alexander Rossi has been tapped to replace Max Chilton at the Belgian Grand Prix.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115467

 

As I've said before, Helio Castronever. He didn't seem to have the car to win last night anyway, but he secured his fate with a penalty coming into the pits. You truly can't win the 2014 IndyCar title without Will Power.
Apparently Will's brother back home in Australia was having quite the time, running down the street in his underwear and drinking whiskey, which of course he videotaped.
Somewhat related, per Jeff Olson at USAT, Will Power seriously would want his firstborn son to be named Horse.

 

Signs your series might be in trouble: when your race director leaves to take a similar position at IMSA.
http://autoweek.com/article/united-sportscar/imsa-announces-beaux-barfield-new-race-director-along-other-changes

 

Meh. He was Randy Bernard's guy. He did a better job than Barnhart, although it would be hard to be worse. The potshots on the way out the door obviously don't help the series image. But as an IndyCar fan, I'm not heartbroken about his leaving.

 

Amazing to see both how uncompetitive Ferrari has been in F1 this year with the new rules, and how much Ferrari leadership is shaking up because of that. First the F1 team director, now the Ferrari head honcho.

 

More troubles for IndyCar. Apparently the season-opening race in Brazil has been canceled.
Brazilian organizers say IndyCar opener has been canceled - Yahoo Sports

But wait, there's more. IndyCar needed a new director of race control, so they recycled the past and brought back their resident circus clown. There can't be many bullets left in the chamber by now.
Brian Barnhart returns as head of IndyCar race control - Yahoo Sports