Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II (Montreal, Turkey, IRL to RACE Daytona?!?)

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Thanks for stopping by the booth Dan Wheldon. Sounded like somebody trying to crank a lawnmower after winter hiatus.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

as i walked in and turned on the tv, danica patrick was in the pit and they had her live mic and cuaght her saying, 'cheever's an idiot'

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

What did Cheever do? I'm trying to flip back and forth between NASCAR and I missed it.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Eddie in his slow, unsponsored backmarker lapper came over and wiped out Marco Andretti, who had one of the fastest cars on the track.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Ouch...thanks

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

And much earlier in the race he got into the back of Danica Patrick causing her to spin. She lost a lap while getting her nose cone replaced.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

i wouldn't mind getting into the back of danica patrick

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

And for the first time in history, Eddie wipes out one of the contenders and DOESN'T call the other person an idiot.

The Andrettis' reaction was classic ... Marco was calling out a guy who's older than his father and saying "he shouldn't be in this series." As good of a quote as Cheever is, Marco was right.

One week after being taken out of Indy contention because of blocking, Dixon won in a rather sloppy race in which most of the contenders took themselves out (Wheldon, the Penske cars, Kanaan) or were taken out by Cheever (Andretti, Patrick). Franchitti also could've been in contention had he not been taken out. It figures that a guy who gets into trouble -- Buddy Rice -- manages to keep his nose clean later in the race well enough to finish fourth.

To me, the story is the underfunded teams did fairly well. Vitor Meira ends up second for the fifth time in his career (TV guys said there's a meeting this week with Harrah's to actually get sponsorship on the Panther car). One-off driver Ryan Briscoe third in the D&R car and Felipe Giaffone is fifth with Mr. Wonderful.

The clock on Bobby Rahal is on ... how much longer before he replaces Jeff Simmons, and with whom? Chesson to Panther should be happening soon, too, which might bring a bit of an infusion of cash to that team.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

The radio guys at Indy were speculating that the axe would fall before Watkins Glen. Apparently this guy is the Rich Brooks of open wheel racing.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

How bad of a day was this for open-wheel racing?

Outside of the Andretti-Cheever sniping, the IRL race was a bit of a yawner and a wreckfest, on the one week where it could have picked up some momentum from Indy, thanks in part from some inexperience with road courses and thanks in part to guys trying to run a wet racetrack on slicks (even Dixon bobbled on the last lap with a rather comfortable lead). The only really redeeming (?) thing was a lot of the field-fillers finished pretty high.

I didn't see the CC Milwaukee race, but it didn't seem to be any better. Another wreckfest with (yawn) Bourdais running away from the pack again.

Both series have some really, really big problems, especially off the track, but after a really good Indy, the on-track product looked *really* bad today. This might've created a lot of momentum for merger (although if the IRL puts on its usual show in Texas in front of its biggest non-Indy crowd on Saturday night, that might change).

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

On the CCWS broadcast, they said Kalkohven was supposed to be on Wind Tunnel tonight to talk about "the future of Champ Car."

Whatever that means ...