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

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

It's on page 300 (I think) and was itself 300 pages long. Time to freshen the laundry.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Well, Indy now has a full field. Who the hell is Thiago Medeiros?

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

God, Indy sucks now. Ten or 15 years ago, it really was a spectacle, as they still say and try to pass it off as. Bump Day used to be so thrilling and nerve-wracking to watch, but it truly just sucks now.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

I believe that is where the phrase "On the Bubble" originally came from.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Next Sunday morning, I'll have difficulty agreeing with you. But last year's 500 was a phenomenal race.

The drivers aren't the household names they used to be, and that takes a lot of the luster off. Outside of Danica and Andretti/Unser, nobody really knows who the drivers are. The economics of the sport, however, have changed, and that has just blown Bump Day to smithereens. Sponsorship dollars increasingly go south and support three series, and what's left, IRL and CCWS teams get to fight over -- it's barely enough to fill the field. Honda has worried about being able to supply 33 engines for the month, which is an economics problem in all of open-wheel racing. But even NASCAR has difficulty filling fields to 43 now (and Kirk Shelmerdine always shows up to save them the PR disaster that might cause).

But then, as now, the guys qualifying in the final hour on Bump Day are usually one-off drivers, several of which scrambled to make a last-minute deal (with A.J. Foyt or Dick Simon, usually) and drove it into the show. Indy almost got one of those this year. Ryan Briscoe would've bumped his way into the field today if Marty Roth hadn't found a way to screw things up for a legitimate driver running for a semi-legitimate (if slow) team.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Indy predictions ...

1. Helio Castroneves. Penske has been fastest all month, and usually figures it out on race day. Helio is proven over 500 miles. Hornish hasn't finished 200 laps at Indy yet.
2. Tony Kanaan. A perennial bridesmaid, but he'll be up front.
3. Dan Wheldon. I might pick him for No. 2, but he doesn't seem comfortable with the race package yet.
4. Scott Dixon. Ganassi is flying, and has managed to have a leg up on other teams (well, all of the other teams whose cars don't look like packs of smokes). He's slower than his teammate, though.
5. Vitor Meira. Not a sexy pick, but he managed to be up front at the finish of nearly every race.
--
Dark horse: Tomas Scheckter. He's got tons and tons of talent, but he's learning the value of patience. That should pay off. So should the fact that Vision has actually been semi-competitive this month.
Dark horse II: Michael Andretti. Never qualifies well, but the last time he had a really slow qualifying run at Indy, he was leading midway through the race.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

bumping the thread.

Since it's a minor sport in Indy (everyone has a favorite), throw yours out ...

(and nobody will notice because it's about a seventh-tier series, but the last-lap shootout in the Pro Series race today at IMS was pretty cool).

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

It will come down to Penske vs. Ganassi, unfortunately. I have a feeling that outside the top five or six cars, this race is going to sucksucksuck.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

While Penske or Ganassi will end up winning, what would possibly turn people on its heads is if P.J. Chesson won. From reading interviews and stories, the man seems to be hilarious and your typical frat boy guy -- which could bring people back to the series.
I know it's crazy, but IRL could use all the help it could get.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

For us, P.J. Chesson is great. The guy talks, and talks, and talks, and talks, and gives reams and reams of great copy. His post-qualifying presser -- which included a sound-effect laden description of flying in an F-16 and buzzing Tony George & Brian Barnhart (as well as his "checklist" for a guy -- drive IndyCars, fly in an F-16, jump out of airplanes, knock sh*t over with bulldozers, ride in fire trucks and date a lot of girls who are really hot). was the highlight of Pole Day.

He seems to be nuts, but nuts in a good, endearing way that would bring people back to the series.

As far as the race, I'm expecting Penske and Ganassi to be up front and the contenders for the win. But they won't be as dominant as, say, Penske was in 1994, when Al Unser Jr. pretty much lapped the field (and Fittipaldi had Unser Jr. lapped before he hit the wall). I'm not expecting last year, with 27 lead changes and the Danica drama in the closing laps, but I do figure this'll be a pretty good show.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Just heard during Speed's coverage of F1 practice at Monaco ... supposedly Juan Pablo Montoya has been told he won't be driving for McLaren next year.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

I TiVoed practice and just heard the same thing.

So either Kimi is staying put, or more likely McLaren has their eye on someone else.

I don't see any established drivers as a particularly obvious fit, so I'll guess it's Lewis Hamilton.