2023 IndyCar News / Misc.

A 50% stake of the Grand Prix of Long Beach is up for sale. Hopefully the estate coordinates with Forsythe so that it goes to capable hands with IndyCar’s best interests at heart. It would be a shame if the series were replaced as the headliner at its biggest event outside of the 500. I think the fact that it would be a true 50-50 partnership and not a 51% controlling stake could influence who wants in.

At a rumored sale price of $15 million in 2005, Kalkhoven and Forsythe split the cost and its value has only risen in the years since the acquisition was made. During their ownership of the Long Beach GP, major series like Formula 1 and NASCAR have reportedly made attempts to buy the event and replace IndyCar as its headliner.

Kalkhoven and Forsythe rejected those advances, but with Kalkhoven’s loss, gaining control of his half of the business is said to have drawn considerable interest from existing racing promotors and racing series alike.

The NTT IndyCar Series is among the rumored parties, which Penske Corporation president Bud Denker addressed last weekend.

 
Nashville will continue with a new layout from 2024-2026, with the Titans building a new stadium during that time.

“We’ve been prepared for this,” Nashville GP CEO Jason Rittenberry told RACER. “And we’ve been planning with [circuit designer] Tony Cotman and myself and IndyCar and have been meeting and discussing and working on a plan for ‘24 and beyond. We are in the process of signing a new three-year extension with IndyCar, so we will continue the race and it will be a new course, but it will still be in downtown Nashville.”

 


New video on YouTube today, ‘Releasing The Dragon’ … A look back at Marcus Ericsson’s 2022 Indianapolis 500 victory
 
Anyone got thoughts on some of the upcoming silly season stuff?

Indy practice broadcast was just touching on how Marcus is still waiting for things to come together…

You folks believe Ericsson will stay at Ganassi?

(I hope so…)
 
Anyone got thoughts on some of the upcoming silly season stuff?

Indy practice broadcast was just touching on how Marcus is still waiting for things to come together…

You folks believe Ericsson will stay at Ganassi?

(I hope so…)
I honestly think this off season is going to be much more chaotic than 2022's was and I'm very aware as to how nuts the 2022 Indycar silly season wound up being. Everyone just seems to assume Alex Palou is going to be in Indycar next year in Rosenqvist's place, that Dixon and Power definitely can't retire yet even though both are 42, and that Graham Rahal keeps racing for his dad and they still have a million question marks. None of those things I just typed are certain. I will say this though - if Myles Rowe keeps racing in USF2000 like he has and graduates to NXT next year (which he will), there's gonna be some talk about a up and coming Tiger Woods of Auto Racing. I'm not saying he's justified it yet or anything to that extent, I'm just looking out to the horizon and seeing clouds forming.
 
I honestly think this off season is going to be much more chaotic than 2022's was and I'm very aware as to how nuts the 2022 Indycar silly season wound up being. Everyone just seems to assume Alex Palou is going to be in Indycar next year in Rosenqvist's place, that Dixon and Power definitely can't retire yet even though both are 42, and that Graham Rahal keeps racing for his dad and they still have a million question marks. None of those things I just typed are certain. I will say this though - if Myles Rowe keeps racing in USF2000 like he has and graduates to NXT next year (which he will), there's gonna be some talk about a up and coming Tiger Woods of Auto Racing. I'm not saying he's justified it yet or anything to that extent, I'm just looking out to the horizon and seeing clouds forming.

Great, great thoughts! I’m thinking like you are about Alex… I’m not so sure we can jump to the assumptions everyone has about him landing at McLAREN, I know I’m holding back on that
 
Great, great thoughts! I’m thinking like you are about Alex… I’m not so sure we can jump to the assumptions everyone has about him landing at McLAREN, I know I’m holding back on that
I feel confident he'll be with McLaren, but what part of McLaren is a different story. There's the GT3 cars, there's Formula E, there's F1 (including test seats), there's Indycar, there's also gonna be LMDH barring a complete self-inflicted economic collapse of the US. That's a lot of things he can wheel for McLaren under contract to them. Most importantly, I don't think Alex Palou knows what he's doing next year.
 
I feel confident he'll be with McLaren, but what part of McLaren is a different story. There's the GT3 cars, there's Formula E, there's F1 (including test seats), there's Indycar, there's also gonna be LMDH barring a complete self-inflicted economic collapse of the US. That's a lot of things he can wheel for McLaren under contract to them. Most importantly, I don't think Alex Palou knows what he's doing next year.
Why would you give up a championship winning ride to go somewhere with no plan? There's got to be more to this than we know.
 
Why would you give up a championship winning ride to go somewhere with no plan? There's got to be more to this than we know.
He’s getting a sizable pay bump at McLaren. The F1 opportunity is also a nice carrot dangled, and he has had the pleasure of doing some testing already, but I don’t think a full F1 ride is something that’ll come to fruition. The salary boost is pretty nice though.

That’s where retaining Ericsson becomes critical for CGR, because Marcus and Finn Rausing want him to be a paid, rather than paying, driver now, and he’s definitely earned that. Chip is going to have to find a way to dig deep for that because someone like MSR or Andretti will find a way to put up money for Marcus. Andretti has big backing now and have said they want paid drivers in all four seats. That’s quite a bit different than Chip’s situation, where he’s regarded Marcus as a source of income. And at Dixon’s age, he can’t afford to let two other top drivers go in one offseason.

Also, just today or yesterday there were reports of Graham saying he’s evaluating retiring or moving to a different team at the end of the year. If he were to forfeit his RLL seat I’d hope it’d be to take up a bigger managerial role at the team, because Bobby won’t be around forever.
 
back up car and to the back of the field for Katherine? :(

at least shes OK!
 
They all stacked up, just a very unfortunate situation.

And she was the one coming from behind btw.
One of the Andretti bunch mentioned right before it happened how slow everyone was exiting corners. Almost did the exact same thing. Same type of thing where in heavy traffic on the road, somebody brake taps cause an animal ran across, 10 cars back two or three cars get intimate. You don't expect cars to basically stop in front of you. Racing deal.
 
One of the Andretti bunch mentioned right before it happened how slow everyone was exiting corners. Almost did the exact same thing. Same type of thing where in heavy traffic on the road, somebody brake taps cause an animal ran across, 10 cars back two or three cars get intimate. You don't expect cars to basically stop in front of you. Racing deal.
thanks KTM.

@donthaveanickname or anyone, Im at work no time to google, but does Legge have a chance at a podium?
 
thanks KTM.

@donthaveanickname or anyone, Im at work no time to google, but does Legge have a chance at a podium?
I don't even know if there is a podium at Indy but if you bet on her getting a Top 3 and she makes it happen you'll probably have enough money to retire.

Even a Top 15 is a long shot for any of the RLL cars imo.
 
I don't even know if there is a podium at Indy but if you bet on her getting a Top 3 and she makes it happen you'll probably have enough money to retire.

Even a Top 15 is a long shot for any of the RLL cars imo.
donthave-thanks so much for the insight!

Sadly, I REALLY miss DP10 in indy.
 
Daly and ECR have parted ways. Detroit was his last race with ECR:
 
Daly and ECR have parted ways. Detroit was his last race with ECR:
Sorry to see that. I like the guy.

 
A little surprised it’s happening mid season but if its a mutual agreement as stated, I understand.
 
Making a midseason change is pretty jarring. ECR definitely need to find a groove again, but I don’t think they make a move like this unless something made the relationship untenable or they’ve signed someone who they would’ve had competition for at a later date.
 
Making a midseason change is pretty jarring. ECR definitely need to find a groove again, but I don’t think they make a move like this unless something made the relationship untenable or they’ve signed someone who they would’ve had competition for at a later date.
Yea thats what I thought.

Sometimes when things unravel to a point, both sides might’ve been wishing to go another way. Hopefully it really was mutual agreement

Going back a couple weeks ago I had Conor on my short list of possible 500 winners. That 20 was definitely strong during the speedway sessions
 
Making a midseason change is pretty jarring. ECR definitely need to find a groove again, but I don’t think they make a move like this unless something made the relationship untenable or they’ve signed someone who they would’ve had competition for at a later date.

RLL needs to do something. Arguably the worst team on the grid at the moment
 
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