Pre-race: 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500

Jimmy W1 said:
That's what I can't understand why they want more speed now. Dixon said yesterday, " There's no downside to speed."

Yet after Vegas, they were complaining about the cars going too fast and that no one cared about safety. Now here we go again. They were hitting, what, 238 mph today?

What about the smaller tracks like Iowa and Texas? They're going to be wanting to go over 250 mph? Las Vegas all over again.
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Helio said today that pole speed at IMS will probably be in the 235-237 range. Not anything outrageous, but as quick as they've ever been. And safety has come along way since then too and they'll probably have a full-time windscreen implemented by then.

So much about Vegas was wrong, just really wrong, it was poor decision-making all the way around. Pack racing at intermediates was still something that happened all the time, they raced way too closely. Then they decided to put $5M on the whole thing and had more entrants (34) than they do for Indy! On a small 1.5-mile track. With a bunch of comers from all directions that had little experience or at least no recent experience. I think it was Tony Kanaan who's said in the past that they were begging to change something because it felt almost inevitable that something catastrophic was going to happen. With the DW12 they've generally been good about not pack racing (and besides Texas there really aren't any left) at intermediates and superspeedways. Texas caught them by surprise last year with the new surface and the weather that one year wasn't what they expected it to be and they set up the aero regs wrong.
 
I am going to just wait and see what any increased speed will do. Don't want them having g-force knod off again.
Personally, I think they are fast enough.
 
Chevy seems to have it this year, at least so far - nine of the top eleven in qualifying. Honda had two cars bumped and fill out the entire back two rows as well. TK said it was just the Chevy engine reacting better to the increased boost levels though, and that he thinks Honda will be closer from today onwards now that they're back to normal. Interesting.
 
2018 Indy 500 starting grid
Row 1: Ed Carpenter, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power
Row 2: Josef Newgarden, Sebastien Bourdais, Spencer Pigot
Row 3: Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon
Row 4: Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist, Marco Andretti
Row 5: Zach Claman De Melo, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball
Row 6: Takuma Sato, Kyle Kaiser, Robert Wickens
Row 7: James Davison, Max Chilton, Carlos Munoz
Row 8: Gabby Chaves, Stefan Wilson, Sage Karam
Row 9: Zach Veach, Oriol Servia, JR Hildebrand
Row 10: Jay Howard, Ed Jones, Graham Rahal
Row 11: Jack Harvey, Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly
 
Barbara Charles said:
2018 Indy 500 starting grid
Row 1: Ed Carpenter, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power
Row 2: Josef Newgarden, Sebastien Bourdais, Spencer Pigot
Row 3: Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon
Row 4: Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist, Marco Andretti
Row 5: Zach Claman De Melo, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball
Row 6: Takuma Sato, Kyle Kaiser, Robert Wickens
Row 7: James Davison, Max Chilton, Carlos Munoz
Row 8: Gabby Chaves, Stefan Wilson, Sage Karam
Row 9: Zach Veach, Oriol Servia, JR Hildebrand
Row 10: Jay Howard, Ed Jones, Graham Rahal
Row 11: Jack Harvey, Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly
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Thanks!! I was just looking for that a little bit ago.

:D
 
If Danica had qualified bad or crashed in practice there would have been a few over in the NASCAR section of this forum that would have been beating their chests and talking about how they told everyone how bad she sucks as a driver...but, those fans are pretty quiet over there right now. She is in it to win it.:)
 
Nitro Dude said:
If Danica had qualified bad or crashed in practice there would have been a few over in the NASCAR section of this forum that would have been beating their chests and talking about how they told everyone how bad she sucks as a driver...but, those fans are pretty quiet over there right now. She is in it to win it.:)
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I wish she never left IndyCar, I wish she would come back.
 
Kiante said:
I wish she never left IndyCar, I wish she would come back.
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The racing part of me would have loved to seen how many wins she could have had if she stayed in Indy car...but I think moving to NASCAR was the smartest business decision for sure. Plus, it is a lot safer racing cup cars then Indy cars.imo
 
It hasn't changed a thing for me. I have believed for ages that the IndyCar level of competition doesn't hold a candle to Nascar's
 
Nitro Dude said:
The racing part of me would have loved to seen how many wins she could have had if she stayed in Indy car...but I think moving to NASCAR was the smartest business decision for sure. Plus, it is a lot safer racing cup cars then Indy cars.imo
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Honestly, I wonder after Dan's death how much effect that had on her?

I wondered about that after her switch.
 
StandOnIt said:
It hasn't changed a thing for me. I have believed for ages that the IndyCar level of competition doesn't hold a candle to Nascar's
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I think the competition level is just as strong in one as the other...but they are much different driving styles.
 
Barbara Charles said:
2018 Indy 500 starting grid
Row 1: Ed Carpenter, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power
Row 2: Josef Newgarden, Sebastien Bourdais, Spencer Pigot
Row 3: Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon
Row 4: Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist, Marco Andretti
Row 5: Zach Claman De Melo, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball
Row 6: Takuma Sato, Kyle Kaiser, Robert Wickens
Row 7: James Davison, Max Chilton, Carlos Munoz
Row 8: Gabby Chaves, Stefan Wilson, Sage Karam
Row 9: Zach Veach, Oriol Servia, JR Hildebrand
Row 10: Jay Howard, Ed Jones, Graham Rahal
Row 11: Jack Harvey, Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly
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American in 10 of 11 rows. I honestly don't know the last time that happened, but I feel like it's been a while.

 
StandOnIt said:
aero this aero that. Areo is great until it lets go. It is sudden and there is no saving it. They can tune it until the cows come home, you go beyond it's limits and it isn't a correctable slide. unless there is plenty of runoff it is into the wall hard.
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However, the new cars are much better about this. The old cars would wiggle and gone, but we repeatedly saw drivers save the cars in practice and qualifying. The new car is not perfect but we only saw two hit the wall all month, which isn't bad for the first time out. I'm sure Indycar will have a few tweaks before they get to Pocono. The car is really good but it's a work in progress.

I still think we are going to see a few hit the wall next Sunday, and maybe even this Friday. Through all of that, even, I expect hella race.
 
VaDirt said:
Her and Allmendinger should have both stayed in Indycar..
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Danica probably got blinded by the dollars, and maybe the much larger exposure. No matter what we think, nascar really is the big league, so it was a gutsy move even if it did not work out so well. Then again, maybe she got rich driving stockers, so it's hard to argue that.

AJ did not do too much in his Penske Indycar drives, so Roger may not have invited him back. That or maybe Roger didn't have a big enough check to keep him. In the end, you gotta make a living and you have to feel like you are being paid what you are worth.

Going back to a paying nascar gig was probably his smartest choice. Really hated to see him go, but being not so long after his adderol adventure, it was problem hard to raise sponsorship. Maybe AJ just had to take what he could get, but it was monumental loss to open wheel racing.
 
Doc Austin said:
Danica probably got blinded by the dollars, and maybe the much larger exposure. No matter what we think, nascar really is the big league, so it was a gutsy move even if it did not work out so well. Then again, maybe she got rich driving stockers, so it's hard to argue that.

AJ did not do too much in his Penske Indycar drives, so Roger may not have invited him back. That or maybe Roger didn't have a big enough check to keep him. In the end, you gotta make a living and you have to feel like you are being paid what you are worth.

Going back to a paying nascar gig was probably his smartest choice. Really hated to see him go, but being not so long after his adderol adventure, it was problem hard to raise sponsorship. Maybe AJ just had to take what he could get, but it was monumental loss to open wheel racing.
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And that's exactly why I wish he had stayed. I completely agree with everything you have said.
 
Doc Austin said:
Losing Scott Speed was bad too, but he did not want to be here anyway
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Scott would have been pretty good in IndyCar because if he could do as well as he did in his limited running in Formula E. I think he could very well be a front runner in IndyCar.
 
In indycar can they work on the cars when there is no scheduled track time?
 
Kiante said:
Scott would have been pretty good in IndyCar because if he could do as well as he did in his limited running in Formula E. I think he could very well be a front runner in IndyCar.
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He has often stated he thinks oval racing is too dangerous.
 
A REALLY good Off Track with Hinch and Rossi episode this week. Covering 500 quali and a really hilarious interview with some astronauts. Peep that ****.
 
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DUN24 said:
A REALLY good Off Track with Hinch and Rossi episode this week. Covering 500 quali and a really hilarious interview with some astronauts. Peep that sh!t.
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I haven't checked that pod out yet but from what I've heard it's pretty solid right?
 
FLRacingFan said:
I haven't checked that pod out yet but from what I've heard it's pretty solid right?
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I’ve listened to a few episodes and they are definitely worth it. They don’t always revolve around racing but are always pretty funny.
 
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