2019 IndyCar Classic

[FLRacingFan]

Will Power has more mechanical gremlins than any other Chevy driver and Penske is always going to cost him races atop the box. Hate to say it, but Roger is great at literally everything besides strategy. Cost Helio a bunch of races as strategist and is doing the same with Will. No reason not to cover the rest of the field when you're comfortably in the window. I give Rob Edwards (Rossi) and Mike Hull (Dixon) the benefit of the doubt because they more often than not nail the strategy.

Hinchcliffe made no effort to rejoin the track or let Rosenqvist in. Very questionable move there, and no penalty? Hmm. Also, Dixon definitely faded left on Veach, but Veach had no business fighting there anyways while one lap down. Good kid but Veach drove in over his head today.

In most cases I'd like to see IndyCar keep the pits open there, and normally I think they would have, but with Rosenqvist sitting at pit entrance with significant damage I don't think they had any choice but to go FCY.

Overall, COTA exceeded my expectations by a good margin. Great racing, great tire wear, hard to drive, and I think this debut will only help the crowd grow and make this a fixture on the schedule. And this rookie class is absolutely badass. Best I've ever seen in my time watching IndyCar, at least.

 

[Get That 88 Up There !!]

Just got around to watching.
Couple Points:
1. Congrats to Herta, ran great all race
2. Power has to be one of the most unlucky drivers ever
3. COTA put on a pretty good race and I expect better in the future.
4. The no track limits made for some pretty great moves
5. Marco’s 6th will be his best run all year, was abysmal before the caution

 

[StandOnIt]

yeah what I saw of the race the track worked surprisingly well for the IndyCars. I hope it continues to grow COTA in the future.

 

[gnomesayin]

4. The no track limits made for some pretty great moves

I see quite a few complaints about this elsewhere, saying it made a mockery of the course. I didn't get that impression. There were no advantages to be gained by cutting the course or sweeping wide through the corners. Looked to me like drivers being pushed past the limits and racing really hard. I liked it and don't see the problem, but I'd be willing to listen to those who say otherwise.

 

[Kiante]

I see quite a few complaints about this elsewhere, saying it made a mockery of the course. I didn't get that impression. There were no advantages to be gained by cutting the course or sweeping wide through the corners. Looked to me like drivers being pushed past the limits and racing really hard. I liked it and don't see the problem, but I'd be willing to listen to those who say otherwise.

Folks have to realize IndyCars do not make nearly as much downforce as F1 cars. F1 has an insane amount of winglets, bargeboards, and other aero pieces and ducting to be able to corner.

Whomever complained about that can go per up a tree all I'm concerned. The racing was sublime at COTA.

 

[FLRacingFan]

I see quite a few complaints about this elsewhere, saying it made a mockery of the course. I didn't get that impression. There were no advantages to be gained by cutting the course or sweeping wide through the corners. Looked to me like drivers being pushed past the limits and racing really hard. I liked it and don't see the problem, but I'd be willing to listen to those who say otherwise.

The two biggest arguments I saw were that they'd have to brake more into turn 19 if there were track limits in place, and that all of the safety aspects - barriers, gravel, etc. - were calculated based off of the idea that drivers wouldn't be incorporating the runoff into their racing line. I don't care much for the former and as for the latter, there were several incidents there (Kanaan, Harvey, Ericsson) in practice and qualifying that wound up being harmless anyways. Rosenqvist was taken out there but he didn't seem to mind much, and I think that was more Hinch being a space cadet anyways.

Overall, it sounds like drivers are more pleased than not that it didn't have to go to Race Control's subjective determination of what is or isn't 'gaining an advantage'. I know the less Race Control gets involved the happier I am, generally.

“I'm not a fan of [series-imposed] track limits,” he commented. “That's why I like racing in America, because you don't really have track limits: you go off in this grass, gravel or wall! Here we come into that problem where you have the track limit.

“I'm a fan of opening it up. You know it's going to be the same for everyone. They [Race Control] are not going to look at if this guy was one millimeter over the line or not, which is a bit ridiculous.”

Rosenqvist welcomes IndyCar's COTA track limits approach
https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/track-limits-approach-cota-austin/4358679/