2019 IndyCar Miscellaneous

Good to see they've cleaned this up nicely.

Harding Steinbrenner big boost for rest of IndyCar season
https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/harding-steinbrenner-big-boost-rest-indycar-season-63571029

It's unfortunate that it seems like it has to be one or the other with Pocono and Richmond. Both are markets otherwise untapped by IndyCar, and the general oval count could also use a boost. I don't get the feeling at all that Miles seems to get that IndyCar has fulfilled the domestic potential.

IndyCar CEO Miles confirms discussions with Richmond, negotiations with Pocono
https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/motor/2019/06/06/indycar-talking-richmond-negotiating-pocono/1368824001/
 
I know the core of IndyCar is the 500 and the road courses anymore, but having just one of Pocono and Richmond is disappointing.

I liked it best when they had a triple crown for ovals. Have it at Indy/Pocono/Texas (not a SS but whatever).
 
AuzGrams said:
I know the core of IndyCar is the 500 and the road courses anymore, but having just one of Pocono and Richmond is disappointing.

I liked it best when they had a triple crown for ovals. Have it at Indy/Pocono/Texas.
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Agreed. I don't want to see this become Champ Car. I wish the Texas race were a little longer, I know 500 miles probably isn't possible with the G-forces.
 
Go back to Motegi or Rockingham again if they need international races, is Brands Hatch oval raceable?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Wrong Rockingham, I suspect.
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No, the Rockingham racetrack in the UK closed as well at the end of last year.
AuzGrams said:
The oval that the Euro Series runs, Raceway Venray in the Netherlands. Its 1/2 mile though probably not a good fit.
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It'd be impossible to race formula cars there.
And the track has no pit road, that's why the Euro Series race is only 50 miles.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm asking questions. Feel free to answer them.
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Ask a legitimate question instead of one based off a false narrative. How hard is that?

Charlie Spencer said:
I have a hard time following the flow of Twitter conversations. Did the President just mistake IndyCar for NASCAR?
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No. Trump mentioned Penske just won Daytona, and then started talking about Nascar.
 
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FLRacingFan said:
Results Reveal Impressive Total Numbers for the 2019 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear
https://detroitgp.com/news/Results-Reveal-Impressive-Total-Numbers-for-the-2019-Chevrolet-Detroit-Grand-Prix-presented-by-Lear/69385
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Grand Prix organizers estimated that this year's summer celebration attracted 95,000 people to Belle Isle Park over the course of its three days. This included over 25,000 fans attending Comerica Bank Free Prix Day on Friday, May 31. Severe weather on Saturday, June 1 affected the attendance numbers as approximately 30,000 fans visited the Raceway at Belle Isle Park and on track action had to be postponed for a couple of hours with lightning accompanying the storm that surrounded the island. With sunny skies and cooler temperatures on Sunday, June 2, the Grand Prix attracted its largest Sunday attendance since 2014 with approximately 40,000 fans visiting Belle Isle. With the impressive turnout, it marked the seventh time in the last eight years that the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear reached the 95,000 mark in total attendance.
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That's disappointing. I work in a town of 6000. The annual three-day Poultry Festival has drawn 80K plus for the last decade regardless of weather, and 95K isn't unusual.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
That's disappointing. I work in a town of 6000. The annual three-day Poultry Festival has drawn 80K plus for the last decade regardless of weather, and 95K isn't unusual.
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Outside of F1 and I suspect MotoGP, 95K over three days seems good enough for a racing event of any kind anymore, with several notable exceptions. Good enough for Penske and GM to keep putting it on, at least.
 
Kiante said:
Once again.

**** BMW.
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BMW's motorsport program is famously a mess but they have a point that it's easier to find a "story" to market elsewhere. The technology angle is easier to exploit elsewhere as the engine formula isn't exactly road-relevant, and in IMSA they can actually market the M series in the biggest market they're in. There are a few points in IndyCar's favor that could justify a manufacturer starting a new program there but without a real link to street cars it'll be hard to get approval for one.
 
FLRacingFan said:
BMW's motorsport program is famously a mess but they have a point that it's easier to find a "story" to market elsewhere. The technology angle is easier to exploit elsewhere as the engine formula isn't exactly road-relevant, and in IMSA they can actually market the M series in the biggest market they're in. There are a few points in IndyCar's favor that could justify a manufacturer starting a new program there but without a real link to street cars it'll be hard to get approval for one.
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While I agree completely, what makes IndyCar entry less attractive than F1? Gods know it has little in common with street cars either. Is it just a question of prestige?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
While I agree completely, what makes IndyCar entry less attractive than F1? Gods know it has little in common with street cars either. Is it just a question of prestige?
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Racing now in days have to involve concepts that can be applied to road vehicles. In order for a manufacturer to make more money, such as hybrid technology to apply to everyday cars to bring the concept of "Track to street" technology comes full-circle. If it cannot make money average consumer, more than likely manufacturers are going to see it as a waste of money and resources.

It sucks, but it has to happen at this point.
 
Kiante said:
Racing now in days have to involve concepts that can be applied to road vehicles. In order for a manufacturer to make more money, such as hybrid technology to apply to everyday cars to bring the concept of "Track to street" technology comes full-circle. If it cannot make money average consumer, more than likely manufacturers are going to see it as a waste of money and resources.

It sucks, but it has to happen at this point.
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I understand but the same points apply to F1, yet they draw more than two manufacturers.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
While I agree completely, what makes IndyCar entry less attractive than F1? Gods know it has little in common with street cars either. Is it just a question of prestige?
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F1, as international as it is, first offers substantially more exposure, even without considering any degree of road relevance. With its hybrid tech included F1 shares a stronger link towards what manufacturers are doing and want to do with what they're selling. The upcoming Mercedes-AMG One hypercar, for instance, carries a lot of technology over from the Mercedes F1 program. F1 has problems of its own with not necessarily being economically viable (there's a proposed budget cap incoming in a few years) but at least they can justify to their boards that it's not just a racing project. IndyCar finalized the new engine regulations without any degree of change in technology, just a displacement increase, but it sounds like they're revisiting them to some extent to see what can be added or altered to get another manufacturer's approval, even if means pushing back the change to 2022.

Obviously as Marquardt said it's a lot easier to go racing in IMSA as many of the GT cars have race and street variants built parallel to each other, and all of the cars, prototypes included, utilize production-based engines. So you can market particular engines and product lines (like the M series) that you can actually go see at the dealership.
 
Co-owner says Meyer Shank Racing 'in a good place' to expand to full-time program in 2020
https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...g-expanding-full-slate-2020-50-50/1478313001/

Besides some future F1 guys who used it as a winter tuneup (Lance Stroll, Lando Norris) some notable local graduates include Brendon Hartley, Shane van Gisbergen, Earl Bamber.

Road to Indy partners with Toyota GAZOO Racing New Zealand on driver development program
https://racer.com/2019/06/21/road-to-indy-partners-with-toyota-gazoo-racing-new-zealand-on-driver-development-program/
 
It is interesting to me to read Jay's comments and compare them to those of Mark Miles made in recent weeks...I agree with Jay that the schedule balance is at least one oval short, whereas Mark recently made it apparent (or it at least read that way) that Richmond likely does not get added unless as a replacement for Pocono. Mark is also not in favor of expanding the schedule unless internationally. @AuzGrams, Jay is on board with your target of 20 races as well. Mark also made it seem that the doubleheader event with NASCAR is not something of particular interest to him, but Jay (who has a NASCAR background) seems plenty open to the idea. President, CEO, apparently with two very different lines of thought - or at least it seems to me.

Q&A WITH INDYCAR PRESIDENT JAY FRYE: 'THIS IS WHAT WE ARE'
https://autoweek.com/article/indycar/qa-indycar-president-jay-frye-what-we-are
 
FLRacingFan said:
MILLER: The one-man Silly Season
https://racer.com/2019/06/24/miller-the-one-man-silly-season/
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That's a good article by Robin Miller. He says it is flat out definite that Penske is after Rossi, and I had not heard that before to such an absolute degree. Miller also seems to accept as a given that Pagenaud will have a full IndyCar seat at Penske. I wonder if the world would explode if The Captain offered Simon a car for the 500 plus a full-time IMSA drive. I know what RP said immediately after Pagenaud won the 500.

Like we (especially @FLRacingFan) have been saying here for months, Miller says Rossi staying at Andretti is what's best for Indycar and for Honda. Michael needs to consider the classic chicken-or-egg dilemma of securing top drivers with top sponsorship. It's hard to sign the sponsors without the right driver... hard to sign the driver without the right amount of funding.

As a racing fan, I want to see Newgarden and Rossi on different teams... preferably Penske vs. Ganassi, but that's just me.
 
FLRacingFan said:
It is interesting to me to read Jay's comments and compare them to those of Mark Miles made in recent weeks...I agree with Jay that the schedule balance is at least one oval short, whereas Mark recently made it apparent (or it at least read that way) that Richmond likely does not get added unless as a replacement for Pocono. Mark is also not in favor of expanding the schedule unless internationally. @AuzGrams, Jay is on board with your target of 20 races as well. Mark also made it seem that the doubleheader event with NASCAR is not something of particular interest to him, but Jay (who has a NASCAR background) seems plenty open to the idea. President, CEO, apparently with two very different lines of thought - or at least it seems to me.

Q&A WITH INDYCAR PRESIDENT JAY FRYE: 'THIS IS WHAT WE ARE'
https://autoweek.com/article/indycar/qa-indycar-president-jay-frye-what-we-are
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It does seem that Frye and Miles have somewhat different perspectives and I could see them pulling in different directions. I like Frye's comments a lot, especially this section:

AW: What can we expect the next-generation engine to look like?

JF: We’ll probably have another round of conversations in the next 30-60 days. There are some things we can do to speed up the show. We’ve embraced the less downforce, more horsepower mantra and that’s the still the direction we want to go. We’ll have more on that coming up soon.

AW: Is that low-downforce, high-horsepower direction about identity, oval safety or something else?

JF: It’s both, to a certain degree, but I really think this kind of racing is our identity. The manufacturer kits, when they first came out, made a lot of sense because it gave them individual identity. But then the two started to migrate closer together.

So we asked ourselves, “What’s the return on investment?” It was expensive. And if the cars were getting closer to looking the same, then why should we keep doing it? And even more so, they started to less and less resemble an Indy car with the rear pods. They looked like they had fenders, and that’s not what an Indy car should be.

The new aerokit races incredibly well, and it looks like an Indy car. Part of it was economics because we could save the manufacturers some money. And lastly, with the old cars, we got to an oval and they were flat out all the time, and we didn’t think that made for particularly great racing. We want to see drivers lift and put the racing back into their hands. You have to drive these cars. We want them to get out of the car and be tired because this is a physical sport. The other car had more of a g-force physicality but with this car, you can see guys get crossed up and fight the steering wheel, and that’s fun to watch. That was our goal.
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I think there is still considerable work to do to lift IndyCar's fortunes, but reading this is like a refuge given what is happening of late in F1 and NASCAR.
 
Eh. I'm not a big fan of street courses but I'll withhold judgement until a layout is proposed. So far there's not much here to go on.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Eh. I'm not a big fan of street courses but I'll withhold judgement until a layout is proposed. So far there's not much here to go on.
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All rumored or proposed street venues should be taken with a healthy degree of skepticism, but at least in this case American open wheel racing already has a bit of history there and Arrow Electronics is headquartered in the area. It's a lot easier to make these work with a big title sponsor and they might actually be the one trying to stir some interest.

At any rate, it's a region neglected by more mainstream motorsports at the moment. It's a shame ISC kinda just killed Pikes Peak.
 
This is actually the most important part of the article, I think. 2010 looks to be the last time there were seventeen different tracks on the schedule.

As for the 2020 schedule, IndyCar’s boss is hopeful it’s going to be finalized in the next few weeks, and the speculation is that Richmond’s racy short oval stands a good chance of returning after an 11-year absence.

But RACER.com has learned that doesn’t necessarily mean Pocono is going away, so stay turned.
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MILLER: An IndyCar return to The Glen? If only ...
https://racer.com/2019/07/01/miller-an-indycar-return-to-the-glen-if-only/
 
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