2019 IndyCar Miscellaneous

Kiante said:
Terrible.

Pato has two options. Either knock down Juncos or Carlin's doors to get something going. Kimball is only a part-time this year and Pato is much too talented to get ****** over. This is looking like another Kaiser situation IMHO. All the talent possible, but no money. **** I wish he was in Slim's stable.
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FLRacingFan said:
Share the #23 with Kimball and Enerson is the most likely scenario I'm imagining as well...except I'm not sure how the 500 works into that because Kimball already has a 500 ride locked up and the Lights scholarship covers the 500 entry. Maybe Carlin for a few races and Juncos for the 500. But damn, what a sh!t situation. Too late in the game for this to happen. I know Andretti like him a lot but I'm not sure what they can do at the moment.
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FLRacingFan said:
Pato will run everywhere but St. Pete, Texas, Pocono, and Laguna Seca with Carlin. Awesome news, although not sure what it means for RC Enerson. In the long-term, could prove to be a big steal from Honda by Chevy.

https://racer.com/2019/03/07/carlin-confirms-oward-for-12-races/
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Called it:
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"A couple" would line up with what Pruett mentioned on one of his podcasts back in January - that IndyCar would be meeting with a pair of OEMs currently in the IMSA paddock at the Rolex late that month. More specifically, this would narrow down one of those to Audi/Porsche/BMW/VW/Mercedes. The third OEM chase has been a bit of a meme for several years now, but with the new engine debuting in 2021 there's probably no better time to join than then.

 
FLRacingFan said:
Not really a fan of the 'Last Row Shootout'. Not really a fan of BOTH the Fast Nine and Last Row Shootout being run in the heat of the day, with three hours of practice afterwards...have to believe this is an NBC decision. Probably an NHL conference final game on NBC after those two Sunday sessions are done. To me, one attempt is certainly not bumping. At Indy, it should be the race against 6 PM or bust. I think Saturday might actually be more interesting with the traditional 11-6 qualifying window, with bumping to get both into the Fast Nine and to avoid the dreaded Last Row Shootout.
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Other than the teams involved, does anyone care what order the last three start in?
 
FLRacingFan said:
"A couple" would line up with what Pruett mentioned on one of his podcasts back in January - that IndyCar would be meeting with a pair of OEMs currently in the IMSA paddock at the Rolex late that month. More specifically, this would narrow down one of those to Audi/Porsche/BMW/VW/Mercedes. The third OEM chase has been a bit of a meme for several years now, but with the new engine debuting in 2021 there's probably no better time to join than then.
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VeeDub could stand to have something distract the world from its diesel FUBAR.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Other than the teams involved, does anyone care what order the last three start in?
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Well, they wouldn't be doing it if they only expected 33 cars to show up. They already have 33 confirmed entries, and are expecting 36-38 - so 6-8 competing in the Shootout for those final three spots. Probably on the lower end of that.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Well, they wouldn't be doing it if they only expected 33 cars to show up. They already have 33 confirmed entries, and are expecting 36-38 - so 6-8 competing in the Shootout for those final three spots. Probably on the lower end of that.
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I hear ya, but it's not like Penske, Ganassi, or anyone competitive will be back there. An episode like Hinch had last year doesn't happen often enough to attract my attention. Just me.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I hear ya, but it's not like Penske, Ganassi, or anyone competitive will be back there. An episode like Hinch had last year doesn't happen often enough to attract my attention. Just me.
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I think most of who you expect to be back there certainly will be, but with a surprise or two. The last year they had real bumping (2011) before Hinch missed out a pair of Andretti cars missed the race and they wound up buying out another ride for RHR to be in the show. Even last year Sato and Rahal were cutting it pretty close.
 
A shame for Pato, but Mexican sponsors are wasting money on Celis and Gutierrez (lesser extent) and Pato has proven himself to be a winner. There are so many sponsors in Mexico and a company like Tecate is missing out on this young man. Tecate is like the Budweiser of Mexican beers... Also, it could help the attendance of the USGP and Mexican GPs.
 
Kiante said:
A shame for Pato, but Mexican sponsors are wasting money on Celis and Gutierrez (lesser extent) and Pato has proven himself to be a winner. There are so many sponsors in Mexico and a company like Tecate is missing out on this young man. Tecate is like the Budweiser of Mexican beers... Also, it could help the attendance of the USGP and Mexican GPs.
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Someone said during one of the practices yesterday that he's talked with Slim, and while nothing is available right now he's keeping an eye on him. If he puts together a good string of performances it's possible they could make something happen.

I'm at least glad he has the budget for the dozen or so races he does have. Carlin said if he does wind up finding more they're able to run a third car for him at the races where Kimball is in.

I forgot Esteban got a Mercedes test role and Celis in Indy Lights last year...just oof lol.
 
https://racing.ap.org/article/earnhardt-joins-nbc-sports-coverage-indianapolis-500

This is becoming cringeworthy and making me pine for the simple tradition of ABC's telecasts. I think I'll be listening to the damn radio rather than NBC's throw everything at the wall overkill.

14 commentators! (Greaaaaaat. How many good ones in there?)

Danica! (OK, fine, whatever, that makes a certain amount of sense.)

Dale Jr.! (Why? Zero relevance within the series and open wheel generally.)

Rutledge Wood! (Get the **** out of here with that ****. We're going to go from Dr. Jerry Punch on pit road to Rut.)

I appreciate NBC Sports' support of motorsports. However, they make a mockery of NASCAR with their screaming lunatic style, and I fear they're about to do the same with the 500. This is making me glad they lost F1 rights and won't eventually be sending their clown troupe to Austin or Monaco.
 
Drivers may run in one series but they also follow other series like we do. I'm not sure what role he will play because the regular Indycar announcers do a decent job (he may not be in the booth). Jr is learning the commentating job (it takes a season or two for it to become more natural), I think he'll do alright at what ever they assign him because he knows racing.
 
Earnhardt's job:
Earnhardt will be a roving reporter for his first Indianapolis 500 on May 26, contributing to pre-race, in-race and post-race coverage alongside Rutledge Wood.

The booth:
The broadcast booth will be NBC Sports' full-time IndyCar crew of play-by-play announcer Leigh Diffey and analysts Paul Tracy and Townsend Bell.

6 pit reporters:
Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Kevin Lee and Jon Beekhuis will be the pit reporters for the Indy 500, along with reporters Robin Miller and Dillon Welch.
That's 11
2 analysts Mike Treco and Danica Patrick
and Krista Voda a wild card they don't say what she is going to be doing. makes 14

Diffy, Tracy and Bell doing the heavy lifting in the booth, I have never heard anything from them that can compeat with the screaming gerbils.
 
Considering Voda is titled "NBC Sports motorsports host" and Tirico is already there, I'm not sure how they'll mesh...Jon Beekhuis is horribly underutilized and would easily be the best IndyCar analyst option (along with JR Hildebrand, outside of his 500 appearances) - quite frankly I'm not sure why NBC is so fond of Paul Tracy. So long as they keep Rutledge on Carb Day and pre-race duty it's not bad, but if they're cutting to him and Dale Jr. from the Snake Pit mid-race it'll blow up pretty quickly on NBC. I agree the sheer size of the crew seems obnoxious and I can only hope they don't NASCAR it up as they have with the gerbils.
 
Alonso’s Texas Motor Speedway test confirmed

the Spaniard will run the #66 McLaren-Chevrolet on the 1.5-mile oval on Tuesday, April 9, run by McLaren personnel.
This will therefore be Alonso’s first test using the spec 2018 Dallara aerokit in speedway form although he did test on the Barber Motorsports Park roadcourse last year.

So far this year, Alonso has won the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R and the Sebring round of the World Endurance Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing.




https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/alonsos-texas-indycar-test-confirmed/4364965/
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Why would IndyCar require someone who's already run the I500 once to test at a high-banked 1.5-er?
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I imagine this is taking the place of Alonso's refresher program at IMS, as he and the team probably can't fit that into their schedule elsewhere. And he and McLaren probably don't want to use up the first day of official Indy 500 practice going through that since it's a stepped program.
 
AuzGrams said:
They bring in 55K fans for Friday practices and qualifying sessions?
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There's a lot of stuff going on at Long Beach - SST, IMSA, Pirelli GT4, I think IMSA GTO is the Historics show this year (Trans-Am last year), drifting. The whole weekend is basically one big party for the SoCal car scene and it's really the only crown jewel event left on the calendar besides the 500. If you include Roar in the Shore today and Thunder on Pine tomorrow the whole week is basically one big party and car show rolled into one.
 
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