2020 IndyCar Miscellaneous

We saw how the technical alliance helped Stienbrenner's team.

Glad to see Jack Harvey back. That guy really deserves a shot and hopefully Shank can give it to him.
 
Forgive me for going off topic, but WEC Shanghai is Saturday night on Motor Trend TV. With Toyota carrying a bunch of "success ballast," Rebellion and Ginetta dominated practice, and Toyota's drivers are already complaining about it! Should be well worth watching! We might even get a good race.
 
I can't get that out of my mind. That's downright nasty right there.
 

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There’s some rumor floating around some European outlets that Nico Hulkenberg could be in at Ed Carpenter Racing for road courses and street circuits next year, no idea how reliable those are though.
 
VeeKay likely to replace Pigot in the full-time seat. Hülkenberg may or may not be in contention for the twisties, with Daly among others.

Spencer did reasonably well for them, hopefully he can land somewhere else in the series, even if it’s Foyt.



 
If Pigot had sponsorship, he'd still be around. I'm not even sure if Foyt is a plausible location because ABC Supply no longer is the primary sponsor of the team. They will probably need someone with money already coming in.

Maybe Kaanan will have 7-11 step up again as a primary? Pigot will be a possible afterthought, I hope not because I wonder how he would fare outside of mediocre ECR equipment? Foyt is more a lateral to a slight move back.

I'm excited for VeeKay though. I mean look at the comment section, ECR has a whole lot of newfound support from the Netherlands.
 
Kiante said:
If Pigot had sponsorship, he'd still be around. I'm not even sure if Foyt is a plausible location because ABC Supply no longer is the primary sponsor of the team. They will probably need someone with money already coming in.

Maybe Kaanan will have 7-11 step up again as a primary? Pigot will be a possible afterthought, I hope not because I wonder how he would fare outside of mediocre ECR equipment? Foyt is more a lateral to a slight move back.

I'm excited for VeeKay though. I mean look at the comment section, ECR has a whole lot of newfound support from the Netherlands.
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I’m not sure how Foyt’s sponsor search is going but it seems they want TK back pretty strongly. Spencer seems kind he realizes he has to look elsewhere next year at least, he did an interview with Motorsport where he mentioned IMSA so maybe an NAEC ride with Mazda or Juncos where he doesn’t have to bring budget.

I’m excited about Rinus too...wish he hadn’t Americanized his last name now though lol. It’ll be pretty cool to see some orange in the crowds next year.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I’m excited about Rinus too...wish he hadn’t Americanized his last name now though lol. It’ll be pretty cool to see some orange in the crowds next year.
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Ratings in Holland are gonna be up drastically and I guess had Hülklenberg made the decision to join ECR, IndyCar would have gained some relevance in Germany as well.
"Van Kalmthout" is not difficult to pronounce at all.
 


Meh. I'm not against the idea entirely, but the way Michael talks, it always seems to be about gatekeeping for him. He says in the article "it's too easy" for a new owner to buy equipment and come to race. CART failed and they went back to the IRL, and now they keep trying to turn it back into CART.
 
gnomesayin said:


Meh. I'm not against the idea entirely, but the way Michael talks, it always seems to be about gatekeeping for him. He says in the article "it's too easy" for a new owner to buy equipment and come to race. CART failed and they went back to the IRL, and now they keep trying to turn it back into CART.
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Who are all these new owners coming in? Especially with the capital necessary to acquire a chassis or two from Dallara, lease engines from Chevy or Honda, and buy quality dampers from someone like Ohlins? None of that stuff is easy to acquire and build up...look no further than Mike Shank and how he got screwed the first time he tried to enter the series and how long it took him to build a full-time program in his second effort.
 
gnomesayin said:


Meh. I'm not against the idea entirely, but the way Michael talks, it always seems to be about gatekeeping for him. He says in the article "it's too easy" for a new owner to buy equipment and come to race. CART failed and they went back to the IRL, and now they keep trying to turn it back into CART.
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Don't even think about that.
 
I think Michael has a decent argument in that he’s invested a ton in the series, fields more cars than anyone else, and gives young drivers a chance more than most. In that sense I can see why he’d like it, there’s a lot of money at play there where he’s built up what could be potential value.

What I don’t get is who all these random guys coming in and stealing everyone’s money and equipment are. Asking a team like Carlin to put up more than what they already have to buy a charter or whatever seems likely a great way to shrink the field again and make sure no one’s ever interested in joining the series.
 
From the Racer.com article gnomesayin linked to:
“How do we make our franchises worth something? Because, right now they’re not worth anything,” he (Andretti) said. “Look at what Formula E and Formula 1 have done. I mean, those franchises are worth a lot of money now. There’s real value.”
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FE and F1 field the same number of cars every race. They don't have to produce an extra dozen from somewhere to meet an arbitrary number for the biggest race of any series world wide. CART didn't have to worry about it either.

With a franchise system. where are the field fillers coming from for the Indianapolis 500?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
From the Racer.com article gnomesayin linked to:

FE and F1 field the same number of cars every race. They don't have to produce an extra dozen from somewhere to meet an arbitrary number for the biggest race of any series world wide. CART didn't have to worry about it either.

With a franchise system. where are the field fillers coming from for the Indianapolis 500?
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A lot of those entries come from full-time teams opening up another seat for the 500 alone, but you could still be iffy on even getting to 33 if you wall off teams who don’t compete in the series or want to run part-time schedules. I suppose they could partner with current IndyCar teams. I’d be more worried about capping the grid at 22 or something for the rest of the races though and then saying you have to buy a charter from one of these guys to race at Long Beach or something.
 
Stunning. Not in a good way. McLaren probably are glad that two other teams have managed to one-up them as far as screwing guys over now. Jeez.

I think this means Sealmaster is out or downsizing as well, considering Santucci is almost certainly back. Not a great offseason for the momentum narrative.

On the other hand, piecing together what Stern and MP said over the last two days the signs do seem to point to Hinchcliffe, which isn’t necessarily bad. I just don’t see where Seb fits in anywhere though.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Stunning. Not in a good way. McLaren probably are glad that two other teams have managed to one-up them as far as screwing guys over now. Jeez.

I think this means Sealmaster is out or downsizing as well, considering Santucci is almost certainly back. Not a great offseason for the momentum narrative.

On the other hand, piecing together what Stern and MP said over the last two days the signs do seem to point to Hinchcliffe, which isn’t necessarily bad. I just don’t see where Seb fits in anywhere though.
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I do not see Seb in the field this year, unless God forbid ECR signs him for the road course races next year. Maybe, Ed can get Autogeek to sponsor SeaBass for the road course races next year? That is probably his best bet at this point.

I can see him going to IMSA or WEC because when 2021-22 comes about, he will be drivng that Puegeot Hypercar. I can see him in it now, honestly.
 
Kiante said:
I do not see Seb in the field this year, unless God forbid ECR signs him for the road course races next year. Maybe, Ed can get Autogeek to sponsor SeaBass for the road course races next year? That is probably his best bet at this point.

I can see him going to IMSA or WEC because when 2021-22 comes about, he will be drivng that Puegeot Hypercar. I can see him in it now, honestly.
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Ed’s road course seat is a huge mystery to me. Besides Daly I’m not sure anyone else has even been mentioned for it and even then he’s not talked about as a huge favorite for the ride or anything. Just a lot of unknowns right now. I think if funding were no object that’d be great for him though given that Seb isn’t the biggest oval fan.

Maybe AIM-VS can put him in a Lexus for the NAEC races next year. Not sure he’ll be considered young enough for the Peugeot sears, I don’t think that program will run until fall 2022 with the first run at Le Mans in summer 2023...looks like this might be the beginning of the end, unfortunately.
 
Hmm...TSO is reporting that Hinch has a different deal in the works, and that Coyne does have someone in mind for his vacant seat.

He tested Álex Palou earlier this year, although I have no clue if he brings funding. I think that was partially a Honda thing stemming from his performance in Super Formula.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Hmm...TSO is reporting that Hinch has a different deal in the works, and that Coyne does have someone in mind for his vacant seat.

He tested Álex Palou earlier this year, although I have no clue if he brings funding. I think that was partially a Honda thing stemming from his performance in Super Formula.
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He's in Super Formula and he won in his first season of being in the series, which is pretty difficult to do.

Interesting prospect, but I'm unsure he has any substantial financial backing IMO. We'll see, maybe Coyne has someone in mind. Just awful timing all-round, but I'm guessing Sealmaster just gave the word they are not coming back. Now, Coyne is having to scramble to get things done for next season.

You might be right, it would be cool to see SeaBass in the Lexus.
 
Looks like Coyne was trying to put something together to be able to put up for engines but it fell through a couple of weeks ago.





 
So, Honda pulled the money backing Seb. What are these manufacturer points? Its the first time I have heard of that system.

IMSA is going to be fantastic with SeaBass in full-time. Him along with Hawksworth is going to be a fun watch.
 
Kiante said:
So, Honda pulled the money backing Seb. What are these manufacturer points? Its the first time I have heard of that system.

IMSA is going to be fantastic with SeaBass in full-time. Him along with Hawksworth is going to be a fun watch.
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The top two full-time entrants for each manufacturer earn points at races. Seb never earned points, coming closest at Barber where he finished 3rd but behind two other Hondas (Sato and Dixon). By quick glance it looks like Ferrucci earned points for Honda at at least Pocono and Gateway (4th each).
 
Pretty messed up that Bourdias, Hinch and Pigot are currently out of drives. Everyone knows what all of them could do with a top tier ride, but funding counts for more? Again, pretty messed up.
 
Agreed, but not all drivers have to bring funding. Pretty sure some of these guys are actually getting paid to drive, and the whole field should be that way. The sad thing is there are more top tier drivers than funded rides. Bourdais has four championships and can win any race on the schedule, and in the right car, the championship. Hinch is a fan favorite, and the face of Honda. Pigot is clearly a star in the making but all of them are out, at least right now.

That's three stars the series really needs, but they are out. It doesn't do any good t build stars if you can't keep them. Indycar should be more than a feeder series for IMSA.

Hopefully this is one of the things Roger will address.





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This almost seems like an HPD ploy to me. The way it developed so late makes me think they came up with whatever excuse even remotely reasonable to pull the plug on the #18's free engines, suddenly putting DCR short about $1.2-1.3M short on budget for that entry. Should Hinchcliffe get the seat and bring his free engines with him I think it'll be more than clear then.

But no, in general there also just isn't enough money in the series, even if it's better off than it was several years ago. Creating more commercial value has to be a focal point of Penske's ownership of the series.
 
Sounds likely to announce with DCR, Foyt, or Carlin in the near future. Would be an upgrade over Leist at least, I suppose.

 
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