2022 106th Indianapolis 500 Race Thread

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I'm very happy. Wanted a new winner today and got it and always like one who really deserved it. Now I can go and finish watching the F1 race I recorded.

Have to struggle thru 600 miles later and most likely won't measure up to F1 or Indy but I'm a race fan so gotta watch them all.
 
Dale Jr. could easily coast on being Dale Jr. Obviously, it's why he's there. But he does put in the work to try to contribute something meaningful when they go to him. He may actually perform better here without the instruction to hype everything.
 
The Indy 500 never disappoints. I really need to start following this series. I tried a while back but stopped watching it, and I'm honestly not sure why. I'd love to have an Indycar game to play. I know the people who made NASCAR 21 are making one, but I'm not holding my breath on it being any good. I guess we'll see.

All right, time to go for a quick walk, play some F1 or MotoGP, grab some grub, and then settle in for Round 3 of The Triple, the Coke 600. 🤘
 
The Indy 500 never disappoints. I really need to start following this series. I tried a while back but stopped watching it, and I'm honestly not sure why. I'd love to have an Indycar game to play. I know the people who made NASCAR 21 are making one, but I'm not holding my breath on it being any good. I guess we'll see.

All right, time to go for a quick walk, play some F1 or MotoGP, grab some grub, and then settle in for Round 3 of The Triple, the Coke 600. 🤘
One advantage to a shorter season with fewer drivers and manufacturers is it's a lot easier to keep up with. Detroit next week.
 
Seriously awesome defense by Ericsson. Guy used as much track as you could use and positioned his car perfectly into the corners. At some points he was even below the white line, crazy.
Man, I thought for sure that it was gonna bite him in the butt when Pato pulled alongside him going into Turn 1, but my man didn't lift. He was not gonna let anyone take that win from him today. Incredible stuff.
 
One advantage to a shorter season with fewer drivers and manufacturers is it's a lot easier to keep up with. Detroit next week.
Ahh, that was why. It was often on when NASCAR was on, as it is next week. I didn't have DVR at the time, and flipping back and forth between the two became annoying, so I gave up. I have DVR now. 🤘
 
Ahh, that was why. It was often on when NASCAR was on, as it is next week. I didn't have DVR at the time, and flipping back and forth between the two became annoying, so I gave up. I have DVR now. 🤘
It's relatively easy to avoid learning spoilers. Whether that's a good thing overall is debatable.
 
Dale Jr. could easily coast on being Dale Jr. Obviously, it's why he's there. But he does put in the work to try to contribute something meaningful when they go to him. He may actually perform better here without the instruction to hype everything.
I love the guy because he is so genuine. Just let Dale do what Dale does.
 
It's taken me most of the day to recover from yesterday, but what a magical time. The atmosphere was electric and the race didn't disappoint. At one point I looked around and felt like I was living in a simulation with all of the people in the stands and the cars flying by. I was pretty bummed for Pato, but its always fun witnessing a new winner. Can't wait for next year.

By the way, I purposely waited around for about 1.5 hours after the race to soak in the atmosphere, and the traffic was still horrific when I left. By far the worst traffic situation I've ever been apart of. At one point I had moved .7 miles in 2 hours lol.

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Alot of you are sportscar fans, so here's some good news. The administration was kind enough to move the Sportscar forum to from "other racing" to it's own sub forum where it will be easier to find and get more action. Please check it out..
 
As a off-and-on viewer of IndyCar these days, I have a couple of comments about the race.

First, it was suprising the see the Penske cars not being very competitive. Not sure what's going on there.

Second (in the same vein), I'm also surprised Josef Newgarden has not come close to winning an Indy 500. Before he signed with Penske, he was stout on ovals. I thought he would be the man to beat on the ovals, but he has more wins on the road courses since being with Penske.
 
I thought he would be the man to beat on the ovals, but he has more wins on the road courses since being with Penske.
We're down to three or four ovals a year now, so it's hard to run up big oval numbers with so few opportunities.

Remember that Newgarden won Phoenix this year, so he's still fine on ovals. The problem at the speedway was they never found any speed. Hard top say exactly what happened because they were buried deep in the field and TV rarely covered them.

Penske has sucked at the speedway before and still run well at the rest of the races (1995). That place can just be fickle sometimes.

They will be better at Iowa. Joseph is always great there.
 
Just a few random thoughts on the race:

The man with the most impressive month, to me anyway, was Ericsson. He had a solid month with no serious errors, qualified well (but not well enough to make people sit up and notice), stayed mostly invisible until lap 180 or so, and then he let it rip and smoked everyone off. It's the Sato blueprint all over again. Remember this is just his second Indianapolis 500, but he drove like a veteran. There were other good drives, but our last three champions drove incredible races.

Having said all of that, Ericsson was not one of my picks.

TK was in position to win, but couldn't quite get there. I think he can run five or six more years if he can find a good drive. I'm sure Chip would not have any trouble securing financing Tony to run again.

Pato O'ward was simply brilliant. It looks like the Chevies just didn't have enough.

How about that Santucci, eh? He was up to fourth on merit at one point and had the speed to run with the leaders. He must have tripped over another car because he faded at the end, but it was another solid drive for him. I don't know what this guy has to do to prove himself.

Sadly, my man Sato just never got going. He was in the top 10 at one point and then I don't know what happened to him.

Oddly last year's winning team owner went from victory lane to being happy with two mediocre positions.

Herta was the big surprise. As much data as Andretti has, it should have been cake for them to transfer everything to the new car, The car would not have been perfect, but as tight as tolerances are on this kind of equipment, it should have got them close enough to livable. Instead Herta says they parked him for being too slow, and he did not seem that unhappy about it. This completely blindsided me. I thought he was going to be a factor.

Scott Dixon has won two or three poles in the last three years, and has been the man to beat every time. He got outrun by Sato in 2000, but last year has had a refueling disaster that cost him two laps and this year it was a penally on his last stop. Even Lloyd Ruby would agree that's just plain horrible luck.

A few guy crashed, but no one was hurt, so enjoy the carnage. People are ragging on JJ for wrecking, but a lot of their favorites did the same thing. This was a tough race. Anybody could have ended up in the wall.

In general, it was a good race, but not quite as satisfying as last year.
 
As a off-and-on viewer of IndyCar these days, I have a couple of comments about the race.

First, it was suprising the see the Penske cars not being very competitive. Not sure what's going on there.

Second (in the same vein), I'm also surprised Josef Newgarden has not come close to winning an Indy 500. Before he signed with Penske, he was stout on ovals. I thought he would be the man to beat on the ovals, but he has more wins on the road courses since being with Penske.
People were surprised in general about Honda’s pace the past couple of weeks, because Chevy dominated the beginning of the season (including Texas) and Honda only finally won the soaked Indy GP. But even among Chevy teams it seems that for two or three years now Ed Carpenter Racing and more recently McLaren have better speed than Penske at the Speedway. I think even in Josef’s case his best qualifying and finishing result at the 500 came with Carpenter, so it’s puzzling as to why he hasn’t been able to pull through with Penske when both Power and Pagenaud managed to do so before Honda went on this three-year winning streak.
 
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