2023 IndyCar News / Misc.

donthaveanickname said:
Awesome. Now do meters.
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The Nashville rumor is a track that incorporates a part of the bar scene in Lower Broadway. The race would vacate its current spot on the calendar to make way for next year’s Olympic break, Laguna Seca would move to March to fill the early season void.

racer.com

Nashville poised to host 2024 IndyCar season finale

The Nashville Grand Prix is expected to receive a new contract from the NTT IndyCar Series that will keep the popular Tennessean street race on the calendar after its three-year contract with the s…
racer.com racer.com
 
FLRacingFan said:
The Nashville rumor is a track that incorporates a part of the bar scene in Lower Broadway.
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Would the bars and juke joints be able to operate? If not, how will they feel about the lost business? That's prime tourism country. It wouldn't seem to benefit them to have visitors come to town if those businesses have to be closed.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Would the bars and juke joints be able to operate? If not, how will they feel about the lost business? That's prime tourism country. It wouldn't seem to benefit them to have visitors come to town if those businesses have to be closed.
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I don’t think there’s any way anyone involved would want a bunch of bars to be inoperative that weekend. That doesn’t work in the spirit of the event, nor would they want to pay out a bunch of money to make up for lost revenue. I’m pretty interested to see what sort of solution they come up with, even if it’s only a couple of blocks long.
 
There were some whispers after Penske visited the ARCA weekend in June that the Mile may need one more year to make the necessary upgrades but it sounds like we’re still on track for it to replace the second Indy RC weekend next season.

Additionally, there are rumors they’re looking at making Gateway a twin feature down the road as well.

 
FLRacingFan said:
Lundqvist gets his first big shot after winning Lights last year, in a bit of a surprise.

I hope Simon is alright but I’m starting to get a Kurt Busch vibe.

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I hope Simon will be back this season but even before his wreck at Mid-Ohio I wouldn't have been surprised if he retired at the end of the season. His results have been declining for quite some time.
 
Ericsson became free to formally negotiate with other teams on Aug. 1. CGR have reportedly stepped up to make him an offer, but he’s likely to get a big proposal from Andretti as well. The battle for his services likely comes down to those two.

Palou can’t announce anything until Sept. 1 but it would be a surprise if he didn’t wind up with McLaren in 2024. And CGR aren’t too keen on any current IndyCar drivers as a Palou replacement in the 10, likely to look outside the series again.

Lots of other movement expected with a plethora of could, should, maybe, possibly…

Noted international talent who’ve received varying degrees of interest or have met with teams: Felipe Drugovich, Oliver Askew, Nyck de Vries, Brendon Hartley, Jean-Eric Vergne, Sergio Sette Camara, Stoffel Vandoorne.

racer.com

IndyCar silly season update: the Nashville edition

The current state of IndyCar’s silly season is slow and measured, all thanks to the paddock’s collective waiting to see what happens to two of the biggest names on the market. The curiosity starts …
racer.com racer.com
 
FLRacingFan said:
Ericsson became free to formally negotiate with other teams on Aug. 1. CGR have reportedly stepped up to make him an offer, but he’s likely to get a big proposal from Andretti as well. The battle for his services likely comes down to those two.
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Ericsson deserves a good ride and a fair paycheck. It's not a good look for the series to have the Indianapolis 500 champion have to pay for his drive. It's not a good look for Chip to be too cheap to keep a guy that's won the 500 for him.

I wonder if maybe Palou is leaving because he has the same issue.
FLRacingFan said:
Palou can’t announce anything until Sept. 1 but it would be a surprise if he didn’t wind up with McLaren in 2024.
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How crazy is it that he could leave Ganassi after the season they are having?

Mclaren's F1 drivers are locked down for a few years and both are performing so well there's no reason to replace them, or for them to even leave. Where would he fit in?
FLRacingFan said:
And CGR aren’t too keen on any current IndyCar drivers as a Palou replacement in the 10, likely to look outside the series again.
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Great. We'll probably get another guy we've never heard of.
 
Doc Austin said:
Ericsson deserves a good ride and a fair paycheck. It's not a good look for the series to have the Indianapolis 500 champion have to pay for his drive. It's not a good look for Chip to be too cheap to keep a guy that's won the 500 for him.

I wonder if maybe Palou is leaving because he has the same issue.
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Chip is just not a guy who’s amassed a bunch of external wealth like Roger Penske, has the financial might of a manufacturer like McLaren, or brought in big investors like Michael Andretti. He’s brought Ed Jones, Rosenqvist, and now Palou all into the 10 since Kanaan retired because he knows he can pay young unproven drivers a cheap salary, and there will always be those types of drivers knocking down his door to get into that seat.

Doc Austin said:
How crazy is it that he could leave Ganassi after the season they are having?

Mclaren's F1 drivers are locked down for a few years and both are performing so well there's no reason to replace them, or for them to even leave. Where would he fit in?
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The #6.

Doc Austin said:
Great. We'll probably get another guy we've never heard of.
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Those guys usually have more cachet than an existing midpack IndyCar regular or NXT grad. Rosenqvist and Wickens were both big names before they came to IndyCar. Same goes for McLaughlin and Tom Blomqvist, etc.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Chip is just not a guy who’s amassed a bunch of external wealth like Roger Penske, has the financial might of a manufacturer like McLaren, or brought in big investors like Michael Andretti.
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Chip has a history of bringing in lesser-known drivers who go on to become killers like Zanardi, Ericsson and Palou. He got Dixon really early in his Indycar career too.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Would the bars and juke joints be able to operate? If not, how will they feel about the lost business? That's prime tourism country. It wouldn't seem to benefit them to have visitors come to town if those businesses have to be closed.
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It would be one way from them to move the homeless somewhere else.
 
Season finale confirmed for Nashville in 2024. Still a Big Dipper layout but the the other way now.



 
donthaveanickname said:
Still a terrible choice for the season finale but at least it looks like the new layout could be a bit wider in the turns.
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I can’t think of a better place to generate big event energy for the finale.

This looks like a better layout on paper, pit exit looks like it integrates better than the current one, and there don’t appear to be any stupid tight sections like the current turns 4-8 and 1-2 complexes.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I can’t think of a better place to generate big event energy for the finale.

This looks like a better layout on paper, pit exit looks like it integrates better than the current one, and there don’t appear to be any stupid tight sections like the current turns 4-8 and 1-2 complexes.
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If I had to decide between this one and one of Americas most beautiful road courses the decision is an easy one for me.
I'm not sure there will be big event energy for the finale. IndyCar cuts their season short to avoid collisions with Football, yet always ends up scheduling the finale against NFL week one or two which in previous years made the season finale fade into obscurity.

At the end of the day, IndyCar is still a great championship and I'll be watching. Today and next September.
 
It was not the calamity we were promised! Even Grosjean didn't wreck.

Championship drive by Palou. It started off as damage limitation but ended up stretching his lead.
 
West said:
Watch him loose it all and end up in Trucks.
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He’s too good to completely screw himself out a very good ride somewhere - for now. I have no idea what he’s doing though. He could’ve signed an F1 deal on his own, maybe Honda global somehow stepped up to keep him, Chip finally dropped a bag, who knows. He’s even split with the management team that this whole fiasco started with.

Just no clue.



 
FLRacingFan said:
He’s too good to completely screw himself out a very good ride somewhere - for now. I have no idea what he’s doing though. He could’ve signed an F1 deal on his own, maybe Honda global somehow stepped up to keep him, Chip finally dropped a bag, who knows. He’s even split with the management team that this whole fiasco started with.

Just no clue.



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I'm not very surprised at all after the kind of season he has had.
If Alex wants to move to F1 he needs to do it soon though. He'll be 29 when Honda re-enters F1 in 2026 and that's too old for a rookie.
Maybe Alonso will retire after 2024 or Stroll moves into a management role. I'd love to see Fernando and Alex as teammates for a year.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Tom Blomqvist moves from MSR’s IMSA program to drive one of the two full-time IndyCar entries in 2024. Helio becomes a minority partner in MSR and will drive a third car at the Indy 500.

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Helio is 48 now, when was the last time someone ran full-time in open wheel at that age? AJ Foyt?

Can't really judge Blomqvist based on the 200 meters he completed in IndyCar racing but I hope Helio will continue to run the 500 for as long as he can. His full-time IndyCar career as been one hell of a ride.
 
aunty dive said:
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Important to remember in this context that when McLaren were really diving headfirst into the series full-time, they tried to lure Scott Dixon to the team with an equity interest. Chip has not liked Zak since day 1, and the Palou saga only ramped that up last year.

Given that situation and the Piasco with Alpine over in F1 last summer, it would be funny if it turned out Zak actually got played. There were certainly some pretty boastful comments out of that camp about both of those within the past year.

MP says on record that he’s pretty certain, but still unconfirmed, that Palou has signed a new deal with CGR. As far as his management, apparently Monaco Increase Management had somehow been shopping Palou to other suitors in the background, including Andretti Autosport. That’s a big WTF.

 
West said:
Reading this, I can't blame the guy.
"to join McLaren's F1 team as a test driver of sorts"
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By all accounts he’s performed well in the F1 tests, and doing IndyCar with the team this season while being their F1 test/reserve to gain experience didn’t sound like a bad gig at the time. If it had all played out as planned he’d probably be set to replace Ricciardo in 2024. With as good as Piastri has been this summer, the writing is on the wall that McLaren’s F1 lineup probably won’t change until 2026. And that wait just isn’t worth it.
 
FLRacingFan said:
By all accounts he’s performed well in the F1 tests, and doing IndyCar with the team this season while being their F1 test/reserve to gain experience didn’t sound like a bad gig at the time. If it had all played out as planned he’d probably be set to replace Ricciardo in 2024. With as good as Piastri has been this summer, the writing is on the wall that McLaren’s F1 lineup probably won’t change until 2026. And that wait just isn’t worth it.
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Agree, smart money says there is other teams that could use his talent, I assume he has a contractual provision for such a possibility.
 
FLRacingFan said:
By all accounts he’s performed well in the F1 tests, and doing IndyCar with the team this season while being their F1 test/reserve to gain experience didn’t sound like a bad gig at the time. If it had all played out as planned he’d probably be set to replace Ricciardo in 2024. With as good as Piastri has been this summer, the writing is on the wall that McLaren’s F1 lineup probably won’t change until 2026. And that wait just isn’t worth it.
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Norris is the question mark in the McLaren F1 equation in so much as depending on who you ask or what rumor hits the fan, he might be a free agent right now.

Generally speaking I'd rather see Palou in a race car than becoming Luca Badoer. I'm guessing Palou is similarly minded.
 
Conor Daly is replacing Jack Harvey at Gateway, who is just in "career over" mode at RLL:

www.indycar.com

RLL Shuffles Driver Lineup; Daly To Drive No. 30 at WWTR

Veteran Conor Daly has four top-10 finishes in his last six NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts on the World Wide Technology Raceway oval.
www.indycar.com www.indycar.com

I'd expect to see Juri Vips show up and take laps at somewhere like Portland or Laguna Seca.
 
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