IndyCar: Phoenix Grand Prix

They should clean the track up a tad during this yellow.. just sayin’
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Dixon is boring to watch, hence being invisible. He is to what IndyCar what Jimmie Johnson is to NASCAR, damn good but not spectacular.
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Watch him when he's in Sports Cars.

Dude is fun to watch in that Ford GT along with Joey Hand. Those two are something to see.
 
Kiante said:
He wasn't making any excuses.

Dixon was invisible, but invisible in 4th place. Thata pretty good IMHO.
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You might not have seen his interview after qualifying. He sure didn't seem happy with the car and the lack of rear downforce
 
Bunch of em saying you couldn't pass, it was a one lane track. I guess Rossi had a set of special tires o_O:D
 
Rossi had something going on that the rest didn't.

Phoenix was not a terrific race, but it wasn't bad either. We had a shootout at the end, but the rest of the race was a lot of follow the leader, or at least that's what we saw on TV. The leaders has a hard time lapping cars it seemed like it was always Charlie Kimbal holding up a line of faster cars. At least this week he didn't crash anyone.

One thing with the new car is that they are all relatively close in speed. These are pretty close to spec cars, so there is never going to be a lot of separation between them. It's a lot easier to lap a slow car than a fast one, and that's why there was so little action. The leader would often sit behind a slower car for laps on end, and that's a combination of turbulence and a tightly packed field. Still, it was 100% better than last year. Maybe Phoenix just doesn't suit these cars.

Tires seem to be the most important item on these cars, and I hope Indycar doesn't turn into all tires all the time like Formula One is. If Firestone would give them a tire that lasted an entire stint with a little care, the races would be more about racing and less about tire management.
 
Thought the race was kind of split into two parts.

The first part, no one could pass anybody.

The second part, Rossi and Wickens and a few others were passing people left and right. Unfortunately for Rossi, he started a lap down. But he was back in the pack, drove up, passed the leader to get his lap back, and got all the way to 4th. That was one marvelous drive.

Wickens, for being a Canadian that no one outside the deep hardcore in North America knew about, is going to be a star.
 
SPEED used to cover the DTM races, I would have heard of Wikens if the channel continued. I watched the series, not the greatest with only two manufacturers, but sometimes the racing was pretty good.
 
StandOnIt said:
SPEED used to cover the DTM races, I would have heard of Wikens if the channel continued. I watched the series, not the greatest with only two manufacturers, but sometimes the racing was pretty good.
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Kind of like Indycar.
 
StandOnIt said:
SPEED used to cover the DTM races, I would have heard of Wikens if the channel continued. I watched the series, not the greatest with only two manufacturers, but sometimes the racing was pretty good.
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They have been on CBS Sports Network for a couple of years, maybe this year too. It's the last season with Mercedes before they leave it to just Audi and BMW so might be the last year worth watching.
 
FLRacingFan said:
They have been on CBS Sports Network for a couple of years, maybe this year too. It's the last season with Mercedes before they leave it to just Audi and BMW so might be the last year worth watching.
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This is what manufacturers do. They drive up the cost of competing while eviscerating the privateers and driving them out, and they pull out and you have nobody left, kind of like what happened to LMP1. If it were not for the privateers they couldn't even have a race. Either BMW or Audi is going to get the upper hand, and then the other is going to bail citing "too expensive," even though they were the ones who made it that way and were quite happy spending that money when they were winning.
 
What say you guys...Wickens wins a race this year? Isnt this his second race in an indycar?
 
DanicaFreak said:
What say you guys...Wickens wins a race this year? Isnt this his second race in an indycar?
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I'm touting him to win it all. Canadian as you well know. Any driver who has never driven an IndyCar, never driven on an oval track, and he had better car control than most of the field and should have won the race. He got beat by tires and a lineup behind him on the last caution with them that I still don't understand. To me he has been screwed out of two wins. Oh heck yeah he is going to win races this year.
 
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Wickens insists he's in the series to stay so it's hard to believe he won't get a few. I don't think he would have beaten Newgarden even if he had fresh tires, but if he got out ahead we saw how difficult it was to pass. All we can do is look forward to Long Beach, and Wickens has got to be one of the favs, especially after coming so close twice.

Still, without Rossi's kamikaze dive bomb in St. Pete, Wickens would probably be leading the standings. Even as of right now this guy is a championship threat.

StandOnIt said:
Any driver who has never driven an IndyCar, never driven on an oval track, and he had better car control than most of the field and should have won the race. He got beat by tires and a lineup behind him on the last caution with them that I still don't understand.
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I believe he was behind Newgarden before the last stop, so he would have still had to pass him, and we saw how difficult that was for just about everyone. They only had a slim chance of passing Newgarden, so they had to roll the dice. It was the best strategy they had at the time, even if it doesn't look so good now.

To me he has been screwed out of two wins.
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Agree he got the hose at St. Pete. No doubt, but I think Phoenix was simply a case of him taking a very well deserved second. If they had pitted, they would have still had to pass Newgarden to get the lead, and just about nobody could pass anyone all night.
 
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StandOnIt said:
I'm touting him to win it all. Canadian as you well know. Any driver who has never driven an IndyCar, never driven on an oval track, and he had better car control than most of the field and should have won the race. He got beat by tires and a lineup behind him on the last caution with them that I still don't understand. To me he has been screwed out of two wins. Oh heck yeah he is going to win races this year.
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How is wickens so good without driving an indycar? does indycar allow testing that NASCAR doesnt?
 
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