Pre-Race: 108th Indianapolis 500

AndyMarquisLive said:
He’s by far the greatest talent of our generation. He could be making a case for all time.

That said, I also think the talent in IndyCar is not even close to what it used to be. Bunch of European rejects who don’t even want to be there.
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Grid talent in IndyCar is as good as it’s been in a long while…probably as deep as ever. Certainly at least since the split. People forget that even CART at its zenith was really top-heavy and had a third of the field full of funded drivers in a bunch of weird and uncompetitive chassis/engine combinations.
 
That’s insane. Whole team has at least a full MPH over the best of the rest of the field.
 
That said, absolutely horrible optics that Penske is this much faster than everybody else in a series owned by Penske.
 
Does anyone know if Danica will be one of the commentators again this year?
 
I can't really be excited about Penske being a mile faster than the field after the events leading up to the month of May.
It's quite a change from the last few years when Ganassi dominated qualifying but with three cars from the same team on the front row it's probably safe to say the first three quarters of the race will once again be very tactical and focused on fuel-saving.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
He’s by far the greatest talent of our generation. He could be making a case for all time.

That said, I also think the talent in IndyCar is not even close to what it used to be. Bunch of European rejects who don’t even want to be there.
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I can't agree with that second sentence. There's a lot of great talent in the series, Newgarden would do well if he were a NASCAR series regular
 
donthaveanickname said:
I can't really be excited about Penske being a mile faster than the field after the events leading up to the month of May.
It's quite a change from the last few years when Ganassi dominated qualifying but with three cars from the same team on the front row it's probably safe to say the first three quarters of the race will once again be very tactical and focused on fuel-saving.
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I think there are a lot of guys in the next two or three rows who are gonna be hungry to make some moves early. The last thing anyone wants to do, now more than ever, is let Penske dictate the race pace.

Penske had been pretty bad at qualifying here since 2019. That alliance with Foyt and the access to Michael Cannon probably helped a fair bit, and Will Power said something about some tighter restrictions around suspension pushrods apparently brought much the rest of the field back as well.
 
donthaveanickname said:
I think he, Palou, Herta and Pato would do well if they were F1 regulars.
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Dixon had a test with Williams in the mid-2000s and probably would’ve done pretty well if he had gotten the seat.

I think there’s more diversity in backgrounds now than there has been in a while; there are a lot of guys who have race wins at some level in different disciplines. Talent vacuum was a big problem during and immediately after the split but it’s gotten better since, especially as the full-time grid has grown.
 
donthaveanickname said:
I think he, Palou, Herta and Pato would do well if they were F1 regulars.
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Palou should already be in F1, but there hasn't been an open ride competitive enough to make it worth his while.

Herta maybe, if he was re-united with his dad as strategist. Though I understand Andretti wanting to try to make him stronger by removing his crutch.

Pato has the talent, but he has to rediscover his patience. He's caught a little bit of the Romain Grosjean disease as of late.

I'd still like to see Larson somehow on the F1 Grid. Especially since he should be able to appeal to both the American and Japanese fanbases.
 
Hikaru Kitsune said:
Palou should already be in F1, but there hasn't been an open ride competitive enough to make it worth his while.

Herta maybe, if he was re-united with his dad as strategist. Though I understand Andretti wanting to try to make him stronger by removing his crutch.

Pato has the talent, but he has to rediscover his patience. He's caught a little bit of the Romain Grosjean disease as of late.

I'd still like to see Larson somehow on the F1 Grid. Especially since he should be able to appeal to both the American and Japanese fanbases.
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NASCAR is the great hurdle though. While the long season of 36 races and 2 exhibitions is what draws many to the sport, it limits crossover opportunities almost entirely
 
FLRacingFan said:
Grid talent in IndyCar is as good as it’s been in a long while…probably as deep as ever. Certainly at least since the split. People forget that even CART at its zenith was really top-heavy and had a third of the field full of funded drivers in a bunch of weird and uncompetitive chassis/engine combinations.
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To me, 1992 is the absolute ultimate peak of CART, and even then, you had a lot of rides that didn't make every race, or rides that changed drivers multiple times per season.
 
Things I want to happen from most to least:

Full 500 ran on Sunday
Full 500 ran on Monday
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Rain shortened 500

So the weather better decide if it wants to rain or not Sunday. My group has a Monday plan to be in Indy so we're good there.
 


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