Racing Of The United States Variety

[HandyNZL 1]

Maybe it's the extended sidepods and the nose is a nice arc down to the wing, but these cars seem very long.

I'm getting more excited about this series starting than the F1 season to be honest....these are new cars, and that for me is what gets me going...so 2013 should be a stunner for me in F1!!

Woohoo....go Rubes...go TK....go Will....go Scotty....

[HandyNZL 1]

Actually, I'm going to make a prediction....Rubes takes more than one win this season. Judging from TK's comments back when Rubes just "tested/had a feel", he's got a better approach to making the cars work....and that, my friend, in a debut season for a car will make a marked difference. Especially if you bear in mind that some of the newer guys that joined IRL in the last few years have never really had to set up the cars...they were already at the zenith of their evolution and the teams knew them inside and out and probably never needed that much feedback from the driver....but now they will, so are the younger guys up to it?

[Massa 0]

The cars look really, really huge in pictures when they're at the shop being worked on by people. I can only assume they actually are at least sort of huge.

I think Honda have been catching up to Chevrolet now. That's pleasant, though I did want to see Ganassi get absolutely buried this year. I like Chip and Kimball, but man, those other three...augh. Then again, I really don't like the Andretti drivers, so I need Chevrolet to be bad, too. Hell, all my favorites minus Power are driving for Lotus! Argh.

I'm still pretty "meh" about the season. I have no reasons. F1 and ALMS are grabbing my attention, IndyCar and NASCAR just aren't. But all it will take is a good race or two to get me excited again. As long as they're running 500 miles at Indy, I'll at least tune in for something.

I'll predict that Franchitti doesn't win the title, and neither does Power. Kanaan starts having fun again now that Barrichello is around, like the old Andretti Green days, and he brings the fight to his main rival, the re-energized Ryan Briscoe who likes these new cars.

Castroneves wins a race again.

Andretti has a career year, though that's not exactly setting the bar too high for himself.

De Silvestro gets punished for her loyalty to a backmarking team. Nice person and all, but damn, you gotta take the opportunities when they come up. KV and Andretti both welcomed her Entergy backing and while it's honorable to not leave HVM to fold, I just can't see how you be successful in this game turning down rides at the best of the rest teams, and turning down tests at Sauber and Renault a few years ago, and all that. You never bite and people stop offering. Maybe she hates pressure, or really, really, really wants to win on her own terms. Oh well, I can't complain, because as soon as she starts winning races, she jumps the shark and I stop caring.

Carpenter will regret starting a team. There are four ovals. It's just a bad idea.

Barrichello won't win a race. Because I have to take the other side.

ABC's coverage of the Indy 500 will be hours of talking to drivers' wives about the danger of the sport (probably re-air the terribly uncomfortable interview with Paul Dana's wife from the race a few years ago). They will use Wheldon's passing to sell the race as exciting. The only other storyline they'll focus on is how the race is "wide open" now that Danica is gone. Maybe she'll even make a guest appearance in the commentary box before going off to Charlotte to run the Cup race...

...but cynicism aside, the 500 will be fun and exciting and you'll get a whole two weeks of me not complaining.

[HandyNZL 1]

You? Complain? Noooooooooo!!!!!

[Massa 0]

Rednecks really like filling their yards with former cars that are now junk. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is no exception.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/story/2012-03-09/Dale-Earnhardt-puts-wrecked-Montoya-car-in-yard/53448486/1

A replica of a Western town and a bunch of torn up racecars. You know, there are all sorts of things written about him not being married...Junior being depressed, Junior being lonely, Junior's sexuality, Junior this, Junior that...but I just think he's single because of what's in his freaking lawn.

[Massa 0]

Dodge would like to stay in NASCAR with Robby Gordon Motorsports, who have now failed to qualify for Las Vegas. They will meet with Tommy Baldwin Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, and BK Racing this month. Chip Ganassi has invited them, too. None of those teams are exactly powerhouses, and the big problem is that there is no one to build competitive Dodge engines (Penske did that for them; Arrington and Ernie Elliott build Dodge engines that absolutely suck). Ganassi co-owner Teresa Earnhardt has her name on Earnhardt-Childress engines, but obviously, those will stay with Chevrolet (Childress will just do it on his own if Earnhardt leaves).

It'd be nice in a dream world to see small teams like RGM, TBR, and BKR get factory Dodge support and move up the field...but it'll end up more like Bryan Herta Autosport, HVM Racing, and Dreyer & Reinbold becoming Lotus factory teams and going nowhere...

[Massa 0]

...which leads into one last update on the 2012 IndyCar grid.

Team Penske (Chevrolet)

2. Ryan Briscoe (IZOD et al)

3. Hélio Castroneves (Shell V-Power et al)

12. Will Power (Verizon Wireless)

Panther Racing (Chevrolet)

4. J.R. Hildebrand (National Guard)

Second car always possible at Indy.

KV Racing Technology (Chevrolet)

5. E.J. Viso (CITGO)

8. Rubens Barrichello (BMC)

11. Tony Kanaan (GEICO, Mouser, Itaipava)

Dragon Racing (Lotus)

6. Katherine Legge (TrueCar)

7. Sébastien Bourdais (???)

Haven't paid for Bourdais' engine yet.

Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)

9. Scott Dixon (Target)

10. Dario Franchitti (Target)

38. Graham Rahal (Service Central)

83. Charlie Kimball (Novo Nordisk)

A.J. Foyt Enterprises (Honda)

14. Mike Conway (ABC Supply Co.)

Usually has a second car at Indy

RLL Racing (Honda)

15. Takuma Sato (Mi-Jack)

Second car with Luca Filippi (30) will start at Indy and continue for the remainder of the season.

Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)

18. Justin Wilson (Sonny's BBQ)

19. James Jakes (Boy Scouts)

Neither car has an actual sponsor; Jakes brings some family money (Acorn Stairlifts).

Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)

20. Ed Carpenter (Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka)

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Lotus)

22. Oriol Servià (Lotus Cars)

May field a second at Indy.

Andretti Autosport (Chevrolet)

26. Marco Andretti (RC Cola)

27. James Hinchcliffe (GoDaddy.com)

28. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Sun Drop)

Will field 25 car for Sebastián Saavedra at Indy (AFS backing). Also testing Ana Beatriz, maybe for São Paulo?

Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (Honda)

67. Josef Newgarden (???)

Schmidt Hamilton Racing (Honda)

77. Simon Pagenaud (hp)

Maybe a second at Indy; no longer partnered with AFS Racing.

HVM Racing (Lotus)

78. Simona de Silvestro (Entergy)

Could field Jean Alesi at Indy if D&RR doesn't.

Bryan Herta Autosport (Lotus)

98. Alex Tagliani (Barracuda Networks)

26 full-time. 30-32 possibilities for the Indy 500 so far. I'm sure they'll make 33 happen, but I wouldn't expect bumping in qualifying.

[Massa 0]

This is a Dodge. Dodge has no teams for 2013. But they have that hideous white nonsense around the grille area.

You're thinking, hey, that looks cool.

Yeah, what's so bad about it?

That. That is what is so bad. They'll need to only show the Dodge from the gopher cam if they want it to look nice.

This is the back. It is boxy.

Anyway, good for NASCAR. It has lines pretty similar to the real Charger, just like the Fusion mimics the real Fusion. And they both look really, really different from each other, just like the road-going cars.

It's just too bad that none of the cars that race in NASCAR look good as street cars.

[Massa 0]

A few weeks back I mentioned it'd be a Nissan...today it is finally a Nissan...

At speed, nothing too tricky yet:

I still love this project. Maybe it will fail, but that's part of it, right? They're running with a big idea that people are biased against from the start just for that off-chance something from the DeltaWing is going to stick in future cars. I just haven't ever really seen that in my lifetime, and especially not as an American project, odd when you would think the American attitude would really lend itself well to projects like this. Maybe that attitude's only fictitious, but anyway...

I think it's cool. I'm glad it found a home. It wouldn't have been right as an IndyCar. Side impact on an oval looks sketchy at best. An entire series of DeltaWing would have been tough, too, because they are still changing and adapting the car as they go and they wouldn't be able to do that with a full series. It makes sense at Le Mans, and maybe we'll see it adapted into an IndyCar, or some other car, later.

[Massa 0]

Chevrolet and Honda teams will be testing at Barber and Homestead this week.

Every Lotus engine (all five units; no spares yet) is back in England getting rebuilt, so they will not be participating. Tagliani said he was 6.5 mph slower than the Ganassi cars in a straight line at the Sebring test. De Silvestro, ever the positive one, indicated that the engine is reliable, though I don't think reliability is a big issue right now for any of the three.

I have a feeling that a company that sells 2,000 road cars deciding to sponsor/supply/own 2,000 racing cars across the world has been a really bad decision. But at least they have five cars out there on the grid with something behind the driver. Maybe they'll make progress.

[HandyNZL 1]

Delta Wing

I too am quite interested in it, for most of the reasons you are. Will it truly handle the way they claim? The balance sweet spot is so fine (according to them), so what happens if it's a tad too far back? And all the downforce is created from under the car...so what happens if they suffer lift at the front? Surely will be some questions answered over time, and the whole thing is quite novel, so we shall see.

Under braking Dario sinks in the seat, so one assumes he was going at a reasonable pace to be forced down in the belts, and it was handling the corners quite well....infact, where was the over/understeer?

I look forward to their Le Mans challenge, and it will be the story of the race, whatever happens.

[JHS18 0]

Craig - I believe it is Marino driving, but Eric will probably say who is right.

It'll certainly be an interesting project to watch anyway at Le Mans, should add some interest to see how they're doing if Audi begins to walk it, which they probably will.

I'm interested to note how quick they think it'll be. I know it is in the Garage 56 thing so isn't in a prescribed class, but where should its pace be around? LMP2 pace I'd guess?

[Massa 0]

Yeah, Marino Franchitti and Érik Comas are currently the drivers involved with the project. Could have been Dario had it all unfolded differently, since this was Chip Ganassi's project at one point...

I honestly don't know what pace they are targeting with the LMP version of the DeltaWing. The IndyCar DeltaWing concept was, in theory, supposed to take 300 hp and turn identical times on road courses as the 2011 Dallara (as well as slightly faster at Indy). Whether or not it would have done that, I don't know, but when IndyCar share a weekend with ALMS, the IndyCar is slightly faster than an LMP1 (this includes the days when Audi's diesels ran ALMS). So in theory, the IndyCar DeltaWing concept, if it could do what it was supposed to, would be at least at LMP1 pace...

...but the LMP DeltaWing, in reality, in its first run, in a 24 hour race as opposed to a qualifying lap, I have no idea what they expect, or what we should expect. Obviously I don't think it's going to win the race overall, but I'll predict a class win.

If it goes the full 24 hours, I expect a lot less fuel stops than anything else, but that's about all I can figure.

[Massa 0]

New, relaxed Kurt Busch is not very happy. He's wrecked more racecars than the team actually has. One correction, it is Kurt saying the "AIR GUN AIR GUN AIR GUN" thing, not Nick Harrison, which you could probably tell by the voice anyway. Obviously there's language, censored out, but still there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcDefw4C7Eo

But then again, as much as we pick on Kurt, radio chatter is radio chatter. Find me one driver or one crew chief or one spotter who doesn't swear on the radio in NASCAR; you won't be able to. Do they all whine like Kurt about "waaah this black cloud?" No, they don't, most of them don't, because it's really hard to motivate a team, especially a small team that gets the opportunity to have championship-winning driver with them, when you're just *****ing about your luck and it's never "we'll get them next week, thanks guys, we had a good run, I'm sorry."

[Massa 0]

Former Truck and ARCA driver Mario Gosselin arrested for soliciting prostitution online. Maybe he'll find a second career in IndyCar, like Tomas Scheckter did.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20120313/NEWS/120319668/1134?Title=Race-Car-Driver-Arrested-In-Online-Sex-Ad-Sting

[JHS18 0]

New, relaxed Kurt Busch is not very happy. He's wrecked more racecars than the team actually has. One correction, it is Kurt saying the "AIR GUN AIR GUN AIR GUN" thing, not Nick Harrison, which you could probably tell by the voice anyway. Obviously there's language, censored out, but still there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcDefw4C7Eo

But then again, as much as we pick on Kurt, radio chatter is radio chatter. Find me one driver or one crew chief or one spotter who doesn't swear on the radio in NASCAR; you won't be able to. Do they all whine like Kurt about "waaah this black cloud?" No, they don't, most of them don't, because it's really hard to motivate a team, especially a small team that gets the opportunity to have championship-winning driver with them, when you're just *****ing about your luck and it's never "we'll get them next week, thanks guys, we had a good run, I'm sorry."

Kurt Busch is one of the most dislikable guys in NASCAR.

And that's saying a lot. j/k

[HandyNZL 1]

I think we need a Delta Wing thread...all in favour say aye!

[Massa 0]

Yeah, I'd like a DeltaWing thread.

Part of me still says disband this thread and just create separate topics for things that are interesting (big races, things like the DeltaWing). I just can't be ***ed to run series-specific NASCAR or IndyCar threads or anything like that, so it probably makes more sense to just make fewer American racing posts and discriminate toward things that may have more appeal to a wider audience, and do those in their own little threads (like a DeltaWing thread which I encourage you to start, and the Sebring thread I'm doing now, the Daytona thread I did which then spawned Montoya fire threads, etc).

[Massa 0]

...but this thread has a use, when I just want to post pointless crap.

Bobby Labonte Tebows. Tim Tebow himself was praying for a trade to a Florida team, but got sent to the New York Jets, who already signed Mark Sanchez for another three years. As someone who knows very little about the NFL, let me give you my opinions on this move. It's a weird one. Maybe NY can use Tebow as a runningback or a TE or something. I just don't see the difference between Tebow not playing in Denver and not playing in New York. End of the day, he did something weird and it caught defenses by surprise. This year, they all know the book on Timmy and you have a QB doing all that running around, his career will last five years before he's too battered to be effective. Instead it only lasted part of one. Poor kid.

[Massa 0]

A few posts up, we had a video of Kurt Busch cussing on the radio (gosh, the horror, a racing driver cussing on the radio! That's never happened before). And whining, which some guys do, some guys don't do. I did the old Kurt Busch "m-f, m-f" today on the highway. I'm trying to get over to the right lane to get to my exit. I speed up to get some distance between the car in the right lane so I can blend in, and she speeds up and stays alongside me. So I slow down to just let her illegally pass me right and I'll blend in behind her, no worries. Except she slows down to and stays right alongside me. Of course she didn't notice I was trying to get in; she was staring down at her lap texting. What a dumb piece of ****. I got to jack all the traffic up behind me slowing down to 55 just to get in behind that turd. When I start to put distance on you and put my signal on, you don't speed up and take the gap, and then slow down when I slow down...unless you don't notice any of that because you want to make sure you die "talking" to your best friend, with texting being as bad for reaction time than being absolutely wasted is...so I yelled Kurt Busch's favorite word his favorite number of times (two in succession) for no one to hear and carried on being driving angry isn't very safe either.

This all relates to racing because they did part of the Red Bull American Driver Search a few miles from where I go to school, which is where I was driving to when this ignorant, reckless, self-absorbed, irresponsible little child decided her conversation was more important than everyone else on the road's lives.

I think I need to just go Tebow or something.

[Massa 0]

Races I might watch this week:

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series from Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL. That will be aired tape-delayed on SPEED Saturday at 4:00 PM my time (GMT -5) and likely streamed at that time.

9 Daytona Prototypes, 19 Grand Touring entries: http://www.grand-am.com/schedule/entrylist.cfm?series=r&eid=3431

USAC National Midget championship at Ace Speedway in North Carolina Friday and Saturday night. Sometimes http://www.3widenetworks.com/ broadcasts the races legally. Other times http://www.usacracing.com/pitpass does, well, they always do, but it seems this year they might be charging money. Hopefully one of the two will broadcast the race free. I love USAC and local driver Bobby Santos is running for RW Racing in their Toyota-powered entry this weekend.

Other races that I personally am just not feeling: Indy at Barber, NSCS and NCWTS at Martinsville.

[Massa 0]

Rumors going around, credible ones, that SPEED Channel is about to change.

News International apparently want to make SPEED a sports channel to compete with ESPN; it is in 82,000,000 households already and feel they can get better viewership out of it (SPEED's viewership is third behind ESPN and ESPN2 as it is, though a far distance from both. Viewership has been very stable in the last few years).

News International also own Fuel TV in the U.S. which has expanded into racing programming (Mazda Motorsports Hour to showcase Star Mazda, US F2000, and the MX-5 series). Fuel is in 30,000,000 homes. It currently shows UFC among other sports and bills itself as an upscale male lifestyle network. There were rumors last year that Fuel would become a sports network, and SPEED would become a NASCAR-owned channel. These rumors did not come true.

It makes more sense to make SPEED a sports channel given its distribution. I am not sure if they would move motorsports programming to Fuel, or what live auto racing would be included on a sports channel (as ESPN shows NASCAR and NBCSN shows IndyCar). SPEED currently airs, among other things:

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

Formula One

MotoGP

Motocross

Grand-Am Rolex Series

Grand-Am Continental Tire Challenge

Australian V8 Supercars

They also show BTCC, WTCC, DTM, and FIA GT1 highlights during the winter.

SPEED launched SPEED2, an online streaming-only motorsports network. The concept never really took off, though it still exists. It claims to air dozens of series but seemingly doesn't show a whole lot of anything.

Certain cable providers already carry SPEED in basic cable. Others, such as ours, carry it as a super-duper-high-tier channel that requires payment for a host of other channels. SPEED is not widely available in high definition; that is regional by carrier (motor racing markets tend to have SPEED in HD on cable, as does DIRECTV, owned by News International).

If motor racing content is freed by any move that may be made, NBCSN could be keen to add the Truck Series and/or F1, both of which score ratings that would be above nearly everything NBCSN presently airs (as VERSUS, only NHL playoff games, and I doubt all of them, would outscore CWTS and F1 on SPEED; regular season NHL games trail behind both CWTS and F1 in viewership. Misleading in that only two of the thirty teams play in one game, so obviously the entire NHL fanbase isn't watching, so you get a lot of unique viewers over the course of a season whereas it's the same crowd each week for the racing series mostly).

Some details: @Ourand_SBJ

[Massa 0]

So today I found out Rubens Barrichello isn't classified as a rookie in the IZOD IndyCar Series. He wants to be, probably to get the extra 30 minutes of practice, but here's the thing...

He's never raced in IndyCar. Ever. Therefore, he is a rookie. Nigel Mansell was a rookie. Emerson Fittipaldi was a rookie. What INDYCAR (the sanctioning body is all caps) have done is say "F1 is a better, more important, higher level series than our own." And whether or not that's true or generally accepted, that's just terrible marketing, isn't it? "Oh our series is second-rate." Would they classify Jeff Gordon as a rookie? Why was Takuma Sato a rookie?

The reason it really just looks so poor on their part? Simon Pagenaud and Katherine Legge are rookies. Pagenaud has one full season in Champ Car, Legge has two. INDYCAR say they've merged the record book to include every sanctioning body, all the way back to AAA. But they obviously aren't acknowledging Champ Car if Pagenaud and Legge are rookies, but Barrichello isn't.

Does it matter? No, not at all. But it makes INDYCAR look like it's run by amateurs. Probably because it is run by amateurs. "WE HAVE ONE UNIFIED RECORD BOOK NOW, YOU CAN BUY IT FOR $25." But then they don't include Champ Car track records, and they don't include Champ Car as past IndyCar experience, and then they include F1 as past IndyCar experience, but only sometimes. Bush league.

[Massa 0]

First night of USAC Nat'l Midget competition at Ace Speedway:

1. Bobby East (former NASCAR competitor in NNS and NCWTS)

2. Bobby Santos, III. (Tommy Baldwin Racing development driver running NNS at Daytona in July)

3. Mario Clouser

4. Darren Hagen

5. Kyle Larson (Earnhardt-Ganassi development driver racing K&N Pro with the team; first Japanese-American NASCAR driver)

6. Tanner Swanson (top-rated prospect, like his brother)

7. Caleb Armstrong (brother of NCWTS driver Dakoda Armstrong)

8. Nick Drake

9. Levi Jones

10. Bryan Clauson (raced Indy Lights last year and NNS in the past; may run Indy 500 this year)

11. Kody Swanson (top-rated prospect, like his brother)

12. Tracy Hines (former NNS and NCWTS competitor)

13. Dillon Welch (son of IndyCar on ABC and NASCAR on ESPN pit reporter Vince Welch)

14. Zach Daum

15. David Byrne

16. Jason Wolfe

17. Davey Ray

18. Jimmy Simpson

19. Taylor Ferns

20. Dalton Armstrong (Caleb and Dakoda's brother)

21. Isaac Chapple

22. Levi Roberts

23. Mike Larrison

24. Rico Abreu

Second race is tonight.

Both races are in honor of Shane Hmiel. Hmiel struggled with bi-polar disorder. After misdiagnosis, he began self-medication, and as a result, he was suspended by NASCAR for drug violations multiple times before receiving a lifetime ban. Prior to his troubles, Hmiel was one of the top young drivers in stock car racing, having been signed with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s team and Braun Racing. Hmiel began treatement for bi-polar, and fought his problems with recreational drugs. He returned to restart his career in USAC, and had signed to race in Indy Lights with hopes of racing in the Indy 500 one day. Hmiel was seriously injured in a vicious USAC wreck which has left him in a wheelchair. He currently works with 3 Wide Networks, who broadcast USAC races, and RW Racing, who fielded cars for Santos and Clouser in this particular event.

[Massa 0]

Why is USAC important? Take a look at some 2012 competitors:

Sprint Cup: Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley, Ken Schrader, Josh Wise, and P.J. Jones

Nationwide: Ricky Stenhouse, Cole Whitt, Mike Bliss, Brad Sweet, and Bobby Santos

Truck: Jason Leffler and Dakoda Armstrong

K&N Pro: Chad Boat and Kyle Larson

IndyCar: Ed Carpenter

F3 Euro: Michael Lewis

Stenhouse, Whitt, and Larson are only the future of NASCAR. Stewart and Gordon only have seven Cup titles between them. Carpenter's only the best oval racer in IndyCar.