Racing Of The United States Variety

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Both Dreyer & Reinbold drivers, Justin Wilson and Ana Beatriz, fractured/broke their wrists in today's race. Tough.

Beatriz is headed back to Indy for evaluation and may miss Barber; Wilson's is a fracture and it appears he'll be fine for Barber (Wilson raced with a broken wrist in Champ Car at Mexico and nearly won until Bourdais punted him late race). I just wonder how it happened as I don't recall Wilson having any real contact with anything.

[JHS 1]

I saw the first 58 laps or so, it was pretty good, shame there was so many cautions though.

I've seen quite a bit of NASCAR this year too. I've seen a bit of every race they've run so far and in some cases, I've been impressed. Yesterday's finish to the race was rather good.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

For those who missed it...cool stuff.

JHS, that's honestly the best way to watch NASCAR...in bits and pieces. It's fun if you go into it with the right mindset. I rarely watch a full race start-to-finish (I've done that twice this year, once while I was recovering from surgery though). I think one of the coolest parts of NASCAR is the pit strategy. It's unique in that so many stops come under caution, so taking no or two tires for track position becomes a big part of the race, and you see a huge amount of variety as teams at the back can gamble to get to the front and see what happens. I wouldn't want to see that in any other motor racing, but I do like it in NASCAR for something unique.

Lindy Thackston of VERSUS is now writing for RACER. VERSUS gets the use of SPEED's Robin Miller, SPEED gets the use of VERSUS' Lindy Thackston.

http://www.racer.com...EMC-RACER_DAILY

And on a positive note, the INDYCAR race scored a 1.4 overnight rating in the United States. No non-Indy race broke 1.0 in 2010, and no non-Indy race has scored as high since Mid-Ohio 2008 (1.5). Sponsors were saying that, for the price, they wanted to be around 1.5, so this is really good news in terms of keeping cars fully-funded and the grids as big as they are projected to be.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Oh, and, if you liked CART/Champ Car, well, there's this guy, and he puts full races up, and sometimes I watch them while I run on the treadmill...http://tinyurl.com/5rqzecm

Enjoy. He's on year 2000 right now, so I'm still reliving my childhood. Another season and we'll be into stuff I've never seen before. I love CART races, personally, and am glad INDYCAR is headed in that direction, and as as sports broadcasting nerd (something I am not pursuing, but almost did), I enjoy the intros and features and commentary. And the old commercials.

[HandyNZL 1]

DAMMIT SIMONA PUSH THE BUTTON!

Kind of got boring there, but there was enough action. An alright race. Would have liked the cautions to be a bit more spread out rather than all in succession. The double-file restarts are going to be wild, for sure, though particularly here with that wide entrance and narrow exit to turn one.

Simona drove a decent race; she was flying and if she had used her push-to-pass they could have done justice and beaten Michael Cannon's team. Ah, get them next time. She does need to watch the restarts though; she went F1 on Wilson with that running him to the pit wall stuff, and then went NASCAR on Power driving him into him and triggering that little mess. Still, you have to be aggressive, and in all that traffic, there's just no real way to go.

Her team loves her, INDYCAR is promoting her well, and I think she's going to be a star in this sport. I'm so glad she chose us even when she could have been a reserve driver at Renault or Sauber (both offered). She just has such a nice attitude and if you listen to her radio you'll hear that. She's always positive and cheerful, while most other drivers are a bit angrier, or shorter with their answers, or if they drive for Andretti Autosport, moaning.

Tough re-entrance for Servià, but he salvages a top ten in the Telemundo Special. They'll work it out, but they need to get that 06 and James Hinchcliffe back out there. Please!

Charlie Kimball and J.R. Hildebrand disappointed a bit after all the hype about the rookie class, but I have to say, Kimball's class. Being able to monitor his blood-sugar levels on his steering wheel and take insulin during the race is also neat and I'm glad ABC took the time to talk about that because it's a cool story to have a Type I Diabetic who just so happens to be a young, well-spoken American in our sport.

Race control did a good job today, I think. There were some questionable moves throughout, but they avoided penalties, and that's good, because I don't think anything was really worth penalizing today.

Will's day really got ruined by the contact but damn he seems like he's having fun out there. I still think the title is his to lose.

First ever top five by Takuma Sato, and his teammate Kanaan on the podium, is a huge turn-around for KV and deserves a shout-out.

Can't wait until we get to the ovals, though. A lot more excitement then.

Well put, me lad, Eric. Just finished watching the race tonight. Pity about all the first corner collisions, though.

Both Dreyer & Reinbold drivers, Justin Wilson and Ana Beatriz, fractured/broke their wrists in today's race. Tough.

Beatriz is headed back to Indy for evaluation and may miss Barber; Wilson's is a fracture and it appears he'll be fine for Barber (Wilson raced with a broken wrist in Champ Car at Mexico and nearly won until Bourdais punted him late race). I just wonder how it happened as I don't recall Wilson having any real contact with anything.

Ouch. Well they are lucky they have two months till the next race. Why the big wait? I understand the 500 being all of May, but has someone forgot that April exists too?

I saw the first 58 laps or so, it was pretty good, shame there was so many cautions though.

I've seen quite a bit of NASCAR this year too. I've seen a bit of every race they've run so far and in some cases, I've been impressed. Yesterday's finish to the race was rather good.

OMG! A convert?????????

Oh, and, if you liked CART/Champ Car, well, there's this guy, and he puts full races up, and sometimes I watch them while I run on the treadmill...http://tinyurl.com/5rqzecm

Enjoy. He's on year 2000 right now, so I'm still reliving my childhood. Another season and we'll be into stuff I've never seen before. I love CART races, personally, and am glad INDYCAR is headed in that direction, and as as sports broadcasting nerd (something I am not pursuing, but almost did), I enjoy the intros and features and commentary. And the old commercials.

Indy/CART still has the better all over TV package. F1 still has a way to go to even come close on presentation, cameras, in-car info and the like.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Ouch. Well they are lucky they have two months till the next race. Why the big wait? I understand the 500 being all of May, but has someone forgot that April exists too?

The next race is in Birmingham, Alabama on April 10. Long Beach is April 17, and São Paulo is May 1. Only people who forgot about April were the American commentators, Marty Reid and Scott Goodyear, who declared that the next race was the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Evidently, they forgot not only about April, but also every day until the one before Memorial Day 2016.

Tomas Scheckter was the first entry to Indy, by the way, in the #07 REDLINE Xtreme Dallara-Honda for SH Racing/KV Racing. One-shot for Scheckter and Wheldon, then, and both hope to make those rides full-time in 2012. I was dead wrong about the REDLINE team; I thought for sure they wouldn't make it.

[HandyNZL 1]

The next race is in Birmingham, Alabama on April 10. Long Beach is April 17, and São Paulo is May 1. Only people who forgot about April were the American commentators, Marty Reid and Scott Goodyear, who declared that the next race was the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Evidently, they forgot not only about April, but also every day until the one before Memorial Day 2016.

Tomas Scheckter was the first entry to Indy, by the way, in the #07 REDLINE Xtreme Dallara-Honda for SH Racing/KV Racing. One-shot for Scheckter and Wheldon, then, and both hope to make those rides full-time in 2012. I was dead wrong about the REDLINE team; I thought for sure they wouldn't make it.

I was sitting there going, huh? What? Two months off...whaaaa?

Isn't Danica #7? 07 and 7...seems a bit dumb.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Eddie Gossage and Simona de Silvestro get it.

http://espn.go.com/b...rts-get-in-line

“I thought the double-file restarts were fun because it actually gave us a chance to make positions,” she said, confirming IndyCar’s premise. “Last year we would start single-file every time and it would be hard. You would just follow the leader. I think the restarts made it exciting.”

By the way, who got the biggest ovation from the St. Pete crowd after the race? It was de Silvestro for her stirring St. Pete performance with an under-funded team. Her brave moves reminded more of Dale Earnhardt in NASCAR than it did of a driver fearing the double-file restarts. Fans can see this. And they like it. The fan surveys here overwhelmingly demand double-file restarts. IndyCar racing is wise to listen to the fans after ignoring their wishes for the last two decades.

The big-name guys mostly complaining about the restarts (when the big accident was on the actual start, not a restart), and here we have de Silvestro facing it with a positive attitude and an understanding of who the sport needs to cater to (I'll give you a hint, it isn't the drivers) and how to get there. She's dead-on, and I appreciate Eddie Gossage for telling it like it is. I like these restarts and I'm glad Simona's mature enough to handle them while the faces of the silly drivers' union call a three-time Indy 500 champion an "idiot" and blah blah blah.

Randy Bernard's got to get her on the TV shows like he does with Franchitti and Power (who are great faces for the sport, truly; Americans can fall in love with Scots and Aussies and a host of other nationalities, and these two are definitely big personalities and even bigger talents).

[lewisthegreat2 0]

NASCAR has become a lot like Florida. All the criminals seem to disappear, only to be found there.

We took Piquet, and now we're taking Mike Coughlan, as Michael Waltrip Racing (who employ another ex-McLaren man in Steve Hallam) have added him to their staff.

To be serious, I'm all for them having second chances and new careers in NASCAR, and it's a good pick-up by MWR to be honest. Sure, they were the only ones that would hire him, but that's to their benefit and everyone else's loss, I think.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Two races, two great finishes.

[JHS 1]

I watched most of the race yesterday, it was good stuff. The ending was particularly good as you say. Never really been a fan of Earnhardt Jr before, but I thought it would have been cool to see him win. But great drive by Harvick, the deserving winner really.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Glad you enjoyed it. Martinsville is a great track because it really brings out the "old-time" stock car racing. Lot's of rubbing, leaning, some bumping. All the drivers will tell you it's the most physically demanding race on them, even if it's one of the shortest distance wise.

Earnhardt's hard to figure out. I don't want to like him, solely for avoiding being a "Junior fan," but he's just such a class act. He's really quiet about it, and he's so shy and awkward in interviews, so you don't really get much of an idea of how good he is as a man, but he really does the right things. He's had some tough times off the track following the passing of his father, and I'm not going to air his dirty laundry here (most of it can be Googled anyway), but on things that really matter (i.e. not who he's dated in the past), he does it properly.

Earlier in the thread you can find what he did for Jimmy Means' team (a ridiculously small, no-budget team that can't even afford tires) at Daytona when their car got destroyed (steering broke; it's a small team, so the quality of their cars can be pretty low). It's just one example of the things he's done in that regard, and his off-track controversy is no where near as severe as other drivers' (i.e. Tony Stewart), is all meaningless, the validity is dubious, and all of it has reason (after his father passed away, he was the one who needed people to lean on, and yet everyone leaned on him and thrust him into this role as poster-boy for the sport, and made him a superstar, when in reality he was just a quiet, reserved, downright shy kid from North Carolina who just wanted to drive and lead a quiet life, and not have a media presence...they made him be someone he isn't, and he's not coped with that well).

Dissertations on Junior aside, it was a good race, and Kevin Harvick, as you said, deserved it.

To mention another driver (and James, you had to have seen this coming from a mile away)...what does Bobby Labonte have to do to just have a good race?! After Daytona, he's just had **** for luck. His car was set-up for long-runs at Bristol, where he had a solid top ten run, and then they got into a lot of cautions and restarts in the latter half of the race so that just didn't work out well for his car; c'est la vie. Come to Martinsville, easy top ten car, preserving it well for the finish, gets shuffled back on a restart being on the high side and having no gap to come back down...and then...

It's so agonizing to be a Labonte fan sometimes. It's the best ride he's had in six years and they just aren't getting the results they are capable of. One of these weekends...

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Bruno Junqueira confirmed in a second Foyt entry for the 95^th Running of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. The number is 84.

Recall Junqueira nearly lost his career at Indy in 2005 in a crash during the race. The driver largely blamed for the wreck? A.J. Foyt, IV., driving for his grandfather. Looks like there are no hard feelings there. Second year in a row that Junqueira has had an odd connection to his ride; last year, he drove for Alex Tagliani's FAZZT Race Team. Tagliani replaced Junqueira in the 2009 Indy 500 when they were teammates at Conquest; Junqueira qualified for the race, while Tagliani didn't, and Tagliani's sponsor happened to have a bigger check.

Junqueira, of course, is racing in the ALMS for Rocketsports with two other ex-Champ Car guys: Cristiano da Matta and P.J. Jones. One hell of a likable team there, I think.

And Oriol Servià will be at Indy with Newman/Haas; of course, he'll be at every race with Newman/Haas this year. The coincidence? Servià's first stint with Newman/Haas came in 2005, as the replacement driver for Junqueira, finishing second in the points. He rejoined the team in 2009, and again this year.

Junqueira has two top fives and one pole in the 500, as well as a lot of bad luck. He's also never failed to qualify for the race, despite having as few as two practice laps at some points.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

James Hinchcliffe is INDYCAR's next star.

Meet him at his various YouTube channels.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hinchtown

http://www.youtube.com/user/hinchvision

If it rains during practice at Indy (which, by the way, it always does), VERSUS have to stick a camera in front of this guy and have him walk the garage and bring out everyone's personalities in a way that none of the pit reporters really can (I think Jack Arute, annoying as he was, had an ability to do this in that everyone really trusted and respected him; his absence will be felt in that regard).

Pretty good racer, too.

http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/barber_spotter_web.pdf

Spotters' guide/entry list to Barber. Some notes:

26 entries...everyone within 105% will race. The second Conquest car is delayed, then...

Simon Pagenaud fills in for the injured Ana Beatriz in the #24. He's a fine racer; something of a dark horse in this one.

Raphael Matos returns with AFS in the #17 after the great result in St. Petersburg.

Special liveries for: Castroneves, Briscoe, Franchitti, Wilson, Pagenaud, and Conway.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Some NASCAR, now.

I love that livery.

And for the 2013 cars to replace the COT:

2013 Sprint Cup designs moving forward: Development of the proposed new 2013 Sprint Cup Series body styles is progressing on schedule, as the sanctioning body works hand-in-hand with automakers to increase brand identity on the race track. Multiple sources say Chevy, Ford, Dodge and Toyota are expected to submit their final roof and rear deck lid designs in the near future, allowing NASCAR to move forward with the process of creating a unique body for each brand, while maintaining a similar aerodynamic footprint. The current Sprint Cup Series bodies are virtually identical, with the exception of a vinyl graphics package applied to the headlight, grille and rear taillight areas of each car. Beginning in 2013, however, the sanctioning body hopes to have each model be easily identifiable from the front, rear and sides. In an effort to allow manufacturers more design leeway, NASCAR will reportedly cease to distinguish between steel and lexan, allowing manufacturers to contour their NASCAR windshields and side windows identically to those found on their stock, production models. The change would allow teams to do away with the bulky, steel B-pillars required under current NASCAR rules, replacing them with thin "support strips" anchored to larger, lexan side windows. The move will greatly enhance brand identity, something automakers have lobbied hard for in recent years. It could also remove the main stumbling block cited by General Motors executives for not keeping their popular Chevy Camaro out of NASCAR competition. GM has staunchly refused to modify what it calls the "iconic body line" of the Camaro for NASCAR competition. But with new rules in place for the 2013 season, there is a chance the Detroit automaker could reconsider that decision.(Sirius Speedway)(4-6-2011)

I think they're getting there. The COT is providing some brilliant racing this year (if it's good enough for JHS, it's good enough for everyone else I think ), but a little bit of variety really wouldn't hurt. The variety comes from the engines at the moment, which is more than enough from a racing perspective; from a marketing one, however, some prettier, more production-like cars would be cool.

I suspect it will be a bit like the current Nationwide car, which I do like from a design perspective; fortunately, it's not been really good in racing terms. Make something like that, which can actually race the way the current COT does, and we have a winner.

[JHS 1]

Yeah, I've surprised myself really. Since Justin.tv started working for me (why, I have no idea) I've not missed a race. People say NASCAR's contrived, but I can't say I've really seen anything too contrived happen so far, but maybe that's because I'm relatively new to the sport so don't know the complete ins and outs of what goes on.

I've even found myself actually defending NASCAR recently. It seems some race fans thought process only goes as far as Formula One, meanwhile they miss out on great racing because they simply dismiss it as "driving in circles".

Sure, the fans get a bad rap, but really, it's about the racing and the racing has been pretty good from what I've seen so far. I probably won't get to see all the racing this year, but whilst justin.tv continues to work for me, I'll enjoy it whilst I can.

Eric, you already know that I'm glad that Hinchcliffe has got his (much deserved) ride, but I wasn't aware of his "hinchtown" YouTube channel, so thanks for the link. The video of him getting in the dog washing machine was great, can't imagine many other drivers would volunteer to do that even for a favour for their sister!

[lewisthegreat2 0]

I'm glad JTV's working for you and that you can enjoy some different kinds of racing now. If it weren't for JTV, I'd be avoiding the BTCC thread until the reairs in December.

NASCAR's a fun sport, and there's so much respect between NASCAR and F1 (as in the people actually within both sports, especially drivers). The fans will catch on soon enough that you can enjoy both for different reasons.

If you ever for any reason find yourself in the U.S., you (and everyone else reading this) have to go to a stock car race. It's just really, really cool. It combines something of a BTCC down-to-earth feel with the mega-millions of F1. Just a cool experience; for the same reasons I'd urge F1 fans to go to a NASCAR race in person, I'll try to get to Austin if they get that event going and if I get some free time.

[HandyNZL 1]

I'll second the going to a NASCAR race from Eric.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Good weekend so far for Roush-Fenway. Carl Edwards wins the Nationwide race last night, and David Ragan takes the Coors Light Pole Award for the big show.

Also been a good weekend for Ganassi and Penske over in the IZOD INDYCAR Series. Final practice before qualifying was paced by Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal, and Will Power. Charlie Kimball was all the way up in sixth (which I personally enjoy), followed by Hélio Castroneves, Alex Tagliani, Oriol Servià, and J.R. Hildebrand (finally showing something after being p**s-poor in every test and practice session at every track so far).

Takuma Sato has been decent, too, so perhaps he's really putting stuff together. He did a nice interview for SPEEDTV leading up to the weekend. I find it really hard to find drivers I don't like in the sport (and there are some, and a few of them drive for Andretti Autosport). James Hinchcliffe has been respectable all weekend (P11, P9, and P14), so good news for another James on that front. Simona de Silvestro is up to P15 in the last practice, so that team is getting better over the weekend. Sébastien Bourdais continues to be Sébastien Bourmeh (get it?), a miserable P16, followed by the four Andretti cars (Andretti, Hunter-Reay, Patrick, and Conway) crapping the bed seventeenth through twentieth. Simon Pagenaud has really struggled to get to grips with an open-wheel car after years in the slower sports cars and despite being an Atlantics champion and good Champ Car racer. Bit of a disappointment, but the INDYCAR is so different from anything he's driven (it may be a tick slower than the Champ Car on road courses, but it drives totally differently).

Big weekend for Indy Lights, too, as VERSUS kicks off their live coverage of the series this weekend from Barber. Mike King and Willy T. Ribbs are in the booth. VERSUS will also air the IZOD INDYCAR race immediately after, with Bob Jenkins, Wally Dallenbach, and Jon Beekhuis leading a team that includes Lindy Thackston, Marty Snider, Kevin Lee, and Robin Miller for some quality coverage of what should be a good race. They should be streaming somewhere, too.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

http://www.livestream.com/indycar

Pretty cool. Live streaming of a lot of off-track stuff like the press conferences and interviews with drivers etc. Really good insight. The drivers have a lot of fun in their interviews in INDYCAR.

William Power takes another PEAK Performance Pole Award. Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Hélio Castroneves, and Justin Wilson the top five. Oriol Servià looks strong in P6, with Dario Franchitti a surprisingly low seventh on the grid. Rookie James Hinchcliffe is right behind his experienced teammate in eighth, a great run for him. Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal make up the rest of the top ten.

Takuma Sato, Alex Tagliani, Simona de Silvestro, Raphael Matos, and J.R. Hildebrand take positions eleven through fifteen. Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay continue to struggle for Andretti Autosport, P16 and P17 respectively, while E.J. Viso, Vitor Meira, and Sébastien Bourdais fill out the top twenty. Charlie Kimball disappoints in twenty-first, with Danica Patrick back in twenty-second. Simon Pagenaud is twenty-third; alongside will be Tony Kanaan way at the back. James Jakes and Sebastián Saavedra are the final row for tomorrow's Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama from Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

With double-file restarts and Franchitti and Kanaan (among others) starting further back than their cars' potential, this should be a good one. Great to see Newman/Haas in the top ten, too!

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Two years in a row: Bobby Santos breaks the track record (his own) at Thompson to win the Coors Light Pole Award for the Icebreaker! I'm excited.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

INDYCAR racing today! Lights just ended with Víctor García taking a surprising win in a close battle with Stefan Wilson.

You can watch the race LIVE later today right here if TV coverage is not available in your area. Enjoy!

[JHS 1]

Just tuned in now. Hope to see some good stuff.

[JHS 1]

Damn, Hinchcliffe out the race. Shame for his first race.

[JHS 1]

Doubt Viso will be on Hinch's Christmas car list. I wanted him to make a Viso joke!