I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events
1:45 p.m. – Law enforcement appreciation parade laps.
2 p.m. — NTT INDYCAR SERIES Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline driver introductions.
2:19 p.m. – Invocation and national anthem.
2:22 p.m. – Command for drivers to cars.
2:35 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline (260 laps, 325 miles).
After practice, several drivers said they did not notice much difference between the primary and alternate tire. We will see how it plays out in the race.
It appears that Marcus Ericsson will use a backup tub which belongs to one of his teammates.
I will be back with a full day wrap up this evening..
If it’s World Wide Technology Raceway, Josef Newgarden is out front. The Team Penske driver led the delayed practice session this evening as drivers pre[ared for tomorrow’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500.
The one hour practice ran clean until about five minutes remained. Scott McLaughlin spun on the pit exit lane in turn two. Will power went high to avoid him, hit the wall, and collided with Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson will be going to a back up car.
Tomorrow’s schedule has changed because of today’s rain.
Here is Sunday’s schedule, which I will post again in the morning.
6:45 – 7:45 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice (60 minutes) • Hot pit stop practice during the last thirty (30) minutes • Teams must return one (1) set of alternate tires at the conclusion of this session Saturday 8:00 – 8:10 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Group A (10 minutes) • Teams must use WWTR Primary tires 8:15 – 8:25 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Group B (10 minutes) • Teams must use WWTR Primary tires 8:25 – 8:40 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Driver Weigh-in
8:50 pm Green Flag INDY NXT by Firestone OUTFRONT Showdown (75 laps)
10:00 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Garage Close
11:30 pm INDY NXT by Firestone Garage Close
Sunday, August 27
7:00 am NTT INDYCAR SERIES Garage Opens
10:00 – 11:00 am NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifications (60 minutes)
12:00 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Pit Selection All remaining NTT INDYCAR SERIES timing remains
Today’s schedule. Times are Central. All Indycar on track activity and the Indy NXT race are on Peacock today.
Good morning from the greater St. Louis area. Yesterday’s brutal heat is gone. When I arrived late yesterday afternoon, the temperature was a balmy 103 degrees with a heat index of 115. Today will be in the mid 80s and tomorrow will be in the low 80s.
The only concern is scattered showers both days. Saturday looks to be the more iffy day. I will keep you updated as we get more information.
Follow @IndycarWx_man for updates. Yesterday’s prediction was for a possible disruption of Indy NXT qualifying and a delay to Indycar qualifying.
I will limit my time at the track today to qualifying and the NXT race. I feel good, but I an still recovering from surgery. I want to be able to put in a full day tomorrow.
I will have a wrap-up of the day later this evening, and will provide updates from the track when possible.
First, I want to thank all who sent well wishes concerning my surgery earlier this week. I feel fine and will be heading to St. Louis later today and be at the track this weekend.
The race airs Sunday at 3:30 Eastern on NBC and Peacock. Why this race is run in the middle of the day is puzzling. It is a fantastic night race.
The 2023 Indycar season begins it three week run to the end of the year Sunday with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, Missouri. Normally, the final oval race of the year merely serves to set up the championship showdown over the next two weekends.
But for 2023, there is a lot to watch on the 1.25 mile oval. Since Indycar returned to the track formerly known as Gateway in 2017, Team Penske has dominated. Josef Newgarden has won four times and Will Power has one win.
A new twist to the race this weekend is the first use of an alternate tire which the teams must use for at least two laps during the race. Indycar is allotting just two sets of the alternate rubber to each team, and they must use a new set in the race. The other set will see action in the morning practice Saturday. Unlike road and street course procedures, teams may not qualify on the alternate tires, and all teams will start the race on a primary set. I think this will set up some intriguing strategies, depending on when yellows fall and later in the race.
Another possibility for the race is that the alternates may make this race less of a fuel saving run, which it has been the last couple of years. Some teams may need to make an extra stop depending on how the caution flags fall.
I’m hoping Indycar plans to expand this concept to other ovals, other than the Indianapolis 500 for now.
Josef Newgarden at Texas
Newgarden Oval Sweep?
Josef Newgarden has a chance to sweep all of the 2023 oval races Sunday. The Indianapolis 500 winner has won at Texas and both races at Iowa. he has won this race four times. Newgarden has to be considered the favorite entering the weekend. He needs the win to keep his very slim championship hopes alive. He lost a lot of ground in the title chase at the IMS road course two weeks ago.
Alex Palou after winning the pole at Detroit
Can Palou Clinch?
Alex Palou can clinch his second Indycar series championship by leaving Gateway with a lead of 108 points over either Scott Dixon or Newgarden. ovals are not Palou’s strong suit, but he doesn’t necessarily have to win. He did earn a podium in the second race at Iowa. If Palou wraps up the title, it will be the earliest the championship has wrapped up since Dan Wheldon clinched in 2005.
Linus Lundqvist
Lundqvist Oval Debut
Linus Lundqvist will again fill in for Simon Pagenaud in the Meyer Shank Racing number 60. The race will be the Swede’s first Indycar event on an oval. Lundqvist has impressed in his first two races for Meyer Shank, and he is rumored to have a ride with Chip Ganassi Racing for 2024.
One has to wonder, though, if we have seen the last of Simon Pagenaud in Indycar. WWTR will be the eighth straight race he has missed in a contract year. I enjoy watching Pagenaud race, and I hope he has at least a 500 ride for 2024, but it is something to watch going into the offseason.
Could this also be the final Indycar race for Takuma Sato as well? Sato drove the five oval races for Chip Ganassi Racing this season, and I have not heard of any prospects for him for next year. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner will surely be back for May. He is a former winner of this event.
David Malukas had his best race of 2022 at Weather Tech Raceway, finishing second to Josef Newgarden. He is excited to return to the track and expects another good result.
“Things are looking up for Gateway, but it’s also a little bit of pressure being put down because it was a really good performance last year, so you have to come in and try to replicate it,” the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD said in a media conference yesterday. “Either way, though, I’m very excited. I think we have a good opportunity to do something.”
Malukas also touched on his 2024 plans, saying the Marcus Ericsson signing with Andretti earlier in the day does not affect his plans at all. He is very confident of where he will be next season, although he gave no hints.
Much of the discussion centered around the introduction of an alternate tire for the race, the first time Indycar will use an alternate tire on an oval. Malukas thinks it is a good idea and will add to the race.
“…overall I think it’s going to be good just to add kind of more flavor to the racing with the strategy with different tires. But I don’t really know how it’s going to be. I don’t know if the dropoff is going to be massive, but you would expect it to be a little bit more than the primaries. Overall, I don’t know, I think it’s going to be a good addition, I think, just more chaos in the race.”
I asked him if he would like to see alternate tires at all the ovals. ” Yeah, I mean, I think it really depends on how it’s going to end up — how the race is going to go. That’s going to be a really good question for afterwards. Just going into it, not knowing how it’s going to be, I don’t know how it wouldn’t be a good thing. It’s going to add more variety to the strategy and more opportunities for everybody within the field to get an opportunity to try to make the jump and be in the front by the end of it. As of right now, I think it should be, and I think it would be a really good addition. But then again, who knows. Maybe it will affect things in the wrong way and it won’t be a good result, but I think it will be.” Malukas also thinks the different tire strategy could possibly make this particular race less of a fuel saving race, whuich the last couple of Gateway races have turned into. ” Yeah. I mean, quite possibly, yeah. It really just depends on how long the alternates will be able to last. If they have a massive dropoff, then most likely, yeah, you probably don’t need to do a fuel save, if everybody need to do that extra stop. But yeah, I don’t know. It’s something to see or if it’s going to add more variety if the tires do start trying to fall off quicker, then are people going to try to stay out and maybe try to make them last and have a bigger differential from people on new tires and old tires and then have an experience where it’s a bit like Iowa where the lap-per-lap distance is actually a few seconds quicker. I don’t know. It’s something that we’ll add — maybe it’ll add more of that possibility of not being a fuel-save race.”
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 is Sunday at 3:30 pm Eastern on NBC and Peacock.
INDIANAPOLIS (Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023) – Mickey Rupp, who started the 1965 Indianapolis 500 but gained even more acclaim as a recreational vehicle and sport fishing equipment entrepreneur, died Aug. 20. He was 87. Rupp, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, qualified 15th and finished sixth in the No. 81 G.C. Murphy Gerhardt/Offy rear-engine car in 1965. He passed his rookie test in a front-engine Chapman Special Offy roadster that year before moving to the rear-engine car for practice, qualifying and the race. That sixth-place performance would have earned Rookie of the Year honors in many editions of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” but the 1965 rookie class was arguably the strongest in “500” history. Mario Andretti finished third and Gordon Johncock fifth ahead of Rupp. Future “500” legend Al Unser and future Indy pole winner and USAC national champion Joe Leonard were among the eight other rookies in the field that year who finished behind Rupp. Rupp’s INDYCAR SERIES driving career was quite short, with just five starts overall in 1964 and 1965. But he finished in the top 10 in three of those five races, with a best result of fifth at Milwaukee a week after he finished sixth at Indianapolis.His commitment and responsibilities to his growing recreational vehicle empire pulled Rupp from the driver’s seat. Rupp started building kart kits in his basement in the late 1950s and then began manufacturing his designs that included such innovations as step frames, improved braking systems and eventually four-wheel independent suspension. His Dart Karts immediately became very popular and were produced through the late 1960s, and his brother-in-law – legendary Indianapolis 500 chassis designer A.J. Watson – appeared in a magazine ad for the 1959 Dart Kart.His company, Rupp Manufacturing (which was renamed Rupp Industries), also produced popular mini-bikes, snowmobiles and off-road vehicles distinguishable by their performance and bright red color schemes.Dart Kart also gained marketplace recognition due to racing sponsorships in the early 1960s, including a USAC sprint car owned by Watson and driven by A.J. Foyt in 1960 and the car that Don Davis drove in the 1961 Indianapolis 500.Rupp Manufacturing reached new heights in 1963 and 1964 when its karts and minibikes were supplied to Sears, which successfully sold them through the company’s widely circulated Sears Catalog.Rupp sold Rupp Industries in the late 1970s and turned his design and entrepreneurial skills to the water. An avid sport fisherman, Rupp designed and manufactured an outrigger system that also gained rapid popularity.Rupp Marine Inc. was formed in 1980 as demand grew for Rupp’s outrigger designs, and the company still produces sport fishing hardware sold globally from its base in Stuart, Florida.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 