Tag: NBC

Hunter-Reay Quickest in Practice 1

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Ryan Hunter-Reay led the first practice for the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America this morning. The first session for the NTT Indycar Series was dominated by Honda cars with six drivers in the top ten. The three Chevy machiunes from Team Penske were all n the top along with Spencer Pigot of Ed Carpenter racing. Will Power was the fastest Chevy in fourth.

The top 5- Hunter-Reay 1:43.755; Takuma Sato 1:43.824; Scott Dixon 1:43.984; Power 1:444.039; and Newgarden 1:44.070. Alexander Rossi was sixth, still behind Newgarden.

The practice was stopped twice for incidents involving Jack Harvey. The second issue saw Harvey miss turn 12 and slide into the runoff area on the driver’s left. Harvey is okay.

I spent some time during practice exploring various parts of the back part of the track from turns 13 and working down the backstretch to turns 10 and 11. The speed the cars have heading to Canada Corner is amazing.  I drove back to the front stretch through the campgrounds. This track never ceases to amaze me with the skill set a driver needs to do a lap here.

Graham Rahal’s car sure looks Bobby’s MGD car when at speed. Very cool to see that look again.

Welcome to Road America

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Just arrived at Road America. Today looks like the best day weather wise. There are chances of rain both tomorrow and Sunday. Sunday’s rain may affect the race.

Today’s Indycar schedule:

Practice 1  12:05 ET

Practice 2   4:00  ET

Pit Stop Practice  5:00 ET

All sessions are on NBC Gold.

 

Remember to set your DVR for Sunday to NBC. If you have the series set to record on NBCSN, it will not transfer over. Back with an update after Practice 1..

Road America Preview- A Crucial Weekend for Title Contenders

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Above: Spencer Pigot exits turn 5 at Road America

It’s the time of year when every point gained or lost becomes magnified. With 8 races left, points have more value every week. The NTT Indycar Series returns to action this weekend at the most beautiful track in the United States, Road America. The 14 turn, 4. 048  mile track has uphills, downhills, tight corners, and sweeping curves.

Road America returned to the Indycar schedule in 2016 after an absence of nine years.  the event has been a great success, with huge crowds. Just four active drivers have won here- Sebastien Bourdais (2007), Will Power, Scott Dixon, and Josef Newgarden.

This weekend is crucial for the drivers chasing Josef Newgarden in the points. Alexander Rossi trails by just 25 points.  A win would be ideal for him, but just finishing ahead of Newgarden will help. Simon Pagenaud in third place needs to improve on what has been a consistent showing around sixth or  seventh place the last few races to stay in contention. Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato could definitely use a better showing than they had at Texas. The fourth and fifth place drivers are on the verge of dropping too far behind to catch up.

I’m looking at five things to watch for this weekend.

Rossi Needs a Win

Rossi’s best hope of catching Newgarden is to start winning races. Newgarden has won three times this year while Rossi has just one victory. If Rossi can win twice more and Newgarden doesn’t win again, Rossi with three second places would hold the second place tie breaker if they are tied in points.

Rossi’s only win in 2019 was at Long Beach. He has never finished better than 13th at Road America. This could be the year he breaks through. Rossi finished fifth at Barber and ninth at COTA  in the two natural road courses to date.

Will RLL Have Another Strong Road Course Weekend?

Rhal Letterman Lanigan drivers Sato and Graham Rahal were dominant at Barber. Sato and Rahal both started on the front row with Sato winning from the pole. Rahal finished 23rd, fighting a throttle issue all day and stopping on track near the end of the race.

Rahal has had three straight top tens, topped with a third place at Texas. Sato won the pole at Texas but finished three laps down after a pit incident on his first stop. If they duplicate their Barber performance, we could see some pints taken from the front runners.

More Newgarden/Cindric Strategy Magic?

At Barber, Detroit Dual 1, and Texas, team strategist Tim Cindric and Newgarden made the correct calls on tire choices and pit stop timing. Each time they got to the front and stayed there. They may have another chance this weekend as there is a chance for rain during the race on Sunday.

They may not need too much strategy, though. Newgarden won last year from the pole. He led 53 of the 55 laps, holding off Ryan Hunter-Reay for the victory. More teams need to watch what they do and follow them into the pits. It seems to be working.

Is This Finally the Herta Comeback Week?

This is becoming a traditional race week question. Colton herta had a brilliant drive at Texas go for naught when he collided with Scott Dixon on lap 228. Herta finished 18th. he had been on his way to a podium finish.

After four straight last or next to last finishes, Herta was 12th in each Detroit race. The winner of this year’s inaugural race at COTA is back on the type of track where he can succeed. Despite the poor finishes, Herta is just three points behind Santino Ferrucci in the rookie standings.  Ferrucci has complete all but two laps this season and has been consistently in the top ten lately.

Time for Dixon’s Run?

It’s getting late for Scott Dixon. Dixon has one win just as he had coming into road America last year. What he also has on this year’s resume is two DNFs for crashes, two more than last year.  Dixon led the standings coming into Elkhart Lake last year, but finds himself 89 points behind the leader in fourth place.  Dixon has been further behind later in a season than this, but it feels like time is growing short for him to make a run. I’m afraid his record of never winning back to back titles will stay intact.

The Wrong Answer

My pick for the win is Ryan Hunter-Reay. He finished second in 2018 after a good battle with Newgarden. Hunter-Reay has been just average so far in 2019, but this was the race that began a strong second half run last year that resulted in two victories.

 

Reminder- The race is on NBC this Sunday beginning at noon ET. Green flag is approximately 12:43 ET.

Logo Logic?

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If you liked the logo for this year’s Indianapolis 500, you’re in luck. You’ll get to see nearly the same design for several more years. For 2020, a checkered flag pattern replaces the bricks (above photo). I assume this background element will change some each year. I though this year’s logo was the best one since the 100th running logo in 2016.  The idea is to create a consistent branding.

I didn’t have a problem with a different logo every year. I thought a new logo said, “This is a brand new race in a new year.” Repeating the same basic logo with a slight variation is similar to what the NFL and NCAA do with the Super Bowl and the NCAA basketball tournament. At least next year won’t be the CIV Running of the Indianapolis 500. Their event logos have become stale and generic. The NCAA has even mandated the same basketball  floor for every site. You have to really look carefully to find the location of a game if you don’t know where it is being played. I hope IMS isn’t head that way.

The bricks are unique to the Speedway. Why that was the part that changed is puzzling.  Every race has a checkered flag.  I think part of the background should retain the bricks in some fashion.

Some logos have been great and some have been clunkers. The 2017 and 2018 were rather bland following the great one in 2016. The Centennial logos from 2009-2011 I like a lot, but they too were followed by just okay badges in 2012 and 2013.

I do like the badge-like center of the design, which we saw in 2007 and 2009.  I think of all the 21st century logos from the chart below, my favorites are from 2019, 2016 2011, and 2014.    The chart is from an article from 2018 on sportslogos.net.

The different logos also help me select the program I need when I’m researching something. Now I’ll need to actually find the year on the program. I wonder if there will be a different logo in 2026 for the 110th running of the 500. That will be another milestone race deserving of special recognition.

In the end, I don’t go to the track or the race because of the logo, but it is nice to distinguish each race by its unique logo. I’ve been to 53 races now, and I really can’t pick  any two that were exactly alike.

 

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More Mid Season Thoughts- Disappointments

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Photo:Have we seen the last of Pato O’Ward in Indycar?

There are parts of every season that just don’t come together as some had hoped. Sometimes fans think a team or driver will have a better year than the previous one, but things don’t always work out that way.  Here are four drivers and/or teams, in no particular order,  I feel have not been as strong as I expected.

Zach Veach

Maybe I was expecting too much at once. Veach, in his second year at Andretti Autosport, has actually improved his average  qualifying position through Texas to a 15.4 from 17.2 in 2018. His finishing average has dropped just a bit, to 15.7 from last season’s 15.2 at this point. He is 19th in points this year. At this point last year, Veach sat 15th.

Since he did better in 2018 at tracks where he had tested, I thought Veach would have a better year since he had seen every track after 2018.  I hope he has a strong second half of the season.

The Disappearance of Pato O’Ward

Pato O’Ward was one of the rookies I was most looking forward to watching drive this season. Before the first race, the 2018 Indy Lights champion losthis full season ride with Harding Steinbrenner Racing. After missing St. Pete, O’Ward and Carlin racing announced a 12 race package, including the Indianapolis 500 and essentially covering the races Charlie Kimball wasn’t running.

O’Ward participated in every race beginning at COTA. He did not qualify for the 500 after a crash early in the week. Indianapolis took the remainder of O’Ward’s Indycar budget. . During May Red Bull signed O’Ward to their junior program, giving him a chance to be a Formula 1 test driver for Toro Rosso. Carlin later announced he would not drive at Gateway or Iowa.

We likely won’t see O’Ward the rest of the season and he probably will drive in Europe next year. It’s a shame that Indycar will miss out on seeing him race. O’Ward would have added even more excitement to an already stellar rookie class.

A. J. Foyt Racing

Like Charlie Brown attempting to kick the football, I keep thinking this team will show improvement when the new season begins. Like Charlie Brown, my hopes fade quickly. Outside of Matheus Leist’s 4th at the Indycar Grand Prix and Tony Kanaan’s 9th at the Indianapolis 500, the results aren’t there again. Kqanaan is 17th in points and Leist is 20th.

The drivers are in their second season with the team which should have resulted in some progress from 2018. In an interview before last Saturday night’s ace at Texas, A. J. said he was not happy with how things were going and said some changes will be coming.

It is painful to see one of the greatest names in racing struggle annually. I hope they can get back to at least being competitive.

The Pits

It seems as if there is more going on in the pits than on the track this year.  Through nine races, there have been 37 penalties assessed for pit infractions. There were twelve in the 500 alone. In 2018 35 pit infractions had been called by this point. In 2019, however, we have seen several cars spin in the pits. Takuma Sato’s violent pit incident Saturday was the worst of the year to date.

I’m not sure what can be done to lower the number of pit incidents.  The cars can’t reasonably enter the pits any slower than they do now and still have a chance in the race. I’d rather see action on the track than in pit lane.

Overall, it’s been a good season. I’m excited to see how the second half plays out.

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Programming note: Motor Trend TV will show the entire LeMans 24 hour race this weekend.  They are also showing qualifying on the Motor trend app. Tv coverage begins at 8 am EDT Saturday.

Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais will drive for Chip Ganassi’s Ford GTE-Pro team. This, sadly, is the last LeMan races for these beautiful cars. Ford ends its GT program at the end of the season.

 

 

 

Indycar at Mid Season Part 1- Surprises

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The mid point of the NTT Indycar Series always seems to arrive too quickly. Wasn’t St. Pete just two weeks ago?   The crews and teams have a welcome break, which became even better for them as Wednesday’s scheduled test at Road America has already been cancelled for now due to weather. I don’t know why the test wasn’t scheduled for the Wednesday of race week.

As with every season, 2019 has had  some surprises and disappointments along with the predictability of the Big Three winning most of the time.. The top four in points are separated by just 89 points. All four have won at least one race.  Josef Newgarden leads Alexander Rossi by 25 points. I don’t think this fight is over by any means. Today I’ll talk about the surprises of the first half of 2019. Tomorrow I’ll discuss the first half disappointments.

Surprises- Rookies, Missing Names from Win Column

Will Power-

The biggest surprise of the season is that Power has not won a race yet. He has two third place finishes, one at St. Pete and last week at the second Detroit race, three other top ten finishes and is sixth in points.  Last place at COTA and an 18th place finish at Detroit in race one have hurt his standing. I expect him to win a race or two the second half of the season.

Keeping it Close-

Each of the top four drivers- Newgarden, Rossi, Simon Pagenaud, and Scott Dixon-have at least one finish below 15th place.  Last season  in Dixon’s march to the title he had a worst finish of twelfth. Newgarden’s three victories are allowing him to keep the lead.  Team Penske drivers generally have a tendency to fade the second half of the year. Juan Pablo Montoya in 2015 let a comfortable lead slip away and lost the championship to Dixon. Helio Castroneves lost a couple titles late in the season. Newgarden in 2017  and Pagenaud in 2016, however, won their titles with consistent runs and were strong throughout their title years.

Santino Ferrucci-

Where did this guy come from? He was nearly invisible at the beginning of the year, but has shown consistency of late with four top tens in the last five races. he has five top tens this year, including a career best fourth at Texas Saturday night. The Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year now leads the rookie standings by 12 points over Felix Rosenqvist.  Ferrucci has driven extremely well on the two ovals. There are three ovals in the second half of the season.

The Other Rookies-

Felix Rosenqvist

Rosenqvist got off to a great start at St. Pete where he led laps and finished fourth. He then won the pole for the Indycar GP at IMS. Rosenqvist has five top tens and two top fives. His two DNFs and 23rd place finish at COTA have put him behind Ferrucci.

Colton Herta

If Herta finished every race Rookie of the Year would not even be close. Four straight DNFs followed his win at COTA. The issues were mechanical. Saturday at Texas he was in a position for at least a podium when he and Dixon collided with less than 20 laps to go.  If Herta drives like he did for most of the race at Texas in the second half of 2019, he could win again or see the podium a couple of times.

Marcus Ericsson

Ericsson’s second at Detroit has been the highlight of a season filled with lots of frustration.  He has just three top tens,but two have come in the last two races. Ericsson has had some good days ruined by mistakes. He still could have a decent season.

Other Surprises

Alexander Rossi

The surprise is that Rossi has won just once this year. His car just doesn’t seem to have enough to get to first.  Rossi showed frustration after Texas, his third runner-up finish of the year. He is having a great year, but I expected just a bit more. I still think his consistency will get him to the top. Rossi  also has two race/season saving moves this season. He was able to keep his car going in Detroit last Sunday after the collision between Newgarden and James Hinchcliffe. Saturday night he narrowly avoided the spinning car of Herta on the apron.

Takuma Sato

I saved the biggest surprise for last. Sato is driving better than he ever has this season. Two poles and a victory have Sato in fifth place in the standings. He has been on the podium three times, including at the Indianapolis 500 where he cam from way back. Sato’s only mistake this season came Saturday at Texas when he came into the pits too fast and hit a crewman. His stop and go penalty left him three laps down and in fifteenth place.  Sato will be a factor in the title fight all season.

Tomorrow- Disappointments

 

Quick Thoughts- DXC Technology 600k

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That turned out to be a fun race at the end. It was a pretty tame race for Texas.

Josef Newgarden has three wins already this season. No one had more than three wins in 2018.  This puts Newgarden in a great position to win a tiebreaker, although should  Alexander Rossi tie him in wins, Rossi has three second places to date.

If Newgarden wins the championship, Tim Cindric should get a big share of the credit. Another brilliant call to pit on the first yellow worked out and brought the car home first. All three of Newgarden’s wins this year can attributed to pit/tire calls by Cindric.

Rossi had a great save to avoid the Herta-Dixon crash. It likely saved his title hopes.

The high line never came in tonight as it usually does. Rossi lost one of his strengths without that second groove.

Graham Rahal had a quiet race, but ends up third.  Glad to see him finally have a good result in what has been a frustrating season for his team.

Remember when crew members wore short sleeves and no helmets? A serious injury or worse didn’t happen on pit lane tonight because of the mandated safety equipment for crew members. That was a scary crash in Sato’s pit. Glad to see the crewman was okay.

Dixon has made race ending mistakes two straight weekends.

It’s a shame that James Hinchcliffe  crashed. He had the drive of the race going until then.

Colton Herta also had a great run going.   He made some incredible moves. A shame his day ended the way it did.

What can we say about Santino Ferrucci? His fourth place tonight  at Texas gives him  three top tens in the last four races. Ferrucci is now leading the Rookie of the Year standings. He has done this rather quietly.  Ferrucci has improved every week.

Zach Veach continues his disappointing season.

Look for my full race report on Wildfire Sports tomorrow.  Next week I take a look at the season at the halfway point.

 

Quick Thoughts- Texas Qualifying

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Photo; Takuma Sato at Indianapolis last month

Note: The  comments above the break were written in real time during qualifying.

Tony Kanaan’s miserable year continues. He brushed the wall on his qualifying lap.

Great first lap by Marco then he looked like he was back on slicks at Detroit last Saturday.

After Spencer Pigot’s run I thought Ed Carpenter would do better.

Takuma Sato with another great qualifying run.

Disappointing run fir Alexander Rossi.

That is the worst Team Penske qualifying effort I’ve seen in a while.

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Anyone who says they knew before the season started that Sato would have two poles is lying. I have said he will be in this title fight all season. Sato is third in bonus points with 7, behind Rossi and Newgarden.

Sato now has 9 career poles.  Ryan Hunter-Reay and  Josef Newgarden each  have 7.

The race will he interesting with Rossi and Will Power starting mid pack.  Keep your on starting spots 8-15 the first stint tomorrow.

I wonder if the Penske cars have better race cars than qualifying cars.

The tire question will be huge tomorrow night, especially late in the race.

Marco can’t catch a break, even with a really good car.

The unofficial results:

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Back tomorrow with Quick Thoughts after the race and a full report Sunday on Wildfire Sports.