If we don't already have a thread, anyway.
St Pete is an entertaining, but frustrating race. Such crash. So carnage.
Plus, we have a new best name for a race car driver. Sting Ray Robb. I gotta cheer for him, like I always did for Lake Speed and Buckshot Jones.
I went to the 2022 Indy 500 and had a great time. I might go every other year as it's a big effort to get their and back home.
IMS ticket office noticed I didn't renew my tickets and called my home answering machine to see if they help get me tickets and get me to come. I was kind of impressed.
I feel bad for Grosjean, at least Scotty apologized and took full blame for the contact. But - this shows who the real racers are, they were both going for the win, rather than strategizing. Grosjean know his best chances were before McLaugnlan's tires warmed up, and Scott felt he had to defend right now and he understeered. Sometimes E36M3 happens, still a shame it had to end that way, it would have been a great win for either driver. It's easy for fans to second guess after the fact, and after slow-mo replays, but when you consider the milliseconds that both driver have to make their decisions, it's understandable. Still sucks, but understandable.
A day that started off very promising for Andretti turned into a E36 M3show for them. I'm inclined to think that Scotty Mac/RoGro was about a 50/50 deal. Then again, I thought Will Power's penalty was BS. Colton needs to know who he's trying to pass on the outside, and Will's not going to give an inch. Especially in a spot that tight.
Kudos to Ericsson for surviving the carnage and being in the right place at the end. Very Dixon-esque.
I was reassembling the motor in the F500 but caught the last.little bit and yeah carange. Good racing though.
In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, Grosjean didn't complete a safe pass as the overtaking car, and turned in as if he were completely clear of McLaughlin. Scotty still had overlap and had nowhere to go, except to try to brake a little harder. He was already on the limit on cold tires, and locked them up as a result.
I feel bad for O'Ward, he was speechless and gutted. That DeFranchesco crash was horrible and then Kirkwood jump over, lucky there is only mainly pain and not serious injury that occurred.
racerfink said:
In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, Grosjean didn't complete a safe pass as the overtaking car, and turned in as if he were completely clear of McLaughlin. Scotty still had overlap and had nowhere to go, except to try to brake a little harder. He was already on the limit on cold tires, and locked them up as a result.
Being already on the limit on cold tires and locking them up sure does put most of the blame on him. You gotta leave room for the guy beside, and slightly ahead of you.
STM317
PowerDork
3/6/23 12:32 p.m.
In reply to STM317 :
Yes. That could have been much, much worse. Thank God and good engineering that Ben Pedersen still has his brains and DeFranceso still has his legs.
I was afraid this year would be Penske vs. Ganassi again, but after yesterday, Arrow-McLaren also looks like a championship contender and so does Andretti if their guys can stay out of trouble. Throw in wildcards like Meyer-Shank and Juncos Hollinger (Callum Ilott: most underrated driver in IndyCar) and it should be a great and entertaining year.
STM317 said:
Aeroscreen getting some justification:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1632732483732090882
I don't see how anyone can argue that it (or F1's halo) is not 100% justified. My only issue is with how long it took to implement it. And whenever they get around to designing a new car from the ground up, it should be even better because they can integrate it from the start.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
The driver making the pass has to make it cleanly, not turn in like he's clear of the car inside when he is clearly not.
In any case, it was an entertaining race. Too bad we have to wait almost a full month for the next one.
In reply to racerfink :
Grosjean left all sorts of room to the inside...
If Grosjean was at fault, why did Scott McLaughlin apologize to him? Grosjean: McLaughlin apology ‘means everything’ - Speedcafe
IndyCar is one of the best race series on the planet, but often at street circuits the extremely competitive and close racing throughout the field can make for crash-fests.
RacerBoy75 said:
If Grosjean was at fault, why did Scott McLaughlin apologize to him? Grosjean: McLaughlin apology ‘means everything’ - Speedcafe
IndyCar is one of the best race series on the planet, but often at street circuits the extremely competitive and close racing throughout the field can make for crash-fests.
Because that's the type of class human Scott is. Don't think that Scott is going to back down if he's put in a similar situation again.
I'm nervous for all the oval races, based on speed and safety.
This Texas race has been spectacularly fast. Was clean for a long while, but cautions breed cautions. 15 to go now, tire strategy to the front, lapped cars... O'ward is stupid fast, but there's better tires behind. At one point, he had lapped P3...
No way that wasn't ending with a crash, but it was spectacular.
Edited for double negative.
It's on TV? I can't find the race.
In reply to alfadriver :
It was on NBC, now you can watch golf.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
I thought I changed to it in time, and just saw golf. Oh, well. Didn't even know it was on. Indycar has some issues- I still have not seen them this season, and maybe only saw one or two races last season. I used to try to see all of the races, but as the NBC contract has developed- the racing was kind of at random times on random channels.
In contrast, finding NBC's old sport, the NHL, has been really easy- both on TNT and ESPN, the games are at consistent times each week, and B2B games are regular enough to pick up.
Oh, well.
In reply to alfadriver :
The start time was way nuts early. I guessvthey didn't want to be up against Nascar, or golf had precedence, but they started 10:00 my time, and I'm pretty much straight north of them.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I believe the early start time was to avoid potential weather approaching later on.
The last 50 laps of that race was some of the best racing you're going to see anywhere, in any series.