Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II (Montreal, Turkey, IRL to RACE Daytona?!?)

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Ah, screw you. I intentionally D_B'd myself because there's no Official SportsJournalists.com Open-Wheel/Stock-Car Driver Potential Crossover Discussion Thread.

But you're welcome to start one ... Montoya, maybe Danica --- we may need one soonish.

And when they have engines in them, they aren't actually much faster than that.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Fair enough, I think it's a bargaining ploy from Danica's camp.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Nashville tonight ...

*-Danica Patrick has her best race of the season, finishes fourth with a car that hasn't been anywhere near the Top 10 all year. Fuel strategy helped her get up front, but she managed to stay there, challenge for third after a late restart and hold off Castroneves for fourth. During the post-race, she was asked by one of the radio guys "who needs NASCAR?" ... and she sounded *really* uncomfortable ("uh, yeah, we're here to win.")
*-Vitor Meira finally has something resembling sponsorship, but the company is about as well-known as Rachel's Potato Chips. Vitor was again up front tonight, finishing third (or better) for the fourth time in five races. With an underfunded team that wasn't even going to run six months ago, this might be the best story in motorsports (it would be better if he would actually *win* a race). He finished third tonight, and was faster than Dixon, but a late bobble cost him second place to Wheldon.
*-Dixon gets his first oval win since '04, thanks in large part to fuel strategy.
*-Tonight was Ganassi's first 1-2 finish since joining the IRL.
*-Jeff Bucknum replaces Felipe Giaffone in A.J. Foyt's car. No real impact -- A.J.'s team is still rabidly uncompetitive.
*-Eddie Cheever done. Car count down to 18 -- an all-time low for the IRL. With CCWS only running 17-18 cars, this is getting dangerously low for both sides.
*-Hornish gets in the marbles while trying to pass Meira and wrecks in Turn 2. He holds onto the points lead, but is only five ahead of Dixon, six ahead of Castroneves and 16 ahead of Wheldon.

Next up, Milwaukee -- which has been a late-July race of late, but will likely move to the week after Indy (its traditional date, with CCWS abandoning its one remaining oval) -- next year.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

I still think Cheever was running in the IRL only because Tony George begged him to so he could have a "full" field at Indy. Cheever couldn't find a sponsor for his IRL efforts, but Crown Royal ponied up serious money for him to start a Grand Am prototype team.

And if you want to see low car count, turn on the tape-delay of the American Le Mans Series race in Utah (showing on CBS now, race ran yesterday). In four classes they managed just 22 cars total, and only one of those classes had more than six cars (the GT2 class, dominated by race-spec Porsche 911s). Six cars in the top prototype class (season-high car count for P1), three in the other prototype class and four in the top production class (two Corvettes and two Aston-Martins).

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Agreed on Cheever ...

And while flipping around the TV today, came upon the ALMS race. I couldn't believe there were four cars in one class, to the point where ex-IRL driver Tomas Enge (the only name in the field I recognized, besides Brabham) took a long pit stop and never lost the lead. That might be changing ... AGR and Fernandez are both fielding ALMS cars next year, according to today's Indy Star. Most of the cars seemed sponsored, which the IRL/CCWS teams seem to have problems doing. The other thing I kept wondering was -- were there any fans there? I didn't see a single stand at the Utah track.
--
Also out today from the Indy Star ...

AGR plans to run four cars again next year. While Kanaan & Marco are under contract, Herta & Franchitti are on one-year deals. One, or both, could end up in ALMS (could it open the door for Michael to put himself in one car and Danica in the other?)

Delphi, despite being in all kinds of fiancial difficulties, is going to sponsor Scott Sharp again next year.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

There were some fans there (Larry Miller didn't exactly go out of his way with the grandstands there.)

Overall, Grand Am seems the stronger of the two sports car series.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

I'm shocked that a bankruptcy judge is allowing Delphi to sponsor a race car when it's bleeding cash and sacrificing its workers. There can't be much, if any, cash in that deal.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Since the Danica thread where we dissed Ed Carpenter isn't available, let's do it here. ;D

As noted previously, Carpenter wouldn't have a ride without his stepfather and he proved it again today. WTF was he thinking? ???

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Helping an American gain some serious points toward the series title instead of letting those durned Brazilians get close? (wait, the NASCAR-ites coming to town in 2 weeks has clouded my thinking).

That was, um, a really bad piece of driving by Carpenter that managed to really screw up Helio's chances of winning the championship and give Hornish a big cushion.

Interesting that both the 3rd and 4th place finishers at Milwaukee came back from a lap down. Scheckter and Patrick both had some nice runs ... with two straight fourth-place finishes, RLR (at least with Danica) seems to be getting it together. Heck, even Jeff Simmons has managed to *finish* a couple of races in a row. WTF has happened to Buddy Rice since winning Indy? He's fallen off the face of the earth. Odd standings yesterday ... Nice drive by TK to win *big*. AGR finally had a good day, with Marco in the top five and Dario/Herta right behind him. Vision had its best finish ever (if Scheckter can keep the car in one piece and get to the checkers, he can be pretty good). Unfortunately, Vitor Meira finally had a bad day, but it looks like he'll have something on his sidepods for the rest of the year.

Danica to AGR is all but confirmed by just about everybody. Herta going to the ALMS opens up the No. 7 car for her, and Tony Kanaan said last night that he basically considers her a teammate now.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

Rain at Michigan meant those who follow either series likely clicked over to watch San Jose's Champ Car race. They saw Paul Tracy miss a turn (he blamed brakes), then pull in front of Alex Tagliani and chop the front of Tag's car off. Tag caught up with Tracy in pit lane and a shoving match turned into a fistfight, at which point the CC-controlled cameras switched to a pit stop. Tracy, who said he told Tag he was sorry, ended up with a cut forehead. Tag was wise enough to keep his helmet on.
Sebastian Bourdais the winner in SJ.
Almost ready to go at MIS as of this second. Amounts to a TV doubleheader if ABC sticks with it.

 

Re: Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II

While Derek Daly had to keep reminding us, that move by Tracy was uber-stupid.

After the CCWS broadcast cut away, Tracy came back with a rather noticeable gash, which means Tags probably gave him quite a shove. CCWS would've been smart to leave the cameras on ... would've give them some much-needed exposure. Most street parades really, really blow, but that SJ track (even without the jumping circus over the railroad track) seems to be even more ill-conceived than the usual street course. The only place I saw an on-track pass all day was the hairpin, where guys were outbraking each other at 30 mph.

ABC just announced they're cutting away from the IRL broadcast at 6 p.m., and don't have any plans to show the Michigan race on ESPN or ESPN2 (which both have live programming tonight) or even ESPNNews (giving updates, instead of switching live coverage over as is usually done when something overruns its time slot).

WTF? They own something like 7 freaking channels and can't find *one* to shove the race broadcast onto? Michigan, usually, is the best race of the year, too. Crap. Instead of watching a pretty good race -- which I've been looking forward to all weekend -- I get to spend the early evening with Mike King.