Racing News

I bet that track is gonna be on the Cup schedule in the near future.

Note 1: We've passed 100 posts now

Note 2: This was why I said that. Plus the new ownership group, heck, new ownership is what got Kentucky it's Cup date.
http://www.jayski.com/cupnews.htm#20110709d

I heard about that and cool 100 posts on here.

simsamerica wrote:
Kentucky: Logano
Loudan: Bowyer
Indy: Stewert
Pocono: Stewert
Glen: Ambrose
Michigan: Edwards
Bristol: Stewert
Atlanta: Menard

1 for 8, not bad really :\

Chase predictions:
First, despite his win, Kesolowski will NOT make the chase under any scenario, first I predict he won't be in the top 20 in time, second, he just won't make it off they tiebreak

I'm eating those words about thrice over at this point, I think he might even take the Cup this year at this rate. I don't think he'll make the chase OFF POINTS. Stewert will pull one out his rear and get about a 7th-14th while Kes gets a 10th or so.

Newman won't make it in this year, he'll end up about 12th, Jr. might but thats gonna be close, he will end up with 2 wins before they go to Vegas for the Banquet though.

Newman's Clinched, Jr needs a 20th this weekend, he's in, Stewert's in. My predictions.

NEW:

3 spots left in the chase, 9th, 10th or 11th, and 12th.
9th. Jr.
10th. Stewert
11th. KES
12th. I wish Menard but Hamlin.

If Edwards knocks off Top 5's or 10's at Richmond and Chicago, he's almost gonna lock it up. Contract got him unfocused. Kes and Gordon are his only competition I think.

RIP Dan Wheldon, you will be dearly missed. Dan died in a firey crash at Las Vegas today. Dan, you were a great Indy Car driver. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Wheldon family. Racing Community has truly lost a great driver.

Wacky32 wrote:RIP Dan Wheldon, you will be dearly missed. Dan died in a firey crash at Las Vegas today. Dan, you were a great Indy Car driver. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Wheldon family. Racing Community has truly lost a great driver.

I can agree to that.

RIP Dan, as an avid race fan I'm saddened by this loss, I was watching the race today and I honestly am amazed only one life was lost, Powers, Mann, and JR Hildenbrand are incredibly lucky themselves to be with there families at this time. I love racing because I think it's one of the few places where money dones't truly over-shadows what is right for the sport but I think in this case is was a dangerous bit of greed that struck to cause this tragedy. IRL is in dangerous need of money and bringing the finale to Las Vegas was a money driven but over all stupid move, when the stock cars go 200 at a track putting an IRL car on that is asking for a death and unfortunately today we lost one of the great IRL and Indy 500 champions for it. I don't see IRL lasting much longer as this could be a huge nail in the coffin for the sport, with it's Marquee stars turning to NASCAR and F1 proving to be far safer and lucrative for those abroad involved with the open-wheeled racing IRL may be on it's last leg and now with one of it's great champions gone and it's safety being called into question again I'm not sure I see the IRL lasting more than another 3 or 4 more years. The Indy 500 will always remain, but that may be the only time we see those cars on the track soon

Wacky, I can second, third, forth and so on that statement. EGD, i'm going to disagree with you, though I see where you're coming from on that. Yes Vegas was not an overly smart move but It's not as steep as Texas and the same length. Also, albiet a bit Ironic, IndyCar has a newer safer car coming out next year which will be vastly different than the current one, I say ironic because of all the people that could have been testing it, the test driver was Wheldon. As for the NASCAR Proposition, Sam Jr. is the only one really that has done that. Montoya came from F1, Franchitti came back, as did Sarah Fisher. Yes Danica's leaving but she seems more like her Cup Boss next year, Tony Stewert (who himself was the 1996 IRL Champ). Then Carpentier? He was in his 30's anyway and was pretty much retired (he is retired now). Since Randy Bernard came into the sport, It's been doing great actually, and though this accident occured, the sport will go on, and the sport will remember Dan Wheldon. Like I was telling my family as it was happening, this seemed alot like Dale Earnhardt's crash 10 years ago, and if i'm right about that, the sport will go on, simply with a large chunk missing.

Rest in Peace Dan Wheldon, You will not be forgotten

RIP Danny Bhoy....... Watching Indy will never be the same without you. You were one of my favorite drivers and a true champion.

EGD I have to disagree as well The fastest track in the circuit used to be MIS(Michigan International Speedway) followed by Texas and Vegas. MIS took steps to make sure it was a safer track and in fact it's speeds are lower now as a result If I recall Texas took the same measures it's only a matter of time for LVMS to do the same. The other issue with this race wasn't just the track it was the amount of cars put on the track was more than Indy and a mile less than Indy. The drivers had complained early on of that issue. With the new Cars coming out next year and hopefuly a better focus the IZOD series will do just fine. It will never get the money that NASCAR or F1 gets but it will make enough to survive and still get the good and great drivers. As to best Drivers leaving? Danica is not one of the best drivers she is a name, the others that left came back or retired. Going off to NASCAR and F1 is all for money not for racing.

canuck3360 wrote: Going off to NASCAR and F1 is all for money not for racing.

But allas money makes the wheel go round, and when Penskee and Chip get too old to start running cars, besides Andretti and Hass no one else will have any sort of investment in the sport, it's stars are not as bright and harder to market and the face of the series is leaving and one of it's other big players was just killed, this is honestly the first time I've seen more than a passing 3 seconds of a mention of anything to do with IRL on ESPN and it's an extremely negative light, if the IRL wants to sustain it needs to get a fan base, the race at NHMS was a one and done in a market that has no other IRL races they hit barely half of the attendance needed to turn a profit on the race. IRL has a very small income window with staggering expenses it's not hard to see that is an equation for a failing business. IRL needs its stars, it needs good press, it needs people to turn into the races, spend money to go see the races in person, to invest in it as a product and right now the IRL doesn't have that and Wheldon was one of the few people they could've ridden to those riches.

Penske has kids, including Jay who actually runs his own team, Dragon Racing, and will probably inherit the team when Penske leaves, and Chip probably has investors and probably has his strategy in place, Haas already did that once, and Andretti's gonna go on forever it seems. You've also got plenty of new teams coming in next year including about 5-6 sportscar teams atleast. As for the stars, i'm seriously going to ask, are you even watching these days? Will Power and Dario Franchitti steal the show yes, but the also create one of those historic sort of rivalries, like Gordon.v.Earnhardt, Waltrip.v.Yarborough, Senna.v.Prost, Shumacher.v.Hakkinen, etc., etc. There are many up and coming stars too such as Conor Daly and Alex Rossi, provided they stay in America (could goto F1), and Josef Newgarden. There's plenty others too i'm forgetting but the ladder to Indy is still strong and if they can get enough enticement, they can get sprint car drivers back towards Indy, like Bryan Clauson (who does run Indy Lights).

As for racing at Vegas, it probably was a stupid move, yes CCWS and IRL have run Vegas before, but that was before the redesign when the banking was 6 degrees lower. For next year's new car:
A. Different Chassis and Different Engines, therefore different power and such, therefore the cars won't be able to stay with each other the same way.
B. There is a sort of "bumper" on this new car to stop the flying over other cars.
C. This is a new car, not this 40 year old design they've run this season, meaning it's not got the same 40 year old principals, just like with Nascar's CoT, it's new technology, not 40 year old concepts. (heck, 40 years ago they thought it would be safer to be flung from the car than belted in)

Forgot about Jay...

Power and Franchitti steal too much of the show, I'll admit I prefer NASCAR to IRL any day but I do watch IRL with relative frequency, I've grown into a rather strong fan of tony kanaan lately, so I recognize the star power that is there. But here is the major problem with the IRL, it's expensive, it's very expensive and it's not a huge draw for several reasons, one of the biggest being it's expense gives it a "high brow" reputation it's doesn't have the blue collar taste to it that NASCAR does and in the US blue collar is going to sell over white collar any day. This isn't to say that the IRL is in-fact white collar, but it's got enginers and fast strange looking cars that for the base of the snooki loving idiot american TV audience is too "smart" for them. My point is that Wheldon and Patrick are arguably the two best looking and most media friendly drivers on the IRL circuit and now the IRL has neither of them when they need them the most as sponsors are becoming harder and harder to attract to the sport and as races are getting dropped every year and new ones are financial disasters.

Thats one goal of the new project, to reduce cost, it was set at 70,000 dollars, which is franky, about a third the cost of a Cup car these days.

Baltimore was a financial success and frankly, I haven't heard a bad thing about it really, I've heard points of improvement but certainly nothing beyond that, and the only races dropped last year were all Nascar OWNED tracks. As for Motegi, that doesn't make much sense in the first place, they no longer do Surfers Paradise and their main audience is asleep from Green to Checkered (its like 2AM when the race is going on). That was for Honda's amusement more than anything from the start and it's a bit suprising they've had it on the schedule as long as they have. Crowds are coming back no doubt about it, did you see the stands at Vegas? 80,000 atleast i'm sure, I just wish they'd gotten a show, not a tragedy, as do we all. Besides, if Grand-Am and ALMS can survive, Indy surely can.

Oooh boy hot debates

RIP Dan
I had the pleasure of meeting him at Indy in 2008, and while its always sad to lose someone like this, its particularly so when its a champion like he was.

Now onto the knee-jerk reactions and other assorted comments above:
- Money absolutely overshadows everything else. Motorsport is expensive, and a lot of people have a lot of money tied up in it. All series go where the money is, so to blame IndyCar for doing the same is extremely short-sighted.
- IndyCar bills itself as the fastest racing series in the world, and in order to back that up it has to have cars that can not only go that fast, but also survive accidents at those high speeds. And for the most part they do (ask Mike Conway). But you can never completely rule out the mortal danger aspect. Unexpected things happen from time to time and you end up with a situation like Senna, Earnhardt, or now Wheldon. Track density issues is another matter. Indy runs 33 cars because that gives everyone 400ft of track or something.
- LV doesn't seem like the typical IndyCar oval, but when you compare it to their first time at Texas where drivers were on the verge of blacking out it doesn't look nearly as bad. Michigan is as big and fast as IndyCars should run, but I'd personally get away from this fixation on ovals, which seems to me to be unnecessarily playing chicken with concrete walls.
- IndyCar will survive so long as Indy does, period. It survived the ChampCar/IRL split, and its survived tragedies in the past. Its a bit like sportscars and Le Mans - one massive event trying to justify a series.
- I'd hardly call Danica the "marquee star" - she's an average driver who happens to be good at selling t-shirts. She's barely even the best female driver in IndyCar anymore, which I suspect might be part of her reason for going.
- IndyCar will never be a realistic stepping stone to Europe or F1 so long as they continue to neglect right-hand turns. Young American drivers would be better served by never entering the IndyCar system if they want to be target europe or F1.
- Most team owners these days just happen to also be ex-racers themselves - Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, Vasser, Foyt, Rahal, Newman (sort of), Haas, and Fisher are all current examples. It would be foolish not to expect other retired drivers not to look at it in the future. On the dynastic thing with Jay Penske, remember Chip Ganassi himself is second-generation after his father Floyd
- Power and Franchitti only have so much focus on them because they're fighting for the championship. How much coverage do non-chase NASCAR drivers get this time of year?

And finally on a brighter note, how many of you Yanks tuned into Bathurst, now that you got it live? If you didn't, you missed one of the better races in living memory, and DW didn't even make a fool of himself! Final margin of victory after 6½ hours of racing - 0.2s. NASCAR eat your heart out.

I agree completely Joe, only a few corrections, one, Paul Newman died three years ago, two Daly runs GP3 where he's in contention every week and is winning, and runs Indy Lights in his off weeks. Rossi races Europe Full time but ran lower ROAD ONLY levels typically aimed towards Indy, and he ended up 3rd in GP3. Andretti (Mario) shows that it's possible to switch between the two, as does Villneauve. As for Bathurst, it was good, but Dega's gonna be better, it's got two more zeros (jk, i'll probably catch Surfer's Paridise too, always like that track ) As for the concrete walls, they've been improving those alot recently, the SAFER Barrier is actually a really safe propsition for such a dangerous sport. One thing I heard that could see it's way to racing, Ice Hockey Glass (whatever it actually is). It's still mostly speculation.

My Point of View, this was a big loss and we will be seeing Major changes, like with Earnhardt and Senna. I had a bad feeling as soon as the chopper was getting started, and you can hold me to that.

Not saying it can't be done, but it can be detrimental if you aren't careful. Scott Dixon was good enough for F1, did tests and all that and apparently got a few offers from the smaller teams, but ultimately being involved in Champcar/IndyCar and oval racing hindered his F1 prospects. You can still see he's a standout on road courses.

Ice Hockey Glass is one of two surfaces
in the NHL they use Tempered Glass in some cases along the sides and Plexaglass in the endzones

in many community rinks it's one or the other
Plexaglass=Poly aka Arcylic Glass

Thinking Plexaglass, that's what Cup cars use for windshields and in the 15-20 years they've used it, I don't know of a single broken windshield.

simsamerica wrote:Thinking Plexaglass, that's what Cup cars use for windshields and in the 15-20 years they've used it, I don't know of a single broken windshield.

Only one I can remember is Edwards after his flip into the catch fence at Dega

Plexa will break but it is commonly used in safety applications

Hmmm, I don't even think his windshield did break. Canuck, of course it does break but the way it would be used in racing would be pretty thick, heavy duty plexiglass I assume. Much thicker than at the hockey games, or the windshields for that matter. (or do they make the windshields out of Lexan... I can't remember :\)

more likely that the windshield would be out of lexan

That's 3 this week:

1978-2011: Dan Wheldon
1973-2011: Rick Huseman
1987-2011: Marco Simoncelli

Not been a good week

simsamerica wrote:That's 3 this week:

1978-2011: Dan Wheldon
1973-2011: Rick Huseman
1987-2011: Marco Simoncelli

Not been a good week

Are those all from the same accident a week ago?