1. Part of me feels sad for Matthew Brabham. It felt like Grandpa Jack was going to give him the push needed but it wasn't enough. Good for Gabby Chaves winning the Freedom 100 after losing it by such a close margin last year. Brabham hit the rev-limiter and it allowed for Chaves to get the run on him. It seemed like the Indy Lights cars were hitting the rev-limiter on the straightaways. Hopefully the new car will be able to avoid that next year.
2. I heard this on More Front Wing's podcast. Steph Wallcraft interviewed 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve when he was in Toronto for the Indianapolis 500 media tour and the one thing Villeneuve said he would like to see more power in the cars for the race. He didn't want to see the boost turned back down to 130kPa. With the massive amount of passing we have seen in the last two Indianapolis 500s, maybe that extra power help spread out the cars. Now could the engines handle 140kPa for 500 miles? I don't know but seeing as how these engines are in their third year, you'd think there is enough data available for them to figure out what the limit is for a engine with 10 extra kPa.
3. It was great to hear Bob Varsha in the booth. He is doing sports cars on Fox Sports but hearing him calling even just a practice session at Indianapolis felt right. Leigh Diffey does a great job handling both Formula One and IndyCar duties but Varsha is the go-to guy when a substitute is needed.
4. The apron is suppose to return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in time for this year's Brickyard 400 in late-July. I hope IndyCar doesn't make the apron "out-of-bounds" for next year's Indianapolis 500. Allow the drivers to use the extra space. A lot has changed since the 1992 Indianapolis 500, the last to feature the apron. The DW12 chassis was created with safety in mind, the SAFER barriers were introduced and HANS devices have been made mandatory. I think they should counteract the "crash angles."
5. With that said, Chase Austin had a nasty accident during the Freedom 100 when he hit the inside wall between the south end short chute and the infield portion of the road course. The front end of his car clipped the tire barrier on the road course while the back end collided with the concrete inside wall of the short chute. SAFER barriers should be everywhere at a race track. They have been around for over a decade now and the cost of installation must be lower than it currently is at. The cost should never be a deterrent from a track installing them.
6. Remember when I suggested the pit stop competition should featuring all 33 cars? That would take way too long with the rate today's competition took. You'd have to spread it over two days. But in all seriousness, we got to limit each team to one participant. Ganassi and Penske swept the semifinals* and had six of eight positions in the quarterfinals*. The asterisk is for Sage Karam who, while driving for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, it practically a fifth Ganassi entry.
7. Congratulations to the #9 crew and Scott Dixon on the pit stop competition victory but got to give the #22 Dreyer and Reinbold crew and Sage Karam credit. They haven't made an in-race pit stop yet and finish second. Not bad.
8. Simon Pagenaud had a phenomenal orange livery for the pit stop competition, which he should run for every race.
9. How IndyCar failed to give NBC the network deal is beyond me. The one thing working for ABC is their pit lane reporters but even then NBC has them covered by a country mile. Jon Beekhuis knows the inside and outside of the car like nobody's business, something ABC fails to have on their broadcast.
