In what has to be the wildest race in Formula E in the series short history, Lucas di Grassi took the victory after multiple cars battled mechanical failures in the heat and humidity of Putrajaya, Malaysia. The Brazilian jumped Loïc Duval during the pit cycle, putting him fourth on track behind Nelson Piquet, Jr. who still needed to stop, Nicolas Prost and António Félix da Costa. Prost stopped on lap 15 after his Renault e.dams teammate Sébastien Buemi had a sudden stop on circuit despite leading every lap to that point. The Swiss driver would get back going and head into the pit lane behind his teammate.
After Piquet, Jr. stopped, Prost led da Costa, di Grassi and Duval but had to conserve energy. The ABT Audi Sport driver passed da Costa and then Prost to take the lead. Both da Costa and Prost would suffer lurches on track, causing both drivers to lose many positions. The Dragon Racing drivers of Duval and Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Andretti's Robin Frijns were battling out for podium positions but Duval suddenly lost power and stopped on the circuit and Frijns clipped the wall after getting into the marbles but the Dutch driver was able to continue. D'Ambrosio jumped to second while Sam Bird passed both Duval and Frijns.
Lucas di Grassi would go on to take the victory by 13.9 seconds over Bird after d'Amborsio got into the barriers on the final lap. Frijns crabbed to a third place finish, his first career Formula E podium. Stéphane Sarrazin qualified second but had to be removed from the grid after his car failed to get started on the initial start. The Frenchman would overcome the start from the pit lane and finish fourth. Bruno Senna rounded out the top five with da Costa able to bring his car home in sixth.
Daniel Abt finished seventh with defending champion Nelson Piquet, Jr. scoring his first points of the season with an eighth place finish. Nick Heidfeld overcame being spun on lap one and a drive-through penalty for violating the minimum pit stop time to finish ninth with Nicolas Prost rounding out the points paying positions in tenth, despite getting into the barriers with three laps to go.
Jacques Villeneuve missed out on his first career Formula E points by finishing 11th. Buemi was 12th and picked up two points for fastest lap with his Swiss counterpart Simona de Silvestro finishing 13th. D'Ambrosio was 14th with Nathanaël Berthon rounding out the top 15 and Duval in 16th.
Oliver Turvey retired on lap five after having his throttle stick going into turn five. Jean-Éric Vergne's race ended before he completed a lap after the Frenchman made contact with Heidfeld.
With his victory, di Grassi takes the championship lead with 43 points. Buemi finished outside the top ten but gets five points (three for pole position, two for fastest lap) and trails the Brazilian by eight points. A third in the race moves Bird to third in the championship with 24 points. Heidfeld is seven behind the British driver. Frijns rounds out the top five, a point behind Heidfeld.
Sarrazin is sixth in the championship with 14 points and is two ahead of his fellow countryman Duval. Senna and d'Ambrosio are tied on ten points. Turvey and da Costa are tied on eight. Abt has six points. Berthon and Piquet, Jr. each have four and Prost sits on one points. Villeneuve, Vergne and de Silvestro have all yet to score.
In the Teams' championship, ABT Audi Sport lead with 49 points, 13 ahead of Renault e.dams. Mahindra Racing is third on 27 points, two ahead of DS Virgin Racing. Dragon Racing is fifth on 22 points with their American rivals Andretti Formula E on 16 points. Venturi has 14 points while NEXTEV TCR and Aguri are tied on 12 points.
The third round of the 2015-16 Formula E season will be on the streets of Punta del Este, Uruguay on December 19th.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Friday Five: Valencia, Suzuka, Putrajaya, Texas
Three championships will be decided this weekend. Two of them are motorcycle championships; the other is a formula series. Malaysia hosts two races but we will only talk about one of them (sorry, Asian Le Mans Series. Next time, I promise). And the latest hubbub with NASCAR (I know. But we have to do it).
Valencia
The 2015 MotoGP season finale from Valencia pits Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo against one another for the world championship but the ball is in Lorenzo's court despite the Italian holding a seven-point lead.
Rossi will have to start from the back of the grid after being penalized for contact with Honda rider Marc Márquez at the previous round at Malaysia. The Italian ran the Spaniard wide and kicked the two-time world champion Márquez's bike, ending his race. Rossi when on to finish third while Lorenzo came home in second.
If Lorenzo were to win at Valencia, Rossi would have to finish second to claim the title. If Lorenzo finished second, Rossi would have to finish third as fourth would leave him level with Lorenzo but Lorenzo owns the tiebreaker with six victories to Rossi's four. A third for Lorenzo would mean Rossi would need to finish at least sixth. If Lorenzo misses the podium and finishes fourth, Rossi would need to finish ninth. If Lorenzo finished fifth, Rossi would need to finish 11th. The worst Lorenzo can finish is ninth if he hopes to win the world title.
Marc Márquez has clinched third in the championship but his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa will be in a fight for fourth. The winner of two of the last three MotoGP rounds has a two-point lead over Andrea Iannone. The Ducati rider has retired from the two races Pedrosa has won this season. Bradley Smith has a slim shot at fourth in the championship as he sits on 171 points, 19 behind Pedrosa and Smith is 18 ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who can finish no worse than seventh in the championship. Cal Crutchlow is eighth on 118 points and 11 points ahead of Danilo Petrucci. The Espargaró brothers and Maverick Viñales will battle it out for tenth in the championship. Pol has 103 points, six head of his brother Aleix and 11 points ahead of Aleix's Suzuki teammate Viñales.
This will be the final MotoGP race for Nicky Hayden. The 2006 world champion will be heading to World Superbikes in 2016 to ride for Honda World Superbike Team.
Rossi and Lorenzo each have two victories at MotoGP and both riders have only ever won in the premier class at Valencia; Rossi in 2003 and 2004; Lorenzo in 2010 and 2013. Pedrosa has six victories at Valencia; three in MotoGP (2007, 2009, 2012), two in 250cc (2004, 2005) and one in 125cc (2002). Márquez won last year's race to put the cherry on top of his second world championship.
Moto3
The Moto3 title will also be decided at Valencia.
British rider Danny Kent has had multiple opportunities to seal the title but has failed on each occasion. The Leopard Racing Honda rider holds a 24-point lead over Red Bull KTM Ajo's Miguel Oliveira. The Portuguese rider has won three of the last five races and finished second in the other two. Oliveira has to win at Valencia and have Kent finish outside the points to take the world title.
Kent has not finished on the podium since he won his home race at Silverstone. Since then, he has two retirements and has not finished better than sixth. Kent has six victories, nine podiums and 14 points finishes to Oliveira's five victories, eight podiums and 14 points finishes. Kent also had the edge in pole positions with six to Oliveira's one.
Other contenders for the race victory are Italians Enea Bastianini, Romano Fenati and Niccolò Antonelli. Bastianini's victory at Misano was the first of his career. Since Fenati's lone victory at Le Mans, he has only two podium finish. Antonelli won at Brno and Motegi. Efrén Vázquez has yet to win this season but has five podiums. South African Brad Binder has four podiums, including the last two races. Jorge Navarro has finished on the podium in three of the last for races.
Suzuka
Four drivers enter the Super Formula season finale doubleheader from Suzuka with a shot at the title.
Hiroaki Ishiura leads with 45 points from two victories, four podiums and finishing in the top five in all six races. Ishiura scored his first Super Formula victory this season at Okayama, his 45th career start in the series. He will set a career-best championship finish regardless where he finishes, improving from fifth last year.
Kazuki Nakajima trails Ishiura by six points and has one victory, three second place finishes and a fourth. He missed the Okayama round after suffering injuries at the FIA WEC round at Spa-Francorchamps. Nakajima is the defending Super Formula champion and he also won the title in 2012. He could become the first driver to win consecutive title since Tsugio Matsuda in 2007-08.
André Lotterer and João Paulo de Oliveira are both 14 points behind Ishiura. Lotterer won the season opener from Suzuka and the most recent round from Sportsland SUGO. Outside of those two victories, the German's best finish is fourth. The Brazilian de Oliveira won at Fuji and finished third at Motegi and has finished in the points in all six races.
Putrajaya
The second round of the 2015-16 Formula E season takes place from Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Sébastien Buemi dominated the season opener from Beijing, leading all but one lap from pole position and scoring fastest lap and became the first driver to score the maximum of 30 points in a race. The Swiss driver has a 12-point championship lead over Lucas di Grassi and a 15-point lead over Nick Heidfeld. The Dragon Racing drivers of Loïc Duval and Jérôme d'Ambrosio rounded out the top five in Beijing.
Brits Oliver Turvey and Sam Bird are sixth and seventh in the championship. Bird is the defending Putrajaya race winner. Bird led 21 of 31 laps last year and won by over four seconds to di Grassi. Nathanaël Berthon, Stéphane Sarrazin and Robin Frijns round out the podiums. For the second consecutive season opener, Daniel Abt was penalized and lost points. The German received a 10-second penalty for unsafe release on the pit lane.
Defending champion Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Nicolas Prost will look to rebound after both failed to finish in the season opener. Trulli Formula E will miss their second consecutive round after their Motormatica JT-01 did not pass all the mandatory checks in scrutineering. Jarno Trulli was going to replace Salvador Durán after the Mexican reported had a breach of contract. Vitanonio Liuzzi was to be the other Trulli driver.
This year's race has been extended by two laps to 33 circuits around the 1.59-mile street circuit.
Texas
The penultimate race of the penultimate round of the Chase will take place at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jeff Gordon's victory at Martinsville clinched him a spot at the championship in the season finale at Homestead. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. are tied for top Chase driver in points not locked into the next round. Busch finished fifth at Martinsville while Truex, Jr. was sixth, however, Truex, Jr. picked up a bonus point for leading a lap. Two points behind Busch and Truex, Jr. is defending champion Kevin Harvick.
Carl Edwards is on the bubble, seven points behind Harvick. Twenty-three points behind Harvick is Brad Keselowski while Kurt Busch is 26 points back of his teammate and Joey Logano trails fourth by 28 points.
Matt Kenseth has been suspended for the next two races after he caused an accident with Logano at Martinsville. Logano was leading the race at the time and Kenseth was nine-laps down after getting into an accident earlier in the race.
Five of the eight Chase drivers have won at Texas. Carl Edwards is the only one with multiple victories. He has three but has not won at the track since 2008. Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch's lone victories at the track both came in 2009. Kyle Busch won the spring race in 2013 while Joey Logano won the 2014 spring race. All eight Chase drivers have led over 100 laps at Texas but none average a finish of 10.0 or lower. Kevin Harvick is the top Chase driver in average finish at 12.7 and he has never won at Texas. He has finished second in the last two Texas race. Kyle Busch is just behind Harvick in average finish at 12.9. The next best are Martin Truex, Jr. and Carl Edwards; both average a 15.0.
Jimmie Johnson has the last two Texas races and four of the last six and leads all drivers with five victories at Texas.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 9.5 positions gain by Valentino Rossi from his starting position in Valencia?
2. Over or Under: 4.461 seconds being the margin of victory in the Moto3 race from Valencia?
3. Over or Under: 0.5 podiums for Honda cars at Suzuka?
4. Over or Under: 2.5 drivers finishing in the top ten at Putrajaya after starting outside the top ten?
5. Over or Under: 3.5 Chevrolets in the top seven at Texas.
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Only 169 laps were completed in the 6 Hours of Shanghai.
2. Over: There was one safety car after Sebastian Vettel spun into the turn seven barriers.
3. Under: Two Chase drivers had top fives at Martinsville. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch.
4. Under: Two Europeans finished on the Autopolis podiums. Ronnie Quintarelli in GT500, Jörg Müller in GT300.
5. Over: Yvan Muller retired from both races in Thailand (Quick WTCC note: Tiago Monteiro was disqualified from race two in Thailand, giving Sébastien Loeb the victory. Monteiro and Honda are appealing the penalty).
Predictions
1. At least two riders outside the top sixteen in the MotoGP championship score points at Valencia.
2. Miguel Oliveira finishes ahead of Danny Kent but does not win the Moto3 championship.
3. André Lotterer wins at least one race at Suzuka.
4. A driver scores their first career Formula E podium in Putrajaya.
5. A Chase driver is involved in a caution at Texas.
Last Week's Predictions
1. There will be at least two different class winners from the Fuji race (Correct. Three different class wins at Shanghai from Fuji. The #36 Signatech Alpine in LMP2, the #91 Porsche in GTE-Pro and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari in GTE-Am).
2. Lewis Hamilton does not finish on the podium (Wrong. Hamilton finished 2nd).
3. No one clinches a spot for the Homestead season finale (Wrong. Jeff Gordon did).
4. There will be a first time winner in 2015 at Autopolis (Wrong. The #1 NISMO Nissan and the #3 NDDP Racing with B-MAX Nissan each picked up their second victories of 2015).
5. A driver outside the top seven in the champion scores a podium in Buriram (Wrong. All podium finishers came from within the top four in the championship).
Overall: 1/5 Running Tally: 22/45
Valencia
The 2015 MotoGP season finale from Valencia pits Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo against one another for the world championship but the ball is in Lorenzo's court despite the Italian holding a seven-point lead.
Rossi will have to start from the back of the grid after being penalized for contact with Honda rider Marc Márquez at the previous round at Malaysia. The Italian ran the Spaniard wide and kicked the two-time world champion Márquez's bike, ending his race. Rossi when on to finish third while Lorenzo came home in second.
If Lorenzo were to win at Valencia, Rossi would have to finish second to claim the title. If Lorenzo finished second, Rossi would have to finish third as fourth would leave him level with Lorenzo but Lorenzo owns the tiebreaker with six victories to Rossi's four. A third for Lorenzo would mean Rossi would need to finish at least sixth. If Lorenzo misses the podium and finishes fourth, Rossi would need to finish ninth. If Lorenzo finished fifth, Rossi would need to finish 11th. The worst Lorenzo can finish is ninth if he hopes to win the world title.
Marc Márquez has clinched third in the championship but his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa will be in a fight for fourth. The winner of two of the last three MotoGP rounds has a two-point lead over Andrea Iannone. The Ducati rider has retired from the two races Pedrosa has won this season. Bradley Smith has a slim shot at fourth in the championship as he sits on 171 points, 19 behind Pedrosa and Smith is 18 ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who can finish no worse than seventh in the championship. Cal Crutchlow is eighth on 118 points and 11 points ahead of Danilo Petrucci. The Espargaró brothers and Maverick Viñales will battle it out for tenth in the championship. Pol has 103 points, six head of his brother Aleix and 11 points ahead of Aleix's Suzuki teammate Viñales.
This will be the final MotoGP race for Nicky Hayden. The 2006 world champion will be heading to World Superbikes in 2016 to ride for Honda World Superbike Team.
Rossi and Lorenzo each have two victories at MotoGP and both riders have only ever won in the premier class at Valencia; Rossi in 2003 and 2004; Lorenzo in 2010 and 2013. Pedrosa has six victories at Valencia; three in MotoGP (2007, 2009, 2012), two in 250cc (2004, 2005) and one in 125cc (2002). Márquez won last year's race to put the cherry on top of his second world championship.
Moto3
The Moto3 title will also be decided at Valencia.
British rider Danny Kent has had multiple opportunities to seal the title but has failed on each occasion. The Leopard Racing Honda rider holds a 24-point lead over Red Bull KTM Ajo's Miguel Oliveira. The Portuguese rider has won three of the last five races and finished second in the other two. Oliveira has to win at Valencia and have Kent finish outside the points to take the world title.
Kent has not finished on the podium since he won his home race at Silverstone. Since then, he has two retirements and has not finished better than sixth. Kent has six victories, nine podiums and 14 points finishes to Oliveira's five victories, eight podiums and 14 points finishes. Kent also had the edge in pole positions with six to Oliveira's one.
Other contenders for the race victory are Italians Enea Bastianini, Romano Fenati and Niccolò Antonelli. Bastianini's victory at Misano was the first of his career. Since Fenati's lone victory at Le Mans, he has only two podium finish. Antonelli won at Brno and Motegi. Efrén Vázquez has yet to win this season but has five podiums. South African Brad Binder has four podiums, including the last two races. Jorge Navarro has finished on the podium in three of the last for races.
Suzuka
Four drivers enter the Super Formula season finale doubleheader from Suzuka with a shot at the title.
Hiroaki Ishiura leads with 45 points from two victories, four podiums and finishing in the top five in all six races. Ishiura scored his first Super Formula victory this season at Okayama, his 45th career start in the series. He will set a career-best championship finish regardless where he finishes, improving from fifth last year.
Kazuki Nakajima trails Ishiura by six points and has one victory, three second place finishes and a fourth. He missed the Okayama round after suffering injuries at the FIA WEC round at Spa-Francorchamps. Nakajima is the defending Super Formula champion and he also won the title in 2012. He could become the first driver to win consecutive title since Tsugio Matsuda in 2007-08.
André Lotterer and João Paulo de Oliveira are both 14 points behind Ishiura. Lotterer won the season opener from Suzuka and the most recent round from Sportsland SUGO. Outside of those two victories, the German's best finish is fourth. The Brazilian de Oliveira won at Fuji and finished third at Motegi and has finished in the points in all six races.
Putrajaya
The second round of the 2015-16 Formula E season takes place from Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Sébastien Buemi dominated the season opener from Beijing, leading all but one lap from pole position and scoring fastest lap and became the first driver to score the maximum of 30 points in a race. The Swiss driver has a 12-point championship lead over Lucas di Grassi and a 15-point lead over Nick Heidfeld. The Dragon Racing drivers of Loïc Duval and Jérôme d'Ambrosio rounded out the top five in Beijing.
Brits Oliver Turvey and Sam Bird are sixth and seventh in the championship. Bird is the defending Putrajaya race winner. Bird led 21 of 31 laps last year and won by over four seconds to di Grassi. Nathanaël Berthon, Stéphane Sarrazin and Robin Frijns round out the podiums. For the second consecutive season opener, Daniel Abt was penalized and lost points. The German received a 10-second penalty for unsafe release on the pit lane.
Defending champion Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Nicolas Prost will look to rebound after both failed to finish in the season opener. Trulli Formula E will miss their second consecutive round after their Motormatica JT-01 did not pass all the mandatory checks in scrutineering. Jarno Trulli was going to replace Salvador Durán after the Mexican reported had a breach of contract. Vitanonio Liuzzi was to be the other Trulli driver.
This year's race has been extended by two laps to 33 circuits around the 1.59-mile street circuit.
Texas
The penultimate race of the penultimate round of the Chase will take place at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jeff Gordon's victory at Martinsville clinched him a spot at the championship in the season finale at Homestead. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. are tied for top Chase driver in points not locked into the next round. Busch finished fifth at Martinsville while Truex, Jr. was sixth, however, Truex, Jr. picked up a bonus point for leading a lap. Two points behind Busch and Truex, Jr. is defending champion Kevin Harvick.
Carl Edwards is on the bubble, seven points behind Harvick. Twenty-three points behind Harvick is Brad Keselowski while Kurt Busch is 26 points back of his teammate and Joey Logano trails fourth by 28 points.
Matt Kenseth has been suspended for the next two races after he caused an accident with Logano at Martinsville. Logano was leading the race at the time and Kenseth was nine-laps down after getting into an accident earlier in the race.
Five of the eight Chase drivers have won at Texas. Carl Edwards is the only one with multiple victories. He has three but has not won at the track since 2008. Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch's lone victories at the track both came in 2009. Kyle Busch won the spring race in 2013 while Joey Logano won the 2014 spring race. All eight Chase drivers have led over 100 laps at Texas but none average a finish of 10.0 or lower. Kevin Harvick is the top Chase driver in average finish at 12.7 and he has never won at Texas. He has finished second in the last two Texas race. Kyle Busch is just behind Harvick in average finish at 12.9. The next best are Martin Truex, Jr. and Carl Edwards; both average a 15.0.
Jimmie Johnson has the last two Texas races and four of the last six and leads all drivers with five victories at Texas.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 9.5 positions gain by Valentino Rossi from his starting position in Valencia?
2. Over or Under: 4.461 seconds being the margin of victory in the Moto3 race from Valencia?
3. Over or Under: 0.5 podiums for Honda cars at Suzuka?
4. Over or Under: 2.5 drivers finishing in the top ten at Putrajaya after starting outside the top ten?
5. Over or Under: 3.5 Chevrolets in the top seven at Texas.
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Only 169 laps were completed in the 6 Hours of Shanghai.
2. Over: There was one safety car after Sebastian Vettel spun into the turn seven barriers.
3. Under: Two Chase drivers had top fives at Martinsville. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch.
4. Under: Two Europeans finished on the Autopolis podiums. Ronnie Quintarelli in GT500, Jörg Müller in GT300.
5. Over: Yvan Muller retired from both races in Thailand (Quick WTCC note: Tiago Monteiro was disqualified from race two in Thailand, giving Sébastien Loeb the victory. Monteiro and Honda are appealing the penalty).
Predictions
1. At least two riders outside the top sixteen in the MotoGP championship score points at Valencia.
2. Miguel Oliveira finishes ahead of Danny Kent but does not win the Moto3 championship.
3. André Lotterer wins at least one race at Suzuka.
4. A driver scores their first career Formula E podium in Putrajaya.
5. A Chase driver is involved in a caution at Texas.
Last Week's Predictions
1. There will be at least two different class winners from the Fuji race (Correct. Three different class wins at Shanghai from Fuji. The #36 Signatech Alpine in LMP2, the #91 Porsche in GTE-Pro and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari in GTE-Am).
2. Lewis Hamilton does not finish on the podium (Wrong. Hamilton finished 2nd).
3. No one clinches a spot for the Homestead season finale (Wrong. Jeff Gordon did).
4. There will be a first time winner in 2015 at Autopolis (Wrong. The #1 NISMO Nissan and the #3 NDDP Racing with B-MAX Nissan each picked up their second victories of 2015).
5. A driver outside the top seven in the champion scores a podium in Buriram (Wrong. All podium finishers came from within the top four in the championship).
Overall: 1/5 Running Tally: 22/45
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Wednesday Wrap-Up: Team Penske's 2015 Season
The penultimate Wednesday Wrap-Up will look at Team Penske's 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season. The team expanded to four cars with the addition of Simon Pagenaud. Will Power was coming off that elusive first championship and Hélio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya were coming off finishes in the top five in the championship. On paper, Team Penske was set to dominate the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Paper has never won an IndyCar race though.
Juan Pablo Montoya
The Colombian started the season with a victory at St. Petersburg and was on of the mountain for months. After beating his teammates in Florida, he got a top five at NOLA and held off Simon Pagenaud for third at Long Beach. A flat tire ruined his race at Barber but he bounced back with a third at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis 500 went all over the place for Juan Pablo Montoya. He was out of it after being hit by Simona de Silvestro. He was out of it after he ran over the air hose on a pit stop. Scott Dixon was dominating. Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Tony Kanaan were on his heels. It appeared Montoya wasn't going to be a factor. It took him half the race to get himself back in contention. It took him 165 laps to lead his first lap. Dixon faded and it became a Penske vs. Penske dual between Montoya and Will Power. Montoya held off Power on the final four laps to pick up his second career Indianapolis 500 victory.
The rest of Montoya's 2015 season would be consistent but not spectacular. Two tenth place finishes at Belle Isle that could have been much more. To be fair, Montoya wasn't the only one caught out in race one and Montoya ran out of fuel in race two a few corners to early. He was fortunate to get tenth in race two but it could have been much better. He finished fourth at Texas, finished a career-best seventh at Toronto with two fourths at Fontana and Milwaukee and overcame a pit lane speeding penalty at the mile oval.
The title was Montoya's to lose. He led by 54 points with five races to go. He completed all but one lap though the first dozen races and finished in the top ten in 11 races. It appeared the championship would not come down to the final race even though the finale would be double points. Then came Iowa. Then came a mechanical failure on lap ten. A last place finish and the door was kicked open. When it appear Montoya was going to rebound at Mid-Ohio, one caution caught him out. He was outside the top ten and fought for eleventh while Graham Rahal won and the closed the margin to nine points. At Pocono, it appeared the title was back in Montoya's lap. Rahal retired. Hélio Castroneves retired. Scott Dixon was behind him. He had a shot for the victory but settled for third.
Montoya entered the finale up 34 points on Rahal with four other drivers championship eligible. He had to run at the front and he did but he still found trouble. He ran into Power, putting them both at the back of the field. The title was slipping from his grasp. Luckily for Montoya, Josef Newgarden had a pit lane fire take him out. Sébastien Bourdais spun Graham Rahal and the Frenchman was penalized. Castroneves and Pagenaud faded. Stefano Coletti was in the top five but was penalized for having his radio fail. Scott Dixon was leading but Montoya was making up ground. Montoya needed to make up one more position. He needed to finish fifth. He ended the season with a sixth place finish and lost the title on a tiebreaker.
Will Power
The 2014 IndyCar champion started his title defense in style. Pole position for St. Petersburg with a second place finish after leading 75 laps and being jumped by Montoya during pit stops. A seventh at NOLA followed with a 20th at Long Beach after his car stalled when he was coming on the pit lane. Long Beach was already going to be an uphill battle after starting 18th but the stall put him a lap down, which he would never make up. At Barber, he ran into Takuma Sato exiting the pit lane and was penalized. While neither lost a lap, Sato finished 17th and Power came home in fourth.
Power started on pole position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and dominated, leading 65 of 82 laps and held off a late charge from Graham Rahal. He started second in the Indianapolis 500 and was at the front all race. Once he got passed Scott Dixon, it became Power vs. Montoya and the Australian couldn't beat the Colombian to the line. He started on pole position for Belle Isle 1 but lost the lead at the after two laps to Takuma Sato. He would be at the front but would only lead to more laps and finished fourth. In race two, Power started second and led the first two laps but faded to the middle of the top ten. Right when it looked like Power would have a shot to get back to the front but he and Hélio Castroneves came together and they finished 18th and 19th respectively.
The third quarter of the season was trying for Power. Another pole position at Texas but he got the setup wrong and finished four laps down in 14th. At Toronto, Power led the first 30 laps from pole position but as drivers switched to slicks Power wasn't a factor and settle for fourth. He was caught up in an accident at Fontana with Takuma Sato with less than ten laps to go and at Milwaukee Ryan Briscoe got into the rear of Power and ended both their days.
He managed a tenth at Iowa but was bitten by the Sage Karam caution at Mid-Ohio and finished 14th. A fourth at Pocono kept Power alive for a second consecutive title and he started the season finale from pole position with an extra point in his pocket. However, even starting from pole position couldn't keep him from hitting his teammate. Both he and Montoya fell to the back but through attrition and others making bonehead mistakes, they worked their way back into the top ten. Power's championship died with that incident as the focus was getting Montoya back to the front. Power consolation prize was seventh in the race and third in the championship.
Hélio Castroneves
Another season of consistent results for Hélio Castroneves found him in championship contention once again. Fourth at St. Petersburg followed by two runner-up finishes at NOLA and Long Beach. At NOLA, he overcame contact with Francesco Dracone to finish on the podium and at Long Beach he started from pole position. At Barber, Castroneves started on pole position and was fourth late in the race but had to pit on the final lap for fuel and fell to 15th.
He made his 300th start at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and celebrated it by running into the back of Scott Dixon. No penalty was issued on the spot and Castroneves finished sixth while Dixon eked out tenth. He was penalized eight points for the incident but Mr. Penske negotiated it down to a three-point penalty. Castroneves hung in the top ten for pretty much all the Indianapolis 500 but couldn't keep up with Dixon, Power, Pagenaud and Kanaan. The Hondas of Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti found something late and Castroneves faded to seventh. A sixth in Belle Isle 1 was followed by, as you all know, the incident with Power in race two.
At Texas, he was able to keep pace with Dixon and Kanaan but couldn't beat them and settled for third. A slight change of strategy gave Castroneves a third at Toronto. He was at the front for the first half of Fontana but he spun off turn two and finished last. He would rebound from Fontana with a second place finish at Milwaukee despite starting last after failing to get in the qualifying line on time. He benefitted from the final caution as he was about to pit and if he did, he wasn't going to finish in top five.
Another pole position at Iowa but, like all the Penskes, he faded and finished 11th. He had a better day than 15th at Mid-Ohio but like Montoya and Power, he was caught out by the Karam caution. He started fourth at Pocono and was in the top ten all race until he had an accident on a restart. If you want to know what restart, go back to the one that was glorified with screenshots of cars six-to-seven wide on the front straightaway. They weren't all going to make it through when entering that wide. He still had a shot at the title but started 15th. He made his way into the top ten but faded and finished where he started and fifth in the championship.
Simon Pagenaud
Simon Pagenaud's debut season for Team Penske was less than spectacular. His average starting position was 5.1 He average finish was 10.6. A top five at St. Petersburg was followed by a retirement at NOLA after contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. He had a fourth at Long Beach and could only manage ninth at Barber after being caught out by the first caution of the race. A gearbox failure ended his race at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after 57 laps.
He was competitive at the Indianapolis 500 but he faded and nearly ran over Justin Wilson. It could have been much worse but it could have been much better. He finished third in Belle Isle 1 after getting pit strategy right. The next three races would see Pagenaud finish outside the top ten. Fourteenth at Belle Isle 2 followed by 11th from the front row at Texas after getting his setup wrong and 11th at Toronto, once again from second on grid. At Fontana, he started on pole but wasn't a factor, leading only three laps and finishing ninth. He started 17th at Milwaukee and picked up another ninth. He faded at Iowa and benefitted from the infamous Sage Karam caution at Mid-Ohio to finish third.
Another front row start at Pocono saw Pagenaud lead 30 laps but fade to seventh in the end. At Sonoma, he started fourth and ended up in 16th. The Frenchman missed the top ten in the championship by 22 points and finished better than his starting position in four of sixteen races.
Is Team Penske a great team? It seems like a ridiculous question but consider that every IndyCar championship since 2006 (not including the final two seasons of Champ Car) has come down to the final race of the season and Penske has had at least one driver alive for the title in all but one of those season (2007 when it was Dario Franchitti vs. Scott Dixon vs. Tony Kanaan) and the team has only two titles to show for it and seven runner-up finishes in that time frame, including having the championship runner-up in the last six seasons.
Team Penske is a gagging, choking dog of a team. They find ways to lose the championship and it doesn't matter who it is. Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, Hélio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya have all choked while driving for this team. Why? I don't know. We hear about doing it the Penske way but the Penske way has led to nothing but disappointment on all but two occasions. There needs to be a culture change at Team Penske but Roger Penske won't change the culture and there is no one at that team willing to challenge The Captain.
The team has won three Indianapolis 500s, tied with Chip Ganassi Racing for the most since 2006. IndyCar is in a weird where one event is bigger than the championship but can winning the Indianapolis 500 be the only thing that matters? Yes it pays more than winning the championship. Yes it gives a team, driver and sponsor more recognition than winning the championship but winning the biggest race and then gagging in the championship can't be acceptable.
All four drivers gagged this past season. Realize that Castroneves has failed to score a top ten finish in the last four races of the last two seasons. Montoya could have taken a stranglehold on the championship at Pocono but pussyfooted, let Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden pass him on the final restart and settled for third and 16 fewer points than had he taken the victory. Power hasn't finished on the podium since the Indianapolis 500. Pagenaud did nothing but lose positions all season. These should all be red flags for the team heading into 2016.
Despite Penske's habit of gagging, on paper, it appears 2016 will be Team Penske's year. Consider this: Next year is the 100th Indianapolis 500, it will be 25 years since Rick Mears' won his fourth Indianapolis 500 driving for Roger Penske and Hélio Castroneves will be making his sixth attempt at winning his fourth Indianapolis 500. On paper, it feels like fate is on Castroneves and Penske's side. Perhaps 2016 will also be Castroneves' year and he will finally get the championship that has eluded him for 18 seasons.
Juan Pablo Montoya
The Colombian started the season with a victory at St. Petersburg and was on of the mountain for months. After beating his teammates in Florida, he got a top five at NOLA and held off Simon Pagenaud for third at Long Beach. A flat tire ruined his race at Barber but he bounced back with a third at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis 500 went all over the place for Juan Pablo Montoya. He was out of it after being hit by Simona de Silvestro. He was out of it after he ran over the air hose on a pit stop. Scott Dixon was dominating. Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Tony Kanaan were on his heels. It appeared Montoya wasn't going to be a factor. It took him half the race to get himself back in contention. It took him 165 laps to lead his first lap. Dixon faded and it became a Penske vs. Penske dual between Montoya and Will Power. Montoya held off Power on the final four laps to pick up his second career Indianapolis 500 victory.
The rest of Montoya's 2015 season would be consistent but not spectacular. Two tenth place finishes at Belle Isle that could have been much more. To be fair, Montoya wasn't the only one caught out in race one and Montoya ran out of fuel in race two a few corners to early. He was fortunate to get tenth in race two but it could have been much better. He finished fourth at Texas, finished a career-best seventh at Toronto with two fourths at Fontana and Milwaukee and overcame a pit lane speeding penalty at the mile oval.
The title was Montoya's to lose. He led by 54 points with five races to go. He completed all but one lap though the first dozen races and finished in the top ten in 11 races. It appeared the championship would not come down to the final race even though the finale would be double points. Then came Iowa. Then came a mechanical failure on lap ten. A last place finish and the door was kicked open. When it appear Montoya was going to rebound at Mid-Ohio, one caution caught him out. He was outside the top ten and fought for eleventh while Graham Rahal won and the closed the margin to nine points. At Pocono, it appeared the title was back in Montoya's lap. Rahal retired. Hélio Castroneves retired. Scott Dixon was behind him. He had a shot for the victory but settled for third.
Montoya entered the finale up 34 points on Rahal with four other drivers championship eligible. He had to run at the front and he did but he still found trouble. He ran into Power, putting them both at the back of the field. The title was slipping from his grasp. Luckily for Montoya, Josef Newgarden had a pit lane fire take him out. Sébastien Bourdais spun Graham Rahal and the Frenchman was penalized. Castroneves and Pagenaud faded. Stefano Coletti was in the top five but was penalized for having his radio fail. Scott Dixon was leading but Montoya was making up ground. Montoya needed to make up one more position. He needed to finish fifth. He ended the season with a sixth place finish and lost the title on a tiebreaker.
Will Power
The 2014 IndyCar champion started his title defense in style. Pole position for St. Petersburg with a second place finish after leading 75 laps and being jumped by Montoya during pit stops. A seventh at NOLA followed with a 20th at Long Beach after his car stalled when he was coming on the pit lane. Long Beach was already going to be an uphill battle after starting 18th but the stall put him a lap down, which he would never make up. At Barber, he ran into Takuma Sato exiting the pit lane and was penalized. While neither lost a lap, Sato finished 17th and Power came home in fourth.
Power started on pole position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and dominated, leading 65 of 82 laps and held off a late charge from Graham Rahal. He started second in the Indianapolis 500 and was at the front all race. Once he got passed Scott Dixon, it became Power vs. Montoya and the Australian couldn't beat the Colombian to the line. He started on pole position for Belle Isle 1 but lost the lead at the after two laps to Takuma Sato. He would be at the front but would only lead to more laps and finished fourth. In race two, Power started second and led the first two laps but faded to the middle of the top ten. Right when it looked like Power would have a shot to get back to the front but he and Hélio Castroneves came together and they finished 18th and 19th respectively.
The third quarter of the season was trying for Power. Another pole position at Texas but he got the setup wrong and finished four laps down in 14th. At Toronto, Power led the first 30 laps from pole position but as drivers switched to slicks Power wasn't a factor and settle for fourth. He was caught up in an accident at Fontana with Takuma Sato with less than ten laps to go and at Milwaukee Ryan Briscoe got into the rear of Power and ended both their days.
He managed a tenth at Iowa but was bitten by the Sage Karam caution at Mid-Ohio and finished 14th. A fourth at Pocono kept Power alive for a second consecutive title and he started the season finale from pole position with an extra point in his pocket. However, even starting from pole position couldn't keep him from hitting his teammate. Both he and Montoya fell to the back but through attrition and others making bonehead mistakes, they worked their way back into the top ten. Power's championship died with that incident as the focus was getting Montoya back to the front. Power consolation prize was seventh in the race and third in the championship.
Hélio Castroneves
Another season of consistent results for Hélio Castroneves found him in championship contention once again. Fourth at St. Petersburg followed by two runner-up finishes at NOLA and Long Beach. At NOLA, he overcame contact with Francesco Dracone to finish on the podium and at Long Beach he started from pole position. At Barber, Castroneves started on pole position and was fourth late in the race but had to pit on the final lap for fuel and fell to 15th.
He made his 300th start at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and celebrated it by running into the back of Scott Dixon. No penalty was issued on the spot and Castroneves finished sixth while Dixon eked out tenth. He was penalized eight points for the incident but Mr. Penske negotiated it down to a three-point penalty. Castroneves hung in the top ten for pretty much all the Indianapolis 500 but couldn't keep up with Dixon, Power, Pagenaud and Kanaan. The Hondas of Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti found something late and Castroneves faded to seventh. A sixth in Belle Isle 1 was followed by, as you all know, the incident with Power in race two.
At Texas, he was able to keep pace with Dixon and Kanaan but couldn't beat them and settled for third. A slight change of strategy gave Castroneves a third at Toronto. He was at the front for the first half of Fontana but he spun off turn two and finished last. He would rebound from Fontana with a second place finish at Milwaukee despite starting last after failing to get in the qualifying line on time. He benefitted from the final caution as he was about to pit and if he did, he wasn't going to finish in top five.
Another pole position at Iowa but, like all the Penskes, he faded and finished 11th. He had a better day than 15th at Mid-Ohio but like Montoya and Power, he was caught out by the Karam caution. He started fourth at Pocono and was in the top ten all race until he had an accident on a restart. If you want to know what restart, go back to the one that was glorified with screenshots of cars six-to-seven wide on the front straightaway. They weren't all going to make it through when entering that wide. He still had a shot at the title but started 15th. He made his way into the top ten but faded and finished where he started and fifth in the championship.
Simon Pagenaud
Simon Pagenaud's debut season for Team Penske was less than spectacular. His average starting position was 5.1 He average finish was 10.6. A top five at St. Petersburg was followed by a retirement at NOLA after contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. He had a fourth at Long Beach and could only manage ninth at Barber after being caught out by the first caution of the race. A gearbox failure ended his race at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after 57 laps.
He was competitive at the Indianapolis 500 but he faded and nearly ran over Justin Wilson. It could have been much worse but it could have been much better. He finished third in Belle Isle 1 after getting pit strategy right. The next three races would see Pagenaud finish outside the top ten. Fourteenth at Belle Isle 2 followed by 11th from the front row at Texas after getting his setup wrong and 11th at Toronto, once again from second on grid. At Fontana, he started on pole but wasn't a factor, leading only three laps and finishing ninth. He started 17th at Milwaukee and picked up another ninth. He faded at Iowa and benefitted from the infamous Sage Karam caution at Mid-Ohio to finish third.
Another front row start at Pocono saw Pagenaud lead 30 laps but fade to seventh in the end. At Sonoma, he started fourth and ended up in 16th. The Frenchman missed the top ten in the championship by 22 points and finished better than his starting position in four of sixteen races.
Is Team Penske a great team? It seems like a ridiculous question but consider that every IndyCar championship since 2006 (not including the final two seasons of Champ Car) has come down to the final race of the season and Penske has had at least one driver alive for the title in all but one of those season (2007 when it was Dario Franchitti vs. Scott Dixon vs. Tony Kanaan) and the team has only two titles to show for it and seven runner-up finishes in that time frame, including having the championship runner-up in the last six seasons.
Team Penske is a gagging, choking dog of a team. They find ways to lose the championship and it doesn't matter who it is. Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, Hélio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya have all choked while driving for this team. Why? I don't know. We hear about doing it the Penske way but the Penske way has led to nothing but disappointment on all but two occasions. There needs to be a culture change at Team Penske but Roger Penske won't change the culture and there is no one at that team willing to challenge The Captain.
The team has won three Indianapolis 500s, tied with Chip Ganassi Racing for the most since 2006. IndyCar is in a weird where one event is bigger than the championship but can winning the Indianapolis 500 be the only thing that matters? Yes it pays more than winning the championship. Yes it gives a team, driver and sponsor more recognition than winning the championship but winning the biggest race and then gagging in the championship can't be acceptable.
All four drivers gagged this past season. Realize that Castroneves has failed to score a top ten finish in the last four races of the last two seasons. Montoya could have taken a stranglehold on the championship at Pocono but pussyfooted, let Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden pass him on the final restart and settled for third and 16 fewer points than had he taken the victory. Power hasn't finished on the podium since the Indianapolis 500. Pagenaud did nothing but lose positions all season. These should all be red flags for the team heading into 2016.
Despite Penske's habit of gagging, on paper, it appears 2016 will be Team Penske's year. Consider this: Next year is the 100th Indianapolis 500, it will be 25 years since Rick Mears' won his fourth Indianapolis 500 driving for Roger Penske and Hélio Castroneves will be making his sixth attempt at winning his fourth Indianapolis 500. On paper, it feels like fate is on Castroneves and Penske's side. Perhaps 2016 will also be Castroneves' year and he will finally get the championship that has eluded him for 18 seasons.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Musings From the Weekend: The Narratives
November began. Champions were crowned in Asia, one for the first time, the other for the second time in as many. Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano had a coming together. The Mexican Grand Prix could have used some rain. There was plenty of rain in China. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
The Narratives
The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was announced last week and a lot of narratives popped up just with the release of the calendar. You don't need races to be run to have narrative. With that said, let's just look at storylines for each race even though we are just beginning November 2015.
St. Petersburg: IndyCar history will be made at St. Petersburg. For the first time ever, an IndyCar race will take place on March 13th. There have been two races on March 14th (1976: Bobby Unser won at Phoenix. 2010: Will Power won at São Paulo). There has never been a race on March 12th but there have been two races on March 11th (1979: Gordon Johncock won at Phoenix. 2001: Cristiano da Matta won at Monterrey). There has never been a race on March 13th. If you are a fan of witnessing history, you will not want to miss this one. Also, March 13th is Marco Andretti's 29th birthday. He could become the tenth driver in IndyCar history to win on their birthday. Not to mention that if James Hinchcliffe returns for this race and takes the green flag, he will be making his 75th career start.
Phoenix: Not only will it be the first IndyCar race at the track in over 11 years, it will be the first IndyCar race on April 2nd since 2006 when Hélio Castroneves won at St. Petersburg. It will be the second Phoenix race to occur on April 2nd. In 1995, Robby Gordon scored his first career victory on the one-mile oval driving for Walker Racing. This race will also occur on what would have been Jack Brabham's 90th birthday. In the off chance Matthew Brabham is in the race, he could accomplish a tremendous feat on a special day for him and his family. It could also be a special day for Will Power, Ryan Briscoe or any other Australia in the field on that day. April 2nd will also be Fabrizio Barbazza's 53rd birthday.
Long Beach: It will be the fourth time the Grand Prix of Long Beach will fall on April 17th. The previous one was in 2011 and won by Mike Conway after the Brit drove passed Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe. The other two were both won by Al Unser, Jr. in 1988 and 1994.
Barber: Scott Dixon has finished second, second, second, second, third and third in six starts at Barber Motorsports Park. Can the defending IndyCar champion finally stand on the top step in Alabama? Can he give Chip Ganassi Racing its first victory at Barber? The seventh Grand Prix of Alabama will be the first race on April 24th since 1966 when Rodger Ward won at Trenton. This will also be Sébastien Bourdais' 150th career start.
Grand Prix of Indianapolis: It is the start of the month of May. Juan Pablo Montoya, Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden and Gabby Chaves will all try to become the third drivers to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, joining Alex Lloyd and Jack Harvey. History will be made, not only because the race is occurring at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but also because, like St. Petersburg, it will be the first race on May 14th. Also, if Rodolfo González returns to IndyCar competition, the Venezuelan will have the opportunity to win a race on his 30th birthday.
Indianapolis 500: It is obvious. The 100th Indianapolis 500. You can't help but get goose bumps. That day will be spectacular. We don't know what will happen but it memorable. It will also be the eighth Indianapolis 500 to be run on May 29th. The previous two were won by Dan Wheldon. The first "500" on May 29th was in 1971 and won by Al Unser on his birthday. Unser turns 77th in 2016. In 1982, Gordon Johncock defeated Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds, the closest Indianapolis 500 finish for a decade. The following year, Tom Sneva won his first. Five years after Sneva, Rick Mears won his third. In 1994, the Penske PC-23 Mercedes-Benz 500I owned the day and Al Unser, Jr. took the victory after Emerson Fittipaldi slapped the wall.
You will have Hélio Castroneves going for his fourth. The 2016 race will mark the 25th anniversary of Rick Mears' fourth. It will be the 50th anniversary of Graham Hill's surprise victory as a rookie (I hope Damon Hill is invited for the grand occasion). It will be the 100th anniversary of Dario Resta's victory in the lone year the race was scheduled for 300 miles and it will be the 100th anniversary of Peugeot's last Indianapolis 500 victory (I hope Peugeot representatives are invited to the race).
In non-Indianapolis 500 related storylines: Should Graham Rahal take the green flag and have taken the green flag in the first five races, he would be making his 150th career start.
Belle Isle 1: The weekend after the Indianapolis 500 brings the pressure of doing it again. Only once has the Indianapolis 500 winner gone on to win the next race when it has fallen on June 4th and that Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. It will also be ten years since the last time IndyCar raced on June 4th and there were two races that day in 2006. Ah, the days of the split. Sébastien Bourdais won at Milwaukee. Scott Dixon won at Watkins Glen.
Belle Isle 2: Twice has an Indianapolis 500 gone on to win on June 5th. Those were Rick Mears in 1988 and Al Unser, Jr. in 1994. Those seasons are the only seasons where the Indianapolis 500 has been on May 29th and there been an IndyCar race on June 5th. It seems as if the Indianapolis 500 will be a shoe-in to win this one. Will that be the base in 2016? Also, both Mears and Unser, Jr. drove for Penske in those seasons. Could 2016 turn out to be Penske's year? This will also make the halfway point of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season. We will get a sense who will be fighting for the championship and who will be fighting for their jobs.
Texas: Since the introduction of the DW12 chassis, the racing at Texas has flipped on its head from pack racing to drivers having to fight their cars and tire degradation. Passing happens as cars fade and pit strategies vary wildly. Some stop within 40 laps. Some stretch it to nearly 60 laps a stint. It is the most fascinating race of the season.
Road America: The long awaited return of the best road course in the United States. Road America is back on the IndyCar schedule. As excited as we all are for this event, this has the feeling of being a race that will let us all down and then leave us questioning ourselves. We have no idea how the cars will race. We have no idea how long caution periods will be. Will the track record of 1:39.866 set by Dario Franchitti in 2000 be broken? Will passing be difficult?
Iowa: The popular short track race has moved to Sunday afternoon. Andretti Autosport enters having won six consecutive Iowa races. This will be the sixth IndyCar race to occur on July 10th, the first since 2011 at Toronto, when Dario Franchitti and Will Power infamously came together. This race will also fall 11 years to the day of Justin Wilson's first career victory, which came at Toronto.
Toronto: Back on its traditional July-date, Toronto marks the final race of the third quarter of the season. There will be four races left and when the teams head back to the States, we will have a clear pictures of who the contenders will be. We will see what the championship leader has to do to keep control of the championship battle. We will know what second, third, fourth, fifth, maybe even sixth have to do to run down the championship leader.
Mid-Ohio: July 31st is Justin Wilson's birthday. Mid-Ohio was the site of Justin Wilson's final podium in what would turn out to be the penultimate race of his career. I have never been a fan of organized memorials. I think they can go too far at times. I think they should be more organic and not turn into an event. However, I'd like to see something done at Mid-Ohio. If the Wilson family doesn't want to be there, that is fine but I would like to see IndyCar do something for this race. With Honda being the sponsor of the race and their relationship with Wilson, perhaps they could use the front straightaway bridge and turn it into a memorial for Wilson.
It will also be 11 years since the last IndyCar races on July 31st and, like June 5th, there were two races that day. Bryan Herta scored his fourth and final IndyCar victory at Michigan and Sébastien Bourdais won the inaugural Grand Prix of San Jose, which feature the first of IndyCar's too many battles with railroad tracks.
Pocono: The obvious narrative is the return to Pocono a year after the death of Justin Wilson. It is a weekend we all need. It was such a freak accident. The series needs it, the track needs it, the drivers need it and the fans need it. We all need to come face-to-face with that day and return to the place where it happened. It is going to be therapeutic and relieving. IndyCar hasn't done that with Las Vegas and it should have. It can't leave places with that being the final memory. It leaves the wrong impression. There was too much finger pointing after Las Vegas and that bridge has never been mended. Fingers should have never been point. The death of Dan Wheldon divided people when it shouldn't have. The death of Justin Wilson could have happened anywhere. It nearly happened at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014. Pocono Raceway just happened to be the location and hopefully the return in 2016 will give the track a fantastic race and strengthen a relationship that will last a long, long, long time.
This will be the first race on August 21st since 2005 when Dan Wheldon won at Pikes Peak in what turned out to be the final IndyCar race at the track. Is that foreshadowing for the future of IndyCar at Pocono? I hope not. It will also be the second Pocono race to take place on August 21st. The first was in 1988 and won by Bobby Rahal. Can his son Graham repeat his father's feat?
Boston: Is it ironic that the first Grand Prix of Boston will occur four years to the day of the inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore? Is this foreshadowing of the fate of this event? Baltimore had great crowds but was a disaster. The city never got behind it and it lasted three year. Boston is already against the event. This race isn't even a guarantee to happen. Some say it is. Others say it isn't. The reported deal was for five years but who knows if this race will even make it to year one.
Should Boston (or a replacement race, fingers crossed for Milwaukee) occur on this weekend, Ryan Hunter-Reay could be making his 200th career start and Simon Pagenaud could be making his 100th career start.
Sonoma: The season finale. There is no guarantee the championship will come down to the final race but if it does, the race will be a frantic event, following two, three, four or maybe even five drivers battle out for the Astor Cup.
Sonoma could mark the 100th career start for Charlie Kimball.
Champions From the Weekend
José María López clinched his second consecutive World Touring Car Championship title with a victory in race one from Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. López finished fourth in race two as Tiago Monteiro took his third victory of the season.
André Couto clinched the Super GT GT300 championship with his second place finish at Autopolis in the #10 Gainer Nissan GT-R GT3 with Katsumasa Chiyo.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened in Thailand but did you know...
Nico Rosberg won the Mexican Grand Prix.
The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard won the 6 Hours of Shanghai, their fourth consecutive victory. The #36 Signatech Alpine-Nissan of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tom Dillmann won in LMP2. The #91 Porsche of championship leader Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen won in GTE-Pro. In GTE-Am, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Águas were victorious.
The #1 NISMO Nissan GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli won the Super GT race from Autopolis. It was a sweep for Nissan as the #3 NDDP Racing with B-MAX Nissan GT-R GT3 GT300 of Kazuki Hoshino and Mitsunori Takaboshi won in GT300.
Jeff Gordon won the NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville.
Matt Crafton won the NASCAR Truck race from Martinsville.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP season finale from Valencia. Valentino Rossi vs. Jorge Lorenzo for the title.
Super Formula season finale from Suzuka.
Formula E will be in Putrajaya.
V8 Supercars head east to Pukekohe Park Raceway.
NASCAR heads to Texas.
Asian Le Mans Series will run at Sepang.
The Narratives
The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was announced last week and a lot of narratives popped up just with the release of the calendar. You don't need races to be run to have narrative. With that said, let's just look at storylines for each race even though we are just beginning November 2015.
St. Petersburg: IndyCar history will be made at St. Petersburg. For the first time ever, an IndyCar race will take place on March 13th. There have been two races on March 14th (1976: Bobby Unser won at Phoenix. 2010: Will Power won at São Paulo). There has never been a race on March 12th but there have been two races on March 11th (1979: Gordon Johncock won at Phoenix. 2001: Cristiano da Matta won at Monterrey). There has never been a race on March 13th. If you are a fan of witnessing history, you will not want to miss this one. Also, March 13th is Marco Andretti's 29th birthday. He could become the tenth driver in IndyCar history to win on their birthday. Not to mention that if James Hinchcliffe returns for this race and takes the green flag, he will be making his 75th career start.
Phoenix: Not only will it be the first IndyCar race at the track in over 11 years, it will be the first IndyCar race on April 2nd since 2006 when Hélio Castroneves won at St. Petersburg. It will be the second Phoenix race to occur on April 2nd. In 1995, Robby Gordon scored his first career victory on the one-mile oval driving for Walker Racing. This race will also occur on what would have been Jack Brabham's 90th birthday. In the off chance Matthew Brabham is in the race, he could accomplish a tremendous feat on a special day for him and his family. It could also be a special day for Will Power, Ryan Briscoe or any other Australia in the field on that day. April 2nd will also be Fabrizio Barbazza's 53rd birthday.
Long Beach: It will be the fourth time the Grand Prix of Long Beach will fall on April 17th. The previous one was in 2011 and won by Mike Conway after the Brit drove passed Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe. The other two were both won by Al Unser, Jr. in 1988 and 1994.
Barber: Scott Dixon has finished second, second, second, second, third and third in six starts at Barber Motorsports Park. Can the defending IndyCar champion finally stand on the top step in Alabama? Can he give Chip Ganassi Racing its first victory at Barber? The seventh Grand Prix of Alabama will be the first race on April 24th since 1966 when Rodger Ward won at Trenton. This will also be Sébastien Bourdais' 150th career start.
Grand Prix of Indianapolis: It is the start of the month of May. Juan Pablo Montoya, Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden and Gabby Chaves will all try to become the third drivers to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, joining Alex Lloyd and Jack Harvey. History will be made, not only because the race is occurring at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but also because, like St. Petersburg, it will be the first race on May 14th. Also, if Rodolfo González returns to IndyCar competition, the Venezuelan will have the opportunity to win a race on his 30th birthday.
Indianapolis 500: It is obvious. The 100th Indianapolis 500. You can't help but get goose bumps. That day will be spectacular. We don't know what will happen but it memorable. It will also be the eighth Indianapolis 500 to be run on May 29th. The previous two were won by Dan Wheldon. The first "500" on May 29th was in 1971 and won by Al Unser on his birthday. Unser turns 77th in 2016. In 1982, Gordon Johncock defeated Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds, the closest Indianapolis 500 finish for a decade. The following year, Tom Sneva won his first. Five years after Sneva, Rick Mears won his third. In 1994, the Penske PC-23 Mercedes-Benz 500I owned the day and Al Unser, Jr. took the victory after Emerson Fittipaldi slapped the wall.
You will have Hélio Castroneves going for his fourth. The 2016 race will mark the 25th anniversary of Rick Mears' fourth. It will be the 50th anniversary of Graham Hill's surprise victory as a rookie (I hope Damon Hill is invited for the grand occasion). It will be the 100th anniversary of Dario Resta's victory in the lone year the race was scheduled for 300 miles and it will be the 100th anniversary of Peugeot's last Indianapolis 500 victory (I hope Peugeot representatives are invited to the race).
In non-Indianapolis 500 related storylines: Should Graham Rahal take the green flag and have taken the green flag in the first five races, he would be making his 150th career start.
Belle Isle 1: The weekend after the Indianapolis 500 brings the pressure of doing it again. Only once has the Indianapolis 500 winner gone on to win the next race when it has fallen on June 4th and that Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. It will also be ten years since the last time IndyCar raced on June 4th and there were two races that day in 2006. Ah, the days of the split. Sébastien Bourdais won at Milwaukee. Scott Dixon won at Watkins Glen.
Belle Isle 2: Twice has an Indianapolis 500 gone on to win on June 5th. Those were Rick Mears in 1988 and Al Unser, Jr. in 1994. Those seasons are the only seasons where the Indianapolis 500 has been on May 29th and there been an IndyCar race on June 5th. It seems as if the Indianapolis 500 will be a shoe-in to win this one. Will that be the base in 2016? Also, both Mears and Unser, Jr. drove for Penske in those seasons. Could 2016 turn out to be Penske's year? This will also make the halfway point of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season. We will get a sense who will be fighting for the championship and who will be fighting for their jobs.
Texas: Since the introduction of the DW12 chassis, the racing at Texas has flipped on its head from pack racing to drivers having to fight their cars and tire degradation. Passing happens as cars fade and pit strategies vary wildly. Some stop within 40 laps. Some stretch it to nearly 60 laps a stint. It is the most fascinating race of the season.
Road America: The long awaited return of the best road course in the United States. Road America is back on the IndyCar schedule. As excited as we all are for this event, this has the feeling of being a race that will let us all down and then leave us questioning ourselves. We have no idea how the cars will race. We have no idea how long caution periods will be. Will the track record of 1:39.866 set by Dario Franchitti in 2000 be broken? Will passing be difficult?
Iowa: The popular short track race has moved to Sunday afternoon. Andretti Autosport enters having won six consecutive Iowa races. This will be the sixth IndyCar race to occur on July 10th, the first since 2011 at Toronto, when Dario Franchitti and Will Power infamously came together. This race will also fall 11 years to the day of Justin Wilson's first career victory, which came at Toronto.
Toronto: Back on its traditional July-date, Toronto marks the final race of the third quarter of the season. There will be four races left and when the teams head back to the States, we will have a clear pictures of who the contenders will be. We will see what the championship leader has to do to keep control of the championship battle. We will know what second, third, fourth, fifth, maybe even sixth have to do to run down the championship leader.
Mid-Ohio: July 31st is Justin Wilson's birthday. Mid-Ohio was the site of Justin Wilson's final podium in what would turn out to be the penultimate race of his career. I have never been a fan of organized memorials. I think they can go too far at times. I think they should be more organic and not turn into an event. However, I'd like to see something done at Mid-Ohio. If the Wilson family doesn't want to be there, that is fine but I would like to see IndyCar do something for this race. With Honda being the sponsor of the race and their relationship with Wilson, perhaps they could use the front straightaway bridge and turn it into a memorial for Wilson.
It will also be 11 years since the last IndyCar races on July 31st and, like June 5th, there were two races that day. Bryan Herta scored his fourth and final IndyCar victory at Michigan and Sébastien Bourdais won the inaugural Grand Prix of San Jose, which feature the first of IndyCar's too many battles with railroad tracks.
Pocono: The obvious narrative is the return to Pocono a year after the death of Justin Wilson. It is a weekend we all need. It was such a freak accident. The series needs it, the track needs it, the drivers need it and the fans need it. We all need to come face-to-face with that day and return to the place where it happened. It is going to be therapeutic and relieving. IndyCar hasn't done that with Las Vegas and it should have. It can't leave places with that being the final memory. It leaves the wrong impression. There was too much finger pointing after Las Vegas and that bridge has never been mended. Fingers should have never been point. The death of Dan Wheldon divided people when it shouldn't have. The death of Justin Wilson could have happened anywhere. It nearly happened at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014. Pocono Raceway just happened to be the location and hopefully the return in 2016 will give the track a fantastic race and strengthen a relationship that will last a long, long, long time.
This will be the first race on August 21st since 2005 when Dan Wheldon won at Pikes Peak in what turned out to be the final IndyCar race at the track. Is that foreshadowing for the future of IndyCar at Pocono? I hope not. It will also be the second Pocono race to take place on August 21st. The first was in 1988 and won by Bobby Rahal. Can his son Graham repeat his father's feat?
Boston: Is it ironic that the first Grand Prix of Boston will occur four years to the day of the inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore? Is this foreshadowing of the fate of this event? Baltimore had great crowds but was a disaster. The city never got behind it and it lasted three year. Boston is already against the event. This race isn't even a guarantee to happen. Some say it is. Others say it isn't. The reported deal was for five years but who knows if this race will even make it to year one.
Should Boston (or a replacement race, fingers crossed for Milwaukee) occur on this weekend, Ryan Hunter-Reay could be making his 200th career start and Simon Pagenaud could be making his 100th career start.
Sonoma: The season finale. There is no guarantee the championship will come down to the final race but if it does, the race will be a frantic event, following two, three, four or maybe even five drivers battle out for the Astor Cup.
Sonoma could mark the 100th career start for Charlie Kimball.
Champions From the Weekend
José María López clinched his second consecutive World Touring Car Championship title with a victory in race one from Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. López finished fourth in race two as Tiago Monteiro took his third victory of the season.
André Couto clinched the Super GT GT300 championship with his second place finish at Autopolis in the #10 Gainer Nissan GT-R GT3 with Katsumasa Chiyo.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened in Thailand but did you know...
Nico Rosberg won the Mexican Grand Prix.
The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard won the 6 Hours of Shanghai, their fourth consecutive victory. The #36 Signatech Alpine-Nissan of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tom Dillmann won in LMP2. The #91 Porsche of championship leader Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen won in GTE-Pro. In GTE-Am, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Águas were victorious.
The #1 NISMO Nissan GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli won the Super GT race from Autopolis. It was a sweep for Nissan as the #3 NDDP Racing with B-MAX Nissan GT-R GT3 GT300 of Kazuki Hoshino and Mitsunori Takaboshi won in GT300.
Jeff Gordon won the NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville.
Matt Crafton won the NASCAR Truck race from Martinsville.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP season finale from Valencia. Valentino Rossi vs. Jorge Lorenzo for the title.
Super Formula season finale from Suzuka.
Formula E will be in Putrajaya.
V8 Supercars head east to Pukekohe Park Raceway.
NASCAR heads to Texas.
Asian Le Mans Series will run at Sepang.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Friday Five: Shanghai, Mexico City, Martinsville, Autopolis, Buriram
A few championships head to their penultimate rounds of their respective 2015 seasons. Formula One returns to Mexico for the first time in over two decades. NASCAR heads to a short track. World Touring Car Championship heads to a new country. FIA World Endurance Championship returns to China. There will be some more racing in Japan.
Shanghai
The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard took the championship lead after the trio won its third consecutive race at Fuji. They have 129 points and lead the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer by one point. The #7 Audi has finished on the podium in every single race and won the first two races. The #17 has finished on the podium in every race but Silverstone when they retired.
The #18 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani has finished second in four of six races and has 95.5 points. The #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis is fourth in the championship with 79 points and one podium, a third at Austin. Toyota's struggle continues. The defending champions Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi have 59 points. The #2 Toyota of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Alexander Wurz have 54 points.
In LMP2, the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Julien Canal and Romain Rusinov have taken the championship leader after winning their second consecutive race and third of the season. The #26 leads with 126 points. Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley lost the LMP2 championship lead after their #47 Oreca-Nissan retired at Fuji and now trail the #26 G-Drive Ligier by 12 points. Nick Tandy will be the third driver in the KCMG entry. The #27 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Gustavo Yacamán, Ricardo González and Pipo Derani has a victory, four consecutive third places finishes and is 15 points behind their teammates.
Richard Lietz holds a seven-point lead over the #71 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado and Davide Rigon. Defending champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander won their second race of the season and has the #51 AF Corse Ferrari is 16.5 points behind the Austrian. Lietz' #91 Porsche co-drive Michael Christensen is fourth, a point and a half behind Bruni and Vilander. Frédéric Makowiecki rounds out the top five with 78 points. The #92 Porsche of Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet have finished second in class in the last three races.
The #72 SMP Racing Ferrari could lock up the GTE-Am championship in Shanghai. Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov have 140 points and have three victories this season. The Russian team holds a 29-point lead over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Águas and has finished on the podium in every race this season. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried picked up their first victory at Fuji and trail the #72 Ferrari by 36 points. The #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won the first two races of the season and trails the #72 Ferrari by 41 points.
Mexico City
The championship has already been decided. Lewis Hamilton heads to Mexico coming off his tenth victory of 2015 and clinching his third World Drivers' Championship in Austin. Hamilton could become the second driver to win all three North American Grand Prix (Canada, United States, Mexico), joining Ayrton Senna who won in Canada in 1988 and 1990, won in Mexico in 1989 and won consecutive United States Grand Prix in 1990-91. Hamilton could become the first driver to ever win the United States Grand Prix and Mexican Grand Prix in the same season.
The battle is now for second as Sebastian Vettel holds a four-point advantage over his fellow German Nico Rosberg. Vettel has five consecutive podium finishes while Rosberg has two runner-up finishes and two races he failed to finish in that time span.
While two Germans are battling for second, two Finns battle for fourth and they have already gotten together on the racetrack. Kimi Räikkönen is 12 points ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Both drivers retired from the United States Grand Prix. Two points behind Bottas is his Williams' teammate Felipe Massa. Thirty-three points behind Massa is Daniil Kvyat. Daniel Ricciardo is two points behind his Red Bull teammate. Sergio Pérez heads to his first ever Mexican Grand Prix and is coming off a third in Russia and a fifth in the United States. With his fourth in Austin, Max Verstappen jumped into the top ten of the championship, passing Romain Grosjean and Nico Hülkenberg, with 45 points.
Thirteenth through 16th all scored points at Austin. Felipe Nasr finished ninth, Pastor Maldonado finished eighth, Carlos Sainz, Jr. finished seventh and Jenson Button came home in sixth. Button jumped his McLaren teammate in the championship as the Brit has 16 points to Fernando Alonso's 11 points. Marcus Ericsson has nine points. Alexander Rossi is coming off a career-best 12th in his home race and Will Stevens picked up his second retirement of the season in the most recent round.
This will be the 17th Mexican Grand Prix and 16th on the Formula One calendar. Only once has a German engine won the race. Gerhard Berger won the 1986 race driving a Brabham-BMW. Williams has won the last two Mexican Grand Prix with Riccardo Patrese in 1991 and Nigel Mansell in 1992. A Honda engine has won the Mexican Grand Prix four times, including the manufactures first Grand Prix victory in 1965 with Richie Ginther.
Jim Clark won three Mexican Grand Prix, but only two of those were Formula One rounds. Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell also won the Mexican Grand Prix twice.
Martinsville
The semifinal round of the Chase opens from Martinsville Speedway.
Joey Logano won all three races in round two. Four other drivers who advanced to round three had top tens in all three second round races. Carl Edwards' best finish in round two was fifth at Talladega. Jeff Gordon scored his first top five of the Chase with his third at Talladega after starting on pole position. Kurt Busch quietly has four top tens in six races with fifth at Charlotte being his best finish of round two. Brad Keselowski had two ninths and a fourth in round two.
Martin Truex, Jr. advanced after getting a third, 15th and seventh in the second round. Kevin Harvick finished second in the first race of round two but finished 16th and 15th in the next two races. Kyle Busch finished fifth at Kansas but failed to finish in the top ten in other two races.
Chevrolet has won ten of the last twelve autumn Martinsville races with Hendrick Motorsports winning the last three with three different drivers. Toyota's two victories in the autumn Martinsville race were by Denny Hamlin in 2009-10. Ford has not won at Martinsville since October 20, 2002 when Kurt Busch won with Roush Racing.
Only three of the remaining eight drivers have won at Martinsville. Jeff Gordon leads with eight victories. Kurt Busch has two and won the 2014 spring race. Kevin Harvick's lone Martinsville win was the 2011 spring race. Of none-Chase drivers, Jimmie Johnson has eight Martinsville race, Denny Hamlin has five, Tony Stewart has three and Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. each have one victory. Earnhardt, Jr. won last year's autumn race, the week after being eliminated from the Chase.
Jeff Gordon has 28 top fives at Martinsville while the other seven Chase drivers combine for 23 top fives at the short track. Kyle Busch has eight top fives while Joey Logano has four, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch have three, Martin Truex, Jr. and Brad Keselowski have two and Carl Edwards has one.
Autopolis
The penultimate round of the Super GT season will be at Autopolis.
In GT500, the #12 Team Impul Nissan GT-R of João Paulo de Oliveira and Hironobu Yasuda leads the championship with 51 points but has yet to score a victory this season. Takuya Izawa and Naoki Yamamoto are second, two points behind the #12 Nissan after they drove the #100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT to victory in the most recent round at Sportsland SUGO. The #46 MOLA Nissan GT-R of Satoshu Motoyama and Masataka Yanagida are third on 45 points and were the winners in Buriram, Thailand earlier this season. Super Formula points leader Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa is tied with the #46 MOLA Nissan. The #38 Team Zent Cerumo Lexus RC F has two runner-up finishes and a third this season. James Rossiter and Daisuke Ito won Suzuka 1000km in the #36 Lexus Team Petronas TOM's RC F and rounds out the top five of the championship with 43 points and the defending champions, the #1 NISMO Nissan GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli are tied with the #36 Lexus.
In GT300, André Couto leads with 74 points and is 20 points ahead of Katsumasa Chiyo. Couto and Chiyo both drive the #10 Gainer Nissan GT-R GT3. Chiyo missed the Fuji and Sportsland SUGO races due to Blancpain GT Series duty. Couto and Chiyo won at Fuji and Suzuka. Twenty-five points behind Couto are Koki Saga and Yuchi Nakayama, drivers of the #31 apr Toyota Prius GT. Saga and Nakayama won the season opener at Okayama. Ryuichiro Tomita is 29 points behind Couto but is the third driver in the #10 Nissan GT-R GT3. Tomita replaced Chiyo in the rounds he missed and ran Suzuka. The #3 NDDP Racing Nissan GT-R GT3 of Kazuki Hoshino and Mitsunori Takaboshi trail by 33 points and won in Thailand. Also 33 points back is the #11 Gainer Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Björn Wirdheim. Hirananka and Wirdheim have three podiums this season.
Buriram
The World Touring Car Championship season heads to it's penultimate round of the 2015 season at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand for the inaugural Race of Thailand and two drivers are eligible for the title.
Defending champion José María López leads with 396 points and looks to clinch his second consecutive title this weekend. López's Citroën teammate Yvan Muller trails the Argentine by 75 points and will have to outscore López by twenty points to keep his title hopes alive. Muller is a four-time WTCC champion.
López has eight victories this season to Muller's five. López has 16 podiums from 20 races while Muller has 12 podiums.
Citroën drivers have the top four in the championship as Sébastien Loeb is third with 282 points and Ma Qing Hua is fourth on 178 points. Zengõ Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz rounds out the top five on 172 points with Gabriele Tarquini of Honda one point behind the Hungarian. Tiago Monteiro is seventh on 165 points.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 189.5 laps completed in the 6 Hours of Shanghai?
2. Over or Under: 0.5 safety car periods in the Mexican Grand Prix?
3. Over or Under: 2.5 Chase drivers finishing in the top five in Martinsville?
4. Over or Under: 2.5 European drivers on the two podiums at Autopolis?
5. Over or Under: 0.5 retirements for Citroën drivers?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Vettel went from 13th to third in the United States Grand Prix.
2. Under: One Ducati finished in the top ten at Sepang. That was Danilo Petrucci, who finished sixth.
3. Over: Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell's average finish at Surfers Paradise was 15.5.
4. Under: There were zero red flag periods at Talladega.
5. Over: Volkswagen won 17 stages at Rally Catalunya.
Predictions
1. There will be at least two different class winners from the Fuji race.
2. Lewis Hamilton does not finish on the podium.
3. No one clinches a spot for the Homestead season finale.
4. There will be a first time winner in 2015 at Autopolis.
5. A driver outside the top seven in the champion scores a podium in Buriram.
Last Week's Predictions
1. Lewis Hamilton clinches the World Drivers' Championship (Correct).
2. Valentino Rossi finishes ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Wrong. Lorenzo 2nd. Rossi 3rd).
3. Someone scores their first career victory at Surfers Paradise (Correct. Both James Courtney and Jack Perkins scored their first victories at Surfers Paradise).
4. At least one former Cup champion is eliminated at Talladega (Correct. Matt Kenseth is out).
5. The winner of the Power Stage is not the winner of Rally Catalunya (Wrong. Andreas Mikkelsen won both).
Overall: 3/5 Running Tally: 21/40
Shanghai
The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard took the championship lead after the trio won its third consecutive race at Fuji. They have 129 points and lead the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer by one point. The #7 Audi has finished on the podium in every single race and won the first two races. The #17 has finished on the podium in every race but Silverstone when they retired.
The #18 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani has finished second in four of six races and has 95.5 points. The #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis is fourth in the championship with 79 points and one podium, a third at Austin. Toyota's struggle continues. The defending champions Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi have 59 points. The #2 Toyota of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Alexander Wurz have 54 points.
In LMP2, the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Julien Canal and Romain Rusinov have taken the championship leader after winning their second consecutive race and third of the season. The #26 leads with 126 points. Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley lost the LMP2 championship lead after their #47 Oreca-Nissan retired at Fuji and now trail the #26 G-Drive Ligier by 12 points. Nick Tandy will be the third driver in the KCMG entry. The #27 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Gustavo Yacamán, Ricardo González and Pipo Derani has a victory, four consecutive third places finishes and is 15 points behind their teammates.
Richard Lietz holds a seven-point lead over the #71 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado and Davide Rigon. Defending champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander won their second race of the season and has the #51 AF Corse Ferrari is 16.5 points behind the Austrian. Lietz' #91 Porsche co-drive Michael Christensen is fourth, a point and a half behind Bruni and Vilander. Frédéric Makowiecki rounds out the top five with 78 points. The #92 Porsche of Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet have finished second in class in the last three races.
The #72 SMP Racing Ferrari could lock up the GTE-Am championship in Shanghai. Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov have 140 points and have three victories this season. The Russian team holds a 29-point lead over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Águas and has finished on the podium in every race this season. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried picked up their first victory at Fuji and trail the #72 Ferrari by 36 points. The #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won the first two races of the season and trails the #72 Ferrari by 41 points.
Mexico City
The championship has already been decided. Lewis Hamilton heads to Mexico coming off his tenth victory of 2015 and clinching his third World Drivers' Championship in Austin. Hamilton could become the second driver to win all three North American Grand Prix (Canada, United States, Mexico), joining Ayrton Senna who won in Canada in 1988 and 1990, won in Mexico in 1989 and won consecutive United States Grand Prix in 1990-91. Hamilton could become the first driver to ever win the United States Grand Prix and Mexican Grand Prix in the same season.
The battle is now for second as Sebastian Vettel holds a four-point advantage over his fellow German Nico Rosberg. Vettel has five consecutive podium finishes while Rosberg has two runner-up finishes and two races he failed to finish in that time span.
While two Germans are battling for second, two Finns battle for fourth and they have already gotten together on the racetrack. Kimi Räikkönen is 12 points ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Both drivers retired from the United States Grand Prix. Two points behind Bottas is his Williams' teammate Felipe Massa. Thirty-three points behind Massa is Daniil Kvyat. Daniel Ricciardo is two points behind his Red Bull teammate. Sergio Pérez heads to his first ever Mexican Grand Prix and is coming off a third in Russia and a fifth in the United States. With his fourth in Austin, Max Verstappen jumped into the top ten of the championship, passing Romain Grosjean and Nico Hülkenberg, with 45 points.
Thirteenth through 16th all scored points at Austin. Felipe Nasr finished ninth, Pastor Maldonado finished eighth, Carlos Sainz, Jr. finished seventh and Jenson Button came home in sixth. Button jumped his McLaren teammate in the championship as the Brit has 16 points to Fernando Alonso's 11 points. Marcus Ericsson has nine points. Alexander Rossi is coming off a career-best 12th in his home race and Will Stevens picked up his second retirement of the season in the most recent round.
This will be the 17th Mexican Grand Prix and 16th on the Formula One calendar. Only once has a German engine won the race. Gerhard Berger won the 1986 race driving a Brabham-BMW. Williams has won the last two Mexican Grand Prix with Riccardo Patrese in 1991 and Nigel Mansell in 1992. A Honda engine has won the Mexican Grand Prix four times, including the manufactures first Grand Prix victory in 1965 with Richie Ginther.
Jim Clark won three Mexican Grand Prix, but only two of those were Formula One rounds. Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell also won the Mexican Grand Prix twice.
Martinsville
The semifinal round of the Chase opens from Martinsville Speedway.
Joey Logano won all three races in round two. Four other drivers who advanced to round three had top tens in all three second round races. Carl Edwards' best finish in round two was fifth at Talladega. Jeff Gordon scored his first top five of the Chase with his third at Talladega after starting on pole position. Kurt Busch quietly has four top tens in six races with fifth at Charlotte being his best finish of round two. Brad Keselowski had two ninths and a fourth in round two.
Martin Truex, Jr. advanced after getting a third, 15th and seventh in the second round. Kevin Harvick finished second in the first race of round two but finished 16th and 15th in the next two races. Kyle Busch finished fifth at Kansas but failed to finish in the top ten in other two races.
Chevrolet has won ten of the last twelve autumn Martinsville races with Hendrick Motorsports winning the last three with three different drivers. Toyota's two victories in the autumn Martinsville race were by Denny Hamlin in 2009-10. Ford has not won at Martinsville since October 20, 2002 when Kurt Busch won with Roush Racing.
Only three of the remaining eight drivers have won at Martinsville. Jeff Gordon leads with eight victories. Kurt Busch has two and won the 2014 spring race. Kevin Harvick's lone Martinsville win was the 2011 spring race. Of none-Chase drivers, Jimmie Johnson has eight Martinsville race, Denny Hamlin has five, Tony Stewart has three and Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. each have one victory. Earnhardt, Jr. won last year's autumn race, the week after being eliminated from the Chase.
Jeff Gordon has 28 top fives at Martinsville while the other seven Chase drivers combine for 23 top fives at the short track. Kyle Busch has eight top fives while Joey Logano has four, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch have three, Martin Truex, Jr. and Brad Keselowski have two and Carl Edwards has one.
Autopolis
The penultimate round of the Super GT season will be at Autopolis.
In GT500, the #12 Team Impul Nissan GT-R of João Paulo de Oliveira and Hironobu Yasuda leads the championship with 51 points but has yet to score a victory this season. Takuya Izawa and Naoki Yamamoto are second, two points behind the #12 Nissan after they drove the #100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT to victory in the most recent round at Sportsland SUGO. The #46 MOLA Nissan GT-R of Satoshu Motoyama and Masataka Yanagida are third on 45 points and were the winners in Buriram, Thailand earlier this season. Super Formula points leader Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa is tied with the #46 MOLA Nissan. The #38 Team Zent Cerumo Lexus RC F has two runner-up finishes and a third this season. James Rossiter and Daisuke Ito won Suzuka 1000km in the #36 Lexus Team Petronas TOM's RC F and rounds out the top five of the championship with 43 points and the defending champions, the #1 NISMO Nissan GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli are tied with the #36 Lexus.
In GT300, André Couto leads with 74 points and is 20 points ahead of Katsumasa Chiyo. Couto and Chiyo both drive the #10 Gainer Nissan GT-R GT3. Chiyo missed the Fuji and Sportsland SUGO races due to Blancpain GT Series duty. Couto and Chiyo won at Fuji and Suzuka. Twenty-five points behind Couto are Koki Saga and Yuchi Nakayama, drivers of the #31 apr Toyota Prius GT. Saga and Nakayama won the season opener at Okayama. Ryuichiro Tomita is 29 points behind Couto but is the third driver in the #10 Nissan GT-R GT3. Tomita replaced Chiyo in the rounds he missed and ran Suzuka. The #3 NDDP Racing Nissan GT-R GT3 of Kazuki Hoshino and Mitsunori Takaboshi trail by 33 points and won in Thailand. Also 33 points back is the #11 Gainer Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Björn Wirdheim. Hirananka and Wirdheim have three podiums this season.
Buriram
The World Touring Car Championship season heads to it's penultimate round of the 2015 season at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand for the inaugural Race of Thailand and two drivers are eligible for the title.
Defending champion José María López leads with 396 points and looks to clinch his second consecutive title this weekend. López's Citroën teammate Yvan Muller trails the Argentine by 75 points and will have to outscore López by twenty points to keep his title hopes alive. Muller is a four-time WTCC champion.
López has eight victories this season to Muller's five. López has 16 podiums from 20 races while Muller has 12 podiums.
Citroën drivers have the top four in the championship as Sébastien Loeb is third with 282 points and Ma Qing Hua is fourth on 178 points. Zengõ Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz rounds out the top five on 172 points with Gabriele Tarquini of Honda one point behind the Hungarian. Tiago Monteiro is seventh on 165 points.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 189.5 laps completed in the 6 Hours of Shanghai?
2. Over or Under: 0.5 safety car periods in the Mexican Grand Prix?
3. Over or Under: 2.5 Chase drivers finishing in the top five in Martinsville?
4. Over or Under: 2.5 European drivers on the two podiums at Autopolis?
5. Over or Under: 0.5 retirements for Citroën drivers?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Vettel went from 13th to third in the United States Grand Prix.
2. Under: One Ducati finished in the top ten at Sepang. That was Danilo Petrucci, who finished sixth.
3. Over: Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell's average finish at Surfers Paradise was 15.5.
4. Under: There were zero red flag periods at Talladega.
5. Over: Volkswagen won 17 stages at Rally Catalunya.
Predictions
1. There will be at least two different class winners from the Fuji race.
2. Lewis Hamilton does not finish on the podium.
3. No one clinches a spot for the Homestead season finale.
4. There will be a first time winner in 2015 at Autopolis.
5. A driver outside the top seven in the champion scores a podium in Buriram.
Last Week's Predictions
1. Lewis Hamilton clinches the World Drivers' Championship (Correct).
2. Valentino Rossi finishes ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Wrong. Lorenzo 2nd. Rossi 3rd).
3. Someone scores their first career victory at Surfers Paradise (Correct. Both James Courtney and Jack Perkins scored their first victories at Surfers Paradise).
4. At least one former Cup champion is eliminated at Talladega (Correct. Matt Kenseth is out).
5. The winner of the Power Stage is not the winner of Rally Catalunya (Wrong. Andreas Mikkelsen won both).
Overall: 3/5 Running Tally: 21/40
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Wednesday Wrap-Up: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's 2015 Season
The antepenultimate Wednesday Wrap-Up looks at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which went from the worst team in IndyCar to championship contenders in one season. The team surprisingly was the best Honda team despite not developing the Honda aero kit during the offseason. The team did not have any mechanical failures take them out of a race and outside of one race, all of RLLR's poor results where not of their making.
Graham Rahal
This was the season people having been waiting for from Graham Rahal since 2009. The first race saw Rahal be penalized when he made contact with Charlie Kimball's wounded car but he recovered to finish 11th. He survived the rain at NOLA to finish eighth and picked up another 11th at Long Beach. The natural-terrain road courses are where we got to see the strength of the Honda aero kit. Rahal started eighth and used pit strategy to put him into the lead. He had to make an additional pit stop but he was on fresh tires, was running laps two seconds faster than other drivers and drove his way to second until the checkered flag was displayed and he was 2.2 seconds behind Josef Newgarden.
Rahal developed a tendency to get at least one podium a year but the next race showed he had found a groove. He had to use pit strategy again to get from 17th to the front but he was running competitive lap times to Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya and the other front-runners. He got within 1.5 seconds of Power but once again fell a few laps short. He started 17th in the Indianapolis 500 and his car improved as the race went on. He worked his way into the top ten and then into the top five. He couldn't get to the Penskes of Power and Monotya or the Ganassis of Kimball and Dixon and finished fifth.
Belle Isle 1 was the first bump in the road for Rahal as Stefano Coletti and James Jakes got together, leaving him and Tony Kanaan as collateral damage and ending Rahal's race on lap five. An early exit like this one would have killed Rahal's season in previous years. The next race he would driven too hard, bounced off the barrier, get even more frustrated, have it carry over to the next race and it would be all downhill. But race two saw Rahal benefit from qualifying being rained out, started fifth, benefitted from Power, Hélio Castroneves and Dixon being taken out and from others needing to conserve fuel to finish third. Texas was the only race that Rahal can pin on him and the team. He started sixth, got the set-up wrong for the race and finished 14th. He was the top Honda in eighth at Toronto made some aggressive passes to get there.
Then there is Fontana. Some races you win because you catch breaks. Rahal caught breaks at Fontana. He drove well all race and worked his way to the front but benefitted from not being penalized for leaving the pit lane with the fuel nozzle still attached and benefitted for not being called for multiple blocks near the end of the race. He broke his drought of 124 starts between victories. He had another solid run at Milwaukee where he ran in the top ten all race and ended up on the podium once again. At Iowa, he came back from a gearbox issue and falling a lap down to finish fourth. This led into his home victory at Mid-Ohio. He pitted at the right time when a caution came out and ended up on the top step of the podium.
Unfortunately, the storyline took a turn for the worst after Mid-Ohio. A botched pit stop at Pocono dropped him from the top ten to the back of the field. Tristan Vautier attempted a move into turn three that was never going to work and Rahal just happened to be the driver Vautier dove under. He still had a shot at the title despite the incident with Vautier and was running in the top ten at Sonoma until Sébastien Bourdais punted him and dropped him to 18th in the final race of the season and from second in the championship to fourth.
Graham Rahal had a championship season. Equipment was reliable. He turned top tens into top fives and top fives into podiums. Could he have been more conservative at Pocono? Who knows? He couldn't have seen the amount of attrition based off the previous two Pocono races. Belle Isle 1 and Sonoma were out of his control. Texas was the lone race that he and his name can hang their head on and even then he wasn't the only one to get the set-up wrong at Texas (Will Power and Simon Pagenaud are in the same boat). Rahal seems to be in a better place. He is settling down and getting married and perhaps that is a reason for his better on-track success.
Now the pressure is on Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Can they replicate these results? Andretti Autosport came on strong at the end of 2015 and history has shown us that Andretti Autosport can rebound. Penske and Ganassi will still be there. Maybe CFH Racing remains a contender. Perhaps KV Racing and Sébastien Bourdais makes that next step forward. RLLR has plenty of teams breathing down its neck to compete for the championship. The team is not expanding to two full-time teams but Spencer Pigot will be driving for the team at St. Petersburg and the two Indianapolis races and full-time hasn't been entirely ruled out. If they do bring on the Indy Lights champion, can the team develop him and not take a step back?
After having many competitive races in 2012 with Takuma Sato, RLLR were flat in the following two seasons. After winning three races in 2004, including the Indianapolis 500 with Buddy Rice, RLLR didn't win another race until Ryan Hunter-Reay at Watkins Glen in 2008. Can RLLR prevent the rollercoaster pattern from continuing in 2016?
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| It was a dream season for Graham Rahal |
This was the season people having been waiting for from Graham Rahal since 2009. The first race saw Rahal be penalized when he made contact with Charlie Kimball's wounded car but he recovered to finish 11th. He survived the rain at NOLA to finish eighth and picked up another 11th at Long Beach. The natural-terrain road courses are where we got to see the strength of the Honda aero kit. Rahal started eighth and used pit strategy to put him into the lead. He had to make an additional pit stop but he was on fresh tires, was running laps two seconds faster than other drivers and drove his way to second until the checkered flag was displayed and he was 2.2 seconds behind Josef Newgarden.
Rahal developed a tendency to get at least one podium a year but the next race showed he had found a groove. He had to use pit strategy again to get from 17th to the front but he was running competitive lap times to Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya and the other front-runners. He got within 1.5 seconds of Power but once again fell a few laps short. He started 17th in the Indianapolis 500 and his car improved as the race went on. He worked his way into the top ten and then into the top five. He couldn't get to the Penskes of Power and Monotya or the Ganassis of Kimball and Dixon and finished fifth.
Belle Isle 1 was the first bump in the road for Rahal as Stefano Coletti and James Jakes got together, leaving him and Tony Kanaan as collateral damage and ending Rahal's race on lap five. An early exit like this one would have killed Rahal's season in previous years. The next race he would driven too hard, bounced off the barrier, get even more frustrated, have it carry over to the next race and it would be all downhill. But race two saw Rahal benefit from qualifying being rained out, started fifth, benefitted from Power, Hélio Castroneves and Dixon being taken out and from others needing to conserve fuel to finish third. Texas was the only race that Rahal can pin on him and the team. He started sixth, got the set-up wrong for the race and finished 14th. He was the top Honda in eighth at Toronto made some aggressive passes to get there.
Then there is Fontana. Some races you win because you catch breaks. Rahal caught breaks at Fontana. He drove well all race and worked his way to the front but benefitted from not being penalized for leaving the pit lane with the fuel nozzle still attached and benefitted for not being called for multiple blocks near the end of the race. He broke his drought of 124 starts between victories. He had another solid run at Milwaukee where he ran in the top ten all race and ended up on the podium once again. At Iowa, he came back from a gearbox issue and falling a lap down to finish fourth. This led into his home victory at Mid-Ohio. He pitted at the right time when a caution came out and ended up on the top step of the podium.
Unfortunately, the storyline took a turn for the worst after Mid-Ohio. A botched pit stop at Pocono dropped him from the top ten to the back of the field. Tristan Vautier attempted a move into turn three that was never going to work and Rahal just happened to be the driver Vautier dove under. He still had a shot at the title despite the incident with Vautier and was running in the top ten at Sonoma until Sébastien Bourdais punted him and dropped him to 18th in the final race of the season and from second in the championship to fourth.
Graham Rahal had a championship season. Equipment was reliable. He turned top tens into top fives and top fives into podiums. Could he have been more conservative at Pocono? Who knows? He couldn't have seen the amount of attrition based off the previous two Pocono races. Belle Isle 1 and Sonoma were out of his control. Texas was the lone race that he and his name can hang their head on and even then he wasn't the only one to get the set-up wrong at Texas (Will Power and Simon Pagenaud are in the same boat). Rahal seems to be in a better place. He is settling down and getting married and perhaps that is a reason for his better on-track success.
Now the pressure is on Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Can they replicate these results? Andretti Autosport came on strong at the end of 2015 and history has shown us that Andretti Autosport can rebound. Penske and Ganassi will still be there. Maybe CFH Racing remains a contender. Perhaps KV Racing and Sébastien Bourdais makes that next step forward. RLLR has plenty of teams breathing down its neck to compete for the championship. The team is not expanding to two full-time teams but Spencer Pigot will be driving for the team at St. Petersburg and the two Indianapolis races and full-time hasn't been entirely ruled out. If they do bring on the Indy Lights champion, can the team develop him and not take a step back?
After having many competitive races in 2012 with Takuma Sato, RLLR were flat in the following two seasons. After winning three races in 2004, including the Indianapolis 500 with Buddy Rice, RLLR didn't win another race until Ryan Hunter-Reay at Watkins Glen in 2008. Can RLLR prevent the rollercoaster pattern from continuing in 2016?
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
2016 IndyCar Schedule Released: Some Positives, Some Negatives
The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was released today and it has the positives we have all been dying for and negatives that we were all hoping IndyCar would be missed after years of making the same mistakes over and over again.
St. Petersburg will kick off the season on March 13th followed by two weeks off, one because of Easter Sunday. The week after Easter is when IndyCar gets it's chocolate egg and returns to Phoenix International Raceway for a night race on Saturday April 2nd. After another week off, the series will have a back-to-back with Long Beach and Barber to close out the month of April.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be on Saturday May 14th with Indianapolis 500 qualifying the Saturday and Sunday after that and the 100th Indianapolis 500 will take place on May 29th. The Belle Isle doubleheader will be June 4th and 5th and close out the first half of the IndyCar season.
Texas kicks off the second half of the IndyCar season on Saturday June 11th and will be followed by an off-weekend, allowing IndyCar drivers to potentially drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first race of the summer will be at Road America on June 26th and that will be followed by an off-weekend on 4th of July weekend. Iowa will be Sunday July 10th with Toronto the week after that on July 17th.
After a week off for the Brickyard 400 weekend, the final quarter of the IndyCar season will begin at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 31st. IndyCar teams will then get a two-week summer vacation before returning to Pocono Raceway on August 21st. IndyCar is scheduled to make its debut on the streets of Boston on September 4th, Labor Day weekend. Sonoma Raceway will close out the season for the second consecutive season on September 18th.
The Good:
Phoenix is back.
Road America is back.
Pocono is back.
Season starts a little earlier.
Season ends a little later.
Teams get a little more breathing room in-between races.
The Bad:
No Milwaukee, a staple to the IndyCar calendar. It is to IndyCar what Monza is to Formula One.
Phoenix is the same night as the Final Four, which means people will likely choose that over the race and if Indiana, Butler and/or Arizona are playing, that will kill the event in terms of attendance and TV audience in its return.
Iowa is going to be on a Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time even though there is not NASCAR race that day.
Toronto and Mid-Ohio will be getting the CNBC treatment.
Sonoma is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday, the very narrow window between the end of the 4:05 p.m. ET NFL games and Sunday Night Football, also known as the most-watched television program in the United States.
I have sounded pretty negative about the schedule but just looking at the races, it is as close to great as IndyCar has been since reunification. Phoenix and Road America are finally back. Both were gone way too long. The losses of Milwaukee and Fontana are cancelled out on paper but are not cancelled out emotionally. Boston is still up in the air and if that falls through (I think it will), IndyCar will be left scrambling for a replacement.
The television times are what I am most irked about. I like the idea of Phoenix as a night race but not against the Final Four. IndyCar can't always avoid other sporting events but there are certain events you definitely should avoid. The Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, the Final Four, the FIFA World Cup Finals. Those are the five you avoid and two of those aren't yearly events. We will have to see how year one goes but I bet Phoenix is going to be using a whole lot of hindsight come the morning of April 3rd.
Iowa is on Sunday because NASCAR is at Kentucky the Saturday night of that weekend. In a perfect world, IndyCar would flip Iowa and Toronto so Toronto would be the Sunday after Kentucky and Iowa would be the Saturday night before NASCAR at Loudon. That is a simple fix for 2017 that IndyCar and NBCSN should make. However, seeing as how every IndyCar event that isn't the Indianapolis 500 is on life support, could one bad Sunday afternoon kill Iowa? It absolutely could and then IndyCar will be caught with their pants around their ankles once again.
Pocono is starting too late at 3:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday. If a 500-miler takes around three hours, it would not be over until 6:00 p.m. ET and most people won't get home until after 8:00 p.m. ET. I know the day of the Pocono race is the final day of the Summer Olympic Games from Rio de Janeiro and had these Olympics been in Europe or Asia, this wouldn't have been a problem but, once again, every IndyCar race is on life support and a 3:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday to help TV is screwing Pocono Raceway over royally.
IndyCar got the Sonoma finale wrong. I understand what IndyCar is trying to do but it makes no sense to try and squeeze in before the final football game on Sunday. What IndyCar should have tried is to start the race at 5:00 p.m. ET like this year, after all the 1:00 p.m. ET games are over and right around halftime for the 4:00 p.m. games.
Head-to-head conflicts are going to happen so it's not that big of a deal that Toronto and Mid-Ohio are going to be on CNBC but it would be nice if IndyCar considered my "brunch series" idea of having races around 11:00 a.m. ET so they could end and lead into NASCAR races.
This could have definitely been better but it's not horrifically terrible. If IndyCar let me get my paws on the schedule I would have made sure Milwaukee and Fontana stayed, put Milwaukee the week after the Indianapolis 500 where it belongs, moved Belle Isle back to Labor Day weekend because Boston is not going to happen, flipped Iowa and Toronto, moved Fontana to the Saturday night after Petit Le Mans (October 8th) and work out a deal with Circuit of the Americas and the FIA to have the IndyCar finale be the Saturday (October 22nd) of United States Grand Prix weekend after Formula One qualifying because it would be the largest crowd for an IndyCar race outside of the Indianapolis 500.
Of course, we don't live in a perfect world.
St. Petersburg will kick off the season on March 13th followed by two weeks off, one because of Easter Sunday. The week after Easter is when IndyCar gets it's chocolate egg and returns to Phoenix International Raceway for a night race on Saturday April 2nd. After another week off, the series will have a back-to-back with Long Beach and Barber to close out the month of April.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be on Saturday May 14th with Indianapolis 500 qualifying the Saturday and Sunday after that and the 100th Indianapolis 500 will take place on May 29th. The Belle Isle doubleheader will be June 4th and 5th and close out the first half of the IndyCar season.
Texas kicks off the second half of the IndyCar season on Saturday June 11th and will be followed by an off-weekend, allowing IndyCar drivers to potentially drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first race of the summer will be at Road America on June 26th and that will be followed by an off-weekend on 4th of July weekend. Iowa will be Sunday July 10th with Toronto the week after that on July 17th.
After a week off for the Brickyard 400 weekend, the final quarter of the IndyCar season will begin at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 31st. IndyCar teams will then get a two-week summer vacation before returning to Pocono Raceway on August 21st. IndyCar is scheduled to make its debut on the streets of Boston on September 4th, Labor Day weekend. Sonoma Raceway will close out the season for the second consecutive season on September 18th.
The Good:
Phoenix is back.
Road America is back.
Pocono is back.
Season starts a little earlier.
Season ends a little later.
Teams get a little more breathing room in-between races.
The Bad:
No Milwaukee, a staple to the IndyCar calendar. It is to IndyCar what Monza is to Formula One.
Phoenix is the same night as the Final Four, which means people will likely choose that over the race and if Indiana, Butler and/or Arizona are playing, that will kill the event in terms of attendance and TV audience in its return.
Iowa is going to be on a Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time even though there is not NASCAR race that day.
Toronto and Mid-Ohio will be getting the CNBC treatment.
Sonoma is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday, the very narrow window between the end of the 4:05 p.m. ET NFL games and Sunday Night Football, also known as the most-watched television program in the United States.
I have sounded pretty negative about the schedule but just looking at the races, it is as close to great as IndyCar has been since reunification. Phoenix and Road America are finally back. Both were gone way too long. The losses of Milwaukee and Fontana are cancelled out on paper but are not cancelled out emotionally. Boston is still up in the air and if that falls through (I think it will), IndyCar will be left scrambling for a replacement.
The television times are what I am most irked about. I like the idea of Phoenix as a night race but not against the Final Four. IndyCar can't always avoid other sporting events but there are certain events you definitely should avoid. The Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, the Final Four, the FIFA World Cup Finals. Those are the five you avoid and two of those aren't yearly events. We will have to see how year one goes but I bet Phoenix is going to be using a whole lot of hindsight come the morning of April 3rd.
Iowa is on Sunday because NASCAR is at Kentucky the Saturday night of that weekend. In a perfect world, IndyCar would flip Iowa and Toronto so Toronto would be the Sunday after Kentucky and Iowa would be the Saturday night before NASCAR at Loudon. That is a simple fix for 2017 that IndyCar and NBCSN should make. However, seeing as how every IndyCar event that isn't the Indianapolis 500 is on life support, could one bad Sunday afternoon kill Iowa? It absolutely could and then IndyCar will be caught with their pants around their ankles once again.
Pocono is starting too late at 3:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday. If a 500-miler takes around three hours, it would not be over until 6:00 p.m. ET and most people won't get home until after 8:00 p.m. ET. I know the day of the Pocono race is the final day of the Summer Olympic Games from Rio de Janeiro and had these Olympics been in Europe or Asia, this wouldn't have been a problem but, once again, every IndyCar race is on life support and a 3:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday to help TV is screwing Pocono Raceway over royally.
IndyCar got the Sonoma finale wrong. I understand what IndyCar is trying to do but it makes no sense to try and squeeze in before the final football game on Sunday. What IndyCar should have tried is to start the race at 5:00 p.m. ET like this year, after all the 1:00 p.m. ET games are over and right around halftime for the 4:00 p.m. games.
Head-to-head conflicts are going to happen so it's not that big of a deal that Toronto and Mid-Ohio are going to be on CNBC but it would be nice if IndyCar considered my "brunch series" idea of having races around 11:00 a.m. ET so they could end and lead into NASCAR races.
This could have definitely been better but it's not horrifically terrible. If IndyCar let me get my paws on the schedule I would have made sure Milwaukee and Fontana stayed, put Milwaukee the week after the Indianapolis 500 where it belongs, moved Belle Isle back to Labor Day weekend because Boston is not going to happen, flipped Iowa and Toronto, moved Fontana to the Saturday night after Petit Le Mans (October 8th) and work out a deal with Circuit of the Americas and the FIA to have the IndyCar finale be the Saturday (October 22nd) of United States Grand Prix weekend after Formula One qualifying because it would be the largest crowd for an IndyCar race outside of the Indianapolis 500.
Of course, we don't live in a perfect world.
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