IndyCar had a successful weekend at Iowa, and that was despite blazing temperatures on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, we left Iowa with a scary situation as Josef Newgarden fainted and suffered a head abrasion, requiring him to be airlifted to a Des Moines hospital after Sunday's race. After being evaluated, all scans were negative. Newgarden will be held overnight for observation and the IndyCar medical staff will evaluate Newgarden on Thursday. Race control made a difficult decision in Indy Lights and it was the right call. Mercedes is bound to finish second in the constructors' championship. Formula One is about to say goodbye to France once again. Logan Sargeant had a race get away from him. There were stunning results in GT World Challenge America. The SRX season concluded and Paul Tracy might not be getting the call for season three. This has been a strange two weeks in the motorsports world. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
What is Next?
Change is good. Change is bad. Change is tough.
It is incredible how hard we work for change. Change in educational status, change in job responsibilities, change in relationship status, change in weight, change in rights, we are always working for change and seeking something different than our current state.
Despite how we act, many of us hate change. Change is the last thing we want in our lives. When you are in a groove, in a comfort zone, you never want to leave. You have the best of everything, living how you want with the ideal balance between work life and personal life. But you cannot stop change. It comes with time.
Nothing lasts forever and change comes with time. Comfort exists for a fleeting period of time and then you work to find it again. We will have our moments where it is back, but it is constantly on the move. The only way to find it is changing how we live and seeing if that takes us in the right direction.
There are also changes you have to make. Priorities come up in your life. Family takes a front seat. Your job takes another. Other things have to be minimized, especially if it is for the greater good of your life and the lives of the loved ones around you. Some of these will be tougher changes than others.
A change doesn't mean an elimination from one's life. It is scaling back and finding that healthy balance. You might be just as satisfied when scaled back. There will be times something will need to be eliminated and it will be tough to accept, but it must be done.
This is a hobby. There are other responsibilities that take priority. For over a decade, a balance has always been found. There were periods when it was easier to find.
It is getting tougher to find that balance. Work is increasing. It is exciting and these are opportunities you do not want to pass up. They aren't going to come around a second time, but it also means trading some of what otherwise would be personal time. Less time at home. Less time to see family. Less time to write. Less time to do this. It will be a tricky next few months.
I don't want to stop, but I will have to change what I do. It is about finding that new balance and hitting on the simple things. If there is a larger project I want to do, it might not be turned around in two or three days because that time might not be there. It could be spread out over a week or two. My writing schedule will shrink and it will become more pertinent to make the most of what will be available. What might take an hour may need to be done in a half-hour. If I had plans on writing one thing in the morning and one thing at night, I might have to squeeze both in the morning and start something else in the night. Or I will have to accept doing less but maximize what I am doing.
For most of this time I have kept a writing schedule of when I want to write things, what I want to write, points to make, facts I don't want to forget and brainstorm ideas. That will help me in this next phase but I might require a little more thought, a little more planning and most importantly a little more patience. There will be some time, but it will be harder to find.
The one thing I have found with change is no matter how scared I am about how it will change my life; I will still find happiness and enjoyment from it. It might take a few weeks or a few months to get a grasp of how my life is different and how things fit, but I will get there. There have been many times in the last ten years I have been faced with a change and I have thought I would have to stop writing or I wouldn't be able to watch races and here I am. Still writing and still watching races. Has everything been the same this entire time, the processes, and the viewing schedule? No, but a process is still there and there is still time to watch races.
When I was a child, I would say I hated change, but as I got older, and as learned and listened to others, I find myself embracing change more and not fearing it. Though, I still have that worry about what I will lose, but I think that is natural. No one wants their life to become worse.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction said Sir Isaac Newton. That had to do with physics but it relates to human behavior as well. It is frustrating to think about. Reacting isn't an offensive state. When change is coming outside of your control, you don't know the exact direction it will be taking you in. You know where you want to go, but it isn't necessarily going to head that way. It is chasing the moment and sometimes it means losing the race. You are not always going to catch up and you will get burned. That will require a change.
There is no guarantee what comes next will be better or if it is naturally better. When it doesn't fit, we adjust and we might find that comfort zone. We might not and then we have to consider make additional changes.
The next few months will be different. In some ways, they will be more difficult. In others, there could be silver linings I do not see at the moment, but this time will be about adjusting and searching for that balance.
Champion From the Weekend
Marco Andretti won the Superstar Racing Experience championship by two points over Ryan Newman. Andretti didn't win a race all season, not even a heat race, but he had three runner-up finishes in main events.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden and Patricio O'Ward, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the French Grand Prix, his seventh victory of the season.
Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa split the Formula Two races from Circuit Paul Ricard.
Hunter McElrea won the Indy Lights race at Iowa after Linus Lundqvist was penalized for putting Matthew Brabham in the wall late in the race.
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Pocono, his fourth victory of the season after Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were disqualified from the first two positions for failing technical inspection. Noah Gragson won the Grand National Series race, his third victory of the season. Chandler Smith won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.
The #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Charlie Luck and Jan Heylen and the #4 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of George Kurtz and Colin Braun split the GT World Challenge America races from Watkins Glen. K-PAX Racing had won 11 consecutive races dating back to last season and it had won at least one race over the previous ten race weekends since the start of the 2021 season.
The #18 RS1 Porsche of Eric Filgueiras and Steven McAleer split the GT4 America races from Watkins Glen. George Kurtz sweep the GT America races.
Chase Elliott won the SRX race from Sharon Speedway, his second victory in his second SRX start.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar and NASCAR share a weekend at Indianapolis, and the Truck race will be at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Formula One's final race before its summer break, the Hungarian Grand Prix.
London hosts a Formula E doubleheader.
Spa 24 Hours.
Supercars will be back at Tailem Bend.
World Superbikes returns to a newly re-paved Autodrom Most.
