Be interesting to see what Adam Carrol can do later in the season and if that secures him a drive for next year.
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Be interesting to see what Adam Carrol can do later in the season and if that secures him a drive for next year.
Dinger is a stock car driver now. Plus he never seemed to have much of a passion for the Indy 500 (although it would be nice to see him be one of the NASCAR guys that come over and try for the 20 million).Quote:
Originally Posted by NickFalzone
Sam is a Penske driver. They might only be able to run 3 Cup cars next year and Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Allgaier are a lock for those 3 seats. Sam's Cup career is going nowhere and its time for him to go back (like Dario did) where he was best.
Sam was a Pennzoil driver for many years. Sam won the Indy 500 with Penske. Penske won the Indy 500 with Pennzoil before. Pennzoil is going to be a part of the Penske Indy Car program next year.
Makes a lot of sense. RP has Power and Helio for the road courses. Sam was a stud on the ovals and would win again in short order for RP in Indy Cars. Would make a complete team and would add a winning American driver to the sport. Plus Sam had developed quite the fan following in his last few years in the IRL (he would regularly get one of the biggest hands during driver intros).
Just something to keep an eye on.
I like the idea of Sam back at Indy. Like DP, it is a track where he runs REALLY well, even if nothing is working anywhere else. Briscoe isn't ready for prime time and at Penske, that is a death knell to the career with him.
Simona to me is doing all the right things, and I hope she gets a result that makes the great unwashed and the idiots in the tv trucks pay attention. It is clear that the Danicamania the grips ESPN and to a lesser extent VS has blinded them to the rise of Simona di Silverstro.
AS for other things I noticed from this year's race. I think the idea of the covered front wheels anyhow might be coming. The one thing on the Delta Wing that has great merit is those faired in front wheels....
That crash with Conway and Hunter-Reay was scary stuff, and I thought of two things when it was over. 1) Conway was about 5 to 10 feet short of clearning the fence, and I would think no car could get that high but it was just too scary to conteplate. I will also say that those posts holding the fence really tore his car up. Much like the fatal crash in Toronto years ago, the posts are hard on a monocoque chassis, and Mike was lucky in a sense for all the research done on making cars survive these hits. 2) Mike's crash was because he was desparately trying to make something happen. Indy is a hard place to get by people with stock cars or IRL cars, but I think this format of Dallara's with Honda's for everyone has made it really hard.
I hope in the future the first step to making this series interesting is letting the teams pick and choose chassis that fit the rules, and do some mod's that are property of the teams. In short, maybe spread the field out a little....The fact is, the best teams are the best teams in any format, but at least with some speed differential and some ability to find ways to make a car much faster, it gives hope...
How about a standard chassis/tub (that could be produced by any manufacturer as long as it fit in a tight envelope & had the same hardpoint attachment points) that the teams were free to put their own bits all over? Wings, wheels, sculpted fairings, engine, all fair game. Let independent manufacturers of car accessories step up with retail-available wings, intake scoops, mirrors, etc., or let the Penske & Ganassi's fab their own.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
As many years as Penske has been in NASCAR, he never has really been able to fit (out spend or make advantageous outside deals) the way he has in other series.Quote:
Originally Posted by NickFalzone
He has had success, and sometimes unique success, but he really is outside his comfort zone there.
That is what I would advocate. Have Dallara or whomever build a basic tub, and have mounting points for noses, mirrors, wings, and appendages. Have the only common parts the tub, the mounting points at the back of the chassis where any motor could be mounted as a stressed member, and the fuel bladder/side pods without fairings standard. Basically, let the teams dress the cars to suit the rules. Give them all a flat bottom between the axles and demand only single element wings up front.Quote:
Originally Posted by e2mtt
Maybe I am naive, but I think something that allows people to see new ideas, and the innovation that we used to see in racing have some sort of resurgence. I am not pining for the days of people showing up with diesels or gas turbines....but at some point, fresh ideas have to be in the mix.
Remove wings front and rear, that would slow the cars down considerably.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
Go back to trim tabs and spoilers such as were run up to 1971.
I would go for that. Hell, I have always said if Tony in 1996 dictated the IRL would run roadsters with no wings at all, I would have been on board. Aero has made cars really fast no doubt, but it has made cars so vulnerable to turbulence that passing is almost a lost art now at Indy....Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Riebe
I've said it many times... one of the big reasons why I'd like to see a LOT more variation & heavy use of bolt-on parts is for sponsorship & fan involvement reasons. Rather then have a chassis totally built by Dallara (some Italian race-car company) with engines leased from Honda (engines you can't buy for any other reason), you could have cars with parts bolted on from Brembo & Roots & Stillen & K&N & BBS & American Racing & all of the hundreds of other small manufacturers specializing in performance aftermarket parts. Maybe even bolted onto Ford & Honda engines that are the same displacement as what's in street cars.
Also relative - the cost of entry has got to come down.
Most figures say you can buy/build a complete Nascar Cup car for $125,000. Of course the salaries & travel & facilities mean there is no upper limit on what you can spend, but $125,000 gets you a shiny new racecar that can make the field on Sunday and pick up an $65,000+ purse for being dead last.
Best as I can figure, right now it cost over $400,000 to buy a new chassis these days. A lease for a full year of engines costs 1 million, and you don't get to keep 'em. A lease for an engine for the Indy 500 costs between $90,000 & $210,000 depending on how much you want to practice. Indy pays great purses, but most Indycar races don't pay a purse at all - you get 1.2 million at the end if you run all the races in a season.
Anyway you look at it, racing is incredibly expensive, but it sure seems like Indycar could do some work in making entry easier.