Conway to Andretti Autosport in 2011

[TURN3]

Actually, he's right on this one - at least among the drivers at AA.

He's right? Yeah, she'll be the "coach" for AA on ovals. She's good like that, with her reputation and known lack of technical ability. Such a stellar career to back that up too. Remind me again how many W's she has? C'mon Starter, your affiniation for a particular poster is making you look like you're losing your mind. Lets keep it real. Danica couldn't get hired at Bondurant as a coach for 12 year olds.

Hmmm, I see talk about Marco, Danica and Conway, but no love for RHR? I say RHR benefits from some stability (finally) in his career and will be the highest in the points for Andretti at the end of the year and wins a race somewhere. I think he's the best driver on this team.

Thats because RHR is the only legitimate driver on the team. He doesn't deserve to be dropped to the level of his teammates in this conversation. I think there is little doubt he finishes highest in the championship of the AA drivers (term used loosely). If Conway can keep it off the wall he'll be 2nd. At best AA can hope for 1 distant top 10 finisher this year in the championship (8-10).

[Chris R]

Danica and Marco will now be the team leaders at AA.

The team is doomed...... All indications are that neither one of them have the temperament or personality to lead anyone but themselves and neither have the technical savvy or people skills to "build" a team around them....

The AA lineup this year is a most curious example of extreme mediocrity. You would be hard pressed to say any of the drivers are truly BAD but none of them are terribly strong.... I think RHR is clearly the best of the bunch (but that is not saying much) - Marco and Danica are pretty equal (and both are, at best, average) - he is better on road course, her on ovals - and Conway is an unknown for the most part. Perhaps he will surprise but he reminds me a lot of Dan Clarke - fast at times but not necessarily disciplined - but as many have noted over the years, it is better to slow down a slightly reckless driver than to try to get a slow driver to speed up......

[Chris R]

Ok, some Stats for Andretti Autosport Drivers:
2010 Points - TK 6th, RHR 7th, Marco 8th, Danica 10th didn't RHR sit out a race or two also??
2009 points DP- 5th, Marco 8th, RHR 15th (sat out many races yes??)
Career Wins - TK -15 in 219 starts - wins rate 6%. RHR 4 wins in 100 starts 4% win rate. Danica 1 win in 98 starts 1% win rate. Marco 1 win in 82 starts 1% win rate
TK 13 oval wins, 1 street, 1 RC. RHR 2 street, 1 oval, 1 road. DP 1 oval win. Marco 1 road course win.

Conway wrecked in 9 out of 23 starts. (perhaps 10 - not sure if one suspension failure was self induced or true mechanical failure...)

Marco consistently finished lower in points than DP averages about 8th. DP actually does pretty well in points - averages about 6th. RHR has rarely had a full season ride to really make much sense of his points....

Conclusions - While TK was good - he isn't THAT good. Andretti has always had a high end mediocre driver lineup and this is more of the same. These drivers are nothing to be ashamed of but not likely to be competing for wins week in and week out and unlikely to challenge for the championship ever - regardless of team.... Given points results one can absolutely make a credible argument that DP is the best driver on the team - but RHR has 4x the wins in a much more fragmented career with similar career starts which makes it a pretty credible argement that he is the best... Marco is clearly a low top 10 drivers at best and Conway needs to stop wrecking (even if it is not his fault...)....

[DBell]

Stats can only tell a portion of a story. Before joining Penske, Power's career stats was similar to RHR's. But put him in a top and stable team where he has the resources to spotlight his talent and he shines. Would that be the case with RHR? I don't know, but I'd like to find out. Switch Power to Andretti last year and he would have a very different year from the one he had with Penske, imo.

As far as championships, there are 5 guys that are going to have a chance at the title. In fact, I take Briscoe out of that equation and say there will be 4. I don't care who you put in the Andretti team, they are going to be in a uphill battle to compete race in and race out with Penske and Ganassi. My opinion is that Andretti stretches his team to far by running 4 cars. I think he would have been better off not signing Conway and running 3 cars. But I guess the money brought in by the 4th car is crucial to the overall team finances.

[Chris R]

Stats can only tell a portion of a story. Before joining Penske, Power's career stats was similar to RHR's. But put him in a top and stable team where he has the resources to spotlight his talent and he shines. Would that be the case with RHR? I don't know, but I'd like to find out. Switch Power to Andretti last year and he would have a very different year from the one he had with Penske, imo.

As far as championships, there are 5 guys that are going to have a chance at the title. In fact, I take Briscoe out of that equation and say there will be 4. I don't care who you put in the Andretti team, they are going to be in a uphill battle to compete race in and race out with Penske and Ganassi. My opinion is that Andretti stretches his team to far by running 4 cars. I think he would have been better off not signing Conway and running 3 cars. But I guess the money brought in by the 4th car is crucial to the overall team finances.

I agree with your take on the championship with the exception that PERHAPs Rahal might be a contender (I am assuming you are counting Will, Helio, Dario and Scott) - Personally I would drop Helio and add Rahal to that mix....

As for Power's stats prior to this year: 5 wins in 54 starts - almost 10% win rate - twice as good as RHR in less time.... Although one of those wins was with Penske in 2009 so it is really 4 wins in 48 starts - still 8% and twice as good as RHR. I agree that RHR has not had a fair shot - and I would really like to see him get one - but my gut feeling is that Power is and always was better (but who the heck am I to judge such things??!!) :-)

I alos agree with your take on Andretti running 4 cars - they just don't have the resources but me thinks Michael wants to be the big guy on the block....

[DBell]

I agree with your take on the championship with the exception that PERHAPs Rahal might be a contender (I am assuming you are counting Will, Helio, Dario and Scott) - Personally I would drop Helio and add Rahal to that mix....

As for Power's stats prior to this year: 5 wins in 54 starts - almost 10% win rate - twice as good as RHR in less time.... Although one of those wins was with Penske in 2009 so it is really 4 wins in 48 starts - still 8% and twice as good as RHR. I agree that RHR has not had a fair shot - and I would really like to see him get one - but my gut feeling is that Power is and always was better (but who the heck am I to judge such things??!!) :-)

I alos agree with your take on Andretti running 4 cars - they just don't have the resources but me thinks Michael wants to be the big guy on the block....

Wasn't 1 or 2 of Power's wins with Penske in his partial year with them? And while he wasn't driving with the very best team previously, he also didn't have to drive for Paulie G and AJ Foyt. That's not going to pad anyones stats. Your gut feeling may be right on because Power is really good, but I'd like to see RHR get a real chance to show what he could do. In a time when Indycar needs an a couple of American's to compete with Dario, Will, etc., RHR and Rahal have the best shot at doing this at the moment.

[DBell]

I agree with your take on the championship with the exception that PERHAPs Rahal might be a contender (I am assuming you are counting Will, Helio, Dario and Scott) - Personally I would drop Helio and add Rahal to that mix....

As for Power's stats prior to this year: 5 wins in 54 starts - almost 10% win rate - twice as good as RHR in less time.... Although one of those wins was with Penske in 2009 so it is really 4 wins in 48 starts - still 8% and twice as good as RHR. I agree that RHR has not had a fair shot - and I would really like to see him get one - but my gut feeling is that Power is and always was better (but who the heck am I to judge such things??!!) :-)

I alos agree with your take on Andretti running 4 cars - they just don't have the resources but me thinks Michael wants to be the big guy on the block....

Sorry that in my earlier post I didn't see where you made note of Will's partial season in 09. My reading comprehension seems to be off lately. Looking up Will's record, I have him for 3 wins before he joined Penske. 2 in CC and 1 in Long Beach in the final CC/IRL points race. Still better than RHR, but fairly close. Also, looking up RHR, he had 28 races with Rocketsports/Vision/Foyt. Fernando Alonso would have had trouble winning races for them. In 5 full seasons (with 6 different teams) of AOW racing, RHR has won races in 4 of them, the only season he didn't was the Vision/Foyt season. In 5 full seasons of AOW racing Will has the same record, his first season with Walker being the one he didn't win in. Obviously in his stint with Penske, Will has become a force to be reckoned with. I hope RHR can impress with Andretti so if Penske or Ganassi has a seat that becomes available, he would get a chance at it.

On a side note, why does this forum allow such a short period of time to edit post and correct mistakes. Drives me crazy.

[TURN3]

Very good stats posted by a couple of you, thank you for taking the time. Some would prefer to just throw around "what works" for them. Simple really when you actually do a full analysis. I'd consider the junior forumlas a part of a career also. Afterall, most of these drivers (not all), actually show some type of potential to get them where they are. So of the AA drivers, how many of them have wins in lower tier professional formula? How many of them have won championships? Oh yeah, all but a single one of the current AA drivers. Guess which one.

Bottom line is Danica isn't "coaching" anyone. Hell, she can't coach herself. She's had one of the best rides in the series her entire career, complete with documented unfair competitive advantages in some cases, yet still to be worth a damn at the one thing that counts....winning. Another interesting fact about Coach Danica, every single team she's ever been on has gotten worse each year she's been there. Explain that?

You know, I just got to thinking too about how she was un-invited from the AGR ALMS team when they realized what a fraud she was. Same thing happened when she gave the DP Prototypes a spin...they removed her from her scheduled stints during the 24. C'mon now people. What more needs to be said about the talent of Coach Danica?

[beachgirl]

I certainly wouldn't want to mention her name in front of Katie Crawford (yes, that Crawford - the F1 and Daytona Prototype engineer/strategist) anytime in this millennium.

[domaza]

Anybody knows, where Conway money is coming? Rich parents?