IndyCar Season Preview

            It seems like just the other day when the IndyCar Season came to a horrific end last October at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was on that day that Dan Wheldon, one of IndyCar’s most popular and successful drivers, was killed in a crash early in the race. That day was not just the end of the 2011 season, but it was also the day that ushered in a new era in IndyCar.

            
            That new era begins tomorrow at St. Petersburg, Florida. In the time between that fateful day and now, so much has changed in the IndyCar Series. There are brand new cars, drivers on different teams, new race tracks, new officials, and new engine manufactures.

New Car

Gone is the previous Dallara race cars introduced in 2003.  Now, the brand new model, the DW12, takes its place. The DW12 also brings in different engine manufactures into IndyCar for the first time in nearly a decade. Previously, only Honda supplied engines to the teams. They will now be joined by Chevrolet and Lotus. Nobody knows for sure how the new cars or engines will perform in race conditions. Although we do know that the new car is faster on the street/road courses. That is evidenced through testing and was further proved when Will Power broke the track record today in qualifying.

The new car is also easier to drive because of the down force produced by the new bodies. This is something that is not appreciated by the drivers, esp. after what happened at Las Vegas. Equal cars create pack racing on ovals and makes it harder to pass on all tracks.  One of the aspects I hate about NASCAR is that nearly all cars equal. Dozens of drivers having an equal chance to win a race doesn't always produce exciting racing.

Schedule

11 of the 16 races of the schedule will be on street/road courses. Cue the complaining!!! Believe me, people have been complaining nonstop. It’s important to know that IndyCar President, Randy Bernard, is working diligently to get more oval tracks on the schedule. For now, the road courses are something we all have to live with. The first oval race is the Indianapolis 500 on May 27^th. An oval track will also host the final race of the season. That track is the Auto Club Speedway in California.

First four races of the 2012 season: 3/25- St. Petersburg. 4/1- Birmingham. 4/15- Long Beach. 4/29- Sao Paolo.

Drivers

One of the biggest stories in the IndyCar season is the addition of Rubens Barrichello to the KV Racing Technology Team. Barrichello is an 11-time winner in Formula 1 and one of the most popular drivers in the world. He has over 1 million Twitter followers so you have to figure at least 25,000 of them will be tuning into each race to watch their favorite driver. That kind of exposure only helps the IndyCar Series. You will also notice a certain female driver not racing in IndyCar this series as she moved over to NASCAR.

The roster of drivers may be one of the most competitive and well-rounded IndyCar has had in a long time. There are about eight drivers that have a legitimate chance to win a championship. Then there’s around ten or twelve drivers that could win on any given day.

Engine manufacturers

As I said earlier, nobody knows how the engines will perform in each race. Honda and Chevrolet are expected to have an advantage over Lotus though. That’s only because they have more cars and a better roster of drivers. 

Here's a breakdown of each manufacturer and their drivers:

Chevrolet: Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter, E.J. Viso, Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan, J.R. Hildebrand, Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, Will Power.

Honda: Mike Conway, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball, James Jakes, Justin Wilson, Takuma Sato, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden.

Lotus: Alex Tagliani, Katherine Legge, Sebastien Bourdais, Oriol Servia, Simona de Silvestro

New officials

Last year, chief steward Brian Barnhart received a lot of heat for some questionable decisions he made during races. He was removed his head of race control position but remains as the president of operations and will oversee safety development and event logistics. Taking his position will be Beaux Barfield. IndyCar also hired former drivers Arie Luyendyk, Johnny Unser, and Gary Barnard to assist Barnhart and Barfield.

Championship

The obvious favorites, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, combined to win nine races last year. Franchitti won his fourth championship last year and is chasing A.J. Foyt’s record seven championships. Power has never won a championship but has finished second the past two years. Franchitti’s Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon is also hungry for a championship. Dixon won his last championship in 2008 and has finished second, third, and third the past three years. Power’s Penske teammates, Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe, will also be looking to win the championship this year. Briscoe is a good driver, but he always been considered the third-best in the Penske lineup.

Other drivers to watch: # 26 Marco Andretti, #27 James Hinchcliffe, #28 Ryan Hunter-Reay, #38 Graham Rahal, #83 Charlie Kimball, #20 Ed Carpenter, #8 Rubens Barrichello, #11 Tony Kanaan, #22 Oriol Servia, #4 J.R. Hildebrand, #98 Alex Tagliani

2011 Izod IndyCar Season Review

            After all was said and done Sunday afternoon, Dario Franchitti was the only winner. The Scotsman won his fourth IndyCar Series Championship over runner up, Will Power. Franchitti won four races over the entire season, two on road courses and two on oval tracks. Power actually had six wins but was never able to finish in the Top 5 consistently.

            
            The rest of the IndyCar Season was way more exciting than Dario getting another championship. There were eight different winners on the 17-race schedule (originally 18 but the Vegas race was cancelled after the wreck) including first time winners Mike Conway and Ed Carpenter. Marco Andretti got the second win of his career and Hunter-Reay got his third. Dan Wheldon won the Indy 500. The rest of the wins were split between Franchitti, Power, and Scott Dixon.

            
            There were plenty of great races in the 2011 season. I can think of about five that really stick out to me as having great finishes. My favorite though was the Kentucky race a few weeks ago. For the entire duration of the race cars were racing side-by-side and the drivers never giving an inch to anybody. 
            With 10 laps to go, Ed Carpenter pulled alongside Dario Franchitti where the two would remain, side by side, for the rest of the race. It was incredible watching the two go all out while remaining just feet away from each other. Soon there were just five laps to go, then two, and then the white flag was out. The two continued to race next to each other as they came off of Turn 4. Then Carpenter, on the high side, somehow pulled ahead of Franchitti by just mere inches and crossed the finish line first. The win by Carpenter was the first of his career and the first for his team owner, Sarah Fisher. Needless to say, it was a very emotional winner’s circle, and a win that everybody in IndyCar could be happy for.

            
            For all those great finishes, there were some really low lows. IndyCar chief steward, Brian Barnhart may have one of the toughest jobs in all of racing. He’s basically the head umpire. He’s the one that has the final say on all rules and punishments, and he’s the guy fans and drivers blame if you have a problem with a rule or punishment.

            There are several different rules that have several different punishments for “aggressive driving”. Several of these rules require a judgment call that forces Barnhart to make a decision almost immediately. Unfortunately, some of his decisions were questionable. Just looking at the schedule, I can think of at least one of these instances occurring in almost all the races. 
            The worst of all these calls came at New Hampshire. It’s a situation that would take way too long to explain, but basically Barnhart gave the thumbs up for a restart while the race track was slick from a light rain. When the restart came, cars went sliding everywhere and the race was red-flagged and ended. For a week after, drivers Oriol Servia and Ryan Hunter-Reay argued about how each deserved the victory. Eventually Hunter-Reay was declared the winner, but many fans considered this incident to be the last straw for Barnhart.

Final Standings for the 2011 Izod IndyCar Series Championship

1) Dario Franchitti

2) Will Power

3) Scott Dixon

4) Oriol Servia

5) Tony Kanaan

6) Ryan Briscoe

7) Ryan Hunter-Reay

8) Marco Andretti

9) Graham Rahal

10) Danica Patrick

11) Helio Castroneves

12) James Hinchcliffe

13) Takumo Sato

14) JR Hildebrand

15) Alex Tagliani

16) Vitor Meira

17) Mike Conway

18) E.J. Viso

19) Charlie Kimball

20) Simona de Silvestro

21) Ana Beatriz

22) James Jakes

23) Sebastien Bourdais

24) Justin Wilson

25) Sebastian Saavedra

26) Ed Carpenter

27) Alex Lloyd

            A few notes:

How about Oriol Servia finishing 4^th? Where did this guy come from? I had never even heard of him before this season, but apparently this was his third season in the series. Hopefully he can build on 2011 and win some races in 2012.

Rookies Charlie Kimball and JR Hildebrand really appear to be the future of the sport. The two finished 12^th and 14^th respectively, and floated around the Top 10 in every race.

If IndyCar really wants to become popular, it needs its American drivers to start competing for the Championship. The best finishing Yankee was Ryan Hunter-Reay in 6^th. Finishing behind him in 7^th and 8^th was Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal.

Helio Castroneves finishing 11^th? He can do better than that. He never seemed competitive in any race this season. He even struggled in the Indy 500, which is his favorite race and has won three times.

            There are so many questions heading into the 2012 season; a lot of questions that nobody will know the answer to until the first race of the season in March.

 Here are some of the questions heading the off-season.

How will the teams adjust to using the new 2012 car? There will be three new engines in those cars too that are made by Honda, Lotus, or Chevrolet. Testing will continue through the winter but nobody will know how they cars will react in race conditions until the first lap in St. Petersburg.

Will Penske Racing remain intact? Rumors have been circulating all season about Penske cutting down to two drivers, or replacing one. Everybody knows that Will Power will stay, but who could be released? Ryan Briscoe or Helio Castroneves? There aren’t many adequate replacements for either of those drivers.

Who will fill Danica’s spot? This is a literal and figurative question. Danica Patrick is leaving IndyCar to pursue her interest in NASCAR. Dan Wheldon was supposed to take over her spot, but now that won’t happen. In a figurative sense, will an American or women driver step and become the face of IndyCar?

How many oval races will there be? The number of oval races has already declined to around six because tracks don’t make money from hosting IndyCar. This leaves 11 road courses and six ovals. Will Whledon’s accident decrease the number of ovals further though?

Will changes be made after the Wheldon crash? IndyCar has to do something to prevent what happened at Vegas to ever happen again. The biggest, and easiest change, is to limit how many cars can race on 1.5 mile tracks like Vegas. If you limit the car count to 26 or 27, you can get rid of drivers that aren’t as skilled and are more prone to crash.

            
            It will be a very exciting and busy off season for everybody involved in IndyCar. Drivers and teams will have an all new car to test and learn how it will perform at each track. Teams will be swapping and picking up new drivers so they will have to get accustomed to their new homes as well as the new cars. As soon as any of these questions are answered, or new questions arise, I will let you know!

- I apologize for the second half or so of this post being sloppy. I had a hard time getting what I wrote in Microsoft Word to fit into where you post a story at on this blog. If that sounds complicated, it's because it is. All those indented sentences are supposed to have bullet points next to them and the final standings are supposed to be two columns. Obviously, that isn't how it came out.

Missed Opportunity

            I just found out that not only was the new Izod IndyCar racecar testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was testing on the road course! (That marks the first time an open wheel car has gone clockwise at IMS since Formula 1 was here.) I had read that there was going to be a test session on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 28^th and 29^th), but since I heard no engines I assumed I read wrong. I heard no engines because the car was on the road course and not going as fast as it does in the oval.

            
            What makes this all the more saddening is that the media was not allowed to take pictures or video of the event. That means the only evidence of the event even happening was captured by amateurs. So instead of being able to show you pictures of the 2012 Izod IndyCar all I can do is give you a few paragraphs about how I don’t have any pictures.

            
            I did have some success in the IndyCar world though. I e-mailed Indianapolis Star writer, Curt Cavin to inquire about the new car.

My question: So what’s the deal with the new cars? Am I the only one confused? I thought the new cars wouldn’t be here until 2013. You and other questionnaires make it sound like there will be new cars next season. Will there be new engines, just not new bodies?

Curt’s answer: Yes, there will be new cars in 2012, but it’s the unique bodywork kits that were delayed until 2013. You’ll also have additional engine manufacturers for next year.

           

            What I get from this is that there will be new cars next season with new engines but they will not have the different body shapes until 2013. That makes sense, I guess.

            
            By the way, the IndyCar Series only has four races left in the season.

Sept. 4^th- Baltimore

Sept. 17^th- Motegi, Japan

Oct. 2^nd- Kentucky

Oct. 16^th- Las Vegas

            
            Dario Franchitti is the points leader and Will Power is 25 points back. Franchitti’s teammate, Scott Dixon is in third place. Oriol Servia (where did this guy come from??) is in fourth and Power’s teammate, Ryan Briscoe, is fifth.

2011 Indy 500: Post-race

Start of the 2011 Indianapolis 500

 The 100^th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 may have produced the best finish of any 500 ever. It may have been one of the best finishes of a race ever. It was definitely the best Indy 500 I have ever watched.

                

            Besides the first double-file restarts in the 500, there was little to be desired during the first 100 laps. Ganassi teammates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon traded the lead back and forth the entire time. Pole sitter Alex Tagliani led some laps too, but later hit the wall coming out of Turn 4 and ruined his race.

                

           The excitement began when Ryan Briscoe crashed on lap 168 and brought out the yellow flag. All cars would have to pit just once more, but just Dario Franchitti and J.R. Hildebrand came in and pitted.

-This was something that I didn’t understand. Why not pit now? I knew at this point that it would either be Franchitti or Hildebrand that would win.

                

            With 20 laps left, Scott Dixon came into pit road and surrendered the lead to Danica Patrick, with Tomas Sheckter in 2^nd, Ed Carpenter 3^rd, Bertrand Baguette in 4^th, Marco Andretti in 5^th, Franchitti 6^th, and Hildebrand 7^th.

                

            15 laps left and Danica still lead, but was being caught by Bertrand Baguette. Baguette took the lead over with 12 laps left. At this point, Sheckter had made his pit stop, so Andretti moved up to 3^rd; Franchitti was 4^th, and Hildebrand 5^th.

                

             10 laps left and Baguette still lead the race. Patrick and Andretti came in for their pits stops, which meant Franchitti was in 2^nd and Hildebrand was 3^rd.

-At this point you could actually hear that Franchitti was running about half throttle. I told my brother that Hildebrand was catching up and running full out, which you could see and hear. I knew that all Hildebrand had to do was pass Franchitti and he would win. We were both ecstatic.

                

             5 to go and Baguette still lead, with Franchitti in 2^nd, but Hildebrand was right behind him.  Hildebrand got around Franchitti right as Baguette came into pit.

                

             4 to go, 3 to go, 2 to go, and finally the white flag. The 300,000 thousand fans in attendance were about to see history be made. JR Hildebrand drove his car around Turn 1, then Turn 2, then onto the backstretch, with the crowd going crazy. He dove into Turn 3 and came into Turn 4 on the high line to pass a slower car. Then WHAM!

                

             Hildebrand was in the wall. Hildebrand was had crashed in Turn 4. For just those few seconds as the thousands watched, there was a humongous “gasp” and silence. Then Dan Wheldon, who had come from nowhere, crossed the finish in 1^st place. He had won the 2011 Indianapolis 500.

                

            Hildebrand’s car slid across the finish line in 2^nd place. He climbed out of his wrecked car and just sat on the ground. It’s impossible for me to imagine what was going through his mind. He could see the checkered flag, he could see the $2.5 million paycheck, and then he saw it all disappear.

               

For two hours after the race, race officials met and talked about the finish of the race. They finally declared Wheldon the official winner, but it would have been kinda awkward to take the victory away after he celebrated. The controversy was that Hildebrand’s crash could have, and maybe should have, brought out a caution immediately. Instead, Wheldon passed Hildebrand, and then the caution flew.

In my opinion, the IndyCar officials let the finish play out, and threw the yellow flag when Wheldon passed Hildebrand. I’m not sure what would have happened had the yellow been thrown immediately when Hildebrand crashed. He still would have crossed the finish line, but not much besides that. I think the right decision was made though, Hildebrand made a mistake, and Wheldon capitalized.

                

           The victory was Wheldon’s second Indy 500 victory and the first for team owner Brian Herta.  Wheldon said after the race, "It's obviously unfortunate, but that's Indianapolis”. Truer words have never been said. It is Indianapolis, where the unexpected always happens.

Dan Wheldon passes JR Hildebrand

Teams Penske and Ganassi had complete opposites of days. Ganassi drivers Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, finished 12^th and 5^th, respectively, and lead for a combined 124 laps. Ganassi-affiliated drivers Graham Rahal finished 3^rd, and lead six laps. Charlie Kimball finished 13^th.

                

            No Penske driver finished in the top 10, and led no laps. This had to be the worst 500 for Penske ever, except the year none of his drivers made it into the race.

It turned out to be a decent day for Andretti Autosports, which only had four of its five drivers in the race, one of which was in a car owned by another team. Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick finished 9^th and 10^th, respectively. John Andretti finished 22^rd, and Ryan Hunter-Reay 23^rd.

          Tony Kanaan was the sole bright spot for his KV Racing Technology team. Kanaan finished 4^th, but his teammates finished 32^nd and 33^rd.

Now, I’m sure you are all wondering how my predictions went.

I had picked Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Alex Tagliani to win. Well obviously that was a bit off. But those three combined to lead 144 laps and were running 1-2-3 for awhile.

I guaranteed no Penske driver would finish in the top 5, and that was right.

In my list of 8 drivers (excluding Ganassi or Penske) that had the best chance of winning, I failed to mention: JR Hildebrand, Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan, Bertrand Baguette, Tomas Sheckter, all finished in the Top 10.