Indycar 2023

[Jay Auskin]

I was downtown in Detroit yesterday. A whole lot of work being done to run it in the streets this year. So far, shaping up to be what could be quite the event.

Certainly will check out this year's race. First weekend in June.

[URY914]

Anyone watching "The Road to Indy"? I ran across it last night and watched an episode.

[astrochex]

I watched the first one and enjoyed it.

[astrochex]

500 qualifying underway. 1hr 30 left in session to determine top 12 and who gets bumped.

Very fast field. Less than 231 four lap average won’t cut it.

[Zeke]

Qualifying has become as much of the watch time, if not more, than the race. I can remember over 40 cars showing up to qualify. And the thing is, it's the car that is qualified, not the driver. Back when, owners would buy cars at the garage from other owners if they ran out of options or crashed their last car. And put their hired gun in the newly purchased car.

IDT that would work now and there doesn't seem to be a need. But it used to be that getting qualified went a LONG way to paying the bills to be there. Starting money was good.

Marco and Graham moaning over their cars? If I heard him say it correctly, Graham said he couldn't throttle 100% with Legg's exact set up. Time to get out.

That wind blowing down the front straight and then pushing the cars up out of turn 1 would separate the meek from the stupidly brave all day, any day. I can't imagine what it takes after watching Newgarden drive with one hand with a finger on a button and other other hand going back and forth from the front bar to another button on the right side of the wheel all in the last 10 seconds of the end of the front straight.

[astrochex]

It was remarkable that there were no incidents during qualifying, kudos to all.

Who knows if they will push harder for pole or the last row.

If you were gonna bet on drivers to complain, who else but Graham and Marco? Rahal especially since he was beat by an RLL driver who had not driven an Indycar in how many years? Legge did a great job.

McLaren sure has found something, they will be tough to beat for pole.

[astrochex]

Foyt car currently fastest in top 12.

[rfuerst911sc]

RLL struggling with pace . Andretti struggling for pace . Foyt racing finally has found pace . This could be a surprise Indy 500 driver/team in the winners circle this year .

[astrochex]

3 RLL cars in the bottom four. Running now for bottom three positions. Harvey is slowest.

[pwd72s]

How can we possibly enjoy Indy without Graham Rahal in the field?

[Por_sha911]

Harvey bumped Graham and he is out! He didn't whine. He said that they did their best. I bet if he had the weigh jacker working right he would have made it in.

My two to watch to see if history can be made:
-Kanaan is starting 9th! This is his last Indy 500 start and it would be a cool win.
-Helio starts 20th and a miracle win would put him in rarefied air of 5 wins.

Other folks to watch:
-Scott Dixon is 6th - always one to keep an eye on.
-Taco starts 8th. Win or crash? His expression: "No risk. No reward."
-Will Power starts 12th. He has won before and rides in a Penske car. Who knows?
-Ed Carpenter is always the hometown favorite starting 13th - never won the 500 but came in 2nd 2018 after being on the pole.
-Rookie Kile Kirkwood starts 15th (a dark horse who is young enough to not be afraid).
-Newgarden starts 17th. Never turn your back on a Penske car.
-Grosjean starts 19th. Hopefully he won't bang someone off the track.
-Marco is 24th and already practicing his excuses. Rumor has it he has an Uber sponsorship (follow up to a P.T. joke)
-Lundgaard is a hot up and coming driver starting 31th. If he can stay out of trouble he may be a top 10.

p.s. Who names their son "Sting Ray"? Goofy

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by astrochex

3 RLL cars in the bottom four. Running now for bottom three positions. Harvey is slowest.

Post did not age well.

See pwd’s post above.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

How can we possibly enjoy Indy without Graham Rahal in the field?

He handled it with class today.

[URY914]

Anyone but Helio please. I'm just tired of him.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

This could be a surprise Indy 500 driver/team in the winners circle this year .

Spoken as a fan of the team, it would be a surprise if Penske were able to pull a win off this year.

[Por_sha911]

The teams don't decide who wins. Indianapolis Motor Speedway decides.
You can do everything right and one ill-timed yellow flag, broken part, or bozo who runs into you; and your day is done.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

The teams don't decide who wins. Indianapolis Motor Speedway decides.
You can do everything right and one ill-timed yellow flag, broken part, or bozo who runs into you; and your day is done.

I'd argue that's The Fates, not the track

[Zeke]

I don't feel sorry for Graham. He's past his prime and was no Bobby ever. But what I don't understand is why a well funded team sucks like that. They need to clean house and get new engineers. I think I even see a fault with their set up.

Now that I've said that, I'd better explain to get others ideas. Seems like some cars are not cross weighted as much. IOW, they aren't biased to turn left as much as others. From a NASCAR perspective, Daytona and Talladega cars roll very easily and are set up to run straight. The high banking turns the cars. Put too much bias in the set up, and sure it turns better, but isn't as free. I could even hear the RLL cars bogging. With equal sealed engines this should not be the case. Something is holding those cars back and you can see how much right hand steering goes into going down the long straights. Dixon's car doesn't need that much counter steering, as just one example of cameras showing steering input for various drivers.
As I mentioned earlier, there was a time in history when a car that wouldn't get it done was trailered and another sent out in its place. I wonder how RLL drivers would have done in Ganassi cars. There is something wrong because all the cars are exactly the same when delivered new.

Time to clean house. Yeah, Foyt cars have been the dogs for awhile and now are running fast. I wonder who made that work.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I'd argue that's The Fates, not the track

Word-smithing. The point is you don't really know what will come up in 500 miles and the drivers talk about the track as a person who decides...

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

He handled it with class today.

I'll agree with that. After the disappointment of being bumped from the field, I don't see anyone handling the reporter any better than Graham Rahal did, and others could have done worse.