Indycar News & Rumors.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

What?! No Audi? No Ferrari?

Muscle Milk?!

That's it!


Interesting to see how Lucas Luhr will do. Cars almost seem sportcarish so he won't be that much of a fish out of water.

Thank you folks for clarifying there is no Audi connection whatsoever. I had lost count of Luhr's career after he had left DTM, with the exception of Le Mans. Yet, it is a pleasure to see him get back onto my radar in quite the unexpected fashion. Here's hoping he has a good race. Greg Pickett's team surely would be a competent addition to the IndyCar lineup for next year.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

What?! No Audi? No Ferrari?

Muscle Milk?!

That's it!


Interesting to see how Lucas Luhr will do. Cars almost seem sportcarish so he won't be that much of a fish out of water.

Cars almost seem sportcarish? That's one way of describing the DW12.

It'll be interesting to see what Muscle Milk can bring to IndyCar; the series needs something like this.

[Salamus]

I actually don't know what to make of this. As an IndyCar fan, I'm excited to see Muscle Milk colours on an IndyCar, but I'd be very disappointed to see them leave sports cars. If HPD is serious about their 2014 P1 car, he could head to the WEC.

[Paradise City]

I think sportscars will be reasonably well supported in a financial sense under the wing of the France family. There's other concerns about what kind of product they are rolling out which is a matter for the other section.

Indycar though very much needs a title sponsor.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Salamus

I actually don't know what to make of this. As an IndyCar fan, I'm excited to see Muscle Milk colours on an IndyCar, but I'd be very disappointed to see them leave sports cars. If HPD is serious about their 2014 P1 car, he could head to the WEC.

It does seem an odd choice but it may be down to financial constraints.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Nearly One year later and we still don't know what 2014 holds entirely for sports car racing. Uncle Jim is no Bill France Sr, nor is the drunk grandson running the big show

Indycar while it has issues of it's own, has a solid, stable rules package that is all but confirmed for 2014. Also, for all the talk of Indycar being in the crapper, which it is, looking at fan reactions sports car racing in the United States may be on another level of doom.

WEC P1 will be megabucks, possibly out of Pickett's reach unless Honda is offering some serious Yen.

[kurski]

Narain Karthikeyan has been mentioned as a possible candidate to turn his attention from Europe to focus on an IndyCar Series program in North America, but tells RACER he'll hold off on making any decisions until after his first test is completed.

[Lizardfolk]

I wish him luck but he's drastically under estimating Indycar. But I guess we'll see. I'm ok if he fills a pay drive seat to help a small team... Like maybe drive for D&R or a jump started Newman Haas

[bjohnsonsmith]

Servia gets Mid-Ohio Panther drive, as Briscoe recovers.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109109

[bjohnsonsmith]

RHR tops Mid-Ohio testing.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109120

[Paradise City]

Kurt Busch looking to run IndyCar finale: #78- Kurt Busch says it is a "good possibility" that he'll race in the Izod IndyCar Series finale in October at Auto Club Speedway to prepare for next year's Indianapolis 500. "We're working on it," Busch said during a break in testing Monday at Watkins Glen International. "We just have to keep our fingers crossed." The IndyCar season finale, a night race, is Oct. 19 at Auto Club Speedway. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Talladega Superspeedway the following day. Busch was encouraged by his May 9 test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He passed the IndyCar rookie test and had a top lap of 218.210 mph in a car from Michael Andretti's team. Busch's effort is contingent on sponsorship. If money isn't found for Busch to run at Auto Club Speedway this season, he says he would feel "blind" at Indianapolis next May "and that's just going to be too much to make up."(Motor Racing Network)(7-31-2013)

http://www.jayski.com/cupnews.htm#20130731a

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Indycar though very much needs a title sponsor.

My bets are on Sunoco or Verizon.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

My bets are on Sunoco or Verizon.

I would go for Verizon, being a telecoms company they'll have a much larger reach in and outside the US.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Stefan Wilson to join Justin at Dale Coyne in Baltimore.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109132

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

My bets are on Sunoco or Verizon.

My bet is Rachel's Potato Chips or HER Energy Drink.

[TheMightyM]

Just came across a great piece by Patrick Hruby of sportsonearth.com on the economics of sports and television in the U.S. (The two are actually pretty much one and the same.) Yes, sports is the reason cable or satellite bill keep going up. The only question is when somebody develops a business model that disrupts the status quo:

Whatever the case, sports fans finally will have to pay market rates. The Sports Cable Bubble will pop. It has to. Just do the math. Fifty-seven million cable and satellite subscribers who don't care about Dwight Howard's decision or Yasiel Puig as the baseball reincarnation of Bo Jackson currently pay at least $100 per person into television sports kitty, each and every year. Someday they won't have to. According to Dave Warner, the creator of the What You Pay for Sports website, losing just 10 million subscribers would cost ESPN $732 million in found-money affiliate fees. Now quadruple that number. Who makes up the difference? In a pay-only-for-what-you-actually-watch world, is Kentucky's basketball coach John Calipari worth $5.2 million annually when his entire sport's signature postseason tournament averages fewer viewers than CBS's "Under the Dome?" Does the Big Ten Network even exist?

While the article doesn’t mention IndyCar, the implications are pretty obvious. At some point in the medium to long term, cable and satellite television will unbundle, and that will suck a ton of money out of sports. Including IndyCar (yes, I realize IndyCar only gets like $6 million a year from its TV rights but a couple million dollars less would be a substantial hit to the series). The question is whether the series can develop a stable business model before the Sports Cable Bubble burst, one that isn’t based upon trying to tap into what’s perceived by the naive as ever-increase cable/satellite rights revenues.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Some rule changes; lapped cars, penalties and tyres.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109153

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I would go for Verizon, being a telecoms company they'll have a much larger reach in and outside the US.

I didnt think the Verizon brand operated outside the US..

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I didnt think the Verizon brand operated outside the US..

Verizon has a 23.14% stake in Vodafone Italia.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Possible test for reigning Japanese Formula 3 champion Ryo Hirakawa with Dale Coyne Racing at Sonoma.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109206

[icemachine]

Verizon will likely be entering the Canadian Market early next year as well, although that's not likely to sit well with Roger's (Owner of Canadian TV rights and also a large cellular service provider in Canada)

[NaBUru38]

The Verizon and Vodafone companies are linked. But it's still two different brands.

[HJJ]

Former Champ Car standout AJ Allmendinger has been confirmed for one more IndyCar Series run with Team Penske and will also return to the cockpit of a Penske NASCAR Nationwide entry on the series' debut at Mid-Ohio next weekend. Allmendinger, who contested five races in a Team Penske Indy car earlier this year, had been expected to run as many as eight IndyCar Series races this season for The Captain, and has piloted the No. 2 Chevy with a blend of financial support from Penske and series sponsor IZOD.
Questions regarding Allmendinger's ongoing involvement with Penske's open-wheel program were raised after the Californian had a calamitous run during June's Dual In Detroit double-header, but he will have one more shot supporting championship leader Helio Castroneves and fellow driver Will Power at the IndyCar season finale on Oct. 19.
“He will run for us in a third car at the IndyCar race at Fontana, and he'll drive for us at Mid-Ohio in the Nationwide race, so he's got two more drives for us that are planned this year,” team owner Roger Penske told RACER.
“We'd like to run him some more, but sponsorship is key to everything today. The costs just to run an Indy car have gone up, so it's not something you do without having the budget in place.”
Penske also said he'd like to keep Allmendinger in the family if the money can be raised, but won't prevent him from pursuing other opportunities that arise.
“He's had a number of people contact me about him and he's had just as many reach out to him directly, and I said we should talk about them as they come in, and if there's a full-time opportunity waiting for him, I'm certainly not going to stand in his way or hold him back.
“If I have something I can offer him full time, that's certainly something to take a look at, but there's also a couple of good things he's taking a look at to see if it's feasible or not for him to do.”
With Allmendinger's career back on course, Penske takes pride in how the 31-year-old has rebounded from the suspension he received in 2012 after testing positive for a banned stimulant while competing in NASCAR.
“My main mission was to get him through his problem, which he did – he faced up to the issue, had the poison he had to drink and came back stronger,” Penske said. “And I think people are thinking about going forward with him based on what he's doing today and not some of the negative stuff that took place earlier in NASCAR.”

.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The Verizon and Vodafone companies are linked. But it's still two different brands.

True but it gives a Verizon a potential foothold in the European market.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Davison looking for further drives.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109223