Round 16: GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. Sonoma, CA. 29th - 3Oth August, 2015.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Comgrats to Dixon on his 4th Championship. Before the race all eyes were pretty much focused on Montoya and Rahal.

Congrats to Ganassi on his 100th win.

[Salamus]

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.

[gert]

Penske loses the championship in the last race for the 6th time in 7 years.

[divxx]

I don't have a preference between JPM and Dixie, and won't deny that it was a hell of a show at the end considering the lack of actual overtakes, but it's almost meaningless with this random implementation of double points.

Sorry, gotta keep beating that dead horse.

[Speedblood]

That was an intense race if not in track action but in drama. Those last few cautions giving Montoya places was making it very tense!

Certainly off that race Dixon deserved the title for keeping out of trouble, getting good fuel and making no mistakes.
Penske certainly don't seem to be well oiled slick machine they are made out to be when it really calls for it at times.

[FLGTFAN]

Ryan Briscoe denies Penske the title.

[Marcus666]

As one of the biggest JPM fans out there.
A part of me died a few minutes ago.

I wonder if Will is going to be sacked for that?

[gert]

Originally Posted by Speedblood

Penske certainly don't seem to be well oiled slick machine they are made out to be when it really calls for it at times.

At Ganassi everyone was fighting for Dixon, at Penske everyone was fighting for himelf (except Pagenaud)

That may have made a huge difference.

Originally Posted by Marcus666

I wonder if Will is going to be sacked for that?

Why would he?

[rwintle]

So... WTF Bourdais?

WTF Pagenaud parking it in the pits?

I'd WTF the contact between Power and Montoya but it didn't look that ridiculous to me.

Love how Montoya blames double points, and Power blames the pit stop rules, for the championship loss.

I'm with the "double points is BS" crowd here - I like Dixon a lot but no way he should have been able to grab the championship under these circumstances. I do tend to agree with Montoya that one bad (last) race, with double points, takes away the championship. But to his credit, the first thing he said post race was "I threw it away".

[Salamus]

What ****es me off the most is that Montoya had a terrible day overall but salvaged a 6th place and still lost the championship. What more do you want from the guy?

EDIT: I find it funny how **** is censored but bullshit isn't.

[Paradise City]

The race actually reminded me a little of some the Laguna Seca finales of the mid 90s.

I do think double points is stupid and unnecessary. Every year shouldn't need to be a "decider", individual events should stand on their own two feet as worthy events to win in their own right.

Anyway, Montoya got the 500, which is what the year is about really. And Dixon did do a good job. Ganassi got the benefit of another count back but this time Montoya was at the losing end of it. Of course, that Fontana race way back then was also marred by a race tragedy, that of Greg Moore.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Salamus

What ****es me off the most is that Montoya had a terrible day overall but salvaged a 6th place and still lost the championship. What more do you want from the guy?

EDIT: I find it funny how **** is censored but bullshit isn't.

I didn't censor this.

[Armco Bender]

Surprise result,I thought Dixons slim chances of winning the title would be same as Trump being your next President.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

Surprise result,I thought Dixons slim chances of winning the title would be same as Trump being your next President.

There's quite a bit of focus on Trump, for whatever reasons.

However, as far as the IndyCar championship was concerned it would seem the focus was mainly on Montoya and Rahal and Dixon was overlooked.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result:

1 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h09m14.2620s
2 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 6.1115s
3 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 7.1279s
4 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 8.9030s
5 Ryan Briscoe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 10.0749s
6 Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 11.2548s
7 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 12.4877s
8 Takuma Sato, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Honda. 16.0888s
9 Rodolfo Gonzalez, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 20.8011s
10 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 22.5749s
11 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 23.6709s
12 Oriol Servia, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 24.4514s
13 Sebastian Saavedra, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 24.7775s
14 Gabby Chaves, Bryan Herta Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 25.5357s
15 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 26.0659s
16 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 27.3185s
17 Stefano Coletti, KV Racing Technology. Dallara/Chevrolet. 35.1645s
18 Graham Rahal, Rahal, Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 36.4838s
19 Jack Hawksworth, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Honda. 38.9404s
20 Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 42.5956s
21 Josef Newgarden, CFH Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1 Lap
22 Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
23 Tristan Vautier, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 3 Laps
24 Luca Filippi, CFH Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 5 Laps
25 James Jakes, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. Contact

An extremely good result overall for Ganassi. A good showing by Sato in 8th; he managed not to crash and a worthy 10th place for Mikhail Aleshin.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I didn't censor this.

Oh I know you didn't. I think the admins of the website decide that.

I wonder what other words are censored.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Salamus

Oh I know you didn't. I think the admins of the website decide that.

I wonder what other words are censored.

We could experiment?

[Lanky Turtle]

It was an exciting end to the race, and the season, coming down to the last lap. I didn't care for the results though. Or the double points. And I agree with Power about the cautions. Nearly every Indycar race of the season ends up with the winner being the one who lucked out and happened to come in the pits right before a caution, or who stayed out and tooled around saving gas hoping a caution wouldn't come out. Usually a driver dominates the beginning of a race, and then ends up mid pack because a caution comes out at the wrong time, and then they're done for the race, unless they luck out again later in the race regarding pitting vs. caution coming out.

I don't know what the solution to this would be though. Will said if they always kept the pits open it would help and I guess that makes sense.








Buttocks.

[racer69]

Dixon won the most races this year and the double points rule has been known all year, i'm not a Dixon fanatic but he's definitely a worthy champ for the year i think.

Sure Montoya led the points race all year, but he hasn't won since the 500.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Lanky Turtle

It was an exciting end to the race, and the season, coming down to the last lap. I didn't care for the results though. Or the double points. And I agree with Power about the cautions. Nearly every Indycar race of the season ends up with the winner being the one who lucked out and happened to come in the pits right before a caution, or who stayed out and tooled around saving gas hoping a caution wouldn't come out. Usually a driver dominates the beginning of a race, and then ends up mid pack because a caution comes out at the wrong time, and then they're done for the race, unless they luck out again later in the race regarding pitting vs. caution coming out.

I don't know what the solution to this would be though. Will said if they always kept the pits open it would help and I guess that makes sense.








Buttocks.

I think there have been some unnecessary cautions this year and the one given for Luca Filippi slowing down on the track yesterday, is a good example.

[champcarman]

Great race and a worthy finale to an excellent season.

If not for the double points would the final few laps be as riveting?

OK for Montoya and Power to complain but if they didn't run into each other things may have worked out differently.

Scott Dixon is the best and most complete racer in Indycar and a worthy Champion (again).

However I don't think double points are a good idea in any Round of any Championship!

[Burp]

At the end of the championship the right people are at the front so the cautions don't affect the results that much. It's not like Dracone won the title as he got some lucky yellows. Dixon kept out of trouble mostly all year. Can only remember the Kimball nerf at Detroit. He won 3 races so more than deserving.

[rwintle]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

We could experiment?

****
****
****
****
********

Hm, those five are on the list.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by rwintle

****
****
****
****
********

Hm, those five are on the list.

Excellent. That clear's that up then.

[Nikki Katz]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I think there have been some unnecessary cautions this year and the one given for Luca Filippi slowing down on the track yesterday, is a good example.

I think that the series needs to rethink the safety car rules on road and street courses. The Filippi thing shouldn't have been a safety car anyway, but even if it was, was it really necessary to close the pits? The results are random too often. Ovals need as many cautions, if not more.