Indy Star's Mid-Season Report Card

[Tim Northcutt]

As expected the Star's mid-season report card was published this morning.

Some grades surprised me...some seemed harsh, others a little generous....but most were insightful

Here is the link:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...606270428/1052


I'm interested in your thoughts.....

[deejay]

Yeah, well a Panoz won at Watkins Glen and was second at St Pete. So it has something on the road courses at least. Either that or Dixon is that much better on the road courses.

[climb]

Both are true, tho road courses in IRL are way less rational and previewable than C-C or F1 races.Therefore these results have been significantly conditioned by casual accidents.

[Snips1]

Penske and Ganassi are the big boys again, it's going to be a challange to catch up with them

[Mystery]

Interesting to read the comments on Bryan Herta. Surely he was equally uncompetitive last season so to say "But Bryan Herta hasn't been [competitive]" as justification of the Grade D is pretty odd. Then again the grade is fair because the whole team has shifted backwards this year.

The Firestone observation is interesting too - I'd noticed the lack of side-by-side racing and had no idea why.

Totally agree about the comments about RLR. A great disappointment although this season I've been pleased that we haven't had too much TV coverage affected like last years constant use of Danica-cam. In fact, most races have passed with her hardly getting a mention.

[Tim Northcutt]

I thought that the D was a little harsh for AGR....

Although they have not been dominant like they were last year, in the final portions of the Indy 500, they had the top four places in the race, Kanaan has been running in the Top Five during lots of races, Marco is having a very good rookie year and Dario has had some good runs...

I thought a C for Foyt was a little generous....

and although Ganassi has let a couple of victories get away, I thought they rated an A thus far...or at least a B+

I just want Vitor Meira to break through and get a win....

Panther truly has turned in an A performance thus far, and I really hope they get some sort of sponsor to come aboard...they truly deserve it...they have earned that support

[Mystery]

Wouldn't disagree with you there actually Tim, however the article states these grades were awarded "based on preseason expectations" and I think its fair to say we probably all expected AGR to be far more competitive than they have been so in that context I'd say D was fair - I just wouldnt agree you should assess like that, but its their article - not mine.

If we ignore preseason expectations then of course AGR have well outperformed Foyt but given that very little was expected of Foyt and they have done sort of alright-ish then you can see where its coming from.

[Tim Northcutt]

In that context, I agree...thanks for pointing that out, Mystery....

The grades make more sense now in that light.