Indycar News & Rumors.

[bjohnsonsmith]

There's an interesting piece from Robin Miller on Marco Andretti. Incidentally, he'll be 34 in March. Romain Grosjean, who is tipped for a drive with A.J. Foyt, will be 35 in April. It's not as if Marco Andretti is over the hill.

https://racer.com/2021/01/18/miller-...matic-mystery/

[bjohnsonsmith]

Simona De Silvestro will race at the 500 this year.


https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...aign=widget-22

[Lanky Turtle]

Video I got from the last two days of most of the teams testing at Sebring. Of note, besides Jimmie Johnson being there is Marco Andretti behind the wheel of #29.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhBM8KAoSjE

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Lanky Turtle

Video I got from the last two days of most of the teams testing at Sebring. Of note, besides Jimmie Johnson being there is Marco Andretti behind the wheel of #29.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhBM8KAoSjE

Thanks for sharing that. It is crazy to see indycars on the bumps, they look very unpleasant to drive in a couple of those angles!

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Simona De Silvestro will race at the 500 this year.


https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...aign=widget-22

Great to have her. Hopefully she can show she’s lost none of her touch being away

[NaBUru38]

Go Pork Chop!

[bjohnsonsmith]

NBC to close down NBCSN at the end of the year.

https://racer.com/2021/01/22/nbcsn-t...t-end-of-2021/

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by joeb

Grossjean to Coyne?

https://racer.com/2021/01/14/grosjea...-indycar-seat/

Hope they have lots of spare tubs....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Following NBC's announcement to close down NBCSN at the end of the year, Peacock Premium will become the new streaming home of the NTT IndyCar Series.


https://www.indycar.com/News/2021/01...k-Announcement

[bjohnsonsmith]

Season opener for 2021 at Barber Motorsports Park, has been pushed back to April 18th.


https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...aign=widget-22

[Csaba]

Hinch was confirmed today in the Harding/Andretti car with race number 29 and increased sponsorship from Genesis.

https://racer.com/2021/01/26/hinchcl...ride-for-2021/

Now it will be interesting to see if they will get a 5th driver for the full season, or run with 4 cars+ Marco at the Indy 500 at least.

[Csaba]

And to start a different topic, do you have any insights about that number 51 car, planned to run partially by Rick Ware Racing?

One of my friends told me that Marshall Pruett thinks it will be a shared Coyne/Ware car, with his son, Ricky in the seat... well, a Grosjean-Ware line-up at Coyne sounds really lame for me... Also a Grosjean-Kimball one really better either

Since writing the original post, I found out that Ware has been announced as a full-time driver of the No. 51 in the NASCAR Cup series- so he can't do a full season in IndyCar too.

[S griffin]

Great to have the Mayor of Hinchtown back full time, he’ll be up there this year

[Csaba]

Well, my speculations (thanks God) were not true, and Ed Jones was confirmed today in the no. 18 Ganassi/Vasser Sullivan car

https://racer.com/2021/01/27/jones-l...hWoR-uFYmlpTYA

[NaBUru38]

The Mayor is back to town!


- o -


So far there's 22 full-season entries:


Chevrolet

* Penske: Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott McLaughlin.
* McLaren SP: Patricio O'Ward, Felix Rosenqvist.
* Foyt: Sébastien Bourdais, Dalton Kellett.
* Carpenter: Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter / Conor Daly.

Honda

* Ganassi: Scott Dixon, Álex Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Jimmie Hohnson / Tony Kanaan.
* Andretti: Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta.
* Rahal: Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato.
* Coyne Vasser Sullivan: Ed Jones.
* Meyer Shank: Jack Harvey.


Hélio Castroneves plans to do six races with a Meyer Shank Honda.

[Csaba]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The Mayor is back to town!


- o -


So far there's 22 full-season entries:


Chevrolet

* Penske: Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott McLaughlin.
* McLaren SP: Patricio O'Ward, Felix Rosenqvist.
* Foyt: Sébastien Bourdais, Dalton Kellett.
* Carpenter: Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter / Conor Daly.

Honda

* Ganassi: Scott Dixon, Álex Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Jimmie Hohnson / Tony Kanaan.
* Andretti: Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta.
* Rahal: Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato.
* Coyne Vasser Sullivan: Ed Jones.
* Meyer Shank: Jack Harvey.


Hélio Castroneves plans to do six races with a Meyer Shank Honda.

And we will have on more Coyne car- probably the 51 with Rick Ware Racing and the Carlin for Chilton for the street/road courses with someone jumping in for the ovals- Daly would be logic again, as he was better at the ovals at Carlin compared to his races at ECR- and I don't really think there will be more. Unless Andretti give the 98 to someone (probably with a bigger amount of cash) for the full season, if Marco does only the 500.

Haven't heard anything lately from Dreyer&Reinbold.

[bjohnsonsmith]

For those IMSA fans amongst you, a number of IndyCar drivers will be contesting this weekend's 59th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.


https://www.indycar.com/news/2021/01...qtmrg7J1nXzLxo

[Csaba]

The Coyne/Ware partnership confirmed, with cars 51 and 52- the later one doing a partial season, with at least the Indy 500.

Still no drivers confirmed though. According to the Motorsport article, Grosjean is still the strongest candidate for the full season, or him and JR Hildebrand jumping in for the ovals.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...paign=widget-1

[bjohnsonsmith]

IMS are showing their new series ''Behind The Bricks'', on YouTube.

Recently retired IMS Historian Donald Davidson talks with IMS President Doug Boles about his journey to America. Then, defending Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato relives his stellar Indy career, including his 2012 loss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhz1...fd2f063cddc631

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Csaba

The Coyne/Ware partnership confirmed, with cars 51 and 52- the later one doing a partial season, with at least the Indy 500.

Still no drivers confirmed though. According to the Motorsport article, Grosjean is still the strongest candidate for the full season, or him and JR Hildebrand jumping in for the ovals.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...paign=widget-1

Until it is on track, anything with RWR association is not an entry. They flaked on every non-nascar entry promised in 2020, other than the only series where he was guaranteed a championship, the Asian LMS.

[bjohnsonsmith]

For those who don't follow IMSA, Alexander Rossi and Helio Castroneves, part of a four man drivers team, won the Rolex 24 At Daytona driving for Wayne Taylor Racing.

[S griffin]

Big news story there. Good work from Rossi and Castroneves. Helio has had plenty of sportscar experience, Alex not so much, so it’s credit to both of them they helped get the job done. Once again Daytona proves the perfect start to the racing year

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Helio has had plenty of sportscar experience, Alex not so much, so it’s credit to both of them they helped get the job done.

Not so much......

It's not so much the sportscar experience as road racing experience.
Castroneves 1991-95 before CART in '96.
Alex had a bunch before IndyCar.....2007 & 08 here in the U.S.; 2009-2015 overseas.

It's pretty much only us (U.S.) that seem to worship oval racing.

[S griffin]

Still Helio spent more time in sportscars recently. But Helio has got so much experience in different forms of motorsport. He's come a long way from racing in British F3 and has had a very successful career in single seaters in America. And Alex Rossi has done quite a bit, just not as much as Helio. He was really going well in his early days in America and when he came over to Europe he was looking like a future star, even if it never worked out for him

And I like the fact that US racing remains unique with it's oval racing, that's part of the charm

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by jimclark

Not so much......

It's not so much the sportscar experience as road racing experience.
Castroneves 1991-95 before CART in '96.
Alex had a bunch before IndyCar.....2007 & 08 here in the U.S.; 2009-2015 overseas.

It's pretty much only us (U.S.) that seem to worship oval racing.

Yeah, cause a DPi is just like an Indy car. Come on, I know you like to argue but really? More important to point out if you want to argue would be Rossi's position as Roger's enduro driver the last 3 years. That has given him some pretty good experience in the car, the same car for both of them mind you, the last few years.