Indycar News & Rumors.

[NaBUru38]

Viso has leaked that there are discussions for a race in an airport in Caracas.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Viso has leaked that there are discussions for a race in an airport in Caracas.

Bring back Cleveland.

[mythoughtsareracing]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Bring back Cleveland.

I want this, too. Are you going to pay for it?

As much as I'd like to see Cleveland return to the IndyCar schedule, it won't happen without a title sponsor and/or a reduced or waived sanctioning fee.
Neither the State of Ohio nor the City of Cleveland has the money to pony up for emergency services and traffic control, let alone the race itself. Taxpayers are sick of footing the bill for anything and everything, including local sports franchises and events that don't do much for the community at large.

There are some corporate entities in the region that could potentially play title sponsor:

• Progressive Insurance (Give Flo a ride in the 2-seater!)
• Standard Oil (The Rockefeller Grand Prix of Ohio!)
• KeyBank
• American Greetings
• TRW (Aerospace manufacturing)
• AmTrust
• Stouffer's (frozen foods, including Lean Cuisine)
• Eaton
• Sherwin-Williams
• Chef Boyardee
• Cleveland Clinic

Would any of them see any value in getting involved w/ an IndyCar race? I can't answer that.

[HJJ]

http://www.racer.com/robin-miller-on...rticle/308997/

[Marcus666]

I wonder how Indycar would have looked like today if the CART/IRL Split didn't happen.

[Paradise City]

CART had infighting but nothing unusual compared to other series that ebb and flow with the economic climate. Tony George is the villain of the piece. He's a real piece of work that guy and set new standards in bloody minded self destruction.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

CART had infighting but nothing unusual compared to other series that ebb and flow with the economic climate. Tony George is the villain of the piece. He's a real piece of work that guy and set new standards in bloody minded self destruction.

Tony George did a lot of harm to AOWR, from which it has never recovered.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Chip Ganassi's racing general manager Mike Hull, thinks Montoya's return would be good for the sport.


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109519

[HJJ]

Mr. Hulls other thoughts on Indycar....

08/27/13 Mike Hull hammers IndyCar Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Managing Director Mike Hull hammered IndyCar on 1260 AM Radio Station saying the controversy around the Scott Dixon penalty at Sonoma for hitting Penske Racing's crew members has brought more media attention to the series than anything the series does to promote itself. We were on all three network morning shows. We made network for the wrong reasons.
"The marketing side of this business needs a big kick to get us moving forward so we can be seen. I am not a marketing guy, I am a racing guy. They have been talking about the Boston Consulting Group this and the Baltimore Consulting group that.

"They have been talking this for a year, but we still have only 100,000 people watching us on NBC Sports. We have no promotion of our series. We have to get off dead center because this product is too good to miss. We are missing a huge opportunity here because no one is watching." [Editor's Note: AR1.com has called NBC Sports Network as the noose around IndyCar's neck and that IndyCar should break the contract and move all its races to ABC and ESPN.]

He also went on to hammer IndyCar's officiating, "we had this honeymoon period where we thought the officiating was going to be improved (with Barfield replacing Barnhart), but most of us now cannot wait for the divorce."

[bjohnsonsmith]

Some scepticism over road race at Indy.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109530

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Tony George did a lot of harm to AOWR, from which it has never recovered.

CART's ownership, public float, failure to work with IMS and poor tv negotiations also contributed to the current position

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

CART's ownership, public float, failure to work with IMS and poor tv negotiations also contributed to the current position

Post split, to a certain extent but by then the damage had been done.

[mdaro]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Some scepticism over road race at Indy.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109530

I would love this!!

[one five five]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

CART had infighting but nothing unusual compared to other series that ebb and flow with the economic climate. Tony George is the villain of the piece. He's a real piece of work that guy and set new standards in bloody minded self destruction.

CART didn't help themselves with constant *****ing about the month of May, pushing for the Indy 500 to be a 'one weekend affair', and denying George a voting spot on the CART board

George pulled the trigger but CART had their own guns aimed his way as well...

[mythoughtsareracing]

Originally Posted by Marcus666

I wonder how Indycar would have looked like today if the CART/IRL Split didn't happen.

I wonder what Earth would be like if a giant meteorite didn't crash into the earth and kill off the dominant species.

But speculating about what might have been is pointless, because what COULD have happened DIDN'T happen.

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Chip Ganassi's racing general manager Mike Hull, thinks Montoya's return would be good for the sport.


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109519

I think he's right.
Love him or hate him, JPM is a good racer and an entertaining character. He's aggressive (often overly so) and not afraid to speak his mind.
He is a known name, especially in NASCAR circles where he receives lots of hate for being a "dang furrener in my 'Murican sport!".
He has a more impressive racing resume than anyone in the IndyCar paddock (excepting a storied few like Mario who aren't lining up to start races).
His aggression may get him in trouble, but that's the same for every driver. Hell, look at the penalties and Dallara bills from Sunday's race at Sonoma!

I'd like to see him land an IndyCar ride.


In addition, the move of Kurt Busch from Furniture Row to Stewart-Haas for next year in NASCAR is an indicator that Busch may be setting things up to take a run at Indy.
I could see all four SHR drivers wanting a stab at Indy next year: Stewart, Harvick, Busch and Princess Sparkle Pony.
Could that happen?
How deep are Gene Haas' pockets?

Realistically, I could see two drivers trying "the double": Kurt & Danica. We Tony wants to, but he also has a 4-car team to run. And that take a lot of his time & effort. Harvick is more "pure NASCAR", so I don't believe his interest level is as high as others. PSP has been there, and Kurt tested earlier this year.

We shall see...

[Marcus666]

He might get some aggresive impulses, but goddamn, WHAT A LEGEND he is:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vJNSLA6kNY

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

The only problem with Montoya entering Indycar for me is that it would likely end his 100% Indy 500 win record...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Graham Rahal to evaluate Indy road race.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109543

[bjohnsonsmith]

Teams unsure about winter series.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109549

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by one five five

CART didn't help themselves with constant *****ing about the month of May, pushing for the Indy 500 to be a 'one weekend affair', and denying George a voting spot on the CART board

George pulled the trigger but CART had their own guns aimed his way as well...

And there was good reason for it.

As you may note on it's own the indy racing league ended up condensing the "month of may" because the same issues continued.

And that was teams couldn't afford it.

What most people don't seem to realize is every day you are at the speedway you are getting dinged at a massive mark up for garage rental, utilities, golf carts, you name it. All food for catering is required to be bought from speedway concessions for instance. By the time teams got to the end of the "month of may", some could barely cover expenses from the speedway much less the expense of running the car.

So that's why teams pushed to condense it. Especially after the public faded away and things like "bump day" and "pole day" became meaningless as no one was watching and attending. Teams are getting eaten alive by expenses from the speedway and were getting no revenue in return.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Pistop rules changed post Dixon penalty.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109568

[Teretonga]

So if a team or driver has a similar incident to Dixon then there is no penalty or a reduced penalty.......
Which means what Dixon has suffered is a one off penalty that made a significant handicap to to his championship chances that no one else will have to suffer....

While it is good to see some common sense come to the fore why couldn't the same wisdom have been applied at the time of the incident....?

Exercising rule authority over common sense discretion still points toward management issues within the administration that need to be rectified.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

While it is good to see some common sense come to the fore why couldn't the same wisdom have been applied at the time of the incident....?

Because the rule didn't exist until now...

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

So if a team or driver has a similar incident to Dixon then there is no penalty or a reduced penalty.......
Which means what Dixon has suffered is a one off penalty that made a significant handicap to to his championship chances that no one else will have to suffer....

While it is good to see some common sense come to the fore why couldn't the same wisdom have been applied at the time of the incident....?

Exercising rule authority over common sense discretion still points toward management issues within the administration that need to be rectified.

First, if they ignored the rule as written for his incident then why bother to have the rule book? Just let them rule by common sense, and just wait for the ****ing and moaning to begin.

Second, I believe the management issues you think need to be addressed were addressed exactly as BUSINESSES would. The situation had not come up before, when it did their hands were tied at that moment. But because they saw it was a problem they didn't throw up their hands and shrug, they sat down and adjusted the rules not by passion and anger but with thought and review. Sorry but the minute the race control guys start ruling with intent instead of what actually happened, they are DONE and the teams would never respect the rulings. Appeals would happen every lap and nothing would get done.

[Salamus]

How many races does Andretti promote?