$5 Million IndyCar Challenge at Las Vegas

[Tim Northcutt]

Wasn't sure if there was already a thread on this, but the Indy Star reported this morning that Travis Pastrana and Joey Hand both have submitted applications for consideration to go after the $5 million in the season-ender at Las vegas.

If Kasey Kahne doesn't make the Chase in Sprint Cup, he also is expected to apply.

Thoughts?

[Yannick]

What happened to Scott Speed's bid for the Jackpot? Did it disappear on Pole Day at Indy?

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by Yannick

What happened to Scott Speed's bid for the Jackpot? Did it disappear on Pole Day at Indy?

Don't know...but the story only confirmed the interest of those three specifically today...

No complete list of who has applied that is public, and I would think IndyCar would wait to see how Kahne fares in the Chase standings before sending out the formal invites.

Personally, anyone who tries a one-off for the $5 million will be a longshot to hit the top 10 with as competitive as the filed has been this year, and Cavin isn't so sure that they may even qualify if the total car count for entries goes beyond the max that the track can handle for racing.

Of these three, I think Hand would have the best chance to have at least some success since he has open wheel experience and is pretty versatile. Kahne and Pastrana could be like a couple of fish out of water in OW

[Jonerz]

Well Kahne was destined for CART until it completely eroded and NASCAR became the place where making a living was easiest. I think he'll fit in fine.

Chris

[Mr Pink]

Pastrana would most probably have a hard time at the same time I think he would draw the most attention to the event out of these three.

[PZippy]

I would be very disappointed if there were only 1 or 2 drives for the $5M. It would kind of feel like a bit of bait and switch. I want to see five drivers going for the money!

Love the promotion, but you've got to follow through or you're just going to get a black eye.

[Deleted]

Personally I don't see what's the point, if you've got five millions to offer why only five cars are allowed to compete for it? And if those drivers end up to be B-class quality a la Scott Speed (that could enter any race they wish) anyway, well well...

Look at V8s at Surfers Paradise. They don't really offer any fancy prizes for guest drivers, but it's attracting some great names in large numbers

[nickyf1]

It works really well with the V8's, I look forward to that event every year, and its a great compliment to the awesome Bathurst 1000.

With Indycar.. I'm not so sure they are doing this the right way, I would have an extra off-season event at Indianapolis Raceway Park for guest drivers. I would make use of the current Dallara chassis to keep the cost down and have large prizes for the teams and drivers. Run it in late November/early December so that drivers from all kinds of other series can have a go. They could fill up a field of 20 no bother!

[blaffer]

Which (ex-)F1-drivers are candidate for Las Vegas?
I've heard about Kimi Raikkonen, Scott Speed, Tiago Monteiro, Jacques Villeneuve, Jarno Trulli...

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by blaffer

Which (ex-)F1-drivers are candidate for Las Vegas?
I've heard about Kimi Raikkonen, Scott Speed, Tiago Monteiro, Jacques Villeneuve, Jarno Trulli...

None of the above... especially Speed, Villeneuve and Truli.

Possible (Have expressed Interest or are rumoured)

Joey Hand, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Travis Pastrana, Richie Hearn, Airton Dare, Petter Solberg.

Feel free to add to the list.

[NaBUru38]

With the Las Vegas street race in 2012, IndyCar will have the product to attract many more drivers.

Originally Posted by nickyf1

I would have an extra off-season event at Indianapolis Raceway Park for guest drivers. I would make use of the current Dallara chassis to keep the cost down and have large prizes for the teams and drivers. Run it in late November/early December so that drivers from all kinds of other series can have a go. They could fill up a field of 20 no bother!

Yes indeed! But I'd have it in May 2012.

[Yannick]

The big question remains: Which teams are going to run the 5 additional drivers? Panther? D&R? Andretti? Foyt? Who else?

With 3 fulltime Penskes and 4 fulltime Ganassis, the participation of the "red cars" in this scheme is unlikely.

[Tim Northcutt]

Two Items:

Tanner Foust is reportedly trying to put together a deal to run at Vegas

Pastrana broke his right foot in an accident and has been withdrawn from any of the NASCAR events he was going to participate in this weekend in Indianapolis.

Will he be healed in time to test before October? No one knows...

Tanner Foust would be an interesting pick, because of the audience he draws for America's version of Top Gear...He also frove the truck that made the IZOD jump at the Indiy 500 this year.

FYI for all of you...

[duke_toaster]

The problem with running that event at IRP is the oval would lead to a demolition derby with inexperienced drivers, it's two thirds of a mile long.

[mandretti39]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

It works really well with the V8's, I look forward to that event every year, and its a great compliment to the awesome Bathurst 1000.

With Indycar.. I'm not so sure they are doing this the right way, I would have an extra off-season event at Indianapolis Raceway Park for guest drivers. I would make use of the current Dallara chassis to keep the cost down and have large prizes for the teams and drivers. Run it in late November/early December so that drivers from all kinds of other series can have a go. They could fill up a field of 20 no bother!

Is it possible to equip the Dallara's with snow tires? I'm pretty sure that by late November/early December, there's snow on the ground in Indianapolis.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

The problem with running that event at IRP is the oval would lead to a demolition derby with inexperienced drivers, it's two thirds of a mile long.

That's the point, innit?

[nickyf1]

Originally Posted by mandretti39

Is it possible to equip the Dallara's with snow tires? I'm pretty sure that by late November/early December, there's snow on the ground in Indianapolis.

That did cross my mind..

Hey, put 'em on snow tires!

[NaBUru38]

Now we have a proper shortlist!

Originally Posted by Randy Bernard

We've had over two dozen drivers inquire [...] Out of those two dozen, all of them were great drivers. Don't forget, the most important thing we said, it has to move the needle.

Out of those there were three names that came up that we felt we really wanted. Those are Travis Pastrana [...] The second one was Alex Zanardi [...] Then the third one was Kasey Kahne [...] Those three are the only ones we're interested in.

All I can say is I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make him drink. I've done everything I can. I promised the drivers we won't make this a circus.

We have a couple other ideas. We're not giving up. By next week, we will have a press conference and finalize everything because we need 45 days to make sure whatever our plan going forward is, we have a very articulate plan.

The probles is teams. They all want to run with top teams. But Penske and Ganassi are focused on winning each other. I believe that Andretti and Panther should do it.

[Jacques Rabbit]

I wouldn't regard this as very positive. No one is signed up and Bernard admitted himself he may scrap the entire thing since it's not likely any of the three will actually do it. And there were supposed to be five...and there were supposed to be like 27 or 28 guys who wanted to do it.

So embarrassing for him, I think. As if a gimmick like this wasn't embarrassing enough to begin with.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Ideal list at this time

Dr Jack Miller
Fabrizio del Monte
Joel Camathias
Milka Duno
Shigeaki Hattori

I miss these guys (and girls), and since it appears F1, NASCAR, and Sports Car and professional drivers in general aren't that interested, enter this group and the driver that finishes the most laps down wins 5 Million.

[PZippy]

I still think we'll see Wheldon running in Vegas with Herta, to take a shot at the $5M.

[Carsandmotorracing]

There are so many Kiwi drivers that could do this, to bad none of them probably won't

[mountainstar]

Looks like the press release pipe dream of a big grand finale in Vegas, ended up in the paper shredder.

http://www.racer.com/report-no-drive...MC-RACER_DAILY

The irl failed to secure the prize money insurance by the deadline, so it isn't happening.

[Carsandmotorracing]

Gread job Randy, could ya please leave as CEO while your at it?

[jondownunder]

Yeah, I'm afraid all my initial enthusiasm for Randy has gone. This idea was always stupid, even if Ganassi or Penske were to run an IndyCar rookie, the chances of them winning were so remote that there was no real excitement in this "challenge".

Plus you don't go around putting people with no open wheel experience straight out on an oval, with presumably minimal testing beforehand. It's plain dangerous and reminiscent of the old IRL. That kind of gimmick should be reserved for safe tin-tops like the Toyota guest race at Long Beach.

Plus Randy's vocal support for Brian Barnhart, and the fact that hideous new car was created under his stewardship. He openly admits he came into this not knowing a thing about the sport, but where he failed was listening to the same old IRL people rather than those who truly understand what made AOWR great in the fading past.

Bernard, Barnhart and Cotman, they should all take a running jump.