2023 IndyCar Series Discussion

Chris A · PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2023 10:24 pm

Well, the thing with NASCAR at the moment is the new car is at its best on those cookie cutter tracks. It's still not particularly good, but it's both better than the Gen 6 and better than all the other styles of track currently on the schedule.

electrodevo · PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2023 12:45 am

codename_47 wrote:

I guess we'll never be happy until the 1992 schedule is returned exactly as it was :lol:

Similar to the last proper year of CART, eight of the 16 1992 venues (Long Beach, Indy, Portland, Milwaukee, Toronto, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca) are on the 2024 calendar. That ain't too bad!

Plus I'll half count Detroit, since they will be there in 2024 but not on Belle Isle.

Many of the remainder are impossible or probably not worth it. Nazareth is dead, Cleveland's looking to close Burke Lakefront airport, the NASCAR-driven changes to Phoenix seemed to be detrimental to Indy races, and not sure how the condensed Surfer's layout would work with Indycars.

The remaining missing tracks from the 1992 season are Michigan and Loudon (which gets into the "oval question"), and the Vancouver street race (meh). Maybe Indycar can find more partners to do the Iowa model for other ovals (such as the above, or Richmond, or others); the Iowa model as far as I can tell has been reasonably successful. I wouldn't mind an extra oval, but these events can't sustain themselves on only a few thousand people in attendance, no matter how loud the ovals crowd on certain social media is...

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2023 3:10 pm

Only way for oval tracks to be sustainable is to put them on pay per view only to cover the low attendance

Or tie in with some big musical act like Taylor Swift or anyone who are selling well. F1 did that in Austin some years ago and did wonders

RtN · PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2023 7:38 pm

Which is exactly what Iowa does. They have post-race concerts on both days.

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Any Vancouver return would also have to have a new layout as half of the old one was built over for the winter Olympics a few years back. So the only unmolested tracks from 1992 and not on the current calendar are the two ovals. Of course, attendance in those days was assisted by unrestricted fag money (Marlboro especially) comping tickets in every direction. Not allowed to do that anymore.

westracing01 · PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2023 8:43 pm

codename_47 wrote:

If indycar fans actually attended oval racing as much as bitched about not having oval racing on the schedule online, then ovals would be the most profitable of the track types

As it is, they've actually added a new oval track and decided to do a back to back with it to give us the maximum oval racing they can (Penske isn't losing money on this though, so I give it 3 years at best before they realise it's making no money for them)

Sadly, it wasn't returned to the traditional weekend after Indy like in the good old days, which without Texas I thought would be a given, but oh well...

I had 4 tickets for the top row at Pocono for the Indycar's and went every year they were there. Even went BACK on the Monday for the rain makeup. If they announced tomorrow they were going back, I'd have 4 tickets again as soon as I could order them.

I would also order tickets immediately on an announcement of going back to Watkins Glen.

That said... I'm not traveling 10+ hours just to go to a race. Not an oval anyway where weather can be a real problem. Vacation time from work, travel costs, food, lodging, etc adds up fast. Just to give a for instance on costs... A 3 day weekend in central PA for the Sprint Cars totals out at about $1000. Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, hypothetically, Indycar goes back to Michigan for example. 4 tickets at $75 = $300 + Airfare for 4 at $300 a ticket round trip = $1500 + hotel for 1 night (2 rooms) at $400 = $1900 + dinner for 4 = $2050 + spending money for 4 = $2250... Modestly. Figure a reasonable expenditure for 4 people to attend an oval race not within immediate driving distance to and back is going to run roughly $2500.

The problem lies not with fans don't want to go, it lies with fans can't afford to go unless they live within a conservative 3 hours of the track. Those costs are relatively the same for a road race, but it can be justified a little easier, and you have a bigger potential for a draw, since road racing isn't so weather dependent.

The 4 of us went to Pocono for a grand total of maybe $550... Including tickets and gas to get there and back. Brought our own lunch. Had dinner on the way home and bought a little swag.

EDIT: Forgot the rental car in my hypothetical race at Michigan. Airfare was flying from Westchester to Detroit. So the cost is higher than I said.

RtN · PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 11:27 am

Juncos\SPAM now officially aligned.

https://racer.com/2023/10/03/arrow-mcla ... -alliance/

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As per the Mailbag, if and when Myles Rowe is ready for Indycar, he will start out in a third Foyt car.

RtN · PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 6:40 pm

For those who desire more litigation, Grosjean is now suing Andretti.

RtN · PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2023 10:15 pm

JHR were supposedly going to announce one of their drivers earlier today but this has been delayed by technical problems. Conflicting reports on whether the driver in question is Grosjean or Canapino.

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Andretti are near a decision on whether to run a 4th car or not. The likely scenario would be a tie-up between the BHA part of the team and Paretta Autosport which would see Calderon in the car with backing from a relatively-recent returning sponsor.

https://racer.com/2023/10/17/andretti-c ... car-count/

Gaara · PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2023 5:07 pm

Pietro Fittipaldi in the #30 for RLLR

pending · PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2023 6:57 pm

That came out of nowhere

RtN · PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2023 8:00 pm

Presumably a decision motivated by financial incentives, seeing as the team still like Vips and are working towards putting a fourth car together for him as well as shopping him around to IMSA teams.

https://racer.com/2023/10/23/vips-retai ... -for-2024/

RtN · PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:51 am

RtN wrote:

The likely scenario would be a tie-up between the BHA part of the team and Paretta Autosport which would see Calderon in the car with backing from a relatively-recent returning sponsor.

Pruett has intimated in this week's Mailbag that the sponsor in question is the National Guard, and that there is also the prospect of them supporting Chadwick in NXT as part of a campaign to bolster female recruitment.

RtN · PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 4:39 pm

Rasmussen won the shootout and will share the #20 with Special Ed.

https://racer.com/2023/10/25/indy-nxt-c ... -with-ecr/

Gaara · PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2023 8:13 pm

Ilott's left JHR

De Cesaris fan · PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2023 8:19 pm

I hope he lands another ride. Shame things became so toxic at that team.

RtN · PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:03 pm

Guess that leaves the door open for Grosjean. Pruett was fairly sure in the Mailbag that Ilott would have 'decent options' if Juncos let him go soon, which they now have. Realistically, the only seats truly available are at Coyne & Foyt, as Rahal is set to renew at the family team and there already seem to be solid plans for the 4th Andretti. Foyt's probably not a bad option with the Penske help.

RtN · PostPosted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 1:03 am

You wait 2 years for Fittipaldi to return to Indycar and then 2 come along at once.

https://racer.com/2023/10/27/enzo-fitti ... ith-coyne/

pimmy · PostPosted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 3:07 pm

Are they going to bring Emerson back to share the two-seater with Mario?

RtN · PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 4:04 pm

After the flurry of confirmations, Brown appraises what remains of Silly Season.

https://eu.indystar.com/story/sports/mo ... 346227007/

tl;dr
-Ilott has entered the free agent market at what is not a great time in terms of available seats. Based upon comments made before and after Laguna Seca, it appears that events there precipitated the split.
-The only seats believed to be open are at Juncos (1), Coyne (2) and Foyt (1). The 4th Andretti is still a question mark.
-Despite fairly constant rumours of a split between Pedersen and Foyt, it is expected that they will both stick to the multi-year contract they agreed at the start of 2023.
-Ferrucci appears to be at the top of Foyt's pile to hold onto his current seat, but he is not bringing a lot of money and his performances (Indy aside) have not been far enough ahead of Pedersen to automatically give him a second year over and above a driver that does have money. Splitting the car between 2 drivers (ovals/non-ovals) is also a possibility.
-Grosjean remains the favourite to replace Ilott at Juncos but this is not a done deal and other drivers with money such as DeFrancesco and Robb may also get a look in.
-All of those drivers also remain in contention at Coyne (with the wrinkle that Robb's backers want him to be moved across to the better #18 car in return for their money), as does Danial Frost. At least one of those seats will be going purely to the highest bidder.
-Many other drivers are sniffing around the paddock but it is unlikely they have the money or the profile that would leapfrog them above the 5 already mentioned by name.
-As far as the 500 is concerned, there are already 31 entries on the board; 27 full-time cars (and possibly a 28th from Andretti) plus 4 extras - Larson, Marco, Helio and Rasmussen.
-On top of that, RLLR are again pursuing a 4th car with the intent of running a veteran to help build that team as it works towards the goal of being a full-time car for Vips.
-There are plenty of options, with 3 former winners (RHR, Sato and Pagenaud) currently with empty calendars for next May among others.
-Foyt is also looking at a third car and Dreyer & Reinbold are currently expected to return with 2.
-Which would mean an entry list of 35 (36 should the 4th Andretti come to fruition).

RtN · PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2023 9:04 pm

Grosjean will be confirmed at Juncos tomorrow.

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2023 IndyCar Series Discussion

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