Not a bad seat either

Will Power accepting the Firestone Tire-ific move of the race

Indy Lights start

Rolling

Indy Lights grid from pit lane!!!

Iowa Corn Indy 250 Preview and Predictions

This weekend IndyCar heads to the short oval of Iowa Speedway and for the first time it will be ran under the lights.  Better still (at lease for me) is I am heading there with them.  This is my replacement for Chicagoland Speedway and Barber.  (I always go to Chicagoland but sense IndyCar does not race there this year I will give my money to Rusty Wallace instead.  I also had tickets and pit passes for all three days at Barber earlier this year but was unable to go so I talked myself in to going to Iowa to make up for it).  This is a very nifty little track with changing banking (done right, more and more tracks are going to different banking in the turns but Iowa did it right with a nice smooth parabolic curve).  The one thing learned from years passed at this track is aggressiveness does NOT always pay off.  Please take not Mr. EJ Viso!  This is also a track where the Death Stars dominance should be at its lease.  As aerodynamics means next to nothing here, they are very important on road courses and extremely important on most ovals this however is that exception.  Here you need mechanical grip not aero grip.  So if “Pork Chop” was going to have a good race this is her best shot.

For predictions, contrary to what I just said about “Pork Chop” I am not going to go with Simona.  Sentimental favorite yes but I just do not think she can pull it off with her confidence shaken as badly as it is.  Pole is going to be hard to pick, as I am afraid that it might come down to track temperatures.  Qualifying is right smack in the middle of the afternoon high so catch a cloud and your golden otherwise be prepared to slip and slide.  Should be interesting how teams attack qualifying as the track conditions will be nothing like race but they do have a hour fifteen minute practice that will also have hot slippery track conditions so we will see.  Meanwhile I have to pick someone so I will go with the hot hand of Dario Franchitti.  For the win, I would love to see Tony Kanaan pull it off and his showing at the Mile gives me enough hope to go with it!  One note though Tony you have to finish to win and this has not been the best track for Tony when it comes to rolling the car home.  Second, I will go with Dario after all if anyone other then his BFF (TK) beats him we know we will have two whole weeks of him crying about it but then again he is likely to cry about something anyway.  To close out the podium I well say Helio brings it home.  Unless you are extreme anti-Helio, you just had to fill heart broken for him last week.  Leading pulling away flat tire no matter still fastest car on the track yellow had to come in.  I strongly believe without TK spinning Helio would have stayed out and brought it home but with the yellow bunching up the field and cooling off the tires he really had no choice but to come in can change.  For the story of the race I am going to say, keep an eye on Danica this week.  This is a very good track for her and she just might be able to back up that top five finish from last week.  The “Legend in His Own Mind” award I am going to say steer clear of Charlie Kimball.  He is in a “Ganassi” car that has no business being a back marker week in and week out.  I try not to pick on rookies too much here but it is well passed the time Kimball needs to show an effort that he is worthy of such a ride.  (*note* he really was not that impressive in lights either)

The Milwaukee 225 Preview and Predictions

This week IndyCar returns to the Milwaukee Mile.  I know this is called a fan favorite track but personal I just do not get it.  Of all of the ovals, Milwaukee is the most follow the leader track IndyCar goes to.  I did not miss it last year and do not understand why IndyCar brass bent over backwards to get it back for this year.  That said it is still an IndyCar race so I will still be glued to my TV to watch the race.  As this is an ABC race there is no coverage of qualifying this week so we hardcore fans will have to lesion to it on streaming audio while “normal” fans just check the web for the results or wait till pre-race to find out what the grid will look like.  (I still do not understand why you cannot have streaming video of practice and qualifying if there is NO telecast that it might “rob from”!)

Let us move on to my predictions.  I hate to say it but I am predicting a death star weekend.  For the pole, I am going to go with Scott Dixon assuming he has enough fuel to finish his run.  For the win, I am going to stick with Scott Dixon as I said in the preview this is a follow the leader track so unless something unforeseen happens the pole setter is likely to be the winner.  For P2 I will go with Ganassi to sweep the top two with Dario Franchitti.  To finish out the podium Ryan Briscoe he let me know last week at Texas lets see if he can make up for it here.  The story of the race is going to be Takuma Sato he really impressed me last week at Texas, he has always been a sleeper for me on the road courses but he has be quite the disappointment there, which makes his Texas showing on the oval stick out even more.  Finally, the “Legend in his own mind” award I will give to EJ Viso.  Yes, he also had a good showing at Texas but I am afraid that he might be someone you do not want to build up confidence in as he will try to do something above his talent level and the car will have to go in the trailer on jacks.

Firestone Twin 275s at Texas Review and Reaction

Well I have had some time to think about it and “cool off” if you will but my thoughts on the draw are the same.  I said I would not like it and I didn’t.  The two worse case scenarios I was afraid of BOTH happened (slow or wrecked car in front with Wade Cunningham, and a fast car up front with the other fast cars in the back).  So if you look at it that was it wasn’t too bad as Wade did not cause a huge crash but you have to ask if this keeps happening is this the rule or the exception?  Will was able to “get gone” which did make for a fairly boring race number two but it was not a bad as I feared it would be either.  The two solutions put out there by drivers were: 1) Invert the field and 2) offer passing points.  Well if you offer passing points, the maximum number of points available is still based on a blind draw, which would still be extremely unfair and therefore solves nothing!  A full inversion of the field guaranties the slowest cars in the front of the field, which is a worse case scenario.  Again I give Wade Cunningham huge credit for jumping into a new (road course) car for the first time on the out side of row one and not causing a big wreck.  However, if you make that the standard and you well have a big wreck sooner rather then later.  Therefore, a full inversion also solves nothing!  If you are going to have a twin race format (which I wish they would just do away with) there are only two ways to set the field for the second race.  First, there is the "old way" which set on finishing position of the first race.  That makes it more of a competition red flag where you reset and put everyone back on the lead lap but other then that nothing changes.  Or what I think is the best idea, would be to use race one not only as a points paying race but also as a group qualifying for race two.  Therefore, the fastest lap time turned in race one would get the pole and so on.  This would still shake up the field some but would still be a legitimate way to set a grid; it is the best of both worlds!  This would have been the grid for race two if they used this system:

Just look at that and think “Oh what might have been.”  We can only hope that they put some real thought into how to reformat this race for next year.

Firestone Twin 275s at Texas Preview and Predictions

Well it is finally here.  Ever sense it was announced in the off-season I have been wondering how this format will work.  I was not a fan of the format at first and I still do not like it.  Double headers are great for support series but this is IndyCar if you want to be treated like the premier racing series that you are then do not set your races up like a supporting class race.  However, if that is not bad enough any creditability to the second race is completely lost due to the fact that the grid is set by blind draw!  This is not even support series style this is go-kart style, but even there only the heats are blind draw the main is set by average finish of the heats.  I would say if you are going to have a double-header type format the second race grid should be set by fastest lap times during the first race.  This would be better then the “old way” of finishing order in that if a fast car has trouble then he will still be in the back while the other fast cars are out front and gone.  With this blind draw format there is potential for things to go wrong.  Lets play the “what if game” for a bit.  What if the front of the field is heavy with slow cars, you get a big pile up early in the race making for a very boring race.  What if there is 1 fast guy on the front row while all of the other people that proved to be fast in race 1 are stuck behind slower traffic, he will check out and be long gone making for a very boring race.  What if your favorite driver gets a bad draw and is the back of the field all of race 2?  This format might “move the needle” but not in the way, Randy Bernard wants, because people (not the hardcore, blog reading, fans) will shut off the second race.  I guess we will see how it turns out.  I hope I am wrong about the second and it is not a complete snoozer but we shall see.

As for predictions for the pole I am going to go with Briscoe, he needs to make up walling the car on pole day and having to move to the T car if not for that he would have been in the running for pole at Indy, so keep it off the wall in practice and go for it.  As for the podium, I am going for the top three average finishes (most points scored) as when we look back at the race that is what is going to matter.  For first I am going to stick with Briscoe, I think he is due for a good run he had one going at Indy before “the Townsend Dollar Bill” bounced off the wall and took him out plus Texas has been good to Ryan in the past.  He may not come out with 50 points but unless something happens, he should have a good showing.  For P2 I will go with Dixon, someone else who has a very good record at Texas and I expect him to split the wins with Briscoe so it is going to come down to who has the better other finish.  For P3 let us go with Helio.  As much as I would love to go with a non-Death Star team I just think that the logistics of the format plays into the hands of the well organized teams and even though Penske has not really looked well organized so far this season heads will roll if that is not turned around soon.  For the story of the race, I am going to go with Marco Andretti he could be very fun to watch if he gets, is car hooked up on the high line as he has in the past.  Finally, the “Legend In His Own Mind” award is a “Legend In Her Own Mind” this week as I am expecting Danica to prove that last year when she had a good race at Texas was in fact just a flook.  She is on her way to NASCAR and IndyCar is not going to miss her we just need to get companies to promote other driver.  Plus I am not sure how much Danica is helping IndyCar anymore already as she is always introduced as “NASCAR driver Danica Patrick” whenever she is on TV.

Indianapolis 500 Review and Reaction

Wow what a race.  First thing that has to stick out as we look back at the 2011 Indianapolis 500-mile race is what is wrong with Penske?  Not only did they have pit problems again they were never a factor with any of their cars.  Briscoe was coming from midfield when he ran into the “Townsend Dollar Bill” but even as he was moving up he didn’t seem to have the speed of the leaders through out the run.  One could look at this as everyone has caught up to the big teams which is of coarse makes for good racing and wide open fields.  The downside … next year with 3 different engine manufactures (and those manufactures being able to give “developmental” equipment to there foundation team(s)) next year the big teams are likely to dominate even more then they have been the past 9 years!  Yippy something to look forward too.  Other then the “Death Star” teams nonexistent when looking at the top ten the thing that really sticks out is the one off’s.  Not only the winner but Three count them THREE of the top ten were one off teams.  Makes you question just how good are these regulars really are?  Perhaps ride buying has finally caught up to most of the full time teams.  One can only hope that this would make them think harder before passing up a great driver with some money and taking up someone whose sole qualification is the check book they bring with them.  But be forewarned that the Indy Lights Death Star team is coming to up to play with the big boys and this is a very good start at being the ones to blow up the old Death Star.

As for my predictions.  I think I did pretty well on my qualifying predictions however I was really busy and never got around to making race predictions on here.  That was probably a good thing as the race predictions I did make didn’t turn out too well other then saying the 4 car would finish 2^nd!  The story of the race has to go to Wheldon a one off winning should not even be possible but here we are.  Just goes to show that just how good Wheldon really is.  I was not one of the people that thought Dan should have been in the greatest 33 (even though I knew he has lead more laps then Heilo) but now, now I think maybe he really does belong up there.  Maybe there well be a movement for him to buy out a seat in one of the cars the really did qualify!  The “Legend In His Own Mind” award (as much as I hate to do it) has to go to JR Hildebrand.  I hate to pile on but he had it won if he would have just set behind Kimball, even if he would have ran out of gas he had a big enough lead to cost to the line (he almost made it to the line first even after hitting the wall!).  Even if there was any argument for not giving this award to him it goes away when you hear his explanation.  “I was able to go to the high side earlier in the day.”  That is just the definition of “Legend In His Own Mind” doing something stupid because you think you can get away with.  I just hope he has learned his lesion and will be more patience as race wins don’t come around very often for Panther anymore and Indy 500 wins are even more rare.  I think JR is an extremely talented driver with a very bright future here in IndyCar but Sunday he was just a legend in his own mind.

Overall I think race day was a huge success.  I was worried about the hot wheels stunt when it was first announced but it really seemed to bring in interest from people who do not normally care about IndyCar and even though I was skeptical at first I must admit it was pretty cool to see.  The classic cars were what I was really looking forward too race morning and they did not disappoint at all.  I hope that is something that they continue to do every year.  Having past winners driving past winning cars just seems like a natural fit.

Post Fast Friday Indianapolis 500 Grid Prediction

Here is my Post Fast Friday Indianapolis 500 Grid Prediction.  I will start with the heart brake of who doesn’t make it.  The easy ones are the #57 (which will never make an attempt even if it does some practice laps on Sunday.)  The #20 (was going to be hard to make it anyway but now with this extra drama that is going to be even harder.)  The #18 (Jakes just does not seem to have the speed so I am saying go ahead and write him off.)  Finally I hate to say it but I am calling the #78 an easy call to not make it (unable to make even an install lap today with the back up car I think they just have too much work and too little time to put a fast enough qual run in *very sad face*).  The others DNQ’s are much harder to pin down but here is what I came up with:

Position	Car #	Driver	Team
DNQ	57		Sarah Fisher
DNQ	20	Scott Speed - R	Dragon
DNQ	18	James Jakes - R	Dale Coyne
DNQ	78	Simona de Silvestro	HVM
DNQ	8	Ho-Pin Tung - R	Dragon
DNQ	43	John Andretti	Andretti / Petty
DNQ	88	Jay Howard - R	Rahal-Letterman/Sam Schmidt
DNQ	41	Bruno Junqueira	Foyt
33	34	Sebastian Saavedra - R	Conquest
32	27	Mike Conway	Andretti Autosport
31	11	Davey Hamilton	Dreyer & Reinbold/Kingdom
30	36	Pippa Mann - R	Conquest
29	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport
28	17	Raphael Matos	AFS
27	59	E.J. Viso	KV Racing Technology
26	19	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne
25	24	Ana Beatriz - R	Dreyer & Reinbold
24	23	Paul Tracy	Dreyer & Reinbold
23	83	Charlie Kimball - R	Chip Ganassi
22	07	Tomas Scheckter	KVRT/SH Redline
21	5	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology
20	82	Tony Kanaan	KV Racing Technology
19	98	Dan Wheldon - W	Bryan Herta Autosport
18	22	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold
17	44	Buddy Rice - W	Panther
16	38	Graham Rahal	Chip Ganassi
15	06	James Hinchcliffe - R	Newman-Haas
14	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport
13	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport
12	14	Vitor Meria	Foyt
11	30	Bertrand Baguette	Rahal-Letterman
10	99	Townsend Bell	Sam Schmidt
9	4	J.R. Hildebrand - R	Panther
8	67	Ed Carpenter	Sarah Fisher
7	77	Alex Tagliani	Sam Schmidt
6	10	Dario Franchitti - W	Target Chip Ganassi
5	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske
4	2	Oriol Servia	Newman-Haas
3	12	Will Power	Team Penske
2	9	Scott Dixon - W	Target Chip Ganassi
1	3	Helio Castroneves - W	Team Penske

If you remember last year Helio put up a time in his first Fast 9 qualifying attempt that nobody could touch even in practice with a tow!  So I see no reason not to go with him again for P1.  Predicting speed however is going to be harder as it is more of a weather forecast then anything else.  My weather forecast this morning (I have not seen any newer data) was for higher winds (with incoming storms) around happy hour.  So While I think will see at lease a mid 227 before 4 o’clock after the times reset for the fast 9 pole speed will drop to a 227.059

Pre-Practice Indianapolis 500 Grid Prediction

Here it is I have made my Pre-Practice grid prediction for the “2011 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race”.  This what quite challenging as there hasn’t been a single car on any oval nor less IMS but that kind of makes it fun too.  I will make a 2^nd grid prediction after Fast Friday which I am sure would be much more accurate and will include a pole speed.  You are welcome to join me in making your prediction but there will be two pools to get in the pre-practice pool you have to summit your grid before opening day.

P	Car #	Driver	Hometown	Car Name	Entrant
Row 1
1	3	Helio Castroneves (W)	Sao Paulo	Shell V-Power/Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske	Team Penske
2	6	Ryan Briscoe	Sydney	IZOD Team Penske	Team Penske
3	9	Scott Dixon (W)	Auckland, New Zealand	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Row 2
4	10	Dario Franchitti (W)	Edinburgh, Scotland	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing
5	0.6	James Hinchcliffe (R)	Toronto	Sprott Newman/Haas Racing	Newman/Haas Racing
6	12	Will Power	Toowoomba, Australia	Verizon Team Penske	Team Penske
Row 3
7	82	Tony Kanaan	Salvador, Brazil	GEICO – KV Racing Technology – Lotus	KV Racing Technology - Lotus
8	26	Marco Andretti	Nazareth, Pa.	Team Venom	Andretti Autosport
9	67	Ed Carpenter	Indianapolis	Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing	Sarah Fisher Racing
Row 4
10	2	Oriol Servia	Pals, Spain	Telemundo Newman/Haas Racing	Newman/Haas Racing
11	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Boca Raton, Fla.	Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda	Andretti Autosport
12	4	JR Hildebrand (R)	Sausalito, Calif.	National Guard Panther Racing	Panther Racing
Row 5
13	7	Danica Patrick	Roscoe, Ill.	Team GoDaddy	Andretti Autosport
14	38	Graham Rahal	New Albany, Ohio	Service Central	Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing
15	27	Mike Conway	Bromley, England	Team GoDaddy.com	Andretti Autosport
Row 6
16	77	Alex Tagliani	Lachenaie, Quebec	Bowers & Wilkins/Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
17	78	Simona De Silvestro	Thun, Switzerland	Nuclear Clean Air Energy HVM Racing	Nuclear Clean Air Energy HVM Racing
18	59	E.J. Viso	Caracas, Venezuela	PDVSA – KV Racing Technology- Lotus	KV Racing Technology – Lotus
Row 7
19	44	Buddy Rice (W)	Phoenix, Arizona	Panther Racing	Panther Racing
20	99	Townsend Bell	San Luis Obispo, Calif.	Herbalife Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
21	0.7	Tomas Scheckter	Cape Town, South Africa	Team REDLINE Xtreme – Circle K	KV Racing Technology – SH Racing
Row 8
22	5	Takuma Sato	Tokyo	KV Racing Technology - Lotus	KV Racing Technology - Lotus
23	36	Pippa Mann (R)	England	Conquest Racing	Conquest Racing
24	83	Charlie Kimball (R)	Camarillo, Calif.	Levemir and NovoLog FlexPen	Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing
Row 9
25	23	Paul Tracy	Scarborough, Ontario	WIX Filters/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
26	22	Justin Wilson	Sheffield, England	Z-Line Designs/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
27	24	Ana Beatriz	Sao Paulo	Team Ipiranga/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Row 10
28	17	Raphael Matos	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc.	AFS Racing
29	19	TBA	TBA	Boy Scouts of America	Dale Coyne Racing
30	14	Vitor Meira	Brasilia, Brazil	ABC Supply Co A.J. Foyt Racing	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Row 11
31	11	Davey Hamilton	Nampa, Idaho	HP/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
32	98	Dan Wheldon (W)	Emberton, England	Bryan Herta Autosport	Bryan Herta Autosport
33	34	Sebastian Saavedra	Bogotá, Colombia	Conquest Racing	Conquest Racing
Did Not Qualify
	18	James Jakes (R)	Leeds, England	Acorn Stairlifts	Dale Coyne Racing
	43	John Andretti	Indianapolis	Team Window World	Richard Petty/ Andretti Autosport
	30	Bertrand Baguette	Verviers, Belgium	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
	8	Ho-Pin Tung	China	Dragon Racing	Dragon Racing
	TBA	Bruno Junqueira	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	A.J. Foyt Racing	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
	88	Jay Howard (R)	Basildon, England	Service Central Schmidt-RLL Racing	Sam Schmidt – RLL Racing
	16	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
	57	TBA	TBA	Sarah Fisher Racing	Sarah Fisher Racing
	89	TBA	TBA	China Racing	China Racing

Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle Review and Reaction

My main concern going into the Sao Paulo race was the track surface.  Not knowing that they have already done exactly what I wish they would do.  Which is repaving the track with FIA approved pavement and they repaved it with the same formula of pavement that surfaces the Interlagos Circuit (The Formula One track in Brazil); which makes me love this circuit even more.  There were still reports of bumps but they were inconsistent some drivers saying that it was still very bumpy and Will Power saying it is the smoothest street circuit they go to all year.  The answer I do not know I was not there but there was a huge noticeable bump right in the middle of the braking zone for turn one that needs to be fixed for next year.  Other then that, it is the perfect circuit!  If we could just catch a dry weekend, we would see just how great this circuit is.

As for my predictions Power got the pole but that is as good as I got as Helio was stuffed in the wall and James was stuck on the outside of a spinning car.  The story of the race other then the rain I would say is Sato.  Yeah he ended up eighth but had a much better race then that, whoever made the call to stay out under the yellow better hope he has good job security.  As that was just a really bad call!  I predicted Vitor to be the story but he had a brake line failure so he was unable to back up his podium from last year.  The “Legend in His Own Mind” award I picked EJ oh how wrong I was on that one as he a great race, until he was called for blocking (which by the IndyCar rules he with out question did.)  I will go on record as saying I hate that rule but that is the rule.  He went off the prefer line to prevent from being passed.  I think as the car in front he has earned the right to choose his line and as long as he stay in that line then he is not blocking but if you want to play in IndyCar you have to play by IndyCar rules which says you have to stay in the preferred line.

Over all I would say this weekend was a disappointment.  There is no blame to pass out as it was the weathers fault but as weather is a part of road / street racing lets look to see if there is any room for improvement.  I say yes, there is.  First and I said this on Saturday, painting the run-off areas looks cool but a run off area is there to help run-a-way cars stop and in the wet (when you are likely to have more need of such areas) paint is as bad a ice.  There are ways around this, see the Singapore F1 circuit, but it is just easier not to paint the whole thing.  Have nice defined lines but then let the cars brake on a surface that well help the car stop.  Somewhere else where IndyCar could use some improvement is on the rain tires.  If you really look at these tires you would see that they are not even as good as the Formula 1 intermediate tyre.  If you want to keep the current tire in IndyCar then fine but call that an intermediate rain tire (which IndyCar currently doesn’t have) and then make a real rain tire which would allow them to run in real rain!  I know IndyCar has no control over the weather but I believe IndyCar has a duty to the fans to be as best prepared as possible and limiting the painted areas around a track as much as possible and having a better rain tire would be a huge step in the right direction.

Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle Preview and Predictions

It is time for the IZOD IndyCar’s annual trip below the equator.  And no Jack Arute I am not talking about Japan!!!  We are going to the home of half the field Brazil.  Okay it is not quite half and when I said “we” I really mean them, as I could not even go to Barber, even though I won free tickets and paddock passes, because of the price of fuel, which seems cheep now only three weeks ago.  So like, I would expect everyone reading this, I will be stuck at home watching this one on Verses.

The track layout for Sao Paulo is absolutely brilliant!  Anyone who knows me or well get to know my through this blog, knows that I am a oval guy but as far as road courses go this lay out might just be the best I’ve ever seen and that includes all of the F1 tracks around the world.  Too bad the track surface cannot live up to the layouts potential.  I am not too concerned about the start/finish straight from last year.  I am sure they learn their lesion and are prepared this year so: 1) the cars can get grip on the concrete and 2) it is not a dust bowl and the drivers can actually see where they are going.  No my complaint has to do with street courses in general.  There are ways to make a “street” course work and that is to do it like F1 does it.  Require the streets to be FIA approved racing surface.  If you want to run in the streets that is find but make sure the streets are acceptable.  St. Petersburg is a good example of this.  They paved their streets to make a usable racetrack.  In contrast, look at Long Beach last week.  That track is just like the roads I travel on every day along with the bumps and man whole covers that my streetcar.  What is the problem you ask?  Well if my streetcar, with a ground clearance of about eight inch and travels at a typical speed of 62 mph, his a man whole cover I probably would not even notice it.  If a racecar however, hits a man whole cover he is sent into the tire wall.  Just ask Josef Newgarden who while leading the Firestone Indy Lights race at Long Beach hit a man whole cover and out of the race.  Can we all agree that there is no room for a man whole cover on a true world class racing circuit!  Sao Paulo may or may not have man whole covers on or near the racing line, I do not remember from last year but I do remember that is was way, Way, WAY too bumpy to be considered as a world class racing circuit.  Last year was a great race but how much better could it have been on a smooth surface?

 

Let us move to predictions.  It is a road / street course to my prediction for pole is the same as ALL road / street courses and that is Will Power.  I am not saying Power is going to take every pole on the twisties this year, as I am sure he’ll faultier somewhere, and end up as far back as P2 but I’ll never pick against him for pole when it comes to the road and street courses.  To take the “twin checkers”, I want to pick a Brazilian and I WANT to pick TK but I am not going to.  TK just does not have the killer attitude this year.  Blame it on the new team where he does not know all of the guys yet.  Blame it on EJ Viso for tearing up so much equipment that Tony feels he just has to bring the car home what ever it is he is just not the same TK we all know and love.  Prove me wrong TK prove me wrong I would love it!!!  Therefore, if I still want to go with a Brazilian then I will look towards Helio.  Lord knows he needs a good, clean race and a win would sure go a long ways to getting his confidence back before Indy.  So sure, why not I will go out on the limb and pick Helio for the win.  Besides if, he is already in front then he will have no one to run into from behind!  To come in P2 I am going to go with Power.  He cannot be too far down the order and with Power behind him; there will not be any “getch’a back” moves to take Helio out.  I would hope no IndyCar driver would do this these guys (and girls) are better then NASCAR driver that way too not just in their talent levels.  But you never know with some of the mid-field and back.  For P3 I am looking at the “Major of Hitchtown” to come home with the podium locking out all of the Ganassi cars shutting out the Penske podium sweep.  Hitch was my pre-season pick for Rookie of the year even though I knew he would miss St. Pete and I am not backing off of him now.  He was faster then Oriol at the preseason test at Barber all the way till the low fuel new tires qualifying sims at the very end.  However, in his two races so far he has been out preformed by “Milk’s Favorite Cookie” (My own personal nick name for Oriol Servia is “Oreo”)  This week Hitch turns it around and starts to out perform his teammate race in and race out.  For the “Story of the Race” I am going to say keep an eye out on Vitor.  He may not be able to back up his podium finish from last year but with a top ten maybe even a top five he can show us all that last year was not a fluke and he still has what it takes to be an elite IndyCar driver.  Last but not least the “Legend In His Own Mind” award I am going to pick EJ Viso to put it in the wall again!  Not much of a stretch I know but hey if I am picking Helio to have a good race.  Who else can I count on to do something stupid?

To Penalize or Not to penalize that is the question.

The main talking point this week in IndyCar is whether or not Helio should have been penalized and why was PT different.  I know I am in the extreme minority here but I for one think that race control got the exactly right last week at Long Beach.  If you watch the Helio / Wilson contact and brake down what happened to cause the incident you‘d see that Wilson was the second car in line.  The car in front (I do not remember who it was now) break checked Wilson in the hairpin.  This is not a dirty move.  This is a standard defensive move to make it harder for Wilson to get a run down the front stretch and make a pass going into turn 1.  Wilson therefore had to check up to avoid getting into him, in essence break-checking Helio in a standard accordion effect.  Helio could not see the front car brake check Wilson and ran into the back spinning Wilson.  Would I call this “unavoidable contact”?  No, I would not go that far but I would call it a racing incident and not deserving of a penalty.

So how is this different from the Tracy / Simona contact?  As we were never shown video of this incident it makes it hard too assess.  The reaction on Monday was this was the same contact and should have had the same result.  I however kept on saying, “hold the phone there.  We haven’t seen video of the Tracy / Simona contact and you are putting a lot of faith in Tracy by saying it was the same thing just because it had the same result.”  (A car spun on exit of the hairpin.)  I kept on point out the Tracy has a history of attempting bonehead moves and has tried (and failed) to make a pass in the hairpin before.  Therefore, I was not sure this was not the case again.  I am sure there are some people that want to cry conspiracy theories claiming that IndyCar does not want you to see the video because they do not want you to see the similarities of the contact and just want to stick it to PT.  First Versus is the one who opted not to show us the video not IndyCar and what does Versus have to hide?  They would love to show the video if they had it they just must not have it.  So how did race control see it?  Race control uses a different set of cameras.  These unmanned stationary cameras are more like security cameras then high definition television cameras.  Whether or not Versus have access to this footage is yet to be seen if I would to take a guess I would say no and we will never see video of this incident.  So how do we analyze the contact then?  There are two possible answers to this.  One you simply take the high road and do not analyze it at all.  This is what writers in respectable newspapers would do.  (See Curt Cavin’s Q&A as the perfect example of this.)  But this is just a blog not any respectable news source we are here just to create arguments so we do not have to stand up to the same line of ethics as a professional writer does.  So I can go with answer two and that is take the word of someone who saw it.  This becomes hearsay and you have to make decision on which you are going to believe where there are conflicts.  For this case, we have Al Unser Jr. and Scott Dixon.  Scott said the Helio’s move was far worse then Tracy’s and does not understand why Helio was not penalized.  Here is the quote:

“I was one car back from it. It was totally blatant. OK, Justin was struggling a little bit for rear grip, and it was coming towards the end of the stint, but it still doesn’t make it OK for the following person to say, ‘You’re slowing me down—you’re kind of ruining my race—so I’m going to spin you out so I don’t have to deal with you anymore.’”

What Dixon said about the Helio wreck was just dead wrong.  He claimed that Wilson was holding everyone but wait a minute Wilson was not the car holding everyone up it was the car in front of Wilson that was holding up the train and anyone who calls hat a blatant punt has lost their mind!  (Please note that I consider there are four kinds of contact that can happen in a race.  Unavoidable, Racing incident, Avoidable, and Punt.)  I tack this up to Dixon just being mad and talking with out facts.  The other witness we have to choose to speak publicly about it is Al Jr.  As one of the marshals, he would have the best view available for review of both incidents.  When he decided to come out publicly and talk about it.  I was proud to say what I thought happened (even with out video) is was Al said happened.  Tracy was trying a very ill-advised pass in a non-passing zone and caused a wreck.  That is a big difference then what Helio / Wilson contact where Helio was just the third car in line.  My verdict avoidable contact minor penalty.

What about Helio’s move into turn one then?  What happened here (we know because we have video) is exactly how you describe what Tracy did.  Let us break this down and see what really happened here.  Helio has a run down the front stretch pulls to the inside of Oriol Servia.  Servia moves down (not enough to block not even by IndyCar’s extremely stick definition) moving Helio farther on to the dirty line.  Helio kicks up dust does not slow down enough and plows into Power.  If Helio was trying to make a move on Power then that would be a bonehead move and he should have been penalized but he was not trying to pass Power.  He was trying to pass Servia and slot in behind Power.  In racing when you attempt to make a pass sometimes things go wrong that is by definition a racing incident.  If you attempt to make a clean pass in a passing, zone and fail there should be no penalty.  My verdict racing incident no penalty.