2018 Verizon IndyCar SeriesOpen Wheel

[Northstar]

Phoenix won't be returning next year. I'm not too surprised or sad to see it go as the changes that have been made to the track over the last few years have ruined it in my opinion.

https://racer.com/2018/06/23/indycar-will-not-return-to-phoenix-in-2019/

 

[JohnBM01]

Phoenix will seem much different once all the modifications and revisions are done to it. It is sad IndyCar won't be rocking Phoenix next year, though.

On a different note, while I was watching the Mecum Auctions from Portland this weekend, I heard that IndyCar will race Portland again for the first time in a while. I'll be looking forward to seeing this great track be raced on again. I just keep wondering about things like decibel limits and the whole "green" aspect of the track with today's IndyCar machines.

 

[Dotini]

Phoenix will seem much different once all the modifications and revisions are done to it. It is sad IndyCar won't be rocking Phoenix next year, though.

On a different note, while I was watching the Mecum Auctions from Portland this weekend, I heard that IndyCar will race Portland again for the first time in a while. I'll be looking forward to seeing this great track be raced on again. I just keep wondering about things like decibel limits and the whole "green" aspect of the track with today's IndyCar machines.

I've raced cars and karts at Portland for decades (my fastest lap 1:11 in a kart). I agree it's a great track and atmosphere. The city owns the circuit, so hats off to them for bringing back IndyCars. I hope the turnout of spectators is as great as in the past, and that the city rakes in the benefit. Although Portland has a great motorsports tradition, it is, as you hinted, increasingly ruled by leftish, greenish progressive types to whom auto racing might seem excessively loud, stinky, male and environmentally questionable. They may someday prefer a parade of Uber Prius's instead, but not this year!

 

[raven214]

Hope someone else is driving the pace car today after the debacle in Detroit!

 

[Ether]

Only a few laps in and already this is looking to be a thrilling race all around.

 

[Kingofweasles]

Josef Newgarden put on a real clinic today. Good racing all around, but Team Penske just nailed Newgarden's set-up and pit-stops.

 

[JohnBM01]

Sadly, I completely missed the race at Road America. Congratulations to the winner and great job to everyone else who finished well.

 

[FutureF1]

Bonkers lap by Slick Willy P

 

[Northstar]

So far this race is making a very good argument for dropping all ovals except Indy.

 

[Eva]

So far this race is making a very good argument for dropping all ovals except Indy.

Yet people still ask for Milwaukee? Pick one.

 

[Dennisch]

5 cars in the same lap. Nr 10 2 laps behind.

 

[Northstar]

Hinch wins!

Granted I would have been more interested in watching actual corn grow.

 

[MaddinICE]

Kinda bummed to see the race ending under caution, but the last 100 laps were interesting.

 

[Dylan]

Didn't they say at one point that there were well over 900 ontrack passes in the middle of the race?

 

[Morgoth_666]

Didn't they say at one point that there were well over 900 ontrack passes in the middle of the race?

That may have included lappery? It was a pretty good race outside of the battle for the lead though, there was a lot of action, quite a bit of passing and side-by-side battles. Just Newgarden had it on lockdown up front until all of a sudden, he didn't.

And leave it to Sato to crash AND get a podium finish.

 

[Dylan]

That may have included lappery? It was a pretty good race outside of the battle for the lead though, there was a lot of action, quite a bit of passing and side-by-side battles. Just Newgarden had it on lockdown up front until all of a sudden, he didn't.

Most likely included lapping cars. The race for 2nd was pretty good.

 

[Kingofweasles]

And leave it to Sato to crash AND get a podium finish.

What race were you watching? Ed Carpenter got loose and ran his front wing into Sato's rear tire; Sato didn't "Crash" into anybody.

 

[Kingofweasles]

Well, there have been a couple of "Out of Left field" pieces of Indycar news this week.

DragonSpeed aiming for part-time 2019 IndyCar program

Daly to replace Chaves in Toronto as Harding shakes up lineup

 

[FutureF1]

Well, there have been a couple of "Out of Left field" pieces of Indycar news this week.

DragonSpeed aiming for part-time 2019 IndyCar program

Daly to replace Chaves in Toronto as Harding shakes up lineup

Definitely happy for Daly to get another shot t show what he can do, especially since he was booted from Foyt without any obvious reason.

As for Dragonspeed, will be cool to see them come in as they come from a world of spec racing. Curious to see who they might put in their car whether they’d go for a veteran INDYCAR driver, an Indy lights guy, or someone from their LMP programs...

 

[Kingofweasles]

As for Dragonspeed, will be cool to see them come in as they come from a world of spec racing. Curious to see who they might put in their car whether they’d go for a veteran INDYCAR driver, an Indy lights guy, or someone from their LMP programs...

The article I posted has Dragonspeed's boss stating that he'd like to have Ben Hanley drive for their nascent Indycar team.

 

[Eva]

I'm not sure Daly is the right choice for Harding .He's very inconsistent and incident prone more often than not. Harding need someone who can bring and hold funding as well.

 

[Eva]

​

 

[twitcher]

Definitely happy for Daly to get another shot t show what he can do, especially since he was booted from Foyt without any obvious reason.

As for Dragonspeed, will be cool to see them come in as they come from a world of spec racing. Curious to see who they might put in their car whether they’d go for a veteran INDYCAR driver, an Indy lights guy, or someone from their LMP programs...

The article states they will run Ben Hanley. They consider him an integral part of the team, like an engineer, mechanic, or wheel nut. They’re not going to bring in a different driver just because they’re starting in a different series.

I have to say, it’s a rather different approach from what normally goes on in motorsport, but I’m intreagued to see how it plays out.

 

[GTPorsche]

http://www.montereyherald.com/article/NF/20180716/NEWS/180719938

Some info into the Laguna Seca replacing Sonoma deal.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

After reading that article and one of Racer's articles, it would be an understatement to say that Sonoma is pissed off at the news.

 

[Kingofweasles]

After reading that article and one of Racer's articles, it would be an understatement to say that Sonoma is pissed off at the news.

Well, I had read an article from the Monterrey Herald that quoted Sonoma Raceway's boss admitting that the Indycar race lost money every year, regardless of whether it was the season finale or not. He also stated that Sonoma Raceway was trying to get Indycar to waive their sanctioning fee because of the money they lost from year-to-year, while the new organization that's putting big moolah behind redeveloping Laguna Seca are supposedly going to pay around $1.5 Million for the rights to host the Indycar Season Finale when the average is around $1.2 Million...

I'm honestly pretty conflicted about the whole deal because while Laguna Seca has a name, history and a location you can market to the B-2-B set, I truly think that the racing is going to be as bad if not worse than the last few years at Sonoma. And if this 3-year experiment blows up in Indycar's face like the Phoenix/ISM Raceway events did, I don't think we'll see Sonoma back on the calendar at all under any circumstances and it might end up with Long Beach being the only race in my home state of California.

This is also without me getting into how the Sonoma event is the only Indycar race I can comfortably attend each year without having to make hotel & travel arrangements. Or how that Laguna Seca really can't do anything to fix the ingress and egress nightmares for traffic because it's technically a state park that's privately maintained and changing stuff is a real hassle, not to mention how cramped the infield is for the teams and how there's really only one or two(?) access bridges for the haulers to use... Oh yeah, and forget about any kind of double-header weekend with IMSA either, because there's no freakin' way that Indycar's whole feeder series ladder and IMSA's compliment of support races could fin in the size of Laguna's paddock area safely.

So yeah, totally not bitter about this news at all...

 

[twitcher]

Would be awesome to see Leguna Seca make a return.

I’d really like to see COTA added to the Indycar schedule.

 

[Kingofweasles]

Laguna Seca is officially back on the Indycar Calendar for 2019.

 

[LumpiestFish]

Will be awesome to have Indycar back at Laguna Seca, shame about Sonoma though. It’s neat little tricky track, and now the only major series they have would be NASCAR.

 

[JohnBM01]

The next round of IndyCar 2018 is at Mid-Ohio, one of my personal favorite race tracks in North America. So you Ohioans of GTPlanet will get to enjoy IndyCar racing in the Buckeye State. Here's the remainder of the schedule including the next round...

* JUL 29 - Mid-Ohio
* AUG 19 - Pocono
* AUG 25 - Gateway
* SEP 2 - Portland
* SEP 16 - Sonoma

The rest of the way should be lots of fun. It's been ages since (then) CART raced Portland, and so I'm thrilled to see IndyCar return to Portland. I also remember Gateway with (then) CART. So that's going to be fun as well.


Enjoy the rest of the season! Also, good luck to your favorite driver(s) and team(s) the rest of the way.