IndyCar

2013 Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway

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  • #133241
    sushant008
    Participant

    Indycar returns to its second largest oval track this weekend.And with so many records broken in this year’s Indy500,I’m sure the oval racing this year is going to be fascinating to watch!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVtT7uDABN8

    #237441
    the_sigman
    Participant

    Servia will race the #4 car.

    #237442

    Texas was a great race last year so really looking forward to this one. Sadly no live UK coverage again though. UK race start time is 1:30am on Sunday.

    #237443

    Will Power on pole position with a very impressive pair of laps, averaging 1.5mph faster than any other driver:

    1. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 219.182mph
    2. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevrolet, 217.553
    3. (1) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevrolet, 217.524
    4. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 217.504
    5. (5) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Chevrolet, 217.244
    6. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevrolet, 217.100
    7. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 216.693
    8. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 216.570
    9. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 216.552
    10. (16) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 216.487
    11. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 216.447
    12. (78) Simona De Silvestro, Dallara-Chevrolet, 216.396
    13. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevrolet, 216.248
    14. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 215.727
    15. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevrolet, 215.474
    16. (98) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 215.406
    17. (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevrolet, 214.839
    18. (4) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevrolet, 214.586
    19. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 213.888
    20. (6) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevrolet, 213.217
    21. (18) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 212.785
    22. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 207.807
    23. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, no speed
    24. (55) Tristan Vautier, Dallara-Honda, no speed

    #237444
    sushant008
    Participant

    Hélio Castroneves won the Firestone 550 held last night. It was also Team Penske’s first win this year!

    Official result: http://www.imscdn.com/indycar_media/documents/2013-06-08/Firestone%20550%20Box%20Score.pdf

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Krg44fiZKk

    #237445
    David-A
    Participant

    Helio’s 22nd win then. He’s looking good for the title, it is long overdue for him.

    #237446
    Travis
    Participant

    Can’t say that race was a thrilling one, but it was great to watch racecar drivers driving racecars. As with last years Texas race, the fast cars went to the front and the ones who nailed the setup were rewarded with good finishes. The drivers were on their toes all night, and that was good to see. Glad the pack racing era is over in Indycar superspeedway races, that’s for sure.

    #237447
    Antonio Nartea
    Participant

    Looking at those grandstands makes me wonder if maybe IndyCar wouldn’t be better off not venturing into NASCAR territory and racing only on street and road courses (except for Indianapolis and maybe Pocono – the undisputable classics).

    Belle Isle, Long Beach, Sao Paulo, St. Petersburg, all have been packed so far but look at what happened here. Same as last season, once they hit the ovals…it’s half empty grandstands again.

    #237448

    @mcmerctn

    Glad the pack racing era is over in Indycar superspeedway races, that’s for sure.

    Hear, hear.

    @tony031r

    Looking at those grandstands makes me wonder if maybe IndyCar wouldn’t be better off not venturing into NASCAR territory and racing only on street and road courses (except for Indianapolis and maybe Pocono – the undisputable classics).

    I disagree – I like the oval races and I think IndyCar needs to keep a sensible number of ovals on the calendar to maintain its point of differentiation with other single seater series.

    #237449
    Antonio Nartea
    Participant

    @keithcollantine – Don’t get me wrong, Keith. I personally enjoy oval-racing a lot and, apart from that, it’s part of the IRL legacy. I wouldn’t want that to go away.

    My comment was strictly from a commercial perspective. Whether we like it or not, poor attendance levels are bad for any series and IndyCar has been getting a lot of it on the ovals since Dan’s death…

    I’m just wondering if having thinner and thinner audiences on the ovals won’t affect the series as a whole on a longer term. Remember Fontana last year. Having a season finale with only a couple thousand people in the grandstands can’t be good for anyone involved, be it the organisers, the teams, the drivers, the sponsors…

    If people in the US respond better to open-wheel racing on road and street courses, I’d rather have an IndyCar season calendar consisting of 15-16 such circuits and only 3 or 4 oval races, than not have an IndyCar Series at all.

    And to be honest, I wouldn’t miss Texas, Milwaukee, Iowa or Fontana afterall, if they were to bring back Laguna Seca, Surfers Paradise, Road America and Watkins Glen instead. As for the ovals: Indianapolis, Pocono, Talladega and Daytona would be a nice package in order to keep it interesting for the fans and challenging for the drivers. IMHO.

    #237451

    Watching the highlights, that seemed a lot less scary than the last IndyCar race I saw around Texas. The cars seemed far more stable, which is good.

    Also, am I the only one who prefers the radio (?) commentary team to the TV guys?

    #237452
    wificats
    Participant

    What happened to the Target car in the pitstop? The highlights video didn’t think to give any commentary on the footage for that.

    #237453
    sushant008
    Participant

    @wificats – A hydraulic line blew up. Burnt 4 of the pit crew members. Thankfully no one was badly injured.

    #237454
    sushant008
    Participant

    I dont know you guys know it or not but Indycar is planning to break records at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 100th running of Indy500. Which means we could see Indycars travel upto 240 mph around the IMS oval. That is insane speed!

    http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/9341021/indycar-grand-plan-need-speed-improved-safety

    #237455
    MatK77
    Participant

    @tony031r

    Belle Isle, Long Beach, Sao Paulo, St. Petersburg, all have been packed so far but look at what happened here. Same as last season, once they hit the ovals…it’s half empty grandstands again.

    Texas has a seating capacity of over 150,000 – the only race that has that kind of pull in Indycar is Indy itself. Even the Nascar race there in April was sparsely populated outside of the main grandstand – it’s tough to make any oval look well attended with that many seats to fill. It’s also the track where they cancelled a Champ Car race on the day before it was due to run, and there’s still a lingering stigma about the race.

    The CART/IRL split shook the foundations of open wheel – even with the great racing we’ve had in the last two years, it’s going to take ten of the same before it’s back to its former glory (and that’s if it doesn’t manage to eat itself in the process). It’s also not helping that it’s stuck in a long-term contract to a channel that a LOT of people don’t receive.

    And to be honest, I wouldn’t miss Texas, Milwaukee, Iowa or Fontana afterall, if they were to bring back Laguna Seca, Surfers Paradise, Road America and Watkins Glen instead.

    Milwaukee isn’t the best for TV, but when there’s at least 24 cars there it’s probably the best race to watch from the stands in the entire season. I’d love to see Elkhart Lake back – I went to both races for years – but I’ve been to Champ Car races there with fewer than 10,000 people in attendance, so if I can only have one, I’d pick the Mile. The success of new events like Baltimore and Houston is down to catchment size, and Milwaukee is smack in the center of a major city, and only an hour and a half from Chicago.

    The fans will come back. Part of the reason they will is down to the diversity of challenges that a varied calendar brings, at least that’s what made it great for me.

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