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Super Indycar Sunshine! NTT IndyCar Series @ St. Petersburg


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#1 Afterburner

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 20:30

”Motor racing is like one big family, ultimately, and when you come back to it, that’s what it feels like.” - Mario Andretti
stpete20-start.jpg2020 NTT Penskecar Series Round 1 of 17: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
 
At long last, the time for off-season omphaloskepsis has come to a close. The rising sun glints bright on the gulf waters and skyscrapers around Albert Whitted Airport, the soft hum of twin-turbo V6 engines rumbles through the paddock, and Winter has at last relinquished her authority to Spring, whose warm energy now rages through us with all the misguided intensity of one of Takuma Sato’s errant front wings. Welcome, Autosportians, to the debut of the latest addition to the Penske Empire: the 2020 edition of the NTT Indycar Series.


2020 Season Calendar

Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg Street Circuit, St. Petersburg, FL
March 13-15
Green Flag: 3:30 PM ET/8:30 PM GMT
NBCSN

Round 2: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, AL
April 3-5
Green Flag: 4:15 PM ET/9:15 PM GMT
NBCSN

Round 3: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach Street Circuit, Long Beach, CA
April 17-19
Green Flag: 4:45 PM ET/9:45 PM GMT
NBCSN

Round 4: Autonation Indycar Challenge
Circuit of the Americas, Austin, TX
April 24-26
Green Flag: 4:10 PM ET/9:10 PM GMT
NBCSN

Round 5: GMR Grand Prix
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN
May 8-9
Green Flag: 3:50 PM ET/8:50 PM GMT
NBC

Round 6: 104th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN
May 24
Green Flag: 12:30 PM ET/5:30 PM GMT
NBC

Rounds 7 & 8: Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Presented by Lear
The Raceway at Belle Isle Park, Detroit, MI
May 29-31
Green Flag: 3:50 PM ET/8:50 PM GMT (May 30 & 31)
NBC

Round 9: Genesys 600
Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, TX
June 5-6
Green Flag: 8:45 PM ET/1:45 AM GMT (June 7)
NBCSN

Round 10: REV Group Grand Prix at Road America
Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI
June 19-21
Green Flag: 12:50 PM ET/5:50 PM GMT
NBC

Round 11: Indy Richmond 300
Richmond Raceway, Richmond, VA
June 27
Green Flag: 8:15 PM ET/1:15 AM GMT (June 28)
NBCSN

Round 12: Honda Indy Toronto
Toronto Street Circuit, Toronto, ON
July 10-12
Green Flag: 3:40 PM ET/8:40 PM GMT
NBCSN

Round 13: Iowa 300
Iowa Speeday, Newton, IA
July 17-18
Green Flag: 9:00 PM ET/2:00 AM GMT (July 19)
NBCSN

Round 14: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, OH
August 14-16
Green Flag: 12:45 PM ET/5:45 PM GMT
NBC

Round 15: Bommarito Automotive Group 500
World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Madison, IL
August 21-22
Green Flag: 8:45 PM ET/1:45 AM GMT (August 23)
NBCSN

Round 16: Grand Prix of Portland
Portland International Raceway, Portland, OR
September 4-6
Green Flag: 3:40 PM ET/8:40 PM GMT
NBC

Round 17: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, CA
September 18-20
Green Flag: 3:25 PM ET/8:25 PM GMT
NBC

You can also find the schedule on Indycar’s recently Penske-fied website, here. I’ve also created a calendar with the dates and start times of all the races, which you can download in iCal format here! These may not translate to your local time when loaded; if not, they’re all in Eastern time.


Central Florida Urban Battleground
 
stpete20-trackmap.jpg“When you’re on a race track, you can only go one way. The walls are your GPS.” - James Hinchcliffe
  
St. Petersburg Street Circuit
First Race: 1985
Surface: Fast-setting stone of Ancient Roman origin
Turns: 14
Track Length: 1.8 mi
Number of Laps: 110
Race Distance: 198 mi
Ideal Pit Strategy: 3 or 4 stops
Fastest Lap: 1:00.0476, Jordan King (‘King ‘ell!)
Twitter: @GPSTPETE
In Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг
’Winningest’ Driver: Hélio Castroneves (x3)
’Winningest’ Team: Team Penske (x9)
’Winningest’ Engine: Honda (x9)
Last Year’s Winner: Josef Newgarden
Last Year’s Number of Lead Changes: 8
Last Year’s Number of Overtakes: 73
Last Year’s Number of Yellows: 2, for 11 laps
Last Year’s Average Speed: 95.572 mi/h

St. Petersburg, Florida is nicknamed the ‘sunshine city’ (say it as fast as you can) because it holds the Guinness World Record for most consecutive days of sunshine, at 768. Sort of like how Monaco (the one with the tunnel) borders the Cote d’Azur, St. Petersburg borders the decidedly-less-eloquently named Tampa Bay, which is apparently surprisingly easy to drive into by accident. ‘St. Pete’, as it is also nicknamed, was founded by John C. Williams (no apparent relation to the composer of intergalactic fame) and named after a coin toss won by early Railroad Tycoon pro Peter Demens. The city was the initial home of the Wikimedia Foundation [1], and is in fact a twin city with St. Petersburg, Russia as well as Figueres, Catalonia [2]. This year marks the 16th annual running of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg [citation needed], and unless you’ve got a 26-sided coin, you won’t be guessing the winner with a coin toss.

Because, for whatever reason, Indycar thinks there are only 30 minutes of free content worth watching in any of their races, you can find 30 minutes of last year’s race here. A lap of the track is below:


 
 
Festival Timetable
  
Friday, March 13
07:45 -- Gates Open
08:00 -- Porsche GT3 Cup Practice 2 (???)
09:00 -- Indy Lights Practice 1
10:00 -- SRO GT4 Practice 1
10:45 -- NTT Indycar Series Practice 1
11:45 -- SRO TCR/TCA Practice 1
12:30 -- USF2000 Race 1
13:00 -- NTT Indycar Series Autograph Session (Firestone Fan Village)
13:25 -- Indy Pro 2000 Race 1
14:30 -- Porsche GT3 Cup Qualifying
15:00 -- NTT Indycar Series Practice 2
16:00 -- SRO GT4 Practice 2
16:45 -- SRO TCR/TCA Practice 2
17:30 -- Indy Pro 2000 Qualifying 2
18:15 -- MBA 5K Run at North Straub Park
 
Saturday, March 14
07:45 -- Gates Open
08:00 -- Indy Lights Qualifying 1
08:45 -- SRO GT4 Qualifying
09:15 -- SRO TCR/TCA Qualifying
09:45 -- Porsche GT3 Cup Race 1
10:45 -- NTT Indycar Series Practice 3
11:45 -- Indy Pro 2000 Race 2
12:40 -- USF2000 Race 2
13:35 -- Indy Lights Race 1
14:40 -- NTT Indycar Series Qualifying
16:10 -- SRO GT4 Race 1
17:20 -- SRO TCR/TCA Race 1
 
Sunday, March 15
08:15 -- Gates Open
08:35 -- Indy Lights Qualifying 2
09:20 -- SRO TCR/TCA Race 2
10:25 -- NTT Indycar Series Warm-Up
11:10 -- Porsche GT3 Cup Race 2
12:10 -- SRO GT4 Race 2
13:15 -- Indy Lights Race 2
14:55 -- NTT Indycar Series Pre-Race Ceremonies
15:30 -- Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

A .pdf of the schedule is available here.


How to Watch, Follow, Like, Retweet, and All That Other Crap
 
North American Viewers

We’re back with the NBC family of networks this year, who will be bringin’ all the barn-burnin’ action straight to your living room on either The NBC Sports Network or on Your Local NBC Affiliate. A guide to the delicately choreographed broadcast ping-pong is in the season schedule above.

If for whatever reason you don’t have access to either of these networks and/or have a weird obsession with watching races on tape delay, there’s also the NBC Sports Gold Indycar Pass, available now to US viewers for one easy payment of $54.99. If providing you an entire season’s worth of tape-delayed races wasn’t enough (who doesn’t want that!?), The Pass™ will also give you live access to every practice and qualifying session, including the entirety of the hallowed Month of May. Did I mention the races are only available on tape delay?

stpete20-thepass.jpgBy the way, the races are only available on tape delay.

Canadian viewers rejoice! Indycar is back on the air again! Denizens of the Great White North can catch the races on SN World and SN Now Plus.
 
International Viewers

Courtesy of a page I’d never noticed on Indycar’s website, the list below shows where you can watch Indycar around the world! If you have info that’s not on this list, leave a note in the thread and we’ll update the OP.

Africa

South Africa - SuperSport World of Champions
Sub-Saharan Africa - SuperSport World of Champions/Canal Plus

Asia and Pacific Rim

Japan - Gaora Sports
Japan (Indy 500) - NHK World Japan
Myanmar - Canal Plus
Vietnam - K+

All races are also available on either Fox Sports or Star Sports in Brunei, Cambodia, China (mainland), East Timor, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Phillippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Australia and New Zealand

Australia - Fox Sports
New Zealand - Sky Sports

Europe

Austria - DAZN
Belgium - VOO Sport World
Denmark - Viasat Motor
Finland - Viasat Motor
France - Canal+
Germany - DAZN
Ireland - Sky Sports F1
Italy - DAZN
Netherlands - Ziggo Sport Totaal
Norway - Viasat Motor
Portugal - Sport TV
Russia - Match TV/Viasat Sport
Spain - Movistar Plus/Vamos
Sweden - Viasat Motor
Switzerland - Canal Plus
United Kingdom - Sky Sports F1

Latin America

Brazil - BAND, BAND Sports, DAZN

Claro Video carries Indycar races in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.

You can find the race on the official Indycar Live Stream in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.


Some Things Never Change

When we last left our beloved heroes, Josef Newgarden was proudly hoisting the Astor Cup above Monterey, California, shading Simon Pagenaud, defusing Alexander Rossi, and torching Scott Dixon for the series championship. Young American Colton Herta (or Colton Hereto as my autocorrect likes to call him) capped off the season with a victory in his Capstone Honda, and then we all succumbed to the malaise of the long winter months, hanging on in quiet desperation for any hint of Indycar as the days grew shorter and colder.

With the time in our caves giving our eyes an opportunity to recover from staring at Pagenaud’s Menards car, we all awakened for testing ready to see more of the world’s best-looking racing series, except--

stpete20-deflectorshield.jpgWHAT THE HELL IS THAT







Hard at work with the Sacred Pyrex, Indycar’s safety wonks have given us this… thing. Indycar's initial sleek solution to providing head protection has gone the way of our fantasies of owning a Lamborghini from younger days; we’ve got something that probably doesn’t look as good or isn’t as fun, but it’s certainly more dependable. Call it what you will, the Windscreen, the Aeroscreen, the DEFLECTOR SHIELD, or That Thing That’s Blocking Our View of the Driver’s Helmet, it’s here to stay. This Indycar fan understands the positives on the safety front, but as far as the aesthetics are concerned? As Glee club badass Bob Varsha once said, “You don’t have to be a chicken to judge an omelette.”

Among the other changes to the series during the off-season were the replacement of Pocono with Richmond on the calendar, Tony George relinquishing stewardship of the Speedway and the series to Roger Penske, the loss of a few fan-favorites on the drivers’ front, the reduction of the pitlane speed limit, and the addition of engine-based grid penalties to the transdimensional wonder that is the series’ rulebook. While we’ll regularly see approximately 28.6% fewer championships in the field every race and the sport will have a brand new look when the rubber-and-gasoline stampede hurtles toward the green in the Florida sun, at its heart, it’s still the same old Indycar. Yes, some things never change… everything you came to see is still here--and more. Let’s go!


Into the Unknown

Indycar itself has shockingly provided us with a list of its own drivers here, but ‘here’ lacks the benefit of hindground, backsight, and the surgical embarrassment of Captain Subtext only found… here. If you’ve had an unhealthy fixation on car counts, you’re going to love this COMPLETELY UNOFFICIAL season preview. Tread carefully, you Satoistic heathen.

stpete20-penske.jpgTeam Penske (Chevrolet)

Defending the 1 for the second time in his career is Josef Newgarden (#1), who is accompanied at Team Penske by mobile lemon flash grenade Simon Pagenaud (#22) and Australian racing interrobang Will Power (#12). This ensemble cast returns for their fourth season together and will be joined by guest stars Helio Castroneves (#3), not yet tired of trying for his fourth Indy 500 win, and Supercars Superstar Scott McLaughlin (#2) at the GMR Grand Prix and potentially other races. Team Penske is like a refrigerator--they have a lot of weight to throw around and they’re cool under pressure (with all due respect to Mr. Cheever).

One or more of these three drivers will almost certainly be in the title hunt by the end of the season, and with the specter of contract negotiations dogging Power and Pagenaud, my money’s on Newgie. More important than this, however, is the battle to determine who will claim the Chalice of Excellence and who will be DISAGGREGATED BY JENGA BLOCKS in the ruthless final season of the world-renowned (okay not really) Penske Games:




stpete20-andretti.jpgAndretti Autosport (Honda)

Indycar’s largest team by car count and weight of expectations, Andretti Autosport’s full-time 4.5 car attack will likely also see at least one driver in the running for the title by the end of the year. Italian-American emotional Instant Pot Alexander Rossi (#27) remains the outfit’s best hope, with wingmen Ryan Hunter-Reay (#28) and Zach Veach (#26) on the outside looking in, each facing pivotal seasons. Also present is the aggressively mediocre Marco Andretti (#98), whose offseason spent at a driving school has at best highlighted his humility and at worst signaled a potentially imminent transition to the pit wall.

Andretti Autosport’s remaining 0.5 cars come from a new joint venture with Harding-Steinbrenner Racing and aforementioned Young American Phenom Colton Herta (#88), living proof that Carlos Huertas was only a few letters away from being Indycar’s Next Big Thing. An off-season rumor temporarily linked their sixth Indy 500 entry to the world’s most recognizable Asturian before someone nixed the deal…


stpete20-ganassi.jpgChip Ganassi Racing (Honda)

Metronomic bipedal frost monster Scott Dixon (#9) continues with Chip Ganassi Racing (aka “F**kin’ Steve Gough Boat Parking”) for his 19th season; in only five of those has he finished outside the top 3 in the championship. Collectively lowering the temperature in the Chipster’s outfit alongside Dixon are Scandanavian scallawags Felix Rosenqvist (#10) and Marcus Ericsson (#8). While Ericsson and Rosenqvist both managed podiums last year, the picture here remains clear as ice: never bet against Scott Dixon. It took a punctured radiator and a faulty battery in the closing races to keep him out in the cold last season, but… the cold never bothered him anyway.


stpete20-rll.jpgRahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)

RLL maintains a two-car lineup for the full 2020 season. The eponymous Graham Rahal (#15) has been scheming a return to full-season form since 2015 and hasn’t won a race since he became the only driver to decadently double up at Detroit in 2017. In the other corner is disconcerting catchphrase elect Takuma Sato (#30); you can easily number the veterans among us by uttering the commentary team’s sacred words, “Here comes Sato!” and counting the number of people who instinctively hit the deck. None of us has ever actually seen Sato fly out of a television set and into our living room (thank God), but this is Indycar, therefore it cannot be discounted as a possibility.

Do not be alarmed if any action undertaken by Sato (and perhaps some in which he’s not even involved) elicit an idiosyncratic bellow of “SATOOOOOO” as if we were all members of some Satonian cult. We understand. When one chooses to walk our way, one is both fan and detractor--we live by the code: no attack, no chance. This is the way.

stpete20-mandalorian.gifThis is the way.


stpete20-dcr.jpgDale Coyne Racing (Honda)

Verizon IndyCar Series Veteran Coyne continues his alliance with Vasser-Sullivan Racing to field improbable redemption pathfinder Santino Ferrucci (#18), who maga-nanimously assumes the mantle of team leader after pseudodad Sebastien Bourdais’ fate was sealed (masterfully?) at the close of the previous season. The Rooch will be partnered by Japanese Super Formula Warrior Alex Palou (#55) courtesy of support by Team Goh. Both of these smokin’ drivers will be going whole hog this season, but the team has lost engineering guru Craig Hampson to none other than…


stpete20-spam.jpgArrow McLaren SP (Chevrolet)

What’s that? McLaren, you say? Indeed, The Organisation Formerly Helmed by Ron Dennis has returned to Indycar full-time. Sort of. A late-season deal with The Team Formerly Known as Arrow Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports has formed a technical and naming-rights partnership with McLaren which will hopefully involve McLaren contributing the level of their 2017 Indy 500 performance (and the correct shade of papaya orange this time). Sam Schmidt and Ric Petersen, however, maintain ownership of the team.

Not-actually-McLaren thus enters 2020 packing not-actually-Irish hot-shot Patricio O’Ward (#5) and not-actually-British rookie Oliver Askew (#7) for the full season, with not-actually-a-samurai Fast Freddie Alonso (#66) gunning for racing’s Holy Trinity in the Indy 500. Outside the 104th Indy 500, the team also continues to hold its third car open for Robert Wickens (#6) should he wish to return.

The team is affectionally referred to as SPAM, to the immense annoyance of corporate HQ. (canned laughter)


stpete20-ecr.jpgEd Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)

Ride-sharing racer Ed Carpenter (#20) remains an oval-only contestant, entrusting the keys to ride-hunting American Vagabond Conor Daly (#20) in the event of tracks with right-hand turns. Daly will commandeer a third car for the Indy 500, where both will be teammates to JUMBO-sponsored Rinus van Kalmthout (#21), who has Americanized his name to ‘VeeKay’ (not to be confused with the wholesaler of questionable glassware which goes by the same name). All of this happens to be staggeringly appropriate, because in May, Carpenter’s team will be a jumbo-sized threat daily, and it would be no surprise for the rest of the field to find themselves eating ECR’s fumes.


stpete20-foyt.jpgAJ Foyt Racing (Chevrolet)

It’s been a widely-accepted axiom of contemporary Indycar racing that acts of Congress move faster than AJ Foyt Racing’s restructuring process has gone. Having lost its primary sponsorship from longtime $$$ supplier ABC Supply, AJ Foyt Racing will field four drivers in two cars this year. Tresibaman Charlie Kimball (#4) will do the lion’s share of the work, contesting the entire season, while the sister car will feature semi-retired French fry Sebastien Bourdais (#14) for races 1-3 and 16, six-time Indy Lights podium-finisher Dalton Kellett (#14) for all the road and street courses in between races 3 and 16, and then Tony Kanaan (#14), who was winning championships while Josef Newgarden was still watching Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, will be in the hot seat for all the oval races.

Unfortunately the bleak picture of Foyt’s current state is startlingly well-summarized by the fact that their most recent successful period came with Takuma Sato as their lead driver. While the elusive winning form they possessed with Sato may even be harder to locate than our favorite sticky-fingered filcher (this sounds way worse than it was probably intended to), Foyt perseveres and ensures some of our favorite drivers remain on the grid. As John F. Kennedy may have said, “Ask not what Indycar can do for you, but what you can do for Indycar.” Or something.


stpete20-carlin.jpgCarlin (Chevrolet)

After a much-vaunted arrival to Indycar, Carlin has generally been invisible, and has evidently resorted to the strategy of hiring as many drivers as possible. Pen and paper handy? Good. Here we go.

Max Chilton (#59) will pilot the #59 for all of the road and street courses and the Indy 500, but none of the other ovals. The team’s other car, the #31, will be driven by either GP2 driver (easy, Honda) Sergio Sette Camara (#31) or driver of the identically-numbered IMSA machine Felipe Nasr (#31). At press time, no official announcements have been made as to which driver will race where, but conventional wisdom indicates that Nasr won’t be racing at the Richmond 300 on the eve of June 27 and then Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen on the morning of June 28 without the help of a certain Mr. Scott. Should neither of these drivers be able to cover for Max Chilton on the ovals, the team is believed to have contacted... Conor Daly (#??), who will presumably be available given he won’t be driving the #20 for Ed Carpenter on ovals. Imagine Daly miraculously finding himself in the championship hunt while racing for 47 teams!


stpete20-msr.jpgMeyer Shank Racing (Honda/Acura)

The time for tepid toe-dipping into the limpid pool of chaos that is Indycar is over for Mike Shank, who is apparently unafraid of what happened to his car in Long Beach and Portland last year and has ultimately decided, “Screw it, let’s get the full-season upgrade package.” After an unlikely stream of good results last season, actually British Jack Harvey (#60) will pilot the distinctively purple, mostly XM-sponsored, and one-time Acura-powered team’s 17-race entry. Now a series regular, they’ll be hoping for a spring of good results this year.


stpete20-therest.jpgAnd the Rest…

Indycar wouldn’t be Indycar without its small teams, two of which will be in the fray this weekend. Dragonspeed Racing (Chevrolet) will field the confoundingly-named Ben Hanley (#81) in its idiosyncratic Evil Knievel livery, while Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Chevrolet) has recruited “Tats McIndy” Sage Karam (#24)--probably a good bet in a street fight. Dragonspeed will be making additional appearances at Long Beach, Texas, Mid-Ohio, and Laguna Seca, while Dreyer & Reinbold will also be entrants at the Indy GP and Toronto. Both teams will be accompanied at the Indy 500 by dual Roberts Buhl and Citrone at Citrone-Buhl Autosport (Honda), who have signed Spencer Pigot (#??) as their ‘Buhl’-wrangler for May’s pair of Indy rodeos in association with RLL.


Conor Daly James Hinchcliffe Career Update

“If we have to choose blow down or up, Canadians are gonna choose blow down ten times out of ten." - James Hinchcliffe

“Wait!” you screech, “Where’s my favorite Canadian Mayor?”

Well folks, I’m sorry to say that James Hinchcliffe (#29) is out of a full-time ride for the time being, with motorsports analyst being the primary gig on his resume. With the McLaren squall brewing behind closed doors, Hinch showed his ass and, not to be outdone, Arrow responded in kind. For the first time since 2009, there won’t be a Canadian slated to race in the full season.

Sebastien Bourdais very nearly joined Hinch out on his ass on the street for 2020, but dutifully landed a full-time job with JDC Miller in IMSA’s prototype class combined with a few races for AJ Foyt in the #14. Like Bourdais, Hinchcliffe has been part of the furniture for years now, but while Bourdais would probably be something reliable like an oak end-table, Hinchcliffe is probably more like a rotating Murphy bed with a built-in harmonic oscillator. Fortunately for The Mayor, a cloud-computing call center support company decided they were in the market for such a bed; with the extra cash on tap, Hinch bagged a ride with Andretti for the GMR Indy GP, Indy 500, and Genesys 600, and may yet drive in more races.

I would’ve put him on the Andretti hero card, but there wasn’t enough room; instead, he gets his own.

stpete20-hinch.jpgHe is definitely in the office.


Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Spotter Guide

stpete20-spotterguide.jpg


“Let’s Have a Little Fun”

A Tale of Two Series

For years, the world of top-class US fantasy racing existed under one stewardship: the Verizon Indycar Series. The series’ many team owners competed peacefully each year, until the promise of extracting more money from the series drove its proprietors to spin it off to new management. Indignant, some owners refused to partake in the new, inferior series while others soldiered on in spite of the change. US fantasy racing had experienced a cataclysmic event colloquially referred to as… “The Split”.

Over the course of time, poor management decisions and woeful officiating policies saw the new series losing popularity. Despite obtaining sponsorship from several sources, continuing on in the face of rampant confusion would prove difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately, the series--known as the mouthful “Fantrax Presents the NTT Indycar Series Fantasy Challenge Driven by Firestone and Powered by the Autosport Forums Unofficially. Obviously.”--was saved at its dying breath by the purchase of an angel investor: Roger Penske himself. Under the guidance of a new visionary, US fantasy racing was united once more, and in responsible hands to boot. This all sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it?

stpete20-fantasy.jpgYou thought I was kidding.

*ahem* Anyway… just how hard is it to win in Indycar? Join the official Indycar Fantasy Game to find out! Become the series’ best team owner as you do battle with your friends and other players around the world to claim your very own signed Firestone racing tire (yes it’s as ridiculous as it sounds).

Autosport’s Forums have had a league series of their own running for years now, split or no split. Sign up and test your skills as an imaginary driver talent manager against Autosport’s best. Our series is called “AtlasIndycar” and managed courtesy of our very own PayasYouRace. Best of all? It’s FREE*.

*Payment possibly required in the form of personal information. They’re totally not selling it to anyone willing to bid on it, nope, not at all.

Return of the Indycar Fan Quiz

Because, like me, you all come to the Autosport Forums for Quality Indycar Content you can’t find anywhere else, we’re making 2020’s opening race extra-special by bringing back the Indycar Fan Quiz! Holy schnizbiscuits, Batman!

Prove your worth as an Indycar fan by answering the questions in the first spoiler tag, and then use the scoring key in the second spoiler tag for the answers.

Go!

The Quiz
Spoiler

The Key
Spoiler


The “Trivia?” Section

- The only driver to win this race, the Indycar Series championship, and the Indy 500 in the same year is Dan Wheldon, in 2005.
- Dario Franchitti, Will Power, and Josef Newgarden have won this race and the championship in the same year, while Juan Pablo Montoya has won this race and the Indy 500 in the same year.
- A quartet of championship rounds will be run in May, with a maximum of 275 points on offer.
- Since a perfect season would result in 1027 points, this means 26.777% of possible points will be on offer in May.
- Kumla, Sweden, birthplace of Ganassi driver Marcus Ericsson, is home to the country’s largest prison.
- Scott Dixon and Sebastian Vettel have had a race engineer in common: Guillaume Rocquelin. I guess Indycar to F1 switches go a lot better for race engineers.
- 42.857% of Indycar team names end in “racing”.
- The first and last races of the 2020 season have Firestone as a title sponsor.
- Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti have collectively won a US Open Wheel championship every year since 2002.
- The sum of all the entered drivers’ car numbers for this race is 773.
- Rounded to a whole-number integer, the average car number in this race is 30, while the median is 22.
- For future reference, the difference between an average and a median is approximately equal to the difference between Takuma Sato and Simon Pagenaud.
- The sum of all the numbers in this trivia segment is 9223.634.
- This number is the distance in kilometers from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Inisheer, Ireland--the birthplaces of Helio Castroneves and the opening sequence for Father Ted, respectively.


A Different Breed

I could go on, but since I blew most of the special effects budget trying to keep track of who was racing for Carlin it’s probably time to stop. It could’ve been worse, too--originally I was going to do the entire thing in the distinctive style of Scott Goodyear. When the drugs wore off, I decided not to.

Wikipedia says this is the 99th official season of American open-wheel racing, but given their track record on Colton Herta’s age and Indycar’s longevity at St. Pete, is it really? All the grandiosity and underhandedness of numbers aside, I’m just thankful I’m here to see it, because with new teams, new talents, and a new owner, we’ve got a hell of a season in store for us–and with 70+ passes here last year, a hell of a race, too. Welcome back to those of you who were with us in the past, and welcome to those of you with us in 2020 as we begin the next chapter of this bewitchingly wild journey we call the Indycar Series. I promise that whatever you think of it, there’s nothing else in the world like it. Everyone here? Then…

ATLAS-AUTOSPORT RACE FANS! ARE… YOU… READY???



I have spoken.

please don’t sue me Roger I love you


And We’ll Never Forget…

stpete20-john.jpgThis one’s for you--we’ll miss you, John.

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#2 FLB

FLB
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Posted 08 March 2020 - 20:43



#3 Joseki

Joseki
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  • Joined: July 12

Posted 08 March 2020 - 20:45

Bold prediction.

 

A SPAM car in the fast 6, Askew finishes ahead of Pato and in the top 8.

Rosenqvist wins, Penske struggles.

RLL nowhere to be found.

 

 

Let's see how wrong I am in just a week. :p



#4 DS27

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 20:47

The three words I need to hear most in my life is not 'I love you', but 'Indycar is back'.



#5 thegforcemaybewithyou

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 20:52

True story, Will Power showed up in YouTube to me yesterday to remind me of Indycar.



#6 H0R

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 20:55

Wow. Just wow. :clap:



#7 PayasYouRace

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 21:10

As I said in the season thread, I need to invite you into the "AtlasIndycar" fantasy league. Send me a PM with the email address you'd like me to send the invite to. So far I have 6 confirmed players and 1 pending invited.



#8 Anja

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 21:38

tl;dr

 

Just kidding of course. What a monumental OP. 

 

 



#9 Collombin

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 21:40

Re wikipedia and the 99th official season, depends what you call an official season, but if they mean one in which there was a formal championship then surprisingly I think I agree - the first three were 1905, 1916 and 1920, making 1920 the 3rd, jump a century to make 2020 the 103rd, then subtract 6 years for WW2, then add 2 back because 6 years in the European SI metric system of "war years" is only 4 years using the US system and lo and behold we get 99.

#10 PedroDiCasttro

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 21:46

I'd love to watch it, but no one will broadcast the race in Brazil.  :(



#11 ensign14

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 21:55

True story, Will Power showed up in YouTube to me yesterday to remind me of Indycar.

The bit from about 1m 55 is exactly the same as "Young Girl".



#12 PayasYouRace

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 21:56

I'd love to watch it, but no one will broadcast the race in Brazil.  :(

 

I thought Indycar was huge in Brazil. What happened?



#13 paulb

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:15

I need the week before the race to recover from the OP. Super is the apt opening term.

Zowie, gold, AB, gold!

Man, the corner workers are going to be uber busy with that schedule.

Looking at the That Thing That’s Blocking Our View of the Driver’s Helmet, it now reminds me of
s-l300.jpg

#14 noriaki

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:17

I thought Indycar was huge in Brazil. What happened?

 

Hazard a guess it has got something to do with that even the most time-resistant Ancient Sumerian eventually grew old, and now Brazil is left with zero full time Indycar drivers for the first time since....I don't know, Emmo arrived? 

 

It will be the first time TK won't be at an event (CART -2002, IndyCar 2003-) since Toronto 2000. That's an impressive 330 race weekends straight that he has taken part in if I am counting it right  :cool:


Edited by noriaki, 08 March 2020 - 22:26.


#15 ANF

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:23

Wait, what happened to Nasr and Sette Câmara? I thought they were going to share a Carlin car?



#16 Anja

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:27

Wait, what happened to Nasr and Sette Câmara? I thought they were going to share a Carlin car?

 

I think that's still the plan, only Carlin doesn't seem to be in any rush to sort out the details of that whole arrangement. 



#17 PedroDiCasttro

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:30

I thought Indycar was huge in Brazil. What happened?

It has a decent (definitely not great) following, but the contract with the TV company has ran out last year and wasn't renovated, which means we're screwed, unfortunately.  :(

 

IndyCar was a lot bigger in Brazil a few years past, but it's influence has diminished, the same with F1.



#18 Beri

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:48

What an absolute stunner of an opening post. Me thinks it's more fun than the St Pete race. But hey! One may dream.

#19 Izzyeviel

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 22:57

Indycar with 17 races feels like barely half a season. F1 with 21 races is too much.... We need more Indycar



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#20 red stick

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 23:21

Hazard a guess it has got something to do with that even the most time-resistant Ancient Sumerian eventually grew old, and now Brazil is left with zero full time Indycar drivers for the first time since....I don't know, Emmo arrived? 
 
It will be the first time TK won't be at an event (CART -2002, IndyCar 2003-) since Toronto 2000. That's an impressive 330 race weekends straight that he has taken part in if I am counting it right  :cool:

This sounds about right.

And I volunteered for Barber's OT. Better start now.  ;)

#21 maximilian

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 23:34

EPIC OP worthy of what will be an EPIC SEASON!

 

Thank you!  Can't wait!!!  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:



#22 Frood

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 23:35

INDYCAR

 

...annoyingly, I'm on a flight (probably catching coronavirus) during the race so I'll have to catch up on Monday morning. Still, doesn't hurt to have to wait a day longer after it's been SIX MONTHS



#23 paulb

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Posted 08 March 2020 - 23:48

This sounds about right.

And I volunteered for Barber's OT. Better start now.  ;)

Is that a Floydian slip? :D

#24 Atreiu

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 00:39

The Indycar race threads are as fun as the racing. Good vibes and nice stuff going on. Welcome back. :)

#25 sblick

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 01:22

Nice job afterburner.  Another season of fun.  Hopefully mostly in the sun



#26 teejay

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 05:29

Afterburner with another awesome OP.

 

It is my bucks party this weekend, race is on like 3am Monday Western Australian time. 

 

I will be up and drunk watching. 

 

Go Monty! 



#27 Mohican

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 11:58

Sette Camara will be in Australia with Red Bull. Apparently.

#28 Clrnc

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 12:09

Oh Indycar is starting same weekend as f1! For the first time ever after watching some Indycar races last year I'm going to want to catch the entire season of it from race 1 onwards. Pretty hooked on the action even though there's a lot to get used to compared to f1 and the fact that the races are normally 4-5am here. 

 

Bring it on. 



#29 B Squared

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 14:58

Cirnc - those hours are my usual waking time for F1, so you're not alone. 



#30 PayasYouRace

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 16:56

Picks for St. Pete are live on Fantasy League!



#31 red stick

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 17:04

Picks for St. Pete are live on Fantasy League!


Challenge accepted!

#32 PayasYouRace

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 17:06

Now you not only get your $100 to pick four drivers, but you also get a separate pick the podium section with no budget cap. The lap speed tiebreaker is still there.



#33 Afterburner

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 17:56

Whoa... the scoring system for the fantasy game makes the regular championship scoring look like pre-school arithmetic. This alone is making my head spin:

How do I earn bonus points?

There are two ways to earn bonus points.

In-Race: During the race and during green-flag laps, any driver on your team can earn a quarter-point (0.25) if they turn the fastest lap of the leader lap. There is no limit to the number of bonus points each driver can earn during a give race.

Note – “In-Race” bonus points will only be awarded for the race events. There will be no “in-race” bonus points awarded for the Indianapolis 500 qualifications.

Pick-The-Podium: Prior to the race, you can pick three drivers who will be on the podium for the race. If you pick the winner, you get 25 bonus points. If you pick the driver who finishes second, you get 15 bonus points. If you pick the driver who finishes third, you get 10 bonus points. However, if you pick a driver to win and that driver finishes in 2nd or 3rd, you get no bonus points. Additionally, you can’t pick a driver to finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd … podiums don’t work that way, and neither does this bonus point selection.

Similarly, for the Indianapolis 500 qualifications, rather than picking the “podium”, you’ll be picking the three drivers to start in the front row: Pole-Position, Middle-Row 1, & Outside-Row 1. The same selection criteria and awarded points work the same way.

The whole scoring page sounds like it was written by someone on the forum. :lol:

Also of note: the tiebreaker is no longer the average race speed! It’s a guess at the fastest race lap speed instead.

EDIT: This is fantastic. I for one welcome our new Penske overlords.

If such Players remain tied after the Average Speed tie-breaking procedure (as would be the case with identical entries), the applicable Winner will be that Player demonstrating superior knowledge and confidence by submitting his/her Round Entry at the earliest time, as between the tied Players and based on the actual documented time of Player’s entry as reflected in the database server.



#34 Frood

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:04

I'm not clever enough to work the scoring out.

 

I pick driver and hope driver do good



#35 Anja

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:07

It's still very simple compared to the system in the official F1 fantasy game in which you score points from approximately 80 different things. Just look at this, it's like someone made it as complicated as possible on purpose: https://fantasy.form.../points-scoring



#36 Afterburner

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:10

It's still very simple compared to the system in the official F1 fantasy game in which you score points from approximately 80 different things. Just look at this, it's like someone made it as complicated as possible on purpose: https://fantasy.form.../points-scoring

Perhaps someone on their legal team had a bad experience with a tie in a fantasy game sweepstakes once? :lol:

#37 prommer

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:16

Imma gonna say it... best OP of all time??!

 

I mean, it's both funny and seriously informative at the same time? My gob is officially smacked.  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

 

Now to figure out this fantasy business..



#38 red stick

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:23

Perhaps someone on their legal team had a bad experience with a tie in a fantasy game sweepstakes once? :lol:


That's it, blame the lawyers.  ;)

#39 Afterburner

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:28

That's it, blame the lawyers.  ;)

I want to but I really can’t when sentences like this are in the game rules:

Use of the internet, generally, shall be at Player’s sole risk.

EDIT: Also, thanks to those of you who read all the way through the OP. It was loads of fun writing it and I hope you got out of it what I did. :)

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#40 JHSingo

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:34

Looking forward to this. Should be the perfect antidote to what will probably be yet another typically underwhelming F1 season opener. Great OP as ever, Afterburner!

 

I'm still disappointed that the Hulkenberg rumour didn't turn out to be true, and it's a pity about Hinch's situation too; but it's cool to see more youngsters entering the series. Hoping Rosenqvist can make a step forward this year and be a title contender, and I'm really interested to see how McLaughlin does later this year. Hopefully a strong result would be enough to convince him to stick around, rather than go to NASCAR.



#41 jonpollak

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 18:57

OP for the ages.
SuperBurner !!! That’s the man.

...annoyingly, I'm on a flight (probably catching coronavirus) during the race

Yep... me too.
However the flight is scheduled to arrive at Gatwick at 19:30 so if I can get off the plane, get my bags, find a cab, get to the pub....
All in an hour, I’ll see it.

Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.

Mind you, if the race was actually in Санкт-Петербу́рг ...
I could make it there quicker than getting to Gatwick.

Just a note for you Frood: I’ve been on flights for the last 2 months solid and I don’t have Corona. I have Tecate.
This makes me buy large hats, sing La Cucaracha and wear red and green at the same time.

I’ll be missing quite a few live races this year due to my sodding job which pisses me off to no end.

I also have had no luck atm getting into the damn fantasy game.

Glamorous Life my ass.
Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 09 March 2020 - 19:05.


#42 prommer

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 19:02

Maybe someone should tell their lawyers that a girl from Poland once won their fantasy contest and got a truckload of Hot American Nothing for her troubles!



#43 jonpollak

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 19:13

Yeah... hear hear.
Not even an answer like ‘sorry’ did my 3 elegantly worded emails get from the organizers after telling them what a load of xenophobic cheapskates they were.

Harrumph.
Jp

#44 Anja

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 20:21

Maybe someone should tell their lawyers that a girl from Poland once won their fantasy contest and got a truckload of Hot American Nothing for her troubles!

 

Oh, it was truly backbreaking work... 



#45 PiperPa42

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 00:32

Great job AB, what an OP to start the season.

And thank you Penske for dumping fantrax, It never made sense to me last year.

#46 paulb

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 01:09

The pick process is clear and easy to use. Yay.

#47 djparky

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 02:07

This could be even better than last year... Herta, O Ward, Askew, Rosenqvist, Veekay challenging the establishment. Series seems to have momentum thanks to the Penske effect...

Bring it on.

#48 William Hunt

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 02:39

I assume that Nasr will drive the second Carlin car this weekend since Sette Camara has to attend the Australian GP as Red Bull's reserve driver



#49 SenorSjon

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 09:09

Oh Indycar is starting same weekend as f1! For the first time ever after watching some Indycar races last year I'm going to want to catch the entire season of it from race 1 onwards. Pretty hooked on the action even though there's a lot to get used to compared to f1 and the fact that the races are normally 4-5am here. 

 

Bring it on. 

 

Some races (mainly ovals) are at idiot o'clock for Europeans. So I won't see them all.



#50 Anja

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 09:23

It's a matter of determination. This European idiot missed only one race in the past two seasons  :cool: