Indycar Series Rounds 8 and 9 of ??: The Bommarito Automotive Group Race to MEGA Savings 250s
(Breathe in and take a moment to savour that name)
OK. The important thing to know is that practice is starting in a couple of hours (chronologically) and in Madison, Illinois (geographically). The final two oval races of this abnormal Indycar season will take place on the not-that-normal Gateway oval, with its one-and-a-quarter mile length, long straights and distinct corners (well, they’re both banked and they both go left, so how distinctive are they really). The venue, probably most famous for being the site of a Team Kool Green disaster in 1999 as Paul Tracy collided with Dario Franchitti, returned to the IndyCalendar in 2017 for a championship-defining turn as Josef Newgarden outmuscled teammate Simon Pagenaud (without taking him out) on a late restart. Last year was a nutty, caution-addled affair eventually won by Rahal non-entity Takuma Sato after he and Ed Carpenter rode their luck to the front on an alternate strategy. Newgarden completed his summer of mishaps with a last-lap collision with front-runner Santino Ferrucci, leading to some good-natured banter and pronouncements of lessons learn-- nah, they hate each other.
So when are we racing? Saturday and Sunday. Practice starts Friday at 4.30pm Eastern time, which is to say, really soon. Qualifying for both days is on Saturday at noon ET. Remarkably, Indycar has arranged it so both races start at the same hour, that being 3pm ET, roughly speaking. It’s all on NBC Sports, or indeed wherever else you get your high-quality Indianian open-wheel programming.
Who’s going to win? As always, unclear. You may have heard things about Scott Dixon but he in fact hasn’t won since round 3 on a Saturday long ago at Road America. He has however kept scoring points, which is more than you can say for his competitors, and as a result he has an 84 point lead over second place. So he might win. Or they might! That’s why we watch.
Any personnel news? Special Ed’s behind the wheel of his own automobile, which means Conor’s in the Carlin car. Tony Kanaan is in for one last weekend before he ascends to his heavenly abode on his winged chariot, although who knows (I don’t), he might stick around for 2021. Fernando Alonso has gone back to Europe to do whatever it is he does. But this shouldn’t sadden us, because we have some Indycar oval racing at an hour that (almost) everyone can enjoy. So let’s.
