815 replies to this topic

[OvDrone]

Toronto ain't the only one that was dearly missed since to long, looooooong ago mythical and aero-screen-less age of 2019....

Yeah, it's     I O W A



There are only ~2567 native Iowa people still alive but there are at least 3000 reasons to tune in TWO times this weekend ( once on Saturday and once on Sunday ) to witness 50% of Indycar's non-Indy 500 Oval season! 

One of my current main gripes with the series is the absolute lackluster oval season of the past years. One of Indycar's main selling points, is the variery of tracks it hosts on which kinda 25 drivers get to be on the same piece of matter as Will Power.

Penske ? Yo, Capn. Less Indy courses, more leftturncar please. Enough is Enough.

 

This weekend, however, we celebrate.

Previous Race:



Well, Dixon just equaled the great Mario Andretti with his 52nd American Open-wheeled victory in excellent Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto while the whole internet was talking about his former heir in waiting.
In one week, Alex Palou went legacy building Young Champion to Fake Youtuber that might actually be completely unemployed. 
The sheer nonsense boggles the mind but please check out this thread for all your info and continued analysis on this ongoing timeless trainwreck and also check out this video below about what one of our previous race podium winner had to say...



With that, we have basically a Top 5 in the hunt for Championship glory and in their honor. I'll do the following.

You know, I was thinking on Monday, yeah ok, I'd go for some corn. It's summer. It's a wonderful snack to have. Hmmm, that reminds me that we're 2xIowa this week. Hmmm, that reminds me of that atrocious kinda metal band of infamous notoriety from that very same state.

And lo and behold, the Youtube demons algorhythm gifted me this video:



While at first, I was quite apprehensive about clicking it and then having Nu-Metal content pollute my carefully curated niche heavy feed, I gave it a spin and, it was fun!

Korn and bands like Pantera, Deftones wre part of my muscial fascinations in youth, specifically around the 9 to 12 year old mark. Now, for a kid growing up in a post-Communist authoritarian society, these bands were just Magickal. Heavy and raw, they fascinated me so much. That's until I got the Internet at around 13 and MTV2 was available for us to watch as well and more 'complex' bands started captivating me like Lamb of God, Mastodon and then after that I learned what Death Metal, Sludge and Grindcore is...

Until then, I have fond memories of imagining quick and intense highlights of Motorsports with the likes of Greg Moore while Korn would be the background soundtrack. Fun.

With that, to do the corn jokes justice, here's one Korn song for every Championship protagonist from the first 5 albums of Korn ( I only know the first 6 ones up until 2003 )

Here, let us ruin our musical ecosystem with these songs.

#5 - Scott Dixon: 1 win, 307 points.



This one's for a Master trying to send these heretical youths in their place and stand on the throne he deems fated to himself.

#4 - Josef Newgarden; 3 wins, 307 points.



This one's for the original Young American trying to assert that he, unlike these F1 fanboys, is the real deal all along.

#3 - Alex Palou' 0 wins; 314 poitns.



This one's for our current Champion that is relentlessly digging up a bigger and bigger hole for himself. I know the song's about a fan punching Jonathan, the frontman, at a show but I bet you this is how Chip and Alex are feeling about each other right now.

#2 - Will Power; 1 win. 316 points.



This one's just WIll Power...

#1 - Marcus Ericsson; Indy 500 Champion, 351 points.



This one's for the revelation of the season. Deserved. Respect.

I think the album titles work well with the plotline of all drivers:

Scott Dixon - Follow The Leader
Josef Newgarden - Issues
Alex Palou - Self-titled
Will Power - Life is Peachy
Marcus Ericsson - Untouchables

Ok, and with that... let's cleanse our palette with the Weekend Schedule and get the party started!
 

All times local (Central)

Friday, July 22

2.15-3.05pm – Indy Lights practice
3.30-5.00pm – NTT IndyCar Series practice

Saturday, July 23

8.30-9.00am – Indy Lights qualifying
9.30-10.45am – NTT IndyCar Series qualifying for Race 1 and 2
As per IndyCar’s usual oval qualifying format since 2020, each driver will make a two-lap qualifying run, with the first flyer determining grid position for Race 1, and the second flyer determining grid position for Race 2.
11.20am – Indy Lights RACE (75 laps)
3.00-5.00pm – NBC broadcast
3.01pm – “Drivers start your engines”
3.06pm – Green flag: HyVeeDeals.com 250 presented by DoorDash (250 laps)

Sunday, July 24

10.55-11.00pm – NTT IndyCar Series installation laps
2.00-5.00pm – NBC broadcast
2.25pm – “Drivers start your engines”
2.30pm – Green flag: Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 presented by Google (300 laps)

I copy pasted the schedule from Motorsport.Com and it has now ruined the text format and I don't know what to do about it.

To help Euros - Saturday's race is at 9pm UK time and Sunday's race is at 8:30pm UK time.

Let's hyvee a good one!

[red stick]

Sufficiently Korny. Well done.

Edited by red stick, 20 July 2022 - 22:54.

[FLB]

Iowa Korn indeed, Ov!   

 

 

Indycar Weatherman sur Twitter : "Starting to refine @iowaspeedway forecast: shifted timing of front to late/overnight Sat..that would reduce the rain threat, but would leave afternoon heating unconstrained, allowing heat index to climb over 100° on Saturday…followed by some relief on Sunday #IndyCar https://t.co/TfOpQkvnrT" / Twitter

[Proto402]

Ov gave us a new kind of Korny intro for the Iowa double    

[juicy sushi]

And there was no need to drag an Adidas reference in to the traditional oval stripes reference...

 

I must confess to being more of a Rage Against the Machine/Tool fan in that period, and Dixon in some ways is very similar to RATM, as after nearly 30 years, he is still bringing the fury amidst rivals literally in diapers when he was rolling down Rodeo.

Edited by juicy sushi, 21 July 2022 - 03:01.

[eibyyz]

Not to harsh your high, maaaan, but:  KoЯn is from Bakersfield, CA.  Mears.  If you want an Iowa connection, how about Slipknot?

[OvDrone]

Not to harsh your high, maaaan, but:  KoЯn is from Bakersfield, CA.  Mears.  If you want an Iowa connection, how about Slipknot?

Yeah but they invented Nu-Metal basically and I got reminded of them by the mental arithmetic of Indycar > Iowa > Slipknot > Nu-Metal > Korn > Corn.

And thankfully I know next to nothing about Slipknot. I guess we can put 'People = S***' up there for Rossi and his vendetta on Andretti teammates. 

[PayasYouRace]

Don’t really know much about nu-metal but I do know that 2/5 is 40%.

[Peat]

Toronto ain't the only one that was dearly missed since to long, looooooong ago mythical and aero-screen-less age of 2019....

 

 

Pedantic Peat says: There was a double header there in 2020, Colton Herta tested the integrity of VK's aero-screen if i recall. 

 

Utterly depressing stat in the title btw. 

Edited by Peat, 21 July 2022 - 08:15.

[OvDrone]

Don’t really know much about nu-metal but I do know that 2/5 is 40%.

'Regular' oval season without the Indy 500. That's a separate beast. Wanna highlight how few ovals we have on the calendar. It's a damn shame.

 

Pedantic Peat says: There was a double header there in 2020, Colton Herta tested the integrity of VK's aero-screen if i recall. 

 

Utterly depressing stat in the title btw. 

 

Lol yes, I was too tired yesterday after bad sleep, heatwabes, tattoo session and work. 

Just goes to show that 2020 pretty much sucked.

[PayasYouRace]

'Regular' oval season without the Indy 500. That's a separate beast. Wanna highlight how few ovals we have on the calendar. It's a damn shame.

Hmm. I’ll allow it.

With you on the sentiment though. Lack of Indy aside, I think 2000 CART was the best calendar during my lifetime. 9 ovals on a 20 race calendar.

[FLB]

With you on the sentiment though. Lack of Indy aside, I think 2000 CART was the best calendar during my lifetime. 9 ovals on a 20 race calendar.

 

And they say there was nothing positive about The Split... 

[PayasYouRace]

And they say there was nothing positive about The Split...

Sadly 2000 was also where all of CART’s post split momentum ran out. It was all downhill from there.

[Peat]

Jack Hyvee is running in a delightful shade of red this weekend: https://twitter.com/...8926978/photo/1

 

Thus far in 2022, that car has been rather invisible both literally (in that it is the colour of asphalt) and in it's results. 

[theblackangus]

ok what is this stat?

"There are only ~2567 native Iowa people still alive"

 

I live in Iowa and am native, so was this wholly in jest or is this some crazy stat somewhere?

[OvDrone]

ok what is this stat?

"There are only ~2567 native Iowa people still alive"

 

I live in Iowa and am native, so was this wholly in jest or is this some crazy stat somewhere?

https://en.wikipedia...iki/Iowa_people

The OG Native American tribe from where the name 'Iowa' comes from - the Ioway.




 

[paulb]

What, no Korn on the Kob album?

Love the op Ov, even though I’m not a Korn fan.

[aportinga]

And they say there was nothing positive about The Split... 

 

Ton more races to watch!

[Anja]

Ah, nu metal. For how popular it was in its heyday it's kinda amazing how it went completely nowhere and today it seems most people would prefer to forget it ever existed. 

[loki]

https://en.wikipedia...iki/Iowa_people

The OG Native American tribe from where the name 'Iowa' comes from - the Ioway.
 

 

 “We call it maize”…

[SKL]

As a "native Iowan" , who only recently moved to AZ, I look forward to this race even though I'm a diehard road racing guy.  Went to several races there and it is a great facility with easy access to everything. Highly recommended.

 

Actually flew back to AZ sitting right behind Colton and Bryan after his aerial show in 2020-  told him I was glad to see him in one piece- he said it looked worse than it was... easy for him to say!

 

Of course, we move here permanently and they quit coming to PIR-  that track seemed very similiar to Iowa.  Also great access to everyone. Running into Robin Miller, Rick Mears, etc etc...

 

At least it won't give you a headache, like all that weird off track paint at Paul Ricard.

[loki]

Don’t really know much about nu-metal but I do know that 2/5 is 40%.

 

It’s 50% now due to inflation…

[FLB]

Ah, nu metal. For how popular it was in its heyday it's kinda amazing how it went completely nowhere and today it seems most people would prefer to forget it ever existed. 

 

I (re)listened recently to Korn's Issues and I didn't think it was so bad. Same for Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, but listening to it is hard when you think about what happened to Chester Bennington, because the entire album feels like a cry for help.

 

 

Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish, on the other hand... Utter cringe. Shudder.

[OvDrone]

I tried listening to Follow the Leader and Issues out of both, I think Issues is quite superior, yet I can still barely stomach it. It's kinda like soda, waaaaaay too sweet for me know.

I can deal with half of the debut record and funnily enough I think 2003's very underrated and forgotten Take a Look in the Mirror is their best. It's definitely my favorite and the only one that I recently found 'eh, not bad'. With this song being my favorite they ever done:



This cover was also frustrating at the time because of the Internet I have already fell into the pit of the Metal iceberg so by 2004 I was already listening to the below which the cover looks waaaaay too much similar. By that time, my soul was long gone. Thank you Internet. 



After that 2003 release, I know nothing. I know they had a dubstep album a decade ago *shudders* and they're still going strong today as well. I have a weird soft-spot for 'em.

Deftones however have gone from silly Nu-metal to something much, MUCH legitimate, complete and influential. 

So happy that I eventually fell off the musical icebergs and now I am in prowling in the dimensionless sublevel of the void there. I do like Art Pop too though. Balance etc etc.

Edited by OvDrone, 21 July 2022 - 21:12.

[LolaB0860]

Okay so the two "terrible on road courses, but good on ovals" drivers we have here:

 

Johnson was pretty decent at Texas and (some of) Indy, but how will that transform to small oval?

Carpenter has not had a very good form on small ovals in recent years... and even on bigger ones not as shiny as it used to be (that may be partly down to ECR in general though)

 

Somehow I sense good pace from Johnson but crashing into Rahal or something. Carpenter qualifies terribly for both races but in the end gets 8th place in one of them

Edited by LolaB0860, 21 July 2022 - 20:37.

[GlenWatkins]

A great OP OvDrone, sorry that I'm late to the party!

About time for an oval track! And a doubleheader is a bonus!

[Peat]

Hyvees' activation is generally to be commended. But their 'You don't know Jack!" line is a painfully accurate statement of fact for most of the audience. 

 

[jonpollak]

"

I live in Iowa and am native

The question is Angus….. ARE YOU GOING TO BOTH RACES?
Jp

[LolaB0860]

Apparently the air temp will be potentially be up to 37 celcius this weekend

 

https://racer.com/20...beat-iowa-heat/

https://www.wundergr...st/us/ia/newton

 

Is there a reason they are racing in the middle of the day instead of evening like they used to?

Edited by LolaB0860, 22 July 2022 - 16:14.

[SKL]

I can see why the Sunday race is not at night, but the Saturday race sure could be...  and depending on weather, it might be anyway...

[prommer]

Well, we're back on big daddy NBC this weekend, so any complaints probably can be passed to some pencil pushers at 30 Rock, who make the schedule whilst sat in their air conditioned cubicles.

 

Them bleachers is gonna be hot, for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if the Indycar races run to the usual smattering of diehards, while the "sold out" portion of the crowd files in just before the concerts start.

[FLB]

Well, we're back on big daddy NBC this weekend, so any complaints probably can be passed to some pencil pushers at 30 Rock, who make the schedule whilst sat in their air conditioned cubicles.

 

Them bleachers is gonna be hot, for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if the Indycar races run to the usual smattering of diehards, while the "sold out" portion of the crowd files in just before the concerts start.

Looking on social media, Hy-Vee are promoting this above and beyond what anybody has been doing since The Split. They are to be commended.

 

It the crowds don't show up, it will NOT be for lack of promotion.

[LolaB0860]

15 minutes until the sole practice session

[FLB]

We practice nao.

[loki]

Looking on social media, Hy-Vee are promoting this above and beyond what anybody has been doing since The Split. They are to be commended.

 

It the crowds don't show up, it will NOT be for lack of promotion.

More than Bomarito level? Impressive.  

[LolaB0860]

Did they throw in a yellow for yet another Hinchliffe promo bit for Hy-Vee

Edited by LolaB0860, 22 July 2022 - 20:57.

[Jim Thurman]

 

Is there a reason they are racing in the middle of the day instead of evening like they used to?

Gotta leave time to move mersh.

 

I wonder if the track has the tents set up, or if there are tents in the lots at the Casey's and Love's?

 

At least you could pick up a David Allan Coe CD there.

[ANF]

Maybe the track could use a repavement.

[Lotus72b]

Foxes rule    

[ANF]

Foxy track invasion!

[loki]

[LolaB0860]

Is the fox also sponsored by Hy-Vee, as this track inspection is?

Edited by LolaB0860, 22 July 2022 - 21:52.

[ANF]

Newgarden looking racy near the end of the session...

[SKL]

Just watched Pruett's video with Simon, and I hardly recognized the place!!   Boy has HyVee  (a big midwest Iowa based grocery chain) stepped it up-  huge hospitality areas on both sides of the main grandstands.  Now I wished I'd flown back to my old stomping grounds for both races...  just hope it doesn't rain on their parade!

[FLB]

Qualy nao. Parc fermé conditions. Race later this afternoon.

[LolaB0860]

Thankfully they are now showing simultaneously grid positions for R1 and R2. Often ICS quali graphics are not very good. They could still be much better, but this will do

Edited by LolaB0860, 23 July 2022 - 14:37.

[Disgrace]

Expected a bit better from JJ48.

[Disgrace]

Rahal slower than Ilott, I'm sure he will take that well.

[Disgrace]

Rossi's car looks hideous to drive.

[jonpollak]

Got no coverage today so appreciate the rolling commentary.
Jp