1517 replies to this topic

[Beri]

The month of May offers so much;
3 letters
31 days

But much more importantly; there is Monaco!

No, I'm joking ofcourse! It's about Le Mans!

Nah, let's get real.. it's all about the Indy 500! The only race that calls itself the biggest spectacle of Motorsports. Doesn't it LL Cool J?

Anywho, there seems to be a need for a thread.

Risil, on 14 May 2023 - 08:44, said:

500 practice starts Tuesday. We need a thread!

So, here we go! The buildup thread to the 107th running of the 200 lap 500 mile (804.7km) race of all races; the Indy 500.

Entry list by alphabetical order. Because no one uses alphabetical orders;

1 A.J. Foyt Racing Santino Ferrucci Chevy
2 A.J. Foyt Racing Benjamin Pedersen Chevy
3 Andretti Autosport Colton Herta Honda
4 Andretti Autosport Romain Grosjean Honda
5 Andretti Autosport Devlin DeFrancesco Honda
6 Andretti Autosport Kyle Kirkwood Honda
7 Andretti Autosport Marco Andretti Honda
8 Arrow McLaren SP Pato O’Ward Chevy
9 Arrow McLaren SP Felix Rosenqvist Chevy
10 Arrow McLaren SP Alexander Rossi Chevy
11 Arrow McLaren SP Tony Kanaan Chevy
12 Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Dixon Honda
13 Chip Ganassi Racing Alex Palou Honda
14 Chip Ganassi Racing Marcus Ericsson Honda
15 Chip Ganassi Racing Takuma Sato Honda
16 Dale Coyne Racing David Malukas Honda
17 Dale Coyne Racing Sting Ray Robb Honda
18 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Stefan Wilson Chevy
19 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Ryan Hunter-Reay Chevy
20 Ed Carpenter Racing Rinus VeeKay Chevy
21 Ed Carpenter Racing Conor Daly Chevy
22 Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter Chevy
23 Juncos Hollinger Racing Callum Ilott Chevy
24 Juncos Hollinger Racing Agustin Canapino Chevy
25 Meyer Shank Racing Helio Castroneves Honda
26 Meyer Shank Racing Simon Pagenaud Honda
27 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Graham Rahal Honda
28 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Christian Lundgaard Honda
29 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Jack Harvey Honda
30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Katherine Legge Honda
31 Team Penske Will Power Chevy
32 Team Penske Josef Newgarden Chevy
33 Team Penske Scott McLaughlin Chevy

[Mark521]

Has the #50 Abel Motorsports entry for R.C. Enerson dropped out?

[kumo7]

33 cars running for the glory, envious.
Sato again perhaps? Or this time from Chevy team? I hope so.

[Risil]

Thanks Beri! I'm happy to have any list that puts Santino Ferrucci at the top.

I also like saving the main thread until we have a starting grid, it reminds me of those old ABC preview shows. Speaking of which YouTube clips of "Delta Force" are embargoed until Carb Day.

Oh and hark! Sato, Hunter-Reay and Marco are taking part.

[Anja]

If we're talking early predictions I can't see past Ganassi vs McLaren. That was the big fight last year and both teams are again on a roll right now. Eight drivers capable of taking the win between them...

Edited by Anja, 14 May 2023 - 10:12.

[Stephane]

So, no bumping..

[H0R]

I am not expecting it to happen but a final win for TK would be soooooooo sweet.

 

Oh and for the 500 I finally will have a notebook capable of streaming again instead of a turd of a tablet which is only playing sound after five minutes.  

Edited by H0R, 14 May 2023 - 10:20.

[milestone 11]

All practice sessions are live on Sky F1

[ANF]

No bumping? They said there would be bumping!

[ezequiel]

Abel Motorsports RC Enerson Chevy -----------> I thought this was confirmed?

[B Squared]

I think this covers all participating

 

INDYCAR SERIES Drivers

[red stick]

H0R, on 14 May 2023 - 10:17, said:

I am not expecting it to happen but a final win for TK would be soooooooo sweet.

 

Oh and for the 500 I finally will have a notebook capable of streaming again instead of a turd of a tablet which is only playing sound after five minutes.  

TK has only started from the second row the past two years, and O'Ward and Rosenqvist finished 2nd and 4th in last year's race.  There are longer shots.

[jonpollak]

Need to find that 500 avatar…..

brb.

Jp

[FLB]

Mark521, on 14 May 2023 - 09:40, said:

Has the #50 Abel Motorsports entry for R.C. Enerson dropped out?

Not as far as I know...?

 

[Mark521]

Depending on who's list you see, it's possible that we'll have 34 drivers (okay, cars) that will attempt to qualify with RC Enerson (in the #50 Abel Motorsports). I believe that Marcus Armstrong (in the #77 Chip Ganassi Racing) is skipping the ovals this year, with Takuma Sato given the oval seat.

[red stick]

Right. Armstrong is not doing the Indy 500, although it was rumored at one point that Sato's deal was only for Texas and Indy, and that Armstrong may do Iowa and Gateway.

Have not heard an update.

[jonpollak]

Ah..there she is.

 

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 14 May 2023 - 16:24.

[Beri]

On Radio Controlled Enerson, it's the entry list that I scavenged from Racer dating from March.

https://racer.com/20...ry-list-update/

I would have expected them updating this list on the go when things changed. But I guess not.

[ANF]

I stole the names from Wikipedia and made another entry list:

A. J. Foyt Enterprises (Chevrolet)
14 Santino Ferrucci
55 Benjamin Pedersen

Abel Motorsports (Chevrolet)
50 R. C. Enerson

Andretti Autosport (Honda)
26 Colton Herta ¹
27 Kyle Kirkwood
28 Romain Grosjean
29 Devlin DeFrancesco ²
98 Marco Andretti ³

Arrow McLaren (Chevrolet)
5 Pato O'Ward
6 Felix Rosenqvist
7 Alexander Rossi
66 Tony Kanaan

Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
8 Marcus Ericsson
9 Scott Dixon
10 Álex Palou
11 Takuma Sato

Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)
18 David Malukas ⁴
51 Sting Ray Robb ⁵

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Chevrolet)
23 Ryan Hunter-Reay
24 Stefan Wilson ⁶

Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)
20 Conor Daly
21 Rinus VeeKay
33 Ed Carpenter

Juncos Hollinger Racing (Chevrolet)
77 Callum Ilott
78 Agustín Canapino

Meyer Shank Racing (Honda)
06 Hélio Castroneves
60 Simon Pagenaud

Team Penske (Chevrolet)
2 Josef Newgarden
3 Scott McLaughlin
12 Will Power
 
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)
15 Graham Rahal
30 Jack Harvey
44 Katherine Legge
45 Christian Lundgaard


Bold driver = former winner
Green driver = rookie

1 Herta drives for Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian.
2 DeFrancesco drives for Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport.
3 Andretti drives for Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco Andretti & Curb-Agajanian.
4 Malukas drives for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports.
5 Robb drives for Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing.
6 Wilson drives for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing / Cusick Motorsports.

[loki]

The formal list will be released on Tues when practice starts.  Those with an eagle eye should look at the Gasoline Alley footage from this weekend to see if they can see the Abel entry.  They are there.  The garages for all listed entrants have been assigned by now as that’s what they used this weekend.  FLB posted an update video from a couple days ago.  That looks like a nearly complete car to me.  They’ve fired it up and they have new wheels.  The garage is pretty spartan but they look to have what they need.  Except team uniforms for the Indycar crew.  Unless a Pittsburgh Steelers tee shirt is the uniform.    They’ve got me in their corner.

Edited by loki, 14 May 2023 - 19:12.

[Beri]

Would be something if RC wins it.

[Disgrace]

Or indeed make the race at all.

[loki]

Another with Land from the Abel Lights NXT shop in Speedway.  He talks with R.C. and John Brunner about the team.  Good looking shop not just for a development series but for any pro race team.  It’s behind Dallara and close to the former Taco Bell turned California Burger.

[LolaB0860]

Disgrace, on 14 May 2023 - 19:26, said:

Or indeed make the race at all.

I'm kind of hoping he somehow bumps out one of the cheating Shank entries...

[LolaB0860]

BorgWarner bonus awaits Ericsson at Indy

https://racer.com/20...icsson-at-indy/

 

As noted by BorgWarner, the money Ericsson can earn is more than the entire purse for the 1961 Indy 500 --

 

Too bad BorgWarner failed to adjust the 1961 purse to inflation though, as 400,000 dollars from 1961 is more than 4 million dollars today.

[FLB]

Stats time.

 

Indy 500 2023: Driver facts, former winners, teams, rookies (indystar.com)

Edited by FLB, 15 May 2023 - 23:39.

[HerbieMcQueen]

LolaB0860, on 15 May 2023 - 15:18, said:

I'm kind of hoping he somehow bumps out one of the cheating Shank entries...

I've seen you make comments about MSR that are somewhat withering, just out of curiosity what's the deal with them?

[FLB]

HerbieMcQueen, on 15 May 2023 - 23:50, said:

I've seen you make comments about MSR that are somewhat withering, just out of curiosity what's the deal with them?

I can't speak for LolaB0860, but as a sposrtcar fan, the Daytona cold tire temp issue has left a very bad taste in my mouth. As Marshall Pruett and others have said, it's very hard to believe that nobody else on the team, other than the engineer who was fired, didn't know something was amiss.

[prommer]

Your mileage may vary on whether seven minutes of Marshall Pruett talking is worth the expenditure of time you could have done something with your life, but:

 

 

At 5 minutes in, in usual hazy-Pruett-esque manner, he suggests what sounds to me like Harvey was indeed on the verge of being ousted from his ride for the 500, but must've gained a reprieve over the weekend; and that the replacement driver was not going to be Linus Lundqvist, but rather an Indy veteran who's sitting on the sidelines.  Or I'm just reading into this non-story.  Nor can I figure out who the Indy veteran would be.

 

I propose a new meaning to the term Pruett fade, whereby it means that Marshall uses words to fade into a Homer Simpson hedge of non-meaning, linguistically-speaking.

[loki]

Indy veterans?  We’ve got Mario, Micheal, Poncho Carter, Lil’ Al, Hiro…

[red stick]

I was assuming Hildebrand, but this kind of "almost-reporting" makes me wonder why you'd say anything at all.

[jonpollak]

A Great Story.

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 16 May 2023 - 04:08.

[HistoryFan]

FLB, on 15 May 2023 - 23:38, said:

Stats time.

 

Indy 500 2023: Driver facts, former winners, teams, rookies (indystar.com)

31.8 average age sounds high. Is there a comparison with all other yeara? What were the 10 oldest and 10 youngest average age years?

 

I doubt we'll see a 50 year old guy competeing at the Indy 500. Kanaan will do his last race and Castroneves would have to drive the Indy 500 in 2025 (what's unlikely I think).

[Risil]

I don't have a comparison but my impression is that 31 might've been on the young side for an Indy 500 driver in the early 80s.

[Collombin]

1992 must be a contender for oldest, but otherwise it's difficult to get an accurate gut feel across a field of (usually) 33. Anyone who wants to know probably needs to work it out. The only list of oldest and youngest fields I've ever seen listed was on this site and was patently incorrect.

[B Squared]

LolaB0860, on 15 May 2023 - 15:18, said:

I'm kind of hoping he somehow bumps out one of the cheating Shank entries...

At which IndyCar events has MSR violated rules and been DQ'ed or fined?

[Dolph]

red stick, on 16 May 2023 - 03:52, said:

I was assuming Hildebrand, but this kind of "almost-reporting" makes me wonder why you'd say anything at all.

 

I thought its JPM. He did the Indycar GP and Indy 500 double in 2021 & 2022 with McLaren. I'm sure he was angling for a ride in 2023.

Edited by Dolph, 16 May 2023 - 09:38.

[Stephane]

B Squared, on 16 May 2023 - 08:43, said:

At which IndyCar events has MSR violated rules and been DQ'ed or fined?

probably thinking of Daytona 24

[B Squared]

Stephane, on 16 May 2023 - 10:26, said:

probably thinking of Daytona 24

I'm quite aware of that. I don't think penalties and problems from one series should be called out in another. To my knowledge they have violated no IndyCar rules.

[paulb]

B Squared, on 16 May 2023 - 10:49, said:

I'm quite aware of that. I don't think penalties and problems from one series should be called out in another. To my knowledge they have violated no IndyCar rules.

Sure, but IMO, it casts a dark light on the organization as a whole. The way they threw that engineer under the bus to "save face" is despicable.
 

[jonpollak]

Rain.
Jp

[B Squared]

paulb, on 16 May 2023 - 12:08, said:

Sure, but IMO, it casts a dark light on the organization as a whole. The way they threw that engineer under the bus to "save face" is despicable.

That may be, but I do not agree with using continuous vitriol in a way to force a team out of the sport.

[jonpollak]

I wouldn’t put too much value behind what that poster says Brian. .It’s always peppered with overly dramatic personal opinion.

Jp

[red stick]

Dolph, on 16 May 2023 - 09:36, said:

I thought its JPM. He did the Indycar GP and Indy 500 double in 2021 & 2022 with McLaren. I'm sure he was angling for a ride in 2023.

Also plausible.  Which just makes it sillier.  You've essentially outed the Harvey news, which was not much of a surprise, in that we knew he was on thin ice and now he's clearly there through May.  And the paddock is certainly aware who the available alternatives are.  It's just a case of hiding the ball, with the only people in the dark . . . the racing enthusiast public.  What's the point?  

[red stick]

paulb, on 16 May 2023 - 12:08, said:

Sure, but IMO, it casts a dark light on the organization as a whole. The way they threw that engineer under the bus to "save face" is despicable.

This was bad, indeed. The mystery is that all the bad karma seems to have hit the Indycar team.

[jonpollak]

Speedway weather radar

https://www.accuweat...r-radar/2124674

 

Picture of the track taken through a screen door at this very moment.

 

 

Jp

[jonpollak]

Land walks the garages...

 

Jp

[lustigson]

9 former winners on the grid. Great stuff!

[B Squared]

lustigson, on 16 May 2023 - 15:50, said:

9 former winners on the grid. Great stuff!

potentially

[jonpollak]

Drying.....

Jp