After four straight busy weekends, including the Indianapolis 500 and a double-header at Detroit, the Verizon IndyCar Series returns to the high-speed, high-banks of Texas Motor Speedway. We also saw the series return to the pack-style racing that drew so much criticism in 2011. We parse through the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 and it’s nine finishers, and ponder what this means for the future of oval racing and the future Dale Coyne Racing who lost two more cars on Saturday night. It’s a right mess, but we will try to sort through the carnage.
Subscribe via SoundCloud RSS or on iTunes.
Editor’s note / mia culpa: Yes, I know it’s late. I had hoped to have the show up before the weekend, but chaos ensued. Although the brief discussion of Le Mans is of course dated, our commentary about Texas is still relevant, and I will be diving into the aerodynamics of oval racing in an article later this week.
Show notes and links
Texas Review
- Qualifying – Results
- Race – Results
- Honda power vs Penske prowess
- Kimball out early – Honda reliability again?
- Vautier!
- Rossi in a Ganassi sandwich
- The Big One – TKs fault? Racing incident?
- Sato on the verge in the verge
- Power has an easy drive up front away from the chaos behind him
“I mean, I sold the series, next to Jay Frye, this will be an absolute pack race. I didn’t say whether it was good or bad, I absolutely knew it would be a pack race,” Power said in the post-race press conference. There was no doubt in my mind. Anyone who didn’t — I mean, the first time we ran here, I said, yeah, this will be a pack race. Yeah.
“I like tire degradation so at least you can work on the car. It’s fine to do that for the first half of the stint, you know, 10 laps, but I think there needs to be a bit of falloff to create some separation because it gets — you know, when we’re doing it every week, people got good at it, and need to give some respect and understood it.
“I mean, when you’re leading, it’s the easiest night. Until you’re leading, the last 10 laps or six, you’re driving around wide open. The tire never fell off. And I always said that, like the easiest day of your life if you lead a pack race. The easiest day of your life.” — Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske
- $1.8M in damage
- Pack racing is back and no one in the paddock likes it.
- Bourdais happy to have missed it. Channels his inner Lauda, “It’s bullshit!”
- Robin Miller’s take: “pack racing for peanuts”
- Dale Coyne is livid with TK, but his he the right target?
News from the Internet Rumor Mill
- IndyCar drivers at Le Mans – Entry List
- Jay Alley at Le Mans
John, did you say Daly lost it under braking or lost his brakes?