2024 Indycar season

Season opener is this weekend at St. Pete. Here is the TV schedule for the year:

Date, time                      Location                   TV

March 10, noon             St. Petersburg, Fla. NBC

March 24, 12:30 p.m.    Thermal, Calif.*       NBC

April 21, 3 p.m.               Long Beach, Calif.  USA

April 28, 1 p.m.               Leeds, Ala.               NBC

May 11, 3 p.m.                Indianapolis             NBC

May 26, 11 a.m.              Indianapolis             NBC

June 2, noon                  Detroit                      USA

June 9, 3:30 p.m.           Elkhart Lake, Wis.   NBC

June 23, 6 p.m.              Monterey, Calif.      USA

July 7, 1:30 p.m.             Lexington, Ohio      NBC

July 13, 8 p.m.               Newton, Iowa           NBC

July 14, noon                 Newton, Iowa          NBC

July 21, 1 p.m.               Toronto                      Peacock

Aug. 17, 6 p.m.             Gateway, Ill.              USA

Aug. 25, 3 p.m.            Portland                    USA

Aug. 31, 6 p.m.            Milwaukee                Peacock

Sept. 1, 2:30 p.m.       Milwaukee                USA

Sept. 15, 3 p.m.           Nashville                   NBC

While the odds of Penske or CGR at the top step are high, I am hoping the burn of AA not making it into F1 and the shuffling at Mclaren leads to some tight battles on track. I also am cheering for Colin Braun, he should have been in a Indycar a while ago. 

Haven't followed indycar much, but I said to myself this year I wanted to get more into it.
 

Looking forward to St. Pete. Rooting for Scotty Mac!

Hoppps said:

Looking forward to St. Pete. Rooting for Scotty Mac!

He's impossible not to like.

I'm rooting for Andretti to get their E36 M3 together this year. They are overdue. But also, McLaren got so close last year but couldn't quite pull it off, and I like their drivers, too. Plus, Rossi's livery is just fire:

The schedule is pretty goofy. A non-points race as round 2 instead of at the beginning, end, or middle of the season. 1 oval race in the first 9, then 6 ovals in the last 8. Another year of no races in the North East. I flew out for the 500 last year, but can't afford to do that every year. Would love to see them come back to Watkins Glen, Pocono, or New Hampshire so could attend one. 

That said, the field seems to just be getting deeper and stronger every year, which is great. 

Also, looking forward to seeing Larson take on the 500. 

Posting so I can find this thread again.

I fell asleep watching this race.  Thought it was gonna be good with the battle up front, but it faded after just a few laps.

Hopefully the next race will be better.

Yeah, if Newgarden has solved his road and street course issues, this could be a long season for the rest of the field.

In reply to trigun7469 :

Braun shot himself in the foot early on in his career, so he had to take lots of privateer rides to keep relevant.  He's improved his racecraft and been a good teammate since that time, so it's good to see him still moving up.

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

Hoppps said:

Looking forward to St. Pete. Rooting for Scotty Mac!

He's impossible not to like.

I'm rooting for Andretti to get their E36 M3 together this year. They are overdue. But also, McLaren got so close last year but couldn't quite pull it off, and I like their drivers, too. Plus, Rossi's livery is just fire:

When the liveries were announced, I preferred Pato's black and orange (Papaya) scheme, but seeing the cars on track you're right, Rossi's car looks awesome on track and echos the old Malboro liveries in movement.  

OK race, would have been considered a barn burner if F1, but a bit of a lack of passing for Indy car.  Good on Josef, he really looks to have a point to prove after winning four races last year, including the 500, but 'only' finishing 5th in the championship.  He was so dominant on ovals last year, look out everyone, he's pissed and fast.  Great result for the Captain with 1st, 3rd, and 4th.  Power was looking very fast at the end, how the hell old are he and Dixie these days?  Solid recovery drivers after E36 M3ty qualifying for Rossi and Palou.  

Rossi said on his podcast last week that this year's Firestones were developed for the hybrid car, which is heavier. So they are wearing really well on the current, lighter car, which means less tire degradation, hence guys can just stay out and pound laps, so there's less action.

Interesting they're going back to St. Louis this year...  

Thermal Challenge this upcoming weekend, then a month break. I hate these month breaks, I wish they had something inbetween. Like a indoor kart race similar like the Elf Master Kart class that F1 did in the 90's, everyone has the same kart and let them rip, keeps the drivers names out there, which the average person doesn't know.  Have it in Indianapolis at the Fieldhouse, indoors plenty of room, seating, and most teams are based there. It might not bring a big crowd but atleast something is going on.

In reply to trigun7469 :

I agree.  

Counterpoint is we got to watch some indy regulars drive sport cars in the middle of nowhere, Florida for 12 hours!

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

IMSA is also out for a month, they should join it, but I doubt it with the Nascar Affaliation. 

Indycar should have joined NASCAR at COTA this weekend (3/23-3/24) and then done the Thermal Challenge in couple of weeks to bridge the gap to their next race. 

INDYCAR ANNOUNCES ST. PETERSBURG PENALTIES 

“Unfortunately, the Push to Pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars,” Team Penske President Tim Cindric said. “This software allowed for Push to Pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted. The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin both deployed Push to Pass on a restart, which violated INDYCAR rules. Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by INDYCAR.”

Why did it take over a month and who leaked it? 

You know what would be cool? Indycar at COTA, that's what would be cool.

In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :

They did in 2019, it was cancelled in 2020 because of Covid and hasn't found its way back on. You have to wonder how much longer that track will exist.

This is a big deal. Not only does it show that Penske-owned Indycar is willing to drop the hammer on Team Penske, it's the first time in years there's been a penalty this major. I guess it took this long because they had to comb through all the software records? And from what I'm seeing online, Josef and Scott must have known since they were hitting the button on restarts when it's not supposed to work. Apparently Power didn't use it. Kind of makes Cindric's "whoops it was a mistake" excuse ring a bit hollow.

Anyhow, congrats to Pato on his win!

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

not so "penske perfect"  

Hell of a race win last weekend for Dixie!  Had to mention it.

Jim Pettengill said:

Hell of a race win last weekend for Dixie!  Had to mention it.

He's a magician. There's no other explanation.

Jim Pettengill said:

Hell of a race win last weekend for Dixie!  Had to mention it.

Once the gap was closed, he totally manipulated the entire lap- saving fuel massively where passes could not happen, and then being able to use the P2P on the straights.  Brilliant.

And I think it made it harder for Herta when Palou and Newgarten closed in, too.  Again, Dixon's situational awareness.

Newgarden shoulders blame for DQ over P2P use He accidentally pushed the button out of habit  and the team accidentally left it on..... Newgarden is going to talk to AJ about Nitrous 

trigun7469 said:

Newgarden shoulders blame for DQ over P2P use He accidentally pushed the button out of habit  and the team accidentally left it on..... Newgarden is going to talk to AJ about Nitrous 

Hinch and Rossi had an interesting discussion on the podcast this week.