Indycar 2023

In reply to Tom1200 :

The screen was so effective, Kirkwood raised his visor while sliding upsidedown.  Ok, seems like a really bad move to do.  But the safety items are pretty amazing.

Glad Kirkwood is good, hell of a ride to follow with that camera on him. Apparently tire cleared the stands and came down in a parking area without hitting anyone. 

I can't believe a dozen people didn't just die.  That is one of the scariest things I've seen.

Well, that wasn't a massive surprise.  Disappointment, for sure.  The curious part was O'Ward had the best tires, by a wide margin- so the move wasn't all that bad.  Too bad.  Rossi is all that is left for McLaren.

Replay shows him touching the grass- making the tires rather moot.

No way we are done with cautions, yet, I think.

Streetwiseguy said:

No way we are done with cautions, yet, I think.

You think accurately.  And we will finish under yellow with a B2B winner.

edit- nope- red flag.  How in the world can they wind this up to get any green left???

One to go immediately?  Seems a bit contrived.

No way we finish that without another caution.

I am beginning to wonder how many more red flags they can fit into three laps...

Sure makes it hard to watch.  

In reply to alfadriver :

I want this to end more than I did my EV thread..........

Ferruci going to crash someone out next

It seems that they expect a 3/4 of a lap of the pace car so that there's one lap of racing.  

This will be interesting or really frustrating.

Not a bad ending.  Although it would have been better had they all started at the same time....

They managed to not crash.  

I like Newgardens celebration in the grandstand.

Rossi got passed on almost every restart.  Technique, or setup, I wonder?

Erickson has a point that it was a very unique restart procedure.  Has there ever been a pace car lap of less than one?

There's no doubt that the last red flag was a bit contrived to deliver an exciting finish, and I don't blame Ericsson for not liking it. Still, I love the result. Newgarden is such a fun, funny and charismatic guy. Having him do the Indy 500 media tour will do wonders for the sport. Plus, he deserves it after 12 tries and two championships.

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

One of Danica's points was interesting when she mentioned he visa to Japan listed her as an entertainer. 

In reply to johndej :

I don't understand the comment about the wheel being tethered on.  It gets taken off with one nut - is the suspension tethered on?  

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I don't know if I said anything about them being tethered here but yeah they have them and basically attach to the hub and such, not directly to the wheel. 

https://racer.com/2022/12/21/indycar-set-to-introduce-stronger-rear-wheel-tethers/

Indycar got extremely lucky with the trajectory of that wheel. It came very close to being a tragedy. I think it's time to re-examine the wheel tether system.

Here is a pic of the car hit by the wheel.   That clearly could have been a LOT worse.  I am actually kind of amazed it did that little damage.  I do wonder where the wheel eventually ended up (probably doing at least 100 mph when it hit).  It was clear the Indy people where trying to cover up the damage.  They had some sort of blanket over it when they did the drone shot.

I think the subtitle to this race could be:

    And THIS is why races finish under yellow.

I can't say I hated the last lap start / sprints, but I can see why they would avoid it in the future.

In reply to johndej :

My apologies - the TV guys mentioned the wheel being tethered.

aircooled said:

 I do wonder where the wheel eventually ended up

We replayed it and it looks like it hit the fence across the road from the white car and went over it.