Alonso to race in Indianapolis 500!

[rage2]

Originally posted by SKR
I guess because Indycar's pedigree is the Indy 500. I didn't know until only a couple years ago that they raced on other ovals. I always knew about Indy of course, but I just assumed that was the only one. I have never thought about it much but yeah, you're right, I don't think many Indycar drivers grew up racing Saturday night dirt tracks in the south.

Mario Andretti is the first name I can think of that grew up racing dirt ovals.

Indycar has always been a good mix of ovals and roadcourses, until the split and IRL was created which was all ovals. By the tail end of the split, CART was pretty much all roadcourse so that's probably what you remember. Since the reunification of the 2 series, it's been back to a good mix of the 2.

It's too bad the series was so mismanaged, from the split, to CART bankruptcy. Indycar rivaled F1 in popularity back in the day and had top talent. Now it's a bunch of nobodies, has beens, and well I guess a top driver in a shitty team haha.

[flipstah]

Sounds like a riot!

[SKR]

Originally posted by rage2

Mario Andretti is the first name I can think of that grew up racing dirt ovals.

Indycar has always been a good mix of ovals and roadcourses, until the split and IRL was created which was all ovals. By the tail end of the split, CART was pretty much all roadcourse so that's probably what you remember. Since the reunification of the 2 series, it's been back to a good mix of the 2.

It's too bad the series was so mismanaged, from the split, to CART bankruptcy. Indycar rivaled F1 in popularity back in the day and had top talent. Now it's a bunch of nobodies, has beens, and well I guess a top driver in a shitty team haha.

Looking on Wikipedia, I am indeed retarded.

I was never a big fan, so the only way I knew about it was if it was on TV. And I only had CBC and CTV growing up in the 90s. Probably the only races televised were the Indy 500, and the two road course races in Toronto and Vancouver.

[rage2]

Practice starts today!

Live stream, Alonso on track right now.

[rage2]

Alonso and Honda at the top. Rookies only so far but still!

[OTown]

That's pretty impressive.

[killramos]

Anyone know how many hours Alonso has actually had in the car? Very impressive indeed.

[phreezee]

Pretty far down at the end of the day @ #20 +0.5907s .... but then again they had a suspension problem and didn't complete the program:

https://racingnews.co/2017/05/15/ind...e-may-15-2017/

[rage2]

Suspension problem was yesterday.

[phreezee]

^yeah that post was in regards to Monday.

Tuesday practice: Alonso was 24th, just after Max Chilton. Alonso completed the most laps though, at 117.

[rage2]

Don't get too carried away with actual performance during these practice sessions. It's all over the map every single year. Friday when they turn up the boost, quali, and practices next week are more telling of actual performance.

In the end, it doesn't matter. It's all down to strategy and luck during the race. Maybe Alonso can bring some Crashgate experience to the Indy 500, seeing as they full course caution absolutely anything. Have another driver brush the wall a few times over the course of the race at the right time to maximize his strategy haha.

[revelations]

Originally posted by speedog
Fernando wants to win other series and other famous races. And now Lewis is in the news talking about MotoGP and the Daytona 500 as things he'd like to try out. I think it would be great to see these two try their hand in a stock car, Pablo's done it so recently why not others?

I had no idea Lewis was a serious rider until I saw a clip of the F1 drivers' personal vehicle parking are and he had a couple of bikes to choose from. Would be interesting to see how good he could do against The Doctor.

[phreezee]

Day 3:

1. Ed Carpenter USA Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara-Chevrolet 222.894mph
2. Scott Dixon NZL Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 222.599mph
3. JR Hildebrand USA Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara-Chevrolet 220.553mph
4. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda Andretti Dallara-Honda 219.533mph
5. Conor Daly USA A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Chevrolet 219.233mph
6. Max Chilton GBR Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 218.872mph
7. Carlos Munoz COL A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Chevrolet 218.840mph
8. Zach Veach USA A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Chevrolet 218.636mph
9. Charlie Kimball USA Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 218.122mph
10. Jay Howard GBR Schmidt Peterson Dallara-Honda 217.299mph
11. Tony Kanaan BRA Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 217.057mph
12. Graham Rahal USA Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara-Honda 216.866mph
13. Mikhail Aleshin RUS Schmidt Peterson Dallara-Honda 216.844mph
14. James Hinchcliffe CAN Schmidt Peterson Dallara-Honda 216.333mph
15. Josef Newgarden USA Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet 159.591mph
16. Jack Harvey GBR Michael Shank Racing Dallara-Honda 156.680mph
17. Sage Karam USA Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara-Chevrolet 151.130mph
18. Takuma Sato JPN Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda 109.878mph
19. Alexander Rossi USA Andretti Herta Dallara-Honda 107.319mph
20. Marco Andretti USA Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda 102.752mph
21. Oriol Servia ESP Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara-Honda 61.301mph
22. Spencer Pigot AUS Juncos Racing Dallara-Chevrolet no time
23. Ryan Hunter-Reay USA Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda no time
24. Sebastian Saavedra COL Juncos Racing Dallara-Chevrolet no time
25. Gabby Chaves COL Harding Racing Dallara-Chevrolet no time
Read more at http://www.crash.net/indycar/results...F0A4Fiz0fc0.99

[rage2]

Relevant article on Player's Trubune.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/fe...onda-andretti/

Thanks Mibz for the headsup.

[speedog]

Man, if Alonso thinks Indy is more pure/raw than F1 then he'd probably shit his pants in NASCAR running in a pack of 30+ cars at over 200MPH where the front and rear of the pack are under 3 seconds apart, the cars around you are inches away and often the driver behind you is bumping you to get you going faster.

[rage2]

Really impressed with Alonso so far. Watching live stream/clips here and there's he's making some solid moves, driving deep into the apex on the painted lines, and working well in traffic. He's 4th overall but currently the fastest driver in the afternoon.

He on track right now practicing passing.

http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

[R154]

Originally posted by speedog
Man, if Alonso thinks Indy is more pure/raw than F1 then he'd probably shit his pants in NASCAR running in a pack of 30+ cars at over 200MPH where the front and rear of the pack are under 3 seconds apart, the cars around you are inches away and often the driver behind you is bumping you to get you going faster.

I don't understand why you take every opportunity to compare nascar with F1, or really any other series.

They are different.

Indy is to Alonso, more of a grassroots open wheel racing feel. He talks fondly about his time in kart-racing. He misses the equal footing run what you brung type of racings where he isn't seriously hampered by shit equipment. Indy 500 is also one of those legendary racing events that any competitive drier wishes to be a part of. Regardless of what series they drive in.

Nascar is not open wheel or open cockpit racings. Completely different animal.

Montoya raced both series and prefers nascar. A lot of F1 drivers have expressed interest in nascar. But it is a completely different racing animal.

It's like comparing baseball and basketball. The only things those two have in common is that they are team sports played with a round object.

Completely different objectives and scoring. Different equipment.

[speedog]

So sensitive. Anyhow, isn't the objective of any form of auto racing just to win?

[Alpine Autowerks]

Originally posted by R154

I don't understand why you take every opportunity to compare nascar with F1, or really any other series.

They are different.

isn't that what makes comparisons intersting?

[OTown]

Wow 4th after the little practice he's had. Nicely done Fernando!