2014 IndyCar Season Starts Today!

The Game Room
1

Anyone interested? I love IndyCar - it hits just the right spot for me between NASCAR and Formula 1. Tidbits for this season -

  • Simona de Silvestro has ditched IndyCar for Formula 1. Boo! I really liked her, and she had the skills to be a top driver as she matures. Hopefully, she’ll come back - she was a great female role model, and even managed not to pose in a bikini!

  • Dario is gone. That will be weird for us, since he’s been the star since we started watching just after the series reunified. It looks like he’s doing tech and driving mentoring with the Gnassi team, but I don’t know if we’ll hear anything from him.

  • They’ve brought back the Indianapolis Grand Prix track for a race in early March, to make a bookend with the 500. They’ve made changes to the track layout, and are trying to bring back the excitement of March in Indy. I don’t know if it will work, but I’m looking forward to hitting the Time Trials down there and see how it looks.

  • Big shakeup for 500 qualifying - they’re now doing a Top 9 format - no bump day, because there’s not enough entries. They’re talking about bringing in some NASCAR guys (one of the brothers who likes to get into fistfights) in a Penske car.

So, here we go! St. Petersburg today, with almost weekly races until the season end in August.

2

I’m watching, I like IndyCar too. Ugly re-start they just had there. It’ll be interesting to see what some of these rookies can do this year. I like Munoz, I think he has some potential. Also be fun to see how Montoya does this year after so many seasons in NASCAR.

3

22 cars? Thought this was another “breakout year”. Sigh.

Indycar always seems to be good for one facepalm moment per race and they certainly had it. Gotta love the ABC broadcast passive-aggressively refusing to acknowledge the two races in April between now and the Indy road course race that will be aired on NBCSN. Also frustrating that ABC/ESPN won’t do a qualifying broadcast… not even on the ESPN3 web channel.

So basically, Indycar, same as it ever was since 2008. Yay.