Hey, question everyone. How can Champ Car get away with naming the race coming up in Australia the "Lexmark Indy 300"? http://www.indy.com.au/ Indy? I thought they could no longer refer to themselves as Indy in any way.
Because it's the promoters naming the race that, not Champ Car. That and the surfer's race has been the Indy 300 since it's inception back when CART still had the rights to the Indy name. So I think they're grandfathered in. However I did note that Champ Car does not refer to the race as the Lexmark Indy 300 when talking about it. They call it the more generic Lexmark 300 when they cover it.
I have pit passes for the IRL race Sunday. Friend of mine is a trainer that works with AGR when they are in Indy and he is taking me. He is friendly with Tony Kannan so we will spend most of our time near TK and Dario. Should be an intense race with three drivers with a shot at the championship.
Congrats to Dario. Those last two laps were pretty exciting, I'm glad to see Dario win it even if it was only because Dixon ran out of gas. The IRL did come off as alittle rinky-dink though after the race. First, Ashley Judd had a few choice words letting everyone know how she felt about Milka Duno. Basically she said Milka had no business being on the race track. Then, ESPN's Jack Arute was on the podium with Dario doing the announcing as Dario received his award for winning the race then he called for some big-wig with the IRL to come and present the Championship trophy. When this big-wig didn't show up you could almost hear crickets chirping.
Great time. My friend that took me knows all kinds of people that work in different capacities for different teams so we had great access. Let me tell you, the rumors flying around the garages are pretty big. The IRL field will look very different next year, and it will not all be bad changes. Ashley, who looks great in person, btw, was the picture of nerves the whole race. She just kept pacing by us. The crowd was really behind Dario the whole time and went nuts when Dixon ran out of gas. But for me, the highlight was being introduced to my guy, Mr Tony Kannan.
Good news for both series... Champ Car returns to Laguna Seca... http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/40172/ and IRL announces a helpful revenue shaing plan... http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/indycar/40171/
Tempered by bad news for CCWS... http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6862780 San Jose Grand Prix was canceled for 2008. And bad news for IRL of course over the weekend that both Hornish and Franchitti are gone.
Which is a negative. At least from a San Jose point of view. One more bush league move by San Jose as a city.
I would think developing the city would be more important than one race weekend a year. Plus, the race has cost the city millions of dollars over the three years. What a shock that Mazda powered cars will be racing at Mazda Raceway...LOL
Beyond the update you already posted I have a guess as to what might happen in 2009. I have a feeling that Chevrolet will take over as engine provider and Tony Stewart will return to the IRL full time. That is from reading between the lines of the JGR press conference announcing Toyota as the make of cars they will run. Also Chevy's announcement that they want to get Tony back driving a Chevy. From Jayski.com:
Yes, Sonoma attendance was horrible. I was not thrilled with the track for open wheeled cars. Had not really noticed the lack of 'green space' there until the IRL ran there. Much better track for stock cars and sports cars. Thankfully attendance bounced back with Belle Isle and Chicagoland. Looked like nearly a packed house at Chicago. Sadly, I did not get to see much of either CCWS race from Europe. Forget to set the DVR for them.
Wow. I don't know about that. That was not one of the rumors I heard. I did hear about one NASCAR driver going to IRL full time, but it certainly was not Stewart.
Just a personal opinion. I also remember on Speed they had their 'Beyond the Wheel' series, it was similar to 'Survival of the Fastest', where they follow a team for the week. They followed Tony's team the week of his first Brickyard win. They showed a shot from a distance of Tony and his dad standing at the yard of bricks well after the race. Tony's dad said something to the effect of 'guess the Indy 500 is next'. Tony replied in a hushed voice "Not right now dad" in a way that made you think he remembered he was miced.
Wow, you are the only person on the planet making that jump. Stewart isn't going back to IRL. He might leave Gibbs and find another NASCAR team with Chevy's but he's not going back to IRL. No point to it. He's already accomplished everything there is to really accomplish in IRL. That and there is no fame or money in it. IRL is a wasteland, like all OW these days.
No, he has not. He wants to win the Indianapolis 500 very very badly. Staying in NASCAR he will not be able to race the 500. He has come close to winning the 500 twice with failure knocking him out when either leading or having a very competitive car. Plus, Tony has stated many times over that when his NASCAR contract expires he would consider retiring to run his race teams and Eldora. That might just be the out he uses to at least run only the Indy 500 if he would retire. (like Michael Andretti had done)
I completely can picture Stewart eventually racing a schedule that allows him to drive Indy and select other events. He actually has more left to accomplish in OW than NASCAR. But I don't see him doing that anytime soon.
Nigell Mansell's sons testing for Champ Car Atlantics... http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/63183
Yep, pretty cool. Here's another link, this one from Champ Car's website. http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=12256
Thankfully Newman/Haas/Lanigan have put an end to the rumors. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/63049
This thread died for a while, good to see it back up. I'm partly to blame, I've been hanging out and reading a lot over on www.champcarfanatics.com
I got banned from that site last month when the SJGP was canceled. I turned on CC pretty hard. They didn't like seeing a fan become a non fan.