u/Fit_Technician832

Per Bob Pockrass (https://x.com/bobpockrass/status/2090096347680575922)

NASCAR will be at Kansas next spring on the weekend of May 8th-9th

That just happens to be an open weekend for Indycar

Perhaps it's too late and/or already been discussed but if I was Indycar/Fox I would have really been trying to get in on that as a double-header if I could. The weekend is open for Indycar and it would help plug part of that big gap after Long Beach.

Of course it would require cooperation on the part of Nascar but I'm guessing the weekend would be absolutely packed (in the stands) if they could pull off a double there.

So the now infamous Markham Hairpin has been a major topic of discussion the last two days and was highly involved in making this race both incredibly entertaining and chaotic today.

The question is do they change it again for next year? Should they change it?

The original render and sim design was much different almost like a sweeping extended horseshoe. Obviously that would have been more unique and looked cooler but would it have raced better? If not then maybe they shouldn't touch this one other than opening up the entry just a bit so cars can turn in better and have two lines through it.

Unfortunately I do not feel the same about the rest of Reddit

One of the things in the news last week is that allegedly Andretti Global has offered Marcus Ericsson a new contract. My guess is it would be a two-year deal with probably an option or buy-out after year one for Andretti.

If you are Marcus you have to be giving ol' Chip a call right about that #9 Car? Everybody keeps talking Lundgaard or Veekay to the #9 but to me would not surprise me at all if it's Marcus. He gives you the best chance of the three to win Indy and we know he gets along well with that team. Is he an every week threat to win? No but he's a very strong threat to win Indy and he won't rock the boat at CGR. Plus I'd imagine a sponsor like PNC would probably like him since he's so well spoken and quite frankly a damn attractive man.

It is my understanding that TWG Global is essentially a massive holdings/conglomerate company and TWG Motorsports is one of the underneath companies under that umbrella.

That said is anybody surprised that for Will Power's sponsorship that we are not seeing more consumer tangible "brands" on the car for the 500 and select races such as this Nashville race. Tomorrow night's race is expected to pop a big rating on Fox and I'm just surprised that one of the many sponsors under the Andretti/TWG umbrella wouldn't want on-board as the primary sponsor/livery for an event like this one?

From a primary sponsor/livery purpose I'm not quite sure how TWG makes sense on the car for every race. At least Gainbridge was a tangible brand. Anybody care to make sense of it?

With the flurry of activity or potential activity in this Indycar Silly Season one thing that I don't think can be emphasized enough is the importance of the Indy 500.

The desire to win the 500 is what is driving some of these moves or potential moves at McLaren. Also Andretti potentially keeping Ericsson and parting ways with Hauger. It's what keeps Ferrucci at Foyt. And it's what will keep Newgarden untouchable at Penske (at least in the short term).

So much talk in various threads about the championship and road/street course races but the bottom line is the sponsors and at least some of the team owners care more about winning the Indy 500 than they do the rest of the schedule.

Some of you will disagree and argue with that mentality but it doesn't matter......it's reality. The owners and the sponsors signing the checks put the Indy 500 on a pedestal above all else. One 500 win is worth 10 Barber/Mid-Ohio/St. Pete wins.

This post is just a reminder of the importance of the Indy 500 to the series and the team owners. Especially for some of our newer fans that maybe don't understand and are trying to rationalize some of this crazy driver movement. When you fully understand just how damn important the Indy 500 is you can at least see the rationale behind some of these moves. That said what McLaren is doing still seems short sighted to me too but Zak has gone all-in on the biggest race of them all.

If you've been following the series for a decade plus one trend you've often seen with Chip Ganassi Racing is that they are always superior with strategy (even to Penske). It's one Dario and especially Dixon oh so many races in the past. It's now winning Palou races these past five years (before he started dominating on pure pace like he has this past year).

About once a season CGR will have fast cars and get too cute and try to have their cake and eat it too type of race. In the case of Palou they even tried to get too cute and not go for emergency service (which would likely have least given him a decent finish). I think last night was their one time a season blunder and Palou/Wanser will be out for blood the rest of the season.

When you are an Andretti fan (like I am), watching your team screw up strategy (and/or pit stops) is a damn near weekly occurrence. It's both rare and refreshing when you see CGR come back to earth for one weekend making mistakes.

For the 3rd time in the last couple years, race control decided in the interest of "fairness" to forego going full-course yellow and leave a stalled car right out on the track (this time on a straight where cars actively draft and pass). Just like with the Marcus Ericsson incident cars were flying by at full-speed. Once again race control is playing with fire and potentially catastrophic results.

For those that know more about legality. If a car did crash into Rossi at 170 MPH (the results would be ugly), could race control and/or the series be held liable in a civil suit? I'd assume no in a criminal suit?

Reason I ask is because if you follow motor racing in general, we all know the general precedent and how other series do it. They go full course yellow. We know how this series used to do it, we used to go full course yellow. We know what race control is supposed to do when there is a car stalled out on the track. Only recently have they decided to get creative and start playing god when they determine whether to throw a yellow or not.

Personally I think they and/or the series would be liable because they are not following the rules and/or their own procedure. They are also breaking past precedent set by both their own series and other series.

Hopefully race control comes to their senses because if we keep having these incidents sooner or later something catastrophic is going to happen as a result of the negligence.