Getting back up to speed
It's been a while since my last blog and a lot has happened in the world of Indycar. The biggest change has been the fact that the races have actually become, well races and not demolition derby.
I will keep my thoughts on NOLA short and sweet. The series was stupid not to start the race earlier, and it was ended far to short. They had at least 90 minutes of decent weather before the big storms arrived. There should be no worries about starting early even if it doesn't fall into the TV broadcast window. Just have it on tape delay. So what if it bothers all 350,000 people that were watching? As far as the track, it is obviously not up to standards to holding a major race of any kind. The people in charge of NOLA seem to be all for making improvements to the infrastructure. That and a date change to February would make it possible for this race to be somewhat of a success. The race itself was horrible unless you enjoy watching the pace car lead the field. I am a fan of Johnny Rutherford, but I prefer not to see him leading races a few decades after his retirement. The only bright spot of the race was seeing Sam Schmidt and James Hinchcliffe in victory circle.
Long Beach was about all one could ask for from a street circuit. It was a lot of green flag racing and the quickest cars stayed up front. Yes it was follow the leader with some passing in the field, but street courses are always difficult to pass. I would rather have what happened at Long Beach than what we had the first half of the St. Pete race. On a personal note, I am not a big fan of street races and I wish Indycar only went to St. Pete, Long Beach, and Detroit. I say Detroit, because I am sure it makes GM happy. It was great to see Dixon finally win at Long Beach. It was the only thing missing from his hall of fame resume.
Now if the racing improved at Long Beach, then it was out of this world in Alabama. I have always been a fan of this track and it was definitely action packed this year. The track is great for TV and for the 50,000 fans that show up on race day. It was just icing on the cake seeing the top two finishers being young Americans. It was great to see another American finish fifth. Alabama proved that their is hope for American drivers in Indycar, and looking at the Mazda Road to Indy we see another good American driver in Spencer Pigot working his way up the ladder. I fully expect good things from Josef and Graham the rest of the season. What is most impressive with Graham is the fact that he is competing in a Honda, which is still behind the Chevy boys. I said in an earlier post that I fully expect Honda, especially Marco and RHR to be very strong at the 500 this year.
The last couple of weeks have been fantastic. I went from thinking, "boy this is going to be one loooong season." To, "boy this season is far to short!!" I hope everyone has an enjoyable month of May. I know where Brickyard Addiction will be spending a lot of time and money in the next 30 days!!
Take care everyone, and talk to you soon.
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