Round 16: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, 24-26 September. - Page 2

**bjohnsonsmith** · 26 Sep 2021, 20:22 (Ref:4075739)

3rd FCY as Ericsson goes into the tyre wall.

**bjohnsonsmith** · 26 Sep 2021, 21:36 (Ref:4075753)

Congrats to Alex Palou on winning the driver's championship and to Ganass on their 14th. Congrats also Colton Herta on the race win.

**joeb** · 26 Sep 2021, 21:42 (Ref:4075755)

I didn't get to start the race right away, it was about an hour behind and it was just finishing it up. This is exactly why I was worried about the series ending on the streets. One of the contenders got taken out. Of course this looked to be Palou''s championship no matter what. I can't wait to see what next year brings!

Alex earned this and it was a great season from start to finish!

What was the final number of different race winners?

broadrun96 · 27 Sep 2021, 00:04 (Ref:4075776)

Veekay, Dixon, Power and Helio with 1
O'Ward, Erickson, Newgarden with 2
Palou, Herta with 3

I counted 9 on Indycar site

Pole

Grosjean, Dixon, Power, Palou with 1
Herta, O'Ward with 3
Newgarden with 4

7 pole winners

mstets · 27 Sep 2021, 01:27 (Ref:4075785)

Herta dominated the race and Palou had a pretty safe cruise to 4th for the championship win. Tough day for a lot of drivers. Rahal passed more cars than anyone else (16 I think) and ended up in 16th place. RHR had the pace to run up front but had an early drive through penalty that put him a lap behind. Helio must be pretty frustrated to finish 20th after starting 3rd.

2 litre Touring Car Star · 27 Sep 2021, 04:38 (Ref:4075812)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

Palou just needs to keep it on track to take the championship. I'm going to be nervous watching this tomorrow. The indycar field has shown a lot of willingness for contact on street courses this year.

Turned out to be to Palou's benefit, with Jones tagging O'Ward.

broadrun96 · 27 Sep 2021, 13:46 (Ref:4075905)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mstets

Herta dominated the race and Palou had a pretty safe cruise to 4th for the championship win. Tough day for a lot of drivers. Rahal passed more cars than anyone else (16 I think) and ended up in 16th place. RHR had the pace to run up front but had an early drive through penalty that put him a lap behind. Helio must be pretty frustrated to finish 20th after starting 3rd.

Rahal and Helio were in effect screwed by a VERY VERY hopeful strategy call, staying out twice with everyone else pitting under yellow was brave or crazy. They both pitted within 5 laps of the yellow for fuel and fell to the rear of the pack. MSR has been trying to play weird fuel strategy games the last couple IMSA and Indy races but they seemed to keep Harvey on the same strategy as the rest of the field and he was rewarded for it.

Appreciated McLaren fixing and getting Pato back out but he couldn't get back up through the field to gain any points. But he did hold on to 3rd by 6 points, if Dixon could have challenged Newgarden he may have lost 3rd too. Not sure how a tied 3rd countback would go

**bjohnsonsmith** · 27 Sep 2021, 15:30 (Ref:4075930)

Race result:

It was good to see racing back at Long Beach and as a covid substitute season finale,I thought it worked, but I think Long Beach works better in its usual place on the calendar.

Overall I thought it was a good season and great to see these young drivers coming though and showing the old guard what they can do. IndyCar has a worthy new champion in Alex Palou.

I'm looking forward to next season and hopefully a covid free season, without and races being cancelled or re-scheduled. In the meantime roll on the Silly Season, there is plenty going on there.

mstets · 27 Sep 2021, 18:39 (Ref:4075971)

Quote:

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Rahal and Helio were in effect screwed by a VERY VERY hopeful strategy call, staying out twice with everyone else pitting under yellow was brave or crazy. They both pitted within 5 laps of the yellow for fuel and fell to the rear of the pack. MSR has been trying to play weird fuel strategy games the last couple IMSA and Indy races but they seemed to keep Harvey on the same strategy as the rest of the field and he was rewarded for it.

Appreciated McLaren fixing and getting Pato back out but he couldn't get back up through the field to gain any points. But he did hold on to 3rd by 6 points, if Dixon could have challenged Newgarden he may have lost 3rd too. Not sure how a tied 3rd countback would go

Rahal didn't lose many positions on the early stop, I think he was 19th when the yellow came out and 2 or 3 cars were already lapped. He got red tires and passed a lot of cars. I think they left him out as long as they could so that he would have the freshest tires at the end. Pretty sure most everyone was on reds at that point and they must have not fallen off as much as expected. Definitely the wrong strategy as Harvey went from 25th at the start to 7th, and Bourdais went from 22nd to 8th. Much harder to justify leaving Helio out as he was much nearer to the front.

Guessing that if there had been several cars retire shortly after Pato came back on track, they could have gained a point or three but that didn't happen. Glad that he held on to 3rd in the championship after a disappointing series of races on the coast.

NaBUru38 · 27 Sep 2021, 23:19 (Ref:4076008)

I'm happy for Palou, he is the deserving champion. Also he sometimes replies to me on Twitch, which helps

Meanwhile, Ed Jones again ruins a Latin America driver's chances to win the championship...

broadrun96 · 28 Sep 2021, 00:09 (Ref:4076017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

IMeanwhile, Ed Jones again ruins a Latin America driver's chances to win the championship...

Well supposedly he's been fired so there's that. Ok, his contract ended yesterday but not renewed/fired, take your pick

Teretonga · 28 Sep 2021, 00:56 (Ref:4076023)

Indy car Radio said Sebastian B to IMSA in full time drive.
But he's looking for part-time Indy?

rwintle · 28 Sep 2021, 01:52 (Ref:4076025)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teretonga

Indy car Radio said Sebastian B to IMSA in full time drive.
But he's looking for part-time Indy?

TV commentators also said Pagenaud to IMSA, which one day later turned out to be completely wrong. Bourdais had been rumoured to be full time IMSA a year or two ago too, hadn't he?

mstets · 28 Sep 2021, 03:34 (Ref:4076032)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I'm happy for Palou, he is the deserving champion. Also he sometimes replies to me on Twitch, which helps

Meanwhile, Ed Jones again ruins a Latin America driver's chances to win the championship...

I doubt that Jones is actively engaged in taking out Latin American drivers. He has definitely made some mistakes.

**bjohnsonsmith** · 28 Sep 2021, 10:38 (Ref:4076069)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teretonga

Indy car Radio said Sebastian B to IMSA in full time drive.
But he's looking for part-time Indy?

I heard IndyCar Radio mention more than once, this was Bourdais' last drive for Foyt but I didn't hear where he was going next.

broadrun96 · 28 Sep 2021, 12:05 (Ref:4076078)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teretonga

Indy car Radio said Sebastian B to IMSA in full time drive.
But he's looking for part-time Indy?

It's been mentioned a few times that he has been looking for any ride, and IMSA would be likely more easy to get a full time ride with a few factory seats opening. But also a few closing and more than a few drivers out there without a ride. Porsche and Audi needing drivers could help pull from current DPi field and he has some experience in them

**joeb** · 28 Sep 2021, 16:39 (Ref:4076140)

Quote:

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Veekay, Dixon, Power and Helio with 1
O'Ward, Erickson, Newgarden with 2
Palou, Herta with 3

I counted 9 on Indycar site

Pole

Grosjean, Dixon, Power, Palou with 1
Herta, O'Ward with 3
Newgarden with 4

7 pole winners

9 Winners in 16 races is pretty impressive. And how bad was Herta's luck in the rest of the races that he could win 3 times and not be in the title hunt?!

broadrun96 · 28 Sep 2021, 18:56 (Ref:4076171)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

9 Winners in 16 races is pretty impressive. And how bad was Herta's luck in the rest of the races that he could win 3 times and not be in the title hunt?!

Herta's luck or inability to reign in the desire to set ever faster times? Nashville was his, kept pushing and on his own broke the car. Think he had a couple other races where he took himself out of the race through contact rather than a mechanical fault.

I had forgotten Newgarden was up front so much, seemed like every race the only thing he heard was how bad the Penske cars were and not in the Fast 6 but there he is

fieldodreams79 · 4 Oct 2021, 03:37 (Ref:4076887)

I'm surprised that I was able to make it all the way to today without seeing results. Finished this one this evening and congrats to Herta and Palou! It was a decent race after a slow start. Good fun! Long off season.

RWill2073 · 5 Oct 2021, 14:54 (Ref:4077051)

Herta seems to have an ability beyond any other driver in the field to be on a completely different level than everyone else. Nashville he was almost a second faster than everyone. He was pretty dominant at Laguna Seca and long Beach. Not just, he won convincingly like others do at times, but that he's in a totally different race at times. It is shocking at times.

Honda was so much better than Chevy all year. Top 10 most races were 7 or so Hondas.

NaBUru38 · 6 Oct 2021, 13:24 (Ref:4077191)

Penske didn't have its best year. Neither did Rosenqvist at McLaren. Carpenter and Foyt are just uncompetitive.

mstets · 6 Oct 2021, 16:51 (Ref:4077223)

I wouldn't say Carpenter was noncompetitive, though they did struggle during the 2nd half of the season. VeeKay won at the first Indy road course event, then he and Ed qualified 3rd and 4th for the 500 and finished 8th and 5th. Daly and VeeKay led 40 and 32 laps in the 500, with Palou the only other driver to lead more than 20, with 35. VeeKay had a win and 5 additional top tens in the first 8 races before his cycling accident, but scored no top tens after returning. It will be interesting to see how things go for him next season.

**chunterer** · 7 Oct 2021, 05:42 (Ref:4077282)

Good points about Rinus.
He was well in the mix with the other young stars early in the season but struggled when he returned. Was he still carrying legacy of the accident?

**bjohnsonsmith** · 7 Oct 2021, 15:36 (Ref:4077365)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

Good points about Rinus.
He was well in the mix with the other young stars early in the season but struggled when he returned. Was he still carrying legacy of the accident?

I would be surprised if he wasn't and I was also surprised with how quickly he returned to racing, after breaking his collar bone. Detroit 1 was on June 13th and he was back on the 4th of July for Mid-Ohio. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks to heal in adults, and 3 to 6 weeks in children.

Looking at his results prior to the accident, he got a 1st at IMS and 2nd at Detroit 1, with his worst results 18th at Detroit 2 and 20th at TMS. He missed Road America and post accident his results were pretty lacklustre, with his best result 16th at Mid-Ohio.

mstets · 8 Oct 2021, 03:40 (Ref:4077423)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I would be surprised if he wasn't and I was also surprised with how quickly he returned to racing, after breaking his collar bone. Detroit 1 was on June 13th and he was back on the 4th of July for Mid-Ohio. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks to heal in adults, and 3 to 6 weeks in children.

Looking at his results prior to the accident, he got a 1st at IMS and 2nd at Detroit 1, with his worst results 18th at Detroit 2 and 20th at TMS. He missed Road America and post accident his results were pretty lacklustre, with his best result 16th at Mid-Ohio.

I broke a clavicle in a similar cycling accident. I went over the bars when I hit a raccoon. It took me a couple of months to recover but I'm sure Rinus got much better treatment. So I was impressed to see him get through the weekend at Mid-Ohio with so little time lapsed after his accident. He qualified 11th but only managed a 16th place finish. I think he said later that he wasn't in top shape at that race, but I don't recall hearing that the injury hampered his pace after that. I hope that the team can find some road course pace in the off season and Rinus can be competitive.

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