Round 2: XPEL 375, Texas Motor Speedway. March 19-20.

[Purist]

I'm really not sure how close to Devlin DeFrancesco I'd want to be in the near future, especially on an oval. When he's in the vicinity for 3 incidents in quick succession at one race, it doesn't exactly look good.

[NaBUru38]

Amazing finish! When I saw the backmarkers getting closer, I knew that Newgarden had a chance to overtake McLaughlin.


DeFrancesco was quite reckless when trying to overtake Rahal and Castroneves.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by Purist

I'm really not sure how close to Devlin DeFrancesco I'd want to be in the near future, especially on an oval. When he's in the vicinity for 3 incidents in quick succession at one race, it doesn't exactly look good.

There was the incident with Sato, what was the third? Rahal was quite diplomatic in his comments, said something to the effect that DeFrancesco was a great talent and would learn that TMS is not a place where 3 wide running is going to work out.


Pretty rough weekend for RLL with heavy damage to two cars. Amazing job by Ferrucci to bring the Hy Vee car home in the top ten after starting last. At one point he was looking like he might finish in the top 6 or 7 but seemed to fall off a bit near the end of the race.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by mstets

Amazing job by Ferrucci to bring the Hy Vee car home in the top ten after starting last. At one point he was looking like he might finish in the top 6 or 7 but seemed to fall off a bit near the end of the race.

I think he had older tires than everybody around him.


Pretty interesting race all around. I thought Scotty was going to be able to hold on for that final corner, but congrats to Newgarden. Last year nobody won for a second time until late in the season and we almost had the first two rounds won by the same driver! Also, remember how long it took Penske to win a race last season? They seem to have regrouped and improved!


edit: was Jimmy Johnson in this race? they hardly mentioned him...... Seriously though he did great!

[justracing]

Not a lover of ovals generally but that was a really interesting race with a superb finish. Amazing that Scotty has adapted so quickly coming from an entirely different discipline.

[TheMightyM]

I wasn’t the only one that noticed the lack of a crowd at Texas Motor Speedway. Marshall Pruett wrote a column about this. A highlight:

Whether it’s doing a rental at TMS or simply combining its skills and resources with the track, something’s got to change before we return. The promotional failure at the ticket office was embarrassing in every imaginable way. IndyCar drivers and teams risk too much over those 248 laps to play in front of an empty house. They deserve better and so do the faithful who circle this event on the calendar every year and pray for a good race.

MP attempts to blame the track for this, including an early start time but he’s overlooking a critical issue — I’m not sure to what degree TMS is calling the shots here. Or at least all the shots.

The choice of dates was, well, highly problematic, as it was the same weekend as the 12 Hours of Sebring. But NBC had a time slot, so the race moved to March 20. It’s thus also quite possible that NBC also set or at least heavily influenced the time of the race as well.

And that’s the bigger issue — what’s good for NBC’s schedule may not be good for event profitability or, long term, IndyCar. Having logical schedules matters. IMSA is good at this. IndyCar seems quite willing to let television drive their schedule, to IndyCar’s detriment.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

I wasn’t the only one that noticed the lack of a crowd at Texas Motor Speedway. Marshall Pruett wrote a column about this. A highlight:



MP attempts to blame the track for this, including an early start time but he’s overlooking a critical issue — I’m not sure to what degree TMS is calling the shots here. Or at least all the shots.

The choice of dates was, well, highly problematic, as it was the same weekend as the 12 Hours of Sebring. But NBC had a time slot, so the race moved to March 20. It’s thus also quite possible that NBC also set or at least heavily influenced the time of the race as well.

And that’s the bigger issue — what’s good for NBC’s schedule may not be good for event profitability or, long term, IndyCar. Having logical schedules matters. IMSA is good at this. IndyCar seems quite willing to let television drive their schedule, to IndyCar’s detriment.

In general I think it's good for the series that NBC has been adding races to their broadcast schedule even if they do dictate date and time of an event. Hopefully there won't be a Sebring conflict next year.


On another front, the stands were pretty sparsely populated at TMS. Attendance at COTA for the F1 race would seem to indicate that there are plenty of open wheel racing fans in the area. Have folks written off Indycar at TMS based on the last couple of events, or do they have no interest in Indycar no matter how good the racing is?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

I wasn’t the only one that noticed the lack of a crowd at Texas Motor Speedway. Marshall Pruett wrote a column about this. A highlight:



MP attempts to blame the track for this, including an early start time but he’s overlooking a critical issue — I’m not sure to what degree TMS is calling the shots here. Or at least all the shots.

The choice of dates was, well, highly problematic, as it was the same weekend as the 12 Hours of Sebring. But NBC had a time slot, so the race moved to March 20. It’s thus also quite possible that NBC also set or at least heavily influenced the time of the race as well.

And that’s the bigger issue — what’s good for NBC’s schedule may not be good for event profitability or, long term, IndyCar. Having logical schedules matters. IMSA is good at this. IndyCar seems quite willing to let television drive their schedule, to IndyCar’s detriment.

The Sebring conflict is a false argument, it has not conflicted in the past and yet no one attends. Highly doubt the option for Texas fans was travel to Sebring or Texas and watching Sebring the day before and going to the race on Sunday as a detriment to attendance is a garbage argument. Texas just isn't interested in any other slot so they're stuck with a spring race that no one cares about to have another superspeedway on the calendar. Can't do fall, COTA and football kill that idea, summer well I can't even begin to tell you why that's a non-starter so you're left with now. And getting on NBC is giant for the series, pretending that being on the OTA network is in any way bad for the series is basic misunderstanding of economics.

I watch most of the Indy season, may not all be live but Texas is a hard pass. Just zero interest in it and the shtshow it has become.

[NaBUru38]

I watched the Brazilian broadcast, and they certainly mentioned Jimmie's attacks during the second half of the race.

[NaBUru38]

There's many causes of the poor attendances at Texas.

In 2021, the Nascar All-Star Race was moved to Texas, and was held in early June (the old IndyCar date). Nascar's Austin race was held in late May. As a result, IndyCar visited Texas in early May.

This year, Nascar's ALl-Star Race at texas was moved to late May. Therefore, both IndyCar's Texas race and Nascar's Austin race were moved to late March (in different weeks), which makes no sense. So yes, scheduling is a major conflict.

Then we can argue about Texas' lack of promotion of the race. But then we can also argue that IndyCar has made no favors to Texas either. Americans don't tolerate annual date changes.

[fieldodreams79]

Finally got through the replay. Heck of a finish and I think they've finally found something that works really well at Texas. Not too cringy and not too processional.

The Jimmie love was annoying, but dude finished 6th. I mean, that's gettin it done for a 46 year old sophomore.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Purist

I'm really not sure how close to Devlin DeFrancesco I'd want to be in the near future, especially on an oval. When he's in the vicinity for 3 incidents in quick succession at one race, it doesn't exactly look good.

I'd agree, for the moment. Texas is crazy. I'd like to see how he does at the next oval. Oh wait, next 'oval' is Indy. Yeah, avoid him for a bit. He has a lot of experience but I don't know him from a hole in the ground and he's 22. Let's see how he can adjust...

[mstets]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Finally got through the replay. Heck of a finish and I think they've finally found something that works really well at Texas. Not too cringy and not too processional.

The Jimmie love was annoying, but dude finished 6th. I mean, that's gettin it done for a 46 year old sophomore.

Where do we find the replay?


I didn't notice any excessive praise of JJ. He gained 12 positions and made several risky outside passes. This in his first start on an oval in an Indycar, He finished in front of defending series champion and teammate Palou. Whatever mention he got during the broadcast was well deserved. For the USA audience he is the most recognizable name in the series. I have no idea if his NASCAR fan base has followed him into Indycar to any great extent, but for those who have his first top ten will surely make them more likely to continue to follow the races.

[S griffin]

I just don't think the event really does it anymore. I do wonder if the NASCAR all-star race is part of the problem, they have enough events as it is. But it can't have helped

It's just not working anymore, it's time for a rethink. It's going nowhere. And if Texas aren't willing to promote it, do they really want it anymore? It's a combination of things really. But hey, there's plenty of great venues still to visit this year to look forward to.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by mstets

Where do we find the replay?

Peacock.

I didn't notice any excessive praise of JJ. He gained 12 positions and made several risky outside passes. This in his first start on an oval in an Indycar, He finished in front of defending series champion and teammate Palou. Whatever mention he got during the broadcast was well deserved. For the USA audience he is the most recognizable name in the series. I have no idea if his NASCAR fan base has followed him into Indycar to any great extent, but for those who have his first top ten will surely make them more likely to continue to follow the races.

The praise started likely before the race (I don't watch IndyCar prerace anymore), but really started a year ago with him crashing out and running in the rear. Give him his first oval start and it continued while he was running in the high teens when I heard he has over 1100 laps led, and multiple wins at Texas, it's his first oval start and blah blah. It continued as he kept going forward, which yes, was noteworthy, as you can tell from my previous comment. Perhaps it's because we got a 15 min 'Jimmie segment' during the 12 hours of Sebring over the weekend, too, but I mean, he is Superman, afterall.

And his NASCAR fanbase hasn't followed him to this series just yet and likely won't.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mstets

Where do we find the replay?


I didn't notice any excessive praise of JJ. He gained 12 positions and made several risky outside passes. This in his first start on an oval in an Indycar, He finished in front of defending series champion and teammate Palou. Whatever mention he got during the broadcast was well deserved. For the USA audience he is the most recognizable name in the series. I have no idea if his NASCAR fan base has followed him into Indycar to any great extent, but for those who have his first top ten will surely make them more likely to continue to follow the races.

IndyCar have 5 minute and 30 minute highlights of the race.


https://www.indycar.com/Videos

[mstets]

Have a look at the clip here, where Kirkwood passes about ten cars in less than one minute:


https://racer.com/2022/03/23/pruetts...n-lap-texas/2/


How did NBC not show this on the broadcast?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mstets

Have a look at the clip here, where Kirkwood passes about ten cars in less than one minute:


https://racer.com/2022/03/23/pruetts...n-lap-texas/2/


How did NBC not show this on the broadcast?

I couldn't find the clip.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

There's many causes of the poor attendances at Texas.

In 2021, the Nascar All-Star Race was moved to Texas, and was held in early June (the old IndyCar date). Nascar's Austin race was held in late May. As a result, IndyCar visited Texas in early May.

This year, Nascar's ALl-Star Race at texas was moved to late May. Therefore, both IndyCar's Texas race and Nascar's Austin race were moved to late March (in different weeks), which makes no sense. So yes, scheduling is a major conflict.

Then we can argue about Texas' lack of promotion of the race. But then we can also argue that IndyCar has made no favors to Texas either. Americans don't tolerate annual date changes.

That's a HUGE generalization I just don't find any way you can justify stating. Can you point to a single OWR at Texas that was well attended as your base? And in the spring in the US dates move often to avoid Easter

[mstets]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I couldn't find the clip.

Try here:


https://twitter.com/KKirkwoodRacing?...n-lap-texas%2F

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mstets

Try here:


https://twitter.com/KKirkwoodRacing?...n-lap-texas%2F

Thanks.

[Purist]

Mstets, sorry for disappearing. The 3rd incident was Kirkwood, who was right above Devlin when he went around and into the wall.

[S griffin]

Just seemed he ran out of road and couldn't get it back, typical oval crash into the outer wall

[mstets]

Originally Posted by Purist

Mstets, sorry for disappearing. The 3rd incident was Kirkwood, who was right above Devlin when he went around and into the wall.

Thanks. If you watch the twitter post of Kirkwood passing 10 cars on the outside in two laps on one of the restarts, it's not a big surprise that he eventually ran out of luck. Given the conditions at TMS it wouldn't have taken much movement by either car to get Kirkwood up into the area that was lacking grip. I haven't seen the incident since race day and don't remember how good the camera angle was in the broadcast. Would be interested in another look if it's available somewhere.

[S griffin]

Basically he was playing with fire and got his fingers burned. He's lucky he got away with it for so long. Certainly you have to treat the circuit with respect in those cars. Might need a look from another angle just to see if there's anymore to see