Zlinedavid

16 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

I'm a little late to the party on him but he can drive. I'm a Stewart guy in all circuits but Rossi reminds me a little of Harvick. Can drive and has an edge to him. Different series I know but just similar. 

Driving style, fair comparison. And equal (if not legendary) success as a rookie, absolutely. Harvick is way more likely to shoot his mouth off in the media than Rossi (or 99% of the known world...lol). He's actually pretty low key. He took some criticism for not seeming excited enough in victory circle after the 500 () , but he really is just one of those cool, calculating personality types.

Rossi reminds me of Mears (and I don't make that comparison lightly). Cool headed, analytic, won't get bold until the end, but won't hesitate if the moment calls for it.

I started following him after 2016, just out of curiosity, and realized....wow, this kid can drive.

18 hours ago, Zlinedavid said:

My picks, in order of expected odds:

Newgarden

Rossi

Power

Dixon

And my dark horse: Helio

Why not Pagenaud? Historically, never a good oval performer.

 

Shows what the hell I know. Hell of a finish though. I will say this, if you want a lesson in persistence, John Menard has been fielding/sponsoring cars at Indy since the late 70s. This is the first time a Menards sponsored car has won the 500.

Stat of the day: Rossi has an average finish of 3.5 in the 500 (1,7,4,2)

14 minutes ago, NotIThatLives said:

We are going to check but I think it's blocking us because of internet location.  Inside 465.  

Phone with wifi off?

My picks, in order of expected odds:

Newgarden

Rossi

Power

Dixon

And my dark horse: Helio

Why not Pagenaud? Historically, never a good oval performer.

1 hour ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

Yes, and that was a deliberate dirty foul that almost cost Kawhi his career.

i’ll be rooting for Kawhi, assuming they make it past the Bucks

Btw, lol @ "Pikachu" 

I'm torn.  Do I call him ZaZa Pikachu now, or keep calling him Zaza Pachouli?

7 hours ago, FKIM01 said:

Unless mama slipped it into my sippy cup, that would be a negative!

As opposed to Rico, who came out of the womb with a beer in one hand and a fishing pole in the other.

1 hour ago, FKIM01 said:

I drove to Indy TWICE for that debacle.  Saw a total of 10 laps.  Dad took a buddy with my tickets Tuesday and they weren't even checking tickets at the gate.  He said you could sit almost anywhere.

Yep, nearly the same story here. 

I joke that it was God's way of saying "Please don't run those bastardized abominations you're calling cars."

This is another area where the development of a young LeBron and Giannis are similar: they've both got good size, and were/are ridiculous athletes, but they haven't figured out how to consistently leverage that size into an advantage. G is 6'11", Kawhi is 6'7". Seems like putting him down low and forcing Toronto into either the size mismatch or putting someone else on him would be obvious. At this stage though, I wouldn't bet against Kawhi being savvy enough to keep him in check.

16 minutes ago, Inequality said:

Good to know there are race fans other than myself on HSN! I’m at a racetrack weekly in spring, summer & fall months. National races at warm locations during winter months.

Used to be anyway. Aside from the 500, IndyCar lost my interest after the split, and NASCAR lost my interest after instituting the *retch* Chase/Playoffs/whatever the hell they're calling it.    Although my interest in IndyCar has picked up over the last few years. 

7 minutes ago, NotIThatLives said:

Hoping they are wrong.  App saying 90% chance but they just said on local 50% scattered storms.  

Let's hope it's more '95 Brickyard vs' 97 500.

Avoiding a repeat of the '97 500 is advisable all around, but particularly the weather.

5 hours ago, Stlboiler23 said:

You’re good no worries. My buddy is good about finding (potentially illegal) streams that we sync up to the tv haha. 

You're taking me back to the days when the race was blacked out across most of Indiana. Had to find someone who had access to a satellite decoder of *ahem* questionable legality.

8 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

Tough one for sure. I know they said they won't pursue this option but boy it would be tough to turn that down given the expense of running the series. 

But, credit to de Ferran for not pursuing it. God knows McLaren has the cash. But, he's still a driver at heart.  He wouldn't want to take a spot like that, and he knows Alonso wouldn't either. 

7 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

Question for the race fans. If McLaren approached your severely underfunded team with $ponsorship for rest of year would you sell your seat to get Fernando Alonso in the 500?

For the rest of one season? I'd hedge towards no, but it'd be close to 50/50. 

For the rest of this season and next season? Yep.

56 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

We've discussed a bit but I'll just say this. The Speedway doesn't play favorites. Just like when Penske and all of his drivers missed the field. They chose to skip the race the following year.  $ doesn't always win. True David vs Goliath type day at 16th and Georgetown. 

Penske missed the field in 1995. 1996 was the year of the split. No CART teams ran the 500. Not making the field the previous year didn't have anything to do with it.

1 hour ago, Parakeet Jones said:

Here is why I hate the new format. Alonso was faster than Pippa Mann, so the fastest 33 are not starting the race. 

Agree

This BS about "series regulars need to make sure they keep their sponsors happy, so they get guaranteed spots" is....well....BS. Rahal didn't lose Miller after 93, Penske didn't lose Marlboro after 95.

That said, Andretti Autosport must be looking over at McLaren saying "Not so easy, is it boys?" They had Alonso at the front 2 years ago, and this year he misses the field.

6 hours ago, BGleas said:

Not really following your list? Durant to me is an outlier on that list. Steve Nash gave everything he had to Phoenix, same with Malone to Utah. Barkley got traded to Phoenix after Philly failed to put a quality team around him. 

I was thinking about Barkley going to Houston, but that was also a trade, and a pretty fair one at that: Barkley and a 2nd for Cassell, Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown.

Nash to the Lakers fit the model a little more, but that was also equally on the Lakers. They offered 2 1sts and 2 2nds for a 36 year old point guard with a reputation for playing hard. Why would they turn that down?

Malone to the Lakers, guilty as charged, but he was at the end of his career, which is a little more understandable.

A player at the end of his career, I don't have a problem with them chasing a ring if they don't have one. Different sport, but one of my favorite moments in hockey was watching Ray Bourque hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time after 22 seasons (and that was after they beat my Blues in the conference finals no less). He was Boston's captain for over a decade, played for them for 20 years. During that 20th season, he respectfully asked to be traded to a contender, since the Bruins weren't going to be in the playoffs. They didn't win it that year, but the following season, Colorado won the Cup. It's hockey tradition for the team captain to be the first to hoist the cup after its presented. That year, Colorado's captain didn't hoist it, but picked it up, and handed it to Bourque, saying "This one's yours."

50 minutes ago, NotIThatLives said:

Unverified but hearing coke.

And Columbian chalk dust is probably towards the top of the NBAs list. Having a repeat of Len Bias would not be good.

Just now, Seeking6 said:

That was after NBC did away with it in the 80's often showing races on tape delay right?

Correct.  ABC/ESPN picked up the bulk of the schedule around 1986/87-ish.

One clarification: I do recall a handful of ESPN tape delay broadcasts, but there may have been maybe 4 in 5 years.  Always in their entirety, same day, and it wasn't buried as late-night filler.  Maybe 7-8PM broadcasts. 

2 hours ago, rico said:

I am no motor sports fan by any means but I follow the 500 on race day.  That being said I am thinking that in the mid to late 80's that NASCAR was really picking up steam.  ESPN had it on every Sunday(IIRC?).  I truly believe that Americans only want "oval track" racing.  Road courses are a novelty.  And this is for the sake of conversation as well.

I don't have full stats to back this up, but from what I've read, NASCAR and CART ratings were pretty much neck and neck through 1992-1993.  Both were still relatively niche, but one wasn't head and shoulders above the other.  The CART/IRL split helped the growth of NASCAR, by diminishing/almost eliminating the only other high level racing series in the US.  NASCAR's growth was steady to that point, but took off exponentially around 1995-1996. 

5 hours ago, Seeking6 said:

For sake of conversation. You mentioned CART shooting itself in their own foot by attempting to conquer Europe. Can that possibly be why Tony did this to begin with? He saw Europe and it's drivers as a no win situation up against F1/Bernie and decided they needed to focus on building drivers up here in the States? Just a thought.

Wasn't a factor then. The only non-North America CART event prior to the split was the season opener in Surfers Paradise, Australia, which was partially subsidized by the Aussies.  Rio didn't come until 1997-ish, and that was it until 2001 when the real attempt came.

Penske saw the forest through the trees and made the jump back before the 2002 season.  Ganassi did the same a year later, which was the turning point.  They both knew that those types of schedules weren't financially sustainable. 

1 hour ago, rico said:

I am no motor sports fan by any means but I follow the 500 on race day.  That being said I am thinking that in the mid to late 80's that NASCAR was really picking up steam.  ESPN had it on every Sunday(IIRC?).  I truly believe that Americans only want "oval track" racing.  Road courses are a novelty.  And this is for the sake of conversation as well.

CART was broadcast live nationally on either ABC or ESPN until 1995 or so. 

45 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

I've never understood why Tony got the heat over his decision. Essentially (unless you know different) he started IRL so that he would find a path for American drivers to earn their way in instead of having foreign drivers buy their way in. Now it may not be the fastest 33 (and as a race fan I get that part) but it was a way to preserve the $ aspect and help grow a sport that was dying a slow death. 

In some ways what Tony did was set the platform for what Nascar used as their model and the growth it saw. Of course I defend all things Indy 500 and IMS so I'm biased.

A) The sport wasn't dying in 1995. CART had several great seasons after the split, while the IRL was borderline painful to watch. The biggest blow was the tobacco advertising ban, which cut off a huge supply of money. But, that was going to happen regardless.

B) Want to know who planted the seed of the IRL in Tony's mind? Bernie Ecclestone (or for F1 fans, Satan incarnate). Now what motivation would the then owner of the premier European racing series have to influence George to focus on US drivers? The fact that Fittipaldi was thriving, Newman/Haas had just poached Mansell and Penske almost luring Senna to CART had him scared to death. CART was almost F1s equal at that point.

C) The 22/7 rule. If Prince Tony wants to set his own standard for the 500, fine. But don't try to subsidize the series by limiting the 500 field to 7 non-IRL drivers.

D) The IRL didn't start to take off until CART shot itself in the foot with their mismanagement and their attempt to conquer Europe, and Penske and Ganassi switched back in the early 00s.

48 minutes ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

I'm starting to think the Blazers will take down GS.

I thought the Rockets had a chance -- until Durant was injured, which brought GS back to its roots and left the Rockets going fishing. 

Portland is not scared, at all, of GS. Lillard has been dying for this series. I think GS would've backhanded Denver. This Portland team is a much bigger test, imo. 

Aminu-Lillard-McCollum....Green/Curry/Thompson.....hard to bet against the 2x defending champs, but damn.  This will be a 3PT slugfest.

Public Enemy #1 for Indiana sports traditions isn't Myles Brand. It's Tony George. He did everything short of shotgunning a 2 quart bottle of mineral oil, climbing up to the flagstand, dropping his pants, and spraying a river of liquid $#%& as the winner crossed the line. And that would at least have provided a moment of entertainment, which is more than I can say for the 1997 or 1998 500s themselves.

I said that last year, after 22 years, finally felt like 1996. These cars look like the descendents of the 1990s. They sound like the descendants of the 1990s. There's a slew of young, talented drivers. Newgarden/Rossi is a rivalry that could rival Little Al/Michael. There's also the sub-headline of Alonso attempting to become the 2nd Triple Crown winner this year.

My pick is Newgarden. I'm pulling for Rossi. But I wouldn't discount Alonso for a second.