re: 2023 IndyCar Season - R17 Laguna Seca 9/10 2:30 pm ET (NBC)

They ignored Hinchcliffe winning in New Orleans in 2015.

Stingray stinks.

ETA: I am an expert.

Not sure if Power cut off Dixon or if Dixon plowed into him.

Kirkwood showing really good judgment for a young driver. Backed out of a tight situation.

Fun race

Palou is the next Dixon.

Incredible job by Power and Rosenqvist to get on the podium.

Before you look at the current standings, take a look at the Top 10 after five races, just before the Indy 500. I'm highlighting O'Ward and Grosjean...

2023 Season Standings (after 5 races)
(+/- number of positions gained or lost since the previous race)

P01 Alex Palou (Ganassi / Honda) 174 pts (+2)
P02 Pato O'Ward (McLaren / Chevy) 168 pts (+0)
P03 Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi / Honda) 155 pts (-2)
P04 Romain Grosjean (Andretti / Honda) 134 pts (+1)
P05 Scott McLaughlin (Penske / Chevy) 133 pts (-1)
P06 Josef Newgarden (Penske / Chevy) 131 pts (+0)
P07 Scott Dixon (Ganassi / Honda) 127 pts (+1)
P08 Will Power (Penske / Chevy) 122 pts (-1)
P09 Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan / Honda) 111 pts (+3)
P10 Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti / Honda) 108 pts (-1)


Now look where they are two races later. Two emotional drivers who struggle to maintain a championship campaign.


2023 Season Standings (after 7 races)
(+/- number of positions gained or lost since the previous race)

P01 Alex Palou (Ganassi / Honda) 273 pts (+0)
P02 Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi / Honda) 222 pts (+0)
P03 Josef Newgarden (Penske / Chevy) 203 pts (+1)
P04 Scott Dixon (Ganassi / Honda) 194 pts (+1)
P05 Pato O'Ward (McLaren / Chevy) 185 pts (-2)
P06 Alexander Rossi (McLaren / Chevy) 176 pts (+1)
P07 Scott McLaughlin (Penske / Chevy) 175 pts (-1)
P08 Will Power (Penske / Chevy) 172 pts (+1)
P09 Colton Herta (Andretti / Honda) 149 pts (+1)
P10 Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren / Chevy) 148 pts (+3)
P11 Romain Grosjean (Andretti / Honda) 145 pts (-3)
P12 Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti / Honda) 142 pts (+0)
P13 Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan / Honda) 136 pts (-2)
P14 Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger / Chevy) 116 pts (+0)
P15 Rinus VeeKay (Carpenter / Chevy) 108 pts (+1)
P16 Santino Ferrucci (Foyt / Chevy) 105 pts (-1)
P17 Marcus Armstrong [R] (Ganassi / Honda) 101 pts (+2)
P18 Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan / Honda) 99 pts (-1)
P19 David Malukas (Coyne / Honda) 91 pts (-1)
P20 Conor Daly (Carpenter / Chevy) 88 pts (+0)
P21 Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti / Honda) 81 pts (+2)
P22 Hélio Castroneves (Meyer Shank / Honda) 80 pts (-1)
P23 Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan / Honda) 78 pts (-1)
P24 Agustín Canapino [R] (Juncos Hollinger / Chevy) 77 pts (+0)
P25 Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank / Honda) 72 pts (+0)
P26 Benjamin Pedersen [R] (Foyt / Chevy) 61 pts (+0)
P27 Sting Ray Robb [R] (Coyne / Honda) 55 pts (+0)
P28 Takuma Sato (Ganassi / Honda) 37 pts
P29 Ed Carpenter (Carpenter / Chevy) 27 pts
P30 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer & Reinbold / Chevy) 20 pts
P31 Tony Kanaan (McLaren / Chevy) 18 pts
P32 Marco Andretti (Andretti / Honda) 13 pts
P33 RC Enerson (Abel Motorsports / Chevy) 5 pts
P34 Katherine Legge (Rahal Letterman Lanigan / Honda) 5 pts

At the Indy 500 Conor finished P8 and Rinus finished P10, but otherwise the Carpenter team has struggled this year.

Rinus isn't having that much better of a year than Conor, so that adds to the strangeness of firing Conor at this time.

2023 standings after 7 races:
P15 Rinus VeeKay (Carpenter / Chevy) 108 pts
P20 Conor Daly (Carpenter / Chevy) 88 pts

Carpenter says the #20 car will still race the full schedule, with the driver to be announced soon as Road America starts in 9 days.

Career Stats for Conor Daly

Championships 0
Indy 500 wins 0
Total wins 0
Total poles 1
Totals starts 104
Total podiums 1
Total Top 5's 4
Total Top 10's 19
Average start 16.94
Average finish 15.66

I think that only 19 Top 10 finishes out of 104 starts (18.3%) is the most telling stat here. He had enough starts to improve and prove himself, but he has reached his ceiling in IndyCar, and it was not high.

quote:

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I don't know if it's coincidence but Ed Carpenter Racing is here today testing at SIR, however it's car 21, Rinus Veekay. Graham Rahal is also here. That's a Chevy and Honda testing at the same time. My uneducated guess is they are testing chassis upgrades for Dallara.

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Interesting, I had to look it up.

racer.com/2023/05/30/lundqvist-to-test-for-carpenter-indycar-team/
racer.com/2023/05/11/sowery-to-test-rll-indycar/

Two young drivers are getting tests. Some people thought Lundqvist would be named Daly's replacement, but they weren't ready to pull the trigger on him.

quote:

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Two young drivers are getting tests. Some people thought Lundqvist would be named Daly's replacement, but they weren't ready to pull the trigger on him.

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Thanks for that info. That explains what is going on today. Indy Car hardly ever tests here this late in the season.

As for Lundquist, he's a beast. I'm surprised he doesn't already have a full time ride at the top.