Roger Penske buys Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar Series

ESPN | 11/4/2019 | AP

[Cuttnhorse]

Great competition in Indy Car racing...best racing going...but I do like the Rolex and WeatherTech sports car series.

Love it...and NASCAR too!

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I am thrilled to see the best drivers get rides. If Americans want to race in American races, let them be the best race car drivers. America was based on merit. Sports is a great meritocracy. Nobody gives a damn if you are black or female or foreign. Can you do the job? Are you the best at what you do? Then you are allowed to compete. We want the world’s best here and if an American cannot beat them, then so be it. I would be sick to my stomach to see Indycar ban foreign drivers outright. Absolutely sick to my stomach. America is great because America is good and we believe in fairness, hard work, honesty, achievement and merit. If American race car drivers are not good enough to supplant foreign drivers, than too bad. We are just not working hard enough.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Amen!

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

LOL. F1 would add chicanes to the straights.

[Big Red Badger]

A.J. Foyt
Has that market
Cornered!

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

F1 is supremely boring.

To me, racing=passing. No passing, no racing. No, I’m not talking smashing your opponent aside as in NASCAR. But somebody besides the pole sitter has to win a race now and then.

In F1, it is rare as hens teeth for someone below 3rd in qualifying to win a race. Most all passing is done in the pits or due to crash/mechanical damage. To me, F1 isn’t racing. It is rallying. Whoever qualifies, wins. That is not racing.

The cars are such technological terrors, race car drivers are just technology managers anymore. The tracks are too narrow for the capabilities of the cars, and new tracks are cookie-cutter designs emphasizing safety above all else. Yes, safety is good. I don’t want to go back to the slaughterhouse of the 1950s, but today’s F1 is a ridiculous, boring ordeal where qualifying and pitting fastest are all that matter.

If you are not passing, you are not racing.

[PfromHoGro]

Or JUMPING!

Stadium Super Trucks bahbeeee.....:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSyPZfAs_Zc

Are you not entertained?!?

[daltec]

Haha! Thanks, you’re right!

[EVO X]

Perhaps Indy 500 Oval, with extra distance routed out onto nearby streets.

I can tell you have never been to Speedway,In. The nearby streets are where everybody parks and is basically a residential area with a couple of main roadways that are complete traffic jams on race day. F1 racing at the track ended about a dozen years ago because of a tire fiasco. The last race at the track only had 6 of the regular 20 car field racing. Most of the F1 portion of the track was flat, but they did use the high bank turn 1 to as the entrance to the main straightaway. I suspect the high G forces at turn 1 chewed up tires under certain conditions and made it unsafe. Once that happened F1 was toast at Indianapolis.

[daltec]

And I think (though I may be wrong) that Indy and COTA are the only US tracks currently at F1 Grade One spec.

There are plenty of great US tracks -- look at all the fantastic Indycar racing going on -- that in my opinion would be really adversely affected by redoing them to Grade One spec. Imagine Laguna Seca or Road America with all those miles of concrete runoff.

[xp38]

To me the IMS is the most jaw dropping arena in the world. I am hopeful it will be in good hands now.

[Big Red Badger]

Same Here,
Buddy!

[Cuttnhorse]

Agree completely...and pitting in F1 seems more dependent on strategy than time...since they do not fuel, most stops are less than 2.7 seconds with about 20-guys involved.

I still like Ricky Bobbi NASCAR...LOTS of passing and good competition.

[gogeo]

I’d be surprised if anyone had a problem with this.

[Chode]

good on him!!!

[ROCKLOBSTER]

FIA is trying hard to get a race in Miami, but Miami does not seem to want it.

Screw em....they should go to Daytona....where they host the 24 Hours at Daytona featuring Le Mans/GT cars.

[daltec]

Daytona would be a good one. The infield road course is considered by many to be superior to Indy's, plus Daytona uses a lot more of the oval than Indy does.

Daytona is already a massive venue, so I do not think paddock, garage and other facilities would be too big of an issue. Can hold plenty of people.

But those giant banked corners... another poster already mentioned the 2005 US GP at Indy. The tires are much better today, plus they can of course change them during a pit stop, but still -- I think FIA rules prohibit banked corners past a certain level, and Daytona is like 30 degrees or something. Too bad. Tearing around those giant banks at 200+ mph must be quite an experience.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Given that two of the three drivers on his IndyCar team (both of whom have a series championship and 500 win apiece) are foreign-born, I doubt it. And honestly, RP chose foreigners so often that I was somewhat surprised when he signed Josef Newgarden for 2017.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

As an SCCA corner marshal, I spend a LOT of time at Laguna Seca. And as much as I’d like to see those damned gravel traps go away, I don’t want them replaced with pavement.