Alright, so now that we're up and running, I'd like to start by apologizing for the way the blog looks. It's still early on, but I promise it'll get better as time goes on.
So, to jump headfirst into things, it's the end of September, which means a couple things for motorsports fans in North America.. mainly, that their series' seasons are either at or quickly coming to their conclusions.
The IZOD IndyCar Series: In the IZOD IndyCar Series, the 2011 season is drawing to a close, and once again, it's going to be a close one. For the sixth-straight season the points chase has all the ingredients of a dramatic on-track battle that will go down to the final event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV. It's been a very back-and-forth season between drivers Will Power and Dario Franchitti, with plenty of drama along the way. In between driver disagreements, flagrant inconsistency in race control, upsets, the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500, and plenty of on-track action to fill the void, the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season has been one for the books. Heading into next week's penultimate event of the season at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway, Will Power capitalized on a bad weekend for title rival Dario Franchitti to complete an incredible rally and pull out to a slim 11-point lead after falling as far back as 65 points behind earlier in the season. Many people both in the paddock and the grandstands alike feel that based on recent history, Franchitti may have the edge heading into the final two events of the season (both of which are hosted on 1.5-mile ovals), but this blogger is not convinced that Power is about to let the title slip away in the same fashion he did last season. He's come a long way in the past two years and has learned the ways of the ovals. All Power really has to do is finish ahead of Dario on these ovals, and if he can't, he's got to keep him in sight. There's still 600 miles of racing to go in this one, and it's not going to be settled until the final lap in Las Vegas.
While the spotlight right now may be on Power and Franchitti's legendary rivalry, there are many other headlines going into the long off-season that are very mcuh worth paying attention to. Chief among these is the highly-anticipated arrival of the new IndyCar Series chassis in 2012 as well as a return to multiple engine manufacturers for the first time since the end of the 2005 season. 2011 Indy 500 Champion Dan Wheldon and his Indy-winning Bryan Herta Autosport organization have been in charge of the testing program responsible for proving the 2012 car with Honda power under the cowling before turning it over to Chevy and Lotus to develop. Thus far the group has tested on the road courses at Mid-Ohio, Barber Motorsports Park, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and just last week tested on the 0.875-mile bullring at Iowa Speedway. The most anticipated test is set to come next week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the turbocharged v6-powered car will take to the 2.5 mile oval in anger for the first time. After that test, the car will then be taken back to Dallara for final modifications and turned over to Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus for final development of their powerplants for the 2012 season. Teams can expect to take delivery of their first chassis as early as late November or early December, with plenty of track testing guaranteed before the cars take to the streets in St. Petersburg to open the 2012 season.
Team Penske owns another one of our notable headlines heading into the conclusion of yet another epic season of IndyCar competition. After fielding 3 cars on a full time basis for two-seasons, the organization looks set to trim back to two cars in 2012 unless the funding can be found, and with current championship leader Will Power already locked into a multi-year deal with Penske for at least 2012, it appears that after having a dismal 2010 and 2011 season to date, 6-time race winner and 2009 Championship contender Ryan Briscoe may be the odd man out. 3-time Indianapolis 500 winner (all with Team Penske) and 19-time race winner Helio Castroneves looks to be a shoe-in to continue with the team in his drive for 4 Indianapolis 500 trophies and that ever-elusive first championship.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: While I do anticipate keeping this blog heavily focused on the IZOD IndyCar Series, I feel that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series deserves some mention, especially since it will be closing its championship long after the final bottle of champagne is uncorked in Las Vegas.
The highly-publicized Chase for the Sprint Cup commenced earlier this week at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL. It's been a very hot topic this season due in large part to the apparent vulnerability 5-time and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson has shown this season. While drivers Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick have been burning up the track claiming the lion's share of victories in the pre-season, Johnson has emerged victorious only once: at the Crapshoot Tango 500 at 2.66 mile restrictor plate Talladega SuperSpeedway. Of course, my speculation can only be based on the pre-season, which Johnson has become famous for underplaying heading into the 10-race Chase. This week's event in Joliet didn't do Johnson any favors, as the race turned into a fuel-mileage gamble at the end and played into Tony Stewart's hand perfectly. Johnson was left in 10th place after his fuel cell ran dry at the end, relegating him from 6th to 8th place in the overall standings. Heading into this weekend's event at New Hampshire, Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas organization is red-hot after putting both of its cars in the Chase, taking top honors at Chicagoland, and having taken their second straight pole start with Ryan Newman at the Magic Mile. In July, Newman and Stewart finished 1-2 in yet another fuel-mileage crapshoot at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but led a pretty large amount of the race up until the gamble paid off.
Another red-hot individual in the Chase is second-year Penske Racing driver Brad Keselowski. After starting the 2011 season with a relatively early shock fuel-mileage victory at the Kansas Speedway, his first driving for Roger Penske, Keselowski has been a fixture in the top-25 in points. However, with 6 races to go before the chase began, and mired in 21st place in the points with an outside shot at scoring one of the two available wild-card seeds, Keselowski was in a highly-publicized crash while testing at Road Atlanta for the upcoming race at Watkins Glen that left him with a grossly bruised and fractured ankle and foot. Although he was playing injured, Keselowski showed his true grit by driving through the pain and beginning his meteoric rise to a chase seed with a surprise Victory at the Pocono Raceway. He followed that result up with a 2nd-place finish at the demanding Watkins Glen road course, a 3rd-place result at his home event at Michigan International Speedway, and a victory in the highly-coveted Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After carrying the reputation of an also-ran rookie the past season and a half, Keselowski looks to be finally coming into his own and tops people's list of picks to dethrone Jimmie Johnson for the Sprint Cup Series title. With 9 races left in the chase though, the championship is still wide open, and there's 11 other drivers (Johnson included) that look to get a slice of the pie.
Formula 1: The 2011 Formula 1 season has had some stellar racing with the introduction of the Drag-Reduction System (DRS) and return of Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to F1 competition. As exciting as some of the racing deeper in the pack has been, the season has been monopolized in EXTREME dominant fashion by Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull Racing team. Heading into this weekend's event in Singapore, with 5 races left before the conclusion of the season, Vettel stands unchallenged for the #1 plate in 2012. He even holds the possibility of locking it up this weekend if he can win and his closest title rival Fernando Alonso finishes off of the podium. There are no words to describe this season of Formula 1 competition other than total domination by Vettel and his Red Bull team.
I think this makes for a very solid first post. I hope you enjoyed reading, and if not, I'm very welcome to constructive criticism!
- K
No comments:
Post a Comment