2018 IndyCar Season Predictions

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to my blog!

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited for IndyCar to return to the track on Saturday night for the race in Phoenix.

So, I figured since its a race weekend coming up and I couldn't figure out what to write about for this week I figured I'd write about IndyCar in some shape or form.

In my blog after the race at St. Petersburg I wrote briefly about my predictions for the 2018 season, but I thought I'd expand on them a bit and put some good thought into them.

Firstly, we're going into the first oval race of the season on Saturday at ISM.

It's a night race, which I'm pumped about. I love a good race under the lights.

However, I've never been a big fan of the Phoenix race in general.

As we all know, it tends to be a bit of a snooze fest.

There haven't been many opportunities for passing in the past.

So, what everyone is wondering is are the new cars going to provide an entertaining race to watch on Saturday?

The committee seams to be out still on this one, as am I.

Really, we won't know until Saturday night.

I'm hopeful the racing will improve, but I'm leaning on the side of caution.

As for the second lane that they are trying to create, I'm skeptical.

And a bit worried.

As I think the drivers are as well.

Because of this, even if their is a second lane created I don't think we will see a lot of drivers using it.

I dont think they will be willing to risk it, especially if they are not confident in it.

But who knows, its still early in the season. Drivers are not necessarily thinking about the championship right now so maybe some of them will go for it.

I could make a prediction right now and say that a rookie will try the lane and crash.

And if I have to choose a rookie who's going to do that its going to be Matheus Leist.

This isn't the first time I've voiced this about Leist. And I don't have anything against Lesit, trust me.

Even though I think Conor Daly should still be driving the #4 I don't hold that against Leist.

Thats all on AJ.

But I do really want to see Foyt's team do well, honestly.

And I think Lesit has a lot of talent, but I don't think he was quite ready for a seat in IndyCar yet.

I think he could have benefited from another year in Indy Lights.

But, thats not going to happen so he's going to have to learn and hone his skills in the big leagues.

I just hope that he can manage to keep himself out of the wall for a race weekend.

The kid really has potential and I hope that TK will be a great resource for him, but its still going to take him awhile to get off of my go to "first out" list.

Okay, lets talk about something else.

Indy.

May is getting closer and closer and I am so pumped.

Like everyone else, I am so excited to see the new cars race around the speedway.

The other day I was talking with some friends and we were making predictions that a lot of cars are likely going to crash in May.

So we made some predictions as to who we thought we're likely victims.

I said I would place money on Lesit and Sato for sure.

I already explained why I would choose Leist. As for Sato, I still think he gets too eager sometimes and still hasn't learned to not put it in the wall. He still needs to learn the balance. He may be on the way there, but who knows. I'm still not 100% confident in his driving.

I also think Charlie Kimball could be a possible victim. We all know that he's an aggressive driver and I for one do not trust his driving out on the track. He tends to push too far and face the consequences.

One of my friends brought up Danica Patrick as their prediction to crash.

I think its a solid guess, but I just hope its not during the race or during qualifying.

Or not at all because everyone knows I have a soft spot for ECR in my heart and I don't want to see them have a bunch of crashes.

I mean as much as I love Spencer Pigot on road courses I don't have confidence in him on ovals yet.

And Ed, poor Ed, has had terrible luck at Indy in the past few years.

But in all honestly, Indy is always a crapshoot predictions wise.

Anything can happen.

So anyone can crash, especially with these new cars.

I would even go so far to say that I think that we might see at least a brush with he wall from each of the teams in the month of May.

Since we're talking about Indy, I figure I might as well give my opinion on the whole "bump or not to bump" dilemma.

I've heard the pros and cons of each side and I'm kinda torn.

One the one side, with the state that the series is in I don't think we should be turning away cars.

But on the other hand, I do love the tradition of the 33 cars, "the eleven rows of three," and Indy is a big deal so you should have to earn your spot to race.

So where I think I land is with the idea that the entrants have to meet a minimum speed, what ever that may be.

It still gives everyone a chance to race, but It doesn't just give anyone who wants a spot in the race a free pass.

Because lets be real, if Buddy Lazier decides to race again I'd happily see him bumped out, alright?

Nothing against Buddy, but I agree that you shouldn't just get to do four laps around at a speed that is way off the pace and get to race.

It's time to retire Buddy.

Okay, the last topic I want to touch on is my more general predictions for the season.

I'll keep it positive and just give positive predictions from here on out.

I know its early, but who's going to be the rookie of the year?

After St. Pete I think we can all guess that it will probably be Robert Wickens.

But I think that Zach Veach could give him a good run for his money.

And I know we've only seen him race once, but I think if Jordan King wasn't part time he'd be a contender.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

I'm hoping that with this new car that this will mean that Marco Andretti will start going up and have good year. I don't know if he's a champion contender for this year, but if he can prove that he's still good driver this year with this new car, I'd say next year for sure he'd be in contention for the championship.

And as for the championship this year I think that it's going to be open to a lot of drivers.

Sebastian Bordais, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon are all going to be in it again for sure.

And after last year I really think this could be Alexander Rossi's year. I think he's really going to go at it like never before.

But, I have a really really strong feeling that this is going to be Graham Rahal's year.

I don't know what it is, I'm not even really a Rahal fan, but I think Graham is going to have an outstanding season.

Who knows, maybe I just jinxed him, but he managed to go from last to second at St.Pete and I had confidence in him then so who know what he will do with a whole season ahead of him.

Man, y'all should be really proud of me. Did you notice how objective this blog was? Well, actually I wasn't even really objective because its all my opinions. BUT, I said decent things about Sato, which I NEVER do and I just predicted that Graham Rahal might win the championship.

I've come really far you guys.

It's a new season, so everyone gets a clean slate. Grudges are cleared. So all the drivers have a clear path to wining my heart.

xxkaitlyn

#Indy #indycar #indycarseries #indy500 #racing #racers #drivers