INDYCAR IS BACK

Hey y'all. 

Welcome back!

I don't know about you, but I'm still working off excitement from IndyCar's season opener on Sunday.

That was one heck of a race wasn't it?

Well, thats what I want to write about today, my thoughts on the race at St. Pete and my outlook on how the season is going to play out. 

Lets get to it!

Lets start with the race.

It gave us quite a show didn't it?

It even started with qualifying for goodness sake. 

And I don't know about you, but I wasn't expecting Wicken's to pull of a pole.

Little did we know that he was going to show us all what he's worth on race day as well. 

So let’s start with the start of the race.

Like it was kinda a crap shoot if I'm being honest.

What like three cars spinning out on the first lap?

And vetrans none the less. 

It was crazy. 

Just the amount of cautions in general were kind of ridiculous.

And the lengths of the cautions, my goodness, they literally all went on FOREVER. 

Anyways, it was really great to see the new cars out on track and see what they were capable of doing. 

I was not disappointed thats for sure.

They didn't lie when they said that the new cars would allow for more passing.

SO. MUCH. PASSING. 

I loved it. 

it allowed for guys like Dixon and Rahal who caught bad breaks to work their way all the way up the field, and Dixon repeatedly so. 

That is not something we usually see on street courses. 

I mean I put a lot of faith in the cars being able to pass.

In our IndyCar Fantasy league I always make my picks before qualifying and then adjust them as needed afterwards.

My original picks included Rahal.

And after he qualified last I considered taking him out, but looking at my other options, drivers who qualified better, I stuck with my gut and kept Rahal. I thought if anyone is going to be able to work his way through the field Rahal can.

And he did.

All the way to P2.

And I'm sitting pretty content with my 3rd place in our league. 

Anyways, lets jump to the end of the race.

I mean common.

With 20 laps to go Rossi was right behind Wickens and I was thinking "alright, 20 laps is a lot, he could catch him."

And then he went wide and the gap grew.

Then I was thinking alright, a caution could make things real interesting right now.

And then the caution came. 

I was all hyped up, thinking alright, this is going to be good. Anything could happen here. 

(It was a long caution btw and we were annoyed)

So here comes the restart and we're watching and Rossi gets a run and were like yelling like oh man he's going for it!

And then he gets loose!

And holy crap he brushes Wickens.

AND AHHH WICKENS IS OUT WHAT. 

We were seriously screaming at the TV. No joke. 

We were all like what just happened.

it was crazy.

Everyone was pissed because they all had Wickens in their fantasy picks.

I on the other hand was like yeah, I feel bad for Wickens, he deserved to win that race, buttt my picks were 2-3 so I wasn't that mad. 

 But man I do really feel for Wickens though, that seriously sucks.

But he gained a lot of fans on Sunday so thats good.

And I bet y'all are wondering what my take is on the move Rossi made being good/bad or whatever.

Watching it live I was sure it was a big fault on Rossi.

But after watching the replay I agree, it was just a racing incident.

As Paul Tracy said, Wickens let the door open and Rossi went for it.

Any driver would have went for it, we all know that. 

If a driver see's an opening we know that they are going to take it.

Especially on a restart with few laps to go with a pass that could score the win.

You can't blame Rossi for making that move, but it just had an unfortunate ending as they sometimes do. 

And we have to look at this race objectively, it’s the first race of the season. 

Yes all the drivers are starting out the season with the idea that they want to win the championship, but that’s not necessarily a big component of the first race of the season. 

So Rossi went for it. Realistically he didn’t really have anything to lose. 

However, if this occurred at the end of the season it may not have happened. If Rossi was contending for the championship he may have just took P2 and not have taken the chance of crashing. And it’s not like Rossi took out the leader of the championship. If this was the case we’d have a whole different story on our hands. 

But it’s not the case. So it is what it is. 

The inconsistency of penalties however I can get onboard with. It’s always something that’s annoyed me in IndyCar. 

Maybe race control didn’t want to piss off Andretti any more this weekend so that’s why Rossi didn’t get a penalty. Just saying. 

Anyways, the whole ordeal may have created a human drama story, which Derek Daly says we need in the series so thats at least good right?

Ha. 

Okay, anyways. My general thought on the day?

First, just let me mention my continued disappointment with ABC.

They had no pre race and no post race. 

How did they not factor cautions into their broadcast time?

We were all DYING to see Rossi and Wicken's post race interviews. 

Such a disappointment.

So I'm going to stop my ranting of ABC right there otherwise we could be here for hours. 

Anyways...

I thought it was a great race.

It was a great win for Bordais considering the year he had last year.

I was highly impressed by the rookies over the weekend, I can't wait to see what the rest of the season is going to look like for them. 

Jordan King and Robert WIckens especially. 

But like I told everyone who picked Wickens in the fantasy league and were upset with the events.

There's a reason why I didn't include any rookies in my picks, they are still too unreliable in my opinion. 

We don't know just yet how they are going to perform and how reliable they will be. 

But if Wickens can prove to me over the next couple of races that he's a solid pick for my fantasy league then I may be able to start considering adding him to my line up. 

And just for the record, I was correct in picking Matheist Leist as the first out of the race. 

The kids got talent, but he needs to learn how to reign it in before he'll be able to really be successful in the series.

And what about Team Penske?

Where were they this weekend?

That I don't really have an answer to.

I think like every other team they are still figuring out the new car. 

I'm sure they will starting showing up here at the next couple races, I'm not worried. 

St. Pete has never been Josef Newgarden's track so I am confident that the reigning champ is going to show up strong in the next few races. 

Barber for sure we should see him dominant. 

Since we're talking about the reigning champ, who do I think is going to win the championship this year?

I think all three Penske drivers will be in contention.

I also see Rossi and Rahal being big contenders this season. 

But I guess we will see!

It's a long season!

And its a long time until the next race at Phoenix.. sigh. 

But man, it feels great to be writing about IndyCar again.

xxkaitlyn

#IndyCar #Racing #Race #StPete #Indy #verizonindycarseries