What are your thoughts of Indy possibly having that Theramal challenge bc they want to appeal to a richer audience so they can possibly get more money/sponsors for the series? I want to know the business side of why they decided to drop Texas for this. It was mentioned that damage in that first heat incident exceeded the prize pool, so how else are teams incentivized to be more competitive if Indy decides to do this again?
So I actually donāt think it was IndyCarās desire to not go to Texas this season. From my understanding, IndyCar wanted to run it in late March/early April BUT NASCAR will be there in April and Texas told IndyCar no. Like I would be shocked if IndyCar leaves Texas off next season. But IndyCar knew that one of fansā biggest complaints was the gap between the first and second race so they wanted to put *something* in between which like I get but Iām begging somebody in IndyCar learn how to frame things better because they did an awful job. They shouldāve framed it as a testing weekend imo
I have heard that behind the scenes, team owners are MAD so like I think IndyCar is gonna have to pony up a bigger purse if they want teams to go back to thermal for an āall star raceā.
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I feel like me and 2 of my tumblr mutuals were the only people on Earth who enjoyed Thermal. Was it perfect? No. Could it be way better? Heck yeah. But I majorly support Indycar trying something new, and I enjoy the vibe of Thermal so I donāt have much to complain about.
Plus, our alternative was no racing so of course Iām gonna pick racing over not racing.
āxoxo firestoneslicks
So I think thereās more at play here than just āpeople didnāt like Thermal but racing is racing so they should enjoy itā
IndyCar promised the fans something and did not deliver it AT ALL ā I think if IndyCar had advertised Thermal to be a testing opportunity instead of an All Star event, it would have been so much better received. Fans were told āyes, itās expensive BUT weāre going to make sure itās fun and cool for viewers at home tooā and they justā¦ didnāt. The broadcast largely felt like an advertisement for Thermal ā thatās not fun for viewers at home, I donāt think?
Now listen, I was ready to give IndyCar credit for trying something new and a defense because first events are hard and almost never go well. But Nathan Brown of IndyStar ran his article that had Conor Daly (who is working with IndyCar in an official capacity, letās be very clear about that) say this:
And like ā this pissed off A LOT of people. But you have to understand that this kind of rhetoric is exactly what IndyCar does when fans push back. Usually itās from Mark Miles (and I expect weāll get our hands slapped by him through the media at some point too). The anger/strong emotions are not so much aimed at Conor personally, just IndyCar in general because goddamn it, fans should be allowed to not like something and they should be allowed to hold the series accountable and want them to be better. And they should be allowed to do it without being told things like āyou arenāt real fans.ā
Like good for IndyCar for trying something new ā I am happy that they did that but god damn, they need to learn how to cope with criticism before they drive away the fans who have stuck with them.
So yeah thatās my unsolicited-ish take on why people were so mad about Thermal ā had less to do with the actual event and more about IndyCarās long history of overpromising and underdelivering and inability to take criticism!
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dying to know yāallās opinions about indycarās thermal all star weekend so please give them to me
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In indycar is it worse to put under a yellow? Because obviously in f1 thatās the best time to pit but indy seems different
It depends ā if theyāre in the middle of a pit cycle, a yellow flag can really ruin a day. I think itās not as big of a magical deal in indycar because indycar will almost always call a full course yellow (unless a car goes off and gets going immediately, they call a local) whereas in f1, they will do just about anything to avoid deploying the safety car so i think thatās the difference?
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Yeah indycar isnāt too pr heavy so unlike f1 you can actually see the drivers personalities
YEAH itās a completely different culture
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Yeah anon the drivers/team you want to support really depends what other motorsport teams/drivers you support. Only obvious option is that if youāre a McLaren fan arrow McLaren is right there lol
Yeah ā I feel like IndyCarās drivers have a wide array of personalities so really, it comes down to personal taste! I think IndyCar is fairly unique in that way
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New fan here: this will be my first IndyCar race. Which drivers and/or teams would you recommend rooting?
Well Iām always going to pitch Kyle Kirkwood, sweetheart extraordinaire because heās MY favorite but honestly you canāt go wrong with most of the grid besides Santino Ferrucci tbh.
Do you watch other motorsports? If you tell me what other racing drivers you like, I can better point you in an IndyCar driver/team direction
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Can you explain whether indycar is or isnāt a spec series? Iāve seen some people say it is but thereās also top teams so Iām confused
So IndyCar is largely a spec series ā meaning every chassis (think like the base of every IndyCar) is exactly the same. There are also other parts on the cars that are mandated to be same beyond the chassis. BUT there are also parts that the IndyCar teams are allowed to make themselves (within certain perimeters ofc). One such example are the air dampers which apparently can make a big difference. The teams also have control over the aerodynamic set ups which can also make big differences. If youād like to read more, this article explains things pretty well.
Generally when people talk about top teams in IndyCar, itās moreso measured by like the size of the overall team + how much money/sponsors they have. If that makes sense?
But great question! Thanks for asking! š«¶š¼š«¶š¼š«¶š¼
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I donāt follow Indy car, but I know you do. I thought that this could be of some interest to you. ā¬ļø
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/s/lNh0CHNre2
OH YES i did see Otmar was in the paddock, it appears? that he is there with Honda. I wouldnāt be shocked to see him involved ā i do think he lives in the US (he grew up in Michigan) so involvement in IndyCar would make sense, I think?
ALSO thank you for thinking of me š„¹
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hi!! lil indycar question: when are the hybrid cars supposed to debut? got kinda lost w that
yeah so um thatās a great question and the answer is: itās a surprise!
it was supposed to debut this weekend but it was delayed and last i knew, indycar was toying with the idea of mid season debut however a lot of smaller teams havenāt had any chance to test with it so they would be significantly disadvantaged if they chose to debut it mid season (unless of course, the smaller teams are provided with ample testing time between now and then which seemsā¦ unlikely).
so yeah, we donāt know. i think indycar wants it to debut at some point in 2024 because that was the original timeline and they donāt want the bad PR from being late (again) so i guess weāll see? itās all incredibly murky right now
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less than an hour until the indycar season starts. do we have any questions? if not, give me your prediction for the race š
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any questions during indycar quali? lemme know! no question is too obvious!!
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this is your yearly reminder that indycarās st. petersburg race is in florida, not russia š«¶š¼š«¶š¼
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has Dale coyne still not picked their drivers yet?
I think they have Nolan Siegel tapped for four races but beyond that, I don't think so!
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Not Indy related, but recently starting binge watching The Rookie and yes its copagada but honestly obsessed with Chenford [Lucy Chen & Tim Bradford]
OOOH okay I haven't watched The Rookie (yet) omg
(Copaganda is Bad and all that but I can't help it, it's one of my favorite genre of TV, idk it's nice to pretend that LE is actually sometimes competent and not giant pains in my ass (professionally) lmao. I'm adding it to my watch list though)
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not a question about indycar, but how are you today?
š«¶š¼š«¶š¼š«¶š¼š«¶š¼š«¶š¼ iām doing alright, im about to go bury myself in all of my 1913 indy 500 research and hopefully have something coherent written by the end of the day ššš
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