2012 Indy 500 – What to Watch For

INDIANAPOLIS - Billed as “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 shapes up to be one of the more intriguing races in recent memory. New engines will be tested for the first time over 500 race-tortured miles. Newly designed cars will create new aerodynamic drafting opportunities for drivers to exploit, and for crews to adjust through numerous pit stops. Placed in the pressure cooker atmosphere surrounding the world’s most prestigious race, you have a great many storylines to follow. Below is what to watch for, whether you’re settling into a seat at the track or a sofa in your house.

Will Power won’t win.

Okay, to be safe, let’s say he probably won’t win. If the IndyCars were running on the Brickyard’s old Formula One road course, Power would be a prohibitive favorite, as his early season form has delivered multiple appearances in victory circle. As he makes his road course success seem so routine, it’s easy to forget exactly how hard he works at his craft. He works hard on ovals too, but he’s still learning more so than doing, and that learning hasn’t shown he can manage a race over 250 miles much less 500. Same goes with his Penske teammate and pole sitter Ryan Briscoe. They will continue their learning curve this year, and good results can be expected, just not the top result.

Helio Castroneves might.

Three time winner Castroneves is the one Team Penske driver that has shown he knows what it takes to lead the last lap. The key is to manage the car’s performance as the track changes over the 3-hour plus race. This year, managing to track conditions is a critical consideration, as the weather in Indy has been hot, humid and free from rain. What that means is a track that will only get more greasy and slippery as the race progresses, placing a premium on keeping the car set-up one step ahead of a changing track.

Andretti Autosport - What a difference a year makes.

The Andretti name is synonymous with Indy drama, and three generations of mostly futile efforts, save patriarch Mario’s ’69 victory as a driver and Michael’s 2005 victory as an owner, have only presented the story as some sort of package of cruel tricks. This was a team that suffered through all sorts of problems last May, unable to even qualify the entire team.  This year, drivers Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Ana Beatriz have hovered at the top of the time charts most every session. While Hinchcliffe starts just inside Hunter-Reay on the front row, look for RHR to outshine his teammates on race day. 

Saving fuel begins with the first drop, not the last.

The Indy 500 is the biggest race in the world, and a race worth taking a gamble if the opportunity arises.  Therefore, the last pit sequence almost always features cars trying to stretch fuel mileage and “steal” a victory. When it comes to mileage, no one does it better than Panther Racing, a team who has parlayed the combination of fuel strategy and strong cars into four straight 2^nd place finishes in the 500. Panther’s strategy starts with conserving fuel from the first lap of the last stint, and gives its driver J.R. Hildebrand a chance to claim the victory that so cruelly eluded him last year. Panther’s lessons learned from fuel conservation runs can’t be overestimated, as it still seems to be an elusive concept to even series stalwarts like Target Chip Ganassi.

Ganassi not quite on target, but not to be overlooked.

The Target Chip Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti has struggled early this season, and the month of May at Indianapolis has been no exception. While certainly not favorites for Sunday, they are not to be discounted entirely. Both are previous race winners and both practice race craft at the highest of levels. But, both are handicapped with a Honda engine down on power relative to the Chevrolet. Look for them in the top ten, but not for the win.

Because good guys do finish first.  Sometimes. One time.

No winner would tug the sentimental heartstrings as much as Tony Kanaan, who deserves an Indy 500 victory if only as a lifetime achievement award for being one of the engaging faces of IndyCar during its difficult post-CART transformation. Kanaan has won almost everything else, including a season championship, but has been jinxed at the Brickyard despite regularly leading laps and running strong. He’s had stronger cars and teams at Indy before, only to fall so tantalizingly short. What makes this year different for Kanaan and his KV Racing team? It’s this year, and with a new cars, new engines, and new drivers, it’s got to be someone’s year, so why not his?

Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.

IndyCar St. Pete opener: What to watch for

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Growing up in Indianapolis, Ray spent the better part of each spring at the “brickyard,” losing a lot of his hearing, but gaining a life-long appreciated of all things fast. Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.

3 Reasons IndyCar Might Once Again Become Relevant

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Race with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.

2012 F1 season off to a proper start

The 2012 Formula One season is off to a rousing start, and the lights haven’t even gone off at the start of the first race yet. If the first qualifying session of the season is any indicator of what we can expect for the entire season, F1 fans around the globe are going to have plenty to watch and talk about.


For the first time since the 2009 season, there isn’t a Red Bull in the first two rows. What that means for viewers is perhaps a dawning of a new era in F1, with new teams and a newfound competitiveness up front. Of course, it’s only the first race, and we haven’t even had the race at that, so it would be prudent to keep the enthusiasm a bit in-check – more bridled than unbridled.

The first row was swept by the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button, and deservedly so, if not for the drivability of the car than for the design of what has to be the best looking F1 car on the grid. Going in a different direction than every constructor save Marussa (nee Virgin), McLaren has shirked the platypus step nose of all the other builders to present the cleanest, most elegant car on the grid. That alone should be worth one point per race in the standings, just out of principle.

The biggest surprise, more so than the 5th and 6th placings of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, was the 3rd place showing of Frenchman Roman Grosjean, returning to F1 and putting the Lotus (formerly Renault) in the rarified air of the front of the grid. He’s joined on the second row by Michael Shumacher, who has looked positively rejuvenated in the four on-track sessions thus far this season.

Biggest disappointment of the early season would have to be Ferrari, where Fernando Alonso spun early in Q2 and ended up 12 on the grid. Still, that effort was much better than Felipe Massa’s disappointing 16th, having barely escaped Q1 with a mad dash on soft compound tires. In a make-or-break season for Massa, the start of his campaign has exactly gone to script.

With seven constructors making out the top ten in qualifying, the first race of the season is stacking up to be one of the more competitive – and potentially surprising – early season races in years. Here’s hoping Sunday’s race keeps pace with Saturday’s qualifying.

Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.

Is Danica Patrick good for NASCAR?

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A Viewer's Guide to the Daytona 500

Read the complete Viewer's Guide as published on Yahoo! Sports.

A Race Fan’s Wish for NASCAR

As on-track activities continue for the biggest week in NASCAR racing, culminating with next Sunday’s 54th running of the Daytona 500, NASCAR officials will continue scrutinizing cars and the racing action all week, an almost endless loop of technical analysis designed to deliver side-by-side, competitive racing to track-side fans, and more importantly, couch-surfing television viewers. NASCAR’s appeal has always been in the everyman approach to technology and an entertaining product of competitive, unpredictable racing with driver heroes making the difference between checkered flag glory and pit lane disappointment.

NASCAR’s regulators have a variety of tools to employ to ensure they manufacture what they deem to be the best racing, and they aren’t afraid to changes rules, mid-season or mid-week. Taking the liberty to speak for dedicated and casual race fans alike, below is my wish-list for John Darby, NASCAR’s Director of Competition and the man dressed in Santa’s red suit this week.

What I don’t want to see:

Everyone seems to have had enough of last year’s two-step tango, and early signs indicate new regulations have cured that ill. Cars running in tandem are interesting for a lap or two. After that, what more do I need to see until the next round of pits stops tells me whether any of the pairs got mixed and matched? Oh, and pity the poor driver who might be the odd one out, running solo and doomed to watching the race disappear out the front of the windshield.

But, in a haste to eliminate the two-step, let’s not go the other way and end up with one amorphous gaggle of 43 cars - the pack is back! - droning in a thunderous bunched pack, each race lap rife with anxiety that a wiggle causes a chain reaction that eliminates half the field before the half-way point.

A 43-car bunch is a 4-hour roll of the dice, perhaps best taken in by exactly what NASCAR doesn’t want – viewing apathy. Soon, even die-hard fans take to the behaviors of the casual fan: watch the first 10 laps, take a nap, wash the car, watch a movie, and then watch the last ten laps. Later, a cursory rewind of the DVR will show the carnage of “the big one,” the cataclysmic wreck that changed the complexion of the entire race in one long, screeching, crumpling sequence. That’s exactly what I did during Saturday’s Bud Shootout.

What I do want to see:

Differentiation, with the best cars and drivers being able to pull away from the ones who aren’t the best, or at least not up to the best at that point in time. Instead of one pack of 43 cars or 21 pairs of two, I want to see a select pack of nine or 10 at the front, with a bit of separation of the next best, chasing pack of 10-15, with maybe one or two more running groups trailing.

The differentiation doesn’t have to be much – maybe as little as a half a tenth per lap. But, as the fuel and tire stints progress, us fans are able to see which car and driver combinations are hooked up best. With pit stops throughout the race, we can observe how some cars are improving, catching the pace of the leaders and keeping up with the changing track conditions. As well, we can see who begins to struggle with the pace, missing critical car adjustments and thereby dropping further off the pace.

Cars will move deliberately up the field as they improve, or fall, and often precipitously, down the running order when mistakes are made. Every car and driver would start with a chance, and the best team, car, and driver combinations will rise to the select few over 200 laps, bringing a worthy, thrilling conclusion to a day of back-and-forth, up-and-down, side-by-side racing.

That’s the result race fans want, a compelling, green flag to checkered flag race. NASCAR, it’s up to you to figure out how to do that – start with aerodynamic grip on the nose and mechanical grip on the rear. Get to it boys, for we’re ready. More than that, we’re hopeful.