Dario wins at St. Pete

Dario Franchitti won the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. Will Power, who started on the pole was second, and new KV Racing addition Tony Kanaan finished third. HVM Racing Simona de Silvestro impressed the impressive crowd with a fourth place finish.

Double file restarts came into play right away as five cautions took place within the 11 laps of the race, but once the field settled down, Dario dominated the race.

Marco Andretti, similar to 2010, flipped in the first turn and his car came to halt upside down. With his grandfather barley out of the two seater ride, and looking on, Marco walked away from his car and back to the pits, as Mario chased him down pit road.

The wreck in turn one of the first lap, took out contenders Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske, and Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

Double file restarts will be the topic among INDYCAR fans throughout the next two weeks, as Bobby Rahal said to Chip Ganassi as they exited pit plane, “they might need to rethink those restarts”

In the post-race press conference , Tony Kanaan on double file restarts “ I am with Will Power, I don’t really like it”

Dario Franchitti moved into 10th place all-time with the victory as he tied Johnny Rutherford
Full restarts below:

1 Dario Franchitti(leads on lap 100) 10 Honda
2 Will Power 12 Honda
3 Tony Kanaan 82 Honda
4 Simona De Silvestro 78 Honda
5 Takuma Sato 5 Honda
6 Alex Tagliani 77 Honda
7 Raphael Matos 17 Honda
8 Vitor Meira 14 Honda
9 Oriol Servia 02 Honda
10 Justin Wilson 22 Honda
11 Danica Patrick 7 Honda
12 J.R. Hildebrand 4 Honda
13 Sebastian Saavedra 34 Honda
14 Ana Beatriz 24 Honda
15 James Jakes 18 Honda
16 Scott Dixon 9 Honda
17 Graham Rahal 38 Honda
18 Ryan Briscoe 6 Honda
19 E.J. Viso 59 Honda
20 Helio Castroneves 3 Honda

Off to the Streets of St. Pete

INDYCAR kicks off its 2011 season this weekend down on the streets of St. Petersburg Florida. IndyCar Garage will have live coverage all day on Sunday for all of the track action. Check our updates on Twitter, facebook, and http://www.indycargarage.com/.

Among the many storylines to watch for heading into this weekend’s action:

The Road to INDY ladder system will feature USF2000, Star Mazda, and Firestone Indy Lights, those series along with the IZOD IndyCar Series will race at St. Pete.

New drivers with different teams, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimbal, Graham Rahal, Mike Conway, and Sebastien Bourdais will drive for different race teams this year and feature new livery’s.

Will Power’s effort to repeat at St.Pete, he won in 2010, and also dominated the road/street course portion of 2010 in route to the Mario Andretti Road/Street Course Championship

Per Robin Miller, Dan Wheldon will announce his plans for the 2011 season, IndyCar Garage thinks it will be a one off for the Indy 500 and Honda’s test driver for the new INDYCAR in 2012

The race will be televised live on ABC at 12:30 EST, INDYCAR needs a good rating out of the gate to energize the sport and give new sponsors return on investment.

It should be a great weekend of warm weather and great racing!

2011 INDYCAR Season Preview

The 2011 INDYCAR Season kicks off this weekend down at the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. INDYCAR will have 17 races during the 2011 season and will be in the last year of the current car package for the IZOD IndyCar Series. Old equipment, new drivers, new tracks, and new rules highlight the 2011 season, IndyCar Garage looks ahead for the 2011 season gives predications for the awards at the end.

1. The 2011 season will feature the 9th consecutive season of IndyCar equipment being used. 2012 will bring INDYCAR new chassis, engine manufactures and aero kits. The field should be filled throughout the season as most teams will look to use up all equipment before it turns into show car material for next season.

2. Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimbal, J.R. Hildebrand, Oriol Servia, and Ana Beatriz are among a handful of drivers that will have full-season rides for 2011, that weren’t competing fulltime in 2010. Kimbal with Ganassi and Hildebrand with Panther will be the leaders for Rookie of the year.

3. INDYCAR dropped all tracks associated with International Speedway Corporation (France family) for 2011 and moved toward a bigger relationship with Speedway Motorsports Incorporated (Bruton Smith). Chicago, Kansas, Homestead and Watkins Glen all were dropped from the schedule and replaced by New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Milwaukee, Las Vegas and the new Baltimore Grand Prix. All four new tracks should be better promoted and attended than the ISC tracks from 2010.

4. Double file restarts, new pit lane selections, stricter qualification limits, and restarts toward the flag stand all will be new in 2011 for INDYCAR. Double file restarts were originally scheduled for ovals only, but were later added to all races (Holy Cow Barber and Mid-Ohio). Pit lane selections will be based off qualifications from the previous track and will fall in line with the Oval/Road Course format. Also new is the 105% rule, all cars have to be within 105% of pole speed in order to compete in the race, goodbye Milka Duno. Lastly, in more of a NASCAR type start, the green flag will be waved as cars are within a couple hundred yards of the flag stand and not coming off the last turn. This should add more excitement to restarts, especially being two wide, and give drivers more opportunities to pass. The lucky dog was considered for 2011, but was voted down by the fans at 5 to 1 opposition.

Predications for the 2011 INDYCAR Season

2011 IZOD IndyCar World Champion: Helio Castroneves
2011 Indy 500 Winner: Ryan Briscoe
2011 A.J. Foyt Oval Champion: Scott Dixon
2011 Mario Andretti Road/Street Course Champion: Will Power
2011 Rookie of the Year: J.R. Hildebrand
2011 Most Popular Driver: Simona De Silvestro
2011 Las Vegas World Championship extra participants: Alex Zanardi, James Stewart, Robby Gordon, A.J. Allmendinger, Nelson Piquet Jr.

John Andretti podcast up - a great listen

John Andretti Podcast up – a great listen

IndyCar Garage had the privilege of talking to Andretti Autosport driver John Andretti last night on IndyCar Garage Weekly. Among the topics that we covered:

John’s decision to come back into INDYCAR Racing in 2007 and his work with Andretti Autosport.

John’s plan for testing prior to the 2011 Indy 500

The state of INDYCAR and what his thoughts on Randy Bernard

Thoughts on the Vegas Challenge and the media surrounding it

Breaking the track record in May

Where his post racing life might take him

John was an outstanding individual to talk with and he is truly a class act, for anyone that wants a refreshing take on INDYCAR racing and just common sense, I would strongly recommend listening to the podcast from the show. The link is below:

http://www.Blogtalkradio.com/IndyCarGarage-Weekly--

Barber Open Test entry list

24 cars will take to the track next week at Barber Motorsports Park, among the notable absences, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, and Paul Tracy. All three drivers have been rumored in a variety of rides, and Kanaan appears to have the best chance of landing a full season ride with K.V. Racing. Wheldon and Tracy most likely are headed for part-time rides.

Car Driver Hometown Car Name Entrant
3 Helio Castroneves Sao Paulo, Brazil Team Penske Team Penske
4 JR Hildebrand (R) Sausalito, Calif National Guard Panther Racing Panther Racing
5 Takuma Sato Tokyo, Japan Lotus-KV Racing Technology KV Racing Technology - Lotus
6 Ryan Briscoe Sydney, Australia Team Penske Team Penske
7 Danica Patrick Roscoe, Ill. Team GoDaddy Andretti Autosport
8 E.J. Viso Caracas, Venezuela PDVSA – Lotus - KV Racing Technology KV Racing Technology - Lotus
9 Scott Dixon Auckland, New Zealand Target Chip Ganassi Racing Target Chip Ganassi Racing
10 Dario Franchitti Edinburgh, Scotland Target Chip Ganassi Racing Target Chip Ganassi Racing 12 Will Power Toowoomba, Australia Verizon Team Penske Team Penske
14 Vitor Meira Brasilia, Brazil ABC Supply Co A.J. Foyt Racing A.J. Foyt Enterprises
18 Sebastien Bourdais Le Mans, France Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing
19 TBA Boy Scouts of America Dale Coyne Racing
22 Justin Wilson Sheffield, England Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
24 Ana Beatriz (R) Sao Paulo, Brazil Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
26 Marco Andretti Nazareth, Pa. Team Venom Andretti Autosport
27 Mike Conway Bromley, England Andretti Autosport Andretti Autosport
28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Boca Raton, Fla Andretti Autosport Andretti Autosport
34 TBA Conquest Racing Conquest Racing
38 Graham Rahal New Albany, Ohio Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing
77 Alex Tagliani Lachenaie, Canada Sam Schmidt Motorsports Sam Schmidt Motorsports
78 Simona De Silvestro Thun, Switzerland Nuclear Clean Air Energy HVM Racing HVM Racing
83 Charlie Kimball (R) Camarillo, Calif. Levemir and NovoLog FlexPen Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing
02 Oriol Servia Pals, Spain Newman/Haas Racing Newman/Haas Racing
06 James Hinchcliffe (R) Toronto Newman/Haas Racing Newman/Haas Racing

Twenty-four cars entered. All cars use Dallara chassis, Honda engines and Firestone tires.
Issued: 3/10/2011

John Andretti in for the 2011 Indy 500 with Andretti Autosport

Andretti Autosport will announce their 5th entry for the 2011 Indy 500 on Monday March 14th at Barber Motorsport Park, as part of INDYCAR’s preseason testing.

Among those who will be in attendance for the announcement:
John Andretti, 11-time Indianapolis 500 starter

Michael Andretti, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Andretti Autosport

Richard Petty, motorsports legend and hall-of-famer

Tammy Whitworth, chief executive officer, Window World, Inc.; co-founder, Window World Cares

Blair Ingle, president, Window World, Inc.

Window World will be back with primary sponsorship and John will look to improve on last year’s 30th place finish, his career best finish at the Indy 500 is 5th in 1991, while driving a Lola for Hall/VDS .

Podcast up with INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard

Podcast up from IndyCar Garage Weekly w/guest Randy Bernard
The podcast from last night’s IndyCar Garage Weekly is now up on www.IndyCarGarage.com

and on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/IndyCarGarage-Weekly--

Randy talked about several IndyCar topics last night, including:
His daily schedule

The potentional in INDYCAR

The reaction he received from double file restarts and the lucky dog format

Tony Kanaan’s twitter

What track’s INDYCAR might have their eye on in the future

Bryan Clauson and the Road to Indy Program

His dream promotion for the 2011 season

Thanks for Randy taking the time to join our show.

Randy Bernard on IndyCar Garage Weekly this Wednesday at 6EST

Randy Bernard on IndyCar Garage Weekly this Wednesday at 6EST

INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard will be a guest on IndyCar Garage Weekly this Wednesday at 6EST. IndyCar Garage Weekly is streamed live on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/IndyCarGarage-Weekly--

Tyler Carmichael, the moderator of IndyCarGarage.com and host of IndyCar Garage Weekly will interview Randy for twenty minutes and wants your questions for Randy. Members of www.IndyCarGarage.com can submit questions for the interview by one of three ways:

1. Email IndyCarGarage@Gmail.com

2. Tweet IndyCarGarage on twitter @IndyCarGarage

3. Reply to the forum thread on the home page of http://www.indycargarage.com/

Tune in live on March 9th at 6EST with INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard on IndyCar Garage Weekly streamed live on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indycargarage-weekly--

10 ideas to help INDYCAR heading into 2011 - Part 2

10 ideas to help INDYCAR heading into 2011 – Part 2



Part 2 on: Oval racing, 2011 Indy 500, Bang for your buck, Brand development for your drivers, and VEGAS BABY

6. Don’t lose your oval base

Motegi is off the 2012 schedule, therefore reducing the number of ovals to 7, assuming that Vegas and Milwaukee are back in 2012. INDYCAR is slipping and if you asked others, already slipped, into the type of schedule that dominated CART in the early 1990’s. Bernard has said it’s important to maintain a balance of oval and road/street courses, but he might have his work cut out for him on the oval part. Lets count the ovals real quick that have maintained good crowds on ovals since the merger. Indy, Iowa and Texas would be the three headliners, Kentucky, Milwaukee, and Motegi have been decent. Chicago’s last race was bad, as was Kansas’s attendance in 2010. INDYCAR needs tracks that want them and want to promote them, in the case of most ovals in the country , they are owned by NASCAR based ISC, not a good combination. Look for maybe Nashville, California, or Phoenix to come back into the mix in 2012.
7. Blow the lid off the 2011 Indy 500


May 29th 2011, will mark the 100th anniversary of the first Indianapolis 500 and mark the biggest race of the INDYCAR season. The Indy 500 has struggled since the split and T.V. ratings have been largely overshadowed by the Daytona 500, but INDYCAR has a chance this year to truly showcase its premier event. While I am not a huge fan of the slogan “The Most Important Race Ever” , Several events are planned for this year's 500. Among the highlights, a parade lap of all former living winners and the world’s largest autograph session. Check out www.thegreatest33.com on how too vote for the greatest 33 drivers ever to race in the Indy 500. At the state of INDYCAR address, IMS marketing staff promised one of the largest stunts ever attempted, we don’t really know what that means yet, but I am sure we will find out soon. Randy Bernard has casually mentioned breaking the track record this year in a made for T.V. special, still no official word though. All in all, this year promises too be great and hopefully INDYCAR and IMS will have their acts together too produce a great month of events and race track activity. Dream winners for this year? In no particular order, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, and for T.V. ratings purposes, Danica Patrick. Start praying for good weather.
8. Give fans as much bang for their buck as possible

The economy is tight and motorsports in general have suffered over the past year, so getting fans too the track is a much more difficult task than it used too be. Fans at the track have to get the best bang for their buck as possible. For example, at Iowa last year, I witnessed USF2000 qualifying and race, Star Mazda qualifying and race, IZOD IndyCar qualifying, and the Indy Lights qualifying and race, 9 A.M. till 9 P.M., cars were on the track at IOWA. INDYCAR needs to bring their ladder system with them to as many venues as possible in order to fill up the time on the track and expose their younger drivers as much as possible. Robin Miller even suggested that you could almost pack everything into one day, while I disagree, I do think you could have some very exciting two day events. From the time the gates open for fans to the time they close, cars need to be on the track. INDYCAR is doing a good job at giving their fans bang for their buck, but they need too start doing a great job.

9. Develop a brand for your drivers

Foyt, Mears, Unser, Andretti, Rahal, Sullivan, Sneva, Unser Jr, and the list could go on for awhile depending on who you rooted for, but the bottom line for INDYCAR is that back in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, drivers had brand identity. Most of those names where developed as superstars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and that is what brought them media attention to the secondary markets of INDYCAR’s other races. The split did no-one any favors on developing your drivers, and the wounds are just starting to heal, but INDYCAR could position themselves around a core of young brand drivers so that fans can grow with them. The reason the Tony Kanaan story is so saddening is that common fans won’t be able to identify him as the IndyCar driver in the e green 7/11 driver this year. Generations of fans grow up rooting for drivers and their cars, the more the drivers and the cars change, the more fans get confused or turned off.

10. 100,000k for Vegas

I don’t know exactly how the 80,000 free tickets will work for the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but hopefully INDYCAR has a strong plan behind it. Some details are starting to come out and can be found at

http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/41502-simple-steps-to-request-title-race-ticket-offer/

http://www.indycarworldchampionships.com/

With the free tickets and the other 44,000 INDYCAR is hoping to sell, there should be a huge crowd for the last race of the 2011 season. A reasonable goal would be 100,000 for Vegas, and that would easily be the second highest attended race of the year after Indy, Texas usually draws around 80,000 – 90,000. Randy Bernard and his staff will have too work hard to promote this, but with race on network T.V. and the championship usually decide on the last few laps of the last race, all of the stories should be in place for an exciting event. INDYCAR also needs to capture some decent names for the five, one off non-INDYCAR drivers for the five million bonus, but that’s another story for another day.

10 ideas to help INDYCAR heading into 2011 - Part 1

10 ideas to help INDYCAR heading into 2011 – Part 1

INDYCAR teams will be testing throughout the next two weeks as part of their pre-season tune up for the opening round of the 2011 season at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. INDYCAR has drastic new look too it, compared to a year ago, so with positive momentum going into 2011, IndyCar Garage gives you ten suggestions for INDYCAR heading into 2011. Part one is below and part two will be published tomorrow on http://www.indycargarage.com/

1. Get T.V. Ratings and attendance back to respectability

The only thing that will bring INDYCAR back to black ink is solid T.V. ratings and packed stands on race weekends. Motorsports in general, live off of sponsorships that invest in the sport to get a return on investment, in short get more people to know about their brand or product because of the eyes that watch racing. When no one watches your race, why would sponsors invest in your sport? INDYCAR has five network T.V. races on ABC, the only one that has drawn ratings worthy of NASCAR type numbers is the Indy 500. Normal ABC races since the merger has been a stretch to draw over a 1.0 rating, that’s unacceptable. Versus ratings have been in the tank since they took over INDYCAR broadcasts in 2009, the championship race at Homestead in 2010, drew a .3, that’s horrible. Versus ratings need to be over 1.0 and ABC races need to be around the 1.5 – 2.0 range, both of those numbers will be stretch for 2011. Race attendance isn’t as gloomy as T.V. ratings, but for some races, attendance has looked horribly low on tracks that have large grand stands. Giving away 80,000K for the Vegas race was a start in the right direction.

2. Get Graham Rahal, J.R. Hildebrand, and Simona De Silverstro into victory circle

If you were to look into INDYCAR’s future in five years, all three of the drivers listed above should be competing for championships and Indy 500 wins. Rahal, 22, Hildebrand 23, and De Silvestro, 22, all have solid rides for 2011 and all have talent to win. Rahal is the youngest ever driver to win a INDYCAR race, Hildebrand was the 2009 Lights champ and De Silverstro showed flashes of greatness on a underfunded team last season. INDYCAR can’t determine who wins races, well at least in most cases (Helio 2002 Indy 500), but they can capitalize off of Rahal, Hildebrand and De Silverstro winning races. Rahal and Hildebrand are both young Americans that INDYCAR build their brand on, and De Silverstro is the new Danica Patrick, but with better road/street skills. I would do back flips if Rahal won again at St. Pete, Hildebrand at Barber, and De Silverstro at Long Beach.

3. Keep Tony George’s presence off the radar

Tony George had his time and place to manage INDYCAR , and based off who you talked with, George had mixed results from 1996 – 2009. Tony’s return to the Hulman & Company board sends the wrong message to all fans of INDYCAR. Randy Bernard might be a wild character with crazy ideas, but the perception of INDYCAR (not IRL) after Randy’s first year is mostly if not all, POSITIVE! George’s name brings a negative association with INDYCAR and its nasty 12 year split. Nothing against Tony personally, my thought is that Tony had his time, now its Randy’s time.

4. Develop your ladder system and continue too build it

The official ladder system of American open wheel racing is officially called the MAZDA Road to Indy. The three step ladder to reach the IZOD IndyCar Series includes USF2000, Star Mazda, and Firestone Indy Lights. Scholarships are part of a program developed through INDYCAR to help the champion of each series to advance onto the next step in the ladder. The Road to Indy will be entering its second year of existence, and positive news appears too be emerging. Zach Veach, Sage Karam, Spencer Pigot, Shannon McIntosh, Conor Daly, and Bryan Clauson all will compete in various races throughout the 2011 MAZDA Road to Indy season and they all represent a growing development, AMERICAN DRIVERS. The most important aspects of the MAZDA Road to Indy, are two fold, allow for young drivers to have a chance to enter the ladder system, and two, allow drivers too move all the way up into the IZOD IndyCar Series and the Indy 500. Click the link here to listen to several MAZDA Road to Indy drivers that have been guest on IndyCar Garage Weekly. http://www.Blogtalkradio.com/IndyCarGarage-Weekly--

5. Capitalize on the 2012 car introduction

INDYCAR has built a lot of their new marketing strategy on the 2012 new IndyCar package. INDYCAR will have two show cars at the Indianapolis 500 during the month of May that will be built by Dallara, but won’t be official Dallara aero kits, as Dallara isn’t unveiling their aero kits until later in 2011. Chevy, Lotus and Honda will all build engines, and Chevy, Lotus, and Dallara will also build aero kits for the new cars. INDYCAR needs too build up so much momentum heading into 2012 car that new fans are attracted to the sport. Diehard and longtime fans didn’t want a spec series and Randy Bernard delivered on his promise by listening too those fans by introducing different looking cars and multiple engine manufactures. 2012 will need too be a home run year for INDYCAR, there is much too lose if the cars don’t impress.


Coming tomorrow Part 2 on: Oval racing, 2011 Indy 500, Bang for your buck, Brand development for your drivers, and VEGAS BABY

IndyCar Garage Weekly is on Tonight at 6 p.m. w/guest Wade Cunningham

IZOD IndyCar driver Wade Cunningham pictured above


IndyCar Garage Weekly returns for its 30 minute program with host Tyler Carmichael, moderator of IndyCarGarage.com. Tyler will welcome Wade Cunningham onto the show, Wade just recently announced a partial 2011 IZOD IndyCar Schedule with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Wade has won the Freedom 100 three different times, and has had great results in Firestone Indy Lights. The show will start at 6EST and run for thirty minutes. You can listen live on http://www.indycargarage.com/ and www.Blogtalkradio.com/IndyCarGarage-Weekly-

In addition to Wade, Tyler will also start to preview the 2011 INDYCAR Season, as mandy INDYCAR teams are starting preseason testing.

Tune in live at 6EST tonight for IndyCar Garage Weekly.