2014 Grand Prix of Houston - IndyCar

IndyCar heads down South to the Houston street course for the 2nd doubleheader of the season. Last year's two races were won by Scott Dixon and Will Power, but unfortunately the weekend was overshadowed by the horrific crash that ended Dario Franchitti's racing career.

Last time out, Ed Carpenter stole the win from points leader Will Power at Texas, with Power getting a speeding ticket. Mike Conway is in the No. 20 this weekend.

And Luca Filippi back on the grid in the #16

Milan655 wrote:And Luca Filippi back on the grid in the #16

This I like!!!   

Also heading into this race, the IndyCar Officials have withdrawn the penalties handed to Sebastian Bourdais for his accident with Justin Wilson at Texas.

I am quite surprised that Indycar is running in Houston in June. Isn't it really hot down there?

Simon Pagenaud on pole for a Rainy Race 1. Will Power the points leader will start 18th.

Really, Aleshin? Battling with the second place car when you're a lap down?

That was one of the most boneheaded moments of the season.

I kinda blame both honestly, Sato pinched, sadly, if your a lap car in Indycar might as well park it if you can't pass anyone lol

Luca, no!   

Nice to see that age hasn't changed AJ Foyt. Best interview all season!

Lucstar88 wrote:I kinda blame both honestly, Sato pinched, sadly, if your a lap car in Indycar might as well park it if you can't pass anyone lol

Sato might've pinched Aleshin, but Aleshin shouldn't have been up there racing Sato to begin with being a lap down, especially on a street course.   

Somewhere in Chicago, Cooper's laughing at Will Power's miserable day.

You have got to be kidding me. Thanks a lot for ruining a good restart, Rahal. Reject of the race after that.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME RAHAL?

HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE

Well, Cooper is happy.

CARLOS HUERTAS! WOOOOOO!

Because of Rahal's idiocy, it's going to be an all Colombian podium.

Cooper's blaring this and dancing:

Graham Rahal baffles me. He genuinely does.

This finish :/

crl wrote:Cooper's blaring this and dancing:

Fixed.

Now I'm waiting for the Kanaan v. Rahal boxing match.

Never thought Carlos Huertas had it in him. Never in a million years. This is probably the biggest upset in years.

Two people who really dont belong in the series in Crisco and Rahal just screwed up quite possibly the best run to the finish in an IndyCar race this season. 30-second penalties are not enough.
Congrats to Huertas for his first win and also to Juan Pablo and Munoz for well-deserved podiums.

I know I didn't actually watch the race, but Huertas won? Nice. It just goes to show how amazingly competitive IndyCar is.

Oh, Wikipedia graffiti. You rule:

Rahal? What was that?

Meanwhile HUEHUERTAS WINS!?! Didn't expect that to happen for a while, He's been okay but never in winning position...But i guess we don't need to have that conversation now. Good win Huertas!

Pretty enjoyable race despite it being a bit smash-filled.

Wow, we had some Aleshin and Rahal failure today. Nice to see a new face win in Huertas today. I'm pleasantly surprised from him this season in that second Coyne car.

Very interesting race from the word go. Lots of failure in this race, including Aleshin, Dixon, and Rahal. Dixon was just driver error into the wall, but Aleshin and Rahal, what the hell were you two thinking? Both of you share the reject of the race.

Carlos Huertas, welcome to the IndyCar winners circle, and well deserved as well. We also had a Colombian sweep as Montoya and Munoz also round out the podium.

Terrific stuff, the reason why I think rain racing kicks ass.

Round 1 of the 2014 Grand Prix of Houston gets a 9.0/10.

Sato, Filippi, Kanaan... there went every driver that I was rooting for, one at a time... That was a liiittle painful for me to watch, but it was still a fantastic and exciting race!

I was really looking forward to seeing what would have happened if the race had restarted... until Rahal hit Kanaan. Didn't JR Hildebrand have a similar incident under caution at St. Petersburg last season?

Can't complain about Huertas winning either; great job to him!

SpeedDemon37 wrote:Sato, Filippi, Rahal, Kanaan... there went every driver that I was rooting for, one at a time... That was a liiittle painful for me to watch, but it was still a fantastic and exciting race!

I was really looking forward to seeing what would have happened if the race had restarted... until Rahal hit Kanaan. Didn't JR Hildebrand have a similar incident under caution at St. Petersburg last season?

Can't complain about Huertas winning either; great job to him!

I feel so sorry for you.

navycook75 wrote:

SpeedDemon37 wrote:Sato, Filippi, Rahal, Kanaan... there went every driver that I was rooting for, one at a time... That was a liiittle painful for me to watch, but it was still a fantastic and exciting race!

I was really looking forward to seeing what would have happened if the race had restarted... until Rahal hit Kanaan. Didn't JR Hildebrand have a similar incident under caution at St. Petersburg last season?

Can't complain about Huertas winning either; great job to him!

I feel so sorry for you.

I listed the other driver in Kanaan's incident. Whoops!

And now you see why, despite him being right at Indy, why I mock Rahal when he complained about that. Rahal is NOTHING like his dad. Some talent, but like Pastor Maldonado, he is better at wrecking cars.

Very fun race to watch. Which is surprising because Houston never really has impressed me!

As a Rahal fan these have been a couple of tough seasons. He shows occasional spots of brilliance: (winning at St. Pete in 2008, on poll there a year later, fastest in practice at Mid Ohio on his return to the series in 2010 and his 2nd at Detroit this year for example) but it seems like these are balanced out by stupidity. It's a bit like Tomas Scheckter in some ways but Scheckter was always on the edge, always taking risks and sometimes it worked out and sometimes it didn't. Rahal is either on it, accident prone, or simply anonymous. I think he's fallen into the Marco Andretti trap of having job security and simply not having the drive.

Marco Andretti fined $2500 for failing to yield to the blue flag.

Helio on pole for Race 2 today. Aleshin and Rahal start 2nd and 4th respectively. Hold on to your helmets.

Yesterday's winner Carlos Huertas starts 13th (congrats to him btw), and Will Power again will start 18th.

1 3 Castroneves, Helio 59.1702 99.415 Qualifications / Group 2
2 7 Aleshin, Mikhail (R) 01:00.2493 97.634 Qualifications / Group 1
3 77 Pagenaud, Simon 59.1962 99.371 Qualifications / Group 2
4 15 Rahal, Graham 01:00.2993 97.553 Qualifications / Group 1
5 11 Bourdais, Sebastien 59.2863 99.220 Qualifications / Group 2
6 19 Wilson, Justin 01:00.3369 97.493 Qualifications / Group 1
7 27 Hinchcliffe, James 59.5133 98.842 Qualifications / Group 2
8 10 Kanaan, Tony 01:00.4841 97.255 Qualifications / Group 1
9 34 Munoz, Carlos (R) 59.6652 98.590 Qualifications / Group 2
10 14 Sato, Takuma 01:00.5288 97.183 Qualifications / Group 1
11 9 Dixon, Scott 59.7543 98.443 Qualifications / Group 2
12 16 Filippi, Luca 01:00.7529 96.825 Qualifications / Group 1
13 18 Huertas, Carlos (R) 59.8052 98.359 Qualifications / Group 2
14 2 Montoya, Juan Pablo 01:00.8328 96.698 Qualifications / Group 1
15 8 Briscoe, Ryan 01:00.1384 97.814 Qualifications / Group 2
16 25 Andretti, Marco 01:01.0311 96.384 Qualifications / Group 1
17 20 Conway, Mike 01:00.1423 97.808 Qualifications / Group 2
18 12 Power, Will 01:01.1423 96.208 Qualifications / Group 1
19 83 Kimball, Charlie 01:00.1989 97.716 Qualifications / Group 2
20 17 Saavedra, Sebastian 01:01.2876 95.980 Qualifications / Group 1
21 28 Hunter-Reay, Ryan 01:00.2244 97.675 Qualifications / Group 2
22 67 Newgarden, Josef 01:03.4769 92.670 Qualifications / Group 1
23 98 Hawksworth, Jack (R) 01:00.5822 97.098 Qualifications / Group 2

Were the pre-race ceremonies this bad yesterday too? Good lord, I thought the prayers wouldn't end.  

Wow, Helio.

Helio... um... that's a car   

Pagenaud and Castroneves were having a good battle until that happened. Oh, well. :/

Also, I just want to say that even though I'm guilty of wrecking people on restarts, being that overly ambitious and wrecking the third place car is inexcusable on Rahal's part, especially when he's wrecked people like that before. And then he said during the pre-race for today's race, "People who make comments don't know what they're talking about." You wrecked someone under yellow, what's not to be understood?

Buttheart much, Helio? He was all over the place going on the straightaway.

And Marco keeps moving himself up to be rejects of the weekend.

Holy crap! Hawksworth and Montoya are putting on a hell of a show!  

There goes Sato...

Dat podium. I'm starting to like Jack Hawksworth more and more. What a drive!

Good win Pagenaud, great 2nd for Aleshin making up for yesterday, and Jack Hawksworth gets the first podium of his career.

Yet another good race at Houston. It wasn't for the lead much, but for the podium spots and the entire top 10, it was bedlam, with quite a bit of beating and banging. Excellent stuff.

Race 2 of the 2014 Grand Prix of Houston gets an 8.0/10.

Average for the weekend: 8.5/10. Excellent.

Good win Pagenaud.

RUSKIE P2! MOTHER RUSSIA RISES AGAIN!

Podium is all foreigners
1. French
2. Ruskie
3. British

Great drive by those guys also good race!

Hell yeah, Simon Pagenaud. And a hell of a performance by both Aleshin and Hawksworth. Great race.

Good win for Pagenaud and that should put him solidly in the title fight.

Another pretty good race.