Indycar @ Phoenix

The Series where the first 3 winners a Sebastian Bourdais, James Hinchcliffe and Josef Newgarden

The Series where Sebastian Bourdais is still Leading the Points.

1 lap into the race and there is already a five car pileup

gg

This race quite honestly peaked with the Lap 1 accident. Beyond that, it was pretty dull.

Pagenaud absolutely dominated. That's all that really need be said. GW Pagenaud.

Pagenaud's back. All there is to say p much.

kensethfan wrote:This race quite honestly peaked with the Lap 1 accident. Beyond that, it was pretty dull.

Pagenaud absolutely dominated. That's all that really need be said. GW Pagenaud.

Gonna have to concur. This race SUCKED.

My thoughts on the race.

I was watching RHR just about repeating the start that he had last year... when suddenly half of the cars that he was passing got wiped out.

That first-turn crash kind of put a damper on the rest of the race for me with five cars being eliminated out right out of the gate, although that might have been worse for me since it knocked out both Rahal and Bourdais. I cannot figure out why Max Chilton didn't hold down the brakes as he spun; I find it hard to believe that he didn't realize that the car would roll back up onto the racing surface and into traffic.

I really believe that Marco Andretti is going to turn his performances around after the disaster for him that was last season, but first he just needs some reasonably good luck. I agree with Tracy's comments that he has a different attitude and is driving differently without Michael on top of his pit box, but I imagine that his patience is being tested by the fact that, in the last three races, he hasn't made it past lap 14 before something beyond his control ruins his race. I hope that luck starts to go his way by the time that we get to Indianapolis.

The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. It was a nice surprise to see JR Hildebrand doing very well and giving us some action to enjoy with his impressive charge into third. Unfortunately there wasn't much else to watch (the untimely caution for Sato's crash that trapped all but five cars a lap down certainly didn't help, either). Hopefully the new aerokit that's being developed will facilitate close racing at tracks like this next year; I imagine that it will be much improved by the time that we return to Phoenix.