2010 European Grand Prix

First, I must apologize as I have not been keeping up with writing on this blog as often as I intended to but yesterday was the 13th day in a row that I've had to work and working from 7AM-3PM on weekdays and 6AM-11PM on weekends has really sucked the life out of me, so hopefully I will start to do a better job starting this week.

Now onto the 2010 European Grand Prix at Valencia, Spain (which has already taken place, but hasn't been shown here in the US yet). The two Red Bull machines of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber spanked the field in qualifying yesterday, beating third place Lewis Hamilton by .4 and .3 of a second respectively. Possibly the biggest surprise of qualifying was that neither Mercedes driver (Schumacher, Rosberg) were able to make it into Q3 while both Williams were in. Something else that I noticed is that Renault, more specifically Robert Kubica, have really stepped their game and I expect them to be a factor week-in and week-out before the end of the year.

This is one of the curviest tracks I have seen. I believe this is the first time I have watched an F1 race at this track since they first went there in 2008. I'm not sure why but part of it could be that I'm bitter because this race is supposed to the the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (which I had amazing seats for every year).

It should be an interesting race, but I expect both Red Bull drivers to pace the field barring some mechanical failure or an accident. After that is anyone's guess. I would say that Lewis Hamilton will finish third as the McLarens are the second best team, but Lewis claims that they've struggled to find grip so far this weekend and seemed legitimately relieved to have qualified third. Expect Kubica, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso to also be factors.

Next weekend is the Indycar race at Watkins Glen and I will be providing some more info during this week. Take care!

Indycar News and Rumors - 6/24

Just a few quick notes here about some recent developments in Indycar:

Ryan Hunter-Reay will be able to compete at Watkins Glen on July 4, according to Curt Cavin. His sponsorship has not yet been announced and we are not sure if he will be able to race after Watkins Glen.

Paul Tracy is expected to announce that he will be driving the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car at Watkins Glen. No word on who his sponsor will be. He is still going to run at Toronto and Edmonton for KV Racing with sponsorship from Honda.

It was announced on Sunday that the Izod Indycar Series will officially be heading back to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2011. American Openwheel has not raced there since 1998.

The IICS was expected to announce its decision on a new chassis design for 2012 by the end of June but rumors came out earlier this week that this announcement may be pushed back to early-mid July. Robin Miller also hinted that there may be multiple chassis used.

Kanaan Takes Iowa

Tony Kanaan swept past Helio Castroneves in the closing laps to win the 2010 Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. Unfortunately, that's about all that I can tell you.

My family is remodeling our basement at the moment and as a result of this, we've chosen to get AT&T U-Verse, which comes with Versus, but it will not be hooked up until Tuesday evening. So I was forced to attempt to watch the online feed of the race but after 10 minutes of trying to watch it only to be frustrated when it decided to pause every 15 seconds, I just gave up and chose to watch the Cubs beats the Angels 12-1 with my Dad instead (you know, with it being Father's Day and all).

However, I did manage to watch the feed from Kanaan's in-car camera for the last 40 laps which was quite entertaining as Dario Franchitti's gearbox decided to remain in neutral and Helio was unable to hold off Kanaan who certainly had the better car at the end. Watching TK work as hard as he could to catch back up to Helio after lapped traffic got into his way was quite awesome.

Based on what I've read/heard, it sounds like it was a fairly competitive race which featured seven different leaders including Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal. I nearly smashed my computer monitor when Milka Duno got in Marco's way as he was attempting to pass Will Power for the lead about 20 laps in. I have no idea how Marco wound up 6 laps down; if anyone could fill me in, that would be great.

I have to give some props to EJ Viso. He looked strong in the last race at Texas and he looked very competitive today when he came home in third. I also need to recognize Vitor Meira for finishing in a solid seventh-place when his #14 ABC Supply Foyt Racing team has looked quite inept at times this season. I really do wish Vitor the best as I personally think that he's still mentally recovering from his big crash at Indy last year.

Who doesn't deserve accolades? Mario Moraes. Yes, I understand that today's accident wasn't his fault, but at some point, if you're Jimmy Vasser or Kevin Kalkhoven (Moraes' team owners), you have to decide if you want to keep fielding a car for a driver that keeps finding the wall. He crashed twice during the Month of May and smacked the wall during the 500 enough to bend his suspension and force him out of the race. He also got into a controversial crash with Helio Castroneves in Texas two weeks ago and today he collided with Justin Wilson on the first lap. Surely there must be another driver (Paul Tracy, Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay, JR Hildebrand) who doesn't have a guaranteed full-time ride that would be able to consistently bring the car home in one piece.

I'm not even going to mention Milka, other than that she was 20 MPH slower than everyone else at the beginning of the race, she blocked Marco when he was attempting to take the lead, and she retired after 31 laps with "handling" issues (read: too slow and clueless to be on the track).

Back to what Kanaan's victory means for him, his team, and the sport of Indycar. For him, it means that his 34-race span without a win, dating back to the race at Richmond in 2008, has disappeared and that it appears that he has fully recovered from his disastrous Month of May. For his team, it shows that they really do have something for the Penske and Ganassi cars as they looked to be challenging them since the 500 and they are starting to resemble the dominant team that they were in 2005 (minus the dominance). For the sport itself, it means that for the first time in 16 oval races, neither a Ganassi or a Penske car won the race. Finally, some parity, which will hopefully shut Robin Miller up just a little bit.

The points standings were shaken up a bit as Franchitti's late-race gearbox failure caused him to fall back to third behind Will Power and Scott Dixon. Also, Tony Kanaan jumped up to sixth, 45 points out of first.

See you in two weeks in Watkins Glen. Until then, stay tuned for some posts about specific drivers.

Any thoughts and comments about today's race are more than welcomed. In fact, they are suggested.

Indycar at Iowa Preview

This weekend the Izod Indycar Series returns to Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa for the eighth race of the 2010 season. This will be the fourth Indycar race at the 7/8-mile speedway with the first three races here being won by British drivers, twice by Dario Franchitti in 2007 and 2009 and Dan Wheldon in 2008. The race will be broadcast on Versus at 1:30 PM on Sunday, June 20th. The Indycar Series will also be joined by its three support series (Firestone Indy Lights, Star Mazda, USF2000) this weekend.

The Track



Iowa Speedway is located in Newton, Iowa, which is about 30 miles east of Des Moines. The track is similar in design to Richmond International Speedway with a sweeping frontstretch. The 7/8-mile track has turns banked at 12-14 degrees (12 at the lowest line, 14 at the highest line) and the frontstretch has 10 degree banking.

Last Year's Race (click here to watch highlights)

The race was essentially a battle between Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti in the first half of the race, before Tony crashed on lap 109. Afterward, it became a duel between Ryan Briscoe, who led the most laps with 85, and Franchitti who wound up winning by 5 seconds. Dario ran away from the field, lapping all but three other cars. Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves made contact with each other early in the race, causing Dixon to puncture a tire and Helio to replace his front wing. Those two never really recovered enough to be major factors.

News from this past week

The only real news from the past week involved two of the American drivers who are struggling to find rides this season. American Graham Rahal was hired to drive Mike Conway's #24 Dad's Root Beer car as the Brit continues to recover from the injuries he sustained in a terrible crash on the last lap of the Indy 500. South African Tomas Scheckter, who replaced Conway at Texas, was quite upset by this as he felt that he deserved the ride as he raced with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing last year and ran quite well at Iowa.

The other bit of news involved American Ryan Hunter-Reay. RHR had a sponsorship deal with Izod set up through the Texas race but wasn't sure of his plans afterward. American Ethanol, who sponsored RHR two years ago, stepped up and will be footing the bill for him to run at Iowa this weekend. One can only hope that Ryan is able to run for the rest of the season as he is currently 6th in the standings, 45 points behind 1st.

Predictions

Seeing as how the Penske and Ganassi teams have won the last 16 oval races, odds are that they will once again find victory lane. However, the Andretti Autosport team has started to show signs of a resurgence and could find a way to knock of the two-headed monster. If I had to guess who the top 3 finishers would be, I would choose Dario Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon.

My sleeper pick is Tony Kanaan as he has looked strong at Iowa in the past. In 2008, TK had been dominating all day when his car got away from him heading into Turn 1 and he found the wall. In 2009, he had a similar result when he backed the car into the wall exiting Turn 2 after leading 48 of the first 109 laps. Don't be too surprised to see Kanaan in the hunt for the win if he can keep the car off of the wall.

Welcome to 3-Wide, 11-Deep

Hello there. Welcome to my new blog which is centered around open-wheel racing (Indycar and Formula 1). Though the name of the blog is in reference to how the cars are lined up on the grid at the Indianapolis 500, that is certainly not the only thing that will be discussed here. My intention is to use this blog to keep myself and the readers up to date on things going on in the racing world. I also hope to discuss some openwheel drivers and events from the past.

My first goal, which I will likely write my first real post about, will be to explain the differences between Formula 1, Indycar and NASCAR, and to explain what I like (or dislike) about each series. There will not be much NASCAR discussion on here, the reasons for which will be explained at a later time. Some things that will be discussed in order for the readers to gain a better understanding of the racing series will be to introduce the drivers, the cars and the rules of both Indycar and F1.

Some things to check out here are the weekly poll at the top right of the screen and the weekly video at the bottom of the page, both of which will be changed every Sunday. Feel free to leave comments as you wish and I would certainly love to receive some questions that you may have.

Being a motorsports writer is a dream job of mine and this blog is the first step towards attaining that goal. I also wish for Indycar to regain some of its popularity that it has lost over the last 15 years or so and for F1 to continue to increase its popularity here in the US. It will be an added bonus for me if I am able to introduce some new fans to the fastest sports in the world.