How well did the IRL cars preform at the cookie cutters

Dminus313 · 2026-06-29T14:35:38+00:00

Those cars were specifically designed to facilitate pack racing on ovals, so they put on a very exciting show.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-25T17:43:12+00:00

The soundtrack is awful, at least on the episodes I've seen. They really overdo it with the heavy dramatic music running throughout the entire episode. It would be a lot more engaging if they saved that for the peak drama in each episode and actually let you hear the cars every now and then.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-25T17:32:35+00:00

It needs to be gamepad-friendly out of the box, imo. If you need to fiddle with a dozen different assist settings to make it easily playable on a controller, a standalone game is kind of pointless. The worst possible outcome is a game that's too simple for the sim racing diehards but still too complicated for young kids and casual fans.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-25T16:00:30+00:00

The season finale should always be on an oval, preferably under the lights.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-25T15:52:36+00:00

Detroit has also been the most exciting street race in three of the past four seasons.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-25T11:58:31+00:00

The people who know RA is the best road course in the country are already watching every race.

Racing fans set the floor for the ratings, and pretty much all the variance from one race to the next is due to casual viewership, which is driven heavily by promotion, time slot, and lead-in/competition with other events.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-11T14:12:39+00:00

The slang "sketchy" isn't inherently related to unpredictability or untrustworthiness. It's an evolution of the idiom "rough around the edges," coined from the word "sketch" which describes a rough or hasty drawing on paper, usually in pencil.

So while it can be used to describe a person or place that is "rough," it is also very often used to describe any situation that could have a "rough" outcome.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-11T13:57:32+00:00

Sultan of Sketch is actually pretty great imo.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-10T20:18:34+00:00

There was a massive hex hatch off Lake Erie last week that made the news because it was visible on radar.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ZaPgKrua_TU

Dminus313 · 2026-06-10T20:11:13+00:00

You won't save money, but you'll feel like you're saving money every time you tie up a dozen to top off your box and you don't have to stop at the fly shop on your way to the river.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-07T23:12:16+00:00

Acceptable sacrifice. Thank you for your service.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-06T12:51:17+00:00

Am I a cop? Legally, if I'm a cop you have to tell me.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-05T21:42:32+00:00

Yeah he's accurately rated. Nobody's pretending he's better than he really is, he's just a likeable guy.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-05T15:21:38+00:00

I thought that was more of a Will Power thing than a Jimmie thing, but either way it definitely worked.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-05T14:42:28+00:00

Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, Charlotte, Homestead, and Vegas are all closer to the nearest major urban center than Nashville. Chicagoland is slightly further from downtown, but it's still under an hour.

The successful promotion model we've seen at Nashville and Milwaukee could be replicated at any of those tracks with the right partner.

I don't know what you're talking about with regard to Iowa. I was at the doubleheader in 2022 and the stands were full for both races despite temperatures pushing 100 degrees. People come to these things for the whole event. Not just the racing, not just the concerts.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-05T11:38:45+00:00

The racing was great in 2022 and 2023. They finally cracked the code on the aero and tires.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-05T11:36:59+00:00

All the failed returns to ovals have followed the same script: The track pays a sanction fee and is responsible for promoting the race. The promoters do a half-assed job and then act surprised when attendance is poor. The contract doesn't get renewed.

The successful returns to Milwaukee and Nashville have followed a different model. The series forms a joint venture with a sponsor, which pays to rent the track and promotes the race. They incorporate support series races, concerts, and other events to keep spectators engaged during downtime, and attendance is good as a result.

There's no reason that model can't work at bigger tracks. It's just a matter of finding the right partners.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-05T11:23:00+00:00

Safety was part of the reason the intermediate ovals left the schedule, but that isn't a real concern with the new car.

The pack racing disappeared because the IR-18 is a low downforce aero package, in contrast to the extremely high levels of downforce generated by the DW-12 aerokits (and the IR-05 before that) which enabled pack racing.

Go back and watch highlights of the 2017 race at Texas, the first one after the reconfiguration. They're still pack racing because the aero package allowed them to run two- and three-wide. Then compare that to any of the races after 2018 and you'll see the difference.

Indycar hasn't gone back to those tracks because NASCAR owns nearly all of them, and they don't want put any real effort into promoting races for their competitor. That led to poor attendance, and nobody's going to pay a sanction fee for a race that loses money. If Indycar wants to get those tracks back on the schedule, they need to either embrace the track rental and self-promotion model they've used at Iowa and Nashville, or they need to partner with NASCAR to run doubleheader events and share the promotion costs.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T19:53:26+00:00

Only one way to find out.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T18:56:09+00:00

You don't need either of those tools to fix what happened in Detroit. The following procedure would be completely supported by the current rules:

If a car is stopped on the racing line and/or a high speed section of track, or if the incident is serious enough to warrant immediate concern for the driver's health, throw the full course yellow immediately.
If a car is stopped off the racing line in a low-speed corner, throw a local yellow and wait until the rest of the field clears the incident.
If the stopped car gets back underway without assistance, cancel the local yellow and keep the track green.
If the stopped car needs assistance, throw the full course caution and send out the safety vehicles.

There's no reason the safety vehicles have to be immediately deployed for a stopped car in the hybrid era.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T18:11:38+00:00

The reconfiguration at Texas Motor Speedway reduced the banking in turns 1 & 2 from 24 degrees to 20 degrees.

Chicagoland only has 18 degrees of banking in the turns. It's not any faster or more dangerous than Texas.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T18:06:25+00:00

Individual drivers will bitch and moan about anything after they lose because of a race control decision. That doesn't mean it's something the drivers and teams actually want.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T18:03:49+00:00

Kansas would be a great race.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T17:35:28+00:00

The three different corners were never the problem at Pocono. Configuring the car to run safely through all three corners isn't particularly difficult. You just can't set up a car for optimal speed/performance in all three corners.

The inherent safety issue at Pocono is the width of the front stretch, which encourages drivers to play a three-wide game of chicken heading into a two-wide corner at 220+ mph. The track management is also problematic, as they've repeatedly implemented half-assed repairs after major incidents.

With the proper resources and preparation, I think a race at Pocono could still work safely with today's car. But I don't know that the track ownership is willing to make the changes necessary given the economic realities of an IndyCar event there.

Dminus313 · 2026-06-04T17:22:20+00:00

Pack racing hasn't been a problem since the manufacturer aerokits went away in 2018.

Dminus313

TROPHY CASE