Tonight, it’s all about the testing! The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono is still a week away, but there is testing galore as IndyCars circulate both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway, we ponder the question “Whither goest thou, Rossi?”, contemplate the significance of Carlin potentially moving to IndyCar, and we remember the multi-faceted racer, Bryan Clauson.  We wrap up the show parsing some of the season’s statistics and point out that the possibility of Honda securing the manufacturer’s title is not an impossibility.

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Show notes and link

News

  • Whither goest thou, Rossi? (Not to Manor, apparently, at least not this year)
  • Miller says Newgarden is the first Silly Season domino. Where will he go?
  • Pocono testing (no times/speeds)
    • Balance not power according to Kimball
    • Graham on correcting the balance missing at Indianapolis this year:
      “We got the car into a range where it handled decent but it was extremely slow and wouldn’t pull down the straightaways. I was giving up three or four miles an hour down the straightaways. But Mike Talbott [RLL’s manager of vehicle dynamics] has been working hard and we found out yesterday what could have been, so it was a good day.”
  • Firestone testing at IMS
    • Very focused testing with a small number of teams/drivers:
      “We were very happy with the performance of the tire in 2016 so we actually came with a relatively small test,” Harrigle said. “We only have two (experimental) right-side compounds and a couple of constructions, so it’s a pretty small, focused test for us this year.”
  • Carlin looks to IndyCar …in time
    • On bringing in Graeme’s son Max:
      “No, not at all,” he said. “As far as we’re aware, Max will be continuing as a Ganassi driver, and that’s that. If one year when we’re up and running, Graeme and Max feel we’re good enough, then that’s a different story, but it wouldn’t make any sense for Max to leave Chip Ganassi’s team for a team making its debut in the series! Max has got his career to think of and right now, the opportunity to be one of the best teams in the series is always going to be more appealing.”
    • Doesn’t matter to them whether it’s Chevy or Honda (but yeah, why wouldn’t they want Chevy?)
  • Remembering Bryan Clauson

Championship standings

Final Thoughts

FBC indi, Episode #5 — Testing, silly season musings, and championship statistics Formula 1.