Race #8 The Milwaukee IndyFest Presented by XYQ – Preview

We wanted a Street Race Party and We Got It!!! The Milwaukee Mile will be transformed into one big festival called the IndyFest. This great concept has been talked in the INDYCAR circles but no one had done it. Kudos to Andretti Sports Marketing for doing this effort and creating what should be a successful event. The racing in this 1-mile oval has always been exciting and the drivers skills take the stage for the most part.

The storylines are as follows:

• Honda Engines – apparently the engines are failing at the Iowa Speedway testing. At least 4 drivers with Honda power will receive a 10-grid penalty for changing engines for the race. It would be interesting to see how many could fail at the race.
• The Justin Wilson Watch – After coming from a win at Texas, Justin would need to prove this was no fluke (or aided by unapproved technical aero pieces) and have a great finish. This being a drivers track he should have no problem posting a Top 5 or even winning again…that would be something!!!
• The Ryan Briscoe Watch – Ryan will be on our watch the whole season. He is poised to win a race soon and this could be it. Another Top 3 is not out of the question.
• TV Partner and Ratings – the race will be on ESPN on ABC tomorrow and there should be no direct competition from other major sports since it is a mid-day event. I would write that a 1.2 rating would be achievable with all the INDYCAR news surrounding the series and the great 5-week competition stretch.
• Will There Be Some Issues at the Race? – I don’t expect anything major except a blown engine or some on-track penalty to damage the competition. The weather apparently is perfect so there is no issue on that front.

As in every race, we should pick a winner, just for the sake of trying to be the guru of INDYCAR knowledge (which I’m far from it, but let’s do it anyway!):

Race Winner: I will pick JR Hildebrand to surprise everyone for the 2nd week in a row after Justin Wilson’s win last week. Panther Racing is due and I think their driver has the skills to master this oval for years to come (hopefully the event stays!!!).

Engine Winner:Chevrolet should be back on the top spot!!!

Highest Rookie: Josef Newgarden should FINALLY make me proud!!!. I still think he is a Top 10 or better driver. He needs patience and a good enough car underneath him.

Well, tune in TOMORROW at 12:30pm on ABC (Channel 20 on Dish Network) to the pre-race show. The green flag should drop at 12:45pm… Enjoy!

2012 INDYCAR Season Round Table – 2nd Quarter Predictions

At Indianapolis, INDYCAR started the season’s 2nd quarter. We had already taken Indy on Q1 based on the relevance of the race. Now, we move to our picks and other stuff starting with the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix (Sunday, June 3rd at 3:30pm on ABC)

The 5-member board which will have their opinions posted here are (Names are followed by Twitter handle):

• Matthew Hickey (@Indycar_MN) – you can also link to his blog via the main page blogroll (IndyCar Minnesota)
• Kent Muller (@Kent_RM) – you can also link to his blog via the main page blogroll (Racing Mania 101)
• DJ Jordan (@djordan3223)
• David Zehr (@groundedeffects) – you can also link to his blog via the main page blogroll (Ground(ed) Effects)
• Jerry Cruz (@jerrycruz1077) – also owner of this blog!

• Based on your predicted leader for the season’s 1st quarter, how well do you think this driver will do on the next 3 events? (Indianapolis has already been included on the 1st part)

Matthew Hickey (MH) – I think Power can and will continue to pace the field on his way to his first title.

Kent Muller (KM) – Will Power, good at Detroit and struggles at Milwaukee and Iowa

DJ Jordan (DJ) – Will Power will prove to be the dominate driver at Bell Isle before showing he still needs more experience on the ovals

David Zehr (DZ) – Predicted leader – Kanaan – Of Belle Isle, Texas, and Milwaukee, Kanaan will win 1 and podium 1 other.

Jerry Cruz (JC) – Will Power should be at the podium in Detroit and Top 10 in ovals; with that finish he should be 1st coming out of this quarter but Helio and Hinchcliffe should be at striking distance.

• Who is your pick to win the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix? Do you expect another exciting Street Course Race?

MH – Justin Wilson, he’s the defending champ there and he’s coming off a fantastic run at Indy

KM – Will Power, yes, if Barber can, why can’t Detroit?

DJ – Will Power will win at Belle Isle and do so in a dominating fashion. It will be an exciting race as long as ABC shows the passing that will happen in the middle of the field

DZ –  I just can’t convince myself that Power will win everything, so against the odds, I’ll say Dixon at B.I. in an event where crash damage will eliminate at least 8 cars.

JC – Going on a limb and say it will be Takuma Sato…yes, I’m betting the house on this one! I will say that some attrition will happen based on basic inexperience of the track (last race here 2008) so around 6-8 cars will be out on crashes as Sao Paolo.

• Who will be the Top Rookie at Detroit?

MH – Josef Newgarden

KM – Simon Pagenaud

DJ – The top “rookie” finisher at Belle Isle will be Simon Pagenaud

DZ – Top finishing Rookie at Detroit – Newgarden (assuming Barrichello was labeled a rookie only for Indy)

JC – Simon Pagenaud

• Who will win the Pole?

MH – Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a Penske

KM – Will Power

DJ –  The pole sitter for Belle Isle will be Will Power. No explantion needed

DZ – Will Power on pole AGAIN *yawn*

JC – Will Power

• Who will win the only 1.5 mile oval at Texas Firestone 550K?

MH – Hard to tell at this point, TK or Marco maybe

KM – Scott Dixon

DJ – Scott Dixon will win at Texas. This is a track I feel he is due for a win. His last win there was his championship season of 2008

DZ – Coolest guy on 4 wheels – The Iceman – Scott Dixon wins at Tejas (Editor: Tejas is the correct written format for Texas in Spanish! This blogger knows some s**t!!!)

JC – JR Hildebrand

• Who will be the Top Rookie at Texas?

MH –  Josef Newgarden because he has tested there and is no strangers to ovals

KM – Josef Newgarden

DJ – The top rookie finisher at TMS will be Josef Newgarden. He was expected to win the ROY at Indy & he didnt. Look for him to be the top rookie on all the ovals remaining

DZ – Texas rookie – Newgarden again. SFHR will give him a great car and set-up, he will guide it home just inside the Top 5

JC – Josef Newgarden

• Who will win the Pole?

MH – Don’t know, it won’t matter though, you can win from anywhere at TX.

KM – Marco Andretti

DJ – Pole winner at TMS will be Dario Franchitti. With the updated Honda engines (only 1 race) he & his teammate have been the fastest cars.

DZ – Texas Pole – Hinchcliffe

JC – Marco Andretti

• Will the Milwaukee Indy Fest 200 be a outstanding success? Will Andretti Promotions get a sellout?

MH – The racing will be great. There seems to be buzz on Twitter for the race, and the Andretti’s, like past events, will do a great job of things. It’s just a matter of fans showing up. Success, yes. Outstanding success? Hard to tell

KM – Yes because Andretti knows racing and I believe that his promotions will do an excellent. By the way, I’m going to that race. Home race can’t wait (sorry)!

DJ – Will Milwaukee be a success? Good question. The action on the track will be very good. There will be more people in the stands than last year (not hard to top that) but it will not be a sellout. The television ratings will be worse than expected since the race is on Saturday, the day before Father’s Day.

DZ – Milwaukee IndyFest will be a huge upgrade from the previous event, marginally successful from a profit standpoint, but enough so to give the event another go in 2013. It will not be a sellout, but close, maybe 90% of capacity (Editor: this guy must have a camera in my office predicting the 90% capacity…now where is it?)

JC – I have been marveled by the promotion, the attention to details, the scope in giving fans more bang for their buck; I;ll say they will get it at 90% – Great event!!!

• Who is your pick for Podium at Milwaukee?

MH –  3rd) Rahal 2nd) Briscoe 1st) Dixon

KM – Hinchcliffe, Helio, TK

DJ – The Milwaukee podium will consist of Dario. Franchitti (1st), Ryan Briscoe (2nd) and Takuma Sato (3rd)

DZ – Milwaukee Podium – 1^st – Kanaan, 2^nd – Hinchcliffe, 3^rd –Newgarden

JC – 3rd) Helio 2nd) Hinchcliffe 1st) Andretti

• Who will win the Pole?

MH –  Someone on the Death Star

KM – James Hinchcliffe

DJ – The Milwaukee pole sitter will be Takuma Sato. He has been fast all year, he just has had problems seeing the checkered flag, either by mechanical failure, his own failure or someone else’s failure

DZ – James Hinchcliffe

JC – Scott Dixon

• Who should be leading the standings by the end of the Milwaukee race?

MH – Let’s just put it this way. It would be miraculous if Power doesn’t have lead after these next three races (Editor: Probably some biblical calling from John Barnes could change that!!!)

KM – Will Power

DJ – Will Power will still hold the points lead after Milwaukee, however Dario Franchitti will be much closer than he is now.

DZ – James Hinchcliffe (Editor: Ballsy call!!!)

JC – Will Power over Helio Castroneves by same lead as now – 30-40 points

• Do you expect to see new drivers in the series (non-regulars) by the end of this quarter?

MH – The only two I could see would be Scheckter at the ovals and Filippi fulfilling the talks in the offseason in racing at Indycar.

KM – No but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ana Beatriz at Milwaukee or Iowa.

DJ –  I would be shocked if there were any drivers who joined the series from here on out, especially since Dragon racing is essentially a one car team split between two drivers

DZ –  I think we see just one or two at Texas only, but none for the rest of the season

JC – I’m guessing that Lotus could provide another engine by Milwaukee. Based on Andretti Promotions connection at Milwaukee we could see Michael adding Saavedra or Beatriz for that race.