Congratulations Scotty McLaughlin

[Hard Driver]

McLaughlin takes pole and wins the St Pete Indycar race. A very nice drive by him. Race was good, and only one yellow. Three stop strategy didn't work out for a lot of good drivers. Lundgaard as the top rookie and beating teammate Jack Harvey at RLL was a good storyline. Overall a good race to watch race.

[pfc_m_drake]

I DVR'd and watched after-the-fact.

I thought Bourdais and Pruett summarized it best in their 'Hamburger and French Fry' video on Racer.com after the race. They basically said that the caution on lap 28 (or thereabouts) basically toasted any strategy to the race.

I'll make another observation here - and this is something that's been bothering me for a while: It seems to me that many of the drivers are 'tip-toeing' around the street circuits on the first laps after starts/restarts. When I think back to the heyday of CART/IndyCar, it seems (to me) like there as almost inevitably an incident on the first lap of airport/street circuit events. Back in 'the day' drivers were aggressive - they attacked at the start...they may have respected the 'concrete canyons', but they also recognized that if they didn't attack, they were going to run 12th.

Today it almost seems as if the drivers take a much more conservative approach. They're seemingly content to run 20th and collect those valuable Winston Cup Points rather than attack for the win (gratuitous NASCAR reference included).

I'm curious as to what other's think. Am I off my rocker? Do you see the same thing? Is it clear...should I explain further? Let me know!

[SteveH]

I think the CART era and to a somewhat lesser degree ChampCar were much more aggressive on these circuits due to for CART anyway, the 2.65 V8. The current cars don’t have enough punch. Not nearly enough for these circuits.

[pfc_m_drake]

I think the CART era and to a somewhat lesser degree ChampCar were much more aggressive on these circuits due to for CART anyway, the 2.65 V8. The current cars don’t have enough punch. Not nearly enough for these circuits.That's a real good thought. In fact (extending your thoughts a bit) today's tires are certainly much grippier than their cousins from 20 years ago. And today's aerodynamic package, I hate to describe as better, but certainly more refined.

So you have cars with
1) Less power
2) Tires with more grip
3) More refined aerodynamics

And it leads to mostly ho-hum racing compared to the concrete canyons of the past.

[TravelGal]

And it leads to mostly ho-hum racing compared to the concrete canyons of the past.

Word

[opinionated ow]

Credit where it's very well due. I didn't expect this at all. He comes from such a different racing background and he's going up against people like Scott Dixon and Will Power.

[Kiwifan]

Credit where it's very well due. I didn't expect this at all. He comes from such a different racing background and he's going up against people like Scott Dixon and Will Power.

True that. I hear he has been hanging out with Scott and family in their down times.

Just finished reading Speed Kings by John Smailes. It is amazing how many Australasian's have been involved with the Speedway and various racing leagues since. There were a lot of names I had forgotten. :\ Time flies, memory fails.