IndyCar

[Penfold]

Cheers for that.  Interesting to get some info. on whose positions are under threat for next year.

Hinch tweet basically says he'll be driving for Arrow McLaren in 2020: https://twitter.com/Hinchtown/status/1159854095399890945

[Matt]

That's how I read it as well.

[Matt]

RIP to Pocono's spot on IndyCar's schedule. It was looking like it was finished even before the field got Satoed yesterday, which probably cemented it.

That said, if you outline the wreck history at superspeedways, it becomes much harder to argue that Pocono is more dangerous than the others. From memory, these are the wrecks that have involved injuries, cars hitting the fence, or cars getting airborne since the introduction of the DW12 chassis:

Hinchcliffe (Indy)
Bourdais (Indy)
Dixon (Indy)
Conway (Indy 2012, although he had a worse wreck in the old chassis in 2010)
All of the airborne Indy practice wrecks in 2015 (Helio, Newgarden, Carpenter, others?)
All of the airborne Indy practice wrecks this season (Kaiser, Pato, Hinch)
Aleshin (Fontana)
Briscoe (Fontana)
Newgarden (Texas)
Wickens (Pocono)
Sato/Rosenqvist (Pocono)
Kimball (Pocono)

The fact is, if you send two wrecked cars careening into the middle of a corner with the entire pack coming through on lap one at any of these tracks, you're lucky to even get out with the result they had yesterday.

[Chrill]

Delighted to have Felix win the Rookie of the Year title. Last Swede to win it? Kenny Bräck! Before him, Stefan Johansson (of Ferrari F1 fame) also won the Rookie title back in 1992.

Herta won two races this year, but clearly lacked the consistency to score high enough points to beat Felix.

[Penfold]

It's funny, I shall always associate Stefan Johansson with the mighty Footwork Arrows because Geoff Crammond's first F1 game used the '91 season for team & driver details.  Anyway, good work by Felix this year.

[Matt]

He's also Rosenqvist's agent. And Dixon's.

[Chrill]

The word on the Swedish streets is that Chip Ganassi are looking at dropping their team in IMSA for additional cars at IndyCar. I don't even know if there is a limit to how many cars a team can run, but it would potentially open up two cars run in affiliation with Chip Ganassi. Ericsson, here's looking at you!

[Penfold]

Never doubt the word on the Swedish streets: Ganassi will run three cars next year, Marcus Ericsson joining Dixon & Rosenqvist at the team.  Link thingy: https://www.racefans.net/2019/10/08/ericsson-joins-expanded-three-car-ganassi-team-for-2020/

[Chrill]

Very good, indeed. The Swedish word for street is "Gata", which is strange since most of our words originate in old German. The German word for street is "Strasse". That's not similar to gata, even a little bit.

[Chrill]

Zak Brown seems to confirm that Hinchcliffe is remaining with McLaren for 2020, and rumours put Askew in the other car. Zak is also open to a third car at Indy, perhaps Alonso?

https://racer.com/2019/10/12/mclaren-closing-in-on-2020-indycar-line-up/

[Penfold]

Red Bull has severed ties with Pato O'Ward, and no sooner has the Mexican hit the market than he's being linked with McLaren's IndyCar adventure: https://racer.com/2019/10/18/oward-splits-with-red-bull-and-enters-the-mclaren-indycar-frame/

[Penfold]

McLaren going with O'Ward and Askew for 2020: https://www.racefans.net/2019/10/30/oward-and-askew-get-mclaren-indycar-drives/

[Chrill]

It's a shame with what happened to Hinch, but I do get the feeling McLaren really wanted him but could not get Honda to approve. It's sad to see how inflammatory some of the comments are toward the team, when in fact their driver pairing is super exciting.

[Chrill]

Ericsson's 2020 ride. Sponsored by McLaren's F1 sponsor, Huski!

[Penfold]

Ferrari pondering a move into IndyCar: https://www.racefans.net/2020/05/14/ferrari-indycar/

Does this mean running a team, or them supplying engines and/or chassis?