By Susan Phillips
The IndyCar season has only been over for six weeks and already, things are starting to get restless in my house. With the Vols football season a disaster and the Titans up one week and down the next, my husband George has already turned his attention back to racing. I knew this was the case this past Monday night when he chose to listen to “Trackside” instead of watching Monday Night Football.
For this to be the offseason, there sure was a lot of IndyCar news dropped in a week’s time. The news ranged from the expected (Verizon gone after next year) to the total surprise (Ed Jones signing with Ganassi); and from the disappointing (Conor Daly out at Foyt) to the news that makes you smile (Jim Cornelison will return to sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” in 2018). For the last full week in October, we IndyCar fans have had a lot to talk about lately.
Sunday night, IndyCar lost one of its last true throwbacks. At the age of ninety-nine, Rolla Vollstedt passed away in his native Oregon on the evening of October 22, 2017.
This past Friday, David Malsher of Motorsport.com wrote an article that quoted IndyCar President of Competition and Operations Jay Frye as saying that the sanctioning body was in the process of reviewing various procedures for the 2018 IndyCar season. The one that caught my eye was the rule that automatically closes the pits anytime there is a caution. If there was ever a reason to stand up and cheer at a computer, this would be it.
On Wednesday, we finally got confirmation on the 2018 lineup for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (SPM). Most felt confident that James Hinchcliffe would re-sign with the Verizon IndyCar Series team he has driven for since 2015. But until the ink is dry on the contract, you never know. As time went on, more and more people were speculating what Hinchcliffe might do. That speculation included driving the No.10 car at Ganassi that Tony Kanaan once occupied, seeing as how that’s the best open seat left.
Every now and then, someone posts something in the comment section here that sends me into a rant. It has happened again. This penalizes the 99.9% of readers of this site who make intelligent comments and know not to take what I say very seriously. I normally don’t take myself very seriously, so why should you?
Last Thursday, the Verizon IndyCar Series released their 2018 schedule. There were the usual leaks that got out, this time about Portland replacing Watkins Glen – so there were no real surprises. Every other race is in about the same place as it was last year, except that Phoenix will return to early April now that it doesn’t have to compete with the Final Four just a few miles down the road. Still, that move was expected so there were really no surprises. In this day and age, it’s hard to keep any secrets.
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