This past Monday I wrote about the busy week at Chip Ganassi Racing during the previous week. One part involved the announcement that Carvana would be Jimmie Johnson’s sponsor in the No. 48 car, as Johnson campaigns all of the road and street courses. I briefly touched on the speculation surrounding that car on the ovals, but I caught myself before going down that rabbit hole with the final sentence of that paragraph; The speculation on this can take place on another day.
In Search of an Oval Specialist
Posted in IndyCar on November 6, 2020 by OilpressureFastest Seat in Sports Hits a Speed Bump
Posted in IndyCar on November 4, 2020 by Oilpressure
There will be a big change at the tracks next season for the NTT IndyCar Series. Honda announced on Monday that they will no longer support the two-seater program that has been advertised as the “Fastest Seat in Sports”.
A Very Busy Week at Chip Ganassi Racing
Posted in IndyCar on November 2, 2020 by Oilpressure
Please Note: There are actually two posts for today. This post is strictly about events that have transpired in the last week, while we were away last week in Rochester, MN at the Mayo Clinic for my wife, Susan. Below this post is an update on our trip and Susan’s condition. Realizing that some come here strictly for IndyCar commentary, I decided to split them up. The post on Susan is directly below this one, entitled "An Update From the Mayo Clinic". – GP
It was a busy week at Chip Ganassi Racing last week, while I was away. It all started on Saturday, October 24. The masses were assembled at St. Petersburg for the NTT IndyCar Series finale, so that was an appropriate spot to announce the plans for Jimmie Johnson in 2021. He will be in his familiar No. 48, but his sponsorship for his first IndyCar season will come from online auto retailer Carvana.
An Update From the Mayo Clinic
Posted in IndyCar on November 2, 2020 by Oilpressure
This site is mostly about racing and the NTT IndyCar Series. I do bring my personal life in here quite often, but some get irritated when I stray too far from motorsports and I get that. Rather than intermingle the two subjects into one post, I decided to split them up for today.
As most know, Susan and I traveled to Rochester, MN last Sunday so that Susan could seek the very best treatment in her battle with pancreatic cancer. My father died of this exact disease in 1994. I recognized that she was experiencing the same symptoms that he had, so we caught it relatively early. Unfortunately, it wasn’t early enough to get to it before the tumor wrapped itself around major blood vessels, making it inoperable by most standards.
Random Thoughts on St. Petersburg
Posted in IndyCar on October 26, 2020 by Oilpressure
Greetings from the frozen tundra of Rochester, Minnesota! Our flight and a snowstorm both hit Minneapolis at about the same time. We rented a Toyota Corolla to make the hour and fifteen minute drive to the south to Rochester. The further south we drove, the heavier the snow got. There were times that we were sliding around and I could look out into the fields going by, and I couldn’t see the horizon between the snow on the ground and the snow still falling. Those of you that live in the north probably know what I’m talking abut, but we’re not used to seeing snow like this in October. It is currently 27° as I type, but on Monday – the low will be 12°
St. Petersburg Preview
Posted in IndyCar on October 23, 2020 by Oilpressure
The 2020 NTT IndyCar Series champion will be crowned this weekend in a surreal setting for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This is usually the site where we kick the season off, not bring it to a close. Quite honestly it seems like two or three years have passed since that fateful Friday the 13th back in March, when IndyCar made a last minute decision to cancel this race. A lot has happened since then, both on the track and off.
Will the Ovals Ever Come Back?
Posted in IndyCar on October 21, 2020 by Oilpressure
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize that oval track racing is becoming an endangered species in the NTT IndyCar Series. Just a quick glance at next year’s schedule compared to the schedule as recent as 2015 shows a shocking decline in just a few years. The 2015 scheduled featured six oval races; the Indianapolis 500, as well as races at Texas, Fontana, Milwaukee, Iowa and Pocono. The 2021 schedule has the Indianapolis 500, a double-header at Texas and Gateway – four races at three oval tracks.
