As when’s the last time a seatbelt scuttled a
Championship, Eh?
The IndyCar House Organ had an entertaining
story prior to Nashville’s season finale about how Will Power was once again
chasing the No. 10 for the Championship title. Claiming it was Déjà vu all over
again for DJ WillyP’…
This made me Flashback to one season in
particular, when Power crumpled and lost to Dario “REO Speedwagon” Franchitti,
again! Going outside and yelling expletives out loud upon the Tacoma waterfront
roadside. Although I can no longer remember if it was 2010 or 2011? But I’m
guessing it was the latter. Although it could have also have been 2012 when
Power crashed at Fontana and lost a third consecutive title in-a-row to The
Dude! Aka Ryan Hunter-Reay…
As Franchitti drove the Target Chip Ganassi
Racing No. 10 entry to three of His eventual four IndyCar Championships from
2009-11. As I tend to recall that ’09 was the year Ryan Briscoe threw away the
title when smacking the wall in Motegi on a late race pitstop.
Tuning into IndyCar Radio and the voices of
Mark Gravelly’ James and Davey Hamilton bright ‘n early Saturday morning, since
I wanted to know if rain would be interrupting the day’s festivities? As usual.
I was surprised to hear that Alex Palou would be taking a nine place grid
penalty for another unapproved engine change at Nashville Super Speedway. Then
further learning that ScottyMac’, aka Scott McLaughlin and Alexander Rossi
would also incur the same penalty for their unapproved engine changes. Before
both Santino Ferrucci and Christian Rasmussen joined this party…
The week got off to an auspicious start, when
Nolan Siegel being fourth quickest found that dreaded Yump’ in Turn-3 or was it
4? Losing control of His McLaren chariot and tagging the wall heavily! As this
delay to repair the Safer Barrier was perfectly timed for me to wonder off and
have breakfast…
Palou was quickest in Practice-1 before
qualifying, when the Spaniard made things interesting, Righto? Although
certainly not what Palou was expecting. After a first lap of 200mph+, the
second lap was markedly “Slower” at 198mph and change – seeing Palou wind-up
P15 before incurring His grid penalty to ultimately start 24th, Youch!
While a steely jawed Will Power who didn’t seem
overly confident in the post Qualie’ interview on the grid will start fourth in
Sunday’s race. Since obviously the weekend’s main focus is which of these two
drivers will join a very elite group of Three-times IndyCar Champions, which
currently numbers seven by my unofficial reckoning.
With Louis Meyer, Ted Horn, Jimmy Bryan, Rick
Mears, Al Unser Sr, Bobby Rahal and Sam Hornish Jr the current members of this
very elite 3X Winners “club”.
As you could say that Kyle Kirkwood, who
claimed His very first Oval track Pole position was somewhat overshadowed.
Although He’d certainly get attention late evening after rain delays when also
finding the dreaded bump and damaging His Andretti mount heavily!
If you’re reading this site, then presumably
you already know the outcome of this year’s IndyCar season finale at Nashville.
As full disclosure. Even though I’ve been a
Mega’ Fan of DJWillyP’, aka Will Power’s
over a decade, I was Rootin’ for Alex Palou to win His third IndyCar
Championship at Nashville.
Yet I certainly wasn’t expecting my Internet
Service Provider (ISP) whose motto is: Spectrum, We Care! To take a Dump right
before the most critical portion of the entire race!
Being Blind, have I mentioned that lately,
Y’all? I prefer listening to the IndyCar Radio broadcast vs. television, since
I feel I get a far better description of what’s occurring.
Thus I was listening to lead announcer ‘Ol Gravelly’
(Mark James) getting ready to read the Top-10 drivers before going to the first
commercial break when my speakers inexplicably went silent, Ah Frick!
This happens frequently when listening via
Indycar.com, with either just a brief interruption before resuming. Or
sometimes the page will tell me it’s buffering…
Still being in the Dark and missing the action,
I tried refreshing the page and Crickets! And after trying this a few times, my
browser repeatedly said Hmm, you’re not connected to the internet, WTF! Telling
me I needed to do all sorts of unnecessary troubleshooting, Urgh!
So I skidattled out to the living room to see
if my Telie’ was also not working? But low and behold, Thars Kevin Lee’s voice,
Sigh!
So I scrambled back to Thy Confuzer’ and log
off and rebooted, Urgh! With the IndyCar Radio broadcast coming back withtheir
Driver Analyst Davey Hamilton lamenting over how Power had to come into pitlane
to have His seatbelts re-secured, say What!
With Hamilton and James musing over Power Going
five laps down – now somewhere’s round lap-28 Me Thinks?
Thus the Championship had effectively been
handed to Palou on a silver platter, who seemed to be having less than a
stellar race. But perhaps this was due to knowning He just had to finish the
race, regardless of position?
While the race didn’t really seem that exciting
initially, until the final caution flag for Marcus Ericsson with some seventy
laps remaining made fuel strategy paramount!
As suddenly I was torn between three, Err four
drivers going down to the final 30-laps to be victorious. With Conor Daly being
a Dark Horse Contendah’ for an unlikely maiden IndyCar win. Which would have
been a wonderful Cinderella ending to His IndyCar future…
Whilst my fingers were crossed for Davey
Malukas, who was battling ah-Mighty with Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward. And even
though Pato Who? Is my Numero Uno driver, I was also aware that Colton Herta
had failed to win on an Oval.
As Kudos to Herta finally scoring His maiden
Oval track W’. With Pato Who? Coming up just short in second. With Homeboy
Schlick! And IndyCar’s current villan Josef Newgarden coming home a distant
third…
Whilst Palou claimed His third Astor Cup trophy in four seasons! As Power can only lament what could have been? Before learning that His seatbelt came off a second time late in the race. Which is a most bizarre way to lose a championship!
