Audience participation requested: fearless predictions

Posted by Iannucci | 3/12/2010 | , , | 20 comments »
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It has taken be a mere four years of writing about the subject to realize it, but when it comes to IndyCars I know nothing. I mean, I know a few things like EJ Viso's hat size, the date of Dario and Ashley's nuptials, as well as entry code to Chip Ganassi's super secret underground lair. But beyond that? Pfft - nothing.

Which is exactly the reason I am not making any predictions for the 2010 season. Who wins the Indy 500? Don't know. Who wins the IZOD IndyCar series championship? Probably one of five guys, but beyond that I'll guess with ya. What kind of tragic karmic payback will befall ESPN for not renewing Jack Arute's contract? I shudder to think.

So I am asking you, dear reader, to stake you claim now in the Comments section now, before the 2010 season actually starts. Make you prediction. Call your champion. Call the first out at Indy. Call the number of teams Graham Rahal races for this year. Call the number of times Danica Patrick says "you know" on live television. Call your mom. I don't care what you predict, but whatever you do put it writing now so you can have bragging rights about it later.

20 comments

  1. Anonymous // March 12, 2010 4:22 PM  

    Champion - Ryan Briscoe

    First out at Indy - James Rossiter

    Indy Winner - Townsend Bell

    # of Rahal teams - 3

    Patrick saying "you know" - Way too freaking many

    # of times De Silvestro finishes ahead of Patrick - 2

    Surprise of the season - Mutoh

    Disappointment of the season - Scott Dixon

    # of Americans running full season minus Sao Paulo - 5, which is 2 less than 1995 Cart

    And my Mom, I got her voicemail....

  2. WhosJames? // March 12, 2010 4:54 PM  

    Champ: Brisco

    First out: Marty Roth (even if he's not in it he's always first out)

    Indy Champ: Will Power

    # of Rahal teams: 2

    Danica will say "ya know" 3,682,684 times.... per race

    Surprise of the season: The sisters sell IMS and build a space ship which take them home to Venus.

  3. Anonymous // March 12, 2010 5:23 PM  

    I've already posted my pre season predictions here http://tripleleagueracing.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/indycar-pre-season-picks-and-predictions/. Or you could look on the suggested reading sidebar.

    Anyways here they are:

    Winner: Red car. Likely: Red Car. Dark Horse: Red Car.


    Indy Winner: Red Car. Likely Red Car. Darkhorse red car.

    Motorcycle race tracks will still be parades. Barber will be, awful. Kentucky, Chicagoland, Texas will make us forget Indycar's problems momentaryly. Toronto will be the best street race. 2011 has even more parades, wait, street courses. Possible Atlanta and Fontana for 2011 too. Greater or equal number of Americans in Indycar as in MotoGp. Higher likelyhood of an American winning in MotoGP. And did I mention Red Cars?

  4. Kayla // March 12, 2010 7:00 PM  

    Champion - I think I'll vote Briscoe as well

    First out at Indy - Marco

    Indy Winner - TK (wishful thinking?)

    Rahal - 4

    Danica's "ya knows" - can't count that high

    Surprise - I think Danica may win one

    Races where Milka ends on the lead lap - 1

  5. Allen Wedge // March 12, 2010 7:50 PM  

    Racing will be good, things will continue to progress positively for the league, but Robin Miller and member of the internet will still pretend things are horrible and still whine that its not the good ole days and Robin will contradict things he wrote in the past 5 years at least 9 times.

    Series winner....... Ryan Briscoe
    First Out at Indy: Simona de Silvestro (though still scores 3 Top 5s in the season)
    Indy Winner: Marco Andretti
    NASCAR inventions: the helmet, spoilers, and the checkered flag

  6. Blue Falcon // March 12, 2010 8:07 PM  

    Very well put, Allen Wedge.

    My predictions:

    Champion: Franchitti.

    Indy Winner:Castroneves.

    How many times the Princess says "you know": every other word.

    Surprise of the season:KVRT. Simona De Silvestro.

    Disappointment of the season:AA.

    Bigger disappointment: Tripleleagueracing. Dylan still can't spell and is still a whiny little baby.

  7. Unknown // March 12, 2010 9:12 PM  

    Well, um, you know........

    I don't know, but I can't wait to find out. This should be an interesting year.

  8. Unknown // March 13, 2010 12:13 PM  

    I call that Rahal will hit the wall coming out of 4 at Indy for a 3rd year in a row.

  9. Unknown // March 13, 2010 12:15 PM  

    I also call that if they postpone qualifying because the track isn't easy enough to drive on then they will continue to lose viewers this year because they just don't get it.

    Somebody ask the cowboy how many times he postponed an event because the bull was too tough to ride.

  10. Unknown // March 13, 2010 3:19 PM  

    Series Champion - Dixie

    Indy500 Winner - TK

    Indy500 Pole Sitter - Ryan

    Indy500 RoY - Simone

    Top 10s at Indy - Simone, Sarah, Davey

    Top 5 at Indy - Danica

    First out at Indy - Sato

    Series RoY - Sato

    Wins 2 Road Courses Late in Season - Sato

    Wins 1 Road Course - Justin

    Milka top 10 finishes - 3

    Winner of Most Ovals - Dixie

    Sam Hornish comes back to Indycar, runs Sportscars, & buys Eldora from Smoke - announcement post-season.

  11. Sean // March 13, 2010 3:45 PM  

    IndyCar champion: Ryan Briscoe
    First out at Indy: Mike Conway
    Indy 500 winner: Scott Dixon
    Rookie of the Year: Takuma Sato
    First-time winners: Takuma Sato, Mario Moraes
    Biggest surprise: Simona de Silvestro
    Biggest disappointment: Helio Castroneves

    And I'm having trouble picturing who would hire Hornish in this IndyCar now that it's over half road/street course... Dan Wheldon, a superior oval driver to Hornish in my opinion, has rapidly become irrelevant and I wouldn't be totally surprised to see him out of the series in two years...

  12. Unknown // March 13, 2010 8:27 PM  

    IndyCar champion: Ryan Briscoe
    First out at Indy: Simona De Silvestro
    Indy 500 winner: Ryan Briscoe
    Rookie of the Year: Takuma Sato
    First-time winners: EJ Viso
    Biggest surprise:Justin Wilson
    Biggest disappointment: Danica Patrick

    I predict Graham Rahal will hit the wall at Indy coming turn 4 the third year in a row too!

  13. Anonymous // March 13, 2010 8:44 PM  

    I predict that Edward will continue to follow me around the Indycar blogging community and attack me in the comment section, from pressdog to oilpressure over to here and back to my site. Sadly, I'm not the only blogger he's attacked. I had hoped I had exclusive rights to this troll, but I guess not...

  14. Dustin Dearman // March 13, 2010 9:29 PM  

    Speedway Susan knows what she is talking about.

    I agree 100 percent.

    And chassis competition in 2012.

  15. mmack // March 14, 2010 6:11 AM  

    HOORAY! I FINALLY got my @#$%ing Google account to work!

    Anyhow, it's fearless prediction time from the Fabulous Mrs. mmack and I, so here goes:

    Indy 500 Winner -> Ryan Briscoe

    My choice for 2010 Champion -> A Penske or Target Chip Ganassi Racing Car

    Mrs. mmack's choice for 2010 Champion -> Tony Kanaan, based on the number of commercials with him on Versus yesterday. Per her comment: "It's obvious they want to throw it to him."

    First out at Indy -> EJ Viso

    Mrs. mmack's prediction for First out at Indy -> Dan Wheldon

    Danica saying "you know" -> Much less than her new phrase picked up from racing tin tops: "We were just out there getting comfortable with the car . . . "

    Number of times Simona finishes ahead of Danica -> 5*

    * However, Simona will be ignored for these accomplishments since she is not a GoDaddy Girl and is not racing in NASCAR, Boogity Boogity Boogity

    # of Rahal teams -> 3

    # of races before Dale Coyne regrets hiring Milka Duno, no matter how much $$$ she brings -> 1

    Remember, if these all come to pass, you read it here first. If nothing comes to pass, forget it.

  16. The SpeedGeek // March 14, 2010 8:12 AM  

    Champ - Briscoe
    Indy 500 Winner - Helio
    RoY - Sato
    Biggest Surprise - Viso (taking a big step up with KV)
    Biggest Disappointment - Danica (too distracted to run well as consistently as she did last year)
    1st Out @ Indy - Bell
    Danica's "you know"s - Once or twice.

    It's going to be a better season than people think. What, it's going to get WORSE than last year? Please.

  17. Blue Falcon // March 14, 2010 12:13 PM  

    Okay, Dylan, let's get a few things out of the way.

    1. I am NOT following you. I have far more important things to do than to follow YOU!

    2. Your opinions are whiny, self-centered, egotistical, myopic and most of the time have little basis in reality. Which basically lumps you in with 98%of the people who post on IndyCar message boards. And I have a major problem with that. Was I attacking you? Yes, perhaps unfairly. Perhaps I shouldn't expect you to think about someone besides yourself and what YOU want, which is the gist of most of your blog posts.

    I will try to be a little less vitriolic. However, I don't agree with your belief that IndyCar should be NASCAR without fenders, which seems to be your point of view. I also have issues with your constant criticism of the series, which sometimes isn't factual or fair to me.

    The way I see it, you have 4 options. 1. Continue down your whiny, myopic, miaanthropic path that you are on now. 2. Accept the series for what it IS, not what YOU would like it to be-I don't expect that to happen, you don't come across as that snaguine. 3. Change the situation, which you can't do as you don't own the series. 4. The simplest solution. STOP WATCHING! If you hate IndyCar so much the way it is, why are you watching it?! Go back to watching NASCAR. Oh, that's right. You can't watch that either. After all, Marcos Ambrose (Australia) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) are in the series, and we know how you hate those "furriners." Perhaps you should start watching only USAC. That will give you what you want and we don't have to hear your-well, I won't repeat it-point of view.

    BTW, learn how to spell. That would solve a problem right there.

  18. Anonymous // March 14, 2010 1:15 PM  

    Lets take this over to my blog so that we don't pollute Jeff's site. But I will say, I DO NOT want Indycar to become NASCAR without fenders, in fact I've crtisised people who do want that before too. On the other hand, it can't become Champcar 2.0 either!

  19. Anonymous // March 14, 2010 2:02 PM  

    Oh, and Ed, Ambrose and Montoya are 2 of my favorite NASCAR drivers.

  20. JP // March 17, 2010 10:22 AM  

    This prediction is late and off the program, but I have had this suspicion for a few weeks, and since I can't post on my blog until after easter....
    My prediction. Texas or Iowa will be Danica's final IRL race until a warm up for indy next year. Andretti will get a massive buy out from interested parties in the nascar camp. That $$$ will expand RHR to a full season and put JRH into a car for the remainder of the season...