And more importantly, will it matter?
Suppose its due to gorging Thyself upon
motorsports over the Mid-Ohio weekend. Having listened to both Indy NXT races,
IndyCar Qualie and race, along with tuning in for Sunday’s Unlimited Hydroplane
Heats and Gold Cup finale on the Ohio river. I’ve simply become waterlogged
regarding motor racing!
Not to mention casually following the World
Cup. Hell even managing to find a few games on FOX Sports radio, streamed via
Zed Intrawood’s – when they felt like airing them.
Along with strangely feeling deflated over my
Numero Uno IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward winning His first race of the season in
Lexington. As I’d wanted Christian Lundgaard to stick the knife in Zak Brown’s
punting Him Kerbside!
As its quite odd, since I’ve never been a fan
of Lundgaard’s, but feel He’s getting a raw deal a la James Hinchcliffe, Oliver
Askew, Theo Pourchaire, but I digress…
Adding to this malaise I suppose is the
absolute Beatdown Enzo Fittipaldi put upon the entire Indy NXT field at
Lexington.
Leading Friday’s practice, then claiming both
poles for the Double header weekend. Along with a new pole record. And then
leading both races wire-to-wire to go from 27 points behind to leading the
title fight by 17 markers was nothing short of impressive!
Nikita Johnson who led the points standings
entering Mid-Ohio slid down to third, 20 points adrift, while thee other TK’.
Nope, not Tommy Kendall or Tony Kanaan, butt Tymek Kucharczyk, Fittipaldi’s HMD
Motorsports teammate wound-up second after Mid-Ohio.
As these three drivers have played leapfrog
with each other over leading the championship. As Fittipaldi had four wins, two
poles and nine Top-5 finishes after Mid-Ohio. (431 points) While Johnson had
two wins, 0 poles and six top-5’s. (411 points) And Kucharczyk had one win, 0
poles and ten top-5’s, (414 points) with everyone else some 100 markers adrift
of this trio.
But guess we really shouldn’t have expected
things to stay status quo, Eh?
Nashville Super speedway’s 1.33-mile concreate
oval was an impound race. Presumably due to the weekend’s format being a two
day event. Meaning drivers had to set their cars up for the race before
qualifying, with no adjustments afterwards.
Matteo Nannini claimed pole, with A. J. Foyt
Enterprises Alessandro de Tullio second. As de Tullio who has the most poles
this season with seven, came up just 0.0931-seconds short of His eighth pole.
With Fittipaldi’s two lap average speed being 177.427mph vs. de Tullio’s 177.114mph.
Nikita
Johnson was third and the driver Kevin Lee calls the Oval-meister’, Myles Rowe
lined up fourth.
Don’t know what happened to points leader Enzo
Fittipaldi, who qualified P14. Or Tymek Kucharczyk down in a lowly 17th, Youch!
Sadly, Kucharczyk’s woes weren’t over, as the
Pole’ finished an uncharacteristic P18; three laps down, albeit I cannot find
out any reason for this. As there’s no report upon His race outing, Say What?
Fittipaldi gradually worked His way forward for
an eventual 11th place finish, but all the action naturally was up front. And
all that was covered…
Nannini had a spirited fight with teammate
Johnson over the lead, which the Italian never surrendered. With the exception
of Rowe passing the Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR Boyz’ briefly before a
yellow flag came out.
The race’s main battle was over who’d
eventually finish runner-up? As Johnson, Lochie Hughes and Rowe all took turns
sharing it, before Johnson finally secured second place with Row claiming the
podium’s final step.
Yet it was Nannini cruising home with a 5.6+
second lead for His second win of the season. While Johnson reclaimed the
points lead over Fittipaldi by a lone, solitary marker; 451 vs. 450 points. With
Kucharczyk falling 25 markers behind in third with 426 points.
Only four races remain. With this weekend’s Portland
event, (Aug 9th ) Milwaukee (Aug 30th) and Laguna Seca’s season ending Double
Header. (Sept 5-6th)
Thus two permanent road courses and a historic
oval sandwiched in-between round out the calendar’s 17 events.
Although the last three year’s Indy NXT
champions, i.e.; Dennis Hauger, Louis foster and Christian Rasmussen are all
currently IndyCar drivers. Hauger’s tenure isn’t certain next year.
As for every Indy NXT champion making it to
IndyCar and securing a future there, there’s far more who have either never
gotten to IndyCar, or had very short tenures…
As Linus Lundqvist’s name is on the tip of my tongue. With the likes of Oliver Askew, Ed Jones, Kyle Kiser, Spencer Pigot, you get the idea – not being round in IndyCar anymore. And the path to an open IndyCar seat is only becoming more daunting each year…
