Newgarden

[TravelGal]

Latest is that he's out of the hospital (after collapsing in the parking lot after the race) and scheduled for an eval on Thursday. Those are mandatory if an impact is greater than 80 G's. That's something I didn't know.

[pfc_m_drake]

I'm not real clear on the situation, but I *think* the fact that the passed out in the parking lot put him under the concussion protocol.
Back in the day (e.g. Olvey and Trammel) they developed a 'concussion protocol'. Basically (from my understanding) it was a set of reactionary tests where it measured the driver's response to some input...basically like a video game...they played stuff for you on a TV screen and you reacted by pressing buttons/etc. They did that before the season which established your 'baseline' score.

In order to clear the 'concussion protocol' what would happen is that, after a serious accident during the season, a driver would be required to score within a certain percentage of their times on the same tests that they completed pre-season in order to be cleared to drive.

It was simple enough - and I assume they have something similar in place today. Newgarden will be evaluated under this protocol on Thursday.

What I always wondered: What kept a driver from sandbagging their test results in the pre-season testing? Presumably they were told, "Look - this involves your entire life from here on out...so don't cheat." But I wouldn't put it past some drivers to do so anyway.

Sorry...I'm rambling. I think your point was probably how shocking it was for Joseph (a world class athlete) to pass out in the parking lot after 'minor' contact at Iowa - to which I completely agree.

[opinionated ow]

I'm not real clear on the situation, but I *think* the fact that the passed out in the parking lot put him under the concussion protocol.
Back in the day (e.g. Olvey and Trammel) they developed a 'concussion protocol'. Basically (from my understanding) it was a set of reactionary tests where it measured the driver's response to some input...basically like a video game...they played stuff for you on a TV screen and you reacted by pressing buttons/etc. They did that before the season which established your 'baseline' score.

In order to clear the 'concussion protocol' what would happen is that, after a serious accident during the season, a driver would be required to score within a certain percentage of their times on the same tests that they completed pre-season in order to be cleared to drive.

It was simple enough - and I assume they have something similar in place today. Newgarden will be evaluated under this protocol on Thursday.

What I always wondered: What kept a driver from sandbagging their test results in the pre-season testing? Presumably they were told, "Look - this involves your entire life from here on out...so don't cheat." But I wouldn't put it past some drivers to do so anyway.

Sorry...I'm rambling. I think your point was probably how shocking it was for Joseph (a world class athlete) to pass out in the parking lot after 'minor' contact at Iowa - to which I completely agree.

Marshall Pruett wrote a story on the modern version of this on Racer today. It sounds like he passed out a fair while after the accident, when the crowd was leaving. They chose to helicopter him because of the departing traffic.

Potential career making opportunity for Santino Ferrucci if the worst-case scenario happens, and Newgarden is ruled out. He has been nominated by Penske (or more specifically Tim Cindric) as their back-up

[SteveH]

Josef is getting a little salty on social media.... Wonder how Penske feels about that?

https://twitter.com/champwebdotnet/status/1556425890476744705
see his response after getting called out.

https://twitter.com/IndyCaronNBC/status/1556438107196628992?s=20&t=QcuVpI-n_2sN978mP3_2RQ

https://twitter.com/IndyCaronNBC/status/1556463304582860800?s=20&t=QcuVpI-n_2sN978mP3_2RQ

don't really care

[TravelGal]

Interesting that most of the Twitter comments are very pro-Grojean. My first thought was that Newgarden drew the short straw this week and was tasked with taking out Grosjean . Maybe not literally but Rahal never says boo to a goose yet he called out Grosjean a few weeks back. That stuck with me and I've been watching how other drivers race him ever since that. Plus, Newgarden may be tired of being Captain America, Mr Nice Guy. That unconscious spell might have reminded him he's only got a few years let, if that, and he'd better get out there and GET OUT THERE.

[Hard Driver]

Newgarden should have been penalized. He just punted Grosjean.

[TravelGal]

Sounds like they decided not to penalize much of anything. Having missed the last part after they switched channels, I enjoyed the Cliff Notes version. If Servia is still driving the pace car, he's probably got more laps in than any other driver. https://racer.com/2022/08/07/dixon-edges-mclaughlin-to-win-in-nashville-chaos/

[SteveH]

Sounds like they decided not to penalize much of anything. Having missed the last part after they switched channels, I enjoyed the Cliff Notes version. If Servia is still driving the pace car, he's probably got more laps in than any other driver. https://racer.com/2022/08/07/dixon-edges-mclaughlin-to-win-in-nashville-chaos/


A full 46 percent of the race was run behind the pace car, up from 43 percent in 2021. Last year, 30 percent of the field failed to finish; this year, it reached the staggering 50-percent mark. The only area of improvement came with cautions — down from nine to eight — and penalties, also down from nine to eight.

:rofl:

https://twitter.com/marshallpruett/status/1556434983790620672?s=20&t=ELH1jyOmeqt4hry_qvgwkg

:rofl:

[nissan gtp]

Newgarden should have been penalized. He just punted Grosjean.

100%. No excuse for letting that one go.

[SteveH]

100%. No excuse for letting that one go.

Team owner owns the series.... :\

[TravelGal]

Not a major fan of Marshall Pruett but his "Cool down lap, Nashville" is a classic. For this discussion: "There’s no need to hand out The Golden Bowling Ball award, because damn near every driver deserves it to some degree. But I did love Romain Grosjean’s comment of ‘This isn’t bowling’ after the race in reaction to the heated clash with Josef Newgarden."

Favorite line after discussing the winners from each of two races, "All I’m saying is there’s no need for the Ganassi team to do a lick of strategizing for the 2023 Nashville race. Find a Foyt car, brace for impact, and head to victory lane."

[pfc_m_drake]

Not a major fan of Marshall Pruett but his "Cool down lap, Nashville" is a classic. For this discussion: "There’s no need to hand out The Golden Bowling Ball award, because damn near every driver deserves it to some degree. But I did love Romain Grosjean’s comment of ‘This isn’t bowling’ after the race in reaction to the heated clash with Josef Newgarden."

Favorite line after discussing the winners from each of two races, "All I’m saying is there’s no need for the Ganassi team to do a lick of strategizing for the 2023 Nashville race. Find a Foyt car, brace for impact, and head to victory lane."So here's my problem: I'm not a Pruett hater. Far from it.
BUT
The reality is that, every wing assembly in the picture he showed in his article (https://racer.com/2022/08/08/pruetts-cooldown-lap-nashville-edition/) would have been reusable during the CART era with a couple of hundred dollars worth of repair work in the teams shops.
THANKFULLY
Because IndyCar has committed to the 'Dallara Company Store' model in the modern era, rather than a couple of hundred dollars worth of repair work in their own shops...each team with a front wing on that truck (in the picture within the linked article) will pay a hundred grand for a new front wing assembly from Dallera.

My issue with Marshall is that he writes the article from the perspective that this situation is somehow NOT IndyCar's fault. Look...IndyCar made their choice. They subscribed to the Dallara Company Store model. By their own admission, the Dallara Company Store model saves team owners gazillions of dollars per year vs the Open Market competition model. So...quite frankly...the team owners can therefore afford to purchase an extra new front wing assembly following the Nashville race for $80k since they've already saved millions and millions of dollars on chassis parts during the 2022 season alone.

This Nashville race was awesome...and I mean AWESOME. A harken back to the CART street races of the days of old, where the best of the best were rewarded and those who underperformed were punished unmercifully. The only thing I'm sad about is that I planned on setting up a chat session for this race...which didn't happen because of the weather delays. Too bad, because this race was pure fun....and a race that rewarded excellence and punished all others.

FYI - I'm not taking this out on you TG...it's just that I'm all about rewarding excellence and punishing the mediocre. Said another way: Al Jr. wins the 1995 CART championship instead of JV based on how the Toronto race would have played out under modern rules. That hardly seems fair...but is the reality.

Maybe I'm old fashioned...but I LOVE track that reward excellence and punish anything less.

Nashville is one of those tracks. IMO.

[TravelGal]

No worries, pfc. You write with a thorough knowledge of history on your side. Therefore you take a position as to whether he was right or wrong or thinking this or that. I didn't take a point of view. I just thought the writing was hysterically funny. Negative, yes, but well done and good copy.

[pfc_m_drake]

No worries, pfc. You write with a thorough knowledge of history on your side. Therefore you take a position as to whether he was right or wrong or thinking this or that. I didn't take a point of view. I just thought the writing was hysterically funny. Negative, yes, but well done and good copy.:)

I felt insanenly bad after I posted what I did. I was mad at Marshall's analysis because this was (literally) the first IC race I watched in a lon time that was compelling (to me) from start to finish.

So I was mad and you were the first person to come along. :(:(:(

One of these days when you book flights to Europe for me, please don't route me through Seoul to get even...:eek::p:rofl: