Rest in peace.
IndyCar World Championships in Las Vegas
IndyCar teams have saved the best for last
Qualifying
Complete mix-up in qualifying with Kanaan grabbing the pole for Lotus-KV, Servia in 2nd, Carpenter in 3rd, Tagliani in 4th and Briscoe rounding out the top 5.
The Championship
It is now a two horse race, Dario Franchitti has a 18 point lead over Will Power. They both lost out on the extra point for pole so there are a possible 52 points still to gain in the race. It will be a difficult job for either of them to lead the most laps when they are starting 17th and 18th to gain 2 of those points. Both will have to have gone with a higher downforce setup in order to move up through the field. Dario however, proved that he could move up when starting further down the order last week. Will Power will have the advantage of the first pit stall since he started first last week, we saw how pit order has a big effect on the race last week.
Rookie of the Year
It is impressive that Hinchcliffe is now in the lead of the Rookie of the Year race, being that he missed the first race of the season. There is only a 6 point spread between Hinchcliffe and Hildebrand so their race will come down to whoever finishes ahead.
They’re fast!
In practice, cars were hauling 224 laps making this the fastest track aside from Indianapolis.
Weather
Weather should not be an issue other than drivers coping with the desert heat.
Winner
Ed Carpenter is hot and my pick to win but I would not count out Dario Franchitti, I am sure he has a fast race car that can move through the field as we saw last week.
…
34 cars and a completely mixed up field, IndyCar has saved the best for the final race of the Dallara IR05 chassis. This should be a good one.
Kentucky Indy 300 Preview
Two races to go, here is the tale of the tape.
The Championship
Will Power has an 11 point lead over Dario Franchitti and a 59 point lead over Scott Dixon. There are still a possible 106 points available in the final two races. Points are won by the following: 50 points for winning, 1 point for pole and 2 points for leading the most laps in each race.
Oval Trophy
Scott Dixon has a 17 point lead over Dario Franchitti in the AJ Foyt Oval Trophy with Will Power and Oriol Servia still mathematically in the hunt for the win.
Rookie of the Year
JR Hildebrand has a 14 point lead over James Hinchcliffe. With both Panther and Newman Haas showing competitive last year at Kentucky, the race is wide open and defined by who blinks first and makes a rookie mistake.
It’s an Oval!
Penske and Ganassi will be the obvious favorites, this is the first mile and half oval of the year so we have to look at 2010 results to see who was competitive. The surprise last year was Ed Carpenter and Dan Wheldon for Panther Racing. Additionally, Newman Haas put in a good showing. The complete underdog last year was Bertrand Baguette qualifying 6th for Conquest Racing. With 2008 Firestone Indy Lights oval meister Dillon Battistini making his first ever IndyCar start for Conquest, it will be interesting to see how he adapts to the car.
Lots of Talented Rookies
8 rookies in the field with JR Hildebrand, James Hinchcliffe, Ana Beatriz, Wade Cunningham, Pippa Mann and Dillon Battistini all have won on a mile and half oval before in Indy Lights.
Weather
It is the first race of the Fall season so temperatures will be a bit cool with Saturdays in the high 50s and Sunday in the low 60s.
Pole
Scott Dixon is my pick and Buddy Rice or JR Hildebrand as the underdog.
Winner
Dario Franchitti is my pick and Dan Wheldon as the underdog.
…
In conclusion, I make it pretty clear that I was never a fan of the mile and half tracks. However, with there being so few of them on the schedule these days, I have really started to enjoy them as they have a regained their novelty with me again that they had lost when the series was all oval.
2011 TV Ratings Updated
Just a quick note, I have updated the TV Ratings page to include all 2011 races up until now.
TV Ratings: Pole-Day Qualifying
Pole Day qualifications drew a .35 Nielsen TV rating Saturday (May 9) on Versus. That means about 385,000 TV households nationwide tuned in to the cable channel broadcast. It’s not exactly a Super Bowl type rating, but it’s as good as any Indy Racing League race so far this year.Well, actually, Pole Day drew just less than the Long Beach race (388,864 households), but better than IRL races in St. Petersburg and Kansas earlier this year. Versus’ broadcast of the second day of Indianapolis 500 qualifications on Sunday nearly did as well, with 322,000 TV households tuning in.
- Source: Indiana Business Journal
It’s a decent rating. How ratings are calculated are from quarter hours and to maintain a average .35 over 26 quarter hours (6.5 hours / .25) isn’t half bad. The average means that some parts (for instance Happy Hour) were probably higher than say the periods of 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM but all still averaged to just under what Long Beach did.
The best comparison to make is to other coverage on Versus itself. The NHL playoffs are probably the highest rated Versus programming and is going on right now.
Versus has not experienced a better NHL postseason to date. The rising cable sports network is seeing all-time highs in viewership. Last Wednesday’s telecast of the Capitals-Penguins Eastern Conference Semifinals Game Three drew 1.489 million fans, making it the most-viewed second-round NHL Playoff game on cable since Detroit-St. Louis drew 1.769 million viewers to ESPN in 2002. Overall, Versus averaged 814,738 viewers for its first ten NHL Conference Semifinal telecasts, up 38% from 590,229 viewers for the same span last year.
- TV By the Numbers
NHL is on Versus for I believe its 3rd year, it takes time but ratings slowly grow as the fanbase are converted into knowing that this is the channel for NHL. Indycar fans will do the same over the next couple years. The NHL doing so well will also help Versus become part of basic packages in other outlets, a win-win situation for Indycar fans.
