Drivers in carts

Do Indycar drivers race Indycars or golf carts?

 Ryan Hunter-Reay
(well, the back of him anyway, we'll get a better one)

 Helio Castroneves
(on Will Power's cart!....is this allowed?)

 

 

Helio, on a bike this time.
And still smiling!

 Tony Kanaan defending 500 champion
(love his shoes)

James Hinchcliffe
(glad he recovered from the hit in the GP)

Simon Pagenaud
(congrats on the Indy GP win)

 Rick Mears - 4 time 500 winner!!!
(got his autograph!)

 Ryan Hunter-Reay
(we told you we would get a better one)

 Dario Franchitti - 3 time 500 winner
(miss him on the track but great to still see him at the track!)

 Jack Hawksworth rookie
(awesome helmet)

 

Carlos Huertas a

(another rookie)

 

 

 

 

 

Indycar Christmas Gifts

 

Great Christmas!

This Indycar stuff is just what we wanted!!
Five more Indycar things to add to our endless collection...

 

 

Dario Franchitti car!

A 2013 Indy 500 shirt.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway hat that Alex is wearing constantly.

Alex's 'Josef' mug, which she won't drink out of because she doesn't want to ruin it. 

And Alex's special delivery Indycar game featuring who else but Josef.  She's very happy.

Note to mom and dad.
Noticeably missing from our gifts, tickets to the GP of Indy.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and got lots of neat Indycar stuff too!

 

Dario Franchitti Cover Photos

 

We just love our Racer magazines.

 

  And we're lucky because in various boxes in our basement are almost all of the old issues.

Today we decided to go thru some old issues looking for Dario.

 

Being the legend that he is....he was on a lot of covers.

 

Here's a few.

 

The earliest cover photo we found.
 

 

Dario headed to Nascar for 2008.
 

June 2011. 


 

Not a Racer Magazine. 
But Dario welcoming everyone to Indianapolis on the
 2011 Visitor Guide.

 

Indycar Offseason News #1

While we've been busy with school, there's been lots happening in Indycar.

Indycar News!...

 

 

Here's some of the news for the offseason

*  One of our favorite drivers, Dario Fran'kitty' has retired due to injuries from his last lap crash in Houston race #2.  We sure hope we'll still see him around the races.  Gonna miss rooting for him to win his fourth Indy 500 next May.

*  Paving of  the new road racing surface for the Indy GP was finished this month.  Can't wait to go to Indy and see it!

*  Indy 500 Rookie of the Year and 2nd place finisher, Carlos Munoz has officially signed with Andretti Autosport for the 2014 season, and is testing at Sebring this week.

*  The inaugural Dan Wheldon Pro-Am Karting Challenge raised over $100,000 for the Alzheimers Association in October!

*  'Turbo' is now on DVD!!!  Didn't get ours yet, hoping for Santa to bring it.  (or mom)

*  Zach Veach receives the Firestone Indy Light KeyBank Community Leader Award
  for his participation in STEM, Racing for Cancer, No Bull(anti-bully), and Miles Ahead.

*  Ed Carpenter Racing signed Mike Conway (2013 Detroit race #1 winner) for 2014.   Carpenter will now only be racing on ovals for the 2014 season, while Mike Conway will race the road/street courses.

*  Josef Newgarden (wearing his shiny 'Strike' racing suit) teamed with Mark Dismore, Jr. to win the 10th annual Robo Pong endurance Karting event at New Castle.

Indycar Leading up to Fontana.

The final race of the season is a day away and lots of stuff is going on in Indycar.
 

 

* Dario Franchitti had a second surgery on his ankle to repair it after his Houston crash.

 

* Alex Tagliani is filling in for Dario at the season finale this weekend at Fontana.

 

* Chip Ganassi Racing is switching to Chevy power for the 2014 season and rumor has it Andretti will switch to Honda.

 

* Tony Kanaan has signed a multi-year deal with Chip Ganassi for the fourth Ganassi car.

 

* Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon will both be going for 250,000 dollar bonus from the Fuzzys Triple Crown at Fontana

 

*  Sebastian Bourdais has signed with KV Racing for 2014 and Simona DeSilvestro could be headed to another team.

 

*  Carlos Munoz will be filling in for E.J. Viso for the season finale.

 

*  In addition to the Indycar Championship being decided between Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon,  The Indy Lights Champion will be crowned.  Will it be Sage Karam or Gabby Chaves???

 

 

 

 

Don't miss the MAVTV 500 Saturday on NBC Sports at 8:00 EST.

 

Qualifying will air Friday at 7:00 EST on NBC Sports

Grand Prix of Houston

 

We Went camping at Assateauge Island for a few days, but

even that didn't keep us away from Indycar. 

Luckily we could get twitter feeds on our phone and followed the races that way.

 

As soon as we got back yesterday we watched the races on dvr. 

Here's what we thought.

 

*  Super scary crash for Dario.  Glad that he will be ok and the fans were ok too. 

*  Good to see the championship get close on Saturday, but felt bad for Helio Sunday with another terrible day.  Hopefully he makes it's a close finish in Fontana.

*  Really cool that Simona got her first podium in Race 1.  She was so excited and Tony Kanaan seemed just as happy for her.

*  Need we mention that Alex was excited Josef finished 5th on Saturday.  She was not nearly as happy Sunday after he had to do a drive thru penalty with a few laps to go.

Franchitti and Dixon at the Grocery Store?

Vrooms, Anyone?

 

 

Walking through a discount grocery today and who did we spy on a stack of cereal boxes but Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

 

There also was another Target Ganassi Driver and Indy 500 winner (2000) pictured, but since he doesn't race Indycars anymore we didn't buy his box of cereal.

 

Funny. 

Dario Franchitti

Dario Franchitti Fun Facts

3-time Indianapolis 500 winner 

 4-time Izod Indycar Series champion.

...and he still made time to answer some questions we emailed to him!  Thank you, Dario.

Turbo

Turbo has arrived!

And, being big Indycar fans,
 we had too see it right away. 

We loved it!

Our favorite part was when he first figured out that he was fast.

Thoughts on the Milwaukee Indyfest

*Ryan Hunter-Reay won the Milwaukee Indyfest, for the second year in a row, capping a successful weekend for Andretti Autosport which had three of their four drivers finish in the top 5. 

*This was Michael Andretti's fifth win at Milwaukee as an owner.  Mario and Michael combined to win 9 races at the track as drivers.

*We thought it was pretty neat that two drivers from our area sat on the poles at Milwaukee this weekend.  Sage Karam (Indy Lights) who also won that race, and Marco Andretti for the Indycar race.  It would be cool to see them repeat the feat at their 'home' track in Pocono in July.

*Our little sister, Alex, was disappointed that her favorite driver Josef didn't win the race on her birthday.

*We've started a race count for how many times Leigh Diffey says Dario Fran'kitty' during a race.  Milwaukee 8 times.

and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to our Dad and all the other Dad's who read our blog!

Dario Fran 'kitty'?

MEOW

 

So are we the only ones who noticed how Leigh Diffey, the Indycar tv announcer, always pronounces Franchitti, Fran 'kitty'?

 

 

 If you hear meowing at the Indy 500 that will be us cheering Dario on.

 

Four weeks to the Indy 500!

Can Dario Franchitti join

A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears

as a four-time Indy 500 winner?