Jul 16

Written by: The Commish
7/16/2010 1:02 PM 

Indy's back on the streets of Toronto and Dario's at the top of the Starter Stats table, just an rch (37.7% vs. 35%) ahead of Will Power.  Helio is the third most popular pick with over 11% of all players showing him on their RD#25 roster, followed by Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe.  Good on everyone who picked Paul Tracy, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan and Danica; better luck next time to the players who picked Davey Hamilton and Adam Carroll, neither of whom will be behind the wheel in Canada this weekend.

I'm thinking most players started Dario and Will, Dario and Helio or Dario and someone else.  And a couple of teams started three IndyCar drivers, including longshots like Wheldon, Tags, Marco, Simona De Silvestro and Graham Rahal.  That could work depending on what happens in the other three races.

NOTE:  I haven't seen nearly as much reaction to IndyCar's 2012 chassis announcement as I expected to, which gives me serious pause, because like the cliche' says, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.

I truly believe a whiz-bang future rules package would have elicited responses from Roger, Chip, Michael and Mario, Humpy, A.J., Bobby Rahal, other owners and a couple of corporate sponsors.  But we didn't get whiz-bang; we got an opaque compromise that we true IndyCar fans have to support -- what choice to do we have other than giving up? -- as we decay into Cubs Fans who keep the faith on the outside but die a thousand deaths every season on the inside.

The NASCAR Nationwide and Truck series are at Gateway and Brad, Carl and Kyle are the top picks for the sedan starters, even though Shrub is taking the weekend off, along with fellow JGR teammates Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, because Matt Dibenedetto and Brad Coleman are driving the No. 18 and 20 cars weekend.  Harvick is on almost 10% of the lineups and after that we've got over forty hope-and-a-prayer picks, many who will also be somewhere other than the American midwest this weekend.

Despite being winless this season Ron Hornaday is the player favorite for the truck race with 31.4% of all teams picking the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Racing Chevy driver.  MIA Kyle was second with 21.5% of the picks followed by Happy himself, Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon.  Brad Keselowski has some picks too, and with Penske hor$epower and support he could surprise everyone with a win for Dodge.

Hmmmm.  Should I change Dodge to Ram in the database?  Naaa.  We'll do that next season.

Finally we have the Rolex Grand-Am race at Thunderbolt in Joisey and the No. 01 Ganassi BMW/Riley was picked by almost 70% of all players who put in starters.  The No. 10 Riley/Ford got 14% of the picks, the No. 99 12% and a few players started the No. 59 Porsche, the 60, 61 and 6 FoMoCo  -powered cars, among others.  

My take is another win for the Pruett/Rojas DP car, either Keselowski or Harvick in the Nationwide race and Good Will Power taking the checkers in Toronto.  The truck race is always a crapshoot but I'd say Austin Dillon has as good a chance as any, based on recent performances.

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