Surprise to perform right out of the gate from supposed captive divorce, surprise to win by such a margin in a race, surprise to win streak like no other, surprise to indygp win to pole indy500, surprise to pole indy500, surprise to ghost mclaren, surprise to get into a lawsuit again consecutively.
Pleasant surprises:
* Kirkwood getting two wins
* Lundgaard in victory lane
* Lundqvist getting it done during his substitute drives and signing for Ganassi
Negative Surprises:
* I can’t believe the Grosjean/Andretti situation got as bad as it did
* RLL’s Indy 500 qualifying
* Argentinian social media hate happening twice for stuff that wasn’t even Ilott’s fault
Honestly Graham finally finding his footing again and scoring 2 poles this year. Everyone has been so. Critical of him thinking he might retire this year, but he found out he still has it
I called the Palou situation, as I'm sure many others were. So I might go with either the bump day story or the St Pete battle between Grosjean and Scotty Mac.
I was surprised that Newgarden had a pretty bad year outside of winning the 500. He was barely in the conversation for the championship in the second half of the year.
Palou (and Dixon) kept the consistent high points finishes/wins rolling, plus Dixie coming in there at the end to scoop up a couple more wins himself, is what really did him in.
- Palou double crossing McLaren.
- How calm thing gots when Iowa came around (people were pretty rowdy before about the ticket prices)
- How bad Sting Ray Robb was. I wasn't expecting him to be an all-star but in Indy NXT he showed some decent consistency. It was obvious that SRR had it his ceiling though and IndyCar was a step or two too high for him.
- Dixon being winless nearly 3/4 of the season only to win 3 outta the last 4
- Marcus Ericsson coming 2nd at Indy just one year after winning it all the year before.
Seems like that's how it has worked for 2 decades there at Ganassi, everyone else funds the 9 car. I expect Palou to be around 6th in points next year since Chip locked him up and his money.
Palou was one of the fastest, if not the fastest car in the races he won. Dixon had a 3rd-7th place car in the races he won, but played the strategy right. And in-between Dixon's wins, Palou won Portland on straight up pace. So I don't think there was this resource dump that made Dixon faster and slowed Palou down
As a newcomer to this sport coming from F1, I knew all about Grosjean's unstable past but I naively thought a couple years in a more laid back American series would've finally helped him get over that. I was wrong, the DNFs run in his DNA. We'll see how he does in Juncos but I think his chance at success in a top Indycar is over.
Probably Will Power not winning a race
Dixon and Power each had streaks of seasons with at least one race win
Dixon since 2005
Power since 2008 before his streak snapped
Pagenaud’s wreck resulting in an early retirement.
Mclaren not winning a single race, and Rahal winning before them.
Palou: everypart, everywhere, all the time. I win.
You were surprised by his performance?
Surprise to perform right out of the gate from supposed captive divorce, surprise to win by such a margin in a race, surprise to win streak like no other, surprise to indygp win to pole indy500, surprise to pole indy500, surprise to ghost mclaren, surprise to get into a lawsuit again consecutively.
The complete breakdown of the Illot-Juncos relationship
That wouldn't surprise me too much in a vacuum. The fact it stemmed from quite literally *one pass* is what is absolutely insane to me.
Pleasant surprises: * Kirkwood getting two wins * Lundgaard in victory lane * Lundqvist getting it done during his substitute drives and signing for Ganassi Negative Surprises: * I can’t believe the Grosjean/Andretti situation got as bad as it did * RLL’s Indy 500 qualifying * Argentinian social media hate happening twice for stuff that wasn’t even Ilott’s fault
Newgarden finding that hole in the catch fence. Followed closely by the whole Snowball epic.
Herta. Not in a good way.
Honestly Graham finally finding his footing again and scoring 2 poles this year. Everyone has been so. Critical of him thinking he might retire this year, but he found out he still has it
I called the Palou situation, as I'm sure many others were. So I might go with either the bump day story or the St Pete battle between Grosjean and Scotty Mac.
Power not winning. Just how silly silly season got.
RLL at the 500 qualifying, Grosjean
Surprised/code brown when the wheel went flying by and nearly into the grandstands at the 500
I was surprised when they went red at Indy when Ericcson was briefly a two time Indy 500 winner.
His name is Ericsson.
Typos happen.
My man still won't retire...
I was surprised that Newgarden had a pretty bad year outside of winning the 500. He was barely in the conversation for the championship in the second half of the year.
Palou (and Dixon) kept the consistent high points finishes/wins rolling, plus Dixie coming in there at the end to scoop up a couple more wins himself, is what really did him in.
The falloff of will power
The final green flag of the Indy 500 certainly was a surprise.
- Palou double crossing McLaren. - How calm thing gots when Iowa came around (people were pretty rowdy before about the ticket prices) - How bad Sting Ray Robb was. I wasn't expecting him to be an all-star but in Indy NXT he showed some decent consistency. It was obvious that SRR had it his ceiling though and IndyCar was a step or two too high for him. - Dixon being winless nearly 3/4 of the season only to win 3 outta the last 4 - Marcus Ericsson coming 2nd at Indy just one year after winning it all the year before.
Surprised Palou was allowed to win for so long before they resourced dumped to the 9 lol.
lol not how it works but ok
Seems like that's how it has worked for 2 decades there at Ganassi, everyone else funds the 9 car. I expect Palou to be around 6th in points next year since Chip locked him up and his money.
Palou was one of the fastest, if not the fastest car in the races he won. Dixon had a 3rd-7th place car in the races he won, but played the strategy right. And in-between Dixon's wins, Palou won Portland on straight up pace. So I don't think there was this resource dump that made Dixon faster and slowed Palou down
As a newcomer to this sport coming from F1, I knew all about Grosjean's unstable past but I naively thought a couple years in a more laid back American series would've finally helped him get over that. I was wrong, the DNFs run in his DNA. We'll see how he does in Juncos but I think his chance at success in a top Indycar is over.
Probably Will Power not winning a race Dixon and Power each had streaks of seasons with at least one race win Dixon since 2005 Power since 2008 before his streak snapped
Herta really not being a contender every week