The open wheelers raced at the Milwaukee Mile last Sunday in the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250. Will Power, the Aussie from Down Under, continued his hold on the points lead with a dominating driving performance that brought him his third victory of the season. His name says it all. He took the pole, led the most laps and claimed the checkered flag with a determination not to let the Indy Car Championship slip through his fingers late in the season as he did last year. With two races left in the 2014 series, both in California, Powers Penske’s teammate Helio Castroneves is the only driver who has a reasonable chance to catch him. Powers owns 602 points for the season and Castroneves has 563 points. Frenchman Simon Pagenaud is in third place with 510 points, Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay is fourth with 494.
Pagenaud drives for Sam Schmidt’s racing team. There are some strong rumors that Pagenaud will be jumping to Andretti racing. James Hinchcliffe is apparently on the bubble for the team. Hinchcliffe only has one top five finishes this season, a third at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago. Hinchcliffe has a reputation for being a strong qualifier. But as we all know, it’s not how you start, but how you finish that counts in the end.
Rahal/ Letterman Racing got some bad news a few weeks back. They learned their Army National Guard primary sponsorship would not be renewed for the 2015 Indy Car racing series. It seems Congress wasn’t amused by the 44 million dollars a year that the Guard had been spending to sponsor automobile racing teams in both Indy Car and NASCAR. One congressman called the 12 million dollars spent on the Rahal /Letterman team and the 32 million dollars spent on Hendricks Motorsport driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. a frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars. So Graham Rahal will be digging to find a new sugar daddy. Earnhardt’s sponsorship has been in place since 2008 and will go through to the end of the 2015 Sprint Cup chase.
Viewership is down again for the Indy Car series both in the stands and on television. Even NASCAR is having problems filling the stands of the big racetracks. Automobile racing is an expensive sport to maintain and even to follow as a fan.
The Colts Preseason
The Indianapolis Colts are now two games into the preseason with a record of 0-2. Preseason is an odd time because coaches are looking at individual players on field performance rather than the score of the game. There is also the legitimate fear that a key player may be injured in a game that really doesn’t count in the standings. Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton, Greg Tolar, and Ahmed Bradshaw have all been held out of playing. Second year player Khaled Holmes, who was being counted on to start as center, has been on the sidelines with an injured foot. He should be back in the starting lineup for the opening regular season game at Denver against the Broncos. Meanwhile rookie free agent lineman Jonathan Harrison from Florida has been working at the center position with the starters. Second round draft pick Jack Mewhort is nursing an injured foot and hasn’t been in the mix. Mewhort has been trying to learn both the left guard and the center positions. There is still some uncertainty as to who the starting five will be on the offensive line on opening day. Receiving is thought to be a strong spot with rookie Donte Montcrief turning heads with his work at wideout and free agent acquisition Hakeem Nicks playing with renewed vigor. Nicks was a one-man wrecking crew against the Giants’ secondary last Saturday night.
The Colt defense has looked much improved. Free agent linebacker D’Qwell Jackson has boosted the inside play and helped against the run. Second year linebacker Bjoern Warner is much improved and may help to ease the pain of Robert Mathis’ four game suspension. Warner is putting pressure on the opposing quarterbacks and starting to learn the nuisances of pass defense.
Second year running back Daniel Herron has shown a bit of spark at running back. For running back Trent Richardson it’s been the same-old, same-old. Tight end Dwayne Allen seems to be back from a season-ending hip injury. Replacing Antoine Bethea at strong safety will not be easy. Veterans Mike Adams and Delano Howell are currently battling for the job. Incidentally, Bethea suffered a concussion while playing in the 49ers secondary against the Broncos Saturday night.
Last Saturday night the Colts starters on offense and defense looked great against the New York Giants starters, building up a 26-0 lead going into the fourth quarter. Incredibly the Giants fourth stringers were able to lay 27 unanswered points on the Colts fourth string to win the game. Even though most of the Colts playing in the fourth quarter will not be with the team when the regular season starts, it was still a really sad performance.
The Colts have resigned kick returner Deji Karim who was with the team in 2012 when he took a kickoff back 101 yards for a touchdown against the Texans. It’s the longest return ever in Lucas Oil Stadium. Karim spent last season with the Texans. The Colts hope that Deji Karim will put some pizazz back into the return game.
snicewanger@yahoo.com