The 2016 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is on the books and it was pretty much a rerun of last years event with Juan Pablo Montoya winning for the second year in a row. Team Penske owns the streets of St. Petersburg as Penske cars have taken 8 of the 12 events in the Florida city since 2005. Penske cars grabbed the first four qualifying spots. Will Power turned the fastest lap time during the qualifying session to win the pole. However, he crashed his #12 car in practice and sustained a mild concussion. Medical protocol does not permit a driver with a concussion to race, so Power had to watch from the pits. Penske flew in Spanish driver Oriol Servia to replace Power. Servia had to start last. Montoya moved over to the pole. Montoya’s teammate Simon Pagenaud started second and finished second although he led the most race laps with 48. It was Pagenaud’s best outing as a Penske driver. Rookie Connor Daley led 15 laps but finished 13th. Ryan Hunter Reay passed Helio Castroneves with two laps to go to take third place and prevent a Penske podium sweep. Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin, driving for Schmidt/Peterson, finished fifth and showed that he has fully recovered from the 2014 injury that cost him all of last season.
Aleshin was part of the first post race confrontation of the year. French driver Sebastien Bourdais went face to face with the Russian driver about an incident during competition in which both drivers exited to pit at the same time and Aleshin cut him off. Bourdais claimed the same thing happened between the two drivers in the same race two years ago. During the course of the conversation, someone called someone an idiot and the two had to be restrained. Anyway, it wouldn’t be a car race if somebody wasn’t mad at somebody after the race was over. Next the Indy Car gang goes to Phoenix International Raceway on April 2 to race on the “Big D.”
Freeman and Fleenor have a Social Media Feud
The first week of free agency in the NFL has not been a good one for Indianapolis Colts fans. We have had to say goodbye to three key players from last year’s team. Tight end Coby Fleener signed with the New Orleans Saints, right inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman joined the Chicago Bears, and safety Dwight Lowery moved on to the San Diego Chargers.
When the Colts resigned tight end Dwayne Allen, it was obvious that Fleener was no longer in the Colts future. Fleener’s receiving stats were much better than Allen’s but Allen’s skill set, particularly as a blocker, were deemed more valuable to the Colts. Fleener has been accused of not blocking and dropped more passes when he was wide open than he should. Allen’s biggest problem has been keeping healthy. He missed just about all of the 2014 season because of injuries. Counting Stanford and the Colts, Fleenor has played all seven years of his adult career catching passes from Andrew Luck. Now we will see how he does with Drew Breeze.
Losing Jerrell Freeman will hurt. After joining the Horseshoe in 2012 as a free agent from the Canadian League, Freeman has been one of the team’s most consistent and effective defenders at the inside linebacker position. Smart, strong, and fast Jerell Freeman will be very difficult to replace. He will certainly upgrade the Chicago Bear linebacking corps.
Dwight Lowery joined the Horseshoe last season after a year in Atlanta with the Falcons and teamed with Mike Addams to make the safety position one of the strongest areas of the Colt defense. Lowery had four interceptions, one for a touchdown. He made 76 total tackles and had a sack. He too will be tough to replace.
After news of Fleener’s signing by the Saints hit the airways, Coby twittered that last season, a number of Colts gave up after Luck was hurt and just went through the motions, not caring or giving their best and that is why the team had such a disappointing season.
When Jerrell Freeman read that he posted that Coby should look in the mirror because he was definitely one of the Colts who gave up and didn’t seem to care about winning. So two former Colts who are no longer with the team are feuding about what went wrong with the Big Blue in 2015. Time to move on forward and forget the past.
snicewanger@yahoo.com