Second year driver Alex Palou won the 2021 IndyCar Championship with a fourth place finish at Long Beach. It gave him a point cushion to beat Josef Newgarden’s second place finish. Palou has led in the point chase for most of the season with Newgarden and Patrico O’Ward chasing him. It has been a disappointing year — Scott Dixon, Palou’s teammate at Ganassi racing had hoped to win his seventh championship and tie A. J. Foyt for the most. Dixon was never in contention. The actual winner at Long Beach was Colton Herta who won the last two races of the year and three for the season. Newgarden was second. Look for some big driver changes in the off season. Ryan Hunter-Reay is on the bubble at Andretti Autosports along with James Hinchcliffe. There are several others. Romain Grosjean was the runaway series Rookie of the Year and just might wind up with Andretti in 2022. There are some other F1 drivers who are said to be eyeing the series as a possible landing spot now that it has gone to a mostly road course format. 2021 was an interesting series and had a number of surprises. We hope 2022 is as exciting.
The Indy Eleven soccer club has announced that there will be a ladies professional soccer team in Indianapolis in 2022. This is really good news. The ladies play exciting soccer and will be fun to watch.
The Colts are 0-3 now and will probably be 0-4 after Monday night against the Ravens. Nobody seems to be playing up to their abilities and Frank Reich just seems to look baffled on the sidelines. Carson Wentz does not seem to be the answer at quarterback and the defense just doesn’t seem to be there. It’s going to be a long season.
Several areas in Indianapolis lack access to safe places to play. The mini-pitch at Oscar Charleston Park honors BPC member and former MLS player Ray Gaddis.