The Mid-Ohio edition of the Indy Hump Day report will be shorter than normal. Stay tuned Friday night for the Spikeday Report, not only for a colorful op-ed but possibly some big news may be breaking.
Drivers to pick this week:
Penske, Penske, Penske. While George Costanza might not be “Penske material”, Mid-Ohio is. The INDYCAR Empire has over 7 victories at Mid-Ohio from 1992 through present day. Two of those seven comes from Helio Castroneves (who is winless for 2011 still), but Penske’s last win at Mid-Ohio was with current driver of the 6 car Ryan Briscoe in 2008.
It is doubtful Will Power (the true new #1 driver at Penske) will have a bad weekend. With Helio desperately looking to get a win in this disappointing season, and Briscoe’s win here three years ago, using all three Penske drivers would be a wise choice.
Drivers to avoid:
Two drivers have become ver streaky and have just not produced as many thought pre-season. First would be Tony Kanaan, who would have been expected to earn KV their first two poles in the INDYCAR Series for 2011. He fought off Simona hard in St. Pete for third. The first few races his 82 teams and car looked impressive. However it has been Takuma Sato in the #5 Lotus that has won two poles and given KV some of their better races of late. Kanaan is just too unpredictable of recent, and not a likely contender to win this week.
The other driver everyone should avoid picking this week is TK’s former teammate, Marco Andretti. While he regained credibility as a contender with his great win at Iowa, Mid-Ohio has never been good to Marco. His best ever finish at Mid-Ohio was a 6th in 2009, followed by a 9th in 2010. Marco also has a 18th place finish in 2007 and a 25th in 2008 respectively.