Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap.
 

Dodged a bullet, that could have been wicked. Glad no one was injured. I love Sato when he pulls off those moves, but only when it works.

He’s an idiot, they usually don’t work. Especially on the 1st lap!

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

They were actually given a 10 lap penalty. And Sato is an idiot. Turn 2 of a 500 miles race at a track that is no stranger to tragedy. There is a difference in racing hard and being dangerous. That was dangerous and I hope he is held accountable.

Lots of folks on social media saying they shouldn’t race Pocono, by that logic they shouldn’t race Indy either. Racing is dangerous

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

Good competitive race with several lead changes.Sitting in the air conditioning having a fine day :6:

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

I didn't watch but when I saw Sato was involved that was all I needed to know.

I hope indycar stays put at pocono

Why is there such a double standard for Sato. He is always on the gas and driving hard.
Now if he was doing that same stuff and throwing "sliders" on a Saturday night. He would be a hero.

Could the design of the car be the problem and not the track?

Lynn

Wow,I hope your not serious! don't see to many 200mph. Sliders !

Sato has always been a menace, and if he wadded up competitors at the same rate in a sprint car, he would be hugely unpopular in the pit area.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

Okay, I'll play the Devil's Advocate here:

These boys are paid to go hard and go for the gap. There are seams in the track down the Long Pond Straight. They run the whole length of the straight and are perfectly parallel to the ones (on each side of them). If you watch the replay from Rossi's car, as Sato is coming past him, at a very high rate of speed, on the outside, and timing his move, Rossi's RF wheel can actually be seen going to the right, towards the wall, as noted by the seam in the track. Sato, coming down, maybe never figured Rossi would try and move right to set up his entry into Turn 2?

Sato is not an idiot. He is good. Take your non-American blindfolds off. And besides, unlike Rossi, he has nothing to lose for he is not in the championship run. Maybe Rossi should have used a little bit of head and breathed the throttle? Hell, it was only Lap 1 and he has a lot to lose.

These guys are going for all of the marbles. Had A.J. Foyt made a move like this 40 years ago, he would have been hailed a daredevil/hero/icon/badass.

Two sides to every story. Sometimes three. But Sato is a badass shoe. Far from an idiot.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

The interview with Hunter Ray says it all. They can not come from the rear and pass the field the way the cars are. So they all jump anything they can get from the start and any restart. TK said the same thing about starting in the rear. Power was lucky on the yellow timing.

You are completely wrong about Rossi’s front tire going to the right!! And also there wasn’t even a hint of a gap!

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

I don't get the calls to leave Pocono. If racing left every track were a couple bad crashed happened at we'd have very few tracks left.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

I think you are onto something here. No one can breakaway due to the package & the "detuned" performance. The performance gap is nowhere near what it used to be so these starts/restarts when all are bunched up leads to super aggressive moves as it is hard to pick them off 1 at a time once the race gets going.

Add in the fact that sometimes guys screw up & you have a recipe for big pileups.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

When it comes to safety, we always say we need to learn from our past. The crash that we had yesterday was very similar to last years crash. We are just lucky that a driver was not hurt. All of the ingredients of a bad wreck were present. Two years in a row of a violent wreck is definitely a trend. I am not sure how you can watch any of the videos of Robert Wickens rehab and not be convinced that a change is needed.

Indy cars have been at Pocono for many years and should absolutely stay there. Wickens wreck last year was 100 percent his fault and this years was Sato doing what he does best, driving over his head.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

Dont care what year it is, or if it was AJ. If AJ took out 5 cars on lap one of a 500 mile race people would say it was a stupid move too. If there was a handful of laps to go? sure go for that move and if it happens it still sucks, but at least then there would be an understandable reason for the move. Lap one? hell no. Plus, this has ZERO to do with "non-american blindfolds" thats just race baiting at its finest. Dont care who it was that would have made that move, just so happens it was as driver who happens to be non-american.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

It does look like Rossi was drifting right setting up the turn

Comparing AJ to Sato is a bit of a stretch, don't you think? AJ earned those accolades without wrecking everyone near him. You weren't comparing apples to apples or even oranges. Your analogy was more like comparing apples to anchovies.

By the way, your "non-American" comment was bull.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

But you could say that about every oval they race on and a number of Road and Street courses too. Anytime you get an Indy Car up fast enough that it can take off and get into a fence you can have a crash similar to what happened to Robert. Look at the Houston crash Dario had at Houston in 2013. Looked a lot like what happened to Robert.

There is always room for change and improvement for safety. We saw how one of these improvements worked with Hinches onboard video Sunday.

Re: Indycar - Pocono. NASTY wreck again. This one on 1st lap
 

Sato definitely made a mistake, but it doesn't mean he's driving over his head or an idiot. Wickens made a bad move last year too and it cost him dearly. None of this is the tracks fault
Yes it is harder to pass, so making up positions on starts/restarts is a way to make some hay, but this is true in any series on any track from the pros to Paragon.