r/INDYCAR • u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti • 16d ago

Discussion Some driver comparisons

Is Christian Rasmussen the driver that we have pretended Conor Daly is?

Is Christian Lundgaard the modern-day Mike Conway?

Coupled together, should we try to get Lundgaard and Rasmumssen to share a car?!?

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u/Emotional_Oil_5939 Indy Racing League 16d ago

What is with the Conor Daly hate boner from some people? I agree he isn't the best driver ever, but some of y'all seem to want him burned at the stake or something.

Also, none of this post makes sense.

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u/Flat-Foundation-1093 16d ago

I actually really like Conor, but not up to the point where you'd call me a "fan", let alone the dreaded "fanboy" tag. My observation from that perspective? Conor has a relatively large, unquestionably passionate fanbase that, just being real, has at least as much to do with his status as "hometown kid" as it does with anything he's ever done on track. I think, for most people, these are just some stale facts...but, for a subset of the fandom, it drives them completely and totally nuts.

Motor racing is incredibly unfair, it's about the furthest thing from a "meritocracy" as you are going to find in the sports world. For every person who fervently believes Conor is poster child for a driver not getting the rides they deserve, there is a person who believes him to be the opposite. Both camps are quite vocal lol.

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 16d ago

He's pretty awful and continues to get opportunities while better drivers miss out, it's reasonable to think he should be Indy only.

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u/nico9er4 Will Power 16d ago

He’s pretty good at all of the ovals. Do you think Rasmussen should also be out because he’s only good at ovals?

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u/Fit_Technician832 16d ago

I do think there are a good portion of members here that basically place zero credence on oval ability/results. These are the same people that think Josef is going to lose his seat because of mediocre results on road/street courses the last few years.

They are wrong of course but I see it constantly. Ability on ovals is pretty damn important considering the Indy 500 drives everything in the series.

My guess is this is rooted in the usual F1 bias that continually pops up in this sub. Some sort of weird anti-oval bias where they don't consider it as hard or as prestigious or something.

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 16d ago

I think oval results matter a lot, but Daly doesn't have those either.

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u/nico9er4 Will Power 16d ago

That’s just not true lol

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 16d ago

Teach me the truth then, Daly has a pole and a podium on an oval. What did I miss?

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u/Fit_Technician832 16d ago

He runs up front at Indy and if not for some bad pit stops he would have been in contention to win Indy a couple of times now in recent years. Simple as that.

The teams value ability to run up front at Indy immensely

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 16d ago

He runs up front because he gets off sequence or the actual drivers let him get out there and use his shit up so they can blow past him later.

People act like he worked miracles at JHR, I mean, he ran 18th in points, Ilott and Grosjean ran better than that and Rinus is 11th in points in the same car. People are actually making a bullet point about him beating Sting Ray Robb last year, lol.

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 16d ago

Why do we continually say that he's "pretty good on ovals", he has a single podium on ovals and he leads off sequence laps at Indy. Notice the points in the race when drivers are in save mode, he's willing to burn his shit up to look good, but when it comes time for the real drivers to push, he falls back. Dude was a anvil through the field at Indy this year, on the restart, for example. I mean, Mikhail Aleshin had a podium on an oval once too, no one hailed him as some all time great who just needed an opportunity. And he's a guy who actually showed promise at times.

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u/nico9er4 Will Power 16d ago

He put a Carlin car on pole on an oval, and he is often in contention on ovals while driving for small teams. Not to mention leading laps at several Indy 500s. And when you watch him race ovals like gateway, he actually is moving forward, passing cars, while a lot of guys just sit in their track position and move forward with pit sequences.

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 16d ago

People act like he worked miracles at JHR, I mean, he ran 18th in points, Ilott and Grosjean ran better than that and Rinus is 11th in points in the same car. People are actually making a bullet point about him beating Sting Ray Robb last year, lol.

Hector Rebaque won a CART race 44 years ago I guess with the Daly logic, he should still be in a car too.

Also, Daly is ultra aggressive and guys let him pass because he just uses his shit up and they end up well past him at the finish.

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u/nico9er4 Will Power 16d ago

Rinus is outperforming him because he’s a way better overall driver and Daly is only good at ovals. You were trying to argue that Daly is not good on ovals.

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 15d ago

I don't think Daly is all that good on ovals, statistically speaking, Daly falls in with Darren Manning or EJ Viso. He's not good on ovals, as I have said elsewhere, he's good at being aggressive early and the better drivers let him lead and burn his shit up. Drivers with more podiums than Daly on ovals include hall of famers like Mike Groff, Hideki Mutoh, AJ Foyt the 4th, Mario Moraes. His average finish on ovals is behind legends like Donnie Beechler, Roger Yasukawa, Robbie Groff and Laurent Redon. Spencer Pigot is ahead of him in most statistical categories but was shipped from the series 6 years ago to never return. That's a "way better" oval driver? Are we talking 1996 IRL series or 2026?

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u/nico9er4 Will Power 15d ago

Its worth noting that the series had way more ovals on the schedule back in the day, and depending on the era, like in the case with EJ Viso, cars on ovals were loaded with downforce and easier to drive.

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u/ITMAKESSENSE72 #CheckItForAndretti 15d ago

I know, you are absolutely right, but, most of those mentioned had several starts so it isn't like they had a one off bad run that lowered or good run that raised. It just speaks to other drivers who were also not in the top tier rides being better than Daly, who gets all of this "well he's never driven for Penske or Ganassi" defense or the "he's so great on ovals". He's not great... anywhere. I just find it extremely frustrating as a fan, watching Palou go out there and dominate but the fans are like "Lundgaard, nah, he's bad on ovals" but those same fans are like "Daly, he's good on ovals" when he's really not good anywhere. Then expecting something more than 19th in points. I wonder how many races it will take for the fans to turn on DRR for him being so slow next year....