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I'll watch it when I'm ready

Covering IndyCar since the 1970's, there's one thing about the series today that I always dread ... The off-season.

J.R. Hildebrand, Panther Racing Chevrolet

J.R. Hildebrand, Panther Racing Chevrolet

Eric Gilbert

Race action
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda and Will Power, Penske Racing Chevrolet
Three wide racing
Will Power, Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet
Practice starts
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Race start

The last time I saw an IndyCar in fury was at Sonoma the week before the season finale on Auto Club Speedway’s 2-mile oval. I had to work another race - the Labor Day-traditional and 60th annual NHRA Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis while the Verizon IndyCar Series were performing less than an hour away from where I live.

So through the magic of my Verizon FIOS DVR, I taped the INDYCAR MATV500 while trying to stay awake in Indy to catch a bit of it from there.

Radio silence

Guess what? The video is still waiting for me to watch it. And what difference does it really make since there will be no IndyCars competing on a road course or oval until mid-March. Those of us that have followed this part of the sport (and I’ve been working this series in one form or another since the mid-1970s) have nothing to watch or follow until then. All that’s happening is the occasional driver signing or sighting. Oh, and cobbled aero kits being photographed from a mile away on a cell phone? What information does that give?

So it makes little difference that the DVR still holds this race in its cache waiting for me to watch it. I figure there will be time - after F1 is done; after NHRA is done; after NASCAR is done. That would be toward the end of November, so I can get my fix in December or early January before the Chili Bowl anoints another new racing season.

Yes, I know what happened in the race ... Hard to avoid the outcome with tweets, Facebook posts and even with releases from INDYCAR’s public relations corps, but it still will be interesting to see the “how” of the “what” at Fontana. Just not yet. I’ve been happily saturated with F1, NASCAR, NHRA, GRC, WEC, WRC, USAC, SCCA and any other acronym race series I may have forgotten.

The waiting game

As the days get shorter - and then longer once more - it’ll be time enough to relive INDYCAR’s final race of the 2014, which occurred less than six months after its first. Knowing the glacial pace with which the gang at 16th & Georgetown moves these days, I’ll probably be able to watch the MAVTV500 before INDYCAR officially releases its schedule for the 2015 season.

Just saying.

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