The Verizon IndyCar Series has caught World Cup fever. Well, at least the English and French portions.
The international soccer competition contested every four years stirs national pride throughout the world, and the INDYCAR paddock is no exception with France and England reaching the semifinals over the weekend.
The excitement was evident in several locations at Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday’s Iowa Corn 300. Go anywhere near an Ed Carpenter Racing transporter and you were likely to hear Jordan King yelling, “Football’s coming home!”
The 24-year-old from Warwick, England, has been among the most boisterous drivers cheering for their home team. King, who drives the ECR No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet on road and street courses this season, has endured through the English soccer team’s World Cup dramas in Russia, including a win in the Round of 16 over a spirited Colombia decided by penalty kicks. England has been ousted from the World Cup three times in the past on penalty kicks.
“The disappointment happens every four years,” King said. “The success has only happened once, in 1966 – not that we’re counting or anything.”
The rallying cry for England’s fans craving another World Cup title is “Football is coming home.”
“I would quite like to be home, but I love just being able to text friends back home and see what’s happening because, without fail, every four years, everyone is like, ‘Football is coming home.’ There’s even a song about it and everyone gets really excited and nothing ever happens.
“This year, I think people are almost jokingly daring to believe it might happen now. We’ve gone further than we have in 28 years, so we can be happy with that so far.”
While in Iowa to watch teammates Ed Carpenter and Spencer Pigot compete in the race, King celebrated when England completed a 2-0 win over Sweden on Saturday, setting up a semifinal match with Croatia at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday.
“It will be good fun,” King added. “To be honest, we’ve got to the semifinals, so I think everyone back home are probably very drunk and very excited that we made it to the semifinals.”
With a win on Wednesday, England would advance to the finals for the first time in 52 years. It could potentially take on rival France, which squares off in its semifinal with Belgium at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Four-time Indy car champion Sebastien Bourdais, a native of Le Mans, France, has watched his national team use an energized young squad to advance with an aim to win the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
“There really isn’t any small teams or weak teams and it shows,” said Bourdais, pilot of the No. 18 Team SealMaster Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan. “The level overall is really high and it’s anybody’s tournament, really.
“You put something in place that works and you can go all the way. It’s going to be pretty interesting.”
Fellow Frenchman Simon Pagenaud is enjoying the soccer team’s run as well.
“It’s just phenomenal to see how good they’re doing,” the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Chevrolet said. “It’s really a lot of fun.
“I think the World Cup, what is interesting is your nation is going for a competition against the rest of the world. It’s just a lot of energy. As a human being just following your team – obviously, I live in America full time and I’m definitely Americanized – but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m patriotic as well and I love to see these young guys doing so well. They’re great athletes.”
Pagenaud, the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion, sees the parallels between the elite soccer athletes and Indy car drivers.
“Didier Deschamps made me dream in 1998 with the World Cup when he won it (as a player),” Pagenaud said. “Now, he’s the coach and doing a phenomenal job as well. So it’s great to see the team extracting the best out of a situation. That’s what we do here, too. There’s a lot of common ground. To me, it’s just awesome to see a team do so well and just be happy.”
British-based team Carlin has not been shy to show its patriotism, celebrating England’s win Saturday by blaring music from its compound at Iowa. Team manager Colin Hale is enjoying every second of it.
“It’s coming home,” Hale said, repeating the refrain.
“For the people of England, football is massive. It’s noble. The more success they get, it just raises more and more interest. I’m a little bit envious because I imagine back in England today the atmosphere is pretty special.”
Max Chilton, from Reigate, England, drives the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet for Carlin. He, too, is caught up in the euphoria.
“In my lifetime, we’ve never got to the semifinals,” Chilton said. “So to see ourselves get to the semifinals is amazing. We have one of the best (professional) football leagues in the world (Premier League), but it’s made up of a very little number of English players, so for us to get enough players together to get, so far, a semifinalist team, is amazing.
“I’m loving the ‘It’s coming home’ theme because everyone is just putting up hilarious videos like scenes from old movies and editing it with ‘It’s coming home.’ It’s just a great atmosphere. I’ll be in an English pub on Wednesday in Toronto watching.”
Though born in Dubai, Ed Jones is of British descent, so is clear where his loyalty lies.
“I’m English, but I was born in Dubai, so I’ve got to support England,” said Jones, driver of the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “It’s going well for them, so hopefully they’ll win it.
Jones faces a dilemma because his girlfriend is French. Apparently, though, football is thicker than romance.
“As long as France don’t win, I’m all right,” Jones said. “All she does is go on about it and it’s pretty annoying already.”
Should France or England win in the semifinals (or both), the championship is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET Sunday. The drivers’ attention could be divided since warmup practice for the Honda Indy Toronto, this week’s Verizon IndyCar Series race, starts at 11:40 a.m. the same day.
The Honda Indy Toronto, the 12th of 17 races on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule, airs live at 3 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.