Saturday's IndyCar race was an edge of your seat, thrill a minute spectacle, as exciting as any race we've ever seen. Saturday's IndyCar race was almost certainly too dangerous for the competitors, and we were very lucky everyone escaped serious injury.
Races like Saturday show how entertaining IndyCar's oval product is. Less than 10,000 people were at Fontana to see it, and the ratings will likely be subpar at best.
Race Control has made it a precedent this season to not penalize pit road infractions until post-race. That precedent prevented the eventual race winner from receiving an in-race penalty that would've likely kept him from winning.
All six of these sentences, while in some ways contradictory, are all essentially true, and that's why IndyCar fandom is up in arms in frustration after Saturday's MAVTV 500. It's the frustration of knowing what's wrong and either a.) not knowing how to fix it, and/or b.) not knowing if those in charge are capable of fixing it, or worse, don't acknowledge there is a problem.
I missed the first 90 laps of the race due to family obligations, but text messages were letting me know how fast and furious the action was. At lap 90, I finally made it to a TV to watch the race with my 15 year old sister and parts of her family off and on (Her grandparents were even nice enough to let us watch during dinner). Because of this, I saw the race without being on Twitter, for the first time at a non-Indy race is quite some time. Thus, my reactions are mostly uncolored by what was going on on social media.
During most of the race, I was basically doing a Steve Matchett impression, a cacophony of WHOAs and WOWs. I could barely stay seated, and for the most part I didn't. My texting partner was letting me know there were people calling it pack racing, but I didn't quite see it that way, at least not like it was in Vegas. There, the cars were stuck in their line, and thus it was two and three-wide lap after lap all the time. On Saturday, there was a lot of two and three (and four and sometimes five) wide, but the cars could get by in relatively short order. This plus the skill of the drivers probably saved us for more crashes, despite some very aggressive moments.
Of course, the crashes at the end of the race between Will Power and Takuma Sato, followed by the last lap horror wreck between the Ryans Briscoe and Hunter-Reay made it clear how dangerous this race was. The drivers for the most part were not happy with how things went, and given that they are the ones who risk their lives for our entertainment, we owe it to them to listen. No one is saying this isn't dangerous and potentially life threatening, because it always will be. However, the sport has an obligation to not create unnecessary risk. If the drivers felt the race conditions were an unnecessary risk, than they were.
Finding the right package for ovals is a difficult task. Too much one way the race is boring. Too much the other way and everyone's holding their breath for the wrong reasons. The problem is how much does finding that package actually matter? Everyone saw the crowd on Saturday, and worse, everyone knew it was coming since it was another date change that put the race in California in June in the afternoon. Even worse, that rightful complaining forgets that Fontana hasn't drawn well since it returned to the schedule in 2012. Milwaukee and Pocono feel like they're on the edge as well, and Texas is always at the whim of Eddie Gossage. No other oval has gotten past the rumor stage in terms of getting added to the schedule. So other than Indianapolis and maybe Iowa, IndyCar's oval situation is a disaster.
Add to all this the Graham Rahal non-call. Now, this season most pit road related penalties have been assessed after the race, and for the most part, that's not been an issue. However, in this case, we had a piece of pit equipment end up on a hot track in a position that resulted in a caution flag. Regardless of whether it was intentional or whether it was Graham's fault, that should have been an exception to the precedent. That should have been an in-race, drive through penalty. Now in fairness, the late yellows meant that Graham could've gotten his way back to the front in time and still won the race, and his part in the win was perfectly legitimate and congratulations to him. He still should've had to deal with that handicap, even if it's not his fault the officiating dropped the ball.
What wraps all of these issues together is the general feeling that no one running IndyCar is capable of solving these problems. We know the oval situation is a problem. We know we can't have anything close to pack racing. We know the schedule is hurting all the stakeholders. We know Race Control is inconsistent at best. What we don't know is what the plan is from Miles and company? Do they know these are problems? Do they care? No one is talking, and when they do, it's mostly meaningless corporate-speak.
No one who's made it this far loving IndyCar wants to be negative about the ways things are, but right now, it's hard not to be frustrated. Saturday's race was in many ways a microcosm of IndyCar at the moment: thrilling racing that skirts a little too close to disaster that nobody is watching, with no plan to fix it that anyone outside can tell. That's how a race that broke the record for lead changes could cause such consternation. The only saving grace for IndyCar is the blowback means that someone still cares. Any more apathy from their potential customers would be just another nail in the coffin.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
When Father and Son Battled for the Crown
This Sunday of course is Father's Day. With that, domestic racing is mostly taking the week off (deservedly so in the case of IndyCar after their 10 week marathon).
Sons following their fathers is nothing new in racing. Stock cars have the Pettys, Earnhardts, and now the Elliots and Kenseths. F1 has the Hills and the Piquets, and IndyCar of course has the Andrettis, Rahals, and the Unsers. This post is about the latter and what they did 30 years ago. I don't know how big a deal it was then (1985 was the year I was born), but I'm pretty sure that if this happened today, it would be huge. I am of course talking about when Big Al and Little Al fought to the very end for the CART championship.
Even from reading about it and then seeing the races on YouTube (big thanks to Andrew Sopher and his amazing collection of old races he's posted for that), it's a phenomenal story that really can only happen in racing.
Big Al was at the time a 3 time Indy 500 winner and the 1983 national champion. However, he was coming off a disappointing 1984 and saw him go winless and finish just 9th in the points. It looked like his time as a full-time Penske driver was done, but with Rick Mears still recovering from his horrible crash at Sanair, Unser was kept around to sub for Mears on the road courses. At least that was the original plan.
Little Al, meanwhile, was still establishing himself. In 1984, he won his first career race. For 1985, he would move from Galles Racing to Doug Shierson's outfit, driving the famed Domino's Pizza Hot One. The car would be a Lola. The March was still the dominant chassis at the time, but the Lola gained notice the year before when Mario Andretti drove it to the national championship.
As 1985 started, it looked like Mario was primed to repeat as champion. He won three of the first four races at Long Beach, Milwaukee, and Portland, with a 2nd at the Indy 500 (to Danny Sullivan in the famous Spin and Win). Alas, it all fell apart for Mario after that. Crashes (including one at Michigan that broke his collarbone and forced him to miss a race for the first time in his career), fires, and mechanical failures littered the rest of his season and limited him to one top five the rest of the way.
Other contenders in 1985 included Sullivan and Bobby Rahal. Sullivan started well, but a five race slump from Portland to Road America took him out of contention. Rahal had a fast car all year, winning three times and earning six poles. What doomed Bobby was a poor start. In the first six races, his best finish was 9th. He was the hottest driver of the second half, but the damage had been done.
Little Al also started slowly, finishing 9th, 25th, and 7th in the first three races. He first got hot at Portland, finishing 2nd. He followed that up with consecutive victories at the Meadowlands and Cleveland. Big Al, meanwhile, was doing what Big Al tended to do: bring the car home and score good points. Not counting Milwaukee, where he demurred to Mears, his *worst* finish through Pocono was a 7th at Road America. At Pocono, Big Al finished 3rd to Mears and his son and took the points lead for the first time. By then, it was clear that Unser, Sr. was not just a fill-in driver anymore.
However, that was when Big Al faced setbacks for the first time in 1985. At Mid-Ohio, he lasted just 12 laps before being felled with a broken suspension. Little Al would finish 4th. At Sanair, Big Al led the most laps but wrecked from the lead with 27 laps to go. His son would finish 3rd* and take the points lead.
(* This race ended with the green flag inexplicably being waved as the field came off turn 4 on the final lap. Pancho Carter passed Johnny Rutherford before the checkered flag and took the win before officials realized that was insane and gave the win back to Rutherford. Something to note: Officiating was *always* screwy.)
Neither Unser did much at the second Michigan race, but a Senior was 2nd at Laguna Seca and Junior 3rd. At that point, son led father by 3 points. At Phoenix though, Senior won the race (his only win of the year) in front of Junior to take a 3 point lead himself into the season finale at Tamiami Park in Miami. It was officially down to father vs. son for the championship.
It came down to the final laps. Sullivan and Rahal were comfortably 1-2 and finished that way. Little Al was in 3rd, and late in the race Big Al was in 5th. If it stayed that way, Little Al would've won the title by a single point. Big Al wouldn't give up though. As the laps ticked down, he started to catch Roberto Moreno, and with five laps to go, he passed Moreno to move into 4th. That's how it stayed, and Al Unser, Sr. had won his third national championship by just one point over his son.
Here's video of the dramatic closing laps and the post-race interview with the two. The race was talked about on Senior's SportsCentury episode. That segment is here. The emotion is apparent both at the time and after the fact.
If one were to pick an IndyCar related story that would make a good 30 for 30 type documentary, the 1985 season would certainly qualify. The father/son story would be fascinating alone, but you also have a classic Indy 500, the Sanair lunacy, a tire controversy that postponed the Michigan 500 a week, and Mears's coming back from his injuries. You also had the first career IndyCar win for Emerson Fittipaldi, and the only IndyCar win for Uncle Jacques Villeneuve.
Fathers and sons excelling in the same sport is nothing new. Fathers and sons being contemparies for a little while isn't completely out of the question either. But a father and son (or mother and daughter) being at the absolute top of their sport and competing against each other at the same time? That might not be seen again for a long time, not just in racing, but in any sport.
Sons following their fathers is nothing new in racing. Stock cars have the Pettys, Earnhardts, and now the Elliots and Kenseths. F1 has the Hills and the Piquets, and IndyCar of course has the Andrettis, Rahals, and the Unsers. This post is about the latter and what they did 30 years ago. I don't know how big a deal it was then (1985 was the year I was born), but I'm pretty sure that if this happened today, it would be huge. I am of course talking about when Big Al and Little Al fought to the very end for the CART championship.
Even from reading about it and then seeing the races on YouTube (big thanks to Andrew Sopher and his amazing collection of old races he's posted for that), it's a phenomenal story that really can only happen in racing.
Big Al was at the time a 3 time Indy 500 winner and the 1983 national champion. However, he was coming off a disappointing 1984 and saw him go winless and finish just 9th in the points. It looked like his time as a full-time Penske driver was done, but with Rick Mears still recovering from his horrible crash at Sanair, Unser was kept around to sub for Mears on the road courses. At least that was the original plan.
Little Al, meanwhile, was still establishing himself. In 1984, he won his first career race. For 1985, he would move from Galles Racing to Doug Shierson's outfit, driving the famed Domino's Pizza Hot One. The car would be a Lola. The March was still the dominant chassis at the time, but the Lola gained notice the year before when Mario Andretti drove it to the national championship.
As 1985 started, it looked like Mario was primed to repeat as champion. He won three of the first four races at Long Beach, Milwaukee, and Portland, with a 2nd at the Indy 500 (to Danny Sullivan in the famous Spin and Win). Alas, it all fell apart for Mario after that. Crashes (including one at Michigan that broke his collarbone and forced him to miss a race for the first time in his career), fires, and mechanical failures littered the rest of his season and limited him to one top five the rest of the way.
Other contenders in 1985 included Sullivan and Bobby Rahal. Sullivan started well, but a five race slump from Portland to Road America took him out of contention. Rahal had a fast car all year, winning three times and earning six poles. What doomed Bobby was a poor start. In the first six races, his best finish was 9th. He was the hottest driver of the second half, but the damage had been done.
Little Al also started slowly, finishing 9th, 25th, and 7th in the first three races. He first got hot at Portland, finishing 2nd. He followed that up with consecutive victories at the Meadowlands and Cleveland. Big Al, meanwhile, was doing what Big Al tended to do: bring the car home and score good points. Not counting Milwaukee, where he demurred to Mears, his *worst* finish through Pocono was a 7th at Road America. At Pocono, Big Al finished 3rd to Mears and his son and took the points lead for the first time. By then, it was clear that Unser, Sr. was not just a fill-in driver anymore.
However, that was when Big Al faced setbacks for the first time in 1985. At Mid-Ohio, he lasted just 12 laps before being felled with a broken suspension. Little Al would finish 4th. At Sanair, Big Al led the most laps but wrecked from the lead with 27 laps to go. His son would finish 3rd* and take the points lead.
(* This race ended with the green flag inexplicably being waved as the field came off turn 4 on the final lap. Pancho Carter passed Johnny Rutherford before the checkered flag and took the win before officials realized that was insane and gave the win back to Rutherford. Something to note: Officiating was *always* screwy.)
Neither Unser did much at the second Michigan race, but a Senior was 2nd at Laguna Seca and Junior 3rd. At that point, son led father by 3 points. At Phoenix though, Senior won the race (his only win of the year) in front of Junior to take a 3 point lead himself into the season finale at Tamiami Park in Miami. It was officially down to father vs. son for the championship.
It came down to the final laps. Sullivan and Rahal were comfortably 1-2 and finished that way. Little Al was in 3rd, and late in the race Big Al was in 5th. If it stayed that way, Little Al would've won the title by a single point. Big Al wouldn't give up though. As the laps ticked down, he started to catch Roberto Moreno, and with five laps to go, he passed Moreno to move into 4th. That's how it stayed, and Al Unser, Sr. had won his third national championship by just one point over his son.
Here's video of the dramatic closing laps and the post-race interview with the two. The race was talked about on Senior's SportsCentury episode. That segment is here. The emotion is apparent both at the time and after the fact.
If one were to pick an IndyCar related story that would make a good 30 for 30 type documentary, the 1985 season would certainly qualify. The father/son story would be fascinating alone, but you also have a classic Indy 500, the Sanair lunacy, a tire controversy that postponed the Michigan 500 a week, and Mears's coming back from his injuries. You also had the first career IndyCar win for Emerson Fittipaldi, and the only IndyCar win for Uncle Jacques Villeneuve.
Fathers and sons excelling in the same sport is nothing new. Fathers and sons being contemparies for a little while isn't completely out of the question either. But a father and son (or mother and daughter) being at the absolute top of their sport and competing against each other at the same time? That might not be seen again for a long time, not just in racing, but in any sport.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
A Canadian Surprise
Coming into today's Honda Indy Toronto, it didn't feel like there was a lot of buzz. Maybe it was because everyone was still tired from the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Maybe it was because this was the final week of a three month marathon with track activity every weekend. Maybe it was because this isn't the usual Toronto date. It was likely a combination of all those factors. The result was pre-race buzz that felt more perfunctory than anything else.
Then the green flag waved and we were treated to one of the best races ever at Toronto. It had weather, side-by-side action, strategy, a surprising lack of contact, and a popular winner. IndyCar fans can be nitpicky, but there was very little to nitpick on this one.
In the end, the telltale move that netted Josef Newgarden his second win of the season and his career was the team's decision to make their second pit stop a little earlier than the rest of the field. By the time Newgarden had hit pit road,Stefano Coletti's latest adventure in a wall brought out a caution. (My mistake, this was James Jakes's caution. Such are the mistakes that get made trying to publish quickly) During the caution, the rest of the field pitted for the most part, and that put Newgarden in the catbird seat the rest of the way. Josef knew what to do with it and held off the challenges for the win.
Of course, the primary challenger was his teammate, Luca Filippi. Like Newgarden, he used a combination of strategy and pace to get himself to the top. The two had a moment in turn 3 late in the race when Filippi tried the outside pass and Newgarden squeeze him a little bit. Luckily they made it through and CFH Racing earned a well earned and much deserved 1-2 finish. Needless to say, the team needed this after a crash filled Month of May and last week's Texas no-show. Helio Castroneves used an alternate strategy (in this case, pitting later than everyone else) to complete the podium, a good result given that pace-wise he was the slowest of the Penskes going in.
After the podium came the guys that put on a heck of a show all day: Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais, Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, and Simon Pagenaud. In various combinations, these guys engaged in plenty of battles throughout the race. Power and Pagenaud particularly went at it early until Pagenaud's car went away in the second half. His luckless season continues. Turn three all day was exciting, but without the calamity and contact we've grown accustomed to.
That lack of contact coupled with the close racing and alternate strategies created a fine race from start to finish. It was nothing like the demolition derby we usually see at Toronto. It was a nice surprise and turned what felt like a sleepy Sunday into a thrill ride.
Other Notes
Steve Matchett was in the booth today and was his usual self. At one point he let out a full Pillsbury dough boy "Woohoo" after a close call for Filippi.
You could really see how hard the drivers were working today, especially Newgarden in the closing laps as he fought a pushing race car and the light rain that was falling. For the most part, the drivers drove a professional race.
Stefano Coletti had the one semi-significant wreck of the day, continuing his tour of the walls of IndyCar. Before that he made contact with Charlie Kimball: Human Bowling Pin. Leigh Diffey basically said Coletti sucked on the broadcast. It was not subtle.
Points-wise, Montoya essentially fought his competitors to a draw. Castroneves and Power made some slight gains, but nothing JPM can't handle.
The top Honda was Graham in 9th. Oof.
There was some controversy about Push-to-Pass information not being public anymore, and I'll be honest: I really don't care.
Thanks to a weird shot-in-the-dark pit strategy, Rodolfo Gonzalez led laps. Ryan Hunter-Reay has yet to lead a lap all season. It was odd. Gonzalez did hold up the rest of the leaders though, which set up the Newgarden/Filippi battle, so good for him, I guess.
Today's "Were You Even In the Race?" Winners: Jack Hawksworth, Gabby Chaves, Sebastian Saavedra, Tristan Vautier
I laughed at those weird national anthems from that Canadian rock band. I suspect that was not the majority reaction.
Indy Lights had a well, interesting, weekend. The first race was marred by RC Enerson's horror crash. It's a tribute to the design of the new Lights chassis that Enerson walked away from that. The second race this afternoon though was a complete shitshow. In admittedly very tough wet conditions, only 3 cars finished on the lead lap. The one plus is the rest of their season is set up for a nice three car battle for the title between Jack Harvey, Spencer Pigot, and Ed Jones.
Between this race and another fantastic 24 Hours of Le Mans, it was great weekend of racing. The only negative was Kurt Busch winning a rain shortened NASCAR race. That's like having a great party end with someone vomiting in the coat check room.
Up Next
We finally have a week off, which I think everyone needs. The teams especially, but as a fan, I'm not complaining about it. After that, it's off to Fontana, which starts at 4 pm eastern on a Saturday for some reason.
Then the green flag waved and we were treated to one of the best races ever at Toronto. It had weather, side-by-side action, strategy, a surprising lack of contact, and a popular winner. IndyCar fans can be nitpicky, but there was very little to nitpick on this one.
In the end, the telltale move that netted Josef Newgarden his second win of the season and his career was the team's decision to make their second pit stop a little earlier than the rest of the field. By the time Newgarden had hit pit road,
Of course, the primary challenger was his teammate, Luca Filippi. Like Newgarden, he used a combination of strategy and pace to get himself to the top. The two had a moment in turn 3 late in the race when Filippi tried the outside pass and Newgarden squeeze him a little bit. Luckily they made it through and CFH Racing earned a well earned and much deserved 1-2 finish. Needless to say, the team needed this after a crash filled Month of May and last week's Texas no-show. Helio Castroneves used an alternate strategy (in this case, pitting later than everyone else) to complete the podium, a good result given that pace-wise he was the slowest of the Penskes going in.
After the podium came the guys that put on a heck of a show all day: Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais, Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, and Simon Pagenaud. In various combinations, these guys engaged in plenty of battles throughout the race. Power and Pagenaud particularly went at it early until Pagenaud's car went away in the second half. His luckless season continues. Turn three all day was exciting, but without the calamity and contact we've grown accustomed to.
That lack of contact coupled with the close racing and alternate strategies created a fine race from start to finish. It was nothing like the demolition derby we usually see at Toronto. It was a nice surprise and turned what felt like a sleepy Sunday into a thrill ride.
Other Notes
Steve Matchett was in the booth today and was his usual self. At one point he let out a full Pillsbury dough boy "Woohoo" after a close call for Filippi.
You could really see how hard the drivers were working today, especially Newgarden in the closing laps as he fought a pushing race car and the light rain that was falling. For the most part, the drivers drove a professional race.
Stefano Coletti had the one semi-significant wreck of the day, continuing his tour of the walls of IndyCar. Before that he made contact with Charlie Kimball: Human Bowling Pin. Leigh Diffey basically said Coletti sucked on the broadcast. It was not subtle.
Points-wise, Montoya essentially fought his competitors to a draw. Castroneves and Power made some slight gains, but nothing JPM can't handle.
The top Honda was Graham in 9th. Oof.
There was some controversy about Push-to-Pass information not being public anymore, and I'll be honest: I really don't care.
Thanks to a weird shot-in-the-dark pit strategy, Rodolfo Gonzalez led laps. Ryan Hunter-Reay has yet to lead a lap all season. It was odd. Gonzalez did hold up the rest of the leaders though, which set up the Newgarden/Filippi battle, so good for him, I guess.
Today's "Were You Even In the Race?" Winners: Jack Hawksworth, Gabby Chaves, Sebastian Saavedra, Tristan Vautier
I laughed at those weird national anthems from that Canadian rock band. I suspect that was not the majority reaction.
Indy Lights had a well, interesting, weekend. The first race was marred by RC Enerson's horror crash. It's a tribute to the design of the new Lights chassis that Enerson walked away from that. The second race this afternoon though was a complete shitshow. In admittedly very tough wet conditions, only 3 cars finished on the lead lap. The one plus is the rest of their season is set up for a nice three car battle for the title between Jack Harvey, Spencer Pigot, and Ed Jones.
Between this race and another fantastic 24 Hours of Le Mans, it was great weekend of racing. The only negative was Kurt Busch winning a rain shortened NASCAR race. That's like having a great party end with someone vomiting in the coat check room.
Up Next
We finally have a week off, which I think everyone needs. The teams especially, but as a fan, I'm not complaining about it. After that, it's off to Fontana, which starts at 4 pm eastern on a Saturday for some reason.
Sunday, June 7, 2015
In the Eye of the Beholder
Every IndyCar fan has their own internal criteria of what makes a great race. That can make it harder for the collective fandom to determine the merits of any particular race. Sometimes, like the Indy 500, the conclusion is obvious in the race's favor, and other times, like at NOLA, it is obvious in the negative.
At Texas however the range of expectations may be at their most disparate. That's how the postrace Twitter discussion seemed split evenly on who liked this year's version of the Firestone 600 and who hated it. In recent years Texas has been the most polarizing track on the circuit. It represents a lot of hot button topics: ovals, the lack of ovals, the crowd at ovals, pack racing, what actually is pack racing, and Eddie Gossage, just to name a few. Everyone remembers the so-called hey day of IndyCar racing at this track, and it's safe to say what we saw last night was not that. For some, that's fine, for others, it's not, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Personally, I enjoyed last night's race. I wish the tires didn't fall off quite as quickly as they do, but otherwise I don't have any real complaints. I understand (or at least I think I understand) that it's hard to get the sweet spot on downforce and tires to create good racing, but not pack racing. It sure seemed like they hit that spot better this year than they had the previous two. Each stint was different, with different cars working better than previous stints. Look no further than Power and Pagenaud. Those two led early. As night fell, they didn't have the handle than they had at the start and consequently fell back.
The one team that was able to consistently manage the situation was Ganassi, specifically the big two of Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, and they were rewarded with the 1-2 finish. The second half of the race belonged to these cars, with only Helio seemingly in the ballpark. The last bit of drama came when Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz attempted to make one less pit stop. They succeeded, but the combination of saving fuel and the tires degrading meant they were sitting ducks for the leaders. Dixon even came out ahead of Marco when he made his final pit stop. Still, the strategy got Marco a top 5 and Munoz a 6th, which is about as good as it's going to get for Honda right now.
Overall, I found it to be a fascinating race. Even with the concerns about tires, we had plenty of side-by-side action (Kimball and Briscoe seemingly spent half the race like that). Despite the difficulty of the cars to drive, there were no accidents and just one debris caution. Yes, only five cars finished on the lead lap, but look at oval races from the 80s and 90s. That happened all the time. It was for different reasons, but at oval races then, if you missed the setup, you were just riding around, just like it was last night for guys like Rahal and Hunter-Reay. It gave things a bit of an old school feel. Some liked it, some didn't. That more than anything else is the new norm at Texas.
Other Thoughts
The best part of the night was easily James Hinchcliffe's command. Briscoe and Daly have been doing fine jobs subbing, but it's not the same without the Mayor. #GetWellSoonHinch
The other part of the pre-race I enjoyed was Kimball's WTF look during the national anthem, which was well, interesting to say the least.
Scott Dixon last won this race in 2008, and that was clearly the last time he had ever shot a gun.
CFH's issues seem obvious: Their two primary cars were both upside down and destroyed. This weekend was about as disastrous as it could be without filling Dallara's coffers further. The fact that both cars essentially retired at the same time piqued the suspicions of many that it was a mercy killing. Newgarden may have given the game away when he admitted on camera to having no idea why he was parked.
Another quiet top ten for Gabby Chaves, more impressive considering the track, Honda, his small team, and the fact that most of the other young guns of the series were nowhere last night.
If only Robin Miller awkwardly asking AJ why he won't die was the worst part of Foyt's night. Then Hawksworth was the first retirement, and Sato was invisible and finished 16th. Not great for what is now the home race for that team.
This may be more a complaint regarding watching any sports programming these days, but those Draft Kings commercials need to die in a fire.
I thought the crowd was pretty good. Not at its peak of course, but I didn't expect that. As usual, my rule of thumb is add 10-15K to whatever Robin estimates and that's probably close to correct.
Points Update: On the strength of his 4th, Montoya increased his lead to 35 points over Power. Dixon got himself back into the mix, 43 back. Helio is 4th, but at 62 back needs to make a move soon.
Up Next
Toronto. The theme song of which is below.
At Texas however the range of expectations may be at their most disparate. That's how the postrace Twitter discussion seemed split evenly on who liked this year's version of the Firestone 600 and who hated it. In recent years Texas has been the most polarizing track on the circuit. It represents a lot of hot button topics: ovals, the lack of ovals, the crowd at ovals, pack racing, what actually is pack racing, and Eddie Gossage, just to name a few. Everyone remembers the so-called hey day of IndyCar racing at this track, and it's safe to say what we saw last night was not that. For some, that's fine, for others, it's not, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Personally, I enjoyed last night's race. I wish the tires didn't fall off quite as quickly as they do, but otherwise I don't have any real complaints. I understand (or at least I think I understand) that it's hard to get the sweet spot on downforce and tires to create good racing, but not pack racing. It sure seemed like they hit that spot better this year than they had the previous two. Each stint was different, with different cars working better than previous stints. Look no further than Power and Pagenaud. Those two led early. As night fell, they didn't have the handle than they had at the start and consequently fell back.
The one team that was able to consistently manage the situation was Ganassi, specifically the big two of Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, and they were rewarded with the 1-2 finish. The second half of the race belonged to these cars, with only Helio seemingly in the ballpark. The last bit of drama came when Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz attempted to make one less pit stop. They succeeded, but the combination of saving fuel and the tires degrading meant they were sitting ducks for the leaders. Dixon even came out ahead of Marco when he made his final pit stop. Still, the strategy got Marco a top 5 and Munoz a 6th, which is about as good as it's going to get for Honda right now.
Overall, I found it to be a fascinating race. Even with the concerns about tires, we had plenty of side-by-side action (Kimball and Briscoe seemingly spent half the race like that). Despite the difficulty of the cars to drive, there were no accidents and just one debris caution. Yes, only five cars finished on the lead lap, but look at oval races from the 80s and 90s. That happened all the time. It was for different reasons, but at oval races then, if you missed the setup, you were just riding around, just like it was last night for guys like Rahal and Hunter-Reay. It gave things a bit of an old school feel. Some liked it, some didn't. That more than anything else is the new norm at Texas.
Other Thoughts
The best part of the night was easily James Hinchcliffe's command. Briscoe and Daly have been doing fine jobs subbing, but it's not the same without the Mayor. #GetWellSoonHinch
The other part of the pre-race I enjoyed was Kimball's WTF look during the national anthem, which was well, interesting to say the least.
Scott Dixon last won this race in 2008, and that was clearly the last time he had ever shot a gun.
CFH's issues seem obvious: Their two primary cars were both upside down and destroyed. This weekend was about as disastrous as it could be without filling Dallara's coffers further. The fact that both cars essentially retired at the same time piqued the suspicions of many that it was a mercy killing. Newgarden may have given the game away when he admitted on camera to having no idea why he was parked.
Another quiet top ten for Gabby Chaves, more impressive considering the track, Honda, his small team, and the fact that most of the other young guns of the series were nowhere last night.
If only Robin Miller awkwardly asking AJ why he won't die was the worst part of Foyt's night. Then Hawksworth was the first retirement, and Sato was invisible and finished 16th. Not great for what is now the home race for that team.
This may be more a complaint regarding watching any sports programming these days, but those Draft Kings commercials need to die in a fire.
I thought the crowd was pretty good. Not at its peak of course, but I didn't expect that. As usual, my rule of thumb is add 10-15K to whatever Robin estimates and that's probably close to correct.
Points Update: On the strength of his 4th, Montoya increased his lead to 35 points over Power. Dixon got himself back into the mix, 43 back. Helio is 4th, but at 62 back needs to make a move soon.
Up Next
Toronto. The theme song of which is below.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
The Indy Lights Championship: Blessing or a Curse?
One of the hot topics in IndyCar land post-Detroit has been Sage Karam. The 2013 Indy Lights champ did not have a good month of May. He was benched in favor of Sebastian Saavedra for the GP of Indy, got taken out on the first lap of the Indy 500, and spent most of the Dual in Detroit as a bowling ball. He sits 21st in points, and a 12th in the race Sunday is his top finish of the season. There have also been questions about his maturity after some questionable tweets and his blatant block on Takuma Sato on Saturday.
Now, I still think the kid has a lot of talent, and a lot of the immaturity is the result of a 20 year old with a lot on his plate. However, his boss is Chip Ganassi, and he won't hesitate to cut bait if things continue on this path.
I came up with the experiment for this post thinking of Karam's struggles as well as Tristan Vautier, the 2012 Indy Lights champ. Until this recent rebirth at Coyne, his IndyCar career had stalled, and until he showed this May, it looked possibly over. That led me to wonder how well an Indy Lights title correlated to success in IndyCars, including in comparison to the guys the champ beat that year. I went back throughout the history of Indy Lights in all its forms (American Racing Series, CART Indy Light, Infiniti Pro Series, Indy Lights current edition). Here are the results year-by-year (Note: As best as I can tell, I'm leaving it those drivers who graduated from Lights the year in question):
ARS Era
1986: The inaugural champ was Fabricio Barbazza, best known for finishing 3rd in his rookie Indy 500 in 1987, which ended up as his only 500 start. His 25 career starts is one of the highest in his class. The only 1986 driver with an IndyCar win was Billy Boat.
1987: The champion was Didier Theys, who was solid in his 47 career IndyCar starts, with 10 top 10's, followed by an accomplished sports car career. Jeff Andretti was the only other significant graduate in this class.
1988: Jon Beekhuis won the title, made 14 IndyCar starts, and is of course much more known for his fantastic broadcasting work. This year also saw another driver more known for broadcasting prowess compete, Calvin Fish (who finished 4th in the championship). The graduate this year with the most IndyCar starts is actually Juan Manuel Fangio II.
1989: In his fourth year in the series, Mike Groff takes the title. Groff was go on to make 66 starts. He spent 1993 and 1994 as Bobby Rahal's teammate during Rahal Hogan's unfortunate period of bad decision, but did go on to score 3 podiums in the early days of the IRL. None of the other drivers that contested a significant portion of the season moved up the next year.
1990: The champion was some guy named Paul Tracy. You might have heard of him. The only other graduate that year was Ted Prappas, who made 26 starts in '91 and '92.
CART Indy Lights Era
1991: Eric Bachelart was the champion. He went on to make 24 starts with backmarker teams, then start a backmarker team of his own in Conquest Racing. PJ Jones made the most starts of this class, with 60, including a 2nd at Nazareth in 1999 as his best finish. The class also included driver turned broadcaster Brian Till (20 starts).
1992: The champion was Robbie Buhl, who struggled to find his footing in CART (even going back to Lights in 1995) and but was a solid IRL regular for a number of years. He won twice in his career, at Loudon in '97 and at Disney World in 2000. He was not the most successful Lights graduate of 1992 though. That was clearly Adrian Fernandez, who made 194 starts, won 11 races, and was 2nd in the 2000 CART championship. Mark Smith, Marco Greco, and David Kudrave also graduated this year.
1993: Bryan Herta won the championship, and went on to make 179 starts, win 4 times, take 10 poles, and win the Indy 500 as a owner. He was the only significant graduate from '93, depending on how you feel about Robbie Groff and Franck Freon.
1994: Brit Steve Robertson won the championship, but never raced in IndyCar. Andre Ribeiro was the only graduate of any note from this year, although it must be noted this was the last of three years in Lights for Eddie Lawson. Lawson was best known for being a four time World Champion in motorcycles, and he did make 11 CART starts in 1996.
1995: The dominant champion was Greg Moore, who of course showed his tantalizing potential before his fatal accident. What might have been as he was on the cusp of joining Team Penske. The rest of the class (not counting the dropping down in class Buhl) included the first IRL winner, Buzz Calkins, and Affonso Giaffone, who made eight IRL starts with a best finish of 4th.
1996: David Empringham won the championship, and had previously won the Atlantic championship twice. How did he never get a shot at IndyCar? Not even one career start. This was just when I was becoming a fan, so I wasn't really in tune to how the ladder system works, but it was always a mystery to me. Those that did go onto IndyCar from this class were led by Greg Ray and Jeff Ward (he made 3 starts in Lights in '97, but we'll call this his graduate year). Ray was the 1999 IRL champion with 5 career wins. He started on pole for the 2000 Indy 500, but crashed twice and finished last. Ward was a motocross champ who had an underrated open wheel career, winning 1 race (2002 Texas June race) and scoring three top fives in the Indy 500.
1997: Your champion was Tony Kanaan by four points over second place Helio Castro-Neves, as he was known then. Their accomplishments are well known. No one else that may have concluded their Lights career this year are anywhere in the ballpark.
1998: Cristiano da Matta (who was third in '97) won the title and would go on to win the 2002 CART title and 12 races. The only other significant graduate from this year was the infamous Shigeaki Hattori.
1999: Oriol Servia won the title, and has been a solid IndyCar journeyman seemingly ever since. He has now made 196 starts with just the one career win (2005 Montreal) and 18 other podium finishes. He was 2nd in the 2005 Champ Car season (albeit well behind teammate Bourdais) and 4th in the points in 2011. The only other race winner in the class was Airton Dare, who won the 2002 Kansas race. Yeah, I forgot that too.
2000: The champ was Scott Dixon in a preview of what was to come. The other graduates were Felipe Giaffone (who did have one win at Kentucky in 2002), Casey Mears, and the late Tony Renna.
2001: Townsend Bell dominated the championship, and while he's made a nice career in sports cars, broadcasting, and Indy 500 one-offs, from what I remember, his career in IndyCars should have been much more than it was. This class includes the great and much missed Dan Wheldon. It also included long-time Champ Car vet Mario Dominguez.
Infiniti Pro Series Era
2002: The first IRL era champion was AJ Foyt IV, in what was only a seven race season. He was the only graduate from this year with any career of any significance.
2003: Mark Taylor won the title easily. He then raced one year in the IRL with a best finish of 7th. I completely forgot about Mark Taylor's existence. The easy winner of the graduate battle was Ed Carpenter.
2004: Thiago Medeiros won the title. His IndyCar career consisted of 24 laps at the 2006 Indy 500, where he started last and finished 31st due to electrical problems. Of those that competed in most of the races, PJ Chesson has the most IndyCar starts, with four.
2005: Wade Cunningham was the champion, but was stuck in IPS/Lights for another five years before finally making his big car debut in 2011. His IndyCar career was just five starts, making him another "What happened here?" case. Marco Andretti only competed in six out of the 14 races, but he's the class winner by default. You could also call this Jeff Simmons's graduate year, although he eventually made more Lights starts.
2006: Jay Howard won the title, and his quest for stability in IndyCars has yet to end. He didn't make his debut in IndyCar until 2008, and in the end made 12 starts with two potential Indy 500 starts taken from him from owners (either by firing him or making bad Bump Day decisions). He is only graduate from this year with an IndyCar start.
2007: Alex Lloyd won the title and scored a Ganassi development contract (sound familiar?). He couldn't get a full time ride until 2010 though with Dale Coyne Racing. That year he finished 4th in the Indy 500. It wasn't enough to keep the ride full-time, and after a partial schedule in 2011, that was it. He made 20 career starts. His class was led by Hideki Mutoh, who made 54 starts. The only other graduate with anything was Jamie Camara.
Firestone Indy Lights Era
2008: Raphael Matos went from winning the Atlantic Championship to the rebranded Indy Lights, where he won that title. It got him two full seasons and 38 starts as a whole. His best finish was 4th twice, as he could never harness the potential he showed in the lower formulas. He still wins the class battle, as he was the only graduate from this year to make it to IndyCar.
2009: JR Hildebrand won the championship. It took him two years to get a full-time ride in IndyCar with Panther. Of course that year we all know how close he came to winning the Indy 500. Panther fired him after he crashed on lap four at Indy in 2013, and it's been one-offs ever since. Those have at least kept the 27 year old in contention. He's made 44 starts in IndyCar, which is still enough to win the class. The only other competition is Ana Beatriz and her 29 starts.
2010: This is another year that made me wonder if it was better not to win the title. The champ was JK Vernay, who never made an IndyCar start and other than a Le Mans class win has been pretty quiet ever since. The IndyCar graduates from this year? James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball, Sebastian Saavedra (the first time), Pippa Mann, and Martin Plowman. The first two alone make this the best class since at least 2001.
2011: Josef Newgarden won the title, and continues on the track to a good IndyCar career. No one else from this year has an IndyCar start except Stefan Wilson's sole start in the 2013 Baltimore Grand Prix (unless you count Bryan Clauson and Conor Daly, as this was their ride share year).
2012: Vautier won the title, got a full season at Schmidt the next year, didn't impress enough (and/or have enough money) to continue, and didn't show up again in IndyCar until last month. Second place for the second straight year was Estaban Guerreri, another "What happened to him guy?" So yes, this is another class win by default.
2013: The aforementioned Karam (the impetus for this post if you've forgotten) won the title, but the most impressive graduate this year has clearly been Carlos Munoz. Jack Hawksworth has also shown at least the potential to be a competent veteran going forward.
2014: Gabby Chaves won the title, and thus far is the only driver here to have made an IndyCar start. Obviously too early to make any conclusions.
So, going through all that, it's obvious that winning the top rung of the ladder doesn't guarantee anything. The only real stars came during the 1990s peak (Tracy, Moore, Kanaan, da Matta, Dixon). Overall, I count 14 years where the series champion ended up the most accomplished IndyCar driver in his class (although most of the IPS era ones it's by default). That's basically half the seasons. That's not bad given the other variables in racing that make it a more opaque analysis than it would be in a sport like baseball. Like baseball though if you took a look at the top prospects over the years (and in a kind of, sort of way the Lights champion = the #1 baseball prospect), you'd find some all-time greats, some busts, and everything in between. We found the same thing in this exercise. Like any sport, prospect watching is inexact, and no one ever knows what will happen when they hit the big time.
Now, I still think the kid has a lot of talent, and a lot of the immaturity is the result of a 20 year old with a lot on his plate. However, his boss is Chip Ganassi, and he won't hesitate to cut bait if things continue on this path.
I came up with the experiment for this post thinking of Karam's struggles as well as Tristan Vautier, the 2012 Indy Lights champ. Until this recent rebirth at Coyne, his IndyCar career had stalled, and until he showed this May, it looked possibly over. That led me to wonder how well an Indy Lights title correlated to success in IndyCars, including in comparison to the guys the champ beat that year. I went back throughout the history of Indy Lights in all its forms (American Racing Series, CART Indy Light, Infiniti Pro Series, Indy Lights current edition). Here are the results year-by-year (Note: As best as I can tell, I'm leaving it those drivers who graduated from Lights the year in question):
ARS Era
1986: The inaugural champ was Fabricio Barbazza, best known for finishing 3rd in his rookie Indy 500 in 1987, which ended up as his only 500 start. His 25 career starts is one of the highest in his class. The only 1986 driver with an IndyCar win was Billy Boat.
1987: The champion was Didier Theys, who was solid in his 47 career IndyCar starts, with 10 top 10's, followed by an accomplished sports car career. Jeff Andretti was the only other significant graduate in this class.
1988: Jon Beekhuis won the title, made 14 IndyCar starts, and is of course much more known for his fantastic broadcasting work. This year also saw another driver more known for broadcasting prowess compete, Calvin Fish (who finished 4th in the championship). The graduate this year with the most IndyCar starts is actually Juan Manuel Fangio II.
1989: In his fourth year in the series, Mike Groff takes the title. Groff was go on to make 66 starts. He spent 1993 and 1994 as Bobby Rahal's teammate during Rahal Hogan's unfortunate period of bad decision, but did go on to score 3 podiums in the early days of the IRL. None of the other drivers that contested a significant portion of the season moved up the next year.
1990: The champion was some guy named Paul Tracy. You might have heard of him. The only other graduate that year was Ted Prappas, who made 26 starts in '91 and '92.
CART Indy Lights Era
1991: Eric Bachelart was the champion. He went on to make 24 starts with backmarker teams, then start a backmarker team of his own in Conquest Racing. PJ Jones made the most starts of this class, with 60, including a 2nd at Nazareth in 1999 as his best finish. The class also included driver turned broadcaster Brian Till (20 starts).
1992: The champion was Robbie Buhl, who struggled to find his footing in CART (even going back to Lights in 1995) and but was a solid IRL regular for a number of years. He won twice in his career, at Loudon in '97 and at Disney World in 2000. He was not the most successful Lights graduate of 1992 though. That was clearly Adrian Fernandez, who made 194 starts, won 11 races, and was 2nd in the 2000 CART championship. Mark Smith, Marco Greco, and David Kudrave also graduated this year.
1993: Bryan Herta won the championship, and went on to make 179 starts, win 4 times, take 10 poles, and win the Indy 500 as a owner. He was the only significant graduate from '93, depending on how you feel about Robbie Groff and Franck Freon.
1994: Brit Steve Robertson won the championship, but never raced in IndyCar. Andre Ribeiro was the only graduate of any note from this year, although it must be noted this was the last of three years in Lights for Eddie Lawson. Lawson was best known for being a four time World Champion in motorcycles, and he did make 11 CART starts in 1996.
1995: The dominant champion was Greg Moore, who of course showed his tantalizing potential before his fatal accident. What might have been as he was on the cusp of joining Team Penske. The rest of the class (not counting the dropping down in class Buhl) included the first IRL winner, Buzz Calkins, and Affonso Giaffone, who made eight IRL starts with a best finish of 4th.
1996: David Empringham won the championship, and had previously won the Atlantic championship twice. How did he never get a shot at IndyCar? Not even one career start. This was just when I was becoming a fan, so I wasn't really in tune to how the ladder system works, but it was always a mystery to me. Those that did go onto IndyCar from this class were led by Greg Ray and Jeff Ward (he made 3 starts in Lights in '97, but we'll call this his graduate year). Ray was the 1999 IRL champion with 5 career wins. He started on pole for the 2000 Indy 500, but crashed twice and finished last. Ward was a motocross champ who had an underrated open wheel career, winning 1 race (2002 Texas June race) and scoring three top fives in the Indy 500.
1997: Your champion was Tony Kanaan by four points over second place Helio Castro-Neves, as he was known then. Their accomplishments are well known. No one else that may have concluded their Lights career this year are anywhere in the ballpark.
1998: Cristiano da Matta (who was third in '97) won the title and would go on to win the 2002 CART title and 12 races. The only other significant graduate from this year was the infamous Shigeaki Hattori.
1999: Oriol Servia won the title, and has been a solid IndyCar journeyman seemingly ever since. He has now made 196 starts with just the one career win (2005 Montreal) and 18 other podium finishes. He was 2nd in the 2005 Champ Car season (albeit well behind teammate Bourdais) and 4th in the points in 2011. The only other race winner in the class was Airton Dare, who won the 2002 Kansas race. Yeah, I forgot that too.
2000: The champ was Scott Dixon in a preview of what was to come. The other graduates were Felipe Giaffone (who did have one win at Kentucky in 2002), Casey Mears, and the late Tony Renna.
2001: Townsend Bell dominated the championship, and while he's made a nice career in sports cars, broadcasting, and Indy 500 one-offs, from what I remember, his career in IndyCars should have been much more than it was. This class includes the great and much missed Dan Wheldon. It also included long-time Champ Car vet Mario Dominguez.
Infiniti Pro Series Era
2002: The first IRL era champion was AJ Foyt IV, in what was only a seven race season. He was the only graduate from this year with any career of any significance.
2003: Mark Taylor won the title easily. He then raced one year in the IRL with a best finish of 7th. I completely forgot about Mark Taylor's existence. The easy winner of the graduate battle was Ed Carpenter.
2004: Thiago Medeiros won the title. His IndyCar career consisted of 24 laps at the 2006 Indy 500, where he started last and finished 31st due to electrical problems. Of those that competed in most of the races, PJ Chesson has the most IndyCar starts, with four.
2005: Wade Cunningham was the champion, but was stuck in IPS/Lights for another five years before finally making his big car debut in 2011. His IndyCar career was just five starts, making him another "What happened here?" case. Marco Andretti only competed in six out of the 14 races, but he's the class winner by default. You could also call this Jeff Simmons's graduate year, although he eventually made more Lights starts.
2006: Jay Howard won the title, and his quest for stability in IndyCars has yet to end. He didn't make his debut in IndyCar until 2008, and in the end made 12 starts with two potential Indy 500 starts taken from him from owners (either by firing him or making bad Bump Day decisions). He is only graduate from this year with an IndyCar start.
2007: Alex Lloyd won the title and scored a Ganassi development contract (sound familiar?). He couldn't get a full time ride until 2010 though with Dale Coyne Racing. That year he finished 4th in the Indy 500. It wasn't enough to keep the ride full-time, and after a partial schedule in 2011, that was it. He made 20 career starts. His class was led by Hideki Mutoh, who made 54 starts. The only other graduate with anything was Jamie Camara.
Firestone Indy Lights Era
2008: Raphael Matos went from winning the Atlantic Championship to the rebranded Indy Lights, where he won that title. It got him two full seasons and 38 starts as a whole. His best finish was 4th twice, as he could never harness the potential he showed in the lower formulas. He still wins the class battle, as he was the only graduate from this year to make it to IndyCar.
2009: JR Hildebrand won the championship. It took him two years to get a full-time ride in IndyCar with Panther. Of course that year we all know how close he came to winning the Indy 500. Panther fired him after he crashed on lap four at Indy in 2013, and it's been one-offs ever since. Those have at least kept the 27 year old in contention. He's made 44 starts in IndyCar, which is still enough to win the class. The only other competition is Ana Beatriz and her 29 starts.
2010: This is another year that made me wonder if it was better not to win the title. The champ was JK Vernay, who never made an IndyCar start and other than a Le Mans class win has been pretty quiet ever since. The IndyCar graduates from this year? James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball, Sebastian Saavedra (the first time), Pippa Mann, and Martin Plowman. The first two alone make this the best class since at least 2001.
2011: Josef Newgarden won the title, and continues on the track to a good IndyCar career. No one else from this year has an IndyCar start except Stefan Wilson's sole start in the 2013 Baltimore Grand Prix (unless you count Bryan Clauson and Conor Daly, as this was their ride share year).
2012: Vautier won the title, got a full season at Schmidt the next year, didn't impress enough (and/or have enough money) to continue, and didn't show up again in IndyCar until last month. Second place for the second straight year was Estaban Guerreri, another "What happened to him guy?" So yes, this is another class win by default.
2013: The aforementioned Karam (the impetus for this post if you've forgotten) won the title, but the most impressive graduate this year has clearly been Carlos Munoz. Jack Hawksworth has also shown at least the potential to be a competent veteran going forward.
2014: Gabby Chaves won the title, and thus far is the only driver here to have made an IndyCar start. Obviously too early to make any conclusions.
So, going through all that, it's obvious that winning the top rung of the ladder doesn't guarantee anything. The only real stars came during the 1990s peak (Tracy, Moore, Kanaan, da Matta, Dixon). Overall, I count 14 years where the series champion ended up the most accomplished IndyCar driver in his class (although most of the IPS era ones it's by default). That's basically half the seasons. That's not bad given the other variables in racing that make it a more opaque analysis than it would be in a sport like baseball. Like baseball though if you took a look at the top prospects over the years (and in a kind of, sort of way the Lights champion = the #1 baseball prospect), you'd find some all-time greats, some busts, and everything in between. We found the same thing in this exercise. Like any sport, prospect watching is inexact, and no one ever knows what will happen when they hit the big time.
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