The Churn Continues

In hindsight, it’s amazing that Derrick Walker lasted for three whole seasons as IndyCar’s President of Competition and Operations. With one elephant in the room size exception, leaders in IndyCar don’t seem to stick around for very long. The other stakeholders in the sport, and by that I mostly mean team owners, will always find something to complain and something to be unhappy about. Taking a leadership job in IndyCar means having that complaining in your ear all the time. Walker always seemed unhappy when making public comments, and without getting into his head, I wouldn't be surprised if that had a lot to do with. Today, he decided he had enough, and will resign effective at the end of the season (which btw, is a month from today).

Looking back on Walker's tenure, the main issues were Race Control and the debacle that was Indy qualifying. When Beaux Barfield left after last season, Walker replaced him in Race Control with a multi-headed committee headed by the infamous Brian Barnhart. This is also the year IndyCar collectively decided to penalize pit road infractions post-race, which came to a head after Graham Rahal's non-in race penalty at Fontana helped him win the race. This wasn't all Walker's fault. Robin Miller noted today that Walker was directed not to hire anyone outside due to budget concerns. The Indy qualifying disaster isn't entirely his fault either, as that was an across-the-board embarrassment, but when your job title is President of Competition, the buck mostly stops with you. These are the main demerits for Walker with fans.

Of course, there were good points with Walker in charge. He oversaw the implementation of the aero kits, and after some early teething, they've produced from differentiation and exciting racing. He's worked to make the cars safer, and if the rumors are true, will have played a big part in bringing back Road America. In the end, even if one disagreed with something Walker did, one had to respect his experience and love for the sport. He's been around IndyCar for 40 years, and hopefully this isn't the absolute end of his invovlement.

As for IndyCar itself, the problem is what it's always been: dysfunction at the top. Names like Randy Bernard, Jeff Belskus, Walker, and others have come and gone. It's not just a recent things, as anyone that remembers CART's endless parade of CEO's can attest. It's not a good look for multiple reasons. One, it's hard for anyone to plan long-term when there's no guarantee they won't be around to see the fruits of their labor. In an interview with RACER, Walker noted that the aero kits were a step towards the 2018/2019 car concept. With him gone, that plan is apparently gone as well. That does not bode well for movement in the future. A lot of the time, it feels like IndyCar as an organization just lumbers from short-term plan to short-term plan, and this only enhances that perception. Second, the frequent turnover does not project stability, which can only hurt when it comes to attracting sponsors and other stakeholders.

So, where does IndyCar go from here? The search for a replacement has begun, but given the challenges of the job, who would really want it? The article mentions Mike Hull, which sounds good from my untrained eye. What I fear, what many fans I suspect fear, is that while they search, Brian Barnhart will ascend to the job on an "interim" basis. From there, the temptation to make it permanent might be too much, especially for a group that seems loathe to find outside talent. Track Forum and Robin Miller's Mailbag might catch fire from the hot takes if that happens.

In the end, it's another off track blow with awful timing. For now though, I'm going to consciously decide to not think about it and enjoy the final three races of the season. They'll be plenty of time to hand wring about the state of IndyCar in the offseason.

Mindbogglingly Stupid and Tone Deaf

Controversy sells. So does conflict. I don't make a judgment on that. I'm just stating a fact. IndyCar has had its share of both in recent weeks: the former in the debate over safety and pack racing at Fontana, and the latter in the Ed Carpenter/Sage Karam feud Saturday night at Iowa. Both have gotten IndyCar more publicity than they would normally get this time for year. Ratings have also been on the uptick, and while there are many possible reasons for that, I doubt this is hurting them because, again, this stuff sells.

IndyCar's formal response to all this? Bad drivers! Bad! Stop that!

The immediately infamous rule is 9.3.8, and it reads as follows:

Competitors must be respectful, professional, fair and courteous to others. At all times, Competitors must not, attempt to, or engage in conduct or statements that in the judgment of INDYCAR:
a) Threatens or denigrates any Official, fellow Competitor or the INDYCAR brand;
b) Calls into question the integrity or legitimacy of the Rules or their application, construction or interpretation;
c) Denigrates the IndyCar Series racing schedule or Event(s);
d) Threatens or denigrates any INDYCAR business relationship, including those with sponsors or broadcasters;
e) Otherwise threatens the integrity, reputation or public confidence of the sport, INDYCAR, or IndyCar Series.

The most obvious question is what constitutes a violation? It could be just about anything IndyCar decides hurt their wounded fee fees. This includes a driver complaining about safety. Remember, the backlash to Fontana was the impetus for this. Mark Miles talked about adding a rule, and that's exactly what he has done. The Internet commentariat is already ablaze with claims of censorship, and it's hard to argue, because that's exactly what it looks like. Also not mentioned is what the penalty would actually be.

Hours later, realizing damage control was necessary, IndyCar released a "clarification." It's pretty much nothing but corporate weaseling wording, as Miles tries to say "See, it's not a gag order. Really." So, there's a vague policy that appears to stifle conflict and emotion with no one knowing what the alleged consequences are, released at an absolutely terrible time? As Gabbo from the Simpsons would say: Ay yai yai.

As we've established, controversy and conflict sell. Naturally, IndyCar has decided to try and rid themselves of that. It's a complete misread of the situation from a leadership that seems to thrive on complete misreads. Just when things may have been looking up for the sport, those in charge of running it find a way to shoot themselves in the foot and take a step back. It would be laughable if it weren't so sadly predictable.

Good Ol' American Short Trackin'

IndyCar's annual stop at Iowa Speedway has become a yearly highlight for a reason, and last night's race was no exception. Like any short track race, some ended the night happy, some ended it frustrated, and some ended it pissed off. Already there's been a lot of talk about the latter. In a race that produced a lot of talking points, let's start by giving the winner his due.

Hunter-Reay Breaks Through

To say RHR needed that win is a massive understatement. What had been a miserable year to date becomes somewhat more tolerable after this win. Hunter-Reay didn't start at the front of the pack, but he slowly worked his up to the front as the race went on. On the final pit stop, he beat out Josef Newgarden out of there, and held him off after the final restart. Hunter-Reay only led 37 laps, but they were the last 37. It was a bummer for Newgarden, who led a race high 111 laps. Once again, he drove a great race and ended up disappointed with in the long view was a good result. A superstar may be growing before our eyes.

MURICA

The big story coming out of the race that didn't involve one driver yelling at another was that Americans finished 1-2-3-4. Americans actually were 6 of the top 7, with 5th place Carlos Munoz being the only interloper. The usual suspects are likely thrilled by this, and hey, it's always good to see the good old USA kick some ass. That said, I've always been skeptical that "more American stars" in the panacea that will save IndyCar. It's likely part of the equation, but not the whole thing. The key is for guys like Newgarden, Rahal, Andretti, and yes, Karam, to be up there on a consistent basis. In two of those cases at least, that has been happening this year. It's a start.

The Elephant in the Room

In the end, all we cared about was the Ed Carpenter/Sage Karam confrontation. Sage drove like Sage has been driving all year: on the edge to the point of recklessness. From Ed's onboard, it sure looked like Sage wasn't giving him a lot of room. It wasn't the only instance of close calls we saw during the race, but Karam has earned a reputation for this stuff. Remember Briscoe's consternation at Fontana? That frustration at the kid continued, as we saw with Ed's one fingered salute.

Of course, we weren't done, as after the race, Ed headed straight to Karam. Jake Query tweeted out the transcription of Ed's words. Save the profanity, it reminded me of a Dad lecture. Any parent can probably relate to Ed, trying to talk some sense in their obstinate teenager. The rest of us could relate to Sage, hearing an adult lecture to us but not listening it. Not that it was right necessary to not listen, but this is how teenagers are.

Karam clearly has some talent, but he has to relax and has to get better at playing well with others out there. I get that he's young and will (presumably) mature, but it needs to start happening and fast. I'm enjoying Sage becoming more and more like a cartoonish supervillian, but not that as the expense of the safety of the competitors.

As for Ed, others have noted how he went from calling out people at Fontana for not liking the racing to complaining that Sage is going to get himself or others hurt. It seems hypocritical, but I'll be charitable and say it's just him voicing his frustration on what has been a difficult year for him behind the wheel. However, if I were to give him some advice, it's don't ignore your wife like that after your interview. That's not going to end well for you.

Better to be Lucky than Good

On a night where he crashed on lap 10 and finished last, it's weird to put Juan Pablo Montoya in this category. Look what happened to most of his rivals in the title race though.

• Scott Dixon suffered a mechanical problem and had to pit for repairs, eliminating a likely top 10, if not top 5, finish.
• Helio Castroneves was a factor in the first half of the race, but faded in the second half and finished 11th.
• Will Power was invisible all night and ended up 10th.

The only contender to not have a bad night was Graham Rahal, and if it wasn't for luck, he would have as well. He had to pit early because of a cut tire, then had problems getting out of the pits due to gear box difficulties. He was a lap down most of the early going, but the yellows fell at the right time to get him back on the lead lap. On the final caution, Graham pitted for tires, and used those to get himself a 4th place finish. As a result, he's now 2nd in the championship, 42 behind Montoya. Dixon is 48 back, Helio 54 back, and Power 55 back. For both the top two, it went as well as it could have been given their circumstances.

Other Observations

After tagging the wall while trying to avoid a group check up caused by a struggling Pippa Mann, Justin Wilson radioed "What was that Coyne car doing?" That's a question that's been asked a lot this year.

Do we know yet why TK dropped out? He was only told to pit and shut it off. He was never told why. Very frustrating.

Charlie Kimball wrecked, another down note is what has quietly been not a great year, His only top fives this season remains the two races at Indianapolis.

Sometimes a team just needed a solid top 10 run with no incidents. That's what Ryan Briscoe and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports got last night with an 8th place finish.

Leigh Diffey mentioned on the broadcast that Stefano Coletti's future in IndyCar is uncertain. That rumor seemed to take the chattering class by surprise, but when you think about, it shouldn't be. The guy has had an awful year results-wise. He's competed in every race, but is behind both Karam *and* Luca Filippi in the points.

Given how practice and qualifying went, seeing Honda win the race on pace and get three of the top five feels more noteworthy than the attention it's been given.

IndyCar racing on short ovals is awesome, but you knew that.

On Tap

After a week off, it's on to Mid-Ohio. Try to act excited.

Old School Domination

When race fans debate the value of racing today, it usually comes up that back in the "old days" drivers would win race by multiple laps. The implication is that kind of racing was boring.

That argument took a hit today at the Milwaukee Mile as Sebastien Bourdais at one point lapped the field on his way to a dominating victory, one that was thrilling to watch nonetheless.

Before we get to that, a quick backtrack: I took my father to the Nationals/Orioles game at Camden Yards. Thanks to traffic, I missed the start of the race. However, this week I finally joined the 21st century and got a smartphone, and thus had access to the IndyCar 15 app. It worked perfectly! I could follow the race on the app with the radio broadcast, and that's without getting into all the other bells and whistles. Thanks to that I "saw" Josef Newgarden dominate the early going, pulling away from the field into hitting traffic. Interestingly enough, the traffic that gave Josef problems and allowed the field to catch up was his teammate and boss, Ed Carpenter.

Shortly after I made it home and fired up the race on TV, the first caution came out when James Jakes had an engine let go. Most of the top contenders to that point - Newgarden, Dixon, TK, and the like - pitted, but a couple of cars did not. That group was led by Bourdais, who assumed the lead of the race. At the time, I tweeted that Bourdais needed to run and hide before his pit stop.

The restart happened, and suddenly it was like we were back at Fontana with two and three wide action, with Newgarden and Graham Rahal provided much of the excitement. While we focused on that though, Bourdais was using clean air to beat everyone else. Next thing we knew Bourdais led by nine seconds. Then it was 10, then 12, then 14, then 17, then 19. It was fascinating. He was so far ahead that when he finally pitted, he only dropped to 8th. He no longer had clean air, but he did have fresh tires, and that's just made him more unstoppable. In just a few laps, Bourdais blew through the rest of the field to take back the lead! That was mesmerizing and put Bourdais in the mix for Drive of the Year.

With Bourdais having taken back the lead before the rest of the field pitted, that just meant that when they did pitted, they would all become lapped. That's exactly what happened. The reason for this is while the rest of the field was saving fuel to make only one more stop after their stop under yellow, Bourdais and KV Racing took the opposite tack. Thus, Bourdais was flat out while his competitors were in fuel saving mode. Normally, you wouldn't expect making one more pit stop on a short oval to be the winning strategy, but here we were.

Bourdais's full lap lead was not meant to last once he made his final pit stop, but when we came out back in the lead, it looked like nothing could stop him. The surprise was that Helio Castroneves, who started last after not passing tech and being able to qualify, had moved up to 2nd place. Good for him, but it was clearly Seabass's to lose.

Unfortunately for him, Justin Wilson's mechanical problems brought out the yellow, and suddenly everyone had a chance at Bourdais. The field (for the most part) collectively decided that to take the chance, they needed new tires. The exceptions were Bourdais, Montoya, and Carpenter. Those three led the top pitters: Helio, Rahal, Dixon, Kanaan, and Newgarden.

I suspected Montoya and Carpenter would give Bourdais a buffer, and that's what happened. Carpenter dropped like a stone and fell to 10th, but JPM held tough for enough laps to keep Helio and Rahal at bay. Once those two got by Montoya, it was down to those three for the win. Helio got close for a little bit, but Bourdais weathered the challenge and pulled away for his second win of the year. He owned the second half of the race, so there is no other conclusion other than that it was well deserved.

Other Observations

So, the crowd. I didn't think it looked that bad, but I was contrasting with the all but apocalyptic language that was coming out before the weekend. Was it enough to keep the race? I have no idea. I hope the title sponsor (thanks ABC Supply!) helped. What I'm not going to do is blame paying customers, and I'll explain why later this week.

Nice donuts SeaBass.

Josef Newgarden looked like he'd be the dominant winner in the first half, but the strategy didn't work in his favor, and he lost positions on each yellow flag pit stop. Still, it was an impressive weekend for a team that needed an oval result. In contrast, Carpenter looked lost all day but still pulled out a 10th.

Montoya is living a charmed life. He was penalized for a pit speed violation early, but used strategy to get to the front and held on for 4th. Meanwhile, Will Power crashed and Dixon faded late to 7th (possibly helped by JPM). Thus, his lead is 54 points on Dixon, 69 (huh huh huh) on Helio and Graham, and 70 on Power.

Hard not to feel bad for Ryan Briscoe. Early on, he was battling for the lead, but a jack problem on his first pit stop cost him, then he spun out and collected Power. That's #5 Schmidt Peterson team has been luckless all year.

On Tap

Iowa, the race that those in IndyCar bemoan having to go to, because well, it's Iowa, but the racing is good and the crowd usually isn't terrible, so they can just suck it up. Some good old Saturday night short tracking coming up.

The Edge of Disaster

The compromises between safety and entertainment were already a topic in the racing world following the IndyCar race at Fontana. Following last night's horrible wreck at Daytona though, that topic will now be at full throat, both in the racing world and outside of it. Of course, those in racing have know about the dangers of plate racing in NASCAR for a long time. By one count, this is the fifth time in recent years where a car got up in the fence.

If we're being honest here, NASCAR got very, very lucky that no one was seriously hurt: both Austin Dillon and any spectators from the car hitting the fence. There has been a lot of progress made on safety over the years, but with a crash as bad as that, you're looking at hoping to get lucky. NASCAR got lucky here, and with the exception of the 2013 Nationwide incident at Daytona, has gotten lucky in terms of avoiding disaster. Maybe they'll keep getting lucky, maybe they won't. Again, if we're being honest here, we all know that will be the situation going forward, because we all know NASCAR won't do a damn thing about it except use the crash for promotional purposes.

Going back to IndyCar, earlier this week they put out the In-Car video for the Fontana race, which can be viewed above. Given the debate of the past two weeks, it's a fascinating watch. While I still contend that this wasn't traditional pack racing, it was still past the point of acceptable risk. Look at how many times cars come close to touching. For the most part, it wasn't because of drivers doing something stupid (with the exception of Sage Karam, whom Briscoe at one point says "is going to get someone fucking killed."). The very nature of the beast resulted in all the close calls, much less the actual wrecks during the race.

On the plus side, IndyCar has indicated that they missed the package, and hopefully that means they can find the right sweet spot between good racing and not ridiculously unsafe. However, as we've all discussed, this type of racing isn't a problem anywhere except Fontana, and there is no guarantee that it will return in 2016. Still, it's better to be prepared, because if a car ever *ever* gets up through the fence and into the stands, all of auto racing in this country will be in a world of hurt. This is something auto racing makes worse due to the sanctioning bodies' tendency to be reactive instead of proactive. Despite IndyCar's missteps (the new policy on dissent the latest thing), they realize that they got lucky this time and have a chance at being proactive. Here's hoping NASCAR at some point figures that out before its too late.