Racing Roundup, August 12, 2008

Welcome back to Racing Roundup for the weekend of August 9 and 10. There's no Formula One talk this week - no races or testing, nor do I really care one iota about KERS. Still, we've got road racing for NASCAR (really!), IndyCars at Kentucky, some team issues in IndyCar, and a little bit of TV stuff.

NASCAR: Double dip at Watkins Glen suits Down Under driver

Nationwide

The tintops finished up their road course racing for the year at Watkins Glen as both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars made the trip to upstate New York. This meant a bigger crowd of Cup regulars in the Nationwide race among the main contenders. Kyle Busch, who won at Mexico City and Infineon early this year was among them, along with two guys who are not known for their road course skills: Jeff Burton and Jimmie Johnson.

The Nationwide race came down to fuel mileage. Although Burton and Johnson tried to stretch their cars out as the two leaders, they both eventually ran out of fuel. Burton finished 14th, and Johnson 29th (he lost additional position by speeding in the pits).

The major beneficary of the gas problem was the #59 car of Marcos Ambrose. The Australian has been so strong on the road courses ever since moving to NASCAR, and he finally got the trophy to prove it. Ambrose running third prior to Burton and Johnson's fuel issues, won the race, his first in a NASCAR event. Kyle Busch was second, Matt Kenseth third, Kevin Harvick fourth, and Dario Franchitti fifth.

Ambrose is the first driver from the Southern Hemisphere to win a race in NASCAR, and the sixth foreign-born driver to win a Cup or Busch/Nationwide event. The others were:

• Mario Andretti. The Italian-born racing legend won the 1967 Daytona 500
• Earl Ross, a Canadian who won a Winston Cup race at Martinsville in 1974
• Larry Pollard, another Canadian who won a 1987 Busch race
• Ron Fellows, road race ringer extraordinare (and yet another Canadian) who has won three races at Watkins Glen as well as last week's Montreal race
• Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia, who won the Mexico City and Infineon races last year

Sprint Cup

Kyle Busch had the pole, as qualifying was cancelled and the grid was set on points. Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the majority of the race laps, but Junior was taken out of race contention after a major gaffe from his long-time crew chief Tony Eury Jr.

The race was clean for the majority of the race, with three brief cautions. It would be one of the those cautions that cost Dale Jr., as Eury held him out on the track longer than any other contenders for the final pit stop. On lap 65, Travis Kvapil drove off course into the gravel. Kvapil kept the car running, but dragged a lot of gravel onto the track, causing NASCAR to throw the yellow to clean. Earnhardt had to pit under yellow, causing him to lose positions to much of the field. He ultimately finished 22nd.

Busch did not get much of a challenge late in the race, as the second place car was his teammate Tony Stewart. Stewart is battling to stay in the Chase, so he was not going to aggressively challenge Busch, opting to keep the critical second place points. Indeed, the only time he got around Busch was when Kyle let Stewart lead the race for one lap to earn bonus points.

This was one of the cleanest races I've ever seen at a road course for NASCAR. That is, until lap 84. Michael McDowell and David Gilliland were fighting for position. McDowell sent Gilliland's car spinning in Turn 11, causing the chain reaction wreck here on the video:

Bobby Labonte got the worst of it, and was taken to the hospital. Fortunately, no major injuries for the former Cup champion. The crash caused the race to be red flagged for nearly 45 minutes prior to the race's end.

Once it finished, Busch held on to win, with Tony Stewart second. Despite starting 41st, Marcos Ambrose turned in perhaps a better race on Sunday to finish 3rd, with Juan Pablo Montoya fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth.

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

• It's nice to see these cars out on the road courses, although Watkins Glen feels somewhat neutered as a stock car track.
• Great job for Dario Franchitti. He has been out of a ride for two months now, so it was great to see him in a car again. He showed everyone he can still race by winning the pole for the Nationwide race and running up front most of the time. Hopefully he'll use the momentum on his way over ALMS next year, where his skills would be much more suited.
• ESPN needs to do a little more research before calling foreigner on a road course something related to Formula One. Marcos Ambrose was never a Formula One test driver, and to call Max Papis a "Formula One ace" would be a gross exaggeration (7 races with 0 points for his career).

IndyCars at Kentucky

Another race, another Scott Dixon victory. The points leader was strong throughout, and because of his pit stops again he charged ahead. His biggest challenge on the track came from Marco Andretti, who led 38 laps, although this was 100 short of Dixon's total.

In an attempt to gain points on Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves tried to replicate Danica Patrick's Motegi victory by stretching out his fuel mileage. Consider that neither Penske car was a factor on Saturday night, it was a good time to gamble. Castroneves did indeed take the lead when Dixon pitted late in the race for a little fuel, but was unable to stretch it out enough and was passed by Dixon before reaching the finish line. As a result, Helio collected his third consecutive runner-up finish and his seventh of the season but has no wins to his credit. Andretti finished third, while Vitor Meira, who sat on the front row with Dixon, was fourth. Dan Wheldon rounded out the top 5.

As a result of Kentucky, Dixon's lead in the standings has been extended to 78 points. With a victory and a poor result from Castroneves at Infineon in two weeks, Dixon could clinched his second IndyCar title with two races to spare. If Dixon scores 28 more points than Castroneves, he cannot be caught, even if he does not race the final two events.

As for other runners, kudos to one of my favorites, Sarah Fisher. IndyCar's first female regular returned as a driver-owner for her second race of the season with new sponsorship. She ran as high as 11th with a few laps to go prior to having a wheel baring issue that resulted in her finishing 15th. I also have to give credit to Ed Carpenter, who finished sixth. While he struggles on road and street courses, Carpenter has been in the top 10 at every oval longer than a mile.

Andretti Green Drama

The biggest team in IndyCar had a ton of drama the last two weeks. The debacle at Edmonton saw the team hold a closed door meeting after Marco and Danica failed to let Tony Kanaan pass them on an alternate strategy. Meanwhile Kanaan, whose contract expired at the end of the season, was able to negotiate with other teams starting August 1. Although Robin Miller reported he signed with Ganassi (which would have turned things upside down), it turned out to be false, and instead resigned with AGR.

The frustration for Kanaan is understandable. He has been charged to take the lead at AGR both in leadership and in setting up the race car. Whereas in the pass he could share the role with Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti, he was alone this year in the leadership aspect. Couple that with the fact one teammate's mistakes are impossible for the team owner to criticize (that of course being Marco Andretti, son of AGR co-owner Michael). The only reason I believe Kanaan resigned with AGR was that no lateral move was available - Penske is happy with Ryan Briscoe's performance so he will not be canned, nor is Ganassi troubled by Wheldon's. And neither team is interested in running a third car, so unless Tony wanted to drop to a second-tier team like Vision or Rahal Letterman he would be out of luck.

In my opinion, running four cars is no longer a fruitful enterprise for Andretti Green. Not only is the car count not needed, but teams that have pared down recently has seen improved results. But how to drop the car count down? This may mean letting Hideki Mutoh go, but his performance will garner him a spot with another team. The other move may be the most uncomfortable one for Michael, but it is to get Marco onto another team.

My reasoning is that the connection to his son makes it much harder to be that critical. Plus it might make Marco a better driver to have the pressure of performing well to keep his ride. It's not unprecedented, after all there are two other drivers in the series with owners in their family who do not drive for their kin: Graham Rahal and A.J. Foyt IV. I think it has helped Graham's development not to drive for Bobby, and prove himself on his own merits. A.J. was in a similar example as Marco, since he came up in the series driver for his grandfather. Quattro was terrible at first, but has improved since moving to Vision.

New TV Deal for IndyCars

IndyCar announced this week that the primary carrier for the series starting next year would be Versus, although ABC will televise six races including the Indianapolis 500. I am very pleased with this deal in a number of ways:

• IndyCar is very low on the priority list on ESPN, and is often pre-empted when other events run long.
• The amount of time races are covered is often rather short. Pre-race coverage is often no more than three or four 30 second driver interviews (typically Danica Patrick, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, and the polesitter if not one of them).
• Post-race coverage that's even shorter: talk to the winner and jet.

For the hardcore fan, it's going to be an improvement, since they are obligated to more pre and post-race coverage, will run an hour long preview show the day before a race, and possibilities for live Indy Lights races and other programming.

ESPN hasn't always been the best, but I have to give them some credit. I don't think the IRL/IndyCar would have survived without their coverage during the more difficult years of the split.

Congrats

• Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr, the overall winners at the American Le Mans Series event at Road America. Werner and Luhr won the LMP1 class, while David Brabham and Scott Sharp won the LMP2 class, Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen taking honors in GT1 and the team of Dirk Werner, Richard Westbrook and Bryce Miller topping GT2.
• Dillon Battistini, who won the Indy Lights race that followed the IndyCar race (an unusual scheduling quirk). The Englishman had been strong at the beginning of the season, but everything went wrong in July and he went from leading the series to fifth. He has rebounded to be third in the series standings.
• Scott Speed, who won his fourth ARCA race of the season at Nashville Superspeedway. The ex-Toro Rosso driver has been driving in the stock car series (typically a developmental series) to get acclimated to the tin tops.
• Jonathan Bomarito and Jonathan Summerton, who won the Atlantics races at Road America this weekend. Indeed both drivers won at Edmonton as well, and as a result the last race not won by a Jonathan came in June.

It will be three weeks before the next RR, as I will be going on a cruise next week and will miss parts of the next two race weekends.

Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

454 days ago

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When you're calling Mario Andretti a foreigner, you know your sport is short of international stars!

Many Europeans hate NASCAR and hate Americans for their ignorance of everything else, be it open wheel racing, or anything. By calling everybody with road course experience with an Italian sounding name a Formula One driver, they'll only continue to fuel that myth.

I've heard similar things in Indycar racing on the Internet though, where the commentators were saying "look how many F1 drivers the sport is attracting!", when nowadays in fairness, they were all not good enough to get a longterm drive in it. They don't seem to realise that that's the only reason most drivers of non-American heritage drive in Indycars is to get into Formula One, or because they're stepping out from Formula One. Long gone are the days when F1 drivers would pop over for the Indianapolis 500, or end there careers there, a la Fittipaldi and Mansell.

I'm was looking forward to Valencia next week with F1, but I fear the race might be processional, and early indications show that the track isn't as pleasing to the eye as promised.

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ThecrookedcapAll-Star

454 days ago

Score 1

When you're calling Mario Andretti a foreigner, you know your sport is short of international stars!

This is NASCAR. 15 years ago it was strange to see guys from Washington or Wisconsin in the series, let alone foreigners.

I'm curious to understand the dislike of NASCAR to Europeans. Is it mostly being uninterested by oval racing, or are there other factors I'm ignorant to?

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

454 days ago

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In "America", if you have an accent (or a last name that reads like a bowl of Alphabits), you're a foreigner.

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

454 days ago

Score 1

Oh no, you're not ignorant, I'm just saying that's the common myth my European cousins hold. I don't think Americans are ignorant to this sort of thing, they're just not exposed to it, because there's no reason for them to be. We are just as ignorant of American Football. Most people will say it's a "wooses" version of rugby. People who bother to find out though realise there's much more to it.

I think Europeans think oval racing puts no skill on the driver. I must agree, that in oval racing, cornering isn't the hard thing, overtaking other drivers, as well as staying away from other drivers is the skill. In road racing, you have the additional problem of trying to navigate around the course successfully. People deride it as just turning left.

Furthermore, the first ever racetrack in the world was Brooklands, in London. It was an oval! We only built it because a speed limit was put on British roads, this didn't apply on the continent, so they could race on their public roads. Motorsport developed in France and Italy in the inter-war period, so when they started to build racetracks, they were imitations of road courses. The likes of Montlhery and Monza had ovals built too, however.

We dislike NASCAR principally because we don't understand why you find it so good! We know the largest motor companies in the world flock to Formula One, Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, Honda for instance. That isn't true of NASCAR. I think you have Ford and Chevrolet? Then, it's all on ovals, to most people. I know they race at Watkins Glen, but people will automatically think of ovals when they think of NASCAR. Then, it's stock car racing, not open wheel racing. Then you get the people who just don't like Americans, be it through prejudice or otherwise. They perceive Americans to consider NASCAR the best racing since sliced bread, but in every other country in the world, they'll say Formula One is. Personally, I don't like NASCAR that much, because I prefer open wheel racing on road courses. If I want to watch Stock Car racing such as NASCAR, I'll watch the V8 Supercars, or the DTM, which go on road courses. Because American cars are mainly involved though, we don't identify with it, I think. We're likely to buy a Mercedes, or a Ferrari (if we're rich enough!), few people over here ever buy a Chevrolet, or a Buick. We would buy a Ford though, admittedly. I think we don't like NASCAR because we can't identify with the sport. The same reason that Americans don't like cricket, because you can't identify it, preferring baseball.

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

454 days ago

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Thecrookedcap: they're European, they look down on everything American.

Every time someone criticizes NASCAR for being a redneck sport, or something along those lines, I have to laugh. 15 years ago, when I first started getting into it, the circuit was straight hick. Races were on The Nashville Network, and Jeff Gordon was treated as if he was a foreigner because he was from Indiana/California. It's amazing how much it's changed since those days. Now it's Nextel Cup not Winston Cup. It's the Nationwide Series, not the Busch Series. You've got Toyotas racing. You've got races in Chicago, southern California, Las Vegas, Montreal, and Mexico City. Hell, Mexico has it's own NASCAR circuit now.

So all apologies, Alex, for not being as international as F1, or even IndyCar. But the sport is growing and is 100 times more open than it was a decade ago.

And he didn't call Andretti a "foreigner." He called him "foreign-born." There's a difference. If you can call Canadians "foreign-born," then you sure as hell can call Andretti "foreign-born."

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

454 days ago

Score 1

Alex touched on something in his comment I'd like to expand on. There seems to be a major difference in tastes. European racing fans would rather watch the best performing cars in the world take on the most difficult tracks in the world. They don't even mind if there isn't a single lead change on the course. They'd rather see the skill and technological dominance of a great team, as well as the complex pit strategy of an F1 race.

But American racing fans want to see cars similar to the ones they drive in direct competition with other cars/drivers. They want to see close racing, tons of passing, and the occasional contact between cars. American racing fans like the tension of possible wrecks to spice things up. They like caution flags to tighten up the field. They like a little bit of strategy, but not too much. The occasional road race is fine, but ovals are better suited for the kind of racing American fans want to see.

It's just two different kinds of racing fans. I'm sure there are Europeans who like the NASCAR style of racing, but probably don't like F1 too much. And I know a few Americans who can't stand NASCAR, but wake up at ungodly hours to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix. Hell, I love almost all kinds of racing, but I can't stand drag racing. But lots of people like drag racing.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

454 days ago

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The Nashville Network is now called Spike and no one bats an eye...

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ThecrookedcapAll-Star

454 days ago

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About the cars in NASCAR-

NASCAR restricts what manufacturers can run in the series. The "cars" run have to be American made, which is why you don't see BMW, Mercedes, Honda, et al. in NASCAR. Toyota is allowed because they produce the "models" run (the Toyota Camry and Tundra) in the United States. So the best automakers in the world can't flock to NASCAR, even if they wanted to.

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

453 days ago

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Well, Europeans want to see overtaking and tight racing too, it just doesn't seem to happen on a lot of road circuits. That's why Hungaroring is hated, as Thecrookedcap would agree.

The best circuits in the world allow for overtaking at certain places, and the skill is to get into the right place at the right time. Sometimes however, overtaking can be sacrificed for the likes of Spa Francorchamps and Monte Carlo, the former a sweeping fast forest circuit, and the other the jewel in the Formula One crown.

I didn't realise NASCAR put limits on entry, but it makes sense: "North American Super Car". That differs from most European Touring Car series, I think Renault are in ours, Seat (Say-at) too. Nissan definitely are/were.

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ThecrookedcapAll-Star

454 days ago

Score 0

Like you Alex, I hope the Valencia race turns out well. I wonder how running a brand new circuit will change things. The race may come down to who adapts to Valencia best.

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

453 days ago

Score 0

Well, there was an event there a few weeks ago as part of a breaking in procedure, and the drivers said it was Monaco-esque in terms of it's tightness and twisty nature. McLaren are traditionally better than Ferrari at those type of circuits, so hopefully McLaren can get a win this weekend.

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Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer

454 days ago

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I am also looking forward to Valencia. As far as racing goes I tend to enjoy open wheel much more than stock cars. Formula 1 being the top of the heap. Great stuff as always crookedcap.

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