Welcome to an article I hope becomes a tradition for me here at AGM, Racing Roundup. Here I'll go over all the results from races I've watched over the weekend.
Three big series to report on this week: Formula One, NASCAR, and IndyCar all in action.
While the Nextel Cup was at the Big Triangle at Pocono Raceway, it lacks for drama when compared to the Busch series event this week.
This weekend the Series made its way to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, the first NASCAR race in Canada in 49 years. It seems every times the Busch series makes a border crossing, crazy events have to make the trip with them. But while Juan Pablo Montoya got aggressive in Mexico City, it hardly compared to Saturday's events.
The early part of the race saw one-off road course drivers like Patrick Carpentier doing well, near the halfway point the momentum was in the car of Marcos Ambrose, a Busch rookie looking to be the first Aussie to win a NASCAR event.
The craziness starts when Kevin Harvick bumps Scott Pruett (his second victimization this year, also being Montoya's target) to bring out a full course caution. In the meantime, Ambrose is battling with Robby Gordon, a NEXTEL Cup regular, for the lead. Gordon got around Ambrose, who then proceeded to spin out Gordon under the yellow. As the pace car is going around, NASCAR officials order Gordon, now second, to move back to twelfth position. Their ruling was that because Gordon did not maintain pace car speed, he lost whatever track position he had when the field was frozen (additionally, they ignored Ambrose's bump and judged the Aussie to have been in first when the caution was declared). Gordon does follow orders, at least temporarily.
As the caution was about to end, Gordon starts to move around the field and into second, right behind Ambrose. In a move absolutely everyone saw coming, when the green flag flew, Gordon sent Ambrose spinning. Gordon proceeded to finish the race "in the lead", although NASCAR would order him off the track. Kevin Harvick would be the official winner, although his burnout celebration was synchronized with that of Robby Gordon.
Quiz for Robby:
What is this?
It's a sign that you're a despicable driver. It's my Black Flag of the Week, the person who has done the most to disservice auto racing. This crap is everything wrong with NASCAR. You purposely prevented someone who slighted you from winning, whether or not he deserved, ignoring race officials to do so. I'm glad they parked you at Pocono, and hope there's more parkings coming. You won't be able to afford too many, since you're in 27th and you'll need to stay in the top 35 to make life easier. But you deserve every penalty to get. Good thing you don't run open wheel anymore, since that kind of stunt could have killed someone.
Formula One made its way to Hungaroring this week for another race in Budapest. I don't know whether it was the early wake up for the live coverage or the racing, but it was a snoozer. Kudos to Lewis Hamilton for leading every single lap of the entire race, even if it did not make things to interesting. The big deal for this race came during qualifying. Fernando Alonso won the pole position, however F1 officials judged him to purposely deny Hamilton an opportunity to win the pole during the last session. Alonso stayed in the pit stall (FYI for the F1 virgins - they have one pit stall per team, not per car) for ten extra seconds after the signage went up to tell him to continue. As a result of this delay, Hamilton was a few seconds short of running one last lap in the session.
This was a disgusting display of racing as well, and would be my black flag if not for Mr. Robby Gordon. Whether or not Alonso was supposed to be the last McLaren to get a qualifying lap, I don't care. If he was the last one, then why was he in front of Hamilton?
I follow up one North American crazy race with another, though fortunately with a lot less controversy. The IndyCars were at Michigan International Speedway for what possibly might be the last time. Tony Kanaan took the checkered flag at MIS for the second time in his career (his first came in CART in '99). The race featured the worst attrition in series history, as a record 7 cars finished the race. The previous record for IRL competition was nine cars at Walt Disney World in 1997. The race was dominated by Dario Franchitti leading 101 laps.
That is before everything went haywire. On lap 143, Dan Wheldon, looking to pass Franchitti on the inside, touches his front right to Dario's rear left. Dan goes into the wall, while Dario is launched into the air. On the way down, his car collects Scott Dixon, Sam Hornish Jr., Ed Carpenter, and A.J. Foyt IV. The car ended up upside down, scaring everyone watching. After the car was righted up (by a team that included Hornish), everyone could breath a sigh of relief as Franchitti quickly threw off the steering wheel and climbed out of the car unharmed. Fortunately, no major injuries resulted from the incident.
Of the seven cars on the lead lap at this point, three looked particularly poised for victory: Franchitti's AGR teammates Kanaan, Marco Andretti, and Danica Patrick (who inherited the lead after avoiding the crash). After an extremely long caution, so long I ate my entire dinner through it, the AGR cars looked poised for a 1-2-3 sweep. However, Danica was dealt a blow when her right front tire was losing pressure and was forced to pit. It was a real shame for her since I thought her car was better than Tony's and Marco's and would have won. This also makes the second time tires have prevented a woman from winning the race at Michigan (although unlike Sarah Fisher in 2002, this one wasn't the drivers fault).
So that was the last open-wheel race at Michigan for the forseeable future. With ChampCar staying away from ovals and IndyCar unable to agree with Michigan on a date, one of the best open-wheel ovals out there is off the schedule. It has multiple racing lines that can be used around the track, allow for close action and plenty of passing. In closing, I'll include a few clips of great open-wheel finishes at MIS:
This was the CART race in 1999, Tony's first win at the track. It's a ten minuter, so go to about 5:30 if you're pressed for action. As a bonus, the winner's circle interview shows Tony with hair!
IRL in 2003. Seventh closest finish in series history. Another great finish.
Robby Gordon should be suspended for at least 4 races, in my opinion. He completely altered the results of a race, he ignored several black flags, and he endangered his fellow drivers. I felt like NASCAR dropped the ball by letting him restart at all, right behind Ambrose. Everyone knew what was going to happen. Bad sportsmanship from Gordon, bad officiating by the Busch Series.
I watched the qualifying for the F1 race. It was so bizarre. They had held Alonso in the Q3 session for about 20 or 30 seconds, possibly so he'd go out on the track with no traffic. Then he stops again, Hamilton comes in, the lollipop goes up (lollipop=sign that tells the driver not to go, when it is raised, it means go), and Alonso doesn't move. The crew look confusedly at each other, and as the clock for Q3 reaches 1:35, Alonso speeds off. Not only bad sportsmanship, horrible teamwork. Alonso cost himself 5 starting positions, his teammate a pole (Hamilton had a much faster car all week), and his team constructor's points.
The thing that really bothered me about the whole Robby Gordon thing is that NASCAR could have prevented it - just prolong the caution and get Robby to do a drive-thru for disobeying orders.
At the start of Q3, Alonso had a lighter fuel load than Hamilton. So Alonso was supposed to go first from the pitlane, ahead of Hamilton. But they both got to the end of the pit lane in the wrong order. So the order was for Hamilton to let him pass. Hamilton couldn't though, he felt, because if he let Alonso through, Raikkonen would pass too. So he pulled away, expecting Alonso, on his lighter fuel load, to catch him up and drop Raikkonen. But he did the opposite, Alonso was unable to keep up with Hamilton.
As they pitted the first time, Alonso came in. He was held in his garage for 45 seconds or so, so that he was let out in clear space to make a flying lap. Alonso was less than happy with Dennis. Hamilton came in 30 seconds later, and went out, no problem.
Hamilton was in P1. On the inlap, Alonso pitted for tyres with about 2 minutes to go. He pitted and was held for a few seconds, in order to get him a clear lap again. But then he remained in the pit lane, blaming the radio for holding him in the garage. That caused Hamilton to miss his lap.
In my opinion, they were obviously both at fault. But it was deliberate, obviously. Alonso's radio theory was disproven by the FIA, who heard nothing (they have access to all teams radio). Even when Alonso was defending himself in public, citing that reason, he was all smiles, and laughing. That is not Fernando Alonso, he is normally much calmer.
I've said that Alonso is overrated, and not as good as people make out. He's excellent, but beatable. He has shown mental frailness last year when Schumacher was gaining on him, and barely held on. Similarly this year, Alonso did this.
It was the right decision by the FIA in my opinion. They had to act, although penalising McLaren seems pointless, as they were doing everything in their power to avoid the situation.
Hamilton's favourite for the Championship now, in my opinion.
And as a PS, I saw the American "Speed" version of this qualifying on YouTube. They were very slow to cotton on to the fact it was deliberate.
Unfortunately, I will not be at home next weekend - I'll be on vacation, so I may not be able to write a column. However, I will try.
MotoGP is two weeks from now anyway. Speed has it on, so I should be able to get a glimpse.
