Schedule Thoughts to Come

I don't wanna throw out quick analysis and thoughts; I need some time to absorb it. Obviously there is some real good (starting earlier, expanding to Brazil and back to central/southern U.S.) but the bad is pretty glaring (screwing New Hampshire & east coast fans).

I'm just going to let it settle for a few hours and then I'll get up the usual in-depth analysis.

The Best Sponsorship Ever! (a caption contest to end them all)

I've spent the last 20 minutes with my jaw on the floor, simply dumbfounded as to what exactly I should say... just too many good jokes, can't single out only one for what can only be described as the best sponsorship ever. We've had some ballsy stuff with Viagra and more being thrown around in the past, but they all pale into comparison to Dario Franchitti's special paint scheme for the Edmonton Indy Grand Prix.

I think all our fellow readers, followers and even Brewers fans can appreciate what HAS TO BE the bravest sponsorship ever taken in motorsports: Vaseline MEN-LOTION
Its just too perfect. There are just too many great lines that can be said, I'm almost at a loss to collect them in my head. I simply cannot wait to hear the commentary, pre & post-race comments for this weekend. SO much that I don't want to wait, coverage is just too far away.

So I'm put this up to a contest for all you people out there!

Comment, give us your best lines, from commentary to lines Dario himself can use, talking about the Vaseline- MEN LOTION car.

I haven't thought up a prize just yet, but the best line will win something cool. So bring your best; the more innuendo the better.

Fisticuffs, Fuel, Cautions, Color Blindness, Boos, Drama, and Other Inspiring Notes from the Toronto Grand Prix

In the words of the great Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Good News Everyone!

We finished a race this season, and I'd say we're 95% talking about track & driver activity after the race! This is where we need to be my friends. So what do we have to talk about, what crazy, silly, interesting things do we have to note from the Toronto Grand Prix?

-Hunter-Reay & Foyt complete 2 laps!
In fact they completed them all. For some reason its not really getting any mention, but before the race, A.J. Foyt claimed he was not happy with the car's engineering and so he took over; and I'm not sure if that was the key, but the car was faster, and it got RHR away from some of the more erratic drivers at the start.

-Scheckter takes the gloves off the fists...
to throw them at Tagliani. I never get tired of guys like Tomas, good, aggressive driver, not afraid to show emotion, yet still can give a colorful but controlled interview after. The incident was clearly Tags' fault with a little help from Mario Moraes; but the better question is why the Safety Crew made Tomas get out of his car even though it clearly only nudged into the tires... and sure they got him out and then realized it was ok... at that point why not let him jump back in?

-Unfortunately ABC only accidentally showed us a little bit of it, but what I saw of Dixon vs. Wilson at the end of the race was masterful racing from both.
I honestly wish we had just a camera on those 2 guys (& Tracy) the whole race as an option. Those guys all make great calculated, yet still aggressive moves, and to see them make the moves on each other is even better.

-How about Paul Tracy pulling the exact same move on Mike Conway twice in a row!?
Tracy drove a great race, and I think had a car to match Dario's speed; but man, Conway had a fast car too. Its really just unfortunate, cause Conway clearly has the talent to go fast and learn courses very quickly to get speed out of them. He is just going through a little bit of turbulence in the rookie season, I'm just hoping he can stay away from, what are actually very small mistakes (marbles for passes) and he'll easily be a road course contender every week.

-Viso & Moraes take it to Fisticuffs!
We've all seen Mario Moraes this year; he's be incredibly quick, and very aggressive... and with that aggressiveness has come some ill-advised or sloppy attempts at passing. To this point in the 2009 season, I really think Moraes has had contact & incidents with more drivers than he hasn't.

Gee this sure sounds familiar.... almost identical to another series newcomer recently tried this out... This same newcomer, in fact, being the latest of Moraes' victims. I am of course talking about E.J. Viso, who had finally started to battle out of the #13, green car, bad luck when Moraes not only hit viso in Toronto, he hit him twice... and the 2nd hit came well after the race was over. Not like Dario's mistake in Kentucky which happened right at the checkered, no... Moraes hit Viso a good 8 turns after the checkered, while Viso had his visor up and was about to take a sip of some Herbalife and likely thinking about plans of base jumping off the CN Tower or something.

We all saw the post race interviews where Mario, yet again this season, claims no fault (sound familiar to last years Viso enough for ya?) E.J. then posted a comment on his Facebook page about not understanding why the league allows a "Monkey with a bag of money" to race. People, we have the beginnings of a great rivalry/tension whatever, and thats what we need on track. What I'm curious about though, is that a few people I know who were at the track have told me that the action didn't end on-camera; that there may have been some shouting, pushing, shoving and even hair pulling back at the trailers after the race. Obviously I don't want fisticuffs to become a regular thing, but you know what Mario & E.J. did this weekend that no one's seem to have been able to do in the past 3-4 seasons. They stopped being PC, and let their emotions show; and that is something that has been a little too lacking since, wow... maybe Danica-Wheldon?

-Not to be outdone, we got Tracy vs. Helio; Vasser vs. Race Control, Graham vs. whatever mistake he makes & Marty Reid vs. logical thinking.

-Lets start with Helio-Tracy.
Here is the ONLY conclusion you can come to: it was a racing incident. Paul was aggressive with the move, Helio was too aggressive with trying to keep the position, and the street narrowed at the exact point they both tried to do this; don't believe me, check out the aerial shots. No other guy really encroached on the other, they just ran out of space (which is a reason I'm really glad we're headed to Edmonton next, plenty room).

Both guys were stand up about it after, and while you can't point fingers about the actual contact, you can note that Helio was on fuel strategy, on crappy tires, and already conceded first place to Dario.. At the point Dario passed Helio, he should have been committed to fuel and not contended so hard with any of the other guys on the 1st/2nd strategies; that said you can't tell a guy to not compete, but Helio had been wiggly all race, it seemed a bit much for him to suddenly try and make the car stick when it hadn't yet in the race.

-Then we got Tracy-Dario & the fun of yellow flag pitting.
Now for those of you that followed me on twitter; you noticed I hammered Race Control a bit; but what I may not have clarified, is that I was NOT hammering them for the Dario-Tracy pit order incident. (I was hammering them for repeatedly allowing the leaders to brake-check and pull away 5 turns before the green flag on restarts). As far as the Dario-Tracy who should have been in the lead incident, all you need to think about are 3 simple facts.

A) Jimmy Vasser was at least halfway, if not more, down pit road and likely couldn't see the blend line. He also spoke on camera in the heat of the moment without having seen a replay of it yet.

More importantly what do you really think is more plausible?

B) Brian Barnhart and the league are covering up a conspiracy to give Dario 2nd place? (remember Helio was in the lead at the time).

C) ABC simply messed up yet another thing by not covering the pit out, and got the explanation from Race Control wrong, and then never considered going back to previous video to show us the answer? In fact here is ABC's best shot (end of video), you can conclude nothing from that.

Seriously are you going to base a conspiracy on the same broadcast team that was mixing up Mario Moraes, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal, EJ Viso, Tony George's segue and a 10 year old kid's paper airplane for Paul Tracy?

-And speaking of ABC; I'm not going to write a ton about it, I've hammered them before and they deserve every bit of it, but how many ways can you say they screwed up?
We miss passing, we talk about things that aren't the action on camera, we ask if cars pitting are taking fuel, but the worst is really just the lack of correct camera usage & being at commercials for things like restarts or going to pit coverage right when we are about to see a pass for position, they install a nose-cam on Marco's car to use it for a whole 10 seconds during the race.

Look, I know we all love to hate Marty, and some like Will & myself can even appreciate a John Madden like quality in the silliness... but the difference is that Madden has always had Pat Summeral & Al Michaels to correct him when he was horribly wrong, and for whatever reason Scott Goodyear feels no need to shut Marty up when he's obviously wrong; and that is a huge disservice to the people watching. So far Marty has confused Paul Tracy, Mario Moraes, Alex Tagliani, EJ Viso, Tony Kanaan & Graham Rahal in just the past 2 weeks... and NO 2 of those cars look remotely alike.

Even better, he gave us a great new line regarding Hideki Mutoh's red/blue formula Dream car: "I get my White and Red's mixed up."

Last year at St. Pete I thought Marty hit a stride I never thought he'd be able to reach again when he said "These are 5 guys we don't normally talk about." While I still think that is Marty's best line to date, he came very close twice this weekend. #1 came in his pre-race online chat on ESPN, where a fan asked who he thought could be our next first-time winner. Marty replied "either Mario Moraes or Graham Rahal." His 2nd highlight for the weekend came at the very finale of ABC's broadcasting of the IndyCar Series for the season where Marty in all his brilliance.. asked Scott Goodyear if he wants to come try out NASCAR with him...

For the love of all that is holy Marty, I love to laugh, but not at the expence of other viewers, stay with NASCAR; and lets go onward to Edmonton where the lanes are wide and the action is fast!


Pictures via indycar.com and ABC

The WBC Took My Closer Away

You probably saw it. The Dominican Republic was shocked, as Carlos Marmol imploded. Marmol gave up two runs, including the only earned run allowed by the Dominican during the 2009 World Baseball Classic (the team's 3-game ERA was an amazing 0.31), in the game that saw the team eliminated much earlier than anyone could've expected.

To recap: DR starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez set a WBC record by striking out 10 of the 13 batters he faced over 4 innings. Pedro Martinez threw another solid 3 innings and other relievers followed suit, giving zero runs through 10 total innings. However, the heavily favored DR team could not score against the team from the Netherlands, until the top of the 11th when they got a run across. Enter Marmol, for the save. He gave up a double and then a single, which tied the game at 1. He then made a wild pick-off attempt, allowing the winning run to go from first to third. Willy Aybar's error completed the comeback attempt for the Dutch.

Now, before the WBC, Kerry Wood had already signed with the Indians. As a lifelong Cubs fan, I was sad to see him go, but fully understood that he deserved a huge deal AND the risks that go with giving Kerry Wood a lot of money for a lot of years. Besides! We had Carlos Marmol! His ERA the past two years was about 2.00. He was striking out well over 1/IP, with walk totals around 1/3 of his strikeouts. Thank goodness they went out and got Kevin Gregg for insurance (although I think Sean Marshall is looking more and more like a dominant reliever every day).

We can't be sure if his WBC loss (and the shame that must've come from taking the L in a hugely embarrassing defeat for his country) has anything to do with his performance this year, but we can surely see he isn't the same player. Unlike last year, when he made the All-Star game as a set-up man, we are never quite sure if he will be able to locate his pitches. He can throw three tremendous pitches for strikes and then turn around and throw four straight balls that are not even close to even looking like strikes. His ERA, entering today's games, was still only 3.73 but his IP/K/W is: 41/45/41. Not terrible, but I would NOT want this guy closing games for my team right now.

To his credit, I will say that strange things seem to happen when he is on the mound. You can point to Aybar's error as the "real" reason the DR lost that game. Or take last night's Cubs/Cardinals game, when Marmol entered in the 9th with a 5-1 lead.

- Rasmus ground out.

- Pujols single. (OK, that's actually sort of a victory.)

- Ludwick walk.

- Then the weird play: ground ball to Marmol, throw to Theriot at second for one out, throw to Hoffpauir at first, runner safe. The play at second was close, but was clearly an out. The play at first was also close, and also clearly an out. As the FOX announcers said, I also have never seen this, but both managers ended up on the field to argue. LaRussa argued that Theriot missed the base at second (which he didn't) and Piniella argued that the throw beat the runner at first (which it did). While the throw to second was the wrong play to make with a 4-run lead, technically the game should've been over. Next of course...

- Molina single, Pujols scores a run.

- Wild pitch, runners advance. Piniella had seen enough at this point and brought Gregg in for the save.

As yesterday's game illustrated, Marmol spent the first half of this season getting himself into too many situations that he's had to pitch out of or have Gregg clean up for him.

Blame the WBC?

Brazil to Pay $20,000,000 for IndyCar Race

We knew the Indy Racing League officials said Brazil would make it worth it for the IndyCar Series to visit; but this number sounds awesome for the league if it holds up. Via Google translate of Brazilian article:

"For Indy, Ribeirão Preto pay $ 20 million and will have a street circuit"

Its not perfect in translated form, but from the gist of this, it seems they are already talking of making the contract for 6 years with the money amount just the same each year.

"Despite the high value to be paid, the city estimates at $ 100 million that could reach back with proof of Indy Racing League in its streets. Even so, the representatives of Ribeirão Preto already speak of even extend the link (which has not been signed) for six years."

With that money (likely somewhat dispersed to teams as well in sponsorship & travel costs) this race could be even better for the IndyCar Series than a title sponsor. I am curious also of something no one else has thought to ask yet... does this deal include the Indy Lights Series?

Now here's hoping the report is correct... lest we forget how the Chilean reports of Pablo Donoso signing with A.J. Foyt turned out.

The Ongoing Saga at the Milwaukee Mile / NOW With New UPDATE

So its been a week since we reported on the possible conspiracy to kill the Milwaukee Mile. Obviously with the Giuffre brothers talking, as well as radio and news catching on to the story; any half-decent PR person knows it would be incredibly beneficial to immediately quell the worries and point out the conspiracies as false...

Well Governor Doyle and his administration, kind-of, maybe tried to do it...

"The administration understands the importance of racing in Milwaukee to both the city and the state and will continue to work with the State Fair Park Board in their efforts to preserve the rich racing tradition at Milwaukee Mile in a way that is fair to both state taxpayers and racing enthusiasts."

In other words: Doyle's administration & the State Fair Board... who are essentially one in the same... are working with themselves... to find a solution to a problem... that they created... that someone else has already given them the solution to...

It seems funny to me that the official stance from the State Fair Board still insists that they have never had official contact with the Giuffres, even though there is proof otherwise (see below posting); and that they can't talk to Dominic Giuffre even if they wanted to, because they are under contract with Claude Napier... you know the promoter who owes millions of dollars to NASCAR & IRL and is now defunct.

Pardon me, but does anyone really believe Claude Napier would be angry if the Fair Board cut his contract and took the debt liability away. The Giuffre's may not have yet offered to take up the debt so much as to just be the new promoters with their financial backing as a starting fund after debt is taken care of. Because as Dominic Giuffre puts it best:

"You have a $150 million asset you have to protect. What's $4 million? If I was (Gov. Jim) Doyle, I would step up to the plate."

Public funding is used extensively to attract and keep sports franchises and other assets that affect the quality of life. Giuffre cited the construction of Miller Park, the $295 million Lambeau Field renovation and even the recent filming of "Public Enemies" in Wisconsin as examples.

"You think they're paying that off?, No, absolutely not. They're underwritten by the state."

My numbers may be off slightly, but by this point, Wisconsin has spent almost 287486% more on all those things, compared to what it would cost to take care of the current Mile promotion debt. To read all the fun quotes from Dominic, and the fun "We're gonna do something, but we're not telling anyone what exactly" comments from the State Fair Board, head here.

UPDATE: I'd like to thank Michael Horne at www.milwaukeeworld.com for linking me up with his report, from just before last weekend, which indicates quite a different story than the Journal Sentinel:

"It appears somebody from the Governor's office gave board chair Susan Crane the go-ahead to begin negotiations with the Giuffres, who promoted races at the track from 1984 to 1991. As recently as last week, Crane offered a noncommital response to an e-mail from Dominic Giuffre. [Milwaukeeworld was provided a copy of the e-mail by a source close to the negotiations.]

The negotiations would be fast and intense, and could be complete Monday. According to sources familiar with NASCAR operations, Monday is a key date on the NASCAR planning calendar for 2010.

Frank Giuffre confirmed to Milwaukeeworld that he and his brother are in touch with fair officials and say they plan to work over the holiday weekend."

I'm not sure if the Journal-Sentinel is getting the run around, or late in reporting fact as their article post-dates Michael's by at least 4 days; And the Monday Mike reports has come and passed, but I'm sure race fans world-wide are hoping that the negotiations are in fact underway, and the Journal-Sentinel is simply getting the run around while negotiations are underway.

Milwaukee Mile Not Just Finished, but Killed?

Yesterday I had said that I didn't know enough details on the current Milwaukee Mile unpaid bill situation yet, so I didn't go into too much analysis.

Well, we have some freaking details now, and it is absolutely disturbing. You can start with the coverage by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who tells us the numbers that Napier is behind ($1.9 million to NASCAR, and undisclosed amount to IRL), and that the workers at the track have all been laid off... but where it gets truly bad... Milwaukee radio host & newspaper reporter Mark Belling basically filled us all in on what appears to be a clear, but veiled, attempt by the Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, and his people to kill racing at the Milwaukee Mile. Opinion and theories you think...? well Belling has proof:

1) Belling has the copies of public documents proving that the Wisconsin State Fair Board did not require, or even ask, the new promoter Claude Napier (the one who is now failing to pay the IRL & NASCAR sanctioning fees) proof of financial assets needed to run the track.

but the more damning evidence

2) Belling has copies of an e-mail trail between the Wisconsin State Fair Board Chairman, Susan Crane, and a partnership of John Menard, Frank Guiffre & Dominic Guiffre; who offered to take over promotions and use their own capital to assist with financials, likely the money owed to the IRL & NASCAR (not to mention the state itself also has the money to do this). For those of you who don't know, those three men may be three of the Top 10 richest people in Wisconsin, we are talking billions of money in capital, tons of business experience; and the Guiffre family was even promoters at The Mile some 20 years ago.

What an amazing offer right!? Three Wisconsoners willing to pony up whatever it takes to continue racing at the worlds oldest racetrack in their home state!

Well here is where financial failure turns into track murder. The Wisconsin State Fair Board Chairman's response to Dominic Guiffre (the one in the partnership who sent the e-mail), and I'm paraphrasing:

"Thanks for e-mailing, I hope you can attend the race in August."

Are you kidding!? Someone offers up their time, money and expertise to save the oldest racetrack in the world; a racetrack that brings in $75 million annually to the state, and has the cities name in the track, and gets shown on national television, and you blow them off!?

At this point it is pretty clear that certain people may have suceeded in their ridiculous agenda to kill the Milwaukee Mile...

Belling & the Journal Sentinel are predicting if nothing happens by this, or next, weekend that NASCAR & IRL will be forced to announce they are leaving the track due to unpaid money, and that will be the domino the State Fair wants to then close down the track. Good lord I hope this doesn't happen; what a bunch of asses if this is all as true as it pretty well seems evident. But don't take my word for it, go here and listen to Mark Belling's show where he gives you ALL these details, and word for word the email conversations:

Belling's Show Part 1

Belling's Show Part 2

Motorsports Engines, Bankruptcy, Negotiations, Drivers & More Go Unnoticed As Everyone is Distracted by the Tony George Stuff

To be honest; when the whole Tony George resigning story came out, it was not a shock to me, and I still don't understand everyone out there being shocked. Miller, Martin and Schoettle all reported on this a month ago, and IMS admitted restructuring was coming.

Then news of the IRL/Brasil deal that is bringing an influx of cash came out, Ryan Hunter-Reay had to be moved for cash reasons. All of these things are smart decisions for a company to take, and the restructuring is also part of that, turning things into a profitable business; no reason to freak out...yet.

In the news report yesterday we learned that the replacements were hand picked by Tony & the board, & that its 2 guys who have been in the IMS system for over 10-15 years; pardon me if I'm nonchalant-ish. Yes I realize all the implications & possibilities that restructurings can have, and new directions things can go in, but people need to remember that the IMS & IRL are attached right now, Tony and Mari are still voting members & that IMS needs the IRL to survive right now. The only real difference is for hardcore fans who pay attention to this and need to find a new whipping boy just like MLB, NFL & NHL fans have Bud Selig, Roger Goodell & Gary Bettman.

Honestly, the story here is what will Tony George hating split-loving people do now? We're unified and TG is no longer CEO, for the love of all that is holy, what will they do!?

There is so much unfounded prognostication out there, and so much freak-outtery that everyone's missing quite a many bits of news that has come through in the past 48-72 hours, so here's a rundown for those interested:

Has A1GP Run Its Final Race/Season?

If you're a regular FW reader, you've seen me chronicle the happenings & mis-happenings of A1GP over the past 2-3 years; and if I hadn't said it enough, I'll say it again; the World Cup/Nation vs. Nations concept is absolutely great, and having a series run during what is "off-season" for just about every other series is also great. The concept however has mostly been executed horridly.

Well I may not have much more to chronicle, as in the past 2 days, reports have come out everywhere that the British arm of A1GP has gone bankrupt.While this isn't the entirety of A1GP, it may as well be as this arm runs all the staff & logistics for the series. Series Chairman Tony Teixeira claims that they can still go on, but I, and many others can't possibly fathom how.

A1GP has burned so many bridges with failed on-time payments, canceled races, late pieces-parts for teams; but all that aside, the series has ALWAYS put on a masterful show with great competition and great commentary and great online live-streaming. The irony? this news comes after learning A1GP did one thing they hadn't seemed to be able to do all these years; they got an entire schedule together and FiA approved almost half a year ahead of schedule.

If the series goes, I will be sad, but I'll understand; but more importantly it raises some huge questions:

-What happens to Surfer's Paradise/Gold Coast who broke off talks with IndyCar to go with A1GP?
-What happens to the new Hampton Downs track in New Zealand being built specifically to start taking over the New Zealand portion of the A1GP schedule?
-Even if the series survives, do teams like AGR-Team USA care to continue with it being so unstable?
-What does Montreal's Circuit Gilles-Villneueve do now?

P.S. you can also add that the uniform/apparel provider for quite a many A1GP teams is also going under.

IndyCar listens to all of its teams/drivers/fans and immediately institutes 3 new options for teams to give an additional downforce to the cars, which will hopefully aide grip and improve passability. As a fan and proponent of the league, I'm happy, but not quite ecstatic. I am excited that the 3 new things are optional; as I went through yesterday, its options that make racing exciting, seeing different kinds of combinations and how they work.

I would like to see the wheel base opened back up, and something done with the wings, such as Dreyer & Reinbold Engineer Larry Curry who was hoping to get the vertical wicker removed. The important thing for ICS to do though is note as Curry says:

"Hopefully they'll be open-minded enough that if we get to Kentucky, start running and it's not enough, we'll take another shot at it; A lot of this stuff (is) things we can just unbolt."

What ICS needs to do is add an extra practice session to start at Kentucky, give teams an extra set of tires (or 2 if necessary) and have them run with each other and attempt passing for real. With the extra tires they'll actually attempt it; and then if its not enough start adding other things like removing the wicker etc.

Panther Racing has confirmed potential plans to run Scott Sharp in more races THIS SEASON!
A lot of people assumed Gil De Ferran and Scott Sharp/Highcroft Racing would likely come over, but most couldn't place Scott, his team, or sponsor as going alone, together or as a new operation or separate.

I would think that Scott & Patron have to like how good Panther's results have been this season; but if Scott runs more this season, you really wonder if that's the official deathblow for that teams ALMS operation, and also if that is the final set of dominoes in motion for the end of ALMS (which is currently being rumored by a few insiders to be bought by Grand-Am/France Family).

A Spokesman for Toyota, said they are considering ending plans to host the F1 Japanese GP!?
I'm not even sure where to go with those implications; and its just considerations for now, but what could that do for Motegi's IndyCar date and popularity. For F1, honestly it just goes right along with everything else they've been doing lately in chasing the people with no fan bases but have a crapload of money.

In incomplete news, I'm still not sure what to make of the Milwakuee Mile unpaid bills situation. They haven't paid their bills and seem to be trying to make up some kind of payment plan, and survive; but how flexible can NASCAR & IRL be when bills are due?

Personally I worked for an entertainment non-profit who went through very rough times and some people worked with us while we were behind (in the 6 digit kind of way) and we came back to give them twice as much business once we recovered; but reportedly the Mile is behind in a 7-digit kind of way, that's a really big loan for the IRL and NASCAR to be giving; I'm not sure they can do it.

This isn't news, but its always great to throw in a quote from A.J. Foyt:

"Finishing 15th isn’t much to celebrate unless it’s the first time your car finished a race without needing some repairs because of accidents from other drivers’ mistakes"

This however is a news update from Stanton Barrett himself about his health and return to an IndyCar cockpit:

"Last week I also went from LA to Irvine to work on a new video Google, highlighting the Google / Interush collaboration, along with Marty Matthews. It was great to have the NASCAR and the IndyCar together at the same spot, you'll be able to see this soon on a Google website, and posted on the Interush sites too. Both the NASCAR Team and IndyCar Team have been working really hard at making things work well for the rest of the year. Now that I'm starting to feel better, I'm eager to get back in the IndyCar again in the next month sometime. In the interim the team is using another driver to make sure we are able to enter each race. I need to be back in full health before I drive the IndyCar again so for now, I'm taking the easier path of the NASCAR series and working on films, without dangerous stunts."

Resisting urge to make obvious jokes about NASCAR fitness vs. IndyCar fitness....

ok urge subsided for now... but I am curious to see whatever Google video he is working on; will it be the dream video of the cars on the track at the same time? As always with Stanton, I'm still amazed by his background and dedication. Is there a way we could get Team 3G some budget and additional members to work with, and then hopefully run Stanton alongside a veteran?

Just how low budget is 3G? Well at Richmond you can easily note the 4 man crew the car has, but in addition to that, the team actually pushes their car from garages to the grid, unlike every other team who has a cart to pull it.

Volkswagen already getting committed to IndyCar plans? V4 vs. V6? Another engine summit coming together on Toronto's weekend.

And this finally brings me to what may be some of the most important news of the last few days. Bruce Martin at Versus went on a story breaking rampage and covered Tony George, the new race in Brazil (which has NOT been decided as far as location goes yet); but also gave us insight on the very quiet, new engine package.

Turns out there is another meeting/summit between the potential engine manufacturer's in 2 weeks from now; and it turns out they are very close but still arguing over the cylinder count on the engine; with Honda Performance Development waiting to run a Turbo-V6 and everyone else VW/Audi, Fiat? wanting to run turbo-V4s.

The scary/intriguing news isn't that there is another meeting; its the sudden change in HPD's tune:

'Sources within the IndyCar Series believe HPD has moved away from its stance of wanting a rival automaker to compete against and may see value remaining as a single-engine supplier to the series.

Last June, the IndyCar Series had an Engine Manufacturers Roundtable that was attended by automakers from throughout the world. German manufacturer Volkswagen showed the most interest in joining IndyCar and has even submitted plans for approval from its board of directors.

According to Les Mactaggart, “We’re getting close, we need to know soon who is in and who is out and what kind of engine we will be using. I don’t think anyone believes an equivalency formula between an inline 4-cylinder and a V-6 would be ideal.”

With the current world economy, HPD may believe a single-engine supplier in IndyCar makes better financial sense than going to battle against another carmaker.

When Robert Clarke was the head of HPD, he advocated competition among engine manufacturers. The program is now run by Erik Berkman, who may be taking a new look at remaining as the sole engine manufacturer – a role Honda has held since Toyota and General Motors left the series in 2005."

Look, if VW is already getting approval from their own bosses to move ahead, the IndyCar Series needs to move ahead with them. It would be a stiff arm to Honda, it'd be a movement I'm sure Honda would understand. IndyCar started this whole summit to get competition; and to not go with the new manufacturers at this point would mean it was all a waste of time and energy.

I'm not sure why Erik Berkman suddenly has had a change in stance from his predecessor of many years, but I just don't see where a single engine manufacturer is better for the league.

As far as the V4 vs. V6 issue goes; I truly don't understand why IndyCar doesn't see an equivalency formula as a viable option. Sure its not easy, but its certainly doable as Grand-Am, ALMS & even Forumla 1 have done before.

If it truly HAS to be one or the other I'd go with VW (possibly Fiat) just on the basis that they are the new guys and they are the ones that need more convincing. I don't see Honda dropping out of IndyCar if it ends up being a V4 only, especially when they've said before that this is where they want to be. VW however, has no strings attached yet and they are the ones that need the extra incentive.

Personally if they can't come to an agreement in this meeting on the 10th, just go with a dang equivalency formula already, it would automatically bring innovation and competition to the series, but better yet, it'd get this whole engine thing sorted in time so that it could potentially be ready for testing next year and running for 2011.


Pictures via Getty Images, a1gp.com, mikecurb.com

Notes from the IndyCar Series weekend at Richmond International Raceway

Well, I finally got out to my first track of 2009… wow has it really been since last July at Nashville that I visited a track!? Well Nashville as would have it, was just 1 month before I found out I was moving across the country; one move, one housing market crash, and many months later, I was finally settled and got myself to a track.

As luck would have it, fellow blog-writers Will McCarty & Chris Estrada were there too this weekend; good guys & great writers, check out their stuff if you haven’t already. Many good conversations were had, good pictures taken, and best of all, putting faces to names. Favorite quote of it all came from Will pondering about all us bloggers: “wasn’t there somebody who live-blogged the entire 24 Hours of Daytona?”

Heck yeah there was! Only the finest and craziest ideas from the folks here at FW, just wait till we announce the plans to push the envelope for Blogathon 2010!

But back to Richmond, which much resembled Texas 2009 in a lot of ways: both were at night, both had a lot of action and passing during practice, and both became parades during racetime. Many people have talked about the issue(s) & possible solutions; personally there was something at RIR things I didn’t see at Texas that tells me how bad, how dire, and how immediate of a problem this will be if it doesn’t get fixed.

While I spent Friday as a member of the media, attempting to follow the conversations of the 4 Japanese media members, I spent most of Saturday as a fan, entertaining some family & friends as guests at the race. Saturday was spent through the parking lots, front gate, pedestrian tunnel access and most importantly, with paid tickets and paid garage passes. Personally I felt embarrassed after all the excited convincing I did to get friends out there for an IndyCar Race. Lucky for me they all still had a good time regardless of the lack of track action, they were more intrigued to be attending their first race and enjoying the garage access.

They still had all had a very good time, including Mrs. Wedge who was also astonished by Tony Kanaan's current quest as a wingman, to help out his teammate; or as she put it: "Hideki is hot! How does he not have a girlfriend!?"

There was also a lot of amusement when seeing these great crews in action in the garage, and especially after learning of the IndyCar Series / Apex Brasil super secret funnel device for fueling the cars... yes, that is, in fact, a sawed off 5 gallon water jug top.


The same satisfaction can’t be said for the fans I saw leaving the track in very large numbers, with 100 laps to go! I would estimate that by the checkered flag that at least 30% of the fans had already left the track. That is NOT good.

Many drivers apologized to the fans, and did so on TV and over the PA system at the track in post-race interviews, and its great to know that they think there is an issue at hand. Surprisingly enough, Terrell Owens has not yet gone on record apologizing for it yet.



I attended the “unpassable” Nashville SuperSpeedway in 2008 and I saw MUCH more passing there than I did in Richmond. In fact the “problem” with Nashville was the track grip lending itself to act like a road course, with passes taking a few laps to setup and execute, and also loss of position if you failed to make your pass. But to say Nashville lacked passing is inaccurate, especially if you keep in mind the Indy Lights race with passing all over the place.

However, I think to say that ICS at RIR 2009 lacked any passing Saturday, it would be entirely accurate. If you remove the restarts and the 2-3 laps after each, there were absolutely 0 passes made on the track, and that is no exaggeration. No one could pass and it surely wasn’t by lack of effort, I must have watched Marco Andretti attempt the 2nd groove upwards of 50 times only to have it cause a giant wiggle and save; and the same happened to any other driver who tried, from Hideki Mutoh being unable to get past the slow Mario Moraes, to Dario being unable to take advantage of Mutoh’s failed passes and lost momentum, guys simply could not get alongside another car without losing their car.

Now I’m not going to harp on about this; we all know there’s something going on, but I will say that the USAC race before ICS had passing, some took time and setup, some happened easily, but there was passing. There was also plenty passing and action during the Indy Lights race at Nashville last year & Indy this year & Kansas this year. So we can rule out this being track issues.

So what has changed? To me it seems as simple as options being taken away. We have 1 engine, 1 chassis, 1 tire, 1 wheelbase, 1 wing angle, 1 sidepod shape and many other aspects that are mandated at certain shapes, lengths, & angles.

There is nothing wrong with formula and option regulation, but there is something wrong with too many mandated specifications. Grand Am is known as a very tight ruled series, yet teams still have over 4 chassis providers and engines to try from, and even after that, they can try many other options & modifications on the car…so how about the quick and easy ones:

1- Open up Mirror modification.
2- Inverse the pit selection
3- Go back to a wheelbase range, instead of one mandated length
4- Open up wing angles to a range instead of 1 mandated angle
5- Give teams the option to run the air-flap in front of the rear wheel or not, and modifications
6- Change the fuel knob to have only 3 settings: A) yellow, B) green full rich & C) green lean; and make sure there is a decent difference between the HP produced between B & C
7- Allow teams to experiment with exhaust exit angles/shapes

As far as pit selection goes; we know Brian Barnhart has said random selection can cause incidents; and he’s right but aren’t we all professionals here? Even if so, there is a simple solution to that. Inverse the entire field; 1st in points gets the last pit stall. It is simple, it keeps the same cars together as they are now and it could once and for all prove/disprove the 1st-pit stall assumption.

I know there are people out there who like to say that Target/Penske have faster pit times so the pit location theory is wrong, but what they fail to take into account is that a large reason for the fast pit times is short filling the fuel as a result of seeing other cars coming down the line, and then doing some fuel conservation to make up the difference; which happens quite often. If anyone is going to get a supposed advantage, let it be the teams at the bottom of the charts, who need that kind of help.

About the last one in the list, the biggest thing I noticed this weekend about the new exhaust, is how irregular it is to the aero-shape of the car. It protrudes nearly straight up (the pod, not the pipe), and there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it, maybe some guru can fill me in; but I don’t see the harm of letting teams experiment with the pipe angle and shape of the exit bump on the side pod.

What they should NOT do under any circumstance is go to a “push button power” system. That system has been tried in Champ Car & A1GP and it is not the solution. 95% of the time in those series the button is simply negated as “push to not be passed.”

And in the long term (and by that I mean between now and 2011) what needs to happen above all these; the IndyCar Series needs to openly publicize they are open to new chassis manufacturers.

The IndyCar Series can’t make chassis manufacturers magically jump in the pool, but they can definitely do they exact same thing they did last year with engine manufacturers and call a chassis summit; and find out exactly what the chassis people are looking for as incentive and make it happen. Lola, Riley, Dallara, Panoz, & many more are active in numerous series, I can’t imagine much of a reason they wouldn’t be interested in the unified series with many, many teams to align with.

Whatever is going to be done about this all; it needs to be done NOW; not with a bunch of testing of seperate things over time to see which one works best, teams need more options, and they need them now; if fans aren't waiting more than 200 laps for competition to break out, they’re not going to wait around long with only subtle changes over time.

Notes from Richmond Qualifying

-Jacques Lazier and Team 3G have a new sponsor on their sidepod, but it didn’t translate into speed unfortunately. Jacques’ 153.176mph qualifying speed was lower than all 19 other driver’s warm-up laps; and 14mph behind the pole-sitter; not sure how long Barnhart is going to let that last during the race.

-There are 5 cars between the “Big 2” and Andretti Green Racing’s Hideki Mutoh; and then another car between Mutoh and the next AGR, Danica, starting 10th with Marco & Tony Kanaan pulling up the rear in 16th & 17th. Tony had a fuel cell problem that kept him from even practice & having a setup for qualifying, but I really have no idea what snagged Marco into being a full 2mph. slower than his teammate Mutoh...?

-Robert Doornbos is definitely running a McDonalds paint scheme this weekend, for whatever reason it might be. Newman-Haas-Lanigan confirmed he’s running it but didn’t say why. If you think its confusing to tell apart the Penske cars, just wait until you try to tell apart these two, where the only difference is Doornbos running his original red/gray trimmed rear wing.

-Many props to Newman-Haas-Lanigan’s Graham Rahal who busted out as the first non-Penske/Ganassi in the field, even though he didn’t look like he had it in practice. This is certainly more of a driver's track, so here’s hoping he can keep it off the wall for this one. Doornbos also qualified a little better than his past few races with a 12th; though he is immediately followed by the aggressive Dan Wheldon and later Marco Andretti & Tony Kanaan (who had a fuel cell problem that kept him from practice).

-Dreyer & Reinbold on the rise my friends! Tomas Scheckter and Mike Conway will be starting 9th and 11th; not incredible, but certainly spots they can work with considering their aggressive styles. Especially Tomas who will likely go for setting the new all time record for cars passed in a single lap. The important thing for these 2 is that they are getting away from at least 9-11 cars that could have trouble in front of them.

-E.J. Viso was certainly a big surprise of qualifying hitting the Top 10 (7th) which may be a better sign that the #13 isn’t a complete “curse.” Race-time will tell us further about this alleged “curse.”

-Raphael Matos is one I’d look out for starting 6th. Matos may have qualified 6th, but it was largely do to a screwy first lap that was a good 3-4mph off his other 3 laps, so we know his speed is there.

-Dario is our pole winner, and he doesn’t seem at all phased by being away from this track for a year and the new distance it has now. The only concern he seemed to have in post-qualifying conference was the possibility of guys getting into single file too quickly and not rubbering in a 2nd groove, or causing the 2nd groove to become full of marbles.

-If E.J. isn’t your feel-good story, just look to Hideki Mutoh. Talk of him losing the formula Dream sponsorship/backing seem to have put some drive into him as he has now been the #1 at AGR for 2 weeks in a row, and better yet, the driving actually looks aggressive now.

-While practice and qualifying were both in the glaring sun; the teams will get a quick 30-minute session tonight so as to hopefully replicate race conditions for tomorrow night. (Green flag is at 8:45pm tomorrow night, a good 3 hours later than anything done so far yet today). It will be a definite welcome change for fans, cause it was freaking hot today, and much of the same is forecast for tomorrow.

-And in other good news for fans; I've confirmed that photographing the Vision team members in uniform does not cause mass explosion of all electronic devises, look at the car at your own risk.

A few pics between practice and qualifying

I'll have a hi-res gallery set up later, but for now... figured its not too much worth a post with little analysis, sp check out the tweets via twitter or the twitter widget to the right:

IndyCar Parity to Come Our Way at Richmond?

Well I’ve made it to the track; and the first practice is done with a few surprises. The first thing that surprised me; is just how many freaking wineries are between my place in the west D.C. area and Richmond. I kid you not I must have gone past 8 wineries. I’m not a huge wine guy, but one of them certainly sparked my interest, it was called the “Naked Winery.” I’m sure reality to whatever that really means will be a letdown, but I have to admit I’m still curious.

This being my first visit to Richmond International Raceway, I have to say it quite resembles the area surrounding Nashville & Bristol; in that it seems to be located right in the heart of a quaint little town. It was an easy drive, and an easy track to find and great foliage; it’s a bit humid but certainly nothing close to the sticky air of LSU football games.

Now onto the track activity thus far. Tows or not, this has to be one of the more surprising practice results as Hideki Mutoh topped the chart for almost the entire first hour barely edging Scott Dixon. Then after a track inspection, it looked like when everyone hit the track they went crazy in some drafting upping the earlier times but a full 1.5mph. We may have a lot of red/white Dario at the top of the charts, but its sprinkled with Matos, Scheckter, Viso, Wheldon & Mutoh all before we get to Ryan Briscoe in 9th.

Also of note; Tony Kanaan only turned 3 installation laps; so it looks like they'll be going full for the first time for qualifying.

Of course we all know to wait until qualifications; but Scheckter’s performance thus far is certainly worth noting. That is essentially the same car & personnel Milka kept at the back of the field; it looks like whatever adjustments were made at DRR over the last 2 weeks are working.


Picture via indycar.com

What more could I want?

Wedge, you can bet that I won't miss tonight's CWS game 2 featuring the LSU Tigers and the Texas Longhorns.

That game last night was incredible. There were great performances from both teams and some really clutch moments by LSU. LSU left fielder, Ryan Schmipf, started out the first inning much like most of his other CWS at bats, by completely ripping the cover off the ball. The rest of his at bats were a different story, however, as the strikeouts began to add up. ESPN consistently showed the impressive hitting stats of the Tigers 3-5 hole hitters but last night was a bit different. Besides Mikie Mahtook, who came through with a desperate poke single to right field and later the eventual game winning hit, LSU got big hit after big hit from some different faces, mainly in DJ LeMaiheu and Jared Mitchell. I don't know if it'll be possible to capture the same drama and entertainment in tonight's game 2, but I sure won't be dissapointed if it even comes close.

I agree with you on your assesment of the CWS as compared to March Madness. March Madness is a huge draw and gets tons more national recognition because it has become an phenomenon in and of itself, in large part thanks to gambling and the filling out of brackets. Even those who do not follow or appreciate basketball get into the tournament because of the brackets. This is not to say that March Madness doesn't provide their fair share of drama and heroics but to me, it doesn't compare to the aura and stories of the College World Series. Let me also add that I'm fully aware that if you're not a basebally fan, it's extremely difficult to watch, much more so than non-basketball fans watching a basketball game. But being a baseball fan, you're dead on when you state that there is a "Field of Dreams" blanket wrapped around Rosenblatt Stadium.

You rhetorically asked "what more could you want from NCAA baseball?" Well, I'd like a little more of the same and even moreso, another LSU win.

What More Could You Want From NCAA Baseball?

I've harped many times in the past, and will continue to say that the NCAA Baseball Tournament is the best in all of collegiate sports; much much better than the highly regarded March Madness which rarely delivers the kind of excitement and unexpectedness of the baseball tournament & College World Series.

First you've got underdogs actually winning multiple games consistently (not since 2003 has a top seed won it all); of course you have the Field of Dreams-esque feeling of Omaha always as the goal; but even this season where we are ending the tournament with the #1 and #3 seed; it still delivers.

3 non-top seed made it to the final 8 (Omaha) and one of them did it by being the away-underdog in every game it played (Southern Miss); about 80% of the games played have come down to the final innings; Texas themselves has thrice needed the final inning to come back and win and once took a game to a record 25 innings with Boston College. But all that aside for what fans saw last night:

-Texas starting pitcher Chance Ruffin struck out 10 allowing only 5 hits
-Longhorn batters hit 5 home runs!
-Texas also scored a run on a wild pitch
-Texas was 11-0 in games where they had multiple home runs
-and they were 39-0 in games when they had the lead going into the 9th inning...

...and yet, somehow they lost last night.

or better yet, LSU found a way to stay in the game all night with 2 home-runs, clutch hitting, base running and solid pitching & fielding. LSU most crazily went down to their final out before a 2-out/2-run double by D.J. LeMahieu to tie the game and solid pitching to take it into extra innings with a 7-6 win. We saw LSU's amazing right fielder Jared Mitchell hit possible the fastest triple I've ever seen sliding into 3rd base nearly 1.7 seconds after hitting the ball (ok I'm making that up, but that is what it felt like).

Any baseball fan would assume LSU has a stranglehold on the championship as Texas worked through a good 5 pitchers last night; but if NCAA baseball's tournament has taught us anything; it is to sit, watch and enjoy & wait until its all over.

I personally think LSU should have the upper hand now, but don't forget in 2008 the Georgia Bullgos, not only won the first game, but were ahead very late in the second game of the championship last year, and yet, Fesno State are our 2008 Champions.

Whatever happens, I don't think I'd miss it if I were you.


Pictures via Getty Images

Formula One Heading for Splitsville, Bittersweet Decisions, College World Series down to 4 and IndyCar's Future & Expansion

Geez, you take a couple days off to catch some breath and you get flooded with news. Firstly, don’t miss out on the Louisiana State-Arkansas (2ET) & Arizona State-Texas (7ET) rematches to decide our NCAA baseball championship match up.

-And speaking of baseball; we think we’ve found the prime definition of bittersweet. We’ve chronicled the final seasons of both the Vermont Catamounts & Northern Iowa in baseball this year; and then Ron, Deuce and I watched our hometown University of New Orleans Privateers lose their coach to a better offer from Wake Forest.

Well then it was good news to learn that UNO’s longtime assistant Bruce Peddie was pegged to take over as the new head coach; but here’s the bitter, Peddie will not be announced as the new coach yet. Why? Apparently UNO is considering ending all sports at the school as a cost-saving measure. This would be a huge shame for a school with a long history in many sports including over 15 NCAA tournament appearances in baseball; we can only hope boosters or someone gets this thing secured.

But all that news pales in comparison to the world of motorsports.

-First a bit of seemingly small news that I’m still not certain how it manages to be overlooked. I’m not saying this has big implications and all but when I hear that Chip Ganassi has hired BOTH Kyle Busch and Scott Speed, I think I’d pay a little more attention. Yes Chip is doing just that, as an extra entry for his Grand Am team at the next race in Daytona. Yes Chip has not stolen them for NASCAR, and no they haven’t said they’re switching series or anything; but the most important implication here; A) Joe Gibbs is lenient enough to allow Kyle to do this. B) Kyle is truly able to back up his assertion that he wants to try other forms of motorsport.

This isn’t like drivers jumping in for the Daytona 24 hour’s all-star type event; this is just another Grand-Am race. Take that for what you want, but if this is the case, how long is it then that we see Kyle do more one-offs of other series that do not have date-conflicts with his NASCAR commitments? I’m glad that in the world of even lesser crossover, there seems to be a new guy willing to try it.

-But now…obviously if you are a racing fan and you’ve been awake & alert, you have heard the news that Formula 1’s teams are planning on splitting and starting their own new series, without nut job leadership and ridiculous rules that they have absolutely no say in. I could tell you all about the similarities this has to the history of IndyCar racing in North America, but the lads at BritsonPole have already done it; and I could go into thoughts and details about what a split may do for Formula 1, how nutty the FIA has to be to not have learned from history, and implications for European/Brazilian/Asian fans; but again, many other people have already done so.

What I will do however is connect the dots to what we spend the majority of our motorsports coverage on here: the IndyCar Series.

-Whatever is happening in Formula 1, will in whatever small/slight way, give IndyCar an added chance to grow, and coincidentally, Chris Estrada found an article out of Richmond, VA pretty much confirming what we all figured was happening with the IndyCar Series going to Brazil. Chris went on to continue a point he made earlier about why he thinks this (international expansion) is all a bad idea. I understand his (and many other’s) thought process about this issue, but I have to disagree; especially in light of the above bigger story.

Overall it’s a yes & no thought on international expansion; India would be a bad idea; China’s not great but understandable with Japan already there, and in my opinion Brazil is a great idea; however one that needs to be tweaked slightly.

Firstly on the difference between what should and shouldn’t be done; I’ll start by saying that the IndyCar Series has something no other series has, and can continue to build. It has diversity, not only in tracks (F1, GP2, A1GP, ALMS, Grand-Am = all road, NASCAR, USAC = 99% oval), but in drivers, teams, backgrounds… the whole lot.

Drivers come from road racing, go-karts, sports cars, dirt tracks, even some from motorbikes, and last I checked, almost 13 or more countries are currently represented. Why then would we want to pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist? We use a Japanese engine, in an Italian Chassis, using both Brazilian and American fuel; American electronics; truly it is the flavor of world harmony, regardless of what any idiot (and I'm not talking about Chris here) might say about this series NEEDING to be all American. I’m sorry, but the outside world does exist; and people like Shane Rogers & Michelle Beer prove that IndyCar racing spreads further than the borders of the U.S.A.

And with that out of the way, lets talk about profitability & logistics.

-Brazil is in the general same time zone as the U.S.A. populace, meaning no concessions need to be made on the part of fans of Television & internet coverage; especially if it brings in a big sanctioning fee. starting in Brazils early weather also gets the season started earlier, which many fans (myself included) have been harping on the league to do. More importantly Brazil the country presents numerous parallels to American fans; the biggest in that we have, from time to time, 7-10 Brazilian drivers in the 2 IRL leagues. Add that on top of a BIG Brazilian sponsor giving fuel & potential car/team sponsorships when the race comes around, and I think fans easily take on a new Brazilian race(s).

My only problem with the plan in-action for Brazil is that it looks like they intend on starting the season with 2 road courses; and that to me is the bad part of the idea. Like I said above, the one thing IndyCar has that NO ONE else has is diversity/parity in the competition, tests and tasks, and they should be flaunting it.

The brilliance of the Homestead/St. Petersburg back-to-back start was that it essentially flaunted two of the best tracks on the schedule on two of the most different types of tracks as the opening act. And starting this year we’ve lost it and if they go Road-Road to open in Brazil, I think it will continue this mistake.

Yes teams like it when similar setups can be used in consecutive weeks; however teams have always acknowledged the beginning of the season to be a showcase of the difference to be expected in the year. Waiting 3-4 races to find out who is good on ovals and what oval competition looks like is too long, especially when you figure there will be a break after the first 2 weeks of Brazil AND that Long Beach, St. Pete & likely Barber as an addition will be in their normal early Spring slots.

That is just TOO much road/street before Indy if only Kansas is there (and rumored possibility of Phoenix). If Brazil truly wants 2 races to be the opening act, one of them NEEDS to be an oval, no matter the size and banking. IndyCar needs to flaunt what they have, the only true racing series that tests ALL the skills of the drivers, not just turning left, and not just road/street.

-China on the other hand is one I’m not particularly open on, for the exact reasons Brazil make great sense (and the same reason Canada, Japan & Australia do/did).

We have no Chinese drivers, or history of Chinese drivers, or Chinese owners or Chinese manufacturers & parts, unless I’m totally missing something. We have tons of connectivity in Brazil, and tons of connectivity in Japan & Canada; but I’m not seeing China’s connection for fans. The one connection it does make and this might be the decider for the Series: money they are likely willing to pay.

Since the majority of travel cost is happening on the way to Japan as it is, China can piggyback and the league may likely be able to collect a very large sanctioning fee. Other than that, I don’t know of a Chinese fan base, or a good crossover time zone to make China work.

-India... ? Now take the large sanctioning fee China is likely willing to throw at the IRL away, and you have India. India makes no sense; absolutely no crossover with any technology, drivers, fans, and likely no money to go with it. But at the same time I don’t think the series is truly considering it.

In the end I see Brazil as a great idea, but wherever the IndyCar season starts it needs to start with Oval & Road courses back to back to flaunt the diversity; & going to Brazil, Canada, Japan flaunt (but don’t go overboard) with the worldly collectiveness the series has more than any other. I also worry about the series starting to head into an unbalanced schedule favoring road/street. Maybe adding the Rockingham oval could be a way to do both? I think 50/50 or 60/40 in way of ovals is where it should truly aspire to be to please all fans and truly do the one thing no other series does.

Crown a true world champion, tested in every way, show quick ovals, long endurance ovals, streets, natural roads & against drivers of every background.