After an exciting Indianapolis 500, the Izod IndyCar Series heads to Belle Isle for the first time since 2008. This is the sixth round of the championship and the last road or street course until Toronto on July 8th. Justin Wilson's win at Belle Isle in 2008 turned out to be the final win for Newman-Haas Racing and what would turn out to be the final win before Paul Newman's death 26 days later. Lots of big news after Indianapolis. Let's start at the top.
Randy Bernard
According to Randy Bernard himself and other reports, a few car owners have been trying to remove Randy Bernard from CEO of IndyCar. Robin Miller went on the Indianapolis radio station WFNI 1070 on Tuesday and said that "full-time Chevrolet team owners, except Dennis Reinbold" were the ones trying to remove Bernard. Late Tuesday night Bernard said on Twitter that Roger Penske was not one of the car owners trying to remove him but did confirm other car owners were after his job. On Wednesday, Miller wrote in his column on SPEED's website that the movement was led by Panther Racing owner John Barnes and former CEO Tony George with a "silent endorsement" from Kevin Kalkhoven of KV Racing Technology.
My take: Like Miller said, Reinbold and even Jay Penske have no reason to be angry with Bernard. Roger Penske, with help from Chip Gannasi, was able to get Bernard to issue double-file restarts last season at all races before the drivers asked and were granted getting rid of them on certain tracks. Penske also worked to get Belle Isle back on the schedule. Michael Andretti has been busting his back now promoting now two races (Milwaukee and Baltimore) and I would think he and Bernard should have no problem with one another but I could be wrong. This leaves Barnes, Tony George who has a major role with Ed Carpenter Racing and KVRT. Barnes and Kalkhoven were both fined, one for comments made on Twitter, the other because his cars had a technical infractions found during qualifying at Indianapolis. George has his own gripe as Bernard is his successor, running the series his created. What I fine interesting is Barnes and George were both apart of the original IRL and Kalkhoven was running ChampCar when unification occurred. Flash forward four years to 2012. Neither the man in charge of the IRL or ChampCar at that time are in charge now and it is being handled by someone from outside the sport. But, while many can bring up things Bernard has done wrong, it is hard to argue against the things Bernard has done correctly. He created a committee to oversee the development of the 2012 car after years of getting no where. Remember under Tony George they promised new cars for 2011 and we did not get them. He has been trying to keep historic races such as Milwaukee and has been trying to bring back races that have been historically beloved by the fans (Road America, Phoenix). He respects the heritage of the sport, and has actually sat down to learn the sport by going to Donald Davidson's class held each year in the spring and going to USAC races. After year after year of seeing the IndyLights champion struggle to get to the top level, Bernard created the Road to Indy which gives not only the IndyLights champion a shot at the next level but the Star Mazda, USF2000 and USAC National Drivers champions a shot to move up as well. While only in its third year of existence, all but one champion has raced in the next series in the ladder system. Bernard has also done one other thing, get the series closer to breaking even financially than it has ever before. Hard to get mad at a guy for trying.
Dragon to Split Legge and Bourdais
Moving on, as we all know Dragon Racing got Chevrolet engines at Indianapolis and for the rest of the season. However, as of now, they only have one engine program meaning they will not be able to field two cars each weekend at this time. Sebastien Bourdais will run Belle Isle and the remaining road and street course while Katherine Legge will run the remaining oval races. A 14th engine lease may be possible later in the season but there are no guarantees.
Other Notes
Will Power leads by 36 points over Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe. Dario Franchitti is now 6th in points, 64 points back after his win at Indianapolis
IndyLights and the Grand-Am Rolex SportsCar Series joins IndyCar at Belle Isle.
In the Road to Indy series Jack Hawksworth leads Connor de Phillippi by 12 points after the Night Before The 500. De Phillippi won while Hawksworth ended in seventh. In USF2000, Spencer Pigot has won four consecutive race, including the Night Before the 500. However, he leads Matthew Brabham, grandson of three-time World Champion Jack Brabham and son of one the co-drivers of 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans winning Puegoet, Geoff Brabham, by only 6 points as Brabham has finished second to Pigot in every race but the first, where Brabham won and Pigot finished in third. Last, but not least, Levi Jones leads the USAC National Drivers Championship with 400 points. Tracy Hines is second with 393 with Bobby East, Darren Hagen and Bryan Clauson rounding out the top 5.
Predictions
I fell that Chevrolet comes back and takes their home race, however Honda takes 6 of the top 10. I will pick Will Power for pole but James Hinchcliffe takes his first career victory nearly 15 years to the day that Greg Moore won his first career road/street course race at Belle Isle in 1997*. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Dario Franchitti round out the podium. Sebastien Bourdais gets a top five with Justin Wilson getting a top ten. Sleeper: Tony Kanaan but I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie Kimball has a great day.
*- Greg Moore won at Belle Isle on June 8, 1997. This year's race is June 3rd. It would be pretty cool to see Hinchcliffe pull it off.
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