I Disagree Mr. Miller

Love him or hate him, every IndyCar fan knows who Robin Miller is. He does not shy away from sharing his opinion and won't sugar coat it to make you feel good. He has been around since front-engine roadsters were the only option at the Speedway and when he started the infield feature nine-holes of a golf course. Now only four holes of Brickyard Crossing are located in the middle of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the front-engine roadsters have retired to their cozy home in the track's museum.

Putting racing politics aside, no one can doubt Robin Miller's love for IndyCar racing. Which is why his latest column about having Indianapolis 500 practice and qualifying condense to the week before the race hits a cord with me. In his column, it sounds to me as if Miller is raising the white flag and calling it a day. He knows interest in Pole Day is gone, Bump Day is gone and wants to shorten the schedule. Miller proposed practice Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, one qualifying day on Wednesday night, Thursday as a free Fan Appreciation Day with drivers signing autographs and as a rain-date for qualifying, Carb Day on Friday with the fastest six qualifiers racing for $1 million and pole position, parade Saturday and race Sunday.

I disagree Mr. Miller but not on all counts.

I love the idea of a free Fan Appreciation Day. The Thursday before the race could become a media day of sorts for the field of thirty-three with driver and fan interactions happening all throughout the day. Open the garages, fire up the barbecue and have a Gasoline Alley party the night before Carb Day.

I disagree with shortening the schedule but I understand where Miller is coming from. Yes Pole Day will not be a sell out, yes we barely have thirty-three cars and there will probably be no bumping but things can get better. Yes I am being optimistic but I have to believe. Miller cites Mark Miles interest in increasing speed and maybe one day hearing "it's a new track record" again over the public address system but that's not the only thing that has to be revived.

Bump day should be revived. If Miles wants the nostalgia of speed why not the nostalgia of a driver coming to the Speedway for his only IndyCar race of the year and beating one of the big boys to get in the field? Why couldn't we go back to grandfathering past cars to run Indianapolis? Yes, I know those Dallara IR-03s were ugly but if someone wanted to tinkering with the car to fit in a twin-turbo Chevrolet or turbo-charged Honda, why stop them? Or if someone wanted to make the Panoz DP01 capable of racing on ovals, why stop them? Instead of having a limited selection of what chassis a team can use, it could (keyword being COULD) increase car totals. Sure, does anyone want an old IR-03 to qualify for Indianapolis? Probably not but Al Unser Sr. didn't cry when he won in a year old car in 1987. And I never heard Miller crying when Jim Hurtubise failed to qualify a front-engine roadster from 1975 to 1981, over a decade after the last roadster had successfully qualified for the Indianapolis 500. Buddy Lazier scrambled to get a DW12 for this year's race. What if there wasn't this scramble? What if (IF being the keyword) Bryan Clauson could have taken a IR-03 and qualified? Or if another five or six or seven drivers decided to try to qualify with an IR-03? Bump Day would be be Bump Day and who would be against that?

This is not a nostalgic view, calling for a magical snap of the fingers to return to the late 80's and early 90's. All IndyCar has to do for the Indianapolis 500 is realize what a slightly more open rulebook could allow. IndyCar bringing in another manufacture or two running inline-4, diesel-hybrids would be nice but that's not happening in the near future. Now that the DW12 has been developed on-track for nearly two years there must be a gap over the old IR-03 and there should be little worries of the old car showing up every DW12. But grandfathering the car to run Indianapolis and having a driver take it out and beat out six or seven DW12s wouldn't be the end of the world. Hell it's a Dallara beating another Dallara. Dallara wins no matter what. Let's not just mothball old cars but allow them to be phased out.

The way the month of May is currently set up is fine. Let's be serious for one second and let me do my best Allen Iverson impersonation; Miller, you're talking about practice. Not the race but practice, and qualifying. Who cares if only a couple of people show up for PRACTICE!? They wanted to spend their money on practice and good for them. If the Speedway wants to save some money, send out a few less yellow shirts for practice. This week of practice gives some teams needed testing time and testing time they are no longer allowed to do on their own. Sure shortening the schedule will save them some money but they will lose time gathering data.

As for the $1 million, fastest six challenge on Carb Day: This is a guy who has been crying for money to be added to the Indianapolis 500 purse and now he wants $1 million (which I guess will magically fall from the sky) to be used on a Carb Day stunt for pole? Come on, Miller.

Instead of turning the Indianapolis 500 into just another race, let's keep it the way it is and open the rulebook up by allowing teams and drivers to take a chance with older equipment.