Plenty of racing this weekend. Some great, some left shaking your head. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Differences in Domination
Marc Márquez made it 6-for-6 in 2014 by winning at Mugello after an amazing dual with Jorge Lorenzo. We may not see a better battle this year than the one these two riders put on yesterday. It was better than their back-and-forth at Silverstone last year and I thought that was the race of the year in 2013. As I said before, Márquez has won all six MotoGP races in 2014, all have come from pole position and has picked up fastest lap in four of his six victories. He is fifty-three points clear of Valentino Rossi, fifty-four clear of his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and eighty-five clear of Lorenzo who retired and had a false start penalty in the first two rounds of the season cost him dearly.
Skip over the Atlantic like a stone to four-wheel, V8s and ovals and there is another type of dominance. Kyle Busch has won four of five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races in 2014 and in 10 Nationwide Series starts has three wins, two seconds, three thirds and two fourths. He led 150 of 200 laps in the Truck race and 124 of 200 in the Nationwide race. Add these performances to leading 130 of 134 at Charlotte in the Truck race, 104 of 167 at Kansas in the Truck race and 155 of 168 at Phoenix in the Nationwide race.
What Márquez is doing is astonishing. Márquez is beating the best of the best. Even when he is challenged, he finds a way to come out on top against fellow world champions. At 21 years old, he is shattering and setting records, some of which he still has the bar in his hand and we don't know when he is going to stop.
What Busch is doing is agonizing. He does this every year in the lower divisions and in the top class of NASCAR he is raked over the coals by the competition. Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing six years ago, Busch has picked up 33 of his 39 Truck victories, 55 of 66 Nationwide victories and a Nationwide title. What has he done in the Cup Series? Averaged a 10th place finish in the Cup Series standings and has an average finish of 13.48.
Busch doesn't get paid the big bucks to win Nationwide and Truck races but that's all he has to show for when each season ends. What does he get out of that? That's like Justin Verlander going down to Double-A and Triple-A to rack up shutouts. Is that really going to benefit him come October in the Major Leagues? Hell no. After six years of watching Busch and company ruin the lower two national touring divisions for NASCAR you'd think he would realize that dominating all these races on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons aren't helping him come Sunday when their are more butts in the stands, eyeballs on the TV screen and more dollars on the line.
Márquez has won titles at the 125cc and Moto2 level and is beating the best in the world at the top level of motorcycle racing. We are still waiting for Busch to do the same in NASCAR.
Safety Concerns
A couple of safety concerns from this weekend. First, the hole at Dover. Does NASCAR have a red flag planned for pot holes every five years? First was Martinsville in 2004. Then Daytona in 2010. You'd think with how big and flush with cash NASCAR has become these problems would be prevented from ever happening ever again. I know the Northeast had one of the roughest winters with many days below freezing and record amounts of snow. I lived through it. That doesn't mean it's acceptable to tracks coming apart though. A piece of the concrete shattered the glass of the walkover bridge. Imagine if that had gone into the stands and hit a spectator. Let's make sure that doesn't happen.
Look at what happened at Belle Isle two years ago when a piece of asphalt ended James Hinchcliffe's day and it could have been worse considering the piece of asphalt hit him in the head. No series should go to any track that is coming apart. It isn't safe for anybody and that has to be taken in to account. Dover has another race in September. Let's hope they do more than a simple patch job.
Concern #2 from the weekend comes from the Super GT race in Japan. The Nissan GT-R GT3 of Yuki Iwasaki had a brakes failures, flew through the sand trap and throw the tires and armco barrier. There were so many things wrong with this accident that I am not sure where to start. Not only did the barrier fail to keep the car inside the ballpark but when the car transitioned from the sand trap to the grass section in front of the tires it launched the car into the air. Had that car been going a few miles an hour faster, it very well could have completely cleared the barrier. That transition has to be level.
Then there is the tires and armco barrier failing to keep the car in play. Sand traps are meant to slow cars down, armco keeps cars in play. The moment a car blows through armco, red flags have to be raised. Putting SAFER barriers in are easier said then done. I'm thinking add a few more rows to the tire barriers. I think back to the accident Heikki Kovalainen had in the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix. He slid into a tire barrier that was at 5-6 rows deep.
Finally there was the hood of the Nissan take flew over everything and nearly to the top of the hill where spectators are standings. To me, this is the cheapest and easiest solution to fix. Tether the hood to the car. Maybe that sounds easier said than done but I can't imagine a race team being so financially strained by tethers.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Will Power, Marc Márquez, Jimmie Johnson and Hélio Castroneves but did you know...
Ricky and Jordan Taylor won in the IMSA race at Belle Isle. Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Westphal won in GTD.
Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli won in the GT500 class at the Super GT event at Autopolis. Takashi Kobayashi and Shinichi Takagi won in GT300.
Marco Wittmann won the DTM race at the Hungaroring, his second win of the season.
Esteve Rabat won the Moto2 race at Mugello and Romano Fenati won in front of the home crowd in Moto3.
Johnny O'Connell and Dean Martin both swept the GT and GTS classes respectively at Belle Isle in Pirelli World Challenge.
Coming up this weekend:
IndyCar at Texas on Saturday night.
Formula One at Montreal.
NASCAR at Pocono.
World Rally Championship is in Sardinia.
World Superbike at Sepang.
WTCC at Moscow.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
