Three champions were crowned this weekend in ELMS while the 2014 DTM season came to a close. MotoGP made it worth staying up until two in the morning but we start with NASCAR. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
An Ode to Terry Labonte
I want to start by congratulating Terry Labonte on his fantastic NASCAR career after making his 890th and most likely final NASCAR Cup start at Talladega. His last win was the 2003 Southern 500 and his final top ten was at Sonoma in 2006 yet he made at least one Cup start in 37 consecutive seasons.
I will be honest, I am really hoping this isn't his final start. Seeing as how my job will be gone at the start of 2015, I want to get more serious with my writing and back in July when Labonte finished eleventh at Daytona, I wondered how many people noticed he was in the field? He is a two-time champion but for the better part of a decade was consistently in the back half of the field in every race he ran. Imagine if Mika Häkkinen was still on the Formula One grid and had been driving for Caterham for five year or if Mick Doohan was still in MotoGP riding for Paul Bird Motorsport? Would they still be as revered and are Labonte's accomplishments less special because of how long he held on?
I am hoping he would run one more year because I wanted to observe Labonte and whatever team he drove for around for one weekend just to see how they are received at the track and to compare it to other champions and to see what it's like to be apart of a "start-and-park" team. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get serious about my writing but with Labonte retiring, it appears to be too little, too late. The best laid plans of mice and me often go awry.
Either way, seeing Labonte go will be disappointing but he had a great career and accomplished a lot and kept on, despite poor results, for the love of competing.
NASCAR Qualifying Was Interesting
Earlier this year I compared the new NASCAR qualifying format to keirin, a form of cycling racing and while it still had that feel at Talladega, NASCAR was smart to split round one into two groups and shorten the sessions. One small problem is you still have drivers waiting to go out and at Talladega you had drivers failing to start a quick lap before time ran out. Now, that's on them. If Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon can't get a lap started before the clock hits zero, then tough but the problem is people don't want to watch drivers sit for 66% of a timed session.
NASCAR has to set a lap completion minimum for a driver's fastest time to count in the session. Making a driver do a minimum of three or four laps isn't asking that much and we won't be forced to sit and watch a game of chicken on the pit lane with Jimmie Johnson and others going in reverse. By the way, it should never be legal for a driver to drive in reverse on the pit lane. I don't care if it's practice, qualifying or the race.
With so many Chase drivers failing to get a fast lap in and all these teams normally at the back of the field making it past round one, it made it interesting who went home. When you have five Chase drivers using provisionals, someone who is normally mid-pack got burned and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. failed to qualify while Travis Kvapil, Michael McDowell, Terry Labonte and Michael Annett qualified in the top ten. The only way it could have been better was if they had took the fastest 43 times then Justin Allgaier, Jeff Gordon and Joe Nemechek, who failed inspection, would have gone home. If Nemechek's time would have counted, Kyle Larson would have failed to qualify.
In my opinion, that qualifying session was much more interesting than most races this season.
The Puzzle That is IndyCar's Schedule
We pretty much know March through the middle of June for the 2015 IndyCar schedule. It's the end of June through July and the end of August that needs to be cleared up.
With Pirelli World Challenge releasing their schedule we can confirm Mid-Ohio and Sonoma races for August 2nd and August 30th. Robin Miller seems sure Fontana will be June 27th. The final dates are unknown for Toronto, Iowa, Pocono and Milwaukee.
Here is what we feel certain about.
March 8th: Brasilia
March 29th: St. Petersburg
April 12th: New Orleans
April 19th: Long Beach
April 26th: Barber
May 9th: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 24th: Indianapolis 500
May 30-31st: Belle Isle
June 6th: Texas
June 27th: Fontana (according to Miller)
August 2nd: Mid-Ohio
August 30th: Sonoma
Let's start at the beginning of the season and a possible race in Dubai. It's not off the table but don't hold your breath. If it does happen, it will probably be in February.
Many are pencilling Toronto for the week after Texas and it would not be a doubleheader due to the proximity to the Pan American Games taking place in the city the following month and the construction that has to take place in the city. Mosport hasn't been completely ruled out but rumblings of IndyCar returning to the track for the first time in 37 years has died down. The month of July is wide open. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is slated to run June 19th at Iowa, which is an off-weekend for the Cup Series but many think Iowa will stay put in mid-July.
With NASCAR moving to NBC and NBCSN in 2015, the final two months of the IndyCar season really will have to take advantage of the gaps NASCAR schedule gives them. The first is July 12th, a Sunday. NASCAR is running at Kentucky that Saturday night. To me, it would make sense for Pocono to land that Sunday. It's off the July 4th weekend but stays in July and after all, Mark Miles is all about date equity (hence Fontana getting it's third date change in three years). The following week NASCAR is at New Hampshire on Sunday with the Nationwide Series on Saturday. If I was in charge, a Nationwide Series into IndyCar, motorsports filled Saturday evening sounds fantastic. They could even squeeze in a replay of Formula One qualifying from Nürburgring before or after if they would like to.
Now about Milwaukee. There are two ways I see it will either be the weekend before Sonoma or the weekend after as the season finale. The weekend before Sonoma would work with NBCSN as NASCAR is at Bristol Saturday. No competition. The weekend after would be interesting as NASCAR is Darlington with both races at night on big boy NBC. Milwaukee could easily be Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. ET and not conflict with the NASCAR race later that evening. Either way, Milwaukee has a chance to package a full Sunday with Pro Mazda late in the morning, Indy Lights in the early afternoon with IndyCar after that, regardless of the weekend. The only problem with Milwaukee being the season finale, Labor Day weekend is the possible three week gap it would create from Mid-Ohio to Sonoma. Wasn't condensing the schedule suppose to get rid of these long midseason breaks? If Milwaukee isn't the season finale and Sonoma is, no big deal, that weekend the Cup series is off and the Nationwide Series is at Road America that Saturday.
The only major conflict (so far) between IndyCar, NASCAR and NBCSN is the first weekend in August. IndyCar is at Mid-Ohio and NASCAR is at Pocono and those races in all likelihood will occur simultaneously. I will settle with a IndyCar race on CNBC. I can live with it and so can you. It's no big deal. Formula One races have been moved there, Premier League matches have been moved there, no reason why IndyCar can't settle for one race on CNBC. If you listened to Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee in the past few weeks, you know Lee has been dropping hints that IndyCar is trying to get ABC to loosen their grip on their exclusivity right as the sole network partner with IndyCar and if that were to happen, Mid-Ohio could end up on big boy NBC. If that were to happen, I don't think Mid-Ohio would be the sole NBC race but I don't see ABC loosening their grip nor races ending up on NBC, even if it makes sense.
First, NBC is swamped with golf coverage most weekends in the summer and they aren't dropping golf for IndyCar. Not in this universe at least. It would be great if IndyCar could get a few races on NBC not just for the series but possibly ABC as well. Two or three more races on network gets the series in front of a larger audience, more possible opportunities to draw in fans, chance fans would carry over from NBC races and tune into the ABC races, increasing their ratings. It is a potential win-win but that doesn't mean it will become a reality. In theory, ABC's loosening their grip to allow NBC to show let's say the final three races, Mid-Ohio, Milwaukee and Sonoma, would be great. If Sonoma is the season finale, they get the day all to themselves. If Milwaukee was the season finale the Sunday Labor Day weekend, it could set up for an IndyCar into NASCAR doubleheader.
While some have been skeptical of NASCAR's move to NBC and NBCSN and what it means for IndyCar on the network, if done correctly, it opens the doors for plenty of opportunities for the network and series to form a great partnership and become a solid home for motorsports in the United States.
Random Thoughts
Can Gran Turismo add Phillip Island please?
The only thing worst than the game of chicken was NASCAR making Terry Labonte change his paint scheme, which honored his 1984 and 1996 championships and then forcing him to the rear of the field because of said change.
To CBSSN: If you are planning on renewing your contracts with DTM and Blancpain Sprint and Endurance Series please only do so if you plan on showing the races live or remove the geo-block on the online coverage if you are only going to show the races tape-delayed. Otherwise, don't even bother.
Champions From the Weekend
The #36 Signatech Alpine of Oliver Webb, Nelson Panciatici and Paul-Loup Chatin won the European Le Mans Series LMP2 championship with a fifth place finish at Estoril. The #24 Sébastien Loeb Racing Oreca-Nissan of Vincent Capillaire and Jimmy Eriksson won the season finale.
With their victory in GTE, the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin was enough for the GTE championship after the #55 AF Corse of Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Michele Rugolo finished outside of the points after contact with the #99 ART Grand Prix McLaren MP4-12C GT3.
SMP Racing made it two championships as their #73 Ferrari of Anton Ladygin, David Markozov and Oliviera Beretta finished third at Estoril, enough to win the GTC championship. The #87 Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 won GTC on their debut with driver Bas Leinders, Markus Palttala and Henry Hassid.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened in Estoril but did you know...
Valentino Rossi won at Phillip Island in his 250th MotoGP start after Marc Márquez fell while leading.
Brad Keselowski won at Talladega and advanced to the semifinal round of the Chase. Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. were eliminated.
Mattias Ekström ends 2014 with back-to-back victories after winning at Hockenheim and giving Audi the DTM manufactures' championship.
The #84 HTP Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk won the Blancpain Sprint Series penultimate race at Zolder.
Maverick Viñales won in Moto2 from Phillip Island and 0.044 seconds covered the top four in Moto3 as Jack Miller won his home race defeating Álex Márquez by 0.029 seconds, Álex Rins by 0.032 seconds and Efrén Vázquez finished fourth.
Timothy Peters won the Truck race from Talladega.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP heads to their penultimate round at Sepang.
NASCAR begins the semifinal round at Martinsville.
V8 Supercars run their final endurance race of the season at Surfers Paradise.
WTCC heads to their penultimate round at Suzuka.
A third series heads to their penultimate round as World Rally will run Rally Catalunya.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
