No One Is Perfect
IndyCar fans are typically underwhelmed when it comes whatever the series does. Schedule, technology, driver news, team news. There always seems to be a rain cloud hanging over IndyCar.
However, IndyCar isn't the only series with problems.
The United States Grand Prix had only 18 cars. Could you imagine if IndyCar lost two teams, four cars and had only 18 cars start a race? People would be exploding from anger. Formula One might be making a boat load of money but the FIA are in a crisis of keeping the series financially viable for teams.
DTM is trying to figure out what their race format will be in 2015 after the experiment of limiting how long teams can use alternative tires backfired. They also have yet to announce their 2015 schedule.
World Rally is struggling to decide whether or not to change their format to be more appealing to fans.
IMSA struggled with balance of performance all season long in 2014.
V8 Supercars might lose Ford.
Formula E is experiencing the growing pains of a new series with all-electric cars.
Asian Le Mans Series gets eight cars for each race. Eight!
And imagine if a winless driver wins the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship? You bet they are going back to the drawing board.
No one is perfect. Sure, most if not all are making more money than IndyCar but no series is immune from difficulties. Yes, we all wish there was less negativity and more positive things to talk about in IndyCar but all series have their issues. You just have to live with them and not let them get you down.
There is Still Hope
I know many fear the day when motorsports fails to produce new fans as the automobile becomes less of a hobby and more of an appliance. My 16-year old cousin is one of those kids who plays video games and is on his phone all day. When I visited him this summer he wasn't excited about getting his drivers' license, in fact he was indifferent about it because he knows friends who drive and can take him to school and around town.
He started doing his driving lessons for his permit and apparently he has got the automotive bug. Now he is really interested in cars and trying to learn more from my uncle, who had given up on him ever caring about cars or motorsports. My cousin told my uncle that he wants to go the Austin next year for the Formula One races and if they are going, I mind as tag along. Is this just a phase for my cousin? Does he see the glitz and glam of Formula One and is awe-struck? Maybe. Is he going to be me stay up until 4:00 a.m. after watching four races across three continents? Probably not but whatever interest of motorsports he is now developing is alright with me.
There is still hope kids will become gear heads and while it is evolving and isn't what it once was in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s but I think youths will still be interested in the automobile. It probably won't be as prevalent as decades past but motorsports aren't going to fall off the face of the earth anytime soon.
Are You Happy NASCAR?
You all know what happened in Texas. Hours after the Formula One race had ended, a fight broke out after the NASCAR race and once again Brad Keselowski found himself in the center of it all. Jeff Gordon's race was ruined after contact with Keselowski caused a tire failure for Gordon and he was not happy about afterward. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick wasn't happy about how Keselowski raced him and could not have put it any better: "I just turned him around and told him to go fight his own fight."
Gordon then gave one of the most honest post-race interviews in recent memory. No sponsors were mentioned (thank God!), nothing was held back and it was articulate. He was angry but coherent and felt he had been screwed.
Keselowski was being compared to Dale Earnhardt and Ayrton Senna as he lived up to the late-Brazilian's famous quote from an interview with Jackie Stewart: "If you no longer go for a gap that exists, your no longer a racing driver." The problem with that quote is it is inherently flawed. Think about that quote for a second. That means going for every opportunity that is presented to a driver. If that was truly the case, accidents would through the roof with drivers making banzai moves. A driver has to be respectable on the race track. You have to race hard but clean and when your competitors think you have overstep the line, it's time to face the music. With Keselowski, this isn't an isolated incident and he has lost the respect of most of the grid.
Back in April, after Richmond, I wrote about how Keselowski was complaining after being raced hard by Matt Kenseth. Now, in the span of a month, he has ruffled the feathers of at least four drivers and each time it has come to blows. He is already on probation for the incident at Charlotte but you know as well as I do that the $3-bill is worth more than NASCAR probation. Then there is Jeff Gordon, who called Keselowski a "dipshit" during his post-race interview on ESPN. I'm not offended by expletives but NASCAR has set the precedent for penalizing when one slips by the goalie on television.
Ten years ago, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. dropped one after winning Talladega and was fined 25 points and he went from leading the points by 13 over Kurt Busch to second, 12 points behind the eventual champion and it ended all momentum of him winning the championship that year. Times are a little different though. The Super Bowl half-time show where Janet Jackson's breast was exposed was earlier that year and the FCC was on a witch hunt to censor all obscenity. I think Gordon will get no punishment for the language but if NASCAR wants to be consistent (which we know NASCAR is big on consistency), they would dock a few points from Gordon.
As for Keselowski, it would be nice to see NASCAR actually punish a guy when they break there probation and maybe sit him down for Phoenix. Because allowing him to race, especially under this format, is basically ensuring another incident if he doesn't win the race.
Random Thoughts
Wouldn't it make sense for Gene Haas to fund a drivers, say Alexander Rossi for the 2015 GP2 Series season and then promote said driver to Haas F1 in 2016 with a veteran teammate?
The IndyCar race at NOLA Motorsports Park should be called the "Bayou Bonanza."
Watch out for Conor Daly running the Formula E race in Malaysia for Andretti Autosport. Franck Montagny does color commentary for Formula One on French TV and Malaysia is the same weekend as the F1 season finale from Abu Dhabi. Daly tweeted this on Thursday:
Hmmm. I might be racing again before the year is over, and it's not a go kart race.
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) October 30, 2014
Speaking of Formula E, I was thinking, for next season they should revive the New Year's Day race in South Africa like Formula One did during the 1960s. Maybe revive the Durban street circuit that A1GP once used or maybe run a street circuit some where in Cape Town.What makes Kyle Busch so good on Friday nights and Saturdays but mediocre on Sundays? He can dominate a Truck race and then look like a neutered dog in the Cup race. He clearly has talent but it doesn't show when it matters. He is the Mario Balotelli of NASCAR. He can win Truck races like Balotelli scores in Capital One Cup matches but fails to produce in Cup like Balotelli's struggles scoring Premier League and Champions League.
Champions From the Weekend
Maximilian Götz won the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series title after his title rivals the #28 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Hari Proczyk failed to score in the qualifying race.
Laurens Vanthoor won the 2014 Blancpain GT Championship by sweeping the weekend at Baku with his teammate César Ramos. Vanthoor scored 200 points between the Blancpain Sprint and Endurance Series, while Maximilian Buhk scored 190 and Götz scored 160. Vanthoor was the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series champion.
Sylvain Guintoli won the 2014 World Superbike championship by six points over Tom Sykes after sweeping the weekend at Qatar. It is Guintoli's first title.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Lewis Hamilton and what happened in Baku and Qatar, but did you know...
Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR Cup race at Texas. No drivers are locked into the championship race at Homestead.
The #8 Toyota TS040 of Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi won the 6 Hours of Shanghai their second consecutive FIA WEC victory and fourth of the season. Olivier Pla, Julien Canal and Romain Rusinov won in LMP2 in the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan. The #92 Porsche 911 RSR of Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet won in GTE-Pro. Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard won GTE-Am in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage V8.
Michael van der Mark capped off his 2014 World Supersport Championship winning season with victory in Qatar. He ends with sixth victories, five runner-up finishes and a retirement which came in the season opener at Phillip Island.
Júlio Campos and Antonio Pizzonia split the Stock Car Brasil weekend at Taumrã.
Kyle Busch won the Nationwide and Truck races at Texas.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One heads to their penultimate round from Interlagos.
NASCAR heads to their penultimate round in Phoenix.
MotoGP wraps up their 2014 season from Valencia.
Super Formula ends their season with a double header from Suzuka.
