Thanksgiving is behind us, Christmas is ahead of us but first we are closing out the Formula One season from Abu Dhabi.
A lot happened in November. We had a lot of unexpected news, some of which was good, some of which was not what we would have wished but that is the way of the world. You got to take the good with the bad.
Once again, this is just for fun. In case you are new, this is my gut reaction to headlines without reading the article. Of course, the gripes I have may be answered in the article.
We are going to start with IndyCar because that is where the biggest waves were made this month...
Penske downplays conflict of interest concerns
You rarely hear people play up conflict of interest when it clearly exists, which it does now that Roger Penske owns IndyCar.
Is Penske going to turn IndyCar into his personal playground so his team can win 17 of 17 races? No. Penske is in a lose-lose situation. He already has the best team on the grid. It was already believed his team got the benefit of calls from IndyCar to begin with. Penske owning the series is just going to give people more ammunition.
Penske might not exploit this conflict of interest but it is still there. You can bring up Jim France owning IMSA and a team and Don Panoz owning the American Le Mans Series and Panoz and Bernie Ecclestone owning Brabham and Formula One Group but those are all conflicts of interest. Just because they existed does not mean what Penske is doing now is not a conflict of interest.
Earlier this week, when writing about Trevor Carlin's concern about big teams continuing to expand and potentially squeezing out the little guys I wrote the following line: "IndyCar should value [Carlin] and his wishes as much as Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti."
There is a problem in that IndyCar is Roger Penske. Penske is going to value the insights of Carlin, Mike Shank and Dale Coyne but can Penske value their wishes as much as his own? And there is the conflict of interest. It will come down to whether or not Penske makes the decision that Roger Penske does not want to make but majority of car owners want. Will Penske be able to see that what is best for him may not be best for the masses?
The true power of Penske's leadership of the series will come down to whether the likes of Carlin, Shank and others can remain in the series and be competitive and if other teams join. The conflict of interest will not be a problem if Penske does not make selfish decisions and the series continues to expand and succeed. If the series sees a decline, people will want Penske's head.
Penske deal could strengthen IndyCar, IMSA ties
Or it could do nothing at all.
A reason why we do not see more IndyCar/IMSA combined weekends is these are two series that want to be top dog. IMSA does not want to be the Saturday show, even if it the same number of people that would go to a Sunday race would attend on Saturday and the television rating would be no different.
IMSA has to look out for itself. It has its own support series to fill a weekend. Being a part of an IndyCar bill squeezed between Indy Lights and Indy Pro 2000 is not of interest to IMSA. The reason why it joins the bill at Long Beach and Belle Isle is both are events the manufactures want to go to and IMSA cannot have a street race without IndyCar.
Penske could strengthen IndyCar and IMSA ties and IndyCar and NASCAR ties or it will do nothing at all because while Penske may be king there are plenty of other monarchies looking to increase their power.
Pagenaud aims to keep sport 'approachable' to fans
Is Pagenaud the only one aiming to keep it approachable to fans?
Also, define approachable.
Are social media posts the only thing? What makes his social media posts any more approachable than the one billion other people regularly posting on social media? How is Pagenaud going to stand out?
You can keep people engaged and informed through social media posts but it has to go beyond the digital world and continue into the real world. Approachability must exist at the racetrack, at meet and greets and Pagenaud cannot be the one leading the charge.
The approachability of IndyCar comes down to IndyCar. IndyCar does a good job of letting people in. Paddock passes are easy to get. The series has autograph sessions at every race weekend. It has to keep that up. The series must push its drivers to be open and engage with others in a way that fits best for the driver. Some will be better at social media than others. Some drivers will be better in face-to-face interactions. Some will master speaking to 250 people at once. Others will be better reaching out to three or four people at once.
Pagenaud cannot be the only one. Approachability is a full team effort.
On to Formula One...
Opinion: F1 needs new points system for more title deciders
The point system will not matter if Lewis Hamilton keeps winning ten races a season and no other driver is winning more than half of that total.
It wasn't that long ago we had the championship go down to the final race. The 2016 season was not that long ago and before that was 2014 and the point system in 2014 was created for more title decides with the finale being double points. Formula One made it so the finale would see a greater chance at a championship battle in the final race and almost everyone pushed back on that. It was immediately dropped after one year.
In the 2010s, four times did the championship go down to the finale: 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016.
In the 2000s, four times did the championship go down to the finale: 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
In the 1990s, five times did the championship go down to the finale: 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.
In the 1980s, five times did the championship go down to the finale: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1986.
In the 1970s, two times did the championship go down to the finale: 1974 and 1976.
In the 1960s, four times did the championship go down to the finale: 1962, 1964, 1967 and 1968.
In the 1950s, five times did the championship go down to the finale: 1950, 1951, 1956, 1958 and 1959.
Despite this dominance of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-Benz, this decade fell in line with previous decades when it came to championships decided in the final race.
The question becomes what can you do to make sure the championship goes to the finale when one driver wins nearly half the races and double the number of races as the next best driver?
Unless Formula One is going to adopt some type of NASCAR elimination format and make it so the finale will decide the championship, I am not sure anything can be down to the points system to make sure we are on the edge of our seats until the final lap of the season.
Haas "like a lame duck" in Austin - Steiner
And Mexico City and Suzuka and Sochi and Singapore and Monza and Spa-Francorchamps and need I go on?
I am not sure the ninth-best team in the World Constructors' Championship has gotten more attention at any point in Formula One history than Haas has gotten this season and better yet, this team is keeping its driver line-up, a line-up the team doesn't seem to have any faith in.
Do you hear that? That is the clocking ticking towards Haas' exit.
Moving to NASCAR...
Dead serious: Martin Truex Jr. lost the NASCAR Cup championship because his pit crew put his tires on backward
I am going to push back on this a little bit because after Truex's crew put the left side tires on the right side and right side tires on the left side Truex got the lucky dog, was back on the lead lap and he was fourth at the end of the second stage.
This pit stop mistake was a set back but Truex got back in the title fight and I think an argument could be made he lost the title because he went five laps longer on his penultimate stint. This allowed Kyle Busch to have a 12-second gap to Truex after both drivers made their stops and in the end Truex fell 4.5 seconds short of his second title.
If Truex had covered Busch's pit stop and come in on the next lap he may still have come out behind Busch but been closer and Truex seemed to have the better car over the long run.
One pit stop is going to be remembered as the reason why Truex was second in the championship for the second consecutive year but we might be remembering the wrong one.
What's next for Xfinity Rookie of the Year Briscoe?
NASCAR's second division might have a problem in 2020.
One: The three drivers that combined to win 21 of 33 races are gone. Two: A driver like Chase Briscoe might be completely out of a ride because Stewart-Haas Racing might drop its Grand National Series program because, after all, it got Cole Custer to the Cup Series, mission accomplished. Add to it, Richard Childress Racing has not announced any full-time driver. GMS Racing is dropping out of the series. Joe Gibbs Racing is putting Harrison Burton and Riley Herbst into its cars, two drivers into the series that have a combined 19 starts, one top five finish and nine top ten finishes as part-timers in the series.
Kailua Racing is expanding with Ross Chastain being full-time. Burton and Herbst are going to accidentally end up in the playoffs. Daniel Hemric is going to be part-time with JR Motorsports and if he can find a ride for the 12 other races he does not have with JRM, he could make the playoffs and fight for the championship. Austin Cindric is still going to be there but is there anyone to be all that excited about in 2020? Is anyone excited to see Brandon Jones for his fifth season? Is Michael Annett getting people riled up?
I hope Briscoe ends up somewhere. The series could definitely use him.
On to two-wheels...
Honda: Álex Márquez MotoGP deal depended on Moto2 success
And Álex Márquez's next MotoGP deal will be depended on his MotoGP success.
Talk about a fortunate set of events for Álex Márquez: He has his best season in Moto2, ends up winning the championship but there did not appear to be a worthy opening in MotoGP and he was going to return to the series. Then Jorge Lorenzo announced his retirement, opening a season at Repsol Honda, which just so happens to be his brother's team.
Álex may get the familial benefit if he has some struggles but if Álex is having problems and there is another rider that is more worthy of a factory seat than Álex may get the bump. I do not think Marc Márquez is going to make Honda keep his brother or risk losing him. Although, crazier things have happened.
And we end with a little bit of a sad story...
Ticktum may "forget motorsport" if he can't get to F1
This is disheartening but understandable.
Dan Ticktum has some talent. Though none of his plans or Red Bull plans have worked out, Ticktum is not a schlub. If he cannot make it to Formula One there are plenty of other avenues where he can be successful. He could go to IndyCar, FIA World Endurance Championship, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, any one of a dozen GT3 series, IMSA, ELMS, Ticktum could make a career in motorsports.
But, for some drivers, the dream is only Formula One; there is no alternative.
That might be shortsighted but he is no different then kids all over the world. How many kids end up playing baseball or basketball with dreams of going professional but drop out after high school because they did not get a college scholarship and it is not worth the time to try and walk on?
How many kids get a scholarship and get to play in college but come to realize the best they are going to do is single-A ball and may break into double-A but the money is too little for the amount of time they have to dedicate to the practice and they could make more in an office job and at least have more structure in their life?
Ticktum is no different. He has had Red Bull backing for a while but how much money did he and his family put to get him there? A few years in Formula One can pay that off but only Formula One. He could spend ten years in sports cars and still not made it all back. He could become IndyCar champion and it not give him financial security nor guarantee him job security. It is just the nature of motorsports at this time.
We are seeing Richie Stanaway potentially walk away from motorsports at the age of 28. We have seen plenty of drivers have careers end before the age of 30 but these are drivers that the sport has walked on by. Stanaway won races in GP2 and got a great opportunity with Aston Martin. If Ticktum had the super license points on January 1st of this year he would have likely been in one of the Toro Rosso seats instead of Daniil Kvyat or Alexander Albon. I think we are going to see more drivers go down this road. There just does not seem to be as many openings or money to keep careers going.
I hope Ticktum continues. He may have made mistakes but he has talent and it would be appreciated somewhere.
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