Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Scott McLaughlin came out on top in another memorable battle with Romain Grosjean. Formula One introduced a new sprint format, and it still doesn't address the biggest problem currently in Formula One. Cadillac is in some trouble. MotoGP had a pair of thrillers, and a pair of red flags. The American SRO series battled difficult conditions on the Bayou, and some scoring issues may have overshadowed some otherwise fine races. NASCAR could not beat the rain on Sunday at Dover, and the Cup Series will race Monday afternoon. There was a first-time winner on Saturday. Moving sucks. But an announcement in the IndyCar world from a few weeks ago has my attention...
The Record Book
When McLaren unveiled its liveries for the Indianapolis 500, it noted how each livery honored a past victory in the Triple Crown events for McLaren, acknowledging the 60th anniversary of the organization.
Patricio O'Ward's #5 Chevrolet will look like the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning McLaren F1 GTR of Yannick Dalmas, Masanori Sekiya and JJ Lehto. Felix Rosenqvist's #6 Chevrolet harkens back to Alain Prost's winner in the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix. Alexander Rossi's #7 Chevrolet throws back to an Indianapolis 500 triumph, more specifically Johnny Rutherford winning in 1974. McLaren would win with Rutherford in 1976 as well.
McLaren recognizes itself as a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, and rightfully so, but with McLaren being McLaren again, as the "SP" abbreviation for Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson, the co-owners of the organization before McLaren bought in ahead of the 2020 season, is gone, I was wondering, where do McLaren's victories in 2023 go in the record book?
This is the same McLaren organization that ran in IndyCar, only with a different management structure and different people in charge today. Rutherford won 18 races from 1973 to 1979. Then the team pulled out of IndyCar competition for the next 40 years.
Ahead of the 2020 season, McLaren bought into Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. The team was "Arrow McLaren SP." Sam Schmidt's full-time IndyCar ownership dated back to 2012 when Davey Hamilton was a partner, which was a year before Ric Peterson joined the ownership group and got his name on the door. The team McLaren bought into is that organization, and it recognized the victories with Simon Pagenaud as well as James Hinchcliffe that came before McLaren's ownership claim.
But "SP" is gone. The team goes by McLaren. Where does the past meet the present?
This McLaren is the same McLaren organization that was in IndyCar back in the 1970s with Rutherford as its driver. This isn't "McLaren" in name only. This isn't like Lotus in 2012 or Team Lotus in Formula One in 2011. The team name was Lotus, but it wasn't THE Lotus. It wasn't the Colin Chapman Lotus. It was someone who had the naming rights and licensed it to an organization. Neither had ties to the past.
This is the same McLaren back in IndyCar as a team. It just got back in by purchasing an existing organization. But where do the victories go in the record book?
McLaren won 18 races in the 1970s. The SPM organization McLaren bought into won 11 times from 2013 through the end of the 2022 season, the last season before the "SP" was dropped from the team name. How do we square this circle?
This organization claims it has won two Indianapolis 500s, and rightfully so, but THIS organization also didn't win those two Indianapolis 500s.
Does this team have 18 victories, 11 victories or 29 victories? Does it have none whatsoever?
Many teams currently in IndyCar were something else in the past. Andretti Autosport was Team Green in CART over 20 years ago. Michael Andretti bought into the team that Barry Green started, then Kim Green bought in, Barry Green sold his shares, it became Andretti Green Racing and ahead of the 2010 season it became Andretti Autosport after Kim Green exited and Michael Andretti became the sole owner.
This team was founded in 1993, but the current owner didn't buy in until 2001 and the team didn't change names until 2003 before adopting its current moniker in 2010.
In the IndyCar record book, Andretti Autosport doesn't get credit for the 23 victories that Team Green earned between 1994 and 2002, nor does it claim the 1995 Indianapolis 500 victory with Jacques Villeneuve, but this team did win those races.
Chip Ganassi Racing was Patrick Racing. Pat Patrick was retiring from ownership after the 1989 season and Ganassi bought in as a co-owner before taking over the entire organization for the 1990 season. However, Ganassi does not claim the 36 Patrick Racing victories that occurred prior to 1990, which included three Indianapolis 500 victories.
There was, of course, the near immediate revival of Patrick Racing when Pat Patrick had a change of heart, but that Patrick Racing was technical not the same Patrick Racing.
This is a real Schrödinger's race team situation we have here.
In sports, teams move and change names occasionally. Whether or not the history and past continues to be recognized is a matter of choice. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960. The nicknamed stuck and the team claims 17 NBA championships, the first five occurring in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The Los Angeles Rams started in Cleveland, moved to Los Angeles, went to St. Louis and returned to Los Angeles. Despite all this moving, the organization claims four NFL championship, one in Cleveland, one in St. Louis and two in Los Angeles, albeit 70 years and one relocation apart.
Keeping the nickname doesn't seem to matter. The Minnesota Twins claim three World Series championship though the first came 99 years ago as the Washington Senators. The Sacramento Kings has won an NBA championship, but it was in 1951 as the Rochester Royals, and since then the team moved to Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha and only became the "Kings" when the team settled in Sacramento in 1985.
However, sometimes moving and changing names does mean starting a new history. The Cleveland Browns left for Baltimore and became the Ravens ahead of the 1995 NFL season, but the Baltimore Ravens did not carry over the history. The team started with a blank slate. It didn't claim the eight professional football championships won in Cleveland as its own history. That history in Cleveland was left for when a new Cleveland Browns was founded and returned to the league in 1999. However, the new Cleveland Browns were not the old Cleveland Browns, just like how Patrick Racing was not the same Patrick Racing but claimed the past success as its own.
Where do we stand with this and race teams? More specifically, what does this mean for the team formerly and currently known as McLaren?
I don't have a great answer. Those 18 victories from the 1970s are McLaren's victories. If McLaren were to win this year with one of those three tribute liveries or Tony Kanaan in his fond farewell, the organization would absolutely be a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, but you cannot say McLaren has won three Indianapolis 500s and not at least increase the team's victory total in the record book to 19. But what about those victories that came before McLaren bought into this organization when it was Schmidt Peterson Hamilton and those victories that came when SP was still there but McLaren had also entered the picture?
An argument can be made that everything that occurred prior to 2023, when SP was still in the official name, should exist on its own in a Schmidt Hamilton/Schmidt Peterson Hamilton/Schmidt Peterson/Arrow McLaren SP column, and everything that happens from now onward with the team known as Arrow McLaren should be added to the history the team made over 40 years ago and the next victory would be the team's 19th.
But maybe a compromise can be made and everything with this team that happened before McLaren returned, so 2012-2019 is SPM/SPHM history and once McLaren came in those victories count toward's McLaren's total. The only problem is the SPM/SPHM victories and the AMSP victories are already mixed together, hence the 11 victory total.
Can victories count to two different organizations? Can SPM/SPHM/AMSP have 11 victories while those four victories over the 2021 and 2022 seasons also count to McLaren's total, meaning it is on 22 victories and the next one should O'Ward, Rosenqvist, Rossi or Kanaan win be the team's 23rd? That doesn't sound right.
A satisfying and convincing answer might not exist in this situation, but for the sake of history and accurate recording, we may need to come up with one.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott McLaughlin, but did you know...
Sergio Pérez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Pérez also won the sprint race.
Francesco Bagnaia won MotoGP's Spanish Grand Prix. Brad Binder won the sprint race. Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race. Iván Ortolá won in Moto3, his second consecutive victory.
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The #41 Team WRT Oreca-Gibson of Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade won in LMP2. The #83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari of Luis Pérez Companc, Alessio Rovera and Lilou Wadoux won in GTE-Am.
Ryan Truex won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Dover, his first career victory.
Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Brown and Broc Feeney split the Supercars races from Wanneroo Raceway.
The #28 RS1 Porsche of Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer and the #4 Crowdstrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG of Colin Braun and George Kurtz split the GT World Challenge America races from NOLA Motorsports Park. Memo Gidley swept the GT America races. The #51 Auto Technic Racing BMW of Zac Anderon and JCD Dubets won the GT4 America race.
Chase Sexton won the Supercorss race from Nashville, his fourth victory of the season.
Coming Up This Weekend
Super GT has a race on Thursday over the Golden Week holiday.
Formula One will be in Miami for the second consecutive year.
Formula E is in Monaco.
World Superbike is in Barcelona.
Supercross has its penultimate round in Denver.
