Right before ringing in 2014, I made some predictions on the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season and now we are going to revisit them and see if I got anything right, how badly I was wrong in a few circumstances and anything else that relates to what predictions were made last winter.
1. The Series Will Get A Title Sponsor
One-for-one. This prediction wasn't much of a gamble though. We all felt it was going to happen, Verizon was a front runner from the start and it just happened to work out.
2. Honda Will Nip Chevrolet in the Manufactures' Championship
One-for-two. This one wasn't even close as Chevrolet locked up the Manufactures' Championship with races in hand. Chevrolet won twelfth of eighteen, including six consecutive to close out 2014. Let's not forget to mention eight consecutive pole positions to close out the year with a grand total of thirteen on the year. You'd think after Honda lost out in 2013 with nine wins to Chevrolet's ten, the switch to the twin-turbo would give Honda the extra kick to take it to Chevrolet. Was there some teething problems with the twin-turbo? Maybe. Did losing Ganassi hurt? Probably. Honda has to start 2015 off on a good note, otherwise another bad season could lead them to reconsider their IndyCar involvement with no three manufacture in sight.
Quick sidebar: Could IndyCar have made the manufactures' championship any more confusing? This is another prime example of just needing to keep it simple. If fans can't follow it in their head than it's way too complicated.
3. Takuma Sato Will Not Make It To Fontana With AJ Foyt Racing
One-for-three. If you looked at Sato's results though, you would have understood if Foyt dropped him. Two top tens in the first twelve races while he had four finishes outside the twenty during that time frame and had an average finish of 17.333. I am not sure he salvaged his season with three top tens in the final five races but he was able to finish ahead of Graham Rahal, Carlos Huertas and Sebastián Saavedra. He won two pole positions but Sato cannot turn that raw speed into results. Not sure if he is set to return in 2015 but if he does, how much of a longer leash will he get at Foyt?
4. This Will Be The Only Season Ending By Labor Day
Not official but pretty much chalk this as one-for-four even though ending by Labor Day is IndyCar handcuffing themselves in the worst possible way. We don't even have a clue where the 2015 season finale will be because Fontana wants to move and it appears in may land in June. Could the season end at Sonoma or Milwaukee? Seeing how the Fontana rating was down from a 0.22 in 2013 to a 0.18 in 2014 and attendance was down, moving that race to Labor Day weekend from the middle of October was not a success at all. And these are the people who make the big bucks.
5. Scott Dixon Will Remain The Championship Favorite
He came on strong at the end of the season but couldn't retain the title. If he hadn't been put a lap down at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after contact with Will Power, didn't have an accident in the Indianapolis 500 and didn't have a dismal Houston weekend, he probably would have had a shot at Fontana but we can play the what-if game all day and that's not how 2014 played out. I still think he was a championship favorite when St. Petersburg rolled around so I would say I am two-for-five but would be willing to chalk this up as a sacrifice fly and remain one-for-four.
6. Marco Andretti Will Be A Man On A Mission
He started out phenomenally. Two podiums and three top tens in the first five races and he sat fifth in the championship after the Indianapolis 500. Andretti ended 2014 with nine top tens but his third place finish at the Indianapolis 500 was his last of two top fives in 2014. A lot of people like to rake Andretti through the coals because he has yet to match the success of his grandfather and father but finishing in the top ten in half the races and finishing ninth in the championship isn't something a talentless hack does. Sure, he needs to win races if he wants to become a champion but he isn't an embarrassment on track. He is 27 years old, has two victories in his career and his best finish in the championship is fifth. When Will Power turned 27 he had only two victories and his best finish in the the championship was fourth. And remind me, how has Power's career gone since then?
7. Will Power Will Be A Man On A Mission
Speaking of Power, I am going to say four-for-seven after Power took home his first championship. He started the season with a victory. He picked up an impressive victory at Milwaukee and he stepped on his fair share of toes in 2014 and didn't care who's foot they belong to. There were plenty of times it appeared he was throwing the championship away (Long Beach, Indianapolis, Detroit, Texas, Pocono, Sonoma) but he managed to make up for the mistakes.
8. Juan Pablo Montoya Will Not Finish In The Top Ten of Points
Wrong, wrong, wrong. I have to give Montoya credit for returning to IndyCar and being able to compete at a 1999-type level. He scored the most points in oval races in 2014, scored a victory from pole position at Pocono, three podiums, eight top fives and nine top tens. It was throughly impressive and after his victory at Pocono it was clear he is one of the greatest drivers of our generation and it has been a privilege to watch him race everything and anything for the last fifteen years.
9. There Will Be An International Series
Although it hasn't been confirmed, it looks like it will be five for-nine. Although things have quieted down on Dubai and Brasilia could come down to construction and after the lead-up to the World Cup and the current lead-up to the 2016 Summer Olympics, I am skeptical anytime construction and Brazil are mentioned in the same sentence. I really hope this pans out, one because the offseason is longer than it ever should be and the season needs to start earlier and two because IndyCar's front office has been saying there is going to be an international series for over a year and if it doesn't happen that is going to be a massive mark against them because there was a whole hell of a lot of talk and zero results.
10. There Won't Be Enough Rides For Everyone
Six-for-ten. Other than the 21 drivers who ran the full season and the tag-team partners of Ed Carpenter and Mike Conway, only Oriol Servià and Luca Filippi ran an IndyCar race outside the month of May. There were no additionally one-offs at Pocono or Iowa or Fontana. Alex Tagliani didn't get a shot to compete at Toronto. There were no cameos and that sucked. Don't get me wrong, the twenty-two full-time teams were deep in terms of talent but you also want something to look forward to every now and then. You want a wild card who could surprise us and outside of the times Rahal Letterman Lanigan rolled out their second car for Servià and Filippi, it didn't happen in 2014. A lot of people thought there weren't enough cars at Pocono and Fontana and I understand that. It would have been nice to see a few of the teams who ran Indianapolis (Sage Karam, Buddy Lazier, J.R. Hildebrand, Townsend Bell, Alex Tagliani, James Davison and Pippa Mann to name a few) show up for the other 500 milers but the current state of the series doesn't allow for that to happen and it is a real shame.
11. There Won't Be Ten Winners But It Will Be Close
Because of the way I worded this, I am saying seven-for-eleven. There weren't ten winners in 2014, there were eleven and you can't get much closer to ten than that. To be honest, at the beginning of the season I envisioned eight winners at most but because I didn't say there would be less than ten I fortunately got this one correct. Eleven different winners ties the record for most winners in a season, matching CART in 2000 and 2001 and let's not forget to mention three winners from 2013 were shut out in 2014 (James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball and Takuma Sato). The surprise was Carlos Huertas winning which makes you think if he can win in IndyCar, anyone can win in IndyCar. Eighteen of the twenty-three drivers to complete at least a third of the schedule have a victory in IndyCar and looking to 2015, it's hard to imagine fewer than eleven different winners.
12. Texas Is On Life Support
It got another one-year deal and with Houston not returning in 2015 it is put up or shut time for Eddie Gossage. After vehemently being against anymore races in Texas, he is now going to be the lone stop in the Lone Star State for IndyCar and there is no reason why he shouldn't be able to increase his attendance seeing as how he has no competition within his jurisdiction so to speak. Bad news is we might also want to put Pocono and Fontana on life support but hopefully date shifts will benefit these two events.
13. Allan Bestwick or Vince Welch Will Be Lead Announcer For ABC
Got this one right, boosting the batting average to nine-for-thirteen. Bestwick did a superb job, only problem is his color commentators aren't helping him. Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever got to go, they are holding the broadcast back. Dario Franchitti was in the booth for about 20 minutes of qualifying and brought more to a broadcast than those two have combined for in the last five years. Franchitti will be the color commentator on the world feed for Formula E races starting this weekend in Beijing. I hope the executives at ABC/ESPN have a close eye on him.
14. The Future Will Remain Uncertain
I hate sounding pessimistic but we have no idea when the 2015 season opener is or where it is. Aero kits appear to be on the way which is good news. There are a handful of teams looking for funding to keep going and more qualified drivers than full-time rides. Ratings were up in as a whole in 2014 but were down for the season finale. Houston fell off the schedule while New Orleans was added. Pocono and Fontana are holding on for dear life. Toronto is having trouble finding a spot on the 2015 schedule due to the Pan American Games.
There is a uncertainty but to be fair there is some balance to what the future looks like. Yes, we would all like to circle a date for a season opener and we hope that all twenty-two full-time teams from this year return along with a little growth after the average field size has shrunk since the DW12 chassis was first introduced in 2012. This was a very vague prediction to begin with. The future is never a certain. As much as we plan our futures, things change unexpectedly and then we adapt.
Whether I went 10-for-14, 8-for-12 with a few sacrifices, it doesn't really matter. The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season was one of the best since the split in 1996 and arguably one of the best all-time. Let's just hope the addition of aero kits with a few international dates and a second year with Verizon as title sponsor boost IndyCar in 2015 and beyond.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Musings From the Weekend: Trying Too Hard
The first weekend of September did not disappoint with Lewis Hamilton winning the Italian Grand Prix, his 28th Grand Prix victory, putting him past Jackie Stewart on the all-time win list and Brad Keselowski leading 383 of 400 laps on his way to a dominating victory at Richmond. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Come On NASCAR. Be Yourself
The Chase is set and NASCAR and ESPN are going to let you know with the fictionalized commercials about the drivers having a hope of a nation on their shoulders and fans completing Chase grids. NASCAR must have been watching the World Cup and March Madness and thought, "what if we combined both?"
First off, no one follows a driver as if it they were a nation and I would worry if anyone was that emotionally tied to a particular individual. Second, very, very, very few people are legitimately going to fill out "Chase Grids." There are going to be very few office pools, trust me. It works for March Madness because people can get behind a university. You don't have to know a thing about basketball and do well (trust me, ask my mother). People can get behind a university because it is either their alma mater or one of their children's alma maters or another family member's alma mater. You don't have that with NASCAR. Plus, after one weekend your bracket is either shot to hell or you have a reason to watch the second weekend and if it survives that second weekend, you likely have a team in the Final Four and are watching because you have a shot at winning an office pool or you just want to see if you picked the right team to win it all. With the Chase, it's three weeks before the first eliminations. People can't dedicate ten weeks to something they barely care about. They have bigger fish to fry.
When I started following motorsports closely and NASCAR in particular, I followed it because it was different. It wasn't trying to mimic soccer or basketball or football. Instead of being themselves, NASCAR has felt the need to try and be something they are not in hopes of attracting new fans. Any mother with a teenager can tell you if someone does like you for who you are then that is their loss. You shouldn't have to change to get people to like you. Unfortunately, NASCAR, like most teenagers, didn't listen and are trying to emulate something they are not and will never be.
Rubinho Year Two, What Could Have Been
If only Rubens Barrichello had a second year in IndyCar. He was improving throughout his rookie season and solid on ovals despite no experience prior to entering IndyCar. He added Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year to his résumé, picked up his first two top fives in the final three races of the season and ended with seven top tens but twelfth in the championship behind James Hinchcliffe, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal and J.R. Hildebrand.
Unfortunately his sponsors didn't want him to continue in IndyCar but was willing to fund him in Stock Car Brasil instead. His first year in fenders saw him struggle with plenty of races where he wasn't in contention. He did have a few good results including a second on the streets of Salvador and started on pole at Cascavel before finishing twenty-fifth.
Flash forward to this year, his second season in Stock Car Brasil. Rubinho is second in the championship, 6.5 points back of Átila Abreu with two wins, four podiums and eight top tens from twelve races with nine races to go.
You can't help but wonder what he could have done in a second year at KV Racing, especially after seeing Kanaan win the Indianapolis 500 that year.
Daly Down
But hopefully not out. Conor Daly lost his GP2 ride this past weekend but he is going all-in on finding an IndyCar ride in 2015. It's disappointing it didn't work out for Daly because he has the talent, sadly he needs the money. You can point to American companies failing to get behind young drivers for the lack of Americans making it in Europe but international motorsports is not seen as a wise investment by them. I am sure we can justify why a company such as Apple or Coca-Cola or some other American company should fund a few Americans on the road to Formula One but if they don't think it's worth it than that's just the way it is.
It's frustrating that talent isn't enough in motorsports and it's true for not just Americans but for Brits, Italians and Swiss drivers as well. Anyone with a conscious is rooting for Daly to land an IndyCar ride. He has battled so hard to come so close and his career should not end at the age of 22. He just needs that one break.
Keep It Simple Stupid Points
Back in the middle of July, I calculated the points standings for IndyCar, Formula One and NASCAR if they used the 9-6-4-3-2-1 system which was used in Formula One for three decades. Let's update them since the IndyCar season is in the bag and Formula One and NASCAR now have ten or fewer races remaining.
IndyCar:
Will Power- 52
Ryan Hunter-Reay- 46
Scott Dixon- 46
Simon Pagenaud- 37
Hélio Castroneves- 37
Juan Pablo Montoya- 35
Tony Kanaan- 33
Sébastien Bourdais- 23
Mike Conway- 18
Carlos Muñoz- 18
Ed Carpenter- 15
Charlie Kimball- 12
James Hinchcliffe- 12
Marco Andretti- 10
Carlos Huertas- 9
Graham Rahal- 9
Josef Newgarden- 9
Mikhail Aleshin- 7
Jack Hawksworth- 6
Takuma Sato- 6
Ryan Briscoe- 5
Justin Wilson- 4
Kurt Busch- 1
Will Power would have still been champion. He and Ryan Hunter-Reay would have been the only drivers eligible for the title at Fontana with Hunter-Reay needing a victory and Power to finish fourth or worse. What really would have killed Hunter-Reay is not scoring a point after Iowa. Of course, if the point system was different I am sure he would have raced differently. The biggest surprise would have been Mike Conway's two victories getting him ninth in the championship and Ed Carpenter in eleventh.
Formula One:
Nico Rosberg- 78
Lewis Hamilton- 74
Daniel Ricciardo- 51
Valtteri Bottas- 27
Sebastian Vettel- 24
Fernando Alonso- 23
Jenson Button- 13
Felipe Massa- 10
Nico Hülkenberg- 9
Kevin Magnussen- 7
Sergio Pérez- 6
Kimi Räikkönen- 4
The gap between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton would be much smaller while Daniel Ricciardo would still remain a long shot for the title. With six races remaining, only five drivers would be mathematically eligible for the title with Sebastian Vettel needing to win out, Rosberg to fail to score in the final half dozen races and Hamilton to scoring three points or less in the remainder of the season to win a fifth consecutive title.
NASCAR:
Brad Keselowski- 69*
Jeff Gordon- 59*
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.- 59*
Joey Logano- 51*
Kevin Harvick- 50*
Jimmie Johnson- 48*
Matt Kenseth- 37*
Kyle Busch- 36*
Denny Hamlin- 30*
Carl Edwards- 28*
Kurt Busch- 27*
Kasey Kahne- 17*
Kyle Larson- 17
Clint Bowyer- 16
Aric Almirola- 13*
Brian Vickers- 13
Paul Menard- 13
A.J. Allmendinger- 12*
Greg Biffle- 11*
Marcos Ambrose- 10
Jamie McMurray- 9
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.- 7
Ryan Newman- 6*
Tony Stewart- 5
Casey Mears- 3
Austin Dillon- 2
Martin Truex, Jr.- 1
Danica Patrick- 1
*- 2014 Chase drivers
Brad Keselowski would still be leading the championship after his victory at Richmond. The big shake up would be this year's Chase drivers Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman down in 19th and 23rd respectively. The good news is every driver would be mathematically eligible for the title with ten races to go.
Random Thoughts
After seeing the outside of the Parabolica paved over at Monza and then seeing I believe it was Nico Hülkenberg run wide at Ascari in practice and through the sand trap got me thinking, when they pave over the inside of Ascari, they mind as well bulldoze Monza because the track will have lost all it's character. The only way to save it were to run the combined course with the oval which has not been used by Formula One since 1961.
And dear God, I hope they don't pave over the outside of Lesmos.
Is there a better sight then the sea of fans streaming out on the track at Monza to watch the podium ceremony? It's the one thing I wish we had in the United States. Could you imagine if after the Indianapolis 500, fans streamed out on the front straightaway to celebrate? Of course in the United States, things are much too corporate and God forbid spectators get to do something spectacular and have a once in a lifetime experience.
I was thinking about Richmond last night and if NASCAR really wanted to make it interesting, they should have split the race into two, 200-lap races, one for all the drivers that were locked into the Chase and all the drivers who couldn't qualify for the Chase and the other for the nineteen drivers battling for the final Chase spots. You let the fourteen Chase drivers compete for the three bonus points with the start-and-parks getting their laps in while you have a free-for-all, win-and-you're-in LCQ. If NASCAR is going to do the Chase, they mind as well go all out.
I'd like to congratulate Michael Andretti and Andretti Autosport for becoming the Dale Coyne Racing of Formula E. Less than a week before the season opener and a driver has still yet to be confirmed for their second entry. Franck Montagny will be in their first car. Conor Daly is without a ride. Why not give him a call, Michael?
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Lewis Hamilton and Brad Keselowski but did you know....
Marco Melandri swept the World Superbike weekend at Jerez. Tom Sykes remains championship leader by 31 points over Sylvain Guintoli, 67 points ahead of Jonathan Rea with Melandri trailing by 85 points in fourth.
Dutch rider Michael van der Mark won the World Supersport race and has clinched the title with two races to go. American P.J. Jacobsen finished second at Jerez and sits sixth in the championship, one point outside the top five.
Stoffel Vandoorne and Jolyon Palmer won in GP2 at Monza. Jimmy Eriksson and Dean Stoneman won in GP3. Palmer extended his GP2 championship lead to 43 points over Felipe Nasr. Alex Lynn extended his GP3 championship lead with a sixth and second at Monza to 50 points over Richie Stanaway.
The #84 HTP Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk won the championship race at Portimão in the Blancpain Sprint Series. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Hari Proczyk won the qualifiyng race in the #28 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Gallardo FL2, their fourth win of 2014 in BSS, three of which have been qualifying race. Götz's championship lead over Buhk remains 16 points. Buhk was suspended for the round at the Slovakia Ring. Bleekemolen and Proczyk trail Götz by 23 points in the championship.
Kyle Busch lead all 250 laps in the Nationwide race.
Coming Up This Weekend
The premiere event for Formula E will be on the streets of Beijing Olympic Park.
MotoGP heads to Misano.
Pirelli World Challenge has a season finale doubleheader at Miller Motorsports Park.
NASCAR begins the Chase in Chicago.
V8 Supercars is scheduled to run the Sandown 500, their first of three endurance events.
European Le Mans Series has their penultimate round at Paul Ricard.
After a month off, DTM is off to EuroSpeedway Lausitz
World Rally heads Down Under to Rally Australia.
Super Formula will be at Autopolis.
Stock Car Brasil runs their first of three consecutive rounds in Brazil's southern-most state, Rio Grande do Sul at Velopark.
Come On NASCAR. Be Yourself
The Chase is set and NASCAR and ESPN are going to let you know with the fictionalized commercials about the drivers having a hope of a nation on their shoulders and fans completing Chase grids. NASCAR must have been watching the World Cup and March Madness and thought, "what if we combined both?"
First off, no one follows a driver as if it they were a nation and I would worry if anyone was that emotionally tied to a particular individual. Second, very, very, very few people are legitimately going to fill out "Chase Grids." There are going to be very few office pools, trust me. It works for March Madness because people can get behind a university. You don't have to know a thing about basketball and do well (trust me, ask my mother). People can get behind a university because it is either their alma mater or one of their children's alma maters or another family member's alma mater. You don't have that with NASCAR. Plus, after one weekend your bracket is either shot to hell or you have a reason to watch the second weekend and if it survives that second weekend, you likely have a team in the Final Four and are watching because you have a shot at winning an office pool or you just want to see if you picked the right team to win it all. With the Chase, it's three weeks before the first eliminations. People can't dedicate ten weeks to something they barely care about. They have bigger fish to fry.
When I started following motorsports closely and NASCAR in particular, I followed it because it was different. It wasn't trying to mimic soccer or basketball or football. Instead of being themselves, NASCAR has felt the need to try and be something they are not in hopes of attracting new fans. Any mother with a teenager can tell you if someone does like you for who you are then that is their loss. You shouldn't have to change to get people to like you. Unfortunately, NASCAR, like most teenagers, didn't listen and are trying to emulate something they are not and will never be.
Rubinho Year Two, What Could Have Been
If only Rubens Barrichello had a second year in IndyCar. He was improving throughout his rookie season and solid on ovals despite no experience prior to entering IndyCar. He added Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year to his résumé, picked up his first two top fives in the final three races of the season and ended with seven top tens but twelfth in the championship behind James Hinchcliffe, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal and J.R. Hildebrand.
Unfortunately his sponsors didn't want him to continue in IndyCar but was willing to fund him in Stock Car Brasil instead. His first year in fenders saw him struggle with plenty of races where he wasn't in contention. He did have a few good results including a second on the streets of Salvador and started on pole at Cascavel before finishing twenty-fifth.
Flash forward to this year, his second season in Stock Car Brasil. Rubinho is second in the championship, 6.5 points back of Átila Abreu with two wins, four podiums and eight top tens from twelve races with nine races to go.
You can't help but wonder what he could have done in a second year at KV Racing, especially after seeing Kanaan win the Indianapolis 500 that year.
Daly Down
But hopefully not out. Conor Daly lost his GP2 ride this past weekend but he is going all-in on finding an IndyCar ride in 2015. It's disappointing it didn't work out for Daly because he has the talent, sadly he needs the money. You can point to American companies failing to get behind young drivers for the lack of Americans making it in Europe but international motorsports is not seen as a wise investment by them. I am sure we can justify why a company such as Apple or Coca-Cola or some other American company should fund a few Americans on the road to Formula One but if they don't think it's worth it than that's just the way it is.
It's frustrating that talent isn't enough in motorsports and it's true for not just Americans but for Brits, Italians and Swiss drivers as well. Anyone with a conscious is rooting for Daly to land an IndyCar ride. He has battled so hard to come so close and his career should not end at the age of 22. He just needs that one break.
Keep It Simple Stupid Points
Back in the middle of July, I calculated the points standings for IndyCar, Formula One and NASCAR if they used the 9-6-4-3-2-1 system which was used in Formula One for three decades. Let's update them since the IndyCar season is in the bag and Formula One and NASCAR now have ten or fewer races remaining.
IndyCar:
Will Power- 52
Ryan Hunter-Reay- 46
Scott Dixon- 46
Simon Pagenaud- 37
Hélio Castroneves- 37
Juan Pablo Montoya- 35
Tony Kanaan- 33
Sébastien Bourdais- 23
Mike Conway- 18
Carlos Muñoz- 18
Ed Carpenter- 15
Charlie Kimball- 12
James Hinchcliffe- 12
Marco Andretti- 10
Carlos Huertas- 9
Graham Rahal- 9
Josef Newgarden- 9
Mikhail Aleshin- 7
Jack Hawksworth- 6
Takuma Sato- 6
Ryan Briscoe- 5
Justin Wilson- 4
Kurt Busch- 1
Will Power would have still been champion. He and Ryan Hunter-Reay would have been the only drivers eligible for the title at Fontana with Hunter-Reay needing a victory and Power to finish fourth or worse. What really would have killed Hunter-Reay is not scoring a point after Iowa. Of course, if the point system was different I am sure he would have raced differently. The biggest surprise would have been Mike Conway's two victories getting him ninth in the championship and Ed Carpenter in eleventh.
Formula One:
Nico Rosberg- 78
Lewis Hamilton- 74
Daniel Ricciardo- 51
Valtteri Bottas- 27
Sebastian Vettel- 24
Fernando Alonso- 23
Jenson Button- 13
Felipe Massa- 10
Nico Hülkenberg- 9
Kevin Magnussen- 7
Sergio Pérez- 6
Kimi Räikkönen- 4
The gap between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton would be much smaller while Daniel Ricciardo would still remain a long shot for the title. With six races remaining, only five drivers would be mathematically eligible for the title with Sebastian Vettel needing to win out, Rosberg to fail to score in the final half dozen races and Hamilton to scoring three points or less in the remainder of the season to win a fifth consecutive title.
NASCAR:
Brad Keselowski- 69*
Jeff Gordon- 59*
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.- 59*
Joey Logano- 51*
Kevin Harvick- 50*
Jimmie Johnson- 48*
Matt Kenseth- 37*
Kyle Busch- 36*
Denny Hamlin- 30*
Carl Edwards- 28*
Kurt Busch- 27*
Kasey Kahne- 17*
Kyle Larson- 17
Clint Bowyer- 16
Aric Almirola- 13*
Brian Vickers- 13
Paul Menard- 13
A.J. Allmendinger- 12*
Greg Biffle- 11*
Marcos Ambrose- 10
Jamie McMurray- 9
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.- 7
Ryan Newman- 6*
Tony Stewart- 5
Casey Mears- 3
Austin Dillon- 2
Martin Truex, Jr.- 1
Danica Patrick- 1
*- 2014 Chase drivers
Brad Keselowski would still be leading the championship after his victory at Richmond. The big shake up would be this year's Chase drivers Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman down in 19th and 23rd respectively. The good news is every driver would be mathematically eligible for the title with ten races to go.
Random Thoughts
After seeing the outside of the Parabolica paved over at Monza and then seeing I believe it was Nico Hülkenberg run wide at Ascari in practice and through the sand trap got me thinking, when they pave over the inside of Ascari, they mind as well bulldoze Monza because the track will have lost all it's character. The only way to save it were to run the combined course with the oval which has not been used by Formula One since 1961.
And dear God, I hope they don't pave over the outside of Lesmos.
Is there a better sight then the sea of fans streaming out on the track at Monza to watch the podium ceremony? It's the one thing I wish we had in the United States. Could you imagine if after the Indianapolis 500, fans streamed out on the front straightaway to celebrate? Of course in the United States, things are much too corporate and God forbid spectators get to do something spectacular and have a once in a lifetime experience.
I was thinking about Richmond last night and if NASCAR really wanted to make it interesting, they should have split the race into two, 200-lap races, one for all the drivers that were locked into the Chase and all the drivers who couldn't qualify for the Chase and the other for the nineteen drivers battling for the final Chase spots. You let the fourteen Chase drivers compete for the three bonus points with the start-and-parks getting their laps in while you have a free-for-all, win-and-you're-in LCQ. If NASCAR is going to do the Chase, they mind as well go all out.
I'd like to congratulate Michael Andretti and Andretti Autosport for becoming the Dale Coyne Racing of Formula E. Less than a week before the season opener and a driver has still yet to be confirmed for their second entry. Franck Montagny will be in their first car. Conor Daly is without a ride. Why not give him a call, Michael?
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Lewis Hamilton and Brad Keselowski but did you know....
Marco Melandri swept the World Superbike weekend at Jerez. Tom Sykes remains championship leader by 31 points over Sylvain Guintoli, 67 points ahead of Jonathan Rea with Melandri trailing by 85 points in fourth.
Dutch rider Michael van der Mark won the World Supersport race and has clinched the title with two races to go. American P.J. Jacobsen finished second at Jerez and sits sixth in the championship, one point outside the top five.
Stoffel Vandoorne and Jolyon Palmer won in GP2 at Monza. Jimmy Eriksson and Dean Stoneman won in GP3. Palmer extended his GP2 championship lead to 43 points over Felipe Nasr. Alex Lynn extended his GP3 championship lead with a sixth and second at Monza to 50 points over Richie Stanaway.
The #84 HTP Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk won the championship race at Portimão in the Blancpain Sprint Series. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Hari Proczyk won the qualifiyng race in the #28 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Gallardo FL2, their fourth win of 2014 in BSS, three of which have been qualifying race. Götz's championship lead over Buhk remains 16 points. Buhk was suspended for the round at the Slovakia Ring. Bleekemolen and Proczyk trail Götz by 23 points in the championship.
Kyle Busch lead all 250 laps in the Nationwide race.
Coming Up This Weekend
The premiere event for Formula E will be on the streets of Beijing Olympic Park.
MotoGP heads to Misano.
Pirelli World Challenge has a season finale doubleheader at Miller Motorsports Park.
NASCAR begins the Chase in Chicago.
V8 Supercars is scheduled to run the Sandown 500, their first of three endurance events.
European Le Mans Series has their penultimate round at Paul Ricard.
After a month off, DTM is off to EuroSpeedway Lausitz
World Rally heads Down Under to Rally Australia.
Super Formula will be at Autopolis.
Stock Car Brasil runs their first of three consecutive rounds in Brazil's southern-most state, Rio Grande do Sul at Velopark.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
The Race Director: Is This What Should Be Focused On?
After three years as IndyCar race director, Beaux Barfield has announced that he will be moving to IMSA and taking over as their race director starting with the penultimate round of the 2014 season at Austin in a fortnight.
Barfield's IndyCar tenure started out tremulous with many complaints and a few mistakes (such as penalizing a driver for jumping an aborted restart). Over the last season and a half, I thought things had generally improve for Barfield not just with consistency in calls but he was becoming more respected with teams and drivers after it appeared they wanted his head from the start. Thinking back to the recently finalized 2014 season, I can't think of one time Barfield individually was chastised for a call. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of times race control was chastised (the St. Petersburg restart, Pagenaud-Power at Long Beach, Aleshin-Rahal at Long Beach, Pagenaud-Power at Belle Isle, Power taking out Newgarden, Wilson and Rahal in Belle Isle 2, Marco Andretti getting the blue flag while running on the lead lap because leader Takuma Sato could not lap him, the whole Toronto weekend more specifically the decision not to race on Saturday in the rain). The complaints were not directed at just Barfield this year, they were directed at race control as a whole as Barfield had Brian Barnhart, Johnny Unser, Arie Luyendyk, Tony Cotman and Jon Beekhuis rotating through race control, helping making calls.
Before this season, I can't recall a time in IndyCar when drivers/teams were calling out race control instead of the individual who was in charge. That is a good thing. More people have paid attention to IndyCar race director than it has ever have deserved. Especially in the time of Brian Barnhart as race director, you had fans living and dying on decisions and getting so worked up that it caused people to stop following the series. Don't get me wrong, there were times people were rightfully upset and Barnhart wasn't infallible (he restarted an oval race in the rain, case closed) but it should never have come to that for IndyCar.
During this past season I was wondering why there has to be one race director? Other sports don't have one official calling every single game. IndyCar already has a president of competition and operations in Derrick Walker so why couldn't IndyCar, instead of having one guy have a rotating set of three or four officials through out the year? IndyCar has already made a step in that direction with aids to the race director but instead of having the position race director be set for every race in the season, have it rotate.
Let's say IndyCar picks Beekhuis, Cotman, Luyendyk and Unser to be their officials for 2015. One week Beekhuis is race director with Cotman and Unser assisting and the next week it's Luyendyk as the race director with Beekhuis and Cotman assisting and so on. I think this would prevent one guy from becoming the series whipping boy. The problem is everyone sees things differently. Hard racing to one is avoidable contact to another. The series has to write in stone what could cause a penalty. There are already rules in place about blocking but contact is a grey area. It could be as easy as saying any contact with another car behind the roll hoop could be substantial enough to warrant a penalty. Then there is the red flag rules. The red flag was used at Indianapolis and Toronto 2 but was not used at Barber, Texas, Houston 1 and Iowa, all races that saw a late caution. I have felt the use of the red flag should only be in place for ovals only and the rule should state that if a caution comes out between five laps to go and fifteen laps to go, a red flag may be used once to clean up an accident.
Now that Barfield is gone I have to ask is who becomes the new race director really worth focusing on? There is plenty of offseason IndyCar has to fill so on the bright side it give the few dwindling fans something to talk about and worked up about but is it really worth it? Whoever becomes the next race director isn't going to bring fans into the series. It's not going to change the general publics perception of the series. It's going to be in one ear, out the other news when it all gets squared away this winter.
If you were to look at IndyCar through the dynamic of a family, the race director position is like paying the bills or find the best retirement plan. That's what the grown ups should focus on. The fans or the kids in this case should worry about drivers and liveries and the schedule. The fun stuff. Don't worry about the grown up stuff, it is out of your control, no pun intended.
Barfield's IndyCar tenure started out tremulous with many complaints and a few mistakes (such as penalizing a driver for jumping an aborted restart). Over the last season and a half, I thought things had generally improve for Barfield not just with consistency in calls but he was becoming more respected with teams and drivers after it appeared they wanted his head from the start. Thinking back to the recently finalized 2014 season, I can't think of one time Barfield individually was chastised for a call. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of times race control was chastised (the St. Petersburg restart, Pagenaud-Power at Long Beach, Aleshin-Rahal at Long Beach, Pagenaud-Power at Belle Isle, Power taking out Newgarden, Wilson and Rahal in Belle Isle 2, Marco Andretti getting the blue flag while running on the lead lap because leader Takuma Sato could not lap him, the whole Toronto weekend more specifically the decision not to race on Saturday in the rain). The complaints were not directed at just Barfield this year, they were directed at race control as a whole as Barfield had Brian Barnhart, Johnny Unser, Arie Luyendyk, Tony Cotman and Jon Beekhuis rotating through race control, helping making calls.
Before this season, I can't recall a time in IndyCar when drivers/teams were calling out race control instead of the individual who was in charge. That is a good thing. More people have paid attention to IndyCar race director than it has ever have deserved. Especially in the time of Brian Barnhart as race director, you had fans living and dying on decisions and getting so worked up that it caused people to stop following the series. Don't get me wrong, there were times people were rightfully upset and Barnhart wasn't infallible (he restarted an oval race in the rain, case closed) but it should never have come to that for IndyCar.
During this past season I was wondering why there has to be one race director? Other sports don't have one official calling every single game. IndyCar already has a president of competition and operations in Derrick Walker so why couldn't IndyCar, instead of having one guy have a rotating set of three or four officials through out the year? IndyCar has already made a step in that direction with aids to the race director but instead of having the position race director be set for every race in the season, have it rotate.
Let's say IndyCar picks Beekhuis, Cotman, Luyendyk and Unser to be their officials for 2015. One week Beekhuis is race director with Cotman and Unser assisting and the next week it's Luyendyk as the race director with Beekhuis and Cotman assisting and so on. I think this would prevent one guy from becoming the series whipping boy. The problem is everyone sees things differently. Hard racing to one is avoidable contact to another. The series has to write in stone what could cause a penalty. There are already rules in place about blocking but contact is a grey area. It could be as easy as saying any contact with another car behind the roll hoop could be substantial enough to warrant a penalty. Then there is the red flag rules. The red flag was used at Indianapolis and Toronto 2 but was not used at Barber, Texas, Houston 1 and Iowa, all races that saw a late caution. I have felt the use of the red flag should only be in place for ovals only and the rule should state that if a caution comes out between five laps to go and fifteen laps to go, a red flag may be used once to clean up an accident.
Now that Barfield is gone I have to ask is who becomes the new race director really worth focusing on? There is plenty of offseason IndyCar has to fill so on the bright side it give the few dwindling fans something to talk about and worked up about but is it really worth it? Whoever becomes the next race director isn't going to bring fans into the series. It's not going to change the general publics perception of the series. It's going to be in one ear, out the other news when it all gets squared away this winter.
If you were to look at IndyCar through the dynamic of a family, the race director position is like paying the bills or find the best retirement plan. That's what the grown ups should focus on. The fans or the kids in this case should worry about drivers and liveries and the schedule. The fun stuff. Don't worry about the grown up stuff, it is out of your control, no pun intended.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Schedule Daydreaming and the Alonso-Webber Incident Revisited
Multiple times I have stated my disdain for scheduling talk because it is mostly speculative yearning for races that have been gone for many years when in reality these races will likely never return in our lifetimes and if they do, our hair will be graying or completely gone. I am very well resigned in the fact Road America, Michigan, Phoenix, Richmond, Loudon, Laguna Seca, Motegi, Watkins Glen, Cleveland and Portland are never ever going to return.
When it comes to street circuits, they are just like women heading to Wilt Chamberlain's apartment. They are here and gone and then a new one enters. Surfers Paradise, São Paulo, Baltimore, Denver and Vancouver are gone and now you hear about places like Boston lining up, wide-eyed looking at the anomalies Monaco, Long Beach and Toronto thinking it is a great idea but when the first bill comes, they will wonder what the hell they were thinking like the 32-year old married man with a kid who went out drinking with his single buddies on a Monday night and paid for it on Tuesday.
Looking at the current crop of IndyCar races, it is actually scheduled pretty well. Other than a few decisions that go against all common sense (Houston the last weekend in June and now won't return in 2015 and likely will never return after a rare third chance and Fontana on Labor Day which appears to be moving somewhere in June, which I guess makes a little more sense in terms of weather but less sense as IndyCar has about seven events wanting one of the four weekends in June), the IndyCar schedule is pretty well structured. Eighteen races in twenty-three weeks, which is really fifteen events because there were three doubleheaders. I will tell you this right now: The pieces between St. Petersburg in March and Sonoma in August don't have to change. A few need to be shifted but altogether it is a respectable schedule.
The IndyCar season does smother fans in it's compaction to five and a half months and once it ends it leaves us disappointed it is gone. Seeing how the powers that be are adamant to end by Labor Day, the only option for schedule expansion is at the beginning of the year. Only problem is racetracks in many regions of the country are surviving the final days of the brutal winter that time of the year and the pleasant weather just after Labor Day with leaves changing color and cider flowing into mugs has been deemed inadequate for IndyCar.
The bookends need slight work and here is how I am going to try and sell it.
Open the season with Fontana the Sunday after the Super Bowl. It gives the series a big kickoff event. You could spend the entire week using the Los Angeles-area as your hub for promotion. The weather is better than Labor Day weekend. Better chance of rain but I'd rather dodge rain drops than risk heat stroke and skin cancer. You could have two days of promotion Tuesday and Wednesday, two days of testing Thursday and Friday before opening the weekend on Saturday and race on Sunday afternoon, noon local time.
Of course Fontana (like most ovals) needs more support series. Bring back Indy Lights to Fontana, see if you can get Pirelli World Challenge to run the roval, call up Robby Gordon to bring Stadium Super Trucks, whatever it takes. Ovals have to provide more on-track action. Heck, run 100-mile qualifiers on the Saturday like they use to for the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway (Of course, 11 car qualifiers on a 2-mile oval would be sparse but the only way to boost the grid to 27-30 total cars is to make the race financially viable to teams. But that's another story). Give the two fans, who are already shelling out $80 for race day a reason to spend $40 for Saturday.
A few issues with Fontana moving to February: The NHRA starts their season at Pomona that time of year, which is about a half hour from Fontana. It would be nice to think since Auto Club sponsors both facilities, something could be worked out to make sure these two events would not be scheduled on the same weekend but you never know what people making at least six figures are thinking at times.
Second issue would be AMA Supercross, who also run that time of year in the Southern California area. Bright side is Supercross races on Saturday nights and if IndyCar runs Sunday, the races wouldn't be happening simultaneously. Now if Supercross is at San Diego that weekend, it would be less of an issue than if it was at Anaheim as San Diego is two hours south from Fontana, an hour further than Anaheim.
After Fontana, tie into the California trip a two-day test, Tuesday and Wednesday at Sonoma. Many teams go out to Sonoma that time of the year already and it gives them some time before the road course portion of the schedule gets started.
Everyone would get the next weekend off as it looks as the teams are going to have to get everything packed up before heading to Dubai and Brasilia. After a trip halfway around the world, a week off to reset the batteries before St. Petersburg. Once again, nothing from St. Petersburg to Sonoma needs to be changed or be added. Maybe make sure Pocono and Iowa have suitable dates and aren't jumping from July to June every season. Other than that, it's fine.
Now that Houston is gone and the Toronto race is moving to Mosport tentatively for a year, will we still have three doubleheaders? If Toronto is returning to Exhibition Place in 2016, then it would makes sense for it to remain a doubleheader but since Houston is gone, does another track get the privilege of hosting two races in a weekend? Or is two doubleheaders enough? I thought three was a good amount but I am not sure if scheduling them so close together is a good idea. You had Belle Isle at the beginning of June, Houston at the end of the month and Toronto three weeks after Houston. Let's not forget to mention Texas, Pocono and Iowa which were all between Belle Isle and Toronto. IndyCar did nine races in two months this season. Is that really practical going forward?
As much I would like a third doubleheader at St. Petersburg or Mid-Ohio or at an oval such as Iowa, I think two is sufficient considering how tightly packed the schedule is at the moment. If they were spread out like they were in 2013, I'd be all for a third doubleheader.
As for season finale, this would be a venue currently not on the IndyCar schedule that the series is going to have to sell on being the season finale. There are so many places which would make fantastic hosts for the season finale. The status quo has been ending the season on an oval since reunification and it was their predecessors IRL's MO to end on an oval. I understand that. Fontana last Saturday night was wide open. One mistake or pit lane speeding penalty and you were behind the 8-ball and in the DW12-era, it's been harder to make up on ovals. With cautions few and far between, when you fall a lap down while serving a penalty, you are likely to stay a lap down.
With that said, I see nothing wrong with ending on a road course, especially because you can tie together all the Road to Indy season finales in with IndyCar. This year, you had all three junior series end at Sonoma while IndyCar had one final excursion to go. Road America and Laguna Seca come to mind. Both are the essence of American road course racing with deep history. You could bring all three Road to Indy series and have Pirelli World Challenge tag along as well.
Then there are the oval options. If Michigan returned with 500 miles, it would turn the Triple Crown into a Grand Slam and Michigan has this mystique with historically great open-wheel racing that has been gone far too long. Problem is Michigan doesn't have lights but they wouldn't be needed with average highs around 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
However, if IndyCar is set on the season finale being a Saturday night race, Michigan is out and the only other oval that makes sense to me would be Kentucky Speedway. With Indiana a hop, skip and a jump away, it would be the next best option in hopes of drawing a decent size crowd on a Saturday night. Would Kentucky be 500 miles though and if it wasn't would it be double points?
It is unprecedented for a mile and a half track to host a 500-mile IndyCar race. All IndyCar 500 milers have been on tracks two miles or larger. If Fontana wasn't double points this year, the championship would have been decided at Sonoma, so that is something to keep in mind. It wouldn't make sense for a Kentucky season finale to be double points if it was only 300 miles while Texas and Iowa at similar distances were still regular point totals. I wouldn't be against Kentucky being 500 miles but we would have to see what the drivers say.
Alonso-Webber Incident Revisited
Let's go back to last year's Singapore Grand Prix. Remember when Mark Webber broke down at the end of the race and caught a ride back to the pit lane from Fernando Alonso?
And Webber was sequentially penalized because it was his third reprimand of the season. At that time, I was against the penalty feeling that Webber shouldn't have been reprimanded. Drivers have been giving other drivers a ride back to the pit lane for decades, why should it be a problem now?
However, today I was thinking about what happened last month with Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward, Jr. I realized we could have been having this conversation about drivers' safety when outside of their vehicle for a year now instead of a month had Webber been hit.
Despite that reality, I still want to see drivers getting lifts back to the pit lane when their car fails them. Here are my premises: Webber's intent was different. He wasn't angrily going after a car, looking to do who knows what. He didn't enter the race track until Kimi Räikkönen and Alonso were nearly at a complete stand still. The lighting is much better. The race was over and cars were going at much slower speeds, however so was Stewart under caution and we know that result.
Don't get me wrong, it is safer for a driver to stay in their car or with track marshals but I still feel, while putting themselves in harms way, drivers getting rides from other drivers is a great sight. It's not be the safest thing in the world but neither is driving at 180 MPH, which they do for a living. I don't want to see motorsports be completely sterilized of danger. It is an inherited part of motorsports and an inherited part of the men and women who participate in it. They are risk takers.
It's going to sound harsh but there times and places to take risks. As a generalization for every form of motorsports, from Formula One to Formula Ford, IndyCar to NASCAR, sports cars to touring cars, MotoGP to flat tracks, dirt tracks or pavement, approaching a moving vehicle is risky but there are times and circumstances when it is a better idea than other. During a race, it isn't a good idea. After the checkered flag has waved and with cool heads, it is still risky but that would be the time and state of mind to do it.
The IndyCar season does smother fans in it's compaction to five and a half months and once it ends it leaves us disappointed it is gone. Seeing how the powers that be are adamant to end by Labor Day, the only option for schedule expansion is at the beginning of the year. Only problem is racetracks in many regions of the country are surviving the final days of the brutal winter that time of the year and the pleasant weather just after Labor Day with leaves changing color and cider flowing into mugs has been deemed inadequate for IndyCar.
The bookends need slight work and here is how I am going to try and sell it.
Open the season with Fontana the Sunday after the Super Bowl. It gives the series a big kickoff event. You could spend the entire week using the Los Angeles-area as your hub for promotion. The weather is better than Labor Day weekend. Better chance of rain but I'd rather dodge rain drops than risk heat stroke and skin cancer. You could have two days of promotion Tuesday and Wednesday, two days of testing Thursday and Friday before opening the weekend on Saturday and race on Sunday afternoon, noon local time.
Of course Fontana (like most ovals) needs more support series. Bring back Indy Lights to Fontana, see if you can get Pirelli World Challenge to run the roval, call up Robby Gordon to bring Stadium Super Trucks, whatever it takes. Ovals have to provide more on-track action. Heck, run 100-mile qualifiers on the Saturday like they use to for the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway (Of course, 11 car qualifiers on a 2-mile oval would be sparse but the only way to boost the grid to 27-30 total cars is to make the race financially viable to teams. But that's another story). Give the two fans, who are already shelling out $80 for race day a reason to spend $40 for Saturday.
A few issues with Fontana moving to February: The NHRA starts their season at Pomona that time of year, which is about a half hour from Fontana. It would be nice to think since Auto Club sponsors both facilities, something could be worked out to make sure these two events would not be scheduled on the same weekend but you never know what people making at least six figures are thinking at times.
Second issue would be AMA Supercross, who also run that time of year in the Southern California area. Bright side is Supercross races on Saturday nights and if IndyCar runs Sunday, the races wouldn't be happening simultaneously. Now if Supercross is at San Diego that weekend, it would be less of an issue than if it was at Anaheim as San Diego is two hours south from Fontana, an hour further than Anaheim.
After Fontana, tie into the California trip a two-day test, Tuesday and Wednesday at Sonoma. Many teams go out to Sonoma that time of the year already and it gives them some time before the road course portion of the schedule gets started.
Everyone would get the next weekend off as it looks as the teams are going to have to get everything packed up before heading to Dubai and Brasilia. After a trip halfway around the world, a week off to reset the batteries before St. Petersburg. Once again, nothing from St. Petersburg to Sonoma needs to be changed or be added. Maybe make sure Pocono and Iowa have suitable dates and aren't jumping from July to June every season. Other than that, it's fine.
Now that Houston is gone and the Toronto race is moving to Mosport tentatively for a year, will we still have three doubleheaders? If Toronto is returning to Exhibition Place in 2016, then it would makes sense for it to remain a doubleheader but since Houston is gone, does another track get the privilege of hosting two races in a weekend? Or is two doubleheaders enough? I thought three was a good amount but I am not sure if scheduling them so close together is a good idea. You had Belle Isle at the beginning of June, Houston at the end of the month and Toronto three weeks after Houston. Let's not forget to mention Texas, Pocono and Iowa which were all between Belle Isle and Toronto. IndyCar did nine races in two months this season. Is that really practical going forward?
As much I would like a third doubleheader at St. Petersburg or Mid-Ohio or at an oval such as Iowa, I think two is sufficient considering how tightly packed the schedule is at the moment. If they were spread out like they were in 2013, I'd be all for a third doubleheader.
As for season finale, this would be a venue currently not on the IndyCar schedule that the series is going to have to sell on being the season finale. There are so many places which would make fantastic hosts for the season finale. The status quo has been ending the season on an oval since reunification and it was their predecessors IRL's MO to end on an oval. I understand that. Fontana last Saturday night was wide open. One mistake or pit lane speeding penalty and you were behind the 8-ball and in the DW12-era, it's been harder to make up on ovals. With cautions few and far between, when you fall a lap down while serving a penalty, you are likely to stay a lap down.
With that said, I see nothing wrong with ending on a road course, especially because you can tie together all the Road to Indy season finales in with IndyCar. This year, you had all three junior series end at Sonoma while IndyCar had one final excursion to go. Road America and Laguna Seca come to mind. Both are the essence of American road course racing with deep history. You could bring all three Road to Indy series and have Pirelli World Challenge tag along as well.
Then there are the oval options. If Michigan returned with 500 miles, it would turn the Triple Crown into a Grand Slam and Michigan has this mystique with historically great open-wheel racing that has been gone far too long. Problem is Michigan doesn't have lights but they wouldn't be needed with average highs around 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
However, if IndyCar is set on the season finale being a Saturday night race, Michigan is out and the only other oval that makes sense to me would be Kentucky Speedway. With Indiana a hop, skip and a jump away, it would be the next best option in hopes of drawing a decent size crowd on a Saturday night. Would Kentucky be 500 miles though and if it wasn't would it be double points?
It is unprecedented for a mile and a half track to host a 500-mile IndyCar race. All IndyCar 500 milers have been on tracks two miles or larger. If Fontana wasn't double points this year, the championship would have been decided at Sonoma, so that is something to keep in mind. It wouldn't make sense for a Kentucky season finale to be double points if it was only 300 miles while Texas and Iowa at similar distances were still regular point totals. I wouldn't be against Kentucky being 500 miles but we would have to see what the drivers say.
Alonso-Webber Incident Revisited
Let's go back to last year's Singapore Grand Prix. Remember when Mark Webber broke down at the end of the race and caught a ride back to the pit lane from Fernando Alonso?
And Webber was sequentially penalized because it was his third reprimand of the season. At that time, I was against the penalty feeling that Webber shouldn't have been reprimanded. Drivers have been giving other drivers a ride back to the pit lane for decades, why should it be a problem now?
However, today I was thinking about what happened last month with Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward, Jr. I realized we could have been having this conversation about drivers' safety when outside of their vehicle for a year now instead of a month had Webber been hit.
Despite that reality, I still want to see drivers getting lifts back to the pit lane when their car fails them. Here are my premises: Webber's intent was different. He wasn't angrily going after a car, looking to do who knows what. He didn't enter the race track until Kimi Räikkönen and Alonso were nearly at a complete stand still. The lighting is much better. The race was over and cars were going at much slower speeds, however so was Stewart under caution and we know that result.
Don't get me wrong, it is safer for a driver to stay in their car or with track marshals but I still feel, while putting themselves in harms way, drivers getting rides from other drivers is a great sight. It's not be the safest thing in the world but neither is driving at 180 MPH, which they do for a living. I don't want to see motorsports be completely sterilized of danger. It is an inherited part of motorsports and an inherited part of the men and women who participate in it. They are risk takers.
It's going to sound harsh but there times and places to take risks. As a generalization for every form of motorsports, from Formula One to Formula Ford, IndyCar to NASCAR, sports cars to touring cars, MotoGP to flat tracks, dirt tracks or pavement, approaching a moving vehicle is risky but there are times and circumstances when it is a better idea than other. During a race, it isn't a good idea. After the checkered flag has waved and with cool heads, it is still risky but that would be the time and state of mind to do it.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Musings From the Weekend: The Summer's Dying Days
We crowned a champion, ran 1000km, went North of the Border and saw Marc Márquez win again this weekend. Labor Day signals the unofficial end to summer as kids start the dog days of school, the weather will start to get brisk, colors change and the next major holiday is Thanksgiving in three months. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Pass of the Year Nominee
Got to start by giving praise to Ryan Blaney and Germán Quiroga for their last lap battle at Mosport on Sunday. I have never seen a NASCAR road course race that close end so cleanly. Normally you see drivers banging into one another, ignoring track limits and it's just too overly aggressive. What Blaney and Quiroga did on the final lap at Mosport was a display of what great racing is. It is respecting your competitor and taking advantage of any opening they give you.
Blaney has been impressive the last three years. From winning in his third start in the Truck Series to a pair of victories in the Nationwide Series to landing the Wood Brothers' Cup ride in 2015. Hopefully Penske hangs on to him like a son of bitch because if he lets him go, he is letting go of a sure winner.
Back to Their Roots
NASCAR is going back to Darlington on Labor Day weekend. Why they ever left, I haven't a clue. No major changes to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The traditional July off weekend moves to June. A few races flop dates. Other than that no major changes.
I want to give NASCAR credit though on the Nationwide Series schedule and not the good kind. They moved the standalone Chicagoland race to the Saturday night of the June off weekend. Road America moves to August when NASCAR takes another week off because there will be five Sundays in August 2015. I find it ironic they moved that race to what will likely be a week after IndyCar at Milwaukee and three weeks after IMSA goes to Road America. I've stated many times series need to have dialogue to avoid over scheduling a market. There is no reason why Wisconsin needs three major races in four weeks. It's disappointing NASCAR would choose to do this. This affects many other series including Pirelli World Challenge who raced at Road America weekend with NASCAR this year. In likelihood, IndyCar will be at Sonoma that weekend and PWC ran with IndyCar at Sonoma last week. So who do they choose to go with in 2015? It's disappointing they are forced to make a choice.
The Truck schedule will see the addition of a race at Atlanta. It's disappointed the Truck Series aren't at Richmond, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Darlington or any of the small, local short tracks such as Memphis, Mansfield, South Boston, etc. that was the backbone for the series for many years.
He's Back
He was hardly gone. Marc Márquez made it 11-for-12 in 2014 with a victory at Silverstone. Another great battle with Jorge Lorenzo while Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso battled for third. Honda's perfect season continues. Márquez and Lorenzo went at it hard. You had slight contact, guys running wide. It wasn't as great their battle last year at Silverstone or Mugello and Barcelona this year but it was still top notch.
Apparently this will be the last race at Silverstone as Circuit of Wales has a five-year contract with a five-year option. I don't see Wales hosting the British Grand Prix. I doubt the track will ever be built. After all, how is the Formula One racing doing at Donnington? Oh, that's right.
Sad News
V8 Supercars will not be returning to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas in 2015. After running there in 2013, the series took a year over after a scheduling conflict with the X Games, which were held in Austin for the first time in the events history.
Sad to see V8SC go but I never thought the series was going to catch a big following in the United States. The races are held at rough hours for most of the United States (reasonable hours if you live in Hawai'i or Alaska). When the event was first announced, I thought it would be similar to the Surfers Paradise race which featured two 300km races with a slew of international drivers from IndyCar, sports cars and touring cars pairing with season regulars. I think if they had done that with the American series and had IndyCar, NASCAR and IMSA drivers pairing up, the events would have had a chance to be really successful but you'd have to run the V8SC races early in the year to avoid scheduling conflicts. Hopefully the series returns in the States in the near future. I think they would put on a great show at Laguna Seca.
Got To End On A Good Note
We can't end with a story like that. It's too depressing and it's a holiday. You can't be sad on holidays. To end on a positive, let's all wish former IndyCar driver and current Sauber reserve driver Simona de Silvestro who turns 26 years old today. She left IndyCar on a high note with five consecutive top fives including a career best second place finish at Houston and her first career top ten finish on an oval at Fontana. I think de Silvestro's birthday is enough of a reason to get some cake and schnapps for ourselves.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Tony Kanaan and Will Power becoming IndyCar champion, Marc Márquez and Ryan Blaney but did you know...
Kasey Kahne won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta.
Esteve Rabat won his second consecutive Moto2 race at Silverstone. Álex Rins won his first race of the Moto3 season.
Kazuki Nakajima and James Rossiter won the Suzuka 1000km. It was Lexus' first victory in the event since 2009. The BMW Z4 GT3 of Akira Iida and Hiroki Yoshimoto won in GT300.
OAK Racing is 2-for-2 in the 2014 Asian Le Mans Series season. David Cheng, Ho-Pin Tung and Keiko Ihara were the overall winners at Fuji. In GT, the BMW Z4 of Team AAI of Jun San Chen, Tatsuya Tanigawa and Carlo van Dam were the winners. In the CN class, the Craft-Bamboo Racing Ligier JS 53 Evo of Mathias Beche, Kevin Tse and Samson Chan were the victors.
Daniel Serra and Ricardo Maurício split the Stock Car Brasil weekend at Curitiba.
Kevin Harvick won the Nationwide race at Atlanta.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One heads to Monza.
NASCAR has their final race before the Chase at Richmond.
Blancpain Sprint Series is heading to Algarve, Portugal.
World Superbike is back in action at Jerez.
Pass of the Year Nominee
Got to start by giving praise to Ryan Blaney and Germán Quiroga for their last lap battle at Mosport on Sunday. I have never seen a NASCAR road course race that close end so cleanly. Normally you see drivers banging into one another, ignoring track limits and it's just too overly aggressive. What Blaney and Quiroga did on the final lap at Mosport was a display of what great racing is. It is respecting your competitor and taking advantage of any opening they give you.
Blaney has been impressive the last three years. From winning in his third start in the Truck Series to a pair of victories in the Nationwide Series to landing the Wood Brothers' Cup ride in 2015. Hopefully Penske hangs on to him like a son of bitch because if he lets him go, he is letting go of a sure winner.
Back to Their Roots
NASCAR is going back to Darlington on Labor Day weekend. Why they ever left, I haven't a clue. No major changes to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The traditional July off weekend moves to June. A few races flop dates. Other than that no major changes.
I want to give NASCAR credit though on the Nationwide Series schedule and not the good kind. They moved the standalone Chicagoland race to the Saturday night of the June off weekend. Road America moves to August when NASCAR takes another week off because there will be five Sundays in August 2015. I find it ironic they moved that race to what will likely be a week after IndyCar at Milwaukee and three weeks after IMSA goes to Road America. I've stated many times series need to have dialogue to avoid over scheduling a market. There is no reason why Wisconsin needs three major races in four weeks. It's disappointing NASCAR would choose to do this. This affects many other series including Pirelli World Challenge who raced at Road America weekend with NASCAR this year. In likelihood, IndyCar will be at Sonoma that weekend and PWC ran with IndyCar at Sonoma last week. So who do they choose to go with in 2015? It's disappointing they are forced to make a choice.
The Truck schedule will see the addition of a race at Atlanta. It's disappointed the Truck Series aren't at Richmond, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Darlington or any of the small, local short tracks such as Memphis, Mansfield, South Boston, etc. that was the backbone for the series for many years.
He's Back
He was hardly gone. Marc Márquez made it 11-for-12 in 2014 with a victory at Silverstone. Another great battle with Jorge Lorenzo while Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso battled for third. Honda's perfect season continues. Márquez and Lorenzo went at it hard. You had slight contact, guys running wide. It wasn't as great their battle last year at Silverstone or Mugello and Barcelona this year but it was still top notch.
Apparently this will be the last race at Silverstone as Circuit of Wales has a five-year contract with a five-year option. I don't see Wales hosting the British Grand Prix. I doubt the track will ever be built. After all, how is the Formula One racing doing at Donnington? Oh, that's right.
Sad News
V8 Supercars will not be returning to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas in 2015. After running there in 2013, the series took a year over after a scheduling conflict with the X Games, which were held in Austin for the first time in the events history.
Sad to see V8SC go but I never thought the series was going to catch a big following in the United States. The races are held at rough hours for most of the United States (reasonable hours if you live in Hawai'i or Alaska). When the event was first announced, I thought it would be similar to the Surfers Paradise race which featured two 300km races with a slew of international drivers from IndyCar, sports cars and touring cars pairing with season regulars. I think if they had done that with the American series and had IndyCar, NASCAR and IMSA drivers pairing up, the events would have had a chance to be really successful but you'd have to run the V8SC races early in the year to avoid scheduling conflicts. Hopefully the series returns in the States in the near future. I think they would put on a great show at Laguna Seca.
Got To End On A Good Note
We can't end with a story like that. It's too depressing and it's a holiday. You can't be sad on holidays. To end on a positive, let's all wish former IndyCar driver and current Sauber reserve driver Simona de Silvestro who turns 26 years old today. She left IndyCar on a high note with five consecutive top fives including a career best second place finish at Houston and her first career top ten finish on an oval at Fontana. I think de Silvestro's birthday is enough of a reason to get some cake and schnapps for ourselves.
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| Happy Birthday Simona! |
You know about Tony Kanaan and Will Power becoming IndyCar champion, Marc Márquez and Ryan Blaney but did you know...
Kasey Kahne won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta.
Esteve Rabat won his second consecutive Moto2 race at Silverstone. Álex Rins won his first race of the Moto3 season.
Kazuki Nakajima and James Rossiter won the Suzuka 1000km. It was Lexus' first victory in the event since 2009. The BMW Z4 GT3 of Akira Iida and Hiroki Yoshimoto won in GT300.
OAK Racing is 2-for-2 in the 2014 Asian Le Mans Series season. David Cheng, Ho-Pin Tung and Keiko Ihara were the overall winners at Fuji. In GT, the BMW Z4 of Team AAI of Jun San Chen, Tatsuya Tanigawa and Carlo van Dam were the winners. In the CN class, the Craft-Bamboo Racing Ligier JS 53 Evo of Mathias Beche, Kevin Tse and Samson Chan were the victors.
Daniel Serra and Ricardo Maurício split the Stock Car Brasil weekend at Curitiba.
Kevin Harvick won the Nationwide race at Atlanta.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One heads to Monza.
NASCAR has their final race before the Chase at Richmond.
Blancpain Sprint Series is heading to Algarve, Portugal.
World Superbike is back in action at Jerez.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Second Impressions: Fontana and the 2014 IndyCar Season
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| The season that was IndyCar in 2014 |
1. I'm not sure you can find any complaints about with Will Power's season. Unlike previous seasons where Power would win five or six races but have three or four costly races, this year Power had three wins, led IndyCar in podiums, top tens, pole positions, races led, laps led and average finish. His one bad weekend was Houston but his worst finish all season was fourteenth. He began the season with eight consecutive top tens and ended it with six consecutive top tens. On the weekends Power struggled, his championship contenders also faltered, which is complete opposite from when Power was battling with Franchitti for the title and Franchitti would always capitalize if Power slipped. Despite a slew of penalties for pit lane violations or blocking, Power was able to recover when times got tough and finally took home a championship.
2. To peg where Hélio Castroneves lost the title, all you have to do is look at the final five races. He finished second in race one at Toronto and held a 28-point lead over Power going into race two. Since that podium, the Brazilian finished twelfth, nineteenth, eleventh, eighteenth and fourteenth. He lost the second-most positions from starting position in 2014, losing 66 positions. Only James Hinchcliffe lost more at -75. Add to the fact Castroneves only picked up one victory for the second consecutive year. Winning one race isn't going to be enough. The last driver to win a championship with one victory or fewer was Tony Stewart in 1997 and the last driver to win the title with two or fewer victories was Gil de Ferran in 2001. If you want to win the title, you are going to need at least three wins, something Castroneves hasn't done since 2006.
3. Nobody was on more of a roll at the end of 2014 than Scott Dixon. Eight consecutive top tens, seven of which were top fives. Even better for Dixon was out of his twelve top tens, he had eleven top fives, most in the 2014 IndyCar season. He had a terrible month of May and a terrible Houston weekend. If he corrects those two weak spots from 2014, he will be in contention for his fourth title in 2015.
4. Fourth is fantastic for Juan Pablo Montoya in his comeback season to IndyCar. He still struggles on street circuits. He entered 2014 with an career average finish of 15.5 on street circuits and his average street circuit finish in 2014 was 11.25 with a second at Houston 1 and fourth at Long Beach being his best finishes. Montoya won the 2014 oval championship. I know they don't hand out the trophy anymore but he scored the most points on ovals. Let's not forget to mention Castroneves and Power scored the second and third most points on ovals. Penske will have that going for them in 2015.
5. Simon Pagenaud rarely put a wheel wrong in 2014, which makes it surprising that he barely finished in the top five of the championship. He finished tied for second in top fives and top tens in 2014. The double points caught him out last night as he struggled with the car's handling all night. He scored the second most points on road/street circuits in 2014 but scored the eleventh most points on ovals, despite averaging a 10th place finish in the six races and scoring three top tens on ovals. He is a free agent and we know Andretti Autosport is reportedly going to try and sign the Frenchman away from Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports. If he does leave SPHM, will that be enough to get him the championship?
6. Does winning the Indianapolis 500 make sixth in the championship automatically feel like a secondary championship for Ryan Hunter-Reay? He missed out on fifth in the championship by two points after his spin while running third. Ultimately, if I offered fifth in the championship or winning the Indianapolis 500 and finishing sixth, I think we all know what we would take. If he didn't spin, I definitely think Hunter-Reay would have brought the fight to Kanaan for the victory. He won three races, including the Indianapolis 500 but you have to think Hunter-Reay left a lot on the table. He had six top fives but had six finishes of 18th or worse. Some of those poor finishes were of his doing (Long Beach, both Belle Isle race), others were mechanical (Texas, Pocono, Milwaukee) but if he can turn those dismal races that were of his own doing into top ten, he will be a championship contender in 2015.
7. Ending the season with a victory can sometimes erase all the previous let downs in a season and I think Tony Kanaan's victory does that in some sense. Outside of being caught up in an accident not of his doing at Long Beach, a gearbox issue in the "500" and a first turn spin at Mid-Ohio, Kanaan had a really good year. He had a few races get away from, Pocono and Iowa come to mind but overall, it was a really good year for Kanaan. Finishing seventh in the championship isn't that bad in this current era for IndyCar. This isn't 2005 or 2006 where there were 19 full-time cars. The field is full to the brim with talent, both young and old.
8. Rookie of the Year Carlos Muñoz finished eighth in the championship, the second best Andretti Autosport driver. I think the expectations were outstandingly higher for Muñoz entering this season than all the other rookies because of what he did in three cameos in 2013. He showed signs of being a rookie. There were a few races where he was just completely out of it (Texas and both Toronto races) and that will happen when you are 22 years old. Once again, he is 22 years old. I bet you thought he was older than that. Not a bad start for the Colombian. I think he will make a stride in the right direction in 2015.
8b. Ed Carpenter Racing finished eighth in the entrant's championship behind three combined victories from Ed Carpenter and Mike Conway. This is what I expected out of the British-American duo. Carpenter had four top tens in six races, including his victory at Texas while Conway picked up victories at Long Beach and Toronto 2. However, Conway's two victories were his only top tens of the season and his next best finish was thirteenth (Houston 2 and Mid-Ohio). Conway scored the eleventh most points on road courses while Carpenter scored ten more points than Conway in half of the amount of races. I am not sure if Conway could get away with checkers or wreckers but unless Carpenter wanted to go for the entrant's championship, I am sure he is happy with Conway's results. The question is will Conway return? He is a Toyota reserve driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship and with rumors current Toyota drivers Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi have been approached by Nissan for 2015, he might be in position to land a prime seat for a world championship and Le Mans victory. If Conway does leave, can Carpenter find a driver capable of duplicating his results in 2015?
9. I feel bad for Marco Andretti because unless he wins the Indianapolis 500 or the championship each year everyone will say he only has a ride because of his family. Let's ignore the fact he had as many top tens as Ryan Hunter-Reay and Juan Pablo Montoya this season and more than Muñoz, James Hinchcliffe, Sébastien Bourdais, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and Jack Hawksworth. Don't get me wrong, winning races is crucial but let's recognize Andretti for his ability to be able to bring a car home in one piece toward the front of the field. He is 27 years old. When Will Power was 27 years old he had only two victories to his name and his best championship finish was fourth. Andretti has two victories to his name and his best championship finish is fifth. There is plenty of time left in Andretti's career. Plenty of time.
10. It took nearly seven years for Sébastien Bourdais to get his 32nd victory in IndyCar but he finally got it at Toronto 1. Looking at his results, you feel like Bourdais left a lot on table. Five top fives and seven top tens along with two pole positions but he had six finishes between eleventh and fifteenth. Got to give him and KV Racing credit though considering KV lost Kanaan, to bounce back with tenth in the driver's championship is respectable.
11. Ryan Briscoe's can be summed up like this: Good but not great. Ten top tens and the seventh best average finish but only one top five and led five laps. He finished tied with Bourdais for tenth in the championship but loses the tiebreaker on total victories (Bourdais' 1 to Briscoe's 0). Most races I would see Briscoe in the back half of the top ten but make nothing of it because he wasn't making waves and wasn't a threat to make waves. He is a talented driver but can he improve and become a factor in 2015?
12. James Hinchcliffe ended on a much needed high note with his fifth place finish at Fontana. This was a rough season for the Canadian. Third best average starting position but tied for the twelfth best average finish. If he can continue his qualifying success in 2015 and stay up front, he will be in up there with Power, Castroneves, Dixon, Montoya, Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay battling for a championship instead of on the edge of the back half of the field.
13. Josef Newgarden ended strong with three consecutive top tens to close out the 2014 season. The expectations should be to score a victory with the merged Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing in 2015. He started nine races in the top ten in 2014, seven of those were top five starts. He has the speed, he will be getting at least one, maybe two teammates and possibly will be moving over to Chevrolet, the manufacture that won the final six race in 2014 and twelve of eighteen.
14. This year was a step back for Justin Wilson. After finishing sixth in 2013, the Sheffield-native finished fourteenth this year. Only one top five and seven top tens, which is a respectable amount but he was never in contention for a victory, unlike last year. I am going to write this off as one bad year but if he can't turn it around in 2015, Wilson will officially be on the back nine of his career and the clock will be ticking before a full-time ride will no longer be available. It's a sad thought considering Wilson is one of the nicest and most respected drivers on the grid.
15. For someone who averaged a starting position of 16.411, it is a little surprising Charlie Kimball scored ten top ten finishes. He ended 2014 on a little slump with twelfth place last night at Fontana being his best finish in the final three races. If he can improve on qualifying, he will be in better position in races and should improve on his championship position.
16. Not a bad season for Jack Hawksworth. His highlights were really good runs at St. Petersburg and Long Beach but was taken out in accidents out of his control in each race. He ran really well on the IMS road course and at Houston. He struggled on ovals and that wasn't unexpected. On the bright side he did get a top ten on an oval with a tenth place finish at Milwaukee. I really hope he returns with Bryan Herta Autosport in 2015.
17. Another guy I hope returns in 2015 is Mikhail Aleshin. His massive accident at Fontana aside, Aleshin impressed me the most out of all the rookie. I had seen Muñoz and Hawksworth run Indy Lights and knew what was coming but Aleshin was a little unknown. Other than his 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 title where he beat current Red Bull F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo and current Porsche LMP1 driver Brendon Hartley he really hadn't done much. He was stuck in the European ladder system and was having difficulty replicating the results of that 2010 season on a regular basis. He comes to IndyCar and scores a podium at Houston 2, along with seven top tens, three of which came on ovals, which he had never run before this year. He was immediately labelled a ride buyer or F1 reject but I think we unfairly label those from European backgrounds. There are plenty of talented drivers who don't catch a break. It doesn't mean they aren't good enough, it just means they are overlooked and Aleshin was one that that fell into IndyCar's lap at Formula One's expense.
18. Takuma Sato ended 2014 with consecutive top tens but does it erase the fact he had ten finishes of 18th or worse? He won two pole positions but we know he has the speed, he just lacks the consistency. Will AJ Foyt Racing put up with another year of three or four good finishes in return for a plethora of disappointing races? Honda has been loyal to Sato for years making sure he had a ride somewhere but if I was Foyt, I would want something more in return. Preferably funding for a second car to give a promising driver a shot in decent equipment.
19. After struggling to land the National Guard sponsorship at the start of 2014, Graham Rahal and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing struggled all season and now will struggle even more as their $12 million budget is gone and the search is on for funding. A second place in Belle Isle 1 and fifth at their home race at Mid-Ohio as all they have to show for in 2014. You have to feel for all involved. You want to believe it can't get any worse but it continues to go downhill. I hate to say it but Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is the worst team on the IndyCar grid.
20. My jaw is still on the floor that Carlos Huertas won a race this year. Now sure he would have won had Graham Rahal not run over Tony Kanaan at the end of Houston 1 and the race gone green at the end or if Huertas had a legal fuel cell, but we'll never know. Huertas was never a moving chicane and other than this past weekend at Fontana, he never looked out of place on ovals. Three top tens is more than I expected out of him and I would like to see him get a second season to see if he can improve.
21. Sebastián Saavedra's career had so much promise five years ago. Now it will be head scratching if he remains on the grid in 2015. Why Gary Peterson supports Saavedra with his Automatic Fire Sprinklers sponsorship over JR Hildebrand or another young American such as Conor Daly or Sage Karam is beyond me. Saavedra has only 16 lead lap finishes in 56 starts, only one lead lap finish has been on an oval (this year's Indianapolis 500). One top ten is all Saavedra has to show for in 2014 with a pole position on the IMS road course that lasted all of less than a foot as he stalled on the grid and was then run over from behind.
Fun Facts From 2014
Will Power completed all but one of the 2395 laps run in 2014.
Carlos Muñoz and Charlie Kimball are the only full-time drivers who did not lead a lap in 2014.
There were 66 cautions for 323 of 2395 laps in 2014, meaning the pace car led 13.48% of all the laps run in 2014. On average there were 3.666 cautions for 17.94 laps a race in 2014.
There were eleven different winners in 2014, tying the 2000 and 2001 CART seasons for most different winners in a season.
Of the eleven different winners in 2014, three won in either or both 2000 or 2001. Juan Pablo Montoya won three races in 2000 (Milwaukee, Michigan and Gateway). Scott Dixon won one race in 2001, his first career victory his third start at Nazareth. Hélio Castroneves is the only won of the three to win in both 2000 and 2001. He picked up three victories in 2000 including his first career victory at Belle Isle followed by wins at Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca. He would go on to win three races in 2001 (Long Beach, Belle Isle and Mid-Ohio).
The average starting position for a winner in 2014 was 8.444.
The average amount of lead change for a race in 2014 was 9.777.
The average amount of laps lead for a winner in 2014 was 46.388.
The pole-sitter won three times in 2014 (Juan Pablo Montoya at Pocono, Sébastien Bourdais at Toronto 1 and Will Power at Milwaukee).
The driver who led the most laps won seven times in 2014 (Will Power at St. Petersburg and Milwaukee, Ryan Hunter-Reay at Barber and Indianapolis, Hélio Castroneves at Belle Isle 2, Sébastien Bourdais at Toronto 1 and Scott Dixon at Mid-Ohio).
The driver who set fastest lap in race won twice in 2014 (Power at St. Petersburg and Simon Pagenaud at Houston 2).
A Few Thoughts to End On
Honda has to step up their game. Only six wins out of eighteen races? Not to mention Chevrolet ending on six consecutive victories and a third consecutive manufactures' championship. Let's not forget Honda ran 12 cars at every race while Chevrolet had 10. They are going to figure out a way to take down the Bowtie Brigade.
Time is now ticking for a third engine manufacture to enter for 2016. If it's going to happen it has to been announced a year in advance, so if we don't hear anything by March 2015, it probably won't happen. We've all heard Cosworth is working on something but until it happens it doesn't really matter.
Many rides are unknown. Will Pagenaud head to Andretti, stay with SPHM or leave IndyCar altogether? Will Hinchcliffe have his option picked up? Does Gabby Chaves pick up a ride? What other rookies could be on the 2015 grid? Does Aleshin return? A lot of balls still up in the air.
Aero kits are coming. They should be unveiled this fall. At least we have that to look forward to.
Schedule news for 2015: No Houston, looks like Toronto will take place at Mosport for one year before heading back to Exhibition Place. Another thing to look forward to this autumn.
We also have the new Indy Lights car to look forward to.
I believe we already know the ABC races for 2015: Long Beach, Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500 and Belle Isle. Not to forget mentioning Indianapolis 500 qualifying will be covered by ABC.
Now on to the offseason. However long that may be.
First Impressions: Fontana 2014
1. Will Power has finally won the IndyCar championship. He did it by playing it smart in the final race. He didn't panic. He didn't try to stand the car on it's bloody ear. He drove an intelligent and safe race and methodically worked his way toward the front. Three victories, seven podiums, eight top fives, fifteen top tens and four pole positions for Power in 2014. After so much heart break, Power finally joins the ranks of Foyt, Andretti, Unser, Mears, Mansell, Zanardi, Hornish, Bourdais, Franchitti, Dixon and Hunter-Reay as IndyCar champion.
2. Tony Kanaan picked up his first victory with Ganassi Racing and his seventeenth career victory. It was an up and down year for Kanaan. He very well could have won three or four races in 2014 but at least he got one. He became the eleventh different winner in 2014 meaning this season ties 2000 and 2001 for most different winners in a season. IndyCar is in one of it's most competitive eras, now if only people can acknowledge that.
3. Second place vaulted Scott Dixon to third in the championship. After winning a title, anything but a repeat is a disappointed. Dixon ended 2014 strong, similar to Power ending 2013 on a very high note. Ganassi won three races in the month of August after not winning any from March through July. Let's see how they carry this momentum to 2015.
4. Ed Carpenter comes home in third and the #20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet comes home 8th place in the entrant championship. A very great season for Carpenter and Mike Conway. With the team merging with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in 2014, you wonder if they can possibly better three victories and the Indianapolis 500 pole position. We'll have to wait and see.
5. Juan Pablo Montoya ends his return season in IndyCar in fourth place in the race and the championship. This is by far better than I thought Montoya would do. I expected him to be around tenth, a few top fives and that's it but he had a jaw-dropping comeback to open-wheel racing.
6. James Hinchcliffe got the result he needed to end 2014. A fifth-place finish. Hopefully the Canadian can take this result and turn it into momentum for 2015. After three victories last year, one podium is a big disappointment and he will finished twelfth in the championship.
7. At the beginning of the year I though Takuma Sato would be fired before we reached Fontana. He wasn't and finished sixth, a week after finishing fourth at Sonoma. I'm not sure if Sato is ever going to be the guy, especially since he is 37 years old. He ended 2014 with two really good results but come 2015 he could be back to a pair of 17th place finishes despite possibly being one of the fastest five drivers on the track.
8. Ryan Briscoe's season ends with a seventh place finish. Ten top tens for Briscoe but only one top five in 2014. Briscoe is a decent driver but he needs to take that next step, especially when Kanaan and Dixon are finishing first and second.
9. Carlos Muñoz captures the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year by finishing eighth in the championship with a eighth place finish in the race. He didn't win but he held his own with his veteran teammates. This wasn't unexpected considering what he did in one-offs last year and the team he is with.
10. A top ten for Josef Newgarden to round out the year. He will be entering his fourth season in 2015 and with SFHR merging with ECR, the expectations should go up for the Tennessean. He will have full-time teammates, more resources and possibly be driving a Chevrolet, which won the final six races in 2014. All the pieces are in place for him to break into victory lane in 2015, he just has to talk advantage and seize the day.
11. Marco Andretti misses out on a top ten in the race but finishes ninth in the championship. I am sure he expected more after finishing fifth in the championship last year. I think Andretti Autosport and Honda will all be going to the drawing board to figure out what they have to improve on after being outscored 12-6 in the win column.
12. Hélio Castroneves drove an Hélio Castroneves-type season. He's not going to win four or five races. He isn't going to dominant week in and week out. He is going to finish fourth, fifth or sixth and bring the car home in one piece. Will that be enough to ever get Castroneves a championship though? Let's not forget to mention he ended 2014 with five consecutive finishes outside the top ten.
13. It wasn't Simon Pagenaud's night. He dealt with handling issues all night and finished twentieth. It was a great season for Pagenaud, unfortunately he will finish fifth in the final championship standings. He is still a free agent. Will he stay or will he go. He has made Schmidt Peterson Hamitlon a formidable championship contender and if you throw in Ed Carpenter's team, those team each have shown they have what it takes to compete with the big three.
14. Remember last year when nine cars finished and only five were on the lead lap? This year, 20 cars finished and ten were on the lead lap. The lone retirement was Carlos Huertas for driver illness (to be honest, I think he was out of his comfort zone, did 21 laps and ended his season early). Got to give Chevrolet, Honda and the teams credit after the attrition last year. Also note, one caution tonight for a simple spin by Ryan Hunter-Reay who did a great job keeping the car from hitting anything. Only 18 cautions on ovals in 2014
15. Look for a full recap of yesterday and the IndyCar season tomorrow. Look for team-by-team reviews in the days to come. It's nearly 2:00 a.m. ET. Congratulations Will Power. Congratulations Roger Penske. Congratulations IndyCar. It was a great season. I am sad it had to end so soon.
2. Tony Kanaan picked up his first victory with Ganassi Racing and his seventeenth career victory. It was an up and down year for Kanaan. He very well could have won three or four races in 2014 but at least he got one. He became the eleventh different winner in 2014 meaning this season ties 2000 and 2001 for most different winners in a season. IndyCar is in one of it's most competitive eras, now if only people can acknowledge that.
3. Second place vaulted Scott Dixon to third in the championship. After winning a title, anything but a repeat is a disappointed. Dixon ended 2014 strong, similar to Power ending 2013 on a very high note. Ganassi won three races in the month of August after not winning any from March through July. Let's see how they carry this momentum to 2015.
4. Ed Carpenter comes home in third and the #20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet comes home 8th place in the entrant championship. A very great season for Carpenter and Mike Conway. With the team merging with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in 2014, you wonder if they can possibly better three victories and the Indianapolis 500 pole position. We'll have to wait and see.
5. Juan Pablo Montoya ends his return season in IndyCar in fourth place in the race and the championship. This is by far better than I thought Montoya would do. I expected him to be around tenth, a few top fives and that's it but he had a jaw-dropping comeback to open-wheel racing.
6. James Hinchcliffe got the result he needed to end 2014. A fifth-place finish. Hopefully the Canadian can take this result and turn it into momentum for 2015. After three victories last year, one podium is a big disappointment and he will finished twelfth in the championship.
7. At the beginning of the year I though Takuma Sato would be fired before we reached Fontana. He wasn't and finished sixth, a week after finishing fourth at Sonoma. I'm not sure if Sato is ever going to be the guy, especially since he is 37 years old. He ended 2014 with two really good results but come 2015 he could be back to a pair of 17th place finishes despite possibly being one of the fastest five drivers on the track.
8. Ryan Briscoe's season ends with a seventh place finish. Ten top tens for Briscoe but only one top five in 2014. Briscoe is a decent driver but he needs to take that next step, especially when Kanaan and Dixon are finishing first and second.
9. Carlos Muñoz captures the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year by finishing eighth in the championship with a eighth place finish in the race. He didn't win but he held his own with his veteran teammates. This wasn't unexpected considering what he did in one-offs last year and the team he is with.
10. A top ten for Josef Newgarden to round out the year. He will be entering his fourth season in 2015 and with SFHR merging with ECR, the expectations should go up for the Tennessean. He will have full-time teammates, more resources and possibly be driving a Chevrolet, which won the final six races in 2014. All the pieces are in place for him to break into victory lane in 2015, he just has to talk advantage and seize the day.
11. Marco Andretti misses out on a top ten in the race but finishes ninth in the championship. I am sure he expected more after finishing fifth in the championship last year. I think Andretti Autosport and Honda will all be going to the drawing board to figure out what they have to improve on after being outscored 12-6 in the win column.
12. Hélio Castroneves drove an Hélio Castroneves-type season. He's not going to win four or five races. He isn't going to dominant week in and week out. He is going to finish fourth, fifth or sixth and bring the car home in one piece. Will that be enough to ever get Castroneves a championship though? Let's not forget to mention he ended 2014 with five consecutive finishes outside the top ten.
13. It wasn't Simon Pagenaud's night. He dealt with handling issues all night and finished twentieth. It was a great season for Pagenaud, unfortunately he will finish fifth in the final championship standings. He is still a free agent. Will he stay or will he go. He has made Schmidt Peterson Hamitlon a formidable championship contender and if you throw in Ed Carpenter's team, those team each have shown they have what it takes to compete with the big three.
14. Remember last year when nine cars finished and only five were on the lead lap? This year, 20 cars finished and ten were on the lead lap. The lone retirement was Carlos Huertas for driver illness (to be honest, I think he was out of his comfort zone, did 21 laps and ended his season early). Got to give Chevrolet, Honda and the teams credit after the attrition last year. Also note, one caution tonight for a simple spin by Ryan Hunter-Reay who did a great job keeping the car from hitting anything. Only 18 cautions on ovals in 2014
15. Look for a full recap of yesterday and the IndyCar season tomorrow. Look for team-by-team reviews in the days to come. It's nearly 2:00 a.m. ET. Congratulations Will Power. Congratulations Roger Penske. Congratulations IndyCar. It was a great season. I am sad it had to end so soon.
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