Healing Process - Real Unification Still a Long Way to Go

By KEVIN MA

If you think the IRL-Champ Car unification is completed after Graham Rahal's victory at St. Petersburg, think again.

After two rounds of racing, it's IRL 1:ex-Champ Car 1. Rahal's victory in the rain-shortened Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg proved to be a stepping-stone for all former Champ Car teams. Besides Rahal's victory, the fact that most Champ Car teams ran competitively on the street course (Ernesto Viso, Enrique Bernoldi, Oriol Servia, Will Power and Justin Wilson all finished in the top 10) was a great news for IndyCar boss Tony George.

But wait a second. We really need to look deeper at the stats. The changing race condition really favored the Champ Car teams. The IRL teams ran 14 road/street races in the past three years, while the Champ Car teams ran 14 road course races last year alone. Moreover, it was the first wet race for IRL teams/drivers for a long long time. You do the math.

And the winning team was Newman/Haas/Lanigan -- the grand daddy of Champ Car teams who powered Sebastien Bourdais back-to-back-to-back-to-back Champ Car championships. Go figure.

Regardless, a Rahal won a race, and it was a good way to kickoff the pre-Indy 500 marketing campaigns before the month of May. Now you have the next generation of racers in the field – Macro Andretti, Rahal, AJ Foyt IV, you just need to add an Unser and a Luydendyk in the Indy 500 this year. Yes, they're trying. Even though both Al Unser III and Arie Luydendyk Jr. are not as good as their counterparts (they’re mediocre in Indy Lights), I'm sure TG and company still want them to be up there to drum up the 500.

So when is the unification going to be “completed”? Not until the field is well balanced. Looking back at the season opener at Homestead -- an oval race. No matter how you spin it the results weren't pretty, as all Champ Car teams finished at least five laps down in the race. Inexperience was an excuse as drivers such as Bruno Junqueira and Servia raced on ovals many times back in the CART days, and their pace were still way off.

When the Champ Car teams are in the mix on ovals, then we could call it "unification". It can come as early as the Indy 500, especially the fact that both Newman/Haas/Lanigan and Conquest raced at Indy recently. We shall see.

Regardless, IndyCar is moving to the right direction. After 12 years of separation we're pretty much back to square one, with the exception that TG has all the power to control one series (IRL, not CART). And remember the reasons why the IRL was formed? Well, forget what George said back then. It's not going to be an oval-bias, American drivers focus series as we’re moving back to the CART days in order to compete with Nascar. As long as open-wheel racing back to its glory days, who cares?

Champ Car Series Finale - Grand Prix of Long Beach Entry List:

Conquest: Franck Perera, Enrique Bernoldi
Dale Coyne: Bruno Junqueira, Mario Moraes
Forsythe: Paul Tracy, Franck Montagny, David Martinez
HVM Minardi: Ernesto Viso, Nelson Philippe, Roberto Moreno
KVRT: Will Power, Oriol Servia, Jimmy Vasser
Newman/Haas/Lanigan: Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal
Pacific Coast: Mario Dominguez, Alex Figge
Rocketsports: Antonio Pizzonia, Juho Annala
Walker: Alex Tagliani

Honda Indy Japan 300 Entry List:

AGR: Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Hideki Mutoh
Beck: Roger Yasukawa
Dreyer & Reinbold: Buddy Rice, Townsend Bell
Foyt: Darren Manning
Ganassi: Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon
Panther: Vitor Meira
Penske: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe
Rahal Letterman: Ryan Hunter-Reay
Roth: Jay Howard, Marty Roth
Vision: Ed Carpenter, AJ Foyt IV

NASCAR - SUB-WAY

Two past champions, one popular veteran and one promising rookie, Greg Biffle was certainly not the guy under the spotlight in the Roush camp before the 2005 season. His stock, however, went up substantially with his three victories entering the MBNA RacePoints 400 at the Monster-Mile in Dover. On Sunday, the Washington State native earned some more RacePoints by taking his series-high fourth victory of the season, and positioned himself just 46 points behind series points leader Jimmie Johnson.

Despite his fourth victory and a post race wreck during his celebration, Biffle still didn’t put himself over the top.

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart -- two past champions who came to the series with similar racing backgrounds, clashed again during the early laps at Dover International. Stewart, who tapped Gordon from the back and sent the “Rainbow Warrior” into the wall on lap 41, stirred up another controversy during his post race interview.

The wreck took Gordon out of the race and cost him serious points in the Nextel Cup chase. The four-time champion complained Stewart’s on track behavior soon after his race retirement, and vowed that he’s going to do the same to the 2002 champ in the future. "I just think it was uncalled for that early on and I guarantee the next time Tony Stewart's in my way, it won't take but about a half lap before he's outta the way."

It was Gordon’s third 30th or worse finish in a row, and put him 350 points behind series leader and his protégé Johnson in the standings.

Meanwhile, Stewart didn’t agree that Gordon has his own special rules on the track, and called him a whiner after the race. He asked Gordon to “Bring it on.”

"Jeff's always whining like that," Stewart said. "If somebody does something to Jeff it's always their fault. That's just Jeff Gordon. That's the way he's been ever since he's been down here. So that's fine. We can get into a car crash."

The Gordon-Stewart on track problem has long been brewing, and we shall see if the road rage continues between the two prominent drivers in the Nextel Cup.

Biffle would care less about the Gordon-Stewart rivalry, as long as he is not a part of it. The #16 driver led twice for 150 laps, and held off rookie Kyle Busch, his teammate Mark Martin and Johnson after a quick pitstop for four new Goodyears from his Roush Racing crew.

Roush Racing and Hendrick Motorsports swept the top 4. With Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch finished sixth, seventh and ninth respectively, the two teams put seven cars in the top 10. Penske duo Rusty Wallace (5th) and Ryan Newman (8th) was sandwiched in between the Roush-Hendrick drivers, while Elliott Sadler, who led a career high 128 laps in the race, finished 10th. The M&M’s driver faded in the end after contenting for most of the race.

Raging Stewart finished 14th in the race. After a good early showing in his Chevrolet, the ‘other’ Gordon – Robby, finished 29th. The once off-road driver returned to his root and competed in the Baja 500 before the Dover race. He scored an overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy-Truck victory in the 37th Tecate SCORE Baja 500 in Ensenada, Mexico. - Kevin Ma

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CHAMP CAR - OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS

Meep Meep!

Over the years, Paul Tracy has seen it all. The once chubby Maple Leaf driver was an understudy to legendary Milwaukee race winners -- Ricks Mears (2 wins), Al Unser Jr. (2 wins) and Michael Andretti (5 wins) at Penske and Newman/Haas, with that he learned the special way to tame the Milwaukee Mile. As Andretti demonstrated so many times in the past, there is a special path to get around the one-mile oval -- the outside line is the shortest way to get around, ONLY if you can keep your car stick. Tracy, now the most experienced driver in the Champ Car World Series, used the same line on Saturday to claim his first victory of the season in the Road Runner 225.

Back in 2002, after he was robbed at Indy when the officials handed Helio Castroneves the 500 victory [remember that yellow light controversy?], Tracy stormed through the field a week later in Milwaukee for a very special victory. Three years later, he revisited the victory circle by using the outside groove on the first restart. The Forsythe driver passed pole-sitter Jimmy Vasser on the outside, went on to lead 192 laps and earned his fourth victory at the Milwaukee Mile.

Vasser, the second most experienced driver in the field, knew the short way around the Milwaukee Mile, too. The part owner/driver started from the pole, but Tracy’s bold outside move at the restart was too much for the 1998 race winner. Vasser wound up fifth in the end.

With so many new faces in the Champ Car World Series, and only two oval races on the calendar, veterans such as Tracy and Vasser certainly had the upper hand in this race. However, sophomore A.J. Allmendinger once again showcased his talent. The former Toyota Atlantic champion finished 3.369 seconds behind Tracy – his best Champ Car finish in his young career. As a rookie last year, Allmendinger finished fifth in the Road Runner 225 - and it was only his third Champ Car start.

The biggest loser of the weekend wasn’t Sebastien Bourdais, who struggled to stay on the lead lap because of a pit speed penalty during the race. The biggest loser was his teammate Bruno Junqueira, who was injured a week ago in the Indianapolis 500 thanks to A.J. Foyt IV, who caused the wreck during the race. Junqueira, who was leading in Champ Car standings before the Road Runner 225, will likely miss most of the season, if not all. His replacement Oriol Servia finished a solid third for Newman/Haas, perhaps the super-sub should donate his points to Junqueira?

“The PacifiCare car was going forward, forward, forward and I was just a passenger,” said Servia. “Bruno deserved a win but I tried. We improved the car for the race. I don't think we were the fastest but we kept moving forward and that was important. Maybe if there were 100 more laps I could have gone for the win."

Former Jaguar/Minardi F-1 driver Justin Wilson finished fourth in the race – his third consecutive fourth place finish in 2005.

With the absence of Junqueira, Sebastien Bourdais inherited the top spot in the points standings, he is followed by Mr. Consistent Justin Wilson (-7) and Milwaukee winner Paul Tracy (-8). - Kevin Ma

http://www.nyautoracing.com

DANICA PATRICK (INDYCAR) - DESPERATE ABC GETS RATINGS, MISSES POINT

Everybody jumped into the Danica Patrick's bandwagon in this year "Danica 500". ABC, of course, didn't want to miss this golden opportunity especially Patrick was fast on track all month long, and her presence would bring in casual viewers to watch its coverage. Unfortunately, the network opted to spend 50% of TV time to cover Patrick instead of the actual race. If you love motorsports, the ABC coverage was poor, subjective and totally unprofessional. It was by far the worst sports coverage I have ever seen.

Danica Patrick is no doubt good, but she is not that good yet. Sure, she was the first female to lead the 500 and it was legit, but she made two mistakes during the race. On the other hand, ABC -- especially new host Todd Harris, continued to cheer for her like they are on Viagra, it was totally uncalled for and unfair to the other competitors. For instance, when Patrick spun her car during the caution late in the race, there was no mention about Patrick's victims. The only driver mentioned [briefly] was Tomas Scheckter, but what about Tomas Enge and some other unidentified drivers? Hey, I still don't know exactly who were involved in that incident. [Scheckter and Enge said little about the incident because Patrick is too popular and it wouldn't do them any good to rip the rookie.]

What do you expect? This is the network that brought you Desperate Housewives and the infamous half time cross promotion during Monday Night Football, where "Housewives" star Nicolette Sheridan dropped her towel in front of Philadelphia Eagles football player Terrell Owen in the locker room. You can argue that it wasn't as extreme as the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake outrageous 'wardrobe malfunction' incident during the Super Bowl halftime show over at CBS/MTV/Viacom, but still there were kids watching MNF as well and the network's intention was horrible. Fortunately for ABC, another sports incident took place soon after and took away the spotlight from the Sheridan-Owen R-rate skit. That's right. I'm talking about the Pistons-Pacers NBA brawl in Detroit.

My point is -- ABC would do anything to promote their product, even though it's not completely relevant to the sport itself. It's okay to spend a lot of time in Patrick - ABC needs her, the IRL needs her, and heck the U.S. open wheel racing community needs her, but you can't spend 50% of the show to cover on one single athlete. Danica Patrick is not a proven winner and she is not Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan nor Mia Hamm. Even after the race, Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon was left out until late because of Patrick's fourth place finish. Where is the logic?
Just like American journalists watching NASCAR's Talladega race in the Media Center while they were covering Formula One's U.S. Grand Prix. European journalists must be laughing by now.

The real stars in this year's Indy 500 were Wheldon, Vitor Meira and guess who … Sebastien Bourdais. The reigning Champ Car champion is versatile, and he would be right up there if Newman/Haas has a full time program in the IndyCar Series.

To be fair, Danica Patrick paved a very clever career path for herself, and partly because of team owner Bobby Rahal. She didn't rush to get into the big league, but instead she stayed in the 'minors' to race the Atlantic and a few ALMS races. She gained exposures by posing on FHM just like popular Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard, she secured backing from Argent Mortgage, and more importantly, she took her time and learned.

Two years ago she stood at Kenny Brack's pit during the Indy 500, she listened to the team radio and studied the race. Not a lot of people recognized her back then, but it's not the case right now.

Hopefully she can somehow keep the media away as much as she can because it's going to affect her somewhat. When Sarah Fisher was racing in the IndyCar Series, ABC used the similar tactic to lure viewers, and in the end it didn't do Fisher any good. Sometimes being popular is not exactly a good thing, especially you are a young pretty girl in racing.

I'm not a Darrell Waltrip fan on TV, but the FOX NASCAR coverage is pretty darn good - fair and balanced. Let's hope IndyCar is not all about Danica Patrick and her mom's feelings. Can we have someone more professional to call the race? Scott Goodyear was ok, and Gil de Ferran, where are you? - Kevin Ma

Source: http://www.nyautoracing.com