They’ll run the Indy 500 this weekend, finally. They will have the traditional eleven rows of three cars each, finally.
Last weekend, it took until the end of what is popularly known as Bump Day before the 33rd and last car to try to qualify for this year’s race did so. Gone was the expected drama of the slowest car being pushed out of the field by last minutes negotiations, trades, arrangements and heroics.
In a way that was a disappointment. Bump Day has always had nearly the excitement and roller coaster emotions of Race Day.
On the other hand, there were no broken hearts. There were no failed attempts to get into the field. There were no busted budgets. Everybody was happy.
So why should anybody complain about the lack of drama and excitement?
Those who know say that there is enough talent in the field for a competitive race on Sunday.
There are some big budget teams with expensive drivers. That’s because of the recent transfer of several former CART teams to the Indy Racing League. Like Ganassi, Rahal, Penske, and this year’s poster boy, Michael Andretti, car owner and retiring driver running his last race.
It looks like any détente between CART and The IRL is no closer. A summit held earlier this week began to fall apart just as it was meeting.
According to the Associated Press, a two-day meeting was planned to talk about such things as attracting more sponsors and fans, both in the stands and on the couch. The aim was to improve the public image of open-wheeled racing. They would do well to simply create an image of open-wheeled racing so the general public can even recognize it exists.
A similar summit was held last year. This year, CART intended to send president and CEO Chris Pook. The tentative itinerary published in January listed Pook as headliner of a panel called “Charting a New Course.” The AP said that attraction came off the table in February.
Apparently, the IRL also planned to present a panel, according to Fred Nation, its executive vice president. But organizers view the panel discussions as sales pitches rather than discussions.
The sponsors of the summit are Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal.
The CART crew also claimed the location of the summit was suspect … the media room at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hub of the IRL and home to IRL creator Tony George. Kind of like inviting Osama Bin Laden to a meeting at the fire hall.
The members of the turbocharged Champ Car crew did not pull out entirely. COO David Clare and vice president John Lopes were to speak Tuesday and Vicki O’Connor, president of the Toyota Atlantic feeder series also was to speak during the week. Doctors Terry Trammell and Steve Olvey are scheduled to talk about safety improvements.
CART spokesman Adam Saal said his group has been holding its own meetings at many of its events. The next one is to take place a week from next Monday in Cleveland, where CART will be racing July 5th.
Another AP story this week suggests that NASCAR may tinker The Winston out of existence. Driver Tony Stewart and owner Chip Ganassi both expressed disenchantment with the event after last Saturday night’s mess.
Jimmy Johnson won what essentially was a chess match by racing to survive and put himself in the right place to win the final “segment.” Johnson’s team, apparently aware of the slogan about never going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, correctly anticipated that the public voting on their computers would want the field inverted as much as possible.
That meant that the front ten cars at the end of the second segment would be
Inverted … tenth going to first and first to tenth, etc. So Johnson raced for tenth place in segment two. More power to him.
I would caution drivers and car owners, however, who anticipate sitting out next year’s event if they qualify. Don’t expect NASCAR to look kindly on anyone who snubs their nose at what it considers its golden haired child.
The whole event is a joke. It is not a race. It is NASCAR becoming more and more like the WWE.
Maybe next year they can run it on a figure 8 track.