Green Flag 3.06.08: Open Wheels and Open Oil Tanks
Posted by Jim Carson on 03.06.2008
Plus I guess wearing my Robby Gordon shirt yesterday gave him good luck.
Notice that ESPN and the other experts have placed Clemson's basketball team in the "lock" category instead of with the bubble teams. The nine-year drought is OVAH! Go Tigers!
Hopefully there's a faction in motorsports that you can notice a bit more starting this season.
MAYBE POINTY CARS CAN BE RELEVANT AGAIN, WHEN IT'S NOT MAY
A little over a week ago, it became official that the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series would be united again. Now it's not that simple that the Big Split of '96 will just be mended with one stroke of a pen or one press conference, but it was the only possible way that either side of major American open-wheel racing could survive in the long term (or in Champ Car's case, one more year).
In the last week, a few more details have come out about the 2008 season. The IRL schedule will remain intact, and will add two of the most successful dates from the Champ Car schedule, the Edmonton airport race (YAY!) and the street course parade event in Australia (BOO!). The CCWS race at Long Beach will be in the only race where the old Champ Cars will be used, and that weekend the IRL teams will run their final separate race at the Motegi oval in Japan, a track owned by IRL engine supplier Honda. Also, Champ Car teams that elect to make the move to the new IndyCar Series will receive an engine lease deal, two IndyCar chassis (one new and one pre-owned) and $1.2 million per team, and they will have the option of being paired with an existing IRL team for sharing data in 2008.
The biggest shocker so far is that one of the cornerstone teams of Champ Car, Forsythe Racing, would not pick up its IndyCars, leaving Canadian spitfire Paul Tracy out of a ride (dangit ... although some multi-car team will find a ride for him at the Brickyard ... Tony George's Vision Racing, perhaps?). As for the other eight former Champ Car teams, the ones that have committed to IndyCars are four-time defending CCWS champion Newman-Haas-Lanigan-Kranefuss-Goodyear-Page-Punch-Little-Pedigo Racing (drivers Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal, Champ Car's biggest driving names now that PT's not racing and Sebastien Bourdais is in Formula One), KV Racing and former CCWS figurehead car owner Kevin Kalkhoven (drivers Oriol Servia and TBA), Conquest Racing (rookie driver Franck Perera and the ever-popular TBA), and Pacific Coast Motorsports (guessing Alex Figge and Mario Dominguez). The big question marks are the former Rocketsports team, owned by Paul Gentilozzi who was one of Champ Car's three series-saving car owners along with Kalkhoven and Forsythe, and Derrick Walker's Team Australia. But even with 7-8 imported cars heading into the IRL, that will still make the fields for the non-Motegi IndyCar races in the mid-to-high 20s, a dramatic improvement from the non-Brickyard IRL events of the last two years where the car count hit 20 a grand total of twice.
There are downsides, and it has nothing to do with sympathy for the former Champ Car teams who are going to get their asses kicked on a regular basis in 2008, especially on the ovals (Champ Car had no oval races in 2007 and only Milwaukee in 2006). The biggest drawback is that some of the enjoyable Champ Car race sites will not host the pointy cars this year, most notably Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Road America in Wisconsin, and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. There is the chance that the IndyCar brass will reinstate some of these sites for the 2009 schedule, so that we can hopefully once again see IndyCars take turn one at Cleveland, the famed Festival Curves at Portland, or the fabulous Corkscrew at Laguna Seca.
But there won't be races on the crappy narrow street courses in Houston and San Jose, and there won't be needless trips to Europe. That may be the biggest advantage from the reunification, at least until the March 29 opener on the oval at Homestead.
Now it's time for the most popular form of American motorsports, a level IndyCar will never again sniff.
A YELLOW FLAG IN NASCAR MEANS MORE THAN 15 YARDS
The most important NASCAR news from the last two weeks, other than the debacle that was the rain-delayed California weekend, came just yesterday from the National Stock Car Racing Commission. The sport's judge, jury and executioner handed down to Backflip Boy and the #99 team what has become the standard penalty for Wingboxcar violations: a fine of $100,000, loss of 100 Sprint Cup points, and six weeks vacation for the crew chief.
This time the violation in question was an unsecured lid on the oil tank reservoir of the #99 beat board (holler if you need an explanation of what that references). Here's the rule, skipping the ubiquitous "actions detrimental to stock car racing" that NASCAR hides behind at all levels: 20-2.1J (any device or duct work that permits air to pass from one area of the interior of the car to another, or to the outside of the car, will not be permitted. This includes, but is not limited to, the inside of the car to the trunk area, or the floors, firewalls, crush panels and wheel wells passing air into or out of the car). Thanks, Jayski. Gotta be a serious gearhead to get into all that.
Anyway, there is much uproar from the general community as to why Backflip Boy was still allowed to keep his Las Vegas victory, when his car failed postrace inspection. In short track races, there are tech disqualifications quite often; I witnessed one recently where the flagged winner's car crossed the scales, it was found to have a left-side weight percentage that was .4 percent more than the allowed 56%, and the driver was DQed. But it has not been NASCAR's policy to remove race results from the Big Three series, except in extreme cases (Johnny Sauter in a 2006 Buschenwide Series race is the only one I can think of at the moment). Instead NASCAR chooses to lower the boom on the offending team later in the week. NASCAR is nothing if not consistent ... well, usually.
ESPN and Speed Channel experts have maintained that at a non-restrictor-plate track, the missing oil tank cover would not have affected the performance of the car. (I think they'd subject the crew chief to the guillotine if one tried it at Daytona or Talladega.) But the fact remains that the #99 car failed postRACE inspection, meaning that it was in competition and violated a rule. At Daytona, five Buschenwide cars were found to have the same violation after qualifying, which is also in competition; they were given 25-point penalties, $25,000 fines and two-week CC suspensions, plus their qualifying times were disallowed (Kertus Davis was not exempt and did not make the race). Compared to the Buschenwide qualifiers, Backflip Boy's penalties were justified. (Two of the Buschenwiders' penalties have since been overturned.)
Practice is a different story. NASCAR has no right to penalize racers for things that are found in pre-practice or pre-qualifying tech inspection, other than confiscating the unapproved parts. That's what inspection is for, to get everyone legal for qualifying and racing. The only thing practice does is make a few teams look good on an electronic ticker or piece of paper, and many teams and crew chiefs don't give a crap about how people compare to others in practice (many also use it for runs on old tires or with radical setups that they'd probably never use when it matters). That thinking probably turned the tables for Robby Gordon's penalty for his unapproved bumper cover at Daytona, which was discovered during opening-day inspection before the first car hit the track. Robby (who said that the part was given to him by Dodge reps, who back his story) originally was dumped with 100K/100/6, but yesterday the commission rescinded the 100 points and the CC suspension, although the fine was increased to $150,000. Robby will take it and publicly admit it, because getting the 100 points back is well worth 50 grand; the #7 is back solidly in the middle of the pack instead of in the danger zone for the top-35 cutoff after Bristol.
More NASCAR now ...
BOOS FOR MARK MARTIN?
With 25 laps left in the Buschenwide race at Vegas, Brad Keselowski appeared to be the only driver who could make it to the finish on fuel. All of the Cup invaders would have had to head to pit road for a splash-and-go. Then came the caution for debris (at least it was real debris), and Keselowski looked to be a sitting duck for those who pitted and took on fresh tires. OK, so Keselowski wasn't going to be the first non-Cupper to win in Buschenwide since 2005, but he still didn't deserve what happened to him with six laps left.
Backflip Boy led the charge of the invaders, and he spent two laps trying to pass Keselowski, but Brad hung tough on the high side with more momentum. Then exiting turn four and heading into the obligatory Bruton Smith frontstretch dogleg, Backflip Boy was even and not going to give it up this time. Mark Martin, making a rare-these-days Buschenwide start for Hendrick-helped JR Motorsports (the team which fields Keselowski's #88 full-time), lined up behind Edwards and tried to bump-draft him past Keselowski instead of trying to help his teammate and manufacturer-mate. Then Martin put the bump in bump-draft, tapping Backflip Boy and getting him out of shape; Edwards then wiggled into Keselowski and sent both of them crashing into various walls.
Martin sped away and won the race, then seemed more apologetic to Backflip Boy than to his own teammate. I know Mark and Carl were teammates for years at Roush, but that's over and done, and Mark's been with Chevy and DEI/Ginn/JRM/Hendrick for over a year now. Junior was probably thrilled to have the first victory in the books for his own team (one that's not helped in any way by Wicked Stepmother Teresa), but hopefully he has some regrets and second thoughts as well. It's another byproduct of having Cup drivers as the only promotable and sponsor-attractive names in Buschenwide. It's nearly impossible to think of Mark Martin as the bad guy in any situation; he's been one of NASCAR's feel-good stories for more than 20 years, ever since he fell out of the top level and worked his way back into the series. And all's fair in the last few laps. But he was the villain this time.
It's a good thing Martin didn't need this win to add to his all-time victories record in the Buschenwide Series. This one would have been an absolute disgrace to celebrate further.
We're done for now. This weekend the Big Three go to Atlanta and everything that is American motorcycle racing happens at Daytona. I'll be back next week with a report on the most important points race in NASCAR.
