Sunday, June 12, 2011

My Take on Texas

I went to bed thinking last night, "Would someone tell some of these IndyCar drivers to just shut up?" I think the last words ringing in my ears as I drifted off to sleep were those of Dario Franchitti, whining about the "unfairness" of the blind draw that determined the starting field for the second of the twin 275's.


Yes, Dario has a point. After pretty much OWNING the first race last night, Franchitti gets relegated to the next-to-last row while his championship rival, Will Power, draws the third starting position and wins fairly easily. To his credit, Franchitti ran his ass off to finish seventh from the back.


Dario even made a thinly veiled reference to NASCAR in suggesting that the blind draw was ok for an "all-star" race, but this is for championship points.


What hit me in the face at that very moment was the fact that, even though NASCAR has tried to shoot itself in the foot with some of its contrivances, that series isn't looking at so much exposed tin as I saw at this, the second most popular INDYCAR race after Indianapolis. AND, they're about to take INDYCAR's most recognizable and marketable "star." Into their SECOND TIER series.

Facing all of that, those purists like me who have been following since the USAC days, may decry the use of a blind draw to set the second half field, but our series needs new fans. There, I said it.


Hello, Mr. 800 lb. gorilla, pleased to meet ya'.

If the stands at our venues were AS full as NASCAR's, we would be reaching way more folks. And, like it or not, this gimmick could bring more interest. If, in a couple of years, you aren't showing half -empty venues, then we can refine this idea. But anything that is going to get and maintain interest (within reason) is what we shoud be doing. And besides, this format only happens once a year anyway.

Do we want the "lucky dog"? No? Well, like it or not, our "wave around" keeps some from getting lapped. Pretty much the same effect.

Randy Bernard was hired to give this series a pulse. So far, he's listened to the fans when it really matters, but until we're generating a bit more "buzz," we have to accept some things we might not like, IF IT WORKS.

We've come a long way from where we were a couple of years ago. But we have MILES to go.

As for the racing itself, there was minimal intrigue. Both "halves" were won in fairly dominant fashion, and I have to give credit to E. J. Viso and his teammate Takuma Sato for keeping their equipment together, as in not in contact each other, someone else, or a wall. Never saw that coming. For that matter, everyone deserves credit for keeping caution time to a minimum. We saw a lot more green flag racing last night than we have in the past at Texas, probably because everyone wanted to stick around for both races.

As to the production, I think Versus drew out the proceedings between races a lot more than needed. As a result, I am guessing that there were several viewers who fell asleep before the end. Hell, my wife did. They explained the prcedure from top to bottom several times, so let's get on with it.

Dan Wheldon should replace Wally Dallenbach any time he's available. I found him to be a breath of fresh air on the telecast, and he definitely knows his stuff on the series, the venues, and the cars. He's a keeper, at least until someone puts him behind the wheel. If I'm ABC, I am on the phone to Mr. Wheldon tomorrow first thing.

Now, it's on to the famed Milwaukee Mile, the oldest venue on the circuit. I'll be interested to see what type of crowd they draw after their absence from the scene. And, we purists can leave the gimmicks at the door.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

A Very Special Trip to Indy

The purse for this year's Indianapolis 500 has been distributed, most of the checks have been cashed, the money has been counted at 16th Street and Georgetown Road. I have had a week or so to get my work "face" back on after a fairly hectic eleven day trip to Indiana. I have also had some time to ruminate about my trip to the 500 for the Centennial of the Speedway.

In all likelihood, this will be my last trip to the race that I love so much. That is not to say I would not love to go again were the situation right, but, in practical terms, the trip is simply too daunting to do with my wife and her physical limitations, plus my limited time and funds. I can safely say, if this is in fact my last trip, it was a special race and a wonderful experience.

We used our Carb Day trip, documented in an earlier post, to get all of our picture taking, souvenir buying, wandering, and exploring done. Once we set out for IMS on Sunday, we were strictly focused on getting to our shuttle pick-up point, getting aboard, and carrying as little "stuff" to our seats as possible. In my younger days, I would take backpacks, coolers, and basically enough stuff for a two day camp out. This time, we followed a minimalist approach, carrying only a couple of seat cushions, some sunscreen, and the morning paper. Anything else would be strictly bought on location.

Our first little "moment" actually occurred on Saturday afternoon, when I discovered that the Indianapolis Transit Company, "IndyGo," had been disallowed from operating the shuttles to and from the track. Fortunately, I had gone online to make sure that the pick up point had not changed, but there was the notice that the Federal Government had prohibited IndyGo from operating the shuttles. Something about not allowing a public transportation outfit to operate for a profit was the explanation given; regardless, it caused a moment of serious panic as we had ZERO desire to drive our car into the "Speedway Triangle."

Fortunately, a Google search turned up a posting from Pressdog, which explained that another outfit had stepped up and assumed the mantle of "transporter to the Speedway." Even better, the locations were the same, so no change of plans was required.


We arrived at our designated departure point at IUPUI around 7:30, though the first shuttles were not scheduled to depart for IMS until 8 am. Amazingly enough, we were on our way well before the 8 am time for the first shuttle to leave. That was the good news. The bad news was that unlike when the Indianapolis Public Transit Authority ran the shuttles (back in the METRO days,) there seemed to be no designation of special routes for the private enterprise shuttle system. Hence, while back in the day, you'd be at the main gate to the Speedway in virtually no time, this route was considerably slower and more circuitous.


Even so, as we entered the main gate, the bands were marching around the track. We began to make our way toward the Paddock grandstands, doing some "people watching" as we went. One observation that hit me almost immediately was that unlike my days of going to the Speedway in the 80's, the crowd seemed much more sober. I saw much more bottled water being consumed by the crowd going in than beer, the one-time official breakfast beverage of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While there were alcoholic beverages available (my wife enjoyed a Bloody Mary on the way to our seats,) their sale (and use) did not seem as prevalent as in my younger days.

It didn't take long for me to figure out that the venerable old track has been well cared for. Friends and fellow bloggers who have been there during the Tony George era have never faulted the controversial George for anything to do with the physical plant at 16th and Georgetown, and had consistently told me that I would be blown away by the changes. They were not wrong. For what it's worth, if IMS wants to give Mr. George something to do, it would be well advised to put him in complete charge of the facility. His touches all around the facility are reminiscent of his grandfather's era, when "new and improved" was something that happened on a regular basis.

One of the best examples of this are the many "misting stations" found throughout the underside of the grandstands. In the old days, most of the individuals who presented at the track medical facility (aside from those who had been over-served,) were heat-stroke cases. Considering that this day was expected to be one of the hottest of the year so far, I was sure that these misters would see their share of use before the day was out.

During our Carb Day trip, we had discovered that our seats were in the next-to-top row of the Paddock grandstand, lower deck. This posed some distinct advangtages as well as disadvantages.
On the plus side, that high up we were assured that whatever breezes were blowing on this hot day, we'd at least get some benefit, plus we were under cover from the sun. Unlike in my younger days when a Speedway sunburn was almost a requirement of any trip to the track, my adventures with skin cancer have made me re-think that position.

On the other hand, we were so high up that it was apparent that we would be quite a while getting out of our seats at the end of the day, and that it would be a large pain in the ass getting downstairs to visit the restrooms or get food and drink. Additionally, we were high enough up that we could only see the video board across the track from a sitting position. Add to this the fact that our seats were in the very middle of the row, and any quick escape for any purpose was precluded.

The other thing that I noticed almost immediately was that the new construction (well, not exactly new) of the Tower Terrace suites limited the view from our seats to strictly the main straightaway. Time was when these seats would have had a view of most of turn one, and turn two, once the cars cleared the museum. Not so anymore. Once the cars disappeared into one. it was "video boards only" until they cleared turn four and headed down the straight.

As the stands began to fill, we made our last trips downstairs for food, (especially one of those delicious, uniquely Hoosier delicacies, the breaded pork tenderloin,) drink, and restroom visits. I felt the familiar restlessness as the formal ceremonies neared. As a matter of personal opinion, I know that Florence Henderson is a native Hoosier; Unfortunately, Ms. Henderson can no longer sing. In the future, it might be advisable to secure other talent for the "God Bless America" portion of the program. Seal and Kelly Clarkson did an admirable job on the National Anthem. "Taps," as usual, got me crying, and Jim Nabors did his annual thing with "Back Home Again in Indiana," although the PA system missed the first few bars.

I found myself missing the smooth barritone of Tom Carnegie on the PA system, although Dave Collabro does an excellent job. It's just that Carnegie's voice will echo around the four corners of the IMS as long as there IS an IMS. Mari Hulman George got the engines started and hopped into the pace car for a ride with A. J. Foyt. I wondered if Mari remembered that the last time a Hulman rode with A. J. was 1977, and it was her father's farewell appearance at the Speedway, as he passed away later that fall. Hopefully, it wasn't an omen.

Mari and A. J. pulled the pace car off and we were green! For once, no one decided to do anything stupid on the first lap of the race and everyone made it through the first lap. The next 25 or so laps were a succession of Dixon, Tagliani, and Franchitti battling for the lead. It was during this first segment of the race that the battery in my Walkman died. Communication with 1070theFan lost, along with the IMS network. I had not, until that moment, realized how spoiled I had been having the whole race unfold in my living room, (even if it WAS Marty Reid,) in all the years I had watched the race live on ABC.

This feeling was reinforced by the first caution and subsequent two-wide re-start. Even with the entire 5/8 mile of the main straightaway to get sorted out, everyone wanted to run two and three wide into turn one. That usually does not work at Indy. The first time I watched them fly into one and out of my view, I turned to the fellow next to me and remarked that something bad was going to happen. Miraculously, MOST of the time it did not, although on one re-start, eventual winner Dan Wheldon decided it would be prudent to use the pit lane to avoid the mayhem.

As the race played itself out, the Ganassi cars were dominant, but nowhere near running away with things. Even though they led a majority of the laps, they never seemed to be able to pull away to much more than a 3 or 4 second lead, and even then, either pit stops or a caution would bring everyone back together. I had the feeling with about 50 laps to go that there were still 4 or 5 cars that could take the race.

Oriol Servia, Ed Carpenter, J. R. Hildebrand, Graham Rahal, and Bertrand Baguette all took a turn on point while the red cars refueled, though Servia held the lead for more than a few laps. While he was never out front, Dan Wheldon maintained a spot in the top 5 most of the race, and it seemed as though he was quietly staying in touch with the leaders, waiting for the race to play out.

Danica Patrick seemed to move steadily forward all day, as did fan fave Tony Kanaan, although the former seemed to have terrible luck with two successive cautions catching her almost out of fuel, necessitating a "double stop" during the caution and costing her track postion that she had won by steadily working her way up. Still, with roughly 20 laps to go, Ms. Patrick was right there and as everyone else took on fuel, she took the lead for the second time in her brief Indy career.

Although she remains controversial, I have to say, some of the loudest cheers I heard all day were during the few laps that she led. Almost everyone knew that without the help of a caution she couldn't maintain the lead until the end, and I later learned that then last couple of laps before she was "inhaled" by Baguette, she was complaining of a vibration. Some of the "air" went out of the Speedway when she pitted, and we all wondered if the new leader, Baguette, had enough fuel to finish.

I consider myself to be pretty astute about most of these things, but I had no clue where Baguette was on his fuel load until I saw his crew laying out for a stop about 5 laps from the end. I knew that the last driver to pit during the last round of stops was Franchitti, and I assumed he would re-take the lead when Baguette pitted. Wrong again. In yet another fuel miscalculation by the Ganassi team, (What was up with the gas this month Chip?) Franchitti was left about one lap short on fuel and was not running quick enough to catch J. R. Hildebrand who took the lead when Baguette pitted on lap 196 or 7.

Unbelievable! A rookie leading the Indianapolis 500 with just three laps to go! Everyone was standing and cheering as the nnumber 4 Panther Racing machine took the white flag. Most of us were still standing when he came by the next time, obviously having tangled with a wall somewhere. In a moment of confusion, I believed J. R. had crashed and slid across the finish line first, until the nearby scoring strip told me that Wheldon had been posted the winner.

This revelation led me to two things: First, the Speedway needs to replace the PA system which, in the confusion at the end of the race, was worthless. Indeed, in times of ANY significant crowd noise, the PA system is woefully lacking. Second, it was apparent that we were going to have to hurry back to our hotel to see what had happened at the end.

That is not to say that I minded Wheldon winning the race by leading all of about 1400 feet at the very end of the last lap; I didn't. Gambler that I am, I had placed one of my race wagers on the previously unemployed driver at odds of 13-1. Since I had ZERO coinage placed on Mr. Hildebrand, the surprise ending was very pleasant, at least financially.

Due to our seats being at the very top of the lower deck, we waited for a lote of the crowd to disperse before heading to the exits. Even with most of the crowd leaving, we still couldn't hear much of the post race festivities coming over the PA system. Once the aisles had started to clear, we made our way back to the lot where the shuttles were supposed to take us back to IUPUI. Once on the bus, it was apparent that there was no air conditioning, a fact which did not help my wife's disposition. During the lengthy trip back downtown, she repeatedly made it clear that she was never going to the 500 again. Part of that, I attribute to her pain level, but frankly, as opposed to watching the race live at home with friends, attending the event in person is a large sacrifice.

During the ride, I tried to think about what we could have done differently to make the experience more enjoyable, but I was stumped to think of anything we could have done (realistically) to make it easier or more enjoyable. Obviously, having a working radio would have been nice, but aside from going to the track via motorhome and having a suite (neither of which is really a workable option,) I couldn't come up with anything we could have done to enhance the journey.

By the time we reached our car, all we could think about was getting some food and getting away from Indianapolis. We learned some of what we had missed in listening to the radio recap of the race, but I looked forward to the delay broadcast which we could watch from the comfort of our hotel later that night. We were so wiped out, however, that most of the race was lost to a nap. We did manage to wake up for the end so we could see what we had not seen from our seats, but it wasn't until we returned home and I was able to watch the DVR version that I really understood what we had seen.

I've now watched it 3-4 times and I came to some conclusions.

Whoever was making fuel calculations for Ganassi Racing should be working on their resume. In addition to screwing up twice on Pole Day, the miscalculation on Franchitti and Dixon definitely cost them in the race as well. For a top level team to have misplanned their fuel strategy so badly is not acceptable. Granted, I don't think ANYONE expected that the last 25 laps of the race would go caution-free, (it almost never does,) but with as much of an advantage as the red cars had all day, for them to finish so badly is just inexplicable.

Second, (and I can hear people gnashing their teeth at me for this one,) given two well-timed yellow flags, Danica Patrick is a two-time winner of the Indy 500 and we're probably NOT talking about her moving to NASCAR. I know, she's way over-exposed, over-covered, and virtually crammed down the throats of the viewing public, but the fact is she brings the car home in one piece almost every year, and she works her strategy to the best possible finish. It may be she'll get one more chance at Indy, assuming she'll still be running the Nationwide series next year, (and she sure is NOT ready for Cup yet,) but when you look at her Indy career, she's been in the top 10 every year save the one when she got taken out in the pits by Ryan Briscoe. There are an awful lot of drivers who would LOVE to have that kind of Indy resume.

Third, J. R. Hildebrand will be remembered forever for NOT taking into account the wear on his tires and the closing speed at which he was inhaling Charlie Kimball. Hopefully, he'll have a day to redeem himself and, to his eternal credit, he did not duck a single question posed to him by the media. For him to have saved enough fuel to make the finish is a credit to his team and his patience and he deserved better than he got for his efforts, in spite of his rookie mistake.

And, finally, whatever happened to Roger Penske? His team was a complete non-factor all day, something that has not happened to him since their "non-start" year of 1995. The pit "mistake" with Will Power early in the race, (Sorry, Will, but you gotta have FOUR tires on the car to go fast,) was very uncharacteristic. Already there are rumors abounding that there will be some driver shakeups for next year in the Captain's garage, and one name that is being mentioned prominently in the speculation is Simona DiSilvestro. That should make for an interesting "silly season."

As I said at the top of this piece, this was probably my last trip to the 500. I had wonderful experiences in the 16 or so 500's I attended, and, if I still lived in the midwest, I might look at it a little differently. But, from my home in South Carolina, it is an awfully long trip driving, and when you add in the incidentals (parking, motels, food, souvenirs, and such,) it is pretty expensive. Yes, the experience of "being there" is worth something, but to be perfectly honest, watching the race from home in high-def, without the hassles of getting to and from is just too easy.