Texas: Bash’s Saturday thoughts
Uncategorized — By Bash Beard on June 12, 2011 12:29 pmApologies for the brevity of these thoughts, written before having to pack up and run for the airport.
First, to set the general atmosphere around the Firestone Twin 275s: It was another hot day, but by race time, the shade and a breeze made things a bit more bearable. (Still, when I finally stopped for a look at the Firestone stand during race two, the ambient temperature was 93 degrees — at 10:30 pm!) The grandstands looked fuller than the last time I was here two years ago. And the starting grid was quite full with a record 30 cars in the field. You never know what you’re going to get at Texas — it might be a parade or a night of wild pack racing — and this format was new, so there was a buzz of anticipation about what would happen once the green flag dropped.
In the first race, what happened was the usual: the red cars moved to the front and then dominated the race. It was a stout win by Dario Franchitti, his first at Texas Motor Speedway.
I want to touch on the second race before talking about the format and the draw. It was great to see Tony Kanaan leading a good portion of the race, 39 laps in all. KV Racing Technology is still plagued by the occasional wreck, but they are improving their race results this season. Sato and Viso both had impressive weekends with Sato getting a fifth-place finish in the first race and Viso making up a ton of positions in both. And we always wondered how long it would be until Will Power won on his first oval — wonder no more. Will was extra animated when he jumped from his car after winning race two, and his team was excited to greet their oval winner in victory lane.
Okay, results chatter over. Let’s talk about the draw. I’ll be honest: I hadn’t thought much about how they would conduct the draw because the more I thought about the mere fact there was going to be a draw, the more peeved I got. I guess I assumed they’d draw pills from a hat and have a snappy quip about the number they drew. But this is Texas, so it was going to be a show, and there needed to be some way to fill the time the crews were getting to tweak their cars on pit lane. The chosen approach — turn a Firestone tire like Vanna White turning letters on Wheel of Fortune to reveal your starting position — was actually fun, and some drivers played to the audience in asking for their guidance on which tire to turn. It did run a bit long and could have used a bit more zip in the presentation, but it had some entertaining moments.
But, no matter the laughs, I just cannot accept the draw as an equitable way of setting a starting grid, and I’m pretty embarrassed for INDYCAR that it happened. I fully understand and accept that there needs to be more entertainment value added to races, but something as critical as starting position should always be related to performance. Imagine something like your yearly raise or a promotion at work being determined by something so random. I doubt anyone would blame a person for complaining about a situation like that and looking for another job. Yet my Twitter stream has been filled with people telling Dario (the loudest complainer before, during, and after the races) to shut up and drive. There needs to be a line drawn that prevents entertainment elements from impacting race results, and using a draw was a huge miss in this respect. In the post-race press conference, Power was asked if he agreed that the winning pass was made on the stage (by drawing a third starting spot) rather than on the track. He said he did agree with that. In my mind, that perfectly illustrates how wrong this situation was.
I like the idea of twin races with a little time for teams to make changes and improve their chances in the second race. Several drivers — including Will Power, who greatly benefited from the random draw — agreed that inverting the finishing order for the second race would be a much better way to add value to it. The top drivers coming through the field could be a pretty entertaining thing to see, and they’d all be in a similar boat as far as starting position was concerned. Then, let skill and racing luck determine the outcome.
You’d just have to find some other way to fill the time during the intermission. Reruns of Wheel of Fortune, anyone?
Rant over. Thanks for following my coverage here at More Front Wing this weekend.
Tags: Texas Motor Speedway
Good to hear from the race itself. I wasn’t as bothered as I should have been by the draw, but that kind of thing usually really upsets me. Dario’s “complaining” was all spot-on, and the exact arguments I would have made. Professionals racing for a championship should not have things shaken up randomly. I suggested a number of alternatives to the draw in my blog. As an attendee of the race, would you suggest any changes to the format?
It’s hard for me to speak as a spectator on this – the break in between races was filled with me running to the media center and taking notes down for the first race, grabbing a bit of the very late dinner served, etc. Since I had work to do, the break didn’t seem that long, but I can imagine that it might have been a bit much for someone in the stands. Perhaps a bit less time in between races would help.
Someone mentioned that Dan Wheldon recommended the first race be for full points, and the second for no points but big money. That would erase the points issue even better than inverting the field for race 2. The draw might have less drama because there are no points implications, but heck, just go pure game show at that point and make a few random numbers come with a bonus payout and make everything after the first race all about $.
Wheldon’s suggestion to award all points in the first race would reduce the tendency for teams to take it easy in race 1, as well – all out for the points, and then, if you’re still standing, all out for the cash.
Randy? Eddie? You listening? 🙂
Thanks for reading.
Bash, thanks for the Texas coverage! I completely agree with your thoughts. First, I have to commend Eddie Gossage and Texas Motor Speedway. They have been excellent partners to the IZOD IndyCar Series. Their willingness to promote IndyCar racing and to try new & different things is greatly appreciated by the fans. I really love the concept of the twin race format and if the races we wanted to attend were not bunched so closely together, we would have gone to Texas.
Honestly, I feel bad for Dario Franchitti & Chip Ganassi. Their criticism was spot on this time. This weekend, you could tell both were very frustrated with this format. They care about winning the IZOD IndyCar Championship.
In my mind, the fundamental flaw of the lottery was it created an entertaining (prolonged) intermission and a boring race. Perhaps this is a generational thing between long time IndyCar fans and newer ones, but the long time fans recognize the engineering that go into these cars. Sure we lack diversity in the chassis, motor and tires, but there is diversity in the setup between the cars. Cars that qualify upfront run different setups then cars that run in traffic.
Dario was forced to adjust his car for traffic, which potentially meant slowing it down, so that he could handle the turbulent traffic. Versus did an awesome job with their illustration. Will Power kept his much quicker setup because he knew he would have the clean air. If you invert the field, the slower cars will go into the second race, knowing they will be able to run in the clean air. All of the faster cars will be forced to run setups for the traffic or run their quicker setups, which are more unstable. Intermission will be shortened because teams don’t have to wait for the lottery to make their setup decisions.
The most entertaining part of the race was watching Dixon and Dario move up through the field. Dixon passed 16 cars. Dario Franchitti passed 20. Will Power passed two cars for the lead.
I really hope they reevaluate the lottery system and go with an inverted field or just return to the normal format.
[…] Saturday Commentary: http://morefrontwing.com/2011/06/12/texas-bashs-saturday-thoughts/ […]