The Incredible Racing League & Charlotte Miscellanea
Charlotte, Texas, and the street course at
Houston held races the first weekend of October, and they provided a striking
contrast in competitiveness. The Craftsman Trucks ran at Texas and the event was
forgettable except for the late tire stops that robbed Jim Smith’s team of
another sure win and gave the win to rookie Travis Kvapil. Grand National ran at
Charlotte and only Matt Kenseth’s spin could help Greg Biffle win the race at
the end. Winston Cup ran the next day amid another exercise in idiocy by Humpy
Wheeler (more on that in due course) and Tony Stewart noted what was glaringly
obvious: "these fans got cheated out of their money." Commenting on
the gross gaps between first, second, and third, Stewart noted
that "that’s not good racing." It was no better in CART’s Houston
street race, held amid increasing infighting within the sanctioning body and
what looks to be a major change in its engines.
There was one other race that weekend –
the IRL’s delayed 300-miler from September. And in 300 miles the IRL put all
other races that weekend to shame. Sam Hornish battled Buddy Lazier for the lead
early, then was fighting it out lap after lap with Jacques Lazier. Buddy
surprisingly faltered while Jacques took off from the pits with an unsecured
left rear and paid dearly for it. June winner Scott Sharp and Robbie Buhl roared
up and fought it out with Hornish, and rookie Ricky Treadway came from a lap
down into the fight along with Elizio Salazar in A.J. Foyt’s primary entry. They
fought it out wheel to wheel for lap after lap, and lap after lap atop that.
Buhl almost slammed the tri-oval wall in loose oil dry, kept looking higher and
higher in Turn Three, then roared momentarily past Hornish and Buhl in the
highest possible groove in Three and Four. Sharp faked out Hornish and stole the
lead down low amid warnings from IRL’s comp director Brian Barnhardt about
blocking – concerns that led to some tense words from all involved after the
June thriller – then on the last lap Hornish squeezed high, Buhl tried higher,
and Hornish beat them all by six feet. In the process the IRL set a new record
for lead changes at 32.
Officially it is known as the Indy Racing
League, but maybe a change to Incredible Racing League should be considered.
From its modest start in 1996 the IRL has grown to become a genuine power in
motorsports. Memorable races have become a norm in IRL, many of them at Texas,
and eleven IRL events stand out:
1996 LAS VEGAS 500K – the IRL’s debut at
the new Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the race saw thirteen crashes – including a
car that rode the tri-oval on its lid – and some furious combat for the lead.
Ultimately Richie Hearn took the win.
1997 CHARLOTTE 500K – The IRL invaded
NASCAR country and put on a memorable show won by Buddy Lazier.
1998 INDIANAPOLIS 500 – Eddie Cheever had
won at Orlando in 1997 in his debut as an owner-driver, but at the Brickyard he
became the first owner-driver since A.J. Foyt to win the 500.
1998 TEXAS 500K – The league’s 1997 debut
saw the infamous scoring breakdown and ensuing fistfight between Arie Luyendyk
and A.J. Foyt. For 1998 the Texas 500k saw a league-defining event. A six-car
crash where Roberto Guerrerro landed on his side kicked things off, then the
race became a stirring shootout between Tony Stewart, Billy Boat, Greg Ray, and
Kenny Breck. Boat got sideswiped coming to a yellow by Marco Greco and a tire
mark was the result – "there are many similarities between the IRL and
NASCAR, but this is not supposed to be one of them!" Mike Joy cracked. The
battle for the win continued and the lead changed hands 21 times before Stewart
blew up and Boat fought off Greg Ray for the win.
1999 INDIANAPOLIS 500 – Making a one-off
return to the IRL, Tony Stewart took the lead, and the next lap broke. Robby
Gordon had the lead but was running out of fuel and finally ran dry with two to
go. Thus Kenny Breck drove A.J. Foyt’s #14 to victory at the Brickyard, Super
Tex’s fifth win as either a driver or an owner. Super Tex, who always wears his
emotions on his sleeve, let loose an embarrassing but mercifully brief fit of
self-congratulation the others teased him about at the victory banquet.
1999 LONE STAR 500K – In 1991 Mark Dismore
shot off Turn Four at IMS, slammed the inside wall, exploded the car, hit the
pit wall abutment, and tumbled. He returned to race again, and in 1999 he took
the victory at Texas’ autumn event.
2000 TEXAS 500K – The IRL grabbed prestige
this June weekend. First, Eddie Cheever out dueled the field to win IROC at
Michigan. Then after an overnight rain delay, the IRL went at it in a race
unprecedented in its fury. The lead changed hands 31 times, usually among a
twelve-car phalanx racing two abreast every lap, and Scott Sharp edged out Robby
McGehee at the line. Though satellite problems interfered with the telecast,
word-of-mouth made the event well known to racing.
2000 KENTUCKY INDY 300 – The IRL debuted
at the new Kentucky speedway and things erupted on the start as Jeret Schroeder
spun and collected Elizio Salazar out of the lead, while Al Unser Jr. hit the
wall trying to avoid. Once that was cleaned up the race resumed and around
halfway the battle for the lead became a ten-lap wheel to wheel drag race.
Ultimately Buddy Lazier took the win and all but wrapped up the season title,
while rookie Sarah Fisher finished handily in the top five in a Derrick Walker
machine.
2001 TEXAS 500K – Greg Ray had won the
1999 title but had blown up a lot, a common failing of John Menard’s team, and
he had something to prove at his home track. Eddie Cheever had switched from the
Oldsmobile engine that had all but monopolized IRL to the Nissan Infiniti Indy power plant
and had won at Pikes Peak with it the previous year, so he also had something to
prove.
For a long time the event was something of
a downer, but Cheever lost a lap on some botched pit timing, made it up, and in
the final 40 laps strained to pass Greg Ray and Scott Sharp. This, though, was a
wheel to wheel fight of unexpected ferocity, and at the finish when Ray tried to
sweep under a much-slower lapped car – by a cruel irony it was Robby McGehee –
he hit McGehee and shot into Cheever’s path, leaving three wrecked racecars and
Scott Sharp back in Texas’ victory lane. The finish also led to heated words
involving Cheever and also from the league’s competition director Brian
Barnhardt.
2001 KANSAS INDY 300 – Kansas Speedway
debuted in July and the IRL proved that flatter quad-ovals are as competitive as
the high-banked Texas track. The main shootout was between Eddie Cheever and Sam
Hornish, but Elizio Salazar and Buddy Lazier also led impressively; ultimately
the lead changed 20 times and Cheever squeezed to the lead with two to go. The
win was the first super speedway win for the Infiniti engine.
2001 LONE STAR 500K – Delayed a month by
September 11, the race was a patriotic ovation with a fitting display of
competitive fireworks. If they thought June 2000 couldn’t be topped, they saw
differently.
So what accounts for the IRL’s greater
competitiveness on "cookie-cutter" quad-ovals? Several things –
Better grip – the cars stick so well they
can run multiple grooves, and their setups don’t change that much.
Better tires – Firestone is the league’s
tire supplier. Their shoes are wider than stock car tires and allow drivers to
lean on them more, plus there were no problems of any kind all season long – a
marked contrast to the miserable quality of NASCAR Goodyears.
Better drafting – the drag is enough that
the draft kicks in and the cars can suck up on and pass one another. There was,
though, an aero-push problem for two races – Kentucky and Chicagoland – after
IRL mandated a higher rear-wing angle for more drag and slower speeds. That,
though, was solved at Texas. The league, though, should keep its eye on it next
year on the flatter quad-ovals like Kansas.
Better driver incentive – who seriously
believes that modern NASCAR drivers truly have the drive to race? From the
endless whining about schedules, etc. the lack of incentive in modern NASCAR is
palpable. Such is not the case in IRL, where the risk of car contact is far
greater and with a greater price to pay, yet its drivers never hesitate to try
and pinch each other off enough to hold the lead or take it, and where they race
all out for the win lap after lap.
Time was that NASCAR also had these
qualities, but between the cars, the excessive amount of money that has dulled
driver incentive, and everything else, the competitiveness of NASCAR has staled.
It can be brought back; it has to be.
When/whether it is, nonetheless, the IRL
can remain proud of the competitive quality they presently possess.
"(Billy France) doesn’t talk to me
much anymore…."
Generally I ignore Ed
Hinton’s pieces, and that gratuitous little piece of self-back-patting is
part of the reason why. Even that, though, is much even for Ed. The crux of the
larger piece, however, shows why Hinton is a jerk and is not worth provision of
the time of day.
"NASCAR would be a vastly different
organization today if (Humpy) Wheeler were in charge….." How would it be
different? "There likely would be several ethnic minority drivers by now,
and the grandstands would not be seas of white." As if any of that matters,
and is it some kind of crime if the grandstands are "seas of white?"
"Head-and-neck restraints would be
mandatory for drivers…." as if the rash of concussions doesn’t telegraph
a basic ineffectiveness with these collars.
"….energy-absorbing materials would
already be on the fronts of cars." And like the bulk of the media, Hinton
has not done his homework and kept tabs on the beloved Humpy Bumper since
Charlotte’s test of the device for the media. Speedway Scene has, and noted in
mid-September that the device has fared poorly since that photo-op and that its
data is garbage. Mike Snow also challenged Paul Lew to come out with numbers in
the inevitable event that NASCAR would be charged with "dragging its
feet" on the device.
"Soft walls likely would be much
further along in development…and the research would be open to the media and
the public." And the failure of the concept of soft walls would not change.
In July Roberto Moreno crashed at Michigan and hit a soft wall barrier, and CART
said he’d have been killed by it were it not for the HANS he wore – i.e. one
hyper-hyped "safety" device worked because another hyper-hyped
"safety" device isn’t safe after all. Few noticed the supreme irony
involved.
"It’s the same thing….it’s the
stiff fronts of the cars…simple as that," Wheeler said. No, Humpy, it
isn’t the stiff fronts of the cars – it is the SPEED of the cars. They are five
seconds a lap too fast at all your tracks. Even you have acknowledged that they
are too fast on some occasions in the past. Your bumper is a flawed treatment of
the symptoms; the HANS is a flawed treatment of the symptoms. The disease is the
speed of the racecars. They run 180+ at Charlotte where 160 and less is
sufficient for that class of racing automobile – why are you not addressing this
area?
The same question ought to be asked of Ed
Hinton, but he goes on with his hagiography of Humpy. "NASCAR is vastly
different today than it might have been had Wheeler not been there."
How? "He brought night racing to super speedways…"
and wound up hurting local short tracks without improving the quality of super speedway
racing at all.
"He gave America Dale
Earnhardt." Yawn.
"NASCAR grandstands today might still
be wooden bleachers. It was Wheeler and Smith who at Charlotte erected towering
grandstands, made the grounds a virtual park, vastly enhanced creature
comforts….." Ha! Richard Howard is the one who did all that, and he knew
not to overdo it. All Bruton and Humpy did was price Charlotte out of a lot of
people’s reach. And the palatial grossness of the place lacks the earthier charm
of "wooden bleacher" tracks.
"They continued luxury-for-legions
concepts at Texas, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Bristol, and Sonoma." And none of
those places are any better for it.
At his worst, Humpy is a stupid blowhard.
His fight with NBC over sponsor airtime freeloading was reportedly called an embarrassment
for the sport by Billy France. Indeed it was, and his safety "crusade"
has less to it than meets the eye.
About the only good idea Humpy and Bruton
ever had is the Performance Racing Network – everything else can be taken or
left. And Ed Hinton should know why Billy France doesn’t talk to him – who in
his right mind would waste their breath on him?
Another stupid controversy centered on
Sterling Marlin’s aborted victory lap. Few noticed that the IRL did the exact
same thing with Sam Hornish at the end of their race. Fewer have also noticed
the tackiness, boring quality, and useless value of these "special"
victory laps – the clockwise laps, the burnouts, the Zanardi bootleg turnouts –
aka donuts – and so forth. Why a simple, basic victory lap is not sufficient
anymore is beyond rational thought. Marlin got to wave the flag in victory lane
– that ought to have been enough.