Team Meeting; Weekend in Review: We Shall Not Return Edition

NASCAR: Well, the opening to the Chase has been delayed, so I’ll try and post a “Team Meeting; Weekend in Review: Monday Update” later for it.

Cup drive won Cup lite.  It was Brad Keselowski so I guess that’s a little better than Busch or Edwards or Harvick.  But seriously Brad, just focus on winning your first Cup, not beating up 2nd level drivers.

Austin Dillon won the Truck race, preventing it from turning into Cup Zero.

The closing of KHI is still shocking to me.  They seemed like a team with such a bright future.  I fully expected them to be a winning Cup team by the time Harvick retired.  And after this year it’s all over?  WTF.

In some unexpected news all the Chase races except Charlotte will be broadcast online via Turner.  That means you’ll get to watch online, and better yet, not through the worthless ESPN3 site!

Brad Keselowski started a twitter war by claiming NASCAR was “more competitive” than Indycar.  This was in response to Dan Wheldon’s comments after the Vegas announcement.  This started a massive twitter war between Indycar and NASCAR fans.  Since I follow both my loyalties are split.  While it’s easy to jump down Brad Keselowski’s throat as another un-informed NASCAR driver, he might be right.  Certainly, if he’s talking about parity when he used the word competitive, he’s right.   87.5%.  That’s the percentage of races over the last 3 years Penske and Ganassi have won.  Prior to this year, it was over 90% between 09/10.    Add Andretti (4 wins over 3 years, 3rd most) and it’s almost 96%!  Since 2009, the only 2 teams to get a win outside of the “Big Three” are Herta and Coyne.  Each with 1 win.  As well remember that both this year and last year, the Red Car’s have been able to hold down the entire top 5 during multiple races.  Once this year, it was the same top 5 (all Penske/Ganassi) that qualified 1-5 that finished the race 1-5 in the exact same order.  That’s what you call parity.  Or not.

Yes, you can argue NASCAR has more teams and more races.  You can try and play around with the percents to make Indycar look better.  The fact is, on any given weekend over any given season, you’re favorite NASCAR driver (excluding Start and Parks) has a lot better odds of winning than your favorite Indycar driver, unless you happen to be a huge fan of a driver on Penske or Ganassi.  Look at the tale of cars numbered 78 (Regan Smith/Simona De Silvestro)… one has a win and one doesn’t.

Indycar:  Twin Ring Motegi.  I’ve devoted mutliple articles to this subject.  The main point of contention was whether it would produce good racing or not. I argued it wouldn’t, others tried to present more positive viewpoints.  I got some critisism, here and on twitter, for not being more optimistic and excited about the potential for a great race at Motegi.  And guess who ended up being correct???  Just saying.

In no way could Motegi have been called a good race.  Dixon pretty much led the entire thing with Power in 2nd.  They paraded around for most of the race, occasionally stopping to wreck.  Once in awhile someone in mid pack passed another car on track, but that was rare.  Speaking of double file restarts and starts, there were none.  I had the pleasure of explaining that one to a NASCAR fan on twitter.

Insanity. That’s what seems to run rampant in  Indycar race control.  This is out of hand.  Going back to NASCAR fans, a few who I follow on twitter who watched where shocked and horrified by the lack of sanity among Indycar’s wonderful Race Control group.  The way they decide penalties, trying to take into account whether a driver’s been “punished enough” or will be punished by his/her team owners is insane.  It leads to absolutly no consistancy.  I’m no fan of an avoidable contact penalty, but how does Dario get one type of penalty and someone at Baltimore get a harsher one?  Is Race Control trying to gift wrap a title to the Scottish Douche?

The only decent thing about the race was Dario crashing into Briscoe.  It’s ashame he was able to avoid losing a lap and work, through attrition, back up to 9th.  Oh well, I hope the golden horseshoe is gone and has been given to someone else.

Actually there was one other decent thing about the race.  The TV broadcast crew basically stopped self-censoring themselves and said whatever came across their minds.  It was past midnight, about 5 people were watching, and they had no control over the camera’s.  So there were effectively no limits.  Which was a great thing because otherwise no one would have been awake for the finish.  Comments ranged from blasting Race Control to discussing a late night run to White Castle.  One of them (Jenkins, I think) yelled out “I’m not Drunk” as they talked about running to White Castle, and how it’s mainly done when you’re drunk.  So we at least had that.

On the other hand, the Japanese should never be allowed to run the camera’s at the race track.  They are more obsessed with Mutoh and Sato than ESPN is with Danica.  Just spend the extra cash and send the regular crew over.  Or don’t go at all.  Because no one in the US want’s to spend half the race watching Sato and Mutoh.

The moral of the weekend?  No 2am races.  One thing I found a little disturbing was how many Indycar fans on twitter seemed to want to have Indycar continue at Motegi, even though it’s never produced good racing, oval or road course.  And it creates a 3-4 week gap in the schedule where Indycar get’s zero media coverage in the US!  So please for the love of god, no racing in China!

Or Detroit!  Schedule Watch continues with bad news.  Belle Isle rumors continue to grow.  As I’ve said earlier, better not be any state or city money.  Especially state.  If the State of Michigan cannot afford to pay out their scholarships to college students, welfare to the unemployed during a major economic crisis, and money for schools and teachers, (according to our Governor, who believes we can afford tax cuts to the rich and to major corporations) then they had better not be giving Roger some money for a parade on an island.  Sorry for the political soapbox, but combing Champcarification and politics, and you’re entering some dangerous territory.

Danica started a major fight over some comments she made earlier this week.  I really didn’t find them offensive.  Others however flipped out.  I even heard one person accuse her of being “xenophobic”.   See for yourself.   The comment “I didn’t start like a Brazilian” really seemed to upset people, including Tony Kanaan.  But again, I don’t see what the big deal is.  I mean, go read anyone’s interviews, and unless they’re completely vanillia (RE: Johnson) there’s going to be an equal if not greater amount of controversial comments in them. If you really want to read a happy, friendly interviews (note the sarcasm) go read one from Tony Stewart, Kurt  Busch, Casey Stoner, or Dario Franchitti.  If you’re unhappy with Danica then you’d better be chewing those four out week in, week out.   Stoner and Dario are apt to whine in victory lane while Stewart and Busch will chew out and potentially attack a member of the media after a bad day.

It is a little concerning though to hear her comments.  It would be a major disaster for Indycar if she leaves by throwing Indycar under the bus.  Because Danica’s words are the main ones a “casual” fan will hear about Indycar…

MotoGP:  As much as I love MotoGP and ridicule Indycar for producing bad road racing, this week’s GP was about as bad as Motegi’s Indycar race.  No fuel mileage racing, though.  The fact Rossi had to start from pitlane did nothing to help add to the excitement.  Stoner won pole and went on to win the race without a challange.  Pedrossa had no real challange for 2nd.  Spies ran 3rd for awhile until a worn tire caused him to tumble to 5th, behind Lorenzo (3rd) and Simoncelli (4th).  Rossi recovered to 10th.

The engine rule needs to go.   Limiting engines per season was suppose to save cost and increase parity.  Uh huh.  Ask Ducati how much help that has been.  All it does is force riders to race on worn engines, or in the case of Ducati and Rossi, start from pitlane.  Not good for the racing, not good for the fans.  It’s not just this one.  The “fuel limits” were also suppose to save money and increase parity and it has done the opposite.  Same with banning testing and limiting trackside practice.  Suppose to save money and increase competition, in reality, hurts those things.

Honda will enter two of their test riders into Motegi.  So we’ll have 19 bikes if everyone remains un-injured.

According to his twitter account, Stefan Bradl will join Tech 3 for the next three years.  The first in Moto2 and the next two in MotoGP

Unlimited Racing Championship:  Not everyone likes the URC.  While I understand it’s just a club series, what I’m hoping for is that the concept eventually get’s expanded into the ALMS. Because it’s a lot better than seeing 2 prototypes or the stupid LMC/Daytona Prototypes.

Closing Comment: I hate Honda.  I mean this in both the MotoGP and Indycar sense.  Can you say Evil Empire?  Everyone says you should support Honda because they supported Indycar… so driving GM and Toyota out is supporting Indycar?  In MotoGP they may have been with Hayden for his title but they’ve brought us Pedrossa.  Hopefully next year Yamaha and Ducati in GP and Lotus and Chevy in Indycar bring down the Empire.  To use a Pressdog reference, blow up the Death Star!

The Unlimited Racing Championship: Can Am Returns! (Sort of)

Can Am.  The name brings up a lot of memories for the more historic focused race fans.  I’m not that history focused but I do like the idea of racing going “retro.”  The newly announced Unlimited Racing Championship does just that by bringing the old Can Am style cars back with the NuArt Can Am cars.  700Hp big block V8′s will be coming to a road course near you.  This is about everything you could want out of a new sports car concept.  It’s one of the best looking race cars that will be seen in 2012.

If there’s one complaint it is that this doesn’t look like it’ll be a “professional” racing series.  Hopefully if the ALMS doesn’t see a significant increase in real prototypes for 2012 they’ll consider adopting this for 2013.  Because this looks like the solution to the prototype problem.  It’s a way to get a lower cost prototype that is not a dumbed down Daytona Prototype.  The American Le Mans Series is partnered with this, so there is a reason to be hopeful.  If they go to Gingerman Raceway in Michigan I’ll definitely try and make it over there to see them.  With luck these cars will be put into Forza 4, if not out of the box, then in a downloadable content expansion.