Opinion: Two Sanctioning Bodies at a Crossroads

You’d think it impossible, but the IZOD IndyCar Series nearly upstaged NASCAR’s best and brightest this past weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway without even staging a race. And although they didn’t quite pull it off, they certainly did their damnedest.

For one, Danica Patrick made her much-discussed return to the Nationwide Series. That wasn’t too successful, as an early-race accident put her off of the lead lap for the final 190 out of 200 laps, rendering her goal of a top-15 impossible. But Patrick did begin to grasp some things by the end of the event, and did manage to score her best career stock car finish (let’s ignore the fact that it was 30th).

The next day, the sport’s top names – CEO Randy Bernard, top driver Dario Franchitti, and SMI CEO/track mogul Bruton Smith (the man whose purchase of NHMS has greatly upgraded the facility) joined track promoter Jerry Gappens and New Hampshire governor John Lynch to announce next year’s return of the series to Loudon.

The press conference lasted nearly 30 minutes, and touched on topics from NHMS’ potential loss of a Sprint Cup race date (especially if the IndyCar event is a great success) to other potential additions to next year’s IndyCar schedule, especially other SMI tracks like Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

Dario wheeled his No. 10 Target Dallara-Honda out on the track for a few hot laps in between the national anthem and starting command for the Cup race, and although TNT’s cameras didn’t catch it, thousands of longtime NHMS ticketholders sure did. IndyCar has come a long way from where it was in 1998, the final year that NHMS hosted an open-wheel event, which was won by Tony Stewart (before he was Tony Stewart).

Granted, NASCAR sure gave IndyCar some help in the interest department as the race soldiered on. The massive gap between cautions, over 200 laps, had some taking to their Twitter accounts and praying for debris cautions. But in perhaps the greatest proof ever of the theory of relativity, the race that seemed to drag on was actually on pace to tie or eclipse the record for fastest race ever at NHMS until Juan Pablo Montoya crashed out.

All the discussion over the past few weeks about drivers lacking respect for one another vanished. Listening to Stewart apologize for getting into Kurt Busch in the media center, in a last lap battle that Busch called “fun” no less, suggested that such arguments had lost some of their bite.

And all of the hype surrounding Joe Gibbs Racing over the past month or so vanished as Kyle Busch fell back at the end, Denny Hamlin spent time off the lead lap, and defending race winner Joey Logano was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, those who wondered if Jimmie Johnson had finally lost a step were treated to a nice helping of their own words as he fought back from a poor early pit stop for the victory.

This brings NASCAR back to Daytona for its Independence Day spectacular, and at a perfect time – as the series begins to limp from the loss of new and interesting storylines, and the re-emergence of the same old song and dance up front.

IndyCar, on the other hand, heads into the second half of its season at Watkins Glen with more momentum than it’s ever had since reunification in 2008. Promoters are fighting to put their events on its schedule, chassis manufacturers are fighting to put their cars on track for 2012, and best of all, the drivers are fighting for three distinct championships, with all still very up in the air.

Next weekend’s events will be very interesting to see where momentum takes both niches of motorsport. Will NASCAR produce a story for the ages coming out of Daytona, or will IndyCar continue to nibble away at the big picture and increase its market share? We can only watch and find out.

IndyCar Returns to New Hampshire in 2011

The IZOD IndyCar Series will return to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on the weekend of July 30-31, 2011, according to an announcement made at the track yesterday.

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith, NHMS promoter Jerry Gappens, 2010 Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, and New Hampshire governor John Lynch were on hand to make the announcement.

Franchitti later performed a handful of demonstration laps on the track for fans on hand to watch the day's stock car race. Franchitti's team owner, Chip Ganassi, had a car driven by 2000 Indy winner Juan Pablo Montoya on the pole for that event.

Next year's event will mark the first NHMS IndyCar event under Smith's ownership and the first open-wheel event at the track since 1998, when Tony Stewart took the victory. It is also the fifth event on the schedule to receive a confirmed race date, taking place after Long Beach (April 17), Sao Paulo (May 1), and Indianapolis (May 29), and before Baltimore (August 7) in the season. During the press conference, Smith also referred to an event in Kentucky on Labor Day weekend, suggesting that it will retain its place on the schedule next year.

Other events with existing race contracts include St. Petersburg, Iowa, Infineon, and Barber. Events rumored to return to the schedule include Phoenix, Las Vegas (an SMI track), Milwaukee, Cleveland, Houston, and Detroit. New events in Quebec City and Qingdao, China, have also been discussed.

Watch the entire press conference here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeuhH0xCTgE

Hunter-Reay Returns To Glen

Ryan Hunter-Reay has confirmed on his Twitter account that he will be competing for Andretti Autosport in the Camping World Grand Prix of the Glen on July 4:

Also thrilled to get the news I'll be racing at the Glen! Not many details yet, at least I know I'll be driving.Thx Michael! @FollowAndretti

Hunter-Reay's first IZOD IndyCar Series win came at Watkins Glen in 2008, when he held off Darren Manning for the victory. Hunter-Reay currently sits seventh in series points, with one win, coming at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Hunter-Reay's car carried sponsorship from IZOD in the first handful of races this season. The American ethanol industry, Hunter-Reay's sponsor at the Glen when he won two years ago, backed the team at Iowa. Other companies to appear on the car thus far this year include IES, Snapple, and Virgin Mobile.

The announcement also confirms that Adam Carroll will be a teammate of, and not a replacement for, Hunter-Reay in an Andretti Autosport car. Carroll will drive the No. 27 Boost Mobile Dallara-Honda in a limited schedule from Watkins Glen onward.

Tracy in for Watkins Glen

Paul Tracy will become the third driver to replace Mike Conway in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara-Honda in the July 4 Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen. Tracy succeeds Tomas Scheckter (Texas) and Graham Rahal (Iowa) in driving the car after Conway's Indianapolis 500 incident.

Tracy has not yet started an event this season, having failed to qualify his KV Racing Technology car for the Indianapolis 500 in some classic Bump Day drama. It is unknown whether Tracy's Indy sponsor, Geico, will help support his Watkins Glen endeavor. Tracy will return to KV for the series' Canadian races, meaning DRR may have a fourth driver in the No. 24 for those two events.

Other than the revolving door of race car drivers in the No. 24, this season has been solid for DRR. New addition Justin Wilson has put their No. 22 car eighth in points, on the strength of second-place finishes at St. Petersburg and Long Beach. Conway had three top-10s before his injury. Scheckter and Ana Beatriz helped qualify all four DRR cars for the Indy 500 on Pole Day, and each has posted respectable results for the team. Three of the four DRR cars actually led laps in this year's 500, by far a team best and a huge difference from 2009's struggles.

Some may wonder what the signing of Tracy means for Rahal, who has struggled to find rides all year due to a lack of sponsorship. But one of the series' best American drivers may not be out of luck yet. DRR has discussed fielding its No. 23 for Rahal at Watkins Glen, and he may be a lock to return to the car for the series' Canadian rounds, owing to his track experience in Champ Car and IndyCar.

IndyCar Race Review: Iowa Corn Indy 250

Tony Kanaan ended a 34-race winless drought and Michael Andretti won his second race of the season after a winless 2009 as the IZOD IndyCar Series finished its first oval segment of the 2010 season with today's Iowa Corn Indy 250.

It was the 15th career open-wheel win for Kanaan, his first since Richmond in 2008, and the first time that the Brazilian did not suffer a race-ending accident in an Iowa event. He led 62 laps, holding the point for the first time since Chicago last year.

It also marked the second race win at Iowa for Andretti Autosport, and their first since the inaugural event in 2007 with Dario Franchitti. However, neither Franchitti nor the other Andretti cars had quite the same amount of success as Kanaan; Franchitti's transmission gave out late in the race, dropping him to 18th, while the other three Andretti cars of Ryan Hunter-Reay (8th), Danica Patrick (10th), and Marco Andretti (15th) fell off the lead lap.

Helio Castroneves held the lead with as few as a dozen laps to go, but Kanaan positioned himself perfectly for the victory, conserving 11 of his 24 allotted overtake assists for the final 11 laps. Castroneves had nine assists remaining, but they were not enough; with each assist lasting about halfway around the 7/8 mile track, Kanaan could run with extra horsepower for about the entire final segment of the race.

Castroneves had encountered issues with Kanaan earlier in the race, coming very close to his countryman on pit road early in the race. Castroneves was stuck between Kanaan and Scott Dixon racing out of the pits, overcorrected to avoid Kanaan's left rear and careened into Dixon, giving both cars a little air. Kanaan also had a pit incident with Hunter-Reay as the American pulled into his pit.

E.J. Viso finished third, salvaging one solid finish for KV Racing Technology. Mario Moraes became a victim of Justin Wilson's turn three spin at the beginning of the event, eliminating one of the three KV cars before anybody could even get into a rhythm. Takuma Sato, in the lead Lotus-sponsored KV car, had a fantastic run going before trailing Alex Lloyd too closely into the turns on lap 177, losing the air off his car, and sliding up into the wall.

Iowa also featured support races that went all the way down the Road to Indy ladder. In Firestone Indy Lights, former Andretti driver Sebastien Saavedra held off his replacement, Martin Plowman, for the victory. Conor Daly led all 100 laps of the Star Mazda race for his fourth consecutive victory in that series, and Sage Karam (also driving for Andretti) won his third US Formula 2000 event of the season.

IndyCar Race Preview: Iowa Corn Indy 250

First of all, a huge thank you to George Phillips over at Oil Pressure for the shout-out in his preview of this weekend's race. George's blog is one of the best and most insightful IndyCar blogs out there, and one of my personal favorites. Check out "Are Engine Failures Always a Bad Thing?" for an example of the high quality posts on the site.

Getting to the event at hand this weekend, the Iowa Corn Indy 250 will mark the fourth IZOD IndyCar Series event at the 7/8 mile Iowa Speedway. Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 10 Dallara-Honda has won the past two events, with Dan Wheldon taking the checkers in 2008 and Dario Franchitti last year. Points leader Franchitti, who also won the event in 2007, can use the weekend to open up a gap in points over second-place Will Power, whose only Iowa experience yielded a ninth-place finish. Meanwhile, teammate Scott Dixon has a solid average finish of 6.3 at the track with two top five finishes.

But Iowa has the potential to produce a surprise winner, even if it hasn't happened yet in the race's three-year history. In two races at the track, Hideki Mutoh has finishes of second and third place, respectively. His prowess at the track could lead to a bump for his Newman/Haas Racing team, as they are mired at 18th in points. But a strong finish for Mutoh, combined with some bad luck for his immediate leaders in points, could mathematically elevate him to as high as 12th.

While Ganassi usually takes the checkers, Andretti Autosport also knows its way around Iowa. Andretti cars finished 1-2 in 2007, had three drivers in the top six in 2008, and a best finish of third last year with Mutoh. Tony Kanaan led 48 laps last year before a crash took him out of the event, and Marco Andretti has challenged for the win at Iowa multiple times in the past. An Andretti car could feasibly end Ganassi's streak of wins at the track come Sunday.

It will also be interesting to see how a handful of drivers will approach the Iowa event this weekend. What will Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal do with their one-week reprieves to get back in the series? Hunter-Reay has sponsorship from the American ethanol industry once again, a partnership that paid dividends in the past, and Rahal will replace the injured Mike Conway at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Both drivers will want solid finishes to secure rides as early as possible for Watkins Glen.

How will Simona de Silvestro handle her first race after the Texas wreck? This has nothing to do with the fact that de Silvestro was cleared to drive just a couple of days after the incident. A bad crash like that can alter a driver's psyche, and make them less willing to engage in daring maneuvers on the track. If de Silvestro begins to fear another fiery wreck - as most of us would - she might be slow on this, one of the trickier tracks in the IZOD IndyCar Series. It will be interesting to see how she runs this weekend.

Finally, will there be a breakout rookie at Iowa? Mutoh sure was in 2008, finishing second, but more often than not, rookies populate the bottom of the results. Iowa's unconventional length and layout prove tricky for the series' less experienced drivers and veterans alike, but the added caveat of Iowa being the only short track on the schedule could cause plenty of headaches for inexperienced drivers who haven't handled the Dallaras on smaller tracks. Expect about half of this year's rookie class to tear up some equipment.

Human Errors Led to de Silvestro Fire

When the Indy Racing League bought out the assets of the former Champ Car World Series before the 2008 season, the league gained nine new teams, a handful of races, and the rights to the entire history of championship car open-wheel racing in the United States. More importantly, they gained the rights to Champ Car's Holmatro Safety Team, a staple at every event and one of its most important assets as a racing series.

Since 2008, the Holmatro Safety Team has been a cherished part of the IZOD IndyCar Series, gaining a reputation for a generally stellar job at cleaning up crash sites and attending to drivers. However, when Simona de Silvestro crashed into the outside wall in the June 6 Firestone 550k at Texas Motor Speedway, the team took nearly a full minute to get her out of the burning car. This unacceptable response, though a rare and outstanding incident in years of service, led to a league-mandated inquiry into what went wrong.

Today's findings, released by the league and track safety coordinator Mike Yates, cited two key errors that led de Silvestro to languish in the car for so long. The first was a procedural error in the packing of the fire hose, leading to its malfunction. The second was a failure to take pressurized water canisters and Cold Fire to the car before utilizing the hose.

The failure of the safety crew to follow this protocol, as well as the malfunction of the hose, meant that de Silvestro was trapped alive in her burning vehicle. Eventually, Safety Team members had to physically rip her from the vehicle, not an easy task given the HANS device and other implements designed to keep a driver safe in the event of a major accident.

Luckily for the Swiss Rookie of the Year candidate, she only suffered a burned hand and was cleared to drive again the following day. Her helmet was also charred in the incident. This report by Indianapolis' WISH-TV showcases the remains of her helmet. (Thanks to 16th and Georgetown for the link.)

After the review, the Holmatro Safety Team will address all protocol in preparation for this weekend's Iowa Corn Indy 250. The way in which the fire hose is mounted will also be altered from this point forward. The Indy Racing League, IZOD IndyCar Series, and Holmatro Safety Team expect nothing less than another stellar weekend in Iowa, with the Safety Team handling any and all incidents with the same level of skill and professionalism as they have in almost every situation in the past.