A year of spectacular surprises continued Sunday at the Brickyard when Paul Menard … Yes, Paul Menard … kissed the bricks after winning the Brickyard 400. Overall, Indy had a race with a 3 Star Rating, but a 5 Star storyline.
Wow. Was that race even real? Is this season even real? The variety of drivers visiting Victory Lane is reaching epic proportions. Menard became the 14th different winner in just 20 races this season.
We’ve had several of the regulars make their visit and others snap long losing streaks, but we’ve also seen new drivers.
Regan Smith, David Ragan and Menard have shown steady progress of late and the win culminated a long stretch of improvement, but for years it felt like these guys were never going to win. Their job was to challenge the winners but never really factor into the win. All of a sudden they are all factors and could bring new faces to the Chase.
Regardless, Menard’s win at the Brickyard is a stunner. This was the low-performing, family funded, way too long sideburned driver of the brightest car in the field. Menard has always been the butt of jokes, but Sunday his butt was in the air as he made NASCAR’s most famous kiss at the finish line at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
What an incredible season this is becoming. The action on the track has been curiously tame the past several months, but at the end somebody new comes to the front and is able to hold onto the lead, or at least hang in the top 10 for a good finish.
Interestingly, several teams have made crew chief changes in a year where a crew chief has to make a strategy call almost every race that either puts his driver at the front or relegates him to the back of the field.
There’s also no reason to think this type of racing will change any time soon. The series hasn’t been to a track outside of Daytona in months where it hasn’t been incredibly difficult to pass, the tires continue to show little drop-off in speeds week after week and there have been very few late-race cautions.
These ingredients continue to produce a race where strategy determines where a driver finishes nearly as much as the quality of his car. It will be interesting to see if some of the regular suspects start to rack up wins as the series returns to tracks for a second time.
Overall, Indy was typical Indy until the crazy circumstances that developed at the end. It’s amazing that one of the longest tracks on the schedule can also be one of the most difficult to pass. The speeds are so high entering a corner with only one groove that drivers rarely even attempt to race side-by-side. If they do, it usually results in a big wreck. That was the case Sunday when four drivers thought they could make it through Turn 3 four-wide.
Anyway, next week it’s back to the ever-exciting Pocono Raceway. Now that Menard has a win, the Race to the Chase is on as three drivers are now eligible for the two wild-card spots. The next month or so will be fun to watch that battle continue to develop. Have a good week, everybody.
Showing posts with label Brickyard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brickyard. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Nationwide Series move to Brickyard a bad deal
Another short track bites the dust as the Nationwide Series will move its race to the Brickyard in 2012.
The Nationwide Series had run at the short track, originally known as Indianapolis Raceway Park, across town in Indianapolis since the series was created in 1982. Now, it might not return.
The Nationwide Series will run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 28, 2012, the day before the Brickyard 400.
What were NASCAR and everybody else involved thinking? Surely this deal was driven by the prospects of making more money. The purse will likely be larger for a race at the big track and the seating capacity is substantially larger, but this is a bad deal in every way other than money.
Since the Sprint Cup Series first came to Indianapolis in 1994, the Brickyard 400 has been one of those special races on the motorsports schedule. Any race at Indy is a big deal, but that’s also because only the best get to race there.
Having only the Sprint Cup cars compete once a year on the 2.5-mile speedway kept the Brickyard 400 as an exclusive event. Sure, it will be a special moment for whoever wins in the Nationwide Series at the track, but it waters down the weekend, especially since most of the regular contenders in the Nationwide Series are Cup drivers anyway.
Another negative is the fact that the Nationwide Series is kicking a great short track to the curb. That move will only perpetuate the bland reputation the series has as a knock-off version of the Sprint Cup Series. Many of the drivers are the same in both series, the cars look very similar and most of the tracks are the same.
The Nationwide Series had a cool deal at the short track. Indianapolis Raceway Park was one of the only remaining short tracks that still had a bit of the country fair feel to it. Plus, the racing was usually close and exciting. It was a unique place. The Nationwide race at the Brickyard will be little more than just another tandem race weekend, especially when the novelty wears off.
In some ways, this is just another case of NASCAR’s eternal longing to reach big markets. NASCAR got tracks in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Kansas City, and for years it wanted to put tracks up by Seattle and New York.
Thankfully we didn’t get another bland 1.5-mile track from those deals. At least this week’s race in Kentucky is a little closer to traditional NASCAR markets, even if they might not be as big. Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Motor Speedway is already sold out.
Now that the decision has been made to move the Nationwide race, it will be tough to bring the series back to the short track. No matter how boring the race is on the big track, there will always be a Nationwide race the day before the Sprint Cup race from here on out.
Even if the Nationwide Series would return, it would be on a different weekend and would lose the excitement of having racing throughout the weekend in the same city, but at completely different racetracks. That’s also part of what made the Indianapolis weekend special. Only a big-time racing city would have two races on the same weekend at different tracks.
So, savor the upcoming Indianapolis race weekend July 30-31, because it will likely be the last time it stands out as a weekend that is different than any other weekend.
The Indy race weekend will still important simply because it’s Indy, but it won’t be the same.
The Nationwide Series had run at the short track, originally known as Indianapolis Raceway Park, across town in Indianapolis since the series was created in 1982. Now, it might not return.
The Nationwide Series will run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 28, 2012, the day before the Brickyard 400.
What were NASCAR and everybody else involved thinking? Surely this deal was driven by the prospects of making more money. The purse will likely be larger for a race at the big track and the seating capacity is substantially larger, but this is a bad deal in every way other than money.
Since the Sprint Cup Series first came to Indianapolis in 1994, the Brickyard 400 has been one of those special races on the motorsports schedule. Any race at Indy is a big deal, but that’s also because only the best get to race there.
Having only the Sprint Cup cars compete once a year on the 2.5-mile speedway kept the Brickyard 400 as an exclusive event. Sure, it will be a special moment for whoever wins in the Nationwide Series at the track, but it waters down the weekend, especially since most of the regular contenders in the Nationwide Series are Cup drivers anyway.
Another negative is the fact that the Nationwide Series is kicking a great short track to the curb. That move will only perpetuate the bland reputation the series has as a knock-off version of the Sprint Cup Series. Many of the drivers are the same in both series, the cars look very similar and most of the tracks are the same.
The Nationwide Series had a cool deal at the short track. Indianapolis Raceway Park was one of the only remaining short tracks that still had a bit of the country fair feel to it. Plus, the racing was usually close and exciting. It was a unique place. The Nationwide race at the Brickyard will be little more than just another tandem race weekend, especially when the novelty wears off.
In some ways, this is just another case of NASCAR’s eternal longing to reach big markets. NASCAR got tracks in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Kansas City, and for years it wanted to put tracks up by Seattle and New York.
Thankfully we didn’t get another bland 1.5-mile track from those deals. At least this week’s race in Kentucky is a little closer to traditional NASCAR markets, even if they might not be as big. Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Motor Speedway is already sold out.
Now that the decision has been made to move the Nationwide race, it will be tough to bring the series back to the short track. No matter how boring the race is on the big track, there will always be a Nationwide race the day before the Sprint Cup race from here on out.
Even if the Nationwide Series would return, it would be on a different weekend and would lose the excitement of having racing throughout the weekend in the same city, but at completely different racetracks. That’s also part of what made the Indianapolis weekend special. Only a big-time racing city would have two races on the same weekend at different tracks.
So, savor the upcoming Indianapolis race weekend July 30-31, because it will likely be the last time it stands out as a weekend that is different than any other weekend.
The Indy race weekend will still important simply because it’s Indy, but it won’t be the same.
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