Horrendous Indy car crash in Vegas -- Update: RIP Dan Wheldon

Indy road racing has always seemed to me to be an oxymoron. Indy stood for high speed, banked racing. Road racing means no passing, slow racing (I know F1 is huge in Europe and they road race).

 

Why does Indy stand for banked racing when Indianapolis itself hardly has any banking at all in comparison to other ovals?

That oval-only ship sailed 40 years ago. IndyCar has been splitting road courses and ovals since the 70s. Ask Tony George how having an all-oval series went. And also, ask the former CART owners how going all-road course went too.

Balance is the desired result.

 

In 2012 all cars will have the same new bodies. Different bodies have been pushed back to 2013. There will be different engines next year but everyone will have the same bodies. New cars can't hurt because IndyCar has been a spec series since 2006.

 

I wasn't pointing to Earnhardt's death as the only reason for a ratings spike, sorry if it appeared that way. It was just one factor. Mainstream newscasts, papers and magazines played it up big, including the cover of Time. I honestly don't know if there's a way to measure how many people tuned into the NASCAR race at Rockingham the next week due to hearing about Earnhardt's death, but I've got to think some people were new fans tuning in because they'd heard about the death. IndyCar won't get any such spike because of the long off-season.
MMII is exactly right, Wheldon's name doesn't have the resonance with the casual fan as Earnhardt. Plus, at the time of his death Earnhardt had just started associations with national names like Oreo, Hershey's, Motorola and Sonic. I had seen the name of Wheldon's sponsor for several years but had no idea what it was until reading about it post-Indy win.

 

In addition, the season had already started when Indy took place. Penske and Ganassi weren't going to fire a driver mid-season to sign a driver who struggled on road courses. Wheldon wasn't going to take just any ride, since he didn't want to damage his reputation by posting subpar results in subpar equipment.
Also, Wheldon had been with Ganassi three years (2006-08) but didn't have the great results everyone expected, especially in 2008 when his teammate won the title. There was an ugly breakup and Wheldon landed at Panther Racing for two years, a definite step down. Aside from back-to-back seconds at Indy, that relationship didn't yield much.
Add that to the factors Layman mentioned and Wheldon was on the outside looking in. I thought he was excellent as a TV commentator and he was poised to take over Danica's ride at Andretti, which is probably about the third-best IndyCar team.

 

Jimmie Johnson apparently is now an open-wheel expert. He seems to think the Indy 500 should go away, at least as an IndyCar race.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20111017/SPORTS0107/111017015/NASCAR-champ-Jimmie-Johnson-says-IndyCar-should-quit-racing-ovals

Seriously, Jimmie? :

 

Did he say anything that was incorrect?

In particular, was this incorrect?

"Their average was 225? I've never been 225 mph in my life - and that's their average around an oval. They are brave men and women that drive those things," Johnson said. "There's very little crumple zone around the driver, it's an open cockpit and then you add open wheels - it's just creating situations to get the car off the ground at a high rate of speed. And you can't control the car when it's off the ground."

I'm sorry, but 225 mph is way too fast for cars like that. Johnson is right.

 

If you think 225 these days is bad, consider the days when they drove in cars where they sat in the middle just as they do now, but on the left and right sides, drivers were surrounded by their gas tanks.

 

Now I think I'm gonna be a little sicker about this whole thing. One of the first things I see in my email box is a release from "Extra!" boasting of its exclusive interview with Wheldon ... sent less than six hours after he was pronounced!

Apologies to those on this board in flackery (hey, you're on this board, you're a person with good taste), but I think this is a big too ghoulish. Anyone in my area want to see this? As the saying goes, check local listings.

 

Sir Jackie came out and hit the IRL pretty hard, as did Mark Blundell.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/17/sport/motorsport/motorsport-f1-stewart-wheldon/

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/british-driver-a-true-champion-16064799.html

 

Scheckter's dad absolutely slammed IRL.