Paul Tracy threatened with fine for Tweet

There were eight caution flags in last Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto and six of them involved cars running into each other. Only one penalty was assessed — to Mike Conway for allowing his car to hit Ryan Briscoe's.

There was no investigation of Takuma Sato for rear-ending Danica Patrick or Helio Castroneves for hitting Alex Tagliani, both of which resulted in full-course cautions.

How come?

How can Castroneves get into Tagliani and spin him around and there not be an investigation? If you are going to investigate Ryan Briscoe for running into Tony Kanaan, how can you not investigate Castroneves?

Ditto for Takuma Sato.

This is the sort of thing that has many people angry about the inconsistency of officiating in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Verdict: the officiating is about as bad as it is in the NHL, and that's saying something.

Then there was the penalty/no penalty levied/not levied against eventual race winner Dario Franchitti, who collided with Will Power and spun him around.

Shortly after they crashed together, TV play-by-play announcer Bob Jenkins announced that Franchitti had been handed a drive-through penalty. Jenkins mentioned this several times and went so far as to pontificate that Franchitti would be better to take the penalty sooner rather than later because to procrastinate might end up costing him down the road.

A few minutes later, he announced that IndyCar had decided not to penalize Franchitti.

After the race, IndyCar officials said they had never called a penalty against Franchitti. In fact, Al Unser Jr., one of the officials, went on live TV to say that a penalty had not even been considered.

So what’s going on? Did Bob Jenkins dream all that stuff up, or what?

The victim of Franchitti’s aggression was Will Power. Power suggested, on live TV, that race officials had been pressured into not penalizing Franchitti.

Said Power: “IndyCar won’t penalize him because Chip Ganassi goes up there and gives it to ‘em and it’s just wrong.”

Translation: IndyCar officials are afraid of the wrath of Ganassi and don't dare penalize his drivers.

Now, somebody wrote the same thing, or words to the same effect, on Paul Tracy’s Twitter account. The name Chip Ganassi was apparently replaced by the name of Randy Bernard, the IndyCar CEO. But the message was the same: race officials were bullied into not penalizing Franchitti.

Now, Tracy denies writing that and says it was the work of a hacker. But that’s immaterial. What’s interesting is that Tracy has reportedly been threatened with a hefty fine for allegedly Tweeting the same thing that Power said on live television.

How come?

If you’re going to threaten Paul Tracy with a fine (this was reported in the Indianapolis Star, by the way), shouldn’t Will Power also be fined for saying it first on television?

All anybody wants out of IndyCar is consistency. It ain’t gettin' that anywhere.

Comments

[allenparkpete]

Or Ryan Hunter-Reay punting and I mean PUNTING Graham Rahal. Graham said it best about strapping on helmets and losing brains. We have Edmonton to look forward to for more inconsistencies. It won't affect me as I am just a race fan but as a driver or team, it sure does. Some consistency in getting the drivers to cooperate; getting the officials to make calls and getting the drivers to actually conduct a real double file re-start would help improve the race product.

[ex CART fan.]

Norris, Indy Car has become a JOKE!! just like F1 !!

I've lost all respect for Indy Car Officials
and Castroneves, he was a clean driver at one time!!

Well, there's still some good short track Racing
in Ontario for me to support !!

I wouldn't cross the street to watch either Series for free!!

[David White]

Do away with double file restarts ASAP. Otherwise we get to see
expensive bumper cars in action!

[RX7heaven]

Toronto Indy should redesign turn 1 so fewer cars DNF. Only 13 even finished but Franchitti had the class to take more than 50% of the blame for Powers racing incident. Ask the drivers for advice and build some new dedicated racetracks!

[Matti]

IMO if they want to improve the Toronto Indy, they MUST do something about turn 1, the worst corner in motorsport. Either reprofile or ad runoff area. That corner is ruining the racing and ruining the show for the spectators and that will kill the Toronto Indy.

[Brian from NB]

I stopped watching Indy Car a long time ago but thought I would give Toronto a try this year. I agree with you on the inconsistency of the officiating. But I was shocked mostly by the inability of the drivers to drive without driving into one another. The consequential 'down time' in the racing was just too much to bear. What a total waste of my time!

[flv to avi converter]

Never felt good about racing and stuff like this, i think this is too dangerous. Actually i think driving itself is dangerous, s
o...

[mkv player]

Toronto Indy is no car at all. It can't even be played with. It shut's down after the test ride. I checked it out by myself twice. Cazy feeling, huh. I feel sad for them.

[usb disc security]

Toronto Indy should redesign turn 1 so fewer cars DNF. Only 13 even finished but Franchitti had the class to take more than 50% of the blame for Powers racing incident. Ask the drivers for advice and build some new dedicated racetracks!