At the media conference in Indianapolis yesterday to promote Dan Wheldon’s addition to the field for the season-ending IZOD IndyCar Series race at Las Vegas in mid-October, Wheldon tried to stir the pot a bit by taking a shot at NASCAR.
After IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard’s offer of a $5-million bonus to any non-regular series driver to beat indyCar’s best at the last race of the season crashed and burned, Wheldon was picked as a compromise.
The winner of this year’s Indy 500, who hasn't raced since, will have to start from the back of the field and, should he win, have to split the prize with some lucky fan.
"When you look at the depth of the field in the IZOD IndyCar Series right now, it's full of talent. So it's certainly going to be harder to come to the front than in recent years," Wheldon said. "When you consider the talent level of the grid, I think quite honestly, it far outweighs NASCAR."
Not quite, Dan. Nice try, but your assumption is not correct.
IndyCar has 45 drivers listed on its website and I count 28 of them as being qualified to win a race. (Dario Franchitti is qualified, Charlie Kimball is not. And so-on) That is a percentage of approximately 60 per cent.
NASCAR has 40 drivers listed on its website and I count 27 of them as being qualified. (Jimmie Johnson is qualified, Casey Mears is not. Etc.) That is a percentage of approximately 62 per cent.
So, it’s close – but NASCAR still comes out on top.
And, as we all know, just about all the open wheelers who’ve tried to race stock cars in recent years – Franchitti, Sam Hornish, et al – have not done particularly well. Robby Gordon and A.J. Allmendinger are exceptions and Danica Patrick might eventually past the test too.
Now, none of the current generation of NASCAR drivers has tried to switch careers and drive Indy cars (although Carl Edwards came close a few years ago to entering an Indy Lights race) so it’s difficult to make comparisons.
However, 40 years ago, back in the late 1960s and early 70s, some of the top stock car names of the day would periodically try Indy cars and, when all was said and done, they acquitted themselves quite well.
Carl Yarborough, for instance, ran the Indianapolis 500 four times and drove full-time in the USAC National Championship Series (complete with Confederate flag flying from his pit) in 1970 through 1972, although he never ran a full season. His best finish at Indy was a tenth and his best qualifying run saw him start 14th.
Others included the Allison brothers, Donnie and Bobby, who both tried the 500 several times with Donnie finishing fourth in 1970. Lee Roy Yarbrough qualified eighth in 1969 , finishing 23rd.
The fact that they race-drove as well as they did is remarkable because none crashed and none failed to qualify. While none of them won, they weren’t running in particularly good equipment, being one-offs.
However, to even make the lineup for the Indy 500 in those days was a major accomplishment because the cream of the crop from all forms of motorsport used to show up at the Brickyard.
For instance, in 1970, you had seasoned Indy car competitors like Bobby and Al Unser and Mario Andretti, short track oval stars like Sammy Sessions, Mel Kenyon and Gordon Johncock, Formula One stars like Jack Brabham, Dan Gurney and Peter Revson, sports car racers like Jerry Grant, Rick Muther and George Follmer, dirt mile oval pilots like Gary Bettenhausen and Greg Weld and on and on.
It was tough to just get in the race, which is not the case today.
But the Allisons, Yarborough and Yarbrough gave it a shot and they did it, which is something not many Indy car drivers going the other way can boast about today.
It’s something Dan Wheldon should take into consideration the next time he goes looking for headlines.
P.S. I’m an Indy car fan and I will watch the race. I hope it’s successful and that the series gets a lot of positive publicity.
But for Wheldon, and the series, it’s a gamble.
If he wins, if he actually carves his way through the field and collects the $5 million bonus, there will be those who will say the Fix was in.
Others will say that the depth of talent in the series is less than stellar because how could the regulars lose to a part-timer driving for a faux team (Sam Schmidt Motorsports will provide the car; Brian Herta Autosport will supply the engineer – Canadian Todd Malloy – and crew with sponsorship from the Toronto firm of Bowers and Wilkins)?
If he loses by just a bit, it will be great momentum heading into the 2012 season.
But if he loses big, as in he’s crushed and ends up laps behind, there will be all sorts of questions: short-term will be why did IndyCar put so much faith in him; long-term will be is he good enough to even be considered for a full-time gig next year?
In IndyCar, up is down and if you win you still lose. That’s what gimmicks do for you.
Let me say I am not an Indy car fan.....not present day anyway. Your "back in the day" arguement doesn't include the days when AJ, Mario and Parnelli WON NASCAR races. The true greats of that day could win in anything.
These days the corporate pretty boys....and girls can coast around for the majority of the race and "have at it" in the last few laps.
The real show is at local dirt tracks where talented sprint car drivers race the whole race. How about a shout out for some of the best racing anywhere: The Canadian Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken Speedway this weekend.
Want to fix major-league racing? You recently wrote Saturday night might be the only slot for NASCAR to make good TV numbers? Run like it's Saturday night!!! Here's how:
Run qualifying first
5 heats with a six car invert....6 cars make the feature
2 B mains.....six cars from each make the feature
1 champion's provisional or fan or promoter's option = 43 cars
no top 35 automatic entry to the race
There is your 43 car field. The feature length will be determined by the size of the track and keeping total air time in an agreeable window. This way all the cars will get TV exposure for the sponsors and drivers will have to race every lap.
What's wrong with Indy car racing happened years ago when the rear-engine car appeared in the 60's and the stepping stone to champ car racing was taken away from North American drivers.
Now the most versatile drivers....Johnson, Stewart,Gordon, Edwards, Schrader, Newman, etc are driving taxi cabs because that's where the money and sponsorships have gone.
Posted by: isma fan | 09/14/2011 at 06:18 AM
Tony Stewart and Montoya moved from open wheel and have done well.
Posted by: Bfour | 09/14/2011 at 07:22 PM
One could argue Montoya hasn't "done well," after five years of frustration and zero oval track wins. And he's a former Indy 500 winner.
To say the current IRL field is deeper than the Cup series is absurd. Just about (JUST about) every driver in the field in a Cup car has a shot at the win, and even the ones that don't are often former champs or former race winners too (like Bobby Labonte.)
The IRL has two teams with five drivers that have realistic shots at a win every weekend. Every now and then a Justin Wilson or a Tony Kanaan will sneak through with pit strategy, but otherwise, it's Penske or Ganassi. BORING.
I was kind of looking forward to the new chassis/body rules next season to shake up that status quo... and now it's on hold again. Yay, another season of Penske/Ganassi boredom.
Posted by: john | 09/15/2011 at 01:10 PM