IRL Racing

The IRL season opener is this Saturday night at Homestead. Yeah, yeah, I know, when you guys think of IRL you :sleep:.

In reality, the IRL consistently puts on a good show. Remember Sam Hornish blowing by Marco Andretti to win the Indy 500 in 2006? Having 2 cars finish that close together is not uncommon in an IRL race. Although I plan on watching the race, I haven't decided whether I'll do a race review or not.

The other reason I started this thread is because of a new rule change that Danica Patrick is whining about.

Several years ago, before the 2002 season I think, Nascar implemented a rule whether the driver's weight was included in the weight of the car. So, if Jimmy Spencer weighed in at 300 lbs and Mark Martin was only 150, the crew had to add 150 lbs to Mark's car. Prior to 2002, Mark would have the advantage in that his car would have weighed 3,550 lbs. and Jimmy's would have weighed 3,700 lbs. When Nascar changed that rule, do you know what Mark said? Yeah, I don't know either, because whatever he said, he turned it into a non-issue. He likely said something like, "They make the rules and if we want to race in their series, we have to follow their rules." He may have been upset about it, but he sure didn't say anything, and, in fact, has won races since the rule was changed. Maybe his talent had something to do that?

This year, the IRL implemented a new rule that includes the driver's weight in the weight of the car. Danica Patrick is the lightest driver on the circuit at 100 lbs. The heaviest driver on the circuit is Ed Carpenter, who weighs 175 lbs. So, Danica has had an advantage because of her weight ever since she started racing in the IRL. Now, she's upset about the rule change. You can read about it here.

She thinks she's being penalized for being petite, but the exact opposite has been true. For 3 years, she's had an unfair advantage precisely because she's petite. Rival teams estimate that she's gained somewhere around 1 mph because she's lighter. So, she's upset because she's losing her unfair advantage.

I have but one thing to say about her silly complaint.

Shut up and race.

 

Anybody see the race? It was pretty good, I thought. Bad break for Kanaan.

On Windtunnel last night, Robin Miller made a good point that the IRL needs to start next season at a track that actually cares about open-wheel racing. Homestead is an ISC track, and they didn't promote it. Nascar is their bread and butter, so I doubt that they're going to go out of their way to promote a non-Nascar racing series.

I agree with him on that. They couldn't start the season in late March at either Milwaukee, Michigan or Cleveland, but they could certainly start up the season at Long Beach, or maybe Phoenix. Since Kentucky Speedway lost their suit with Nascar, and aren't likely to get a Nascar date ever, maybe that would be a good place to start going to regularly. *shrug* Whatever the case, I don't think Homestead is the place where you want to start your season at next year.