IRL Adds Boxing and Fantasy Writing to Racing Program

Originally Posted on Foxsports Blogs on September 2, 2007.


With one race to go before the Champion is crowned, tempers are flaring, and memories are fading and being rewritten at an alarming rate.
Scott Dixon, who races for Chip Ganassi, and Dario Franchitti, who runs for Andretti- Green Racing (AGR), are locked in a battle royale for the title.  Today, the two teams got into dispute over a crash during the last few laps at Belle Isle.  
With time running out, Tony Kanaan (AGR) was comfortably leading the race.   Buddy Rice was running second, but gambling on fuel.  Rice ran out of fuel as he was being closely followed by Dixon and Franchitti, running third and fourth respectively.


Dixon attempted to pass the slowing Rice, but spun, swinging back across the track and hitting Franchitti.  Franchitti was able to eventually go on and now leads the title hunt by three points.


Meanwhile, in the pits, Michael Andretti was claiming on TV that Dixon deliberately blocked the track.  Given that the whole incident took place in less than 3 seconds, it is difficult to believe that Dixon had the presence of mind to think about screwing up Franchitti's run while he himself was spinning.  But then again, Andretti last week blamed his son's crash into Franchitti on Franchitti, who by the way, was leading the race and the points at the time.
Franchitti didn't think Dixon did anything deliberately, and chalked it up to one of those racing deals.


Dixon denied trying to collect Franchitti in the wreck, and Rice appologized to both Andretti and Ganassi.


Andretti and Kevin Savoree, an AGR shareholder, charged Chip Ganassi in the pits after the race.  Bystanders reported that Andretti and Savoree attempted to get Ganassi to start a fist fight by both their words and actions.  Ganassi's managing director then called Andretti "classless" in a media interview.   
Kanaan, from victory lane, continued his spat with Dixon from last week by claiming Dixon intentionally tried to ruin Franchitti's day.  Kanaan was still denying, after he admitted last week, deliberately blocking Dixon during the race last weekend at Sonoma.


In other news, Helio Castroneves, probably realizing he agreed to dance on national television, crashed into Thomas Schekter.  Castroneves hobbled away from the wreck on an apparent sprained ankle, but Schekter chased him down to the care center.  Castroneves blamed Schekter for the crash and Schekter blamed Castroneves.  The Infield care center wisely pulled both men into the center before their confrontation could be captured on TV.


All this makes the Dan Wheldon - Danica Patrick flap look quaint.

The Battlin' Brit vs. The Phoenix Firebird? The Rumble at the Speedway

Originally Posted on foxsports.com on June 7, 2007.

Taking a page from the Humpy Wheeler playbook, Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage has billed the next IRL race, which happens to be at his track on Saturday, as "The Rumble at the Speedway."

Pitting Dan "The Battlin' Brit" Wheldon against Danica "The Phoenix Firebird" Patrick in their follow up bout, Gossage is attempting to generate ticket sales and media coverage of the event. Prominently displaying Wheldon & Patrick's pictures on the TMS webpage, with a "Tale of the Tape," TMS is betting that racing fans will be watching the two as they head to the track.

And it appears that the two are ignoring the spat, and waiting for the other to make the first move to amend the situation.

USATODAY, quoting AP, reports that Patrick has no intention of apologizing to Wheldon. But Wheldon isn't holding his breath waiting for one either, "She acted a certain way and if she wants to look at the video, I think she'll be feeling pretty silly. ... If she wants to come and apologize, I would be very happy to listen."

But Wheldon feels that Patrick took advantage of the situation "When you tug at a guy in the pit lane, I think that is taking advantage of your gender, because it puts me in an awkward position," Wheldon said. "She was acting like a spoiled brat. I don't respect that. ... I tried to step away. She kept grabbing on me like a dog that wanted to bite my ankles."

Patrick, however, believes Wheldon deliberately cut her off. "We'll see how it unfolds, and we're going to have to give each other respect and the space on the track," Patrick said. "If that happens, then I can't see a reason why it would continue. But if he doesn't, then I'll be mad again."

Meanwhile, we'll see if Gossage's promotion sells more tickets. If so, IRL may want to keep the Wheldon-Patrick dispute going for a few weeks to come.

Information from AP, USATODAY.COM and TexasMotorspeedway.com

Nascar vs. IRL

Originally Posted on July 2, 2006 on Foxsports.com

I attended my first IRL race this weekend.  The race was great - the final laps were run with 1-2 side by side and 3-4 side by side several car lengths behind them.  While I was there, I noticed several differences (aside from the obvious open wheel vs. fenders/doors) between a Nascar race and an IRL race.

#1:  Nascar is a supersized shopping mall.   IRL is an odds and ends bin.  At every Nascar event I have attended, there are numerous venders hawking  nascar goods.  You name it, it's there.  You want Tony Stewart Thong underware? - at least 3 trailers sell it.  You want a JR handbag - pick a size, color and which paint scheme you want.  However, attend an IRL race, and you will have to search for a T-shirt of your favorite driver.  Even if you find it, they may be sold out of your size.  Add to this problem the fact that 1/2 the trailers at the event sell NASCAR merchandise, you begin to understand the problem.

#2:  Women flock to Nascar.  Men flock to IRL.  At any Nascar event, there are groups of women.  In fact, most of the crowds are 50% women.  Women watch Nascar races together - without the men in their lives tagging along (or being the tag-a-long with some guy).  At the IRL race, groups of men predominate the crowd.  Women are less than 30% of the crowd.  The women there are tagging along with their man -  Who usually has also brought along another 2 guys.  (On the plus side, these were the best male - female ratios I've seen since I was in Vegas during the start of the NCAA basketball tournament!)

#3:  Nascar pit stops are too long at 14 seconds.  I cannot get over how quickly the IRL pit stops worked.  I know it isn't fair to compare what a team working on both sides of the car vs. a team who does one side at a time.  But the IRL guys have something here.

#4:  Neither series does a good job explaining how the race works to new attendees.  Due to the noise at the track, it is nearly impossible to explain to a person who is attending the race for the first time what is going on.  How about a viewing guide??  Watching a race in person can be radically different than TV - you aren't told what the running story lines are, you don't know who is running for position (unless you can read the scoring pylon which doesn't say who is a lap down), and even if you know one series, the odds are that another is vastly different.  Scanners are helpful, but most new attendees don't have or don't know to rent a scanner.  I wasn't able to find the IRL radio program, officials or anything else on my scanner than the driver-crew conversations.  Those weren't helpful if I didn't know what was going on.

#5:  Smaller may be better.  I like going to races.  I hate large crowds.   The IRL crowd was healthy, but not so large that I felt shoehorned into a spot.  The price was reasonable - much cheaper than the Nascar race.  Parking and leaving a breeze.   And the facility had plenty of space for the crowd that was there (stay tuned for the Nascar report at this facility- we'll see how it handles that!).