IRL Drivers Apologize

[John Galt]

The following was in our local fish wrapper's sports page this morning:
RICHMOND, Va. — Scott Dixon described the IndyCar Series race at Richmond International Raceway as “a bit of a procession, unfortunately,” and said the 300-lap event was frustrating because the lack of passing made it more closely resemble a parade.

And he made those comments Saturday night after ending up in Victory Lane.

Teammate and runner-up Dario Franchitti apologized to fans for an “awful, awful race,” while Graham Rahal said he only passed two cars all night while finishing third.

One year after a 26-car field produced what Danica Patrick described as a “carnagefest” on the shortest track on the series, with 103 laps of caution and a dozen accidents, the latest visit was quite the opposite. Twenty cars spent the night speeding single file around the D-shaped oval, with none of the drama fans are accustomed to seeing in NASCAR country.

On Tuesday, IndyCar Series officials and those of International Speedway Corp., which owns RIR, will meet to continue discussions about whether the series will return in 2010.

Track president Doug Fritz declined to speculate Sunday on how those talks will go, but did nothing to mask his disappointment with a race that was missing what fans come to see.

“I wish we had seen more passing and more lead changes and more side by side racing,” he said in a telephone interview. “We'd love to see better shows and from our perspective as it relates to the fans, we're as disappointed as the fans are and as the drivers are, as well.”

Dixon suggested the cars in the series are part of the problem, and he and others spoke all weekend about how having them all engineered so similarly can stymie the competition.

I didn't get to sdee the race since it's on this VS Channel so I can't intelligently comment. But I thought see ing a driver apologize to the fans was kind of... "Unique?"

 

[foehammer111]

I didn't get to sdee the race since it's on this VS Channel so I can't intelligently comment. But I thought see ing a driver apologize to the fans was kind of... "Unique?"

I didn't see it either, but that sounds bad. Which is unusual because Richmond often produces the best races on the IRL schedule.

As far as drivers apologizing for a bad race, this is nothing new for open-wheel racing series. F1 drivers do this all the time, and it's one of the few series where 9 of 10 times the driver who starts on pole will win, and lead every lap.

But a lot of NASCAR drivers were apologizing to the fans for the terrible Brickyard 400 last year. But that was more the fault of crappy tires on a crappy racing surface.

IRL does have a major problem with their crap-wagons, and they need to fix it ASAP or the series is going to fail that much sooner.

 

[John Galt]

I didn't see it either, but that sounds bad. Which is unusual because Richmond often produces the best races on the IRL schedule.

As far as drivers apologizing for a bad race, this is nothing new for open-wheel racing series. F1 drivers do this all the time, and it's one of the few series where 9 of 10 times the driver who starts on pole will win, and lead every lap.

But a lot of NASCAR drivers were apologizing to the fans for the terrible Brickyard 400 last year. But that was more the fault of crappy tires on a crappy racing surface.

IRL does have a major problem with their crap-wagons, and they need to fix it ASAP or the series is going to fail that much sooner.

It's my personal opinion that the current IRL cars aren't designed for, and don't put on an optimum show, at ovals of 1-mile or less in length.

I stated my opinion in another racing forum and I'll repeat it here. I really like IRL and and also really like short track racing. I also like good single malt scotch and I like orange juice. But, I never mix the two because it'd just a a waste of both.

However, all that is just my opinion and what do I know, anyway?

 

[VaDirt]

I got to see the race from the infield (turn 4, turn one, and then at the start-finish line), and got to hear Dario (especially) apologize for the poor race. There was no passing at all, and thanks to some poorly timed wrecks (only three cautions all night)there were only three cars on the lead lap. It's still fun, however, watching these cars fly around this track.

 

[WNY24Fan]

Yeah, they were going around so fast I could actually feel it just watching TV. It made me feel kind of nauseous. LOL What surprised me when I went to a NASCAR race is how fast the cars go by on a caution when they look so slow on TV.

We don't have tickets at the moment, but we'll see how the weather is and maybe drive down for the race on Sunday. You can find enough places to watch from at an IRL race that it doesn't matter if you have seats. I just hate that it's always on the 4th weekend since we've had a beach party forever. Since there's not much family left around this year, we won't be putting the effort into it before and it will probably be pretty tame, at least for us. The fireworks and bondfires that go as far as you can see on Lake Ontario and pretty awesome. Anyway, it sets it up for us more likely driving down if we feel like it since we definitely didn't "feel like it" most years.

Two years ago would have been fun to be on the frontstretch and watch all those families and teams fighting. That got more press than the race, I think! LOL

 

[SlowNeasy]

i usually enjoy watching the IRL races but the richmond race was terrible. i kept waiting for dario to make a move on dixon and he flat couldn't do anything. he couldn't even make an attempt for a pass.