*When the Pace Car leads the 2nd most laps in a race, you know you’ve got a problem. No, this isn’t a line from a stand-up comic, although it certainly was a joke of a ‘race’, and I use that word lightly.

There have been numerous articles this week written about everything that went wrong at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. We’ve heard excuses, apologies, and suggestions as to how to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.

Let’s start this from the beginning for the benefit of you that may have been lucky enough to miss last weekend’s event. From the time that the cars started on the track for practice and qualifying on Friday, everyone knew that there were going to be tire problems. The tires that Goodyear brought to the track weren’t laying down any rubber on the track and were only good for about 10 laps.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is known for being a track that is hard on tires. That was nothing new. But, this was the first time that the new CoT car was raced on this track. The CoT is heavier than the IRL cars that normally race in Indy, especially on the right side. Not only were the tires being worn down to the cords after 10 laps, but instead of leaving the rubber on the track, it turned into black dust, which deposited on the cars and people.

Even before the race started on Sunday, I was getting e-mails from fans that were worried about the safety of the drivers, because no one wants to see their driver have a blow-out at 200 miles per hour. NASCAR tried to make lemonade out of this huge pile of lemons, and still put on a decent race. They tried, but it was an utter failure.

So, NASCAR came up with the only solution that they could think of to keep the drivers safe and still have a race. Realizing that it was too late to get a whole different tire. they decided to throw Competition Cautions every few laps so that all the drivers could change tires. As it turned out, the longest green flag run was 13 laps. So, essentially, instead of a race, it was like watching a bunch of sprint races.

This took technique, skill and domination completely out of the equation and essentially made it a game of ‘Survival of the Fittest‘. The record books will show that Jimmie Johnson won this race, but they won’t show that it was perhaps the worst race in history at Indianapolis. Johnson basically defeated Carl Edwards in a 7 lap shootout to take the checkered flag and receive his 2nd win of the season. For a few moments at the end it nearly resembled a race watching those two drivers battle it out, but not enough to make the rest of the race tolerable.

The closest thing to an actual race that took place at all was finger pointing and blaming. Mostly, Goodyear was blamed, but NASCAR bore a lot of the blame as well, mostly for not fixing the problem as soon as they realized there was one. Track owner Tony George took no responsibility at all, nor did he offer any apologies to the fans. “The problem is solely theirs, and by that I mean it’s theirs to figure out,” he said. “It’s not going to come with anything we do to the track. Figuring it out will only come with getting the car and tire combination right, and that requires actually spending the time and effort to do something about it. The track won’t change next year, so if they want to come back, they better figure it out because I don’t think the fans want to come back and see that,” George added. “I think that’s obvious.”

The main issue seemed to be a lack of doing the necessary homework. This blame could probably be equally split between NASCAR and Goodyear. They didn’t do enough testing with this car at this track to know how it was going to react so that the right tire was used. Robin Pemberton, vice-president of competition was very apologetic. “If you’re a good fan, it’s OK to be disappointed,” Pemberton said. “Not every race is a barnburner, but I’ve not seen this in a long time. We try to put on the best race we can and we do a -- good job of that most of the time. We’ll take what we learned today and do a better job as a group. It’s safe to say we won’t do the same thing next year. We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” He even went so far as to predict the future. “When we go back to Indianapolis next year,” he said, “we’ll probably have the best Brickyard [race] we’ve ever had.”

Those are nice words, but will they get the fans to come back next year? Personally, it wouldn’t do it for me. I know there are many that think that the fans deserve a full refund. That isn’t likely to happen, however, I think that Mr. George might want to keep in mind that there are other tracks that aren’t much further from Indy and offer some incentive for them to come back. You have to remember that some of the fans save up just for this one race. Consider not just the ticket prices, but traveling expenses and fuel, motels or camping fees, food, parking and other expenses that can all add up to a weekend that easily costs about $1000. I would think that offering fans a free t-shirt and meal would be the least that could be done for next year, and maybe some special passes for autograph signings, just for giving them another chance. Fans are pretty forgiving people, however, they don’t forget so easily.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh and make the best of the given situation. Many of my readers this week created new names for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Some of these came from other columnists, others came from the imaginations of the fans themselves. I thought I’d pass these on and share them with you so that you can enjoy them as I did.

Some of my favorite alternate names were the Allstate Competition Yellow 400 Race @Indy, The Snoozefest 400 at the Brickyard, The Tire Graveyard 400 at the Brickyard, The Stop and Go 400, The Rubberband Challenge 400, The Tiregate 400, and The No Spare 400. Whoever said that fans couldn’t have a sense of humor?

There is plenty of blame that can be spread around, but that doesn’t fix the situation. There is absolutely nothing that can be changed at this point about this race. What they have to do is focus on now is the rest of the season and of course, next year. There is always something that can cause concern, whether it be tires, track conditions, or weather. The key is to do something about it before it becomes a big joke. And what they truly need to keep in mind is that keeping the fans happy is a big factor. Right now, the fans aren’t happy.

Thank you so much for all of your e-mails this week! I always enjoy hearing from you, and thank you for your many suggestions for the race names. Please continue to let me know your thoughts and opinions by sending me an e-mail at […]

Til next week….

[ Name:dedebopper ]
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