INDYCAR: Friday Sonoma Notebook

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Friday Sonoma Notebook

Chillin’ with “Willy P and the Dynamic M.C.," David Faustino talks championship strategy, drivers' hands take a beating and more fun from Friday at Sonoma.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 20, 2010

"Willy P" celebrates by throwing up the 'W' at Watkins Glen after his third IZOD IndyCar Series win of 2010. Now he's on the Westside of the country in Sonoma, aiming for his fifth win of the year. (Team Penske)

Chillin’ with “Willy P”

What does the IZOD IndyCar Series points leader do to relax between rounds? As we chronicled during the Month of May, Team Penske’s Will Power is a music aficionado with a passion for old school rap, but as he shared on Friday, his interests extend far beyond beats and rhymes.

“I listen to everything, really. I think I even have a Garth Brooks song on my iPod!” He also mentioned his appreciation for rock music, singling out the seminal Bay Area rock/rap group Faith No More as one of his favorites. “Classic stuff, man, those guys are the best.”

(Listening to Will sing verses from the band’s hit song Epic was, well, epic.)

“Willy P,” as he’s known by his teammates, earned the reputation as IndyCar’s biggest hip hop fan, and says he’s currently on the lookout for the Quest for the Seasoned Traveler by A Tribe Called Quest, but the Aussie’s most recent infatuation is Jazz music, and especially Jazz drumming.

Using his Verizon Wireless phone to look up YouTube videos of a few Jazz drummers I recommended (that’s not a sponsor plug, BTW…he really does use his phone for watching videos), Power is taking a more active role with his musical interests.

“I bought an electric drum set last year when I was unemployed and one of my friends who works for Andretti Autosport taught me how to play. I used to play the trumpet too – when I was a kid – so I want to really learn how to play the drums properly. I just bought an amp for it, too.”

For Power, known for soft touch with the steering wheel, it’s not a surprise to learn that he has a lot in common with how his favorite Jazz drummers use their drumsticks.

“It’s amazing looking at how the Jazz drummers use their wrists; they’re so light with their touch on the cymbals. It’s fascinating to me to try and emulate what they do.”

Power’s diverse musical tastes wasn’t a surprise, but the real shocker came when Merrill Cain, Team Penske’s Director of Communications, revealed his hip hop history as a high school and college DJ.

Going by the name of ‘Dynamic M.C.,’ Cain says that he loved spinning records from Whodini, Snoop Dog, Dr. Dre, NWA and Run DMC.

Cain smiled, acknowledging that his DJ name, which spells out ‘DMC,’ was in honor of Rev Run, Jam Master Jay and DMC.

Good ole’ ‘Dynamic Merrill Cain’… how brilliant.

I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson

Some athletes wear their battle scars with pride, and in the IndyCar Series, most of the damage is on display with the drivers’ hands. Road course racing can be a grueling experience inside the cockpit, but the punishment that an IndyCar driver’s hands take while bouncing over tall curbs and making lightning fast direction changes leaves a lot of marks.

The upper 'hilt' portion of the molded steering wheel gives drivers something to push against when turning the wheel, but in the event of an accident, it can also inflict serious damage. (Marshall Pruett)

To combat the extreme forces that get fed through a steering wheel, many teams have custom grips made for their drivers – one that is cast to perfectly fit their palms and fingers as they clutch the wheel – and while the molded grips help provide leverage to turn the wheel, they also deliver quite a blow to the index fingers and thumbs. The grips come with the equivalent of a hilt – the part of a sword just above the handle – that drivers push against as they twist the wheel left and right. This item is one that can be a blessing and a curse on the hands.

2009 IZOD IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti says dealing with the scrapes, chafes and swelling is an accepted part of the job. His hands – and I’ve seen them in this condition more than once the day after a race – regularly look like he’s gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.

“The molded wheel is something I never used before I came to Target Chip Ganassi Racing. It makes your job easier; these cars do have not power steering, and talk to Sato – a guy who drove in F1 – and he’ll tell you how hard it is to turn these cars. The grips help, but the danger is in a crash. If you don’t get your hands off the wheel in time, the [hilt] can crack you on the hands pretty good.”

Franchitti learned that firsthand at St. Petersburg earlier this year.

“I broke my thumb and didn’t realize it. I pulled the ligaments away from the bone, and didn’t know it until I did some x-rays afterwards. That’s why I struggled at Long Beach. I couldn’t pound the car over the curbs. That’s the downside to the grips. You also get some swelling on your knuckles, but [the grips] are such an advantage that you deal with it.”

To protect his hands as much as possible, the Scot has started to tape them in strategic places to limit the damage. The tape has most beneficial in preventing blisters, another common problem drivers face.

“The tape helps a lot, and Sparco is working to make me some gloves with the seams moved a bit and some cushioning to help where the blisters happen the most. It’s just something you have to do.”

“Long Beach was tough,” said Franchitti’s teammate, Scott Dixon, who also sports a few scars. “Whenever you don’t get your hands off the grip before you hit a big curb, it hurts like hell.”

Dario Franchitti's blisters and scars. His left thumb shows the sign of a break and ligament damage last March at Round 2 on the streets of St. Pete. (Marshall Pruett)

“I’ve got thick calluses on the outside of my index fingers,” shared Will Power, “and in the inside of my thumbs. The pads of my hands also get toughened up throughout the season. The later in the season it gets, the more you start using your forearms to help rotate the car – to take some of the pressure off your hands.”

Power, who also uses a steering wheel with custom molded hand grips, didn’t have excessive damage to his hands after a day of practice on the Infineon Raceway road course, but after the rigors of a full-distance race on Sunday, he said handshakes will be of the question. The same goes for most of the IndyCar drivers; fist bumps replace shaking hands out of sheer self preservation.

And it doesn’t take long for rookie drivers to learn the routine – it only takes one overly enthusiastic (and strong) fan to crumple a driver’s hand like an empty bag of Doritos before the fist bump becomes standard practice.

The First Rule Of Leading the IndyCar Championship? Don't Talk About the Championship...

Like the movie Fight Club, there are two things Will Power doesn't want to discuss this weekend: his season-ending crash at Infineon Raceway in 2009, and most of all, the slim margin he holds atop the drivers’ points table.

David Faustino has worked hard with Will Power to capture and maintain the IndyCar points lead. With five races to go, he says they can't afford to start playing it safe. (Marshall Pruett)

“A lot of people want to talk about my crash. Like, what am I going to say? I’m afraid, now? I don’t want to drive?...” he said with a laugh.

The topic of earning the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series championship is one he prefers not to dwell on.

“41 points looks like a big lead, maybe, but it’s not. All it takes is one bad weekend. One bad weekend and Dario’s right there.”

David Faustino, Power’s engineer, says Team Penske isn’t changing their strategy for the five remaining races, but they will keep a close eye on how Dario Franchitti’s progress.

“Our focus is pretty much targeted on Dario, no pun intended. We can’t afford to finish behind him at the remaining races; the points difference between a win and second-place is too much to give up. He’ll catch us if we let that happen. We can’t just settle or take it easy. If we’re leading and Dario is behind us, we’ll be careful, but we’re going for the win. There’s no letting up, basically.”

As the Series ends the final stretch of road course races this weekend and moves onto four ovals to finish the season, some have questioned Power’s ability to maintain his lead once he leaves Infineon Raceway. Franchitti’s ability on the ovals is well known, but Faustino says that anybody who counts Power out on the ovals will be in for a surprise.

“We have these ovals coming up so we’re trying to pad our points as much as possible, obviously. And Will has never been to Motegi, so there are some challenges ahead, but we all have a lot of confidence in him. And he has a lot of drive to do well on the four ovals left. He hears the doubts about him on the ovals, and he wants to end that chatter as soon as we can. He’s had good showings at Chicago and Kentucky in the past, and those are great warm-ups to Motegi and Homestead. People should be prepared to be impressed with his oval performances, but we just need to put everything together properly.”

Faustino put a lot of emphasis on that last point. As they’ve learned more than once this year, being the fastest car on the track doesn’t always guarantee a big points haul. Having near flawless races to close out the season will be instrumental if Power is to win his first IndyCar title.

“Franchitti has been a tough adversary,” said Faustino. “They are always perfect getting into the pit box, out of it, on in laps, on out laps; their pit stops as a whole. We know they won’t blink and neither can we. That’s just as important as anything. Flawless execution is what we’re focusing on.”

The pressure of leading the championship is something Faustino says he and his Penske teammates are doing their best to ignore.

“We close the books out on each race after it finishes. It’s really a one-race-at-a-time mentality we have. We’re not thinking about if we lose the points lead, if we have a problem, if something doesn’t go our way. We’re just trying to control what we’re capable of controlling. Doing the work and being smart about it is all we can concern ourselves with.”

After a phenomenal run so far in 2010, Faustino isn’t quite ready to stop and smell the proverbial roses. In what has proven to the best season of his ChampCar and IndyCar career, Power’s engineer prefers to keep his head in the sand until the checkered flag falls at Homestead next month.

“No. I’m not willing to look up until it’s all over. Not a chance! Unfortunately, our other two cars aren’t in a position to challenge for the championship at the moment, so Will and I have to deliver. This team is all about winning championships, so no, we aren’t ready to let ourselves breathe. It will be a little more than a month before we can do that”

Coming to a Small Screen Near You

In yet another sign or the apocalypse, or possibly that The Simpsons have jumped the shark, Danica Patrick will lend her voice to an upcoming episode. Proof of an impending apocalypse was furthered today when I read that de Ferran Dragon driver Rafa Matos will appear on the VH1 reality show What Chili Wants which centers on finding the former singer from the group TLC a boyfriend.

Finally, and I really don't this one, Tony Kanaan -- the guy with 0 percent body fat who is training like mad for a triathlon -- will appear on the Travel Channel’s Man v Food show where the host consumes obscene amounts of local delicacies. Maybe he's delivering a 10-pound Slurpee for the guy to drink. That might be entertaining, actually.

The Series has done a great job to get their drivers out and into television land, but these are three oddities…a cartoon, a dating show and a gluttony gone wild.

MISC

• Simona De Silvestro had a frustrating opening day after coming off a high from Mid-Ohio, barely moving ahead of Danica Patrick as the checkered flag fell on the lone one-hour practice session, earning the 22nd best time of the day.

• Local product J.R. Hildebrand hovered around the top-10 in practice, falling to 13th after a few drivers posted quick times right as the session came to an end.

• Andretti Autosport continued the odd scenario where one driver posts a time in practice or qualifying that is significantly faster than the rest of his or her teammates. Today the ‘one up front, and everybody else to the back’ routine was led by Marco Andretti, who posted the sixth fastest lap of the day. Tony Kanaan was 15th, Ryan Hunter-Reay 16th and Danica Patrick 23rd.

• Will Power and Dario Franchitti recently discussed the hypothetical ultimate IndyCar package, and Power reckoned the sweet handling of the Panoz DP01 chassis, combined with the brutal power of Honda’s turbocharged CART engine, would be hard to top in any era. How is that not the ultimate 2012 IndyCar solution? How do we make this one happen?

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com’s Auto Racing Editor, and also covers IndyCar and sportscar racing for the site. Pruett grew up at ‘Pruett's Olde English Garage,’ his father's shelter for abused foreign cars, and spent his childhood being dragged across the West Coast to help with his dad's amateur racing exploits.

Pruett spent 20 years working in the IRL, CART, IMSA, and most of the known open-wheel feeder series before retiring from active duty in 2001. And in case you were wondering, he isn’t related to Scott Pruett.

Marshall lives in Northern California with his wife Shabral, and can be emailed . He can also be harassed on Twitter .