INDYCAR: Miller's Mailbag 11.9

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Miller’s Mailbag 11.9

Always genuine, never lite: It's Miller time. Here's the latest Q&A from SPEED.com's IndyCar guru.

Robin Miller | Posted November 09, 2012

Mailbag readers are curious about the level of support from IMS CEO Jeff Belskus, left, and former IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, right, when things took a turn in the wrong direction. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

Hello open-wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just email me at . Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.

~Robin Miller

Q: Am I alone in thinking that perhaps the problem is really Jeff Belskus? Originally drafted in by his good friend TG, he certainly seems to lack the grasp of a qualified CEO, which he doesn't seem too shy about claiming he is. He's quick to remind us that he was the man in charge before Randy yet, on reflection, nothing much happened during his tenure. Only after RB was recruited did some positive things begin to emerge. He states that the owners were coming to him with their complaints, going over Bernard's head. Well wouldn't an effective CEO have insisted that they should in fact deal with the man whose job it was to deal with them? Is he saying that Randy should have let these imbeciles pull his strings and have their own way, which is what they were used to under previous regimes? It seems that RB was simply standing up to these people - isn't that what he was paid to do? Then he adds that 'Yeah, any new recruit must get along with people'. I was fortunate enough many years ago to work for Colin Chapman at Lotus. Colin Chapman was famous for not getting along with people. Ask those who know how amiable Ron Dennis is, or Bernie for that matter. … They stand their ground and get their way.

Belkus’s comments echoed those of only a weak and ineffectual leader. In fact, he didn't really say anything except that things looked so good they were progressing as planned. Very excited about it. Excuse me, so why was Randy fired? People are being too kind it seems in their words about the Hulman board. At the end of the day Randy Bernard was doing his job. Yes he made a few mistakes but I presume Belskus hasn't got this far without making a few. The Board is clearly made up of small-minded, short-sighted people. This is a calamity for IndyCar racing. And if those owners who want to dictate the terms of their involvement think they've won I think they are going to be very surprised at how the long-term repercussions of their brattish behavior will affect the overall value of their assets now that the sport is once again in disarray. I repeat, Jeff Belskus is the man who should go. His own display of weakness and ineptitude in recent days does not bode well for the future of IndyCar. He certainly does not have the fortitude and backbone that Randy Bernard was displaying at the time of his dismissal. There will be a big price to pay by Hulman & Co.

David Chapman, Florida

RM: You ask what I’ve been saying – if Randy was such a poor communicator and there were a couple pressing issues that needed attention then why wouldn’t Belskus call him in and ask for solutions. I know a lot of things that I can’t write or say just yet but I’m telling you this wasn’t just about tires or parts and it’s a lot more sinister than you want to know.

Q: Jeff Belskus appears to be confident that he may very well be the next CEO. I think IndyCar needs a visionary and it seems apparent that Belskus does not fit that bill. Please tell me there is little to no chance of Belskus becoming the permanent CEO of IndyCar.

Andrew K.

RM: I would say based on his quotes there’s a decent chance he’ll remain CEO of IndyCar.

Q: Before the board made such a knee jerk reaction to fire RB why didn’t Jeff B have a meeting with all of the owners and RB to figure out what the issues were? And then a meeting with the drivers to discuss their concerns? When Roger Penske and A.J. Foyt agree on something that tells me something !!!!!! Do John Barnes, KK and TG really have that much power to control the IMS Board? On the tire issue, was is not too long ago the Firestone’s parent company Bridgestone had informed IC that they were pulling out after 2013? So why now is Firestone so upset that RB was trying to find another tire supplier? As far as Mario’s comments about the product being over shadowed by the politics. Yes the product this past year with the great racing and the races themselves was because of RB. Do you think selling IC and separating itself from the IMS and the crazy H-G family that IC would be better off with the right people running it (except the car owners )? What does Barnhart have that they still keep him around? Do you think you will still have credentials next year?

Terry Gobble, Urbana IL

RM: I guess if you were looking for reasons to get rid of somebody you’d take that approach. As for Firestone, please read what I wrote this week on SPEED.com and I think it might clarify some things. The product was only overshadowed because they assassinated the best leader they’ve had in decades. Randy admitted one of his big mistakes was not getting rid of TGBB and hiring Derrick Walker. I can cover the race from television as long as I turn the sound down.

Q: Having had some time to think about Randy being fired and seeing people swearing to never watch again I have a question. I don't watch IndyCar for the CEO, the president or all the nasty politics. While yes, Randy got screwed, as long as the on track product is entertaining why wouldn't you watch?

Matt, Dallas

RM: As I said on “Wind Tunnel,” IndyCar better hope all these angry fans forgive and forget by the time St. Pete rolls around and I imagine most will. And you make a good point, I grew up watching USAC races and had no clue who was in charge but this also says something about how bad things had gotten and how hopeful people were with Bernard in charge.

Q: Apologies in advance for going all psychotherapy here but … I believe the IMS board was actually seeing the success that Randy Bernard was achieving with the series but they are so insecure that they felt threatened by this success and could see no other option than removing Bernard, which is obviously so very sad. I am not the greatest IndyCar fan actually more of an F1 and NASCAR fan, but I have had the great privilege of attending several Indy 500s and had watched more IndyCar races last year than ever before, the series was really drawing me in mainly because of a greatly improved product. I find the IMS board's actions despicable and will find it very difficult to invest much in this series going forward.

J Olson, Minneapolis, Minnesota

RM: I think there’s more truth to your statement than meets the eye and I think Mr. Belskus might have been a little jealous of Mr. Bernard’s popularity. Just a guess.

Q: Saw you on “Wind Tunnel” last night and was surprised to hear Chip blame you for RB's firing? That seems to be a stretch since you have been RB's biggest advocate. However, maybe your continual tweaking of the owners did play a role. You know they are egomaniacs and don't like to be shown up. After reading Marshall's story I'm also not sure you have been completely fair to the owner’s side of things but I see you more as an analyst/commentator and not a journalist so we are reading your opinions which don't have to necessarily be unbiased. After reading Marshall's stories, I can see the justification for RB's removal. Unresponsive, not meeting deadlines, lost confidence by the owners and drivers, circumventing the CEO going right to the board, and the threat of losing the few big sponsors the series has are all valid excuses. I am a bit confused, though, on several points. You make it sound like the unhappy faction is quite small but Marshall's article makes it sound a bit more widespread. You both point fingers at the owners involved in Turbogate but then you call out Chip who was on the other side of that. Maybe Chip's discontent is tied to the DeltaWing. He should be thankful the series did not select that after seeing the recent rollover with minimal contact. You mention Al Speyer from Firestone but weren't they trying to get out last year? Was that just positioning for a better deal? RB and the series had an obligation to find a new supplier. Firestone produces a great tire and did a great job this year but they cannot hold the series hostage as the sole supplier. Maybe you should cast some venom toward them. The owners seem to have gotten a bad deal with Dallara. It sounded like the initial cost was lower but parts outrageous. The car turned out to be a good racer but it is still ugly and looks slow. All of this plus IZOD, China, still suspect officiating, aero kits, standing starts, Lotus, and the bad TV deal are a lot to overcome. Best of luck to the new person who inherits this big dysfunctional mess!

JE (Piner KY)

RM: I only called out the Lynch Mob a couple times during the season so I doubt that played any role. While I think most of the owners were in agreement over the costs it was only that smaller group of 4-5 that wanted Randy gone and pursued it. Read my take on Firestone in my latest commentary. The owners rejected the aero kits, IZOD changed CEOs and Randy fought to keep them around and the bad TV deal he inherited at least has some nice balance for 2013. Suspect officiating? Not from what I saw. The bottom line is that Randy was doing a good job for Hulman & Co. and IndyCar but it turns out that’s not who he was working for after all.

Q: It was courageous of you to name names on Wind Tunnel of those not supportive of Randy Bernard. Why can't or won't they speak up? It's creating suspicion of shady dealings at best. I don't see how the series can move forward successfully with this much chaos. This is an organizational and human relations disaster. There will be races next year, but fan and sponsor support may falter. What can angry fans do about this mess after the enthusiasm of a great IndyCar season? Without the fans there would be no sponsors and no series. It appears, Randy was building in the right areas with limited support.

Evans Bowdon

RM: It takes no courage to out people who sneak around and backstab a leader who was doing a good job. They don’t speak up because they don’t want people to know their agendas. What can fans do? I guess we’ll find out in a few months.

Q: I hate to disagree with Marshall Pruett, but a messiah is EXACTLY what IndyCar needs — a rare person who can competently obsess over both the big-picture issues and the seemingly small details, and get people fully invested in his/her personal leadership. Steve Jobs is the prototype. He could out-negotiate titans of industry over billion-dollar, make-or-break deals, but would also spend 30 minutes in a meeting arguing over the shade of gray the restroom signs should be. He was infamous for pissing off EVERYBODY on all sides of an issue. Everybody but the paying customers, that is. He believed that no detail that affected Apple fans was insignificant enough to delegate to somebody else — the buck stopped with Steve. In 1996, Apple was the IndyCar of the computer business. (Much worse off, actually …) Virtually every major business publication declared them dead as an ongoing business. In 1997, Michael Dell was asked what he would do with Apple. He said, “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Enter Steve Jobs, who returned to lead Apple with the monumental task of fixing an impossibly broken public company while simultaneously pleasing all those pesky stockholders. In spite of what some in the motorsports media would have you believe, the only people the IndyCar CEO REALLY has to please have a surname that somewhere includes "Hulman" or "George." And, as both Steve Jobs and Randy Bernard understood, the fans. Steve Jobs was not known for his own great technical skills, but more than made up for this with hard work and by mapping out a path to deliver exactly what his customers wanted. (Sound familiar?) Even so, it took Jobs almost a decade to get Apple turned around. I think that Randy Bernard will again be a transformational CEO in the Steve Jobs mold, like he certainly was with PBR. His new bosses will simply understand that it takes more than two and a half years to revive the dead. Even if many insiders were too close to the forest to see the trees, fans knew what IndyCar had – just the guy they needed. That is why they were enthusiastically supportive of him and so very upset when he was dumped. As for Marshall's idea of IndyCar being essentially run by a committee of specialty experts? A guy named Elbert Hubbard once said, “A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour." Let's hope Hulman and Co. can pull a CEO rabbit out of the hat a second time.
John Bledsoe

RM: I agree with Marshall that it takes two or three good people (Like a Randy Bernard and a Derrick Walker) to run the series and I know Randy regrets not hiring Walker to handle the racing side of things. But those big committees of USAC and CART were mostly a waste of time.

Q: The term fair weather fan is thrown around a lot. But I have to say that the bunch that wrote into the mailbag about Bernard's ouster has got to be the worst I have ever seen. People who claim to have watched IndyCar through thick and thin and thinner still are jumping ship (at least they claim to be) now? I mean yes, a lot of fans disagree with Bernard's departure, but if you claim to be a fan who hasn't missed a race in 40 years and this makes you leave, I just don't understand that. I have only watched the sport since 2005. Danica Patrick brought me in, but the great thing that is IndyCar kept me. It still has me. I love the series, the drivers and the competition. Not the board or the owners or the other idiots in charge. I have spent my time as a fan wondering if and when the series would tank. That is all I have heard since I started watching. Yes, the series has struggled for a while and was on an uptick here lately, but there hasn't been any true certainty in the future of the sport for quite some time. It sucks to have this happen when things looked promising, but that is how it is. Life will go on and IndyCar will survive if the fans hang in there and look at what is important. We will just have to go through rebuilding again. Don't give up, because if the fans give up out of hatred for the board and owners, the sport they claim to love will surely die. For real this time. It's not the drivers’ fault. They are there to race no matter what. Let's support them.

Megan Huckabee

RM: I think as mad and sad as people are today, by the time we get to late March many of them will come back to watch. As disgusted as most of us were with Tony George ruining the Indy 500 in 1996, I still covered the month of May like I always had because it wasn’t the drivers’ fault.

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