Laguna Seca had strong crowds during the CART era and in the beginning of ChampCar, but fell off quickly soon after. Would they return in droves to see the IRL? (LAT)
Hello open wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just . Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.
~Robin Miller
Q: So Joie Chitwood leaves for the greener pastures of ISC? Read the fluffy press release, now what's "The Truth?" (Miss the radio show BTW.) Should Barnhart be posting his resume on Monster.com yet? And if Cotman is the best person to replace Barnhart, who would be the best person to replace Chitwood?
Steve, Glendale, CA
RM: Like I wrote yesterday, I think the truth is that Chitwood was gassed but given time to find another job and then held his feel good press conference. All I know is that I was tipped in May that Pal Joie was out and isn't the timing of this interesting? Not to mention, you quit as president to become a vice president? Not unless there's a boot print on your butt.
IMS doesn't need another suit with a title, maybe a savvy general manager.
Q: With Chitwood resigning today, wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to promote Barnhart to President of IMS and move Tony Cotman up to run the IRL?
Jeremy Runkle
RM: I like that thought and hopefully so will the IMS board. Let Barnhart make ice, count money, shake the driver's hands before they go out to qualify for the 9th time but let Cotman make the rules, govern the competition and shape the budgets.
Q: How could you sit there on Wind Tunnel and let ol' DW say it's much easier to jump from stock cars to Indy cars than vice-versa. Who has even tried besides Stanton Barrett, and we all know how well that worked out. And he referred to them as little "go-carts". Did your hearing fail you at that moment or what! He used Tony Stewart as an example, obviously Tony ran Indy cars before he ever ran stock cars. I can't think of a pure NASCAR driver to ever come over and win an Indy race. All this from a guy who admits he has never driven an Indy car and couldn't even name anybody besides Stewart that has even tried. Maybe the next time you see ol' DW you could give him a big glass of that Nascar Kool-Aid he loves so much.
Kevin, Lima, Ohio
RM: I really think Waltrip meant that Indy cars have so much aero grip compared to a stock car and such less horsepower, they'd be easy to adapt to than an IndyCar guy going to NASCAR. Obviously, Montoya, Franchitti, Hornish, Tracy, Carpentier and Allmendinger didn't get to drive for a top shelf team and that also makes a difference. Cale Yarborough and Paul Goldsmith were probably the best stock car guys to try Indy cars and Bobby Allison had the best ride (Penske) but none of them or Donnie Allison or Bobby Johns ever won a race.
Q: I saw the Cooper Tires Atlantic race when I went to Lime Rock for ALMS on Saturday. I'm embarrassed to say that I had no idea that league was still around. But wow, the cars that looked and sounded beautiful, even the champagne ceremony on winner's circle was more enthusiastic than I've seen lately. I was really impressed overall! To be frank it reminded me how much I miss CART and the early days of Champ Car. But it also left me confused. What is the purpose of this series? It was Champ Car's ladder right? But since that doesn't exist anymore, is this just a ladder to nowhere? Simona De Silvestro won in dominating fashion, but what are her future options? Where can a good Atlantic driver hope to go: Indy Car, GP2, sports cars?
Sanford Santacroce, NYC
RM: Whether you're driving Atlantics or Lights, your chances of advancing to IndyCar are limited unless you can bring money. Atlantics have always been a good training ground and John Edwards, Jonathan Summerton and Simona should be able to move up but Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Buddy Rice never got a shot in CART so obviously there's no guarantees. Michael Valiante and Ryan Dalziel got a small taste of Champ Car but had to go to sports cars to make a living like Gurney and Fogarty. It sucks because there's a bunch of talent that never gets a sniff of an Indy car.
Q: On a rare weekend when NASCAR Sprint Cup is not racing, there is no IRL race. Is this not stupid? Why not Cleveland or Elkhart Lake? Here is a chance to put on a race at a great venue and maybe gain some fans. To me this is a no brainer! No wonder this series is faltering.
Ed Cervantes
RM: Hard to fault your logic. I think NASCAR has three open weekends during it's season and IndyCar should ALWAYS be running on them.
Q: Who was in charge of putting together the IRL schedule for 2009? How difficult would it have been to spread out the recently completed four straight races, including the brilliant idea of running crashfests Iowa and Richmond six days apart, so the IRL would not have been idle on one of the few open dates on the Sprint Cup schedule? Throw in the fact Formula One was idle as well, and it appears the IRL missed an opportunity. (I know, one of many for open wheel racing in the past decade.) I guess having the field to yourself is not as exciting as going head-to-head with NASCAR at the Brickyard and F-1 as this coming weekend.
John Marcase
RM: Sometimes the tracks dictate the schedule because they have to have so much spacing between events, etc. But like the letter above, it's a no brainer to run when NASCAR is idle.
Q: Something I’ve been trying to figure out for a long time is how drivers are actually recruited to the IRL. I’m a huge fan and have seen so much positive progress in the last few years. However, I still see some pretty awful drivers come through like Stanton Barrett, Mike Conway, and other losers and I think to myself, “who is recruiting these guys?” I completely understand that there is a huge sponsorship role to be played and these guys obviously bring quite a bit of personal sponsorship. However, isn’t there someone working for the IRL out at the hundreds of short-tracks in the United States searching for talent to bring into the series? I have to believe that American sponsors would have a little more interest if the IRL was cultivating more American talent from the Friday and Saturday night series’… You got the scoop on any of that?
Josh Young
RM: I went to the USAC sprint car race at Bloomington last week and marveled at teenaged talent like Chad Boat, Robert Ballou and Cole Whitt, 20-year-old Bryan Clauson, 23-year-old Brad Sweet, 27-year-old Levi Jones and yes, it would be fabulous to see these kids get a shot at the Indy 500 (not to mention Dave Darland and Tracy Hines and Jerry Coons Jr.) but, unless they hit the lottery, they have no chance. None of today's IndyCar owners have a clue about these guys and none of them road race so they're not even on the radar screen. But there is no recruiting process for youngsters wanting to go IndyCar racing (Graham Rahal was hired on his potential but he's an exception), just the bottom line. And don't lump Conway in with Stanton, he's got some talent.
Q: Although I was not a big fan of his (Dario is and always will be The Man) do we get Sea-bass back in Indycar? sounds to me there just isn't a place for him in F-1 and to be honest, I'd love to see him come back and race at Indy again, and shake things up, or is he just to "above" Indycar now that he has tasted F-1. Being from Terre Haute, I as well as many others are happy to see TG get the boot, next one on the list should be Barnhart, he should go down the street to USAC. BB like TG is out-lived his welcome.
Jon, Terre Haute
RM: He was looking at coming back last winter, at least Newman-Haas-Lanigan was looking for a way to make it happen before he re-upped with Toro Rosso. But he's really got no reason to come back other than the Indy 500 and his wife likes living over in Europe. Plus, he's on Peugeot’s good side for sportscars so maybe he just stays there. I do miss him and P.T. trading insults and wheels. As for Barnhart. move him to another part of the building and let Cotman run racing. That's a no-brainer.
Q: Are Chip Ganassi and Mike Hull a little worried that if they do sign Danica, given what happened to Rahal-Letterman before she got there, then by the time she left and now at AGR, that she could negatively impact the team's performance?
Damon in Hilliard, Ohio
RM: I don't like she had a negative impact at Rahal other than the fact she and Buddy Rice didn't get along. AGR seems pretty fractured, granted, but not sure she's to blame for Marco's struggles or TK's miserable season. From what I've seen, she's been pretty professional all year, on and off the track. Ganassi has a pretty close-knit group and I imagine she would be given every opportunity to fit in and succeed.
Q: I have a friend who really pounds Danica as having a big advantage due to her size and weight. I disagree. Through the years many small drivers ( Walt Faulkner 128 pounds and Manny Ayulo 135 pounds to name a few) drove against many big guys (Jimmy Bryan 195, Duke Nalon 200, and Troy Ruttman 245) and I don't recall any sour grapes. Could it be that she is just better than the backmarkers that are crying. What’s your opinion?
Don Betsworth, Torrance, Calif.
RM: There is a weight rule in the IRL nowadays so Danica, Marco, Mutoh, Conway have added ballast to try and even things up. Paul Tracy always said Cristiano da Matta had an advantage back in the CART days on road courses and I think he was probably right and IndyCar was one of the last sanctioning bodies to adopt an equivalency formula.
