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INDYCAR: Miller’s Richmond Race Notebook
Written by: Robin Miller   
06/28/2009
Richmond, VA
 
With 100 laps remaining in Saturday night's SunTrust 300, there was a steady exodus by the paying customers from the grandstands to the parking lot. After finishing second and taking the points lead in the IndyCar series, Dario Franchitti got on the public address system and spoke to the patient people still hanging out at Richmond Speedway.
The Target drivers had plenty to celebrate Saturday night, but also knew the race the IndyCar Series put on was one of the most boring in its history. Franchitti went as far to apologize to the crowd. (LAT) ยป More Photos
"I have to apologize to the fans because that was an awful, awful race," said the 2007 IndyCar champion. "It was no fun out there for anybody because we were sliding around all night and hanging on and we couldn't pass.

"There's nothing the drivers can do about it. We're trying as hard as we can. It was a terrible race."

Was it ever. Joining Kansas, Indianapolis and Texas, Richmond was merely the latest IndyCar parade. The lone change for the lead came on a pit stop and it was nearly impossible to lap a car running a second slower.

"Yeah, it was a bit of a procession," admitted winner Scott Dixon, whose 19th IRL win tied Sam Hornish Jr. for the all-time series lead. "It was a fantastic night for Team Target but it was also a frustrating night because you couldn't pass and you didn't dare try going high and get off line because it was so slippery.

"It's the same thing we've been saying all season -- we've slipped into a car that just doesn't enable much passing."

Graham Rahal, who started fifth and finished third, also chimed in: "I don't think I passed two cars all night."

Some drivers and engineers said afterwards that Firestone needed to build a better race tire. Others screamed for more downforce and some sought more mechanical grip. Regardless of the reason, this once-exciting bullring was a 300-lap snooze fest.

"I don't know how you guys stayed awake," said Franchitti to the assembled media around his car as he climbed out. "That damn near put me to sleep."

The best news for IndyCar? The next three races are road courses and street circuits and they can't be any worse than Saturday night.

AGR MAKES THE MOST OF IT

If you'd have told the Andretti-Green team it was going finish fourth-seventh following Friday's qualifying, they'd have either laughed in your face or bet you a lot of money against it.

As it turned out, after qualifying 8th, 10th, 16th and 17th, Hideki Mutoh, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan parlayed strategy with pace and salvaged a decent weekend.

"I wasn't sure how staying out on that first yellow was going to work but I guess it did," said Patrick, whose fifth place was her fifth Top 5 of 2009. "I did have a good car and I was able to pass quite a few cars tonight and it didn't look like many people were doing that.

"It was a good night for this team but we've still got to figure out why we're qualifying so poorly."

Coming off his third place at Iowa, Mutoh also remained on the track during the first wave of pit stops and managed to get fourth after leading Laps 31-104 and keeping Franchitti behind him for all of them.

Kanaan and Andretti ran strong all evening but lost all track position when they pitted under green on Lap 136 and then watched Mike Conway scrap the wall and give the
Target boys and young Rahal a yellow-flag stop and one-lap advantage.

RAHAL REWARDED, FINALLY

Despite the fact he's been one of the fastest drivers all season, Rahal had little to show for his speed prior to Saturday night. Some terrible luck with untimely yellow flags overshadowed his pole positions at St. Pete and Kansas while he crashed at Indy after qualifying fourth.

Other than a fourth place at Milwaukee, 2009 has been pretty frustrating.

"This was like a win for us," declared Rahal, who started fifth in his McDonald's car and was running third when he finally caught a good break with a caution-flag pit stop on Lap 138 after just about everyone else had pitted under green.

"My engineers are always telling me to save as much fuel as possible and that's hard when you want to push. I really didn't understand it until tonight. Obviously, getting good mileage helped us stay out and catch that yellow with the Target boys."

It was a good night all-around for the Newman/Haas/Lanigan squad as Robert Doornbos came home ninth in his debut at the 7/8ths-mile bullring.

"Man, that was a lot of hard work for P9 and it kinds reminds me of my days in F1 when you had to work so hard to get up there," said Doornbos. "It was like qualifying for 300 laps and I think we had good pace but got unlucky on two yellows.

"I'll be honest though, I'm glad we've got some road races coming up."

IMS TO MAKE ANNOUNCEMENT

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway's board of directors is meeting again Tuesday and expected to make an announcement concerning Tony George's position.

It was reported on SPEEDtv.com last month that George had been voted out of power as CEO of IMS by his three sisters, which control six of the board of director votes and had removed his wife. Laura, from her IMS position earlier in May. TG maintained he was still CEO but an IMS release admitted the board wanted George to devise a a management plan that would allow him to focus on the business which requires the greatest attention. He is also CEO of the Indy Racing League, which he founded in 1996.

That was followed by a letter of support from all the IndyCar owners at Milwaukee as they showed obvious concern for the structure of open wheel racing. It's believed George has spent more than $600 million on the series and his Vision Racing team and that money came from the Hulman-George family pot of IMS, Hulman & Company and Clabber Girl.

Mari Hulman George's daughters, Josie, Nancy and Kathy, reportedly have been upset with their brother's spending habits for many years.

Just two weeks ago, George's Vision Racing team announced it had not been able to secure sponsorship and was sending its second driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay, to to A.J. Foyt's team for the rest of 2009.

It's speculated that George could be replacing his mother, Mari Hulman-George, as IMS chairman of the board and that longtime NASCAR promoter Humpy Wheeler could be brought in as acting IMS president.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.
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