A Threat to Themselves and Others

IndyCar, like most professional racing series, has a set of rules in place to filter out slow drivers (a 105 or 107 percent qualifying rule, usually), and a list of options to penalize negligent driving when it involves others (sending Hunter-Reay to the back of the field for barging Briscoe out of the way, for example).

But how should they reprimand or penalize a driver that is plenty fast, usually only harms his or herself, but is a constant nuisance to SAFER barriers, stacks of tires and keeps the IndyCar Safety Team at Defcon 5 during every session?

Before we go too far, and no matter how easy it is to do so, and no matter how much comedic material he provides, this isn’t meant to be another “Let’s pick on E.J. Viso” rant. It’s meant to ask a legitimate question.

Most states have a points system that is used to punish poor driving, so why not adopt a similar policy for IndyCar drivers who crash too often? After 3 points on an IndyCar driver’s license, they have to forfeit a practice session. If another point is added within the span of one race, two practice sessions are scratched. Add a fifth point and IndyCar’s competition director has the right to park the driver for the race. Add a sixth point and you have to room with Karl Pilkington on a episode of An Idiot Abroad.

It could also work in a driver’s favor. For every race weekend a driver goes without crashing, remove a point. If a driver learns his or her lesson—and that’s the whole point of this system—they can erase their record by demonstrating skilled, crash-free driving.

Again, we’re not talking about drivers who need every moment of practice to find enough speed to scrape into the field. At some point, the inability to crash during a practice session might actually help the driver from causing harm to him or herself, and could help the team’s bottom line.

The NBA has a similar limit policy with technical fouls. They allow 16 technicals during the 82-game season. If a player reaches 17, he is benched for the following game, and loses a game for each additional technical. Very few players fall afoul of the rule, but invariably, one or two get to ride the bench each year.

Like technicals in the NBA, crashes are a part of the game. Sometimes they happen by mistake. Sometimes they can’t be avoided. But those tend to be the exceptions, not the rule.

Mike Conway’s Indy 500 crash last year: no point on his license, or for Hunter-Reay, who ran out of fuel.

Viso, who turned himself on Simona De Silvestro’s right front wheel, failed to stop his car and was clipped by James Hinchcliffe who was taking evading action: one point, if not two for the double-whammy.

A driver like Viso has plenty of speed and extremely deep pockets, so with no real fear of being parked, and with no solution on the horizon for how he’ll keep his car on the paved portion of the track, maybe it’s time for IndyCar create an incentive: repeat crashers need to solve the problem or risk riding the pine.

VERSUS Plusses

The re-tooled Versus IndyCar broadcast was a major improvement.

Wally “gee, gosh and golly” Dallenbach Jr. was a great addition to the booth. Robbie Buhl did a good job in his two years alongside Bob Jenkins and Jon Beekhuis, but with three low-energy guys in the commentary box, replacing one with Dallenbach’s enthusiasm helped the overall product quite a bit.

Dallenbach will need a few races to get the terminology down, but he provided a distinctly different presentation style and perspective than Beekhuis, which helped the show to flow.

On pit lane, Kevin Lee followed Dallenbach’s beat to add smart observations and it was obvious he prepared like mad to help make a smooth transition from last year’s cast on pit lane.

I’m thankful Lindy Thackston was moved to pit lane after her talents were wasted last year as the pre-race host. She did a good job working the pits in the ALMS in 2008, and will continue to grow into the IndyCar role.

Marty Snider, despite being the IndyCar noob, looked and sounded like he’d been working open-wheel for a decade.

I’ll admit my bias right up front, but for me, the best new part of the Versus IndyCar broadcast team was SPEED’s Robin Miller.

Most people probably didn’t know what to expect from RM (and you can add Bob Jenkins to that list. He sounded positively frightened every time he threw to Robin), but he added analysis that no one else offered, provided some humor and laughs, and also helped to distance the broadcast from its rigid past.

In terms of the staffing shuffle, a hearty thumbs up to Versus

Graphics? Sector Times?

When it comes to the enhanced, updated or “Hey, at least it’s a little bit different than what you’re used to” graphics package I’d hoped for, the Barber race left a lot to be desired.

With a manageable number of cars to deal with (unlike NASCAR) and a single-class style of racing (unlike sports cars), I’d hoped to see Versus adopting something other than the overhead crawl that limits how much driver information can be seen at any one time.

F1’s scoring pylon, used on the left side of the screen, does a perfect job of showing the majority of the field at the same time, and gives proper data and information that helps to keep the viewer fully engaged.

Let’s hope Versus continues to evolve their in-race offerings because unlike the broadcast talent remix, the rest looked old an uninspired.

Another gripe—this time involving qualifying—was the lack of sector times during the broadcast. Until fans start writing in asking for the graphics to be dumbed down, how about erring on the side of giving open-wheel viewers too much info?

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports car racing for the site. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. You can email him .