INDYCAR: The Fantasy Game

IndyCar

INDYCAR: The Fantasy Game

Randy Bernard's $5 million Las Vegas challenge isn't perfect, but with a few tweaks and using the guidelines he shared with SPEED.com, it could become a huge hit.

Marshall Pruett | Posted February 28, 2011 Fremont, CA

Randy Bernard's creative approach to promoting the IZOD IndyCar Series is helping to raise the series' profile after years of relative anonymity. (LAT)

As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I worshipped at the altar of my stick-and-ball sports heroes: Dr. J, Willie Stargell, Lynn Swan, Darrel Dawkins, Kent Tekulve, David Thompson, Dave Winfield, Adrian Dantley, Terry Bradshaw and at least a dozen others.

Along with most of the kids in my neighborhood, championing the merits of our heroes and ranking our favorites in an informal MLB/NBA/NFL fantasy league became a daily ritual.

Thanks to the IZOD IndyCar Series, open-wheel fans can now argue over who belongs on the list of the five non-IndyCar drivers that will be invited to take part in the $5 million prize being offered at Las Vegas Motor Speedway IndyCar finale in October.

The V8 Supercars series will have a more robust invitational this year, as each of the 29 cars competing at the Gold Coast 600 will have an international driver sharing the cockpit with a V8 regular, which gives a good look into how the world’s best racers compare in fast tin-top machines. But with the $5 million IndyCar challenge, open-wheel fans will have the first high-stakes invitational event to follow since the last Marlboro Challenge event in 1992.

IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard, the man behind the promotion, told SPEED.com he developed the idea specifically to grow IndyCar’s presence outside the world of open-wheel racing.

“I sat in Homestead last year for the IndyCar finale and watched a phenomenal race,” he said. “Just incredible. And it was also the best-kept secret in the world. We got a .3 [Nielsen] rating. A .3! We have to be able to drive a bigger and better TV audience, and with this Las Vegas invitational, the committee that will select the five drivers will know this is about helping the series for years to come. It’s about building a foundation that will bring more attention to IndyCar. It’s about getting our ratings back up.”

Eight big questions came out of Bernard’s announcement:

1. Who’s eligible to compete?
2. Who’s available to compete?
3. Who wants to compete?
4. Does everybody support the race for $5 million?
5. Will the five invitational drivers take points away from the championship contenders?
6. Where will the five extra cars come from?
7. Will the promotion take the spotlight away from whoever wins the 2011 IndyCar title?
8. Which drivers would be the best fit?

Here’s what we’ve determined:

1: Who’s eligible to compete?

The answer to this question governs our ability to debate the topic, and while Bernard couldn’t give a definitive response to every candidate I mentioned, he made it clear that anyone with recent IndyCar or Champ Car experience shouldn’t get their hopes up for Las Vegas.

“No, a guy like Dan Wheldon or Paul Tracy would not be eligible for one of the five spots,” he said. “Here’s the thing. Part of our State of the Union address explained our overall approach to things like this. This [Las Vegas promotion] is about attracting new people to follow our series. Adding fans is the key thing here. We want to find five drivers who will help bring new fans to our series. And, those new fans could also be former fans that we lost back in the day. I’m a huge fan of Wheldon and Tracy and so many of the other guys we want in the series full-time, but we won’t gain new fans by filling those [five spots] with guys everyone fans know as a regular open-wheel drivers.”

While the door might be shut on modern day open-wheel stars, Bernard left it cracked open when I inquired about some of open-wheel’s legends. I wasn’t able to get past mentioning Al Unser Jr before Bernard provided his answer.

“We’ll evaluate who it is, and if it’s a good fit. The current guys aren’t eligible, but the older champions would definitely be considered if we thought it would draw attention to IndyCar.”

The amount of media that showed up for Valentino Rossi's first test for Ducati late last year rivals the amount of on-site press coverage an average IndyCar race generates. (LAT)

If it wasn’t already clear, Bernard is hoping to attract some big names from well outside the world of open-wheel to see if they can roll the dice and take home IndyCar’s money.

“If Ken Block wanted to compete, or Travis Pastrana or Kasey Kahne, those are the perfect types of drivers who we’d love to look at inviting to the race in Las Vegas,” Bernard explained. “People want to see an outsider try and take our money, and we want their fans to give our series a serious look. I’m convinced that once they see the kind of racing we have to offer, they will stay with us.”

So, we now have the guidelines for the $5 million fantasy league. Tony Kanaan? No. Mario Andretti? Maybe. Travis Pastrana? Absolutely.

2: Who’s available to compete?

IndyCar had the October 16th date already set aside, so that’s the date the $5 million promotion will run, but to be honest, it offers more limitations than opportunities.

The presence of a top NASCAR driver would do wonders for the event, but from a timing and logistics standpoint, it’s a nightmare.

Not only do Sprint Cup drivers race the night before Las Vegas in Charlotte, but Charlotte is preceded by 11 consecutive weekends of Cup races—starting at the Brickyard 400 on July 31st—making it nearly impossible to prepare for the $5 million event. In fact, Cup drivers are busy every weekend the IndyCar Series visits an oval in 2011.

Tim Cindric, president of Penske Racing, shared a tale from Team Penske’s past to highlight how any driver wanting to make a serious bid at claiming the $5 million prize needs to run at least one IndyCar race on an oval before they get to Las Vegas.

“Back in 2001, we decided we wanted to do the Indy 500 (Team Penske was competing in the rival CART series at the time) as a one-off with [Gil] de Ferran and Helio [Castroneves],” he said. “And we thought they were both very accomplished open-wheel drivers, and driving an IRL car shouldn’t have been too tough for them. But, still, if we wanted to win Indy, we knew we had to do at least one race before Indy to learn all of the nuances about the cars, so we entered both drivers at Phoenix and everyone learned a lot from that event. That move really paid off for us. We won Indy, but we wouldn’t have been able to do that unless we’d run Phoenix to get our team and our drivers ready.”

Unfortunately, and by following Cindric’s advice, we would end up ruling out most of the top Sprint Cup drivers from running at Las Vegas.

That’s not to say drivers couldn’t conduct a number of private tests between events, but nobody wants to go into their first IndyCar race while having to learn about racing wheel-to-wheel in an open-wheel car with drivers ranging from Milka Duno to Dario Franchitti…and with the IndyCar championship on the line and a huge payday hanging in the balance…

Drivers embroiled in the Chase would surely be forbidden to race at Las Vegas, but for those outside the top 12, it’s possible. Not likely, but possible. More on that later.

Formula One drivers have a similar issue with their racing calendar. There’s a glimmer of hope, though, as the Korean GP, which also races on Sunday, October 16th, is actually a day ahead of Las Vegas. Through the miracle of international date lines, private jets and possibly a time machine, an F1 driver could potentially race in Seoul on Sunday, fly to Vegas, get that most of that day back and race again on the 1.5-mile LVMS oval with moments to spare. I think.

But, and as we have in NASCAR, will Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren or Mercedes GP let their prized prima donnas loose on a 200 mile per hour oval to pad bank accounts that are already stuffed with Euros and Pounds? Not likely. After Robert Kubica’s season-ending rally accident, I’m sure the door slammed shut on extracurricular activities for all but the most average F1 drivers.

Robby Gordon, who got his start in open-wheel back in 1992 with Chip Ganassi, would bring fans from NASCAR and two different arenas of off-road racing if he was chosen to run at Las Vegas. (Marshall Pruett)

If we get a current F1 driver on the Seoul-to-Vegas express, it’s doubtful they’d attract the kind of following Bernard is looking for. Who amongst North America’s F1 fan base would pay to watch Kamui Kobayashi or Heikki Kovalainen go in circles?

The best scenario for guest drivers would be to race at IndyCar’s penultimate round, held October 2nd at Kentucky, two weeks prior to the Las Vegas finale. We know Cup drivers are busy, but F1 has the weekend of the 2nd off. The American Le Mans Series and GRAND-AM Rolex Series conclude their respective seasons by October 1st, but GRAND-AM drivers would have the best shot to do an oval race ahead of Las Vegas as their season ends on September 17th.

The ALMS ends their season at Road Atlanta on Saturday night, October 1st, but with the sports cars and Indy cars on track at roughly the same time throughout the week, it would be hard for an ALMS driver to compete at Kentucky as well.

The World Rally Championship has an event in France the weekend of October 2nd, but they are clear for the Las Vegas. The AMA Supercross season is over before October. MotoGP races in Australia on the same weekend as Las Vegas, but like F1, they are a day ahead. They also have the Kentucky IndyCar weekend open. Cue the two-wheel time machine and set it to land in Nevada.

V8 Supercar drivers are free to race at Kentucky and Las Vegas, although their Indy 500—the Bathurst 1000—runs the weekend after Kentucky. I’m not sure how willing manufacturers and team owners would be to let their drivers risk injury at a non-mandatory race ahead of their biggest event.

NHRA drivers are busy both weekends, but they race in nearby Phoenix on the 16th. Could one of drag racing’s finest drivers—someone who isn’t in a battle for the championship—opt to skip Phoenix and try to hit the IndyCar jackpot?

World of Outlaws has conflicting events on the 2nd and 16th, while USAC Silver Crown is free the 2nd and races on the 15th, making it easier for one of USAC’s best to get an IndyCar invite.

We can extend the look at who’s available to a wider category of series, but I’m not sure if pilots from the Red Bull Air Races and drivers from the USHRA Monster Jam series would be considered.

For a driver outside of the Sprint Cup Chase and with a willing team owner who wanted a slice of the $5 million pie, the odds of a NASCAR driver skipping Charlotte aren’t favorable, but it can’t be completely dismissed.

If you set your expectations to see second- and third-tier guest drivers, yes, the $5M challenge will be considered a success. If you expect Michael Schumacher to skip the Korean GP or Dale Earnhardt Jr to ditch Charlotte in favor of Las Vegas, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

3: Who wants to compete?

Almost every driver that has been asked to comment on the event has expressed an interest. Whether that interest will turn into action remains to be seen, but with the $5 million announcement less than a week old, Cindric says rushing to judge its reception would be premature.

“We haven’t really considered it yet, to be honest, but it was just announced” he said. “It’s only going to take a month or two to prepare for the ‘Vegas race, so when I look at the Sprint Cup series, if someone’s in the Chase, I can’t see it happening. But if they’re not, then maybe. If a [Sam] Hornish or a [Juan] Montoya can run Vegas, or [Tony] Stewart, then maybe. If those guys couldn’t, I’d have to wonder why. I sent Brad [Keselowksi] an e-mail today about it. Somebody told me that he asked on Twitter if [Roger Penske] would give him a shot to take a run at the $5 million, so this is bringing discussion and talk and interest. I hope he’s in the Chase, though, and we have to keep him focused on that…”

Team Penske's Will Power, right, supports the Las Vegas promotion and looks forward to a possible change of venues in the future. (LAT)

An expanded $5 million promotion in 2012—one that uses the fleet of mothballed 2011-spec IndyCar chassis, and possibly at a different track—on a weekend where most series aren’t racing would clearly allow for a bigger field of domestic and international super stars to take part in the event.

For now, Cindric says the Las Vegas event is a good starting point, and serves as a quality replacement for the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 double that NASCAR drivers and owners panned.

“Getting Sprint Cup teams to commit to running Indy was a challenge. Las Vegas fits nicely. It’s also the final race for these cars. They are obsolete after the race. I still think IndyCar needs to be careful. Las Vegas isn’t the most challenging track, and you don’t want Sprint Cup drivers coming over and saying these cars are easy to drive around there. That wouldn’t sound good. But, of all the tracks, it’s the easiest for people to get up to speed and gives the best potential for someone to pull off a win. It’s perfect from that standpoint, and hey, it’s ‘Vegas; it’s a gamble, and it’s the last race of this era. Is it pure racing? No, but nothing is these days.”

2010 ALMS LMP champion and 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans winner David Brabham, who Robin Miller mentioned as a fine candidate for one of the five spots, says he’d heavily consider an invitation of it was offered.

“It’s quite an amazing promotion they are doing, for a start. Of course, anyone who would be invited would be crazy not to accept it. It would be an amazing experience. Obviously, you’d hope you’d be in a car capable of winning because not every team is capable of doing that. You’d need the stars to align to come away with the $5 million. Guys who’ve not had any real experience on ovals will be at a disadvantage; if it was on a road course, it would open up the chances quite a bit. For the oval, you’d have a steep learning curve, but you’d need to do at least a few tests leading up to the event with your team to make sure you were as ready as possible. It’s an exciting idea.”

4: Does everybody support the race for $5 million?

No, but the majority of the players I spoke with had positive things to say about Bernard’s plan.

“The important thing to remember is that we hired Randy [Bernard] because he was a good promoter,” Cindric stated. “Indy car racing hasn’t really had a good promoter at the top for quite some time. Tony [George] was many things, but he wasn’t a promoter. I think it’s helping. I’m not saying every idea [Bernard] has is a good one, but I think to move IndyCar to the next level, somebody needs to shake it up.

“Whether somebody does this challenge or doesn’t do this, they are talking about us. It has people talking about IndyCar. Some people become narrow-minded about these things. It’s bigger than one race or one championship. Promotions like these are about the long-term health of the series. All of us benefit from having a healthy IndyCar Series. If the guy at the top believes this will help, you have to support him.”

One IndyCar team owner, who wished to remain anonymous, has a different view of the $5 million challenge.

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