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IndyCar
MILLER: A Few Rotten Apples
A few INDYCAR team owners continue to poison the well and show no signs of stopping.
Whether it's constantly calling for Randy Bernard's head, or looking for ways to move him out of office, Robin Miller's had enough of team owners undermining IndyCar's momentum and recovery. (Photo: LAT)
It’s the rumor that won’t go away: a few car owners wanting to put a deal together with a couple investors to buy the IZOD IndyCar Series so they can fire Randy Bernard and run their own show.
It started in June and gained some steam last week when a couple of major players in INDYCAR told me it was more than speculation.
Now I don’t know if Hulman & Company would even entertain selling INDYCAR unless it was crazy money.
But I do know it’s a terrible idea that ranks up here with 25/8 at Indy in 1996.
If it did become a reality, the easy thing to do would be sit back and watch the train wreck.
As my pal Dan Gurney likes to say, if you don’t have any skin in the game Miller then you shouldn’t have a vote, and it’s hard to argue with his logic. And some owners expose more skin than others but they spend the money and they certainly deserve a voice.
So why get upset about something that probably isn't going to happen? And, if it does, who cares if the powers in open wheel racing make another change at the top?
Does it really matter if Bernard is shown the door? Would it have any noticeable effect on the series? Could it be construed as a big step backward?
Hell yes on all three counts.
The reason to be concerned is because I've lived and breathed INDYCAR for most of my life, covered it for 44 years and care about it more than is probably healthy. Whether it was USAC, CART/Champ Car or IRL, it's always had great racing and piss-poor management. Until the last couple years when there was finally an autonomous voice that didn't have favorites or agendas and looked at things with a fresh perspective.
And, oh by the way, he doesn't answer to car owners.
The mere fact this takeover idea could have any legs is as maddening as it is mystifying because history has shown that car owners make even more bad decisions as a group than they do individually.
Despite the heydays of CART, they didn’t have the gumption to stick together and believe in their product. They defected, one by one except for Newman/Haas, to the Indy Racing League and cow-towed to Tony George.
George, in turn, had to turn his beloved oval-track series into CART Lite because his original vision failed.
We’ve had peace since Tony brokered it in 2008 but the Hulman-George family was bleeding money from every pore under TG’s business plan so they hired Bernard to apply the tourniquet – which he’s done. Check the bottom line.
Despite a committee process instituted by Bernard that was badmouthed at every turn, the new Dallara has been a winner and staged some of the best races we’ve seen in 20 years with a big assist from Firestone and the drivers. Randy's choices to run Race Control and the technical department have also given the series a major upgrade in professionalism. He’s OK'd a reduction in testing next year which should help keep the smaller teams on a competitive curve.
Yet he's constantly criticized and undermined by a few brave souls who hide in their hospitality tent. In a season that should be celebrated for its good, hard racing and 4-driver duel for the championship, instead it's been one loud bitch session.
Sure, he got hoodwinked by Lotus and wasn't clever with China and now has a mutiny on his hands because of the cost of the Dallara’s spare parts. He knows he shouldn't have said he had a backup plan for China without one and should have been tougher with Lotus.
It started in June and gained some steam last week when a couple of major players in INDYCAR told me it was more than speculation.
Now I don’t know if Hulman & Company would even entertain selling INDYCAR unless it was crazy money.
But I do know it’s a terrible idea that ranks up here with 25/8 at Indy in 1996.
If it did become a reality, the easy thing to do would be sit back and watch the train wreck.
As my pal Dan Gurney likes to say, if you don’t have any skin in the game Miller then you shouldn’t have a vote, and it’s hard to argue with his logic. And some owners expose more skin than others but they spend the money and they certainly deserve a voice.
So why get upset about something that probably isn't going to happen? And, if it does, who cares if the powers in open wheel racing make another change at the top?
Does it really matter if Bernard is shown the door? Would it have any noticeable effect on the series? Could it be construed as a big step backward?
Hell yes on all three counts.
The reason to be concerned is because I've lived and breathed INDYCAR for most of my life, covered it for 44 years and care about it more than is probably healthy. Whether it was USAC, CART/Champ Car or IRL, it's always had great racing and piss-poor management. Until the last couple years when there was finally an autonomous voice that didn't have favorites or agendas and looked at things with a fresh perspective.
And, oh by the way, he doesn't answer to car owners.
The mere fact this takeover idea could have any legs is as maddening as it is mystifying because history has shown that car owners make even more bad decisions as a group than they do individually.
Despite the heydays of CART, they didn’t have the gumption to stick together and believe in their product. They defected, one by one except for Newman/Haas, to the Indy Racing League and cow-towed to Tony George.
George, in turn, had to turn his beloved oval-track series into CART Lite because his original vision failed.
We’ve had peace since Tony brokered it in 2008 but the Hulman-George family was bleeding money from every pore under TG’s business plan so they hired Bernard to apply the tourniquet – which he’s done. Check the bottom line.
Despite a committee process instituted by Bernard that was badmouthed at every turn, the new Dallara has been a winner and staged some of the best races we’ve seen in 20 years with a big assist from Firestone and the drivers. Randy's choices to run Race Control and the technical department have also given the series a major upgrade in professionalism. He’s OK'd a reduction in testing next year which should help keep the smaller teams on a competitive curve.
Yet he's constantly criticized and undermined by a few brave souls who hide in their hospitality tent. In a season that should be celebrated for its good, hard racing and 4-driver duel for the championship, instead it's been one loud bitch session.
Sure, he got hoodwinked by Lotus and wasn't clever with China and now has a mutiny on his hands because of the cost of the Dallara’s spare parts. He knows he shouldn't have said he had a backup plan for China without one and should have been tougher with Lotus.
2013 INDY 500 Practice
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