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IndyCar
MILLER: Both Barrels
Robin Miller recalls a time when he had more respect for IndyCar owners before letting loose on most of the current crop with both barrels.
Robin Miller, left, has always respected Roger Penske, right. The same can't be said for all of the current IZOD IndyCar Series team owners. (LAT)
Indy car owners….. a few are innovative heroes like Dan Gurney, lifers like Derrick Walker, hucksters like Ron Hemelgarn or game changers like Roger Penske. But there should be a bounty on the majority of them because of the way they’ve behaved over the past couple decades.
When Gurney penned his white paper in 1978 and attempted to force feed common sense into USAC, it was timely, sensible, necessary and long overdue.
The Big Eagle’s voice of reason became the impetus for CART – and some of the last lucid thoughts from that sector.
They’ve spent the better part of the last 30 years showing us they might know how to make jack, but they don’t know jack about running auto racing.
Controlling, self-serving, arrogant and greedy, the boys in CART managed to overcome their bad habits long enough to become the “it series” in the ‘90s before dissolving into a pile of Tony George apologists by 2003.
They either never chose the right guy to be in charge or didn’t give him enough power, or both. We had corporate biggies, foreigners, lawyers, mechanics, profilers and at least a couple of professional liars in charge of steering the ship before it ran aground.
Champ Car made similar mistakes in management.
Then George, who by the way is also a car owner, tried on the Dictator’s Hat but it didn’t fit either.
So Josie George basically took matters into her own hands and hired a guy who had NEVER seen an auto race to be the leader. We laughed, shook our heads and predicted the bull rider wouldn’t stay in the saddle very long.
But Randy Bernard has been hanging in there for six months and has a pretty good grip on the realities of this snake-infested paddock.
Right away, he realized he inherited one of the worst TV deals of all time, a series that was nearly broke, some major deadwood from the last regime and a schedule sprinkled with arsenic.
Oh yeah, he also had to come up with new rules for a new car and engine that would be cheaper, faster and sexier. In his first FIVE months on the job.
He listened to people with passion, returned phone calls, answered emails, asked lots of questions, attended Donald Davidson’s Indy 500 history classes, read Carl Hungness yearbooks and tried to gauge who he could trust and what was important.
He understood the new car/engine package was paramount and that he certainly wasn’t equipped to make the call so he formed a committee of racers to sort out the best package.
In between riding herd on his ICONIC panel, Bernard flew to Florida to see the head of Audi, visited with John Menard in Wisconsin, made trips to VERSUS to discuss their partnership, met with people at The Milwaukee Mile, hoofed it to Detroit to meet with Ford and General Motors, checked out USAC sprint cars at Kokomo, flew to Las Vegas to talk about the future, drove to Rossburg, Ohio to pitch running Indy to Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson, had lunch with McLaren’s Ron Dennis to discuss the new car aero package, flew to New York to see the IZOD folks, went to LA to see FOX’s David Hill about specialty programming and broke bread with Bruton Smith on three occasions to discuss his $20 million May doubleheader and other venues.
His average work day starts at 7 am and ends at 2 am.
That’s why it sickened me when I heard a couple of owners were badmouthing Bernard because they said he didn’t know anything about racing, he screwed up the new car and wasn’t up to the job. And IndyCar needed Tony George to come back and run things.
Really? He’s not as savvy as Joe Heitzler, Steve Johnson or Bill Stokkan? Not as quick on his feet as Andrew Craig or Leo Mehl? Can’t communicate like John Frasco or Jack Long? He screwed up the new car because it wasn’t the Delta Wing? He knows nothing about racing or people because he hasn’t fired Brian Barnhart?
It’s sad enough to think they held a new car revolt meeting at Sonoma without inviting Bernard and it’s insulting to hear supposedly intelligent racers lead a witch hunt after six months.
Let’s see, the owner’s biggest bitch was cost so the new car/engine is going to be roughly 40 percent cheaper to purchase. Everyone agreed Barnhart wasn’t the guy to write the rules or dictate prices to Dallara so Randy hired Tony Cotman, the popular and best choice for the job.
The ISC ovals may have close racing but attendance sucks just like the promotion and purses so Bernard is phasing those tracks out. He’s trying to get better partners and sanction fees. He’s fighting to keep the TEAM money. The fans and drivers are clamoring to return to Milwaukee and he’s getting closer and closer to making that happen. He’s working on a program to get a USAC champion back to the Indy 500. He knows American drivers/heroes are a key to turning things around.
Right now he’s in Italy with Tony Purnell and Gil de Ferran meeting with Ferrari and Maserati before stopping by Renault-Nissan, McLaren, Williams and Lotus. There’s no guarantee any of them will supply engines or aero kits but at least they’re interested enough to talk about Indy cars again.
Bernard couldn’t have picked a worse time to take over this madness but he seems to revel in the challenge. He knows he should have had the rules in place before announcing the new car/engine and admitted he probably should have done a better job of communicating with some of the owners.
But he’s a smart, stand-up guy with a brain for business who is LISTENING TO THE FANS and is respected by a lot of big hitters in this country. His biggest faults may be his optimism and the fact he hasn’t learned how to lie.
Yet to think he busts his ass and may not have the owners’ unanimous support is as ignorant as it is maddening. Just remember this: he’s trying to clean up the mess you’ve helped make of open wheel racing.
And six months ain’t nearly enough time to find a big enough mop.
Robin Miller became an Indy-car junkie in late 1950s and stooged for his hero, Jim Hurtubise, at the 1968 Indy 500. He went on to work as a vent man and board man on Indy pit crews from 1971-77. Miller bought a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli in 1972 and raced it in SCCA until 1974 when he purchased a midget from Gary Bettenhausen, competing in the USAC midget series from 1975-82.
Robin flunked out of Ball State College in 1968 and began working at The Indianapolis Star sports department in 1969, covered motorsports there from 1969-2000.
In addition to his broadcast work. Miller's also covered IndyCar racing for Autoweek, Autosport, Car & Driver and On Track magazines over the past 35 years.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
When Gurney penned his white paper in 1978 and attempted to force feed common sense into USAC, it was timely, sensible, necessary and long overdue.
The Big Eagle’s voice of reason became the impetus for CART – and some of the last lucid thoughts from that sector.
They’ve spent the better part of the last 30 years showing us they might know how to make jack, but they don’t know jack about running auto racing.
Controlling, self-serving, arrogant and greedy, the boys in CART managed to overcome their bad habits long enough to become the “it series” in the ‘90s before dissolving into a pile of Tony George apologists by 2003.
They either never chose the right guy to be in charge or didn’t give him enough power, or both. We had corporate biggies, foreigners, lawyers, mechanics, profilers and at least a couple of professional liars in charge of steering the ship before it ran aground.
Champ Car made similar mistakes in management.
Then George, who by the way is also a car owner, tried on the Dictator’s Hat but it didn’t fit either.
So Josie George basically took matters into her own hands and hired a guy who had NEVER seen an auto race to be the leader. We laughed, shook our heads and predicted the bull rider wouldn’t stay in the saddle very long.
But Randy Bernard has been hanging in there for six months and has a pretty good grip on the realities of this snake-infested paddock.
Right away, he realized he inherited one of the worst TV deals of all time, a series that was nearly broke, some major deadwood from the last regime and a schedule sprinkled with arsenic.
Oh yeah, he also had to come up with new rules for a new car and engine that would be cheaper, faster and sexier. In his first FIVE months on the job.
He listened to people with passion, returned phone calls, answered emails, asked lots of questions, attended Donald Davidson’s Indy 500 history classes, read Carl Hungness yearbooks and tried to gauge who he could trust and what was important.
He understood the new car/engine package was paramount and that he certainly wasn’t equipped to make the call so he formed a committee of racers to sort out the best package.
In between riding herd on his ICONIC panel, Bernard flew to Florida to see the head of Audi, visited with John Menard in Wisconsin, made trips to VERSUS to discuss their partnership, met with people at The Milwaukee Mile, hoofed it to Detroit to meet with Ford and General Motors, checked out USAC sprint cars at Kokomo, flew to Las Vegas to talk about the future, drove to Rossburg, Ohio to pitch running Indy to Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson, had lunch with McLaren’s Ron Dennis to discuss the new car aero package, flew to New York to see the IZOD folks, went to LA to see FOX’s David Hill about specialty programming and broke bread with Bruton Smith on three occasions to discuss his $20 million May doubleheader and other venues.
His average work day starts at 7 am and ends at 2 am.
That’s why it sickened me when I heard a couple of owners were badmouthing Bernard because they said he didn’t know anything about racing, he screwed up the new car and wasn’t up to the job. And IndyCar needed Tony George to come back and run things.
Really? He’s not as savvy as Joe Heitzler, Steve Johnson or Bill Stokkan? Not as quick on his feet as Andrew Craig or Leo Mehl? Can’t communicate like John Frasco or Jack Long? He screwed up the new car because it wasn’t the Delta Wing? He knows nothing about racing or people because he hasn’t fired Brian Barnhart?
It’s sad enough to think they held a new car revolt meeting at Sonoma without inviting Bernard and it’s insulting to hear supposedly intelligent racers lead a witch hunt after six months.
Let’s see, the owner’s biggest bitch was cost so the new car/engine is going to be roughly 40 percent cheaper to purchase. Everyone agreed Barnhart wasn’t the guy to write the rules or dictate prices to Dallara so Randy hired Tony Cotman, the popular and best choice for the job.
The ISC ovals may have close racing but attendance sucks just like the promotion and purses so Bernard is phasing those tracks out. He’s trying to get better partners and sanction fees. He’s fighting to keep the TEAM money. The fans and drivers are clamoring to return to Milwaukee and he’s getting closer and closer to making that happen. He’s working on a program to get a USAC champion back to the Indy 500. He knows American drivers/heroes are a key to turning things around.
Right now he’s in Italy with Tony Purnell and Gil de Ferran meeting with Ferrari and Maserati before stopping by Renault-Nissan, McLaren, Williams and Lotus. There’s no guarantee any of them will supply engines or aero kits but at least they’re interested enough to talk about Indy cars again.
Bernard couldn’t have picked a worse time to take over this madness but he seems to revel in the challenge. He knows he should have had the rules in place before announcing the new car/engine and admitted he probably should have done a better job of communicating with some of the owners.
But he’s a smart, stand-up guy with a brain for business who is LISTENING TO THE FANS and is respected by a lot of big hitters in this country. His biggest faults may be his optimism and the fact he hasn’t learned how to lie.
Yet to think he busts his ass and may not have the owners’ unanimous support is as ignorant as it is maddening. Just remember this: he’s trying to clean up the mess you’ve helped make of open wheel racing.
And six months ain’t nearly enough time to find a big enough mop.
Robin Miller became an Indy-car junkie in late 1950s and stooged for his hero, Jim Hurtubise, at the 1968 Indy 500. He went on to work as a vent man and board man on Indy pit crews from 1971-77. Miller bought a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli in 1972 and raced it in SCCA until 1974 when he purchased a midget from Gary Bettenhausen, competing in the USAC midget series from 1975-82.
Robin flunked out of Ball State College in 1968 and began working at The Indianapolis Star sports department in 1969, covered motorsports there from 1969-2000.
In addition to his broadcast work. Miller's also covered IndyCar racing for Autoweek, Autosport, Car & Driver and On Track magazines over the past 35 years.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
2013 INDY 500 Practice
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