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IndyCar
MILLER: The Most Repulsive Revolt
Randy Bernard is under fire from the car owners and the lynch mob mentality is growing.
After being inundated with questions, IndyCar Series boss Randy Bernard chose to confirm what's been going on behind the scenes via social media. (Image: Twitter)
In my 44 years of reporting on Indy car racing, I’ve witnessed the demise of open-wheel racing on multiple occasions because of an endless road of bad decisions, poor leadership and self-serving people.
USAC had the best competition on the planet for 25 years before disintegrating and eventually losing Indy cars and the Indianapolis 500.
CART came along with good ideas and bad execution yet still managed to overcome the desire to eat its own by rising to new heights in the early to mid-90s before sinking when all its captains jumped ship.
The IRL was born out of a ransom note using Indy as hostage before losing its vision and morphing into the very entity it detested.
And now we have INDYCAR teetering on the brink of anarchy.
CEO Randy Bernard is under fire from the car owners, primarily three or four, but the lynch mob mentality in the paddock is growing.
Bernard tweeted Tuesday night: "It is true that an owner is calling others trying to get me fired. I have had several owners confirm this. disappointing.’’
It doesn’t matter if it was Michael Andretti making the calls or that Mario wants a change; this movement was started by John Barnes and Tony George, with a silent endorsement from Kevin Kalkhoven, based on everything I’ve heard or been told. Roger Penske was calling for the hangman a few weeks ago but evidently has changed his mind.
In a nutshell, they’re pissed about TurboGate, excessive fines, the quality of the cars and how much more the new cars cost than promised.
Fair enough. It wouldn’t be racing unless the owners were bitching and they’ve probably got a decent beef about car prices since the new Dallara cost closer to $500,000 than $350,000. And the attempted introduction of Honda’s turbo changes at Long Beach wasn’t handled well by INDYCAR.
They’re also claiming that Bernard keeps giving them the runaround when they present hard numbers and concerns about specific expenses or potential problems.
I’m hearing they want Bernard sacked and either Steve Horne or Brian Barnhart, or both, to take control.
Now that makes perfect sense to me.
The owners bitched and moaned about Barnhart for years and now they want to bring back the guy that played favorites, gave us single-file starts at Indy, rain racing on ovals, no passing zones, a rulebook written in pencil and who drug his feet on new equipment until his soles were bleeding.
But let’s look at Bernard’s minuses and plusses before going any further.
He doesn’t have a real good understanding on what it takes to run a race team, what fair pricing is for car parts or the potholes that dot the landscape for owners. He’s trying to learn but he can never grasp it all because he’s never lived it.
He knows running five weekends in a row is good for momentum but likely doesn’t get the hardships that inflicts on mechanics and teams.
He wants to back-up his people yet needs to over-rule some decisions with common sense, although, again it’s not intuitive to him because he’s not a racer.
On the flip side, he’s more honest than any open-wheel CEO before him and has as much integrity as he does personality. Nobody works harder or puts in longer hours as he’s constantly on an airplane trying to put out fires, save races, pitch new manufacturers, find new venues, fight for better television coverage and massage IZOD.
He’s had good ideas like giving the USAC champion a true opportunity to get back to Indy, partnering with DreamWorks, adopting two-abreast restarts and tried to spread the little wealth there is to the part-time teams.
He cares what the fans think. He upgraded the racing side of INDYCAR by hiring Beaux Barfield, Will Phillips, Trevor Knowles and Tony Cotman.
He’s listened to the drivers’ concerns about 1.5-mile NASCAR tracks and weaned them off the schedule except for Texas.
Instead of adopting the DeltaWing like some owners wanted, he formed a committee of racers to choose a new car and all it has produced is five, straight, good races.
More importantly, at least it should be to the Hulman/George family, the former cowboy has roped in the staggering debt he inherited in 2010. Instead of losing millions and millions, Bernard was able to almost break even in 2011.
That’s why, no matter how loud the owners yell, it’s going to be difficult to get Randy fired because his No. 1 job was to restore fiscal responsibility and he has.
USAC had the best competition on the planet for 25 years before disintegrating and eventually losing Indy cars and the Indianapolis 500.
CART came along with good ideas and bad execution yet still managed to overcome the desire to eat its own by rising to new heights in the early to mid-90s before sinking when all its captains jumped ship.
The IRL was born out of a ransom note using Indy as hostage before losing its vision and morphing into the very entity it detested.
And now we have INDYCAR teetering on the brink of anarchy.
CEO Randy Bernard is under fire from the car owners, primarily three or four, but the lynch mob mentality in the paddock is growing.
Bernard tweeted Tuesday night: "It is true that an owner is calling others trying to get me fired. I have had several owners confirm this. disappointing.’’
It doesn’t matter if it was Michael Andretti making the calls or that Mario wants a change; this movement was started by John Barnes and Tony George, with a silent endorsement from Kevin Kalkhoven, based on everything I’ve heard or been told. Roger Penske was calling for the hangman a few weeks ago but evidently has changed his mind.
In a nutshell, they’re pissed about TurboGate, excessive fines, the quality of the cars and how much more the new cars cost than promised.
Fair enough. It wouldn’t be racing unless the owners were bitching and they’ve probably got a decent beef about car prices since the new Dallara cost closer to $500,000 than $350,000. And the attempted introduction of Honda’s turbo changes at Long Beach wasn’t handled well by INDYCAR.
They’re also claiming that Bernard keeps giving them the runaround when they present hard numbers and concerns about specific expenses or potential problems.
I’m hearing they want Bernard sacked and either Steve Horne or Brian Barnhart, or both, to take control.
Now that makes perfect sense to me.
The owners bitched and moaned about Barnhart for years and now they want to bring back the guy that played favorites, gave us single-file starts at Indy, rain racing on ovals, no passing zones, a rulebook written in pencil and who drug his feet on new equipment until his soles were bleeding.
But let’s look at Bernard’s minuses and plusses before going any further.
He doesn’t have a real good understanding on what it takes to run a race team, what fair pricing is for car parts or the potholes that dot the landscape for owners. He’s trying to learn but he can never grasp it all because he’s never lived it.
He knows running five weekends in a row is good for momentum but likely doesn’t get the hardships that inflicts on mechanics and teams.
He wants to back-up his people yet needs to over-rule some decisions with common sense, although, again it’s not intuitive to him because he’s not a racer.
On the flip side, he’s more honest than any open-wheel CEO before him and has as much integrity as he does personality. Nobody works harder or puts in longer hours as he’s constantly on an airplane trying to put out fires, save races, pitch new manufacturers, find new venues, fight for better television coverage and massage IZOD.
He’s had good ideas like giving the USAC champion a true opportunity to get back to Indy, partnering with DreamWorks, adopting two-abreast restarts and tried to spread the little wealth there is to the part-time teams.
He cares what the fans think. He upgraded the racing side of INDYCAR by hiring Beaux Barfield, Will Phillips, Trevor Knowles and Tony Cotman.
He’s listened to the drivers’ concerns about 1.5-mile NASCAR tracks and weaned them off the schedule except for Texas.
Instead of adopting the DeltaWing like some owners wanted, he formed a committee of racers to choose a new car and all it has produced is five, straight, good races.
More importantly, at least it should be to the Hulman/George family, the former cowboy has roped in the staggering debt he inherited in 2010. Instead of losing millions and millions, Bernard was able to almost break even in 2011.
That’s why, no matter how loud the owners yell, it’s going to be difficult to get Randy fired because his No. 1 job was to restore fiscal responsibility and he has.
2013 INDY 500 Practice
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