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IndyCar
MILLER: Time For TGBB To Go
After the Edmonton fiasco, one thing is clear. It's time for The Great Brian Barnhart to join his old boss in exile.
Under Barnhart's rule, he's elevated his role to celebrity status, assumed control of every detail about driving, and has created enemies up and down pit lane. As Miller sees it, it's time for a quieter, more humble Race Director. (LAT)
Morris Nunn, the former Formula One designer who engineered four consecutive CART championships for Chip Ganassi in the late 90s, said it was “the worst call I’ve seen in 50 years of racing.”
Bill Vukovich, a 12-time starter at Indianapolis and longtime USAC front runner, described it as “a damned shame, because Helio didn’t do anything wrong.”
Most of my 150 emails, texts and phone messages that arrived by late Sunday night labeled it as “robbery.”
But Tony Cotman, the ex-Champ Car chief steward who now polices Indy Lights, said it was spot on and the easiest call in the world to make, while Paul Tracy complimented Brian Barnhart for “sticking to his guns” and Scott Dixon termed it as “the right decision based on the driver’s meeting.” I guess we can't all agree.
The fallout from Sunday’s sideshow in Edmonton figures to keep IndyCar in the headlines for a few days, the chat rooms on over-drive and Barnhart in the middle of the year’s best controversy.
When Barnhart black-flagged Helio Castroneves out of the lead and a victory for blocking teammate Will Power in the closing laps, it enraged most people watching on VERSUS, the estimated 40,000 paying customers at the race and the three-time Indy 500 winner.
The chief steward of the IZOD IndyCar series has shown us for years he knows nothing about starting races and Sunday afternoon I thought he ruined a pretty good show with a late call on a ruling that stunk all the way to Nova Scotia.
Unless you bought into his rule for passing.
Based on Barnhart’s mantra that you could only go to the inside entering the corner to overtake, I guess HCN was guilty.
Based on 43 years of covering IndyCars, it was a stupid rule and a worse interpretation.
Now let’s get a couple things out of the way before we start this autopsy. Brazilians pretty much introduced blocking to IndyCar racing in the ‘80s, and Castroneves has always been a serial blocker; most of his competitors were happy to see him penalized.
But I think the only thing the three-time Indy winner was guilty of this time was yelling at the wrong IndyCar officials.
Because his behavior was within every right of anybody leading a race with a couple laps to go – at least by conventional logic.
It might not have conformed to Barnhart’s idiotic idea about passing on an airport circuit, but it damn sure didn’t appear to be anything more than smart driving and protecting the lead.
On the restart with three laps left, Castroneves came off that last corner and opted to run to the right of the the middle of a 200-foot wide straightaway. He didn’t swerve his car or make any drastic moves until it was time to set up for the first turn and he dove to the inside -- NATURALLY.
That only left Power with the option of trying to pass on the outside of Turn 1 and, as expected, the current IndyCar point leader made a bold move around the top, pulled ahead for just a second as they were side-by-side and then did a little slide for life in the marbles.
It was the essence of good, hard racing with two guys on the same team going for it, which is all any fan hopes to see. Power lost second to Dixon in the exchange and HCN drove away.
When it was announced Castroneves was getting a drive-thru penalty, VERSUS announcers Robbie Buhl and Jon Beekhuis, both former drivers, were stunned as were the viewers and rightly stated during the replays they didn’t see anything wrong.
They had changed their tune in the on-line post mortem because they listened to TGBB’s speech in the driver’s meeting.
Basically, he said the track was divided in half and that you couldn’t run the inside line into a corner unless you were overtaking. If you weren’t, it was termed blocking.
Now think about that. Castroneves is LEADING THE RACE, it’s a long, wide straightaway leading to a right-hand turn and naturally he’s going to hug the inside line because it’s the proper apex. Yet that is called blocking. And, for road course racing with the wide open spaces of Edmonton, that’s just absurd. It’s not a narrow street course like Toronto, it’s wide and fast and invites many different ways into the corner.
Of course the crowd at City Centre Airport had no idea why the guy leading the race didn’t get the checkered flag and they didn’t give Dixon much love when he stepped out of his car.
Castroneves shouldn’t have screamed at the flagman and then grabbed IndyCar official Charles Burns but he was right to be in a rage because he’d been wronged by the man who’s been playing god with IndyCar for way too long.
To think that a truck driver-turned-parts changer ever got to be judge and jury of the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar racing is to understand how terribly screwed up open wheel racing has been for the past 15 years.
Barnhart, who got to the top of the IRL food chain by sucking up to Tony George, has had a runaway ego since the first day he landed in Race Control.
Whether it’s been listening to him screaming in the radio to all the drivers at Texas to quit running so close together during practice, ordering Brian Tyler to get out of the way at Colorado Springs (he was in front of the field and pulling away, for the record), delivering his phony made-for-TV speech to every driver in Indy qualifying, not allowing Indy 500 veteran Johnny Parsons to compete at Texas (but giving a pass to Milka Duno for years until the new sheriff intervened) to mandating single file into Turn 1 at Indy and declaring the pole-sitter has earned the right to lead the opening lap, it’s all about TGBB and control.
Barnhart plays favorites, looked the other way while a couple of teams abused the rulebook in the late ‘90s and is maddeningly inconsistent in Race Control. He never drove a race car and doesn’t understand what it’s like out there yet basically dictates when drivers should brake, turn and how close they should run. He dropped the ball on the new rules until Ben Bowlby’s Delta Wing forced him to get off his ass and he allowed Dallara dictate ridiculous prices for spec cars.
And let’s not forget the 2002 Indy 500, where his control freak ways (observers had to report any incident to him instead of just punching the yellow light) caused enough of a delay in turning on the caution to create a major controversy in who won. It was settled when George ruled that TGBB’s decision couldn’t be protested after Barry Green spent $150,000 in trying to prove that Tracy was in front of HCN when the caution finally flashed.
Of course the real irony of what happened Sunday is that Chip Ganassi, along several other owners, have been calling for Barnhart’s head the past few months and everyone in the paddock believes TGBB always favors his old boss, Roger Penske.
The bottom line is that TGBB is the last link to George’s regime and his expiration date has long since past. Let Tony Cotman write the new rules and set prices, get Andy Brown, Scot Elkins or Bowlby to police them and make Al Unser Jr. the chief steward.
In the ’60 and ‘70s, nobody even knew who the chief steward was in USAC because he rightly played almost no role in the outcome of any races. It would be nice to see a return to those days because right now the chief steward has way too much power and not nearly enough common sense.
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
Bill Vukovich, a 12-time starter at Indianapolis and longtime USAC front runner, described it as “a damned shame, because Helio didn’t do anything wrong.”
Most of my 150 emails, texts and phone messages that arrived by late Sunday night labeled it as “robbery.”
But Tony Cotman, the ex-Champ Car chief steward who now polices Indy Lights, said it was spot on and the easiest call in the world to make, while Paul Tracy complimented Brian Barnhart for “sticking to his guns” and Scott Dixon termed it as “the right decision based on the driver’s meeting.” I guess we can't all agree.
The fallout from Sunday’s sideshow in Edmonton figures to keep IndyCar in the headlines for a few days, the chat rooms on over-drive and Barnhart in the middle of the year’s best controversy.
When Barnhart black-flagged Helio Castroneves out of the lead and a victory for blocking teammate Will Power in the closing laps, it enraged most people watching on VERSUS, the estimated 40,000 paying customers at the race and the three-time Indy 500 winner.
The chief steward of the IZOD IndyCar series has shown us for years he knows nothing about starting races and Sunday afternoon I thought he ruined a pretty good show with a late call on a ruling that stunk all the way to Nova Scotia.
Unless you bought into his rule for passing.
Based on Barnhart’s mantra that you could only go to the inside entering the corner to overtake, I guess HCN was guilty.
Based on 43 years of covering IndyCars, it was a stupid rule and a worse interpretation.
Now let’s get a couple things out of the way before we start this autopsy. Brazilians pretty much introduced blocking to IndyCar racing in the ‘80s, and Castroneves has always been a serial blocker; most of his competitors were happy to see him penalized.
But I think the only thing the three-time Indy winner was guilty of this time was yelling at the wrong IndyCar officials.
Because his behavior was within every right of anybody leading a race with a couple laps to go – at least by conventional logic.
It might not have conformed to Barnhart’s idiotic idea about passing on an airport circuit, but it damn sure didn’t appear to be anything more than smart driving and protecting the lead.
On the restart with three laps left, Castroneves came off that last corner and opted to run to the right of the the middle of a 200-foot wide straightaway. He didn’t swerve his car or make any drastic moves until it was time to set up for the first turn and he dove to the inside -- NATURALLY.
That only left Power with the option of trying to pass on the outside of Turn 1 and, as expected, the current IndyCar point leader made a bold move around the top, pulled ahead for just a second as they were side-by-side and then did a little slide for life in the marbles.
It was the essence of good, hard racing with two guys on the same team going for it, which is all any fan hopes to see. Power lost second to Dixon in the exchange and HCN drove away.
When it was announced Castroneves was getting a drive-thru penalty, VERSUS announcers Robbie Buhl and Jon Beekhuis, both former drivers, were stunned as were the viewers and rightly stated during the replays they didn’t see anything wrong.
They had changed their tune in the on-line post mortem because they listened to TGBB’s speech in the driver’s meeting.
Basically, he said the track was divided in half and that you couldn’t run the inside line into a corner unless you were overtaking. If you weren’t, it was termed blocking.
Now think about that. Castroneves is LEADING THE RACE, it’s a long, wide straightaway leading to a right-hand turn and naturally he’s going to hug the inside line because it’s the proper apex. Yet that is called blocking. And, for road course racing with the wide open spaces of Edmonton, that’s just absurd. It’s not a narrow street course like Toronto, it’s wide and fast and invites many different ways into the corner.
Of course the crowd at City Centre Airport had no idea why the guy leading the race didn’t get the checkered flag and they didn’t give Dixon much love when he stepped out of his car.
Castroneves shouldn’t have screamed at the flagman and then grabbed IndyCar official Charles Burns but he was right to be in a rage because he’d been wronged by the man who’s been playing god with IndyCar for way too long.
To think that a truck driver-turned-parts changer ever got to be judge and jury of the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar racing is to understand how terribly screwed up open wheel racing has been for the past 15 years.
Barnhart, who got to the top of the IRL food chain by sucking up to Tony George, has had a runaway ego since the first day he landed in Race Control.
Whether it’s been listening to him screaming in the radio to all the drivers at Texas to quit running so close together during practice, ordering Brian Tyler to get out of the way at Colorado Springs (he was in front of the field and pulling away, for the record), delivering his phony made-for-TV speech to every driver in Indy qualifying, not allowing Indy 500 veteran Johnny Parsons to compete at Texas (but giving a pass to Milka Duno for years until the new sheriff intervened) to mandating single file into Turn 1 at Indy and declaring the pole-sitter has earned the right to lead the opening lap, it’s all about TGBB and control.
Barnhart plays favorites, looked the other way while a couple of teams abused the rulebook in the late ‘90s and is maddeningly inconsistent in Race Control. He never drove a race car and doesn’t understand what it’s like out there yet basically dictates when drivers should brake, turn and how close they should run. He dropped the ball on the new rules until Ben Bowlby’s Delta Wing forced him to get off his ass and he allowed Dallara dictate ridiculous prices for spec cars.
And let’s not forget the 2002 Indy 500, where his control freak ways (observers had to report any incident to him instead of just punching the yellow light) caused enough of a delay in turning on the caution to create a major controversy in who won. It was settled when George ruled that TGBB’s decision couldn’t be protested after Barry Green spent $150,000 in trying to prove that Tracy was in front of HCN when the caution finally flashed.
Of course the real irony of what happened Sunday is that Chip Ganassi, along several other owners, have been calling for Barnhart’s head the past few months and everyone in the paddock believes TGBB always favors his old boss, Roger Penske.
The bottom line is that TGBB is the last link to George’s regime and his expiration date has long since past. Let Tony Cotman write the new rules and set prices, get Andy Brown, Scot Elkins or Bowlby to police them and make Al Unser Jr. the chief steward.
In the ’60 and ‘70s, nobody even knew who the chief steward was in USAC because he rightly played almost no role in the outcome of any races. It would be nice to see a return to those days because right now the chief steward has way too much power and not nearly enough common sense.
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
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