Yes the race probably would have been more even if the IRL speedsters had
lasted the whole event. But you are discounting the HUGE advantage the IRL
has with equipment and scheduling. While the IRL teams had the whole month
to prepare for qualifying and the race, the CART teams had two events prior
to Indy and one immeadiately after. And not just any event, the weekend
before Indy they were in Japan. Finally the 6 or 7 years that the CART
teams were away from Indy also gave the IRL teams a big 'notebook'
advantage. The IRL teams had data from all those races concerning the
chassis and engines. It's not just a matter of the drivers jumping into a
different type of car and adjusting, the teams have a huge preparation
deficit to overcome.
Last year Buddy Lazier was faster than Juan Montoya except when it
counted, at the finish. And this year the Menard drivers 'should' have
coasted to an easy win but
Ray drove himself into the wall trying to race with a Cart driver.
Speaking of Mennard,(one or two n's? ymenard always confuses me) Back
when the IRL first started, Mennard was the defacto test team...They had
something like 1000 laps at the brickyard before anyone else got a chassis.
They had the IRL's greatest driver in Tony Stewart. They had the biggest
budgets. How many Indy races has Team Mennard won?
dave henrie
George would never redo something as stupid as the 25/8 rule. It was an
idiotic idea before, and seeing the error of his ways, it was removed.
And yes, the IRL was severly hurt by the results in this year's 500.
However, just look at what happened to every IRL driver who had a
realistic chance. Hornish, Sharp, and Fisher all spun on cold tires.
That's just a racing deal, it happens, and it has been worse than that
pre-IRL (I believe 1992, but it's whatever year both Jeff and Mario
Andretti ended up in the hospital). Lazier, Gordon, and Dismore both had
mechanical failures, hardly says anything about how good they are as
drivers. Hell, Hornish and Dismore at least were as fast as Gil and
Helio, and very likely faster than them.
The fact that it is unfamiliar equipment proves very little. There was
plenty of time to get up to speed in these cars before the race actually
begins. These guys have driven a variety of cars before getting this far,
and they should be able to adjust. It would be sad if they were unable to
adjust. They didn't just jump in these cars to days before the race and
get only an hour each day of practice time the two days beforehand.
-Pav
> Indy is the reason IRL teams have sponsors. It's the only race that
gives
> them good exposure. If only 8 IRL teams were fast enough to get into the
500,
> the sponsors on those other teams would start dropping like flies. No
sponsors =
> no team for the rest of the IRL schedule, decimating the IRL field.
> In case some of you aren't familiar with the CART/IRL split...
> Tony George won't let that happen, so he'll bring back the old rule
> allowing 25 IRL cars and 8 cars from anyone else (CART). It's an actual
rule
> that the Speedway/IRL president Tony George made up so CART teams would be
> forced to join the IRL if they all wanted a shot at Indy. Obviously it
didn't
> work, and CART boycotted the Indy 500 in 1996 and had their own race on
Memorial
> Day weekend against the Indy 500 (the US 500).
> In '97 the IRL then adopted different engine/chassis rules from CART
making
> it even more difficult (expensive) for CART teams to compete at Indy.
Since
> George saw that no CART teams wanted to race at Indy anymore he did away
with
> the 25/8 rule, knowing all of his IRL teams would be safely in the field
at
> Indy.
> Until 2000... When CART was realizing how big of an event Indy still
is,
> CART owner Chip Ganassi and his CART sponsor Target said "What the F*ck!
Let's
> do it. We've got Montoya and Vasser, we'll walk in, spend 2 or 3 million,
and
> walk away with the trophy. Which is exactly what they did.
> Other CART teams took notice (Penske, TeamGreen with Andretti) along
with
> Ganassi and said, "Well Hell... WE can do THAT!" And in 2001, they did. In
the
> final 2001 Indy 500 standings, Penske took places 1 & 2 with CART drivers
Helio
> Castroneves and Gil DeFerran. Team Greene took Andretti (his only entry)
to
> third place. Ganassi brought three of his cars home in positions 4, 5, and
6
> with CART drivers Jimmy Vasser and Bruno Junqueria (sp?), and NASCAR
driver Tony
> Stewart, respectively. Ganassi also had another entry, CART driver
Nicholas
> Minassian, but his car expired in the early stages of the race, leaving
him in
> position 28 or 29.
> Did I mention the CART guys are racing in unfamiliar equipment that
the IRL
> guys race all year long?
> Now, a LOT of CART teams took notice, and next year many are planning
an
> all-out *** of the Indy 500. Green will have all 3 of his cars, at
least 2
> from Ganassi and Penske, plus teams like Rahal, Mo Nunn, Fernandez,
> Newmann/Haas, PacWest, Patrick, and Players. With all of these CART teams
> participating and squeezing IRL regulars out of the Indy 500 field in
2002, I
> think it's a given that Tony George will try to save his series by once
again
> instituting the 25/8 rule for 2003.
> Then like I said before, it's gonna be 1996 all over again...
> Warlock!
> > I think it might be the opposite, actually. 25 CART, plus the top 8 IRL
> > drivers. There is presently no way IRL teams can be competitive against
the
> > CART teams, and I see no way in the future either. Some people even
> > speculate a 30 CART/3 IRL rule.
> > --
> > -- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
> > -- May the Downforce be with you...
> > -- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
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