Brian Barnhard has to go, if Indycar's ever going to come back to the appeal it had before "The Split". Hey, let's look at how much rain's in the air, instead of how much water's on the track! Berkely..that stuff sounds like driving on the street in Atlanta.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNTNb2-eQUA
I'm actually an RHR fan..but I can't quite dismiss Will Power's reaction to the whole thing.
I personally, after watching the video, think Danica leaving is a good thing. She is the only one who lost it.
Stop right there. She was NOT the only one who lost it. If you listen to her in-car, she BARELY touched the throttle, and the car spun. She was the first of the cars that was still in the corner when they punched it, and one of the last cars on the lead lap. She had a lot more to gain by getting on it than the cars behind her.
And yes, Barnhart has to go. I've been saying that since before the Helio incident at Cleveland.
I agree that Brian's gotta go.
he's got a nice WWE kind of mentality going out there- playing favorites to drivers who hit cars, and doling out penalties to others. So we then get driving like Dario yesterday, who went out of his way to cut across Sato. Sato didn't get out of the way, so they hit, dario crashed, and then whined about it afterword.
the kind of driving they allow is insane. Dario should have gotten penalized for the wreck of Power a few weeks ago, too.
Danica has her issues, I won't dispute that, but RHR also didn't have grip, seeing that Servia drove off without him, she just lost grip while cornering. IMHO, that was a disasterous call by IndyCar.
I just can't wrap my head around a yellow to green in conditions that immediately brought out a red flag. Insane.
You can see why so few want to put thier money into IndyCar racing. Outside of the 500, you risk so much that it's not worth it. Think about if Andretti (4), Ganassi(3/4), KV (3/4), and Penske (3/4) all only ran 2 cars... small, small fields. If not for them, die hard racers like Fisher would be on the dirt tracks.... Although, one can say that the dirt traks might be a better way to go racing at this point...
Man, I really want to enjoy Indycar. They sure make it tough.
alfadriver wrote: I agree that Brian's gotta go. Man, I really want to enjoy Indycar. They sure make it tough.
^this +1
racerfink wrote: Stop right there. She was NOT the only one who lost it. If you listen to her in-car, she BARELY touched the throttle, and the car spun. She was the first of the cars that was still in the corner when they punched it, and one of the last cars on the lead lap. She had a lot more to gain by getting on it than the cars behind her.
I don't follow Indy car racing at all, but in that video near the end the show an in car from Briscoe (?) and he gets on the throttle more aggressively at about the same time that Danica did, but managed to not spin.
I guess when you have your seat in the car based on your looks, marketability, sex, and driving talent (in that order) mistakes you make get magnified/scrutinized more so than for some of the other drivers.
Apparently I hit a nerve with my Danica comment. Good.
She lost it pure and simple. I watched the video 3 times before I posted.
Yes time for Brian to go, but Danica still lost it. That's racing, she had allot to gain if she would have been able to pull it off, but she didn't.
I watched her at Barber, horrible driving job. Make all the excuses you want but her team mate seemed to do just fine. Before you start with the conspiracy theories about Andretti Motorsport giving her teammate the best car, makes no sense. Why would you handicap a Cash Cow like Patrick?
So what I got from the little video is:
Track conditions were horrible
Indy, Brian, made the wrong call...again.
Danica is over her head.
Power makes funny faces when he gives the Double Eagle
did I miss anything else?
nope.. you summed it up nicely.
Indy isn't broadcast enough anymore for me to keep up with it. I'm not an internet racing fan. I can't sit at my computer and keep tabs on stuff or watch a race. It's the same with all sports actually. I remember there used to be a race shown (almost) every weekend when I was a kid. There was always a nascar race on one channel and and indycar race on another.Now they're spotty and are barely shown anymore.
Sorry but that look on Will Powers face keeps me laughing. 
In reply to FlightService:
Yea- Dario is a whiner.
Schekter needs to remember that the race is longer than 5 laps.
some of the drivers need to be reminded that they are more than 2 laps down, particularly when the lead lap cars come up on them.
Oh, and Marco- he was not exactly doing well for Andretti, either. Or Conway, who crashed (lost it) on the first lap (when it was dry). RHR is the best driver on the team, and while Conway and Marco have each won a race, they have both looked deplorable as well. On average, Danica > Marco or Conway. But that's not exactly saying much.
There are other things. But not based purely on the video.
for a sec there I thought that was Danica prancing over the wall on the way to the tower
That race could have ended much differently if the officials had not thrown the green flag.
Before that incident it didn't seem like the race was that bad.Typical Indy car oval race, cars strung out lots of lapped traffic, etc.
The fustercluck at the end was great, You don't see that in NASCAR, lol
Race Control totally screwed-the-pooch by going green.
TGBB's interview revealed (again) that he's incompetent and/or that IndyCar's communication network is based on vaporware. His claim that no teams attempted to contact him or Race Control came off as a total lie.
Yeah, the field got a green flag, but the yellow was flown before anyone crossed the S/F line. Reverting to positions before that cluster was the only fair thing to do.
Put me in the growing camp of Will Power fans; TGBB deserved that salute. If WP has to pay a fine, it should come out Barnhart's pocket, as should the costs to repair all the cars damaged on the front straight.
I was there. There was light rain. I'm sure it makes it dicey for those cars there. Questionable decisions by the race control, BUT as a racer you have to deal with the conditions presented to you.
What I found odd, was that they'd put the blow dryers out on the track during just about every caution, yet they seemed to not put the full effort into the last restart.
Now they only ran two dryer trucks on the track, despite having at least another three of them hooked up and ready to go in the infield. Surprised they didn't use them if the wet was so problematic, it wouldn't have added any more time to the cautions.
Weather was forecasted to be crappy well ahead of time, the racers would have been well served to have the race time bumped up, but I assume they didn't want to for the sake of airing it on TV.
Oh well, it was my 2.5 year old son's first track race. He seemed to love it, so that is all that truly matters to me.
sachilles wrote: it was my 2.5 year old son's first track race. He seemed to love it, so that is all that truly matters to me.
Quoted for emphasizing what matters.
Dude, the guy's name is Will Power. That's awesome.
FlightService wrote:sachilles wrote: it was my 2.5 year old son's first track race. He seemed to love it, so that is all that truly matters to me.Quoted for emphasizing what matters.
I really couldn't ask for a better situation. My brother in law and his sister arranged the whole thing. Camped right next the track(400yds). Got to see the whole weekend of racing. Went to an autograph session. My son loves anything mechanical, so between the race cars and the tow trucks, everything worked out just fine.
By the way, our local group of stock car folks put on a hell of a show the day before. If you ever get a chance to watch an ACT race, do yourself a favor by attending. They "get it".
Yes, she seems to do better than Marco or Rahal, but some guys have such v4gin4 envy, that they can't see straight. She can outdrive you. Deal with it.
The 14 year old chick at my local roundy round can outdrive me. Doesn't mean she can drive an Indy car.
Patrick is over her head. Deal with it.
In reply to FlightService:
By your measure, so is over half the field.
Kind of hard to deal with a racing series where 60% of the field is over their head, since they are being beaten by a hack who has no idea what she's doing.....
Just sayin.
I don't think she's over her head, but I don't think she's anything more than average in the series. At least this weekend the racing around her was some of the more entertaining stuff.
I was sort of amazed at the marketing/merchandizing at the event. In the Indy store, they had a bunch of hot wheels race cars, but they were all last years cars, because they didn't have this years cars yet. The only current stuff was for Danica. The only kid apparel was for Danica. Seemed a little too heavily focused on her, compared to the other drivers. Certainly think the Indy folks could learn a little bit from the merchandizing folks over at nascar.
If you want to bring up women in motorsports, lets look at one.
Simona De Silvestro.
Since starting to race (major series and events) in 2005, she has 6 wins and a 3rd and 4th in championships.
Patrick on the other hand started major racing in 1998/99. She has 1 win and her best championships are 3rd and 5th.
If you want to be a fan of a woman because she is a woman fine.
If you want to be a fan of people who can drive better than you fine.
If you want to get snippy about someone calling you out for not being honest about the skill set of your driver of choice, then you better find a driver with a record to back it up.
I don't fault Patrick for being a woman in motorsport. Actually the opposite, I would assume it's not easy for her in paddock. Especially in NASCAR. I wish her the best and all the success, but as of today, she IS NOT a contending driver in Indy. I don't see it being the car as she always whines about, her crew or team. I see it as her.
Watch the video again and see how many other drivers lose it. Not spin up the tires, go to soft on the gas, but lose it. There was one.
And yes, she can drive better than me. No she still doesn't belong in Indy.
sachilles wrote: I was sort of amazed at the marketing/merchandizing at the event. In the Indy store, they had a bunch of hot wheels race cars, but they were all last years cars, because they didn't have this years cars yet. The only current stuff was for Danica. The only kid apparel was for Danica. Seemed a little too heavily focused on her, compared to the other drivers. Certainly think the Indy folks could learn a little bit from the merchandizing folks over at nascar.
Outside of one of the target cars or one of the penske cars, and perhaps the KV "Lotus" look- not many of the cars have last years, or even last week's colors.
Dario is killing me- he changes colors every week- red, blue, black- who's your sponsor.
The only one's who seem consistent are Dixon (target), Power (Penske stuff), and Danica (go daddy). Money is so thin an inconsistent that it looks like they are in different cars every week.
Thank God for vinyl paint jobs.
FlightService wrote: If you want to get snippy about someone calling you out for not being honest about the skill set of your driver of choice, then you better find a driver with a record to back it up.
Over an entire season, this is the hard part.
Mike Conway, teammate who has won a race is 35 points behind. Crashed in the opening lap. All by himself- is he over his head, too?
She's sitting 11th right now, ahead of most of the drivers.
Like I said, there's a TON of current drivers that are worse than she is. She's typically top 10 (even if a lap down) on ovals, and does crappy on street tracks.
Viso, Carpenter, Mira, etc- must all be WAY over their heads, too.
so what if she's advertising a lot- you don't have to watch.
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