Sunday, October 2, 2011

IZOD IndyCar Series Kentucky Indy 300: Power wins pole, Series forces Wheldon into DNQ scenario

(Credit, Chris Jones/IndyCar.com)

As the sun set on the 1.5-mile oval based in Sparta, Kentucky, the big story was Will Power's blistering 219.283-mph pole-sitting qualifying run. In what seemed to be a huge psychological move for Will Power, he laid down a qualifying run a full mile-an-hour ahead of the nearest qualifier to him, Graham Rahal on the ouside pole for the satellite Ganassi effort. Scott Dixon in the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara was an early provisional polesitter but originally fell to JR Hildebrand's #4 National Guard Panther Racing entry before ultimately winding up 6th. 2nd-place points chaser Dario Franchitti lost another valuable championship point to Power in the title chase with a run good enough only for 11th, outqualified by all three of his teammates. Will Power will yet again have little-to-no wingman support at the beginning of the race as his Team Penske teammates failed to match Power's strong pace and ended up 16th and 18th on the board overall.

It's very plainly obvious that at this point in the season compared to last, Will Power is much more confident in himself and his abilities on ovals. Last season this is about the time of year he started getting shaken up, but in all of his media interviews, he seemed calm, cool, and collected. Road-Course Will came to play on the ovals for once, which was a nice surprise. The level of hurt in the whooping he put on the field today in qualifying is usually only felt on road and street courses, and the fact he did it on a 1.5-mile oval sends a serious, serious warning shot across the bow to the Chip Ganassi teams. They need to up their game if they have any hope of succeeding in toppling Power in Vegas. Then again, it's still early to be talking about that. There's a lot of things that could happen in the points (including a clinch scenario for Power should he win and Franchitti finish 25th or worse) so we'll just have to wait and see.

 (Credit: Bret Kelley/IndyCar.com)
As for this week's controversy (since it seems that the Series is incapable of going a full weekend without one), prior to qualifying, Dan Wheldon's #77 Bowers & Wilkins at Magnolia Dallara "failed" tech inspection due allegedly to "illegal backing plates" (for reference, they're the plates to cover the inner side of the brakes/hubs on the wheels), to which Sam Schmidt proved without a doubt that not only were they fully legal as a part that came with the original car, but that they were in fact the very same backing plates the team had been using all season long. This can only mean that the teams and owners, who were already upset with the fact that Dan was eligible for this prize to begin with, called out to Randy Bernard and Brian Barnhart to do something about Schmidt effectively "gaming the rules" and taking advantage of a loophole to try and improve his shot as winning in Las Vegas. As a result, the Series' bogus technical infraction kept Dan from qualifying and is going to ultimately result in both himself and Alex Tagliani having god-awful pitstalls in Las Vegas to boot. 

Before I launch into this rant, allow me to start by saying that I really don't have a big issue with the Series forcing Dan to start from the back in Kentucky. I don't! But what I do have an issue with however is the series manipulating their rules mid-weekend to suit their own agenda like they have done on far too many occasions this season. Sam Schmidt was very clever to read into the Go-Daddy Challenge rules and see that  A) Dan could, under the language of the Go Daddy IndyCar Challenge, still drive in races prior to Las Vegas, and  B) that the rules state absolutely nothing with regard to which car Wheldon had to drive or where his pit stall for Las Vegas had to be either.

What really bothers me about this manipulative process the Series took with Sam Schmidt though, is that Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi have succeeded in the IndyCar Series for years using that kind of instinct and ability to sniff out gray areas. Say what you will about Sam Schmidt finding and attempting to take advantage of what was apparently a pretty glaring loophole, but I think that in this situation, to see that kind of opportunity on a platter, Schmidt deserves to get the pickle for the instinct. Call it "gaming the rules" or whatever you like, but the fact of the matter is that Sam saw a perfect opportunity to make Dan's life in Vegas a little easier and he went for it, and I respect him for that. Of course, nobody and I mean nobody wants to end up deep in the field with the backmarkers on pit lane (see the Will Power/Charlie Kimball accident on pitlane in Iowa), which is exactly what is now going to end up happening. What a lot of people don't seem to recognize is that what Schmidt intended to do was a ridiculously smart move, and clearly one that the Series didn't think would come to fruition when writing the Go Daddy IndyCar Challenge rules. I feel that the entire situation could have been handled far more professionally by explaining to Schmidt that he would not retain a pit box advantage should Wheldon remain in the #77 for Las Vegas. As it stands the Series has not only punished Schmidt and Wheldon for taking a creative approach to putting themselves in a better place strategically, but it has also punished the season-long efforts of the #77 Sam Schmidt Motorsports team's crew members and Alex Tagliani, who are each competing for a top-ten spot in the drivers'/owners' championship.

As disappointing as the Series' handling of the Dan Wheldon situation is, I will say this much: Dan will most definitely be in shapewhen he takes the green flag to try and take the victory from the back of the 35-car field in Las Vegas. In fact, I'd even wager to say that he's going to have a very keen knowledge of what he'll have to do to come up through the field. If nothing else, he and the Sam Schmidt team are going to be some of the best passers in the field come the end of the season.

Til' next!

- K

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