Last year, the IRL tested at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, a track which Rusty Wallace designed. Rusty is, of course, famous as a N***** driver, and also for such glorious faux pas as this gem at Richmond last year:
You can still drive an Indy car without a clutch. You just can't slow down and you can't stop.
Anyone who allows a man who makes such moronic comments to design a track is asking for trouble. Second of all, this track has a capacity of 25,000. Even at stock car-dominated Richmond, the SunTrust Indy Challenge attracts between 50,000 and 60,000, and it increases every year. The Midwest is a huge market for the IRL, so why blow a weekend on such a small track? Keep doing this and they'll be on the fast track to no major network coverage for races.
Everyone was expecting track temperatures to be 20 degrees higher than what they were, which meant everyone was racing on the wrong tires. What did this mean? Dan Wheldon and Tomas Scheckter took each other out on the first lap. Scott Dixon had the pole, but ended up retiring the car due to steering problems. There were at least eight cautions (it got so boring, I paid more attention to my ironing)as driver after driver was taken out. But Dario and Marco Andretti held out long enough to give Andretti Green a 1-2 finish.
Next weekend we're off to Richmond, where Dario has always done well, and where last year's race had NO cautions. I will be at the track on Friday and will have posts on qualifying and other goings-on like the autograph session. Here's hoping we'll have racing perfection at Richmond on Saturday night!
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