Well it is finally here. Ever sense it was announced in the off-season I have been wondering how this format will work. I was not a fan of the format at first and I still do not like it. Double headers are great for support series but this is IndyCar if you want to be treated like the premier racing series that you are then do not set your races up like a supporting class race. However, if that is not bad enough any creditability to the second race is completely lost due to the fact that the grid is set by blind draw! This is not even support series style this is go-kart style, but even there only the heats are blind draw the main is set by average finish of the heats. I would say if you are going to have a double-header type format the second race grid should be set by fastest lap times during the first race. This would be better then the “old way” of finishing order in that if a fast car has trouble then he will still be in the back while the other fast cars are out front and gone. With this blind draw format there is potential for things to go wrong. Lets play the “what if game” for a bit. What if the front of the field is heavy with slow cars, you get a big pile up early in the race making for a very boring race. What if there is 1 fast guy on the front row while all of the other people that proved to be fast in race 1 are stuck behind slower traffic, he will check out and be long gone making for a very boring race. What if your favorite driver gets a bad draw and is the back of the field all of race 2? This format might “move the needle” but not in the way, Randy Bernard wants, because people (not the hardcore, blog reading, fans) will shut off the second race. I guess we will see how it turns out. I hope I am wrong about the second and it is not a complete snoozer but we shall see.
As for predictions for the pole I am going to go with Briscoe, he needs to make up walling the car on pole day and having to move to the T car if not for that he would have been in the running for pole at Indy, so keep it off the wall in practice and go for it. As for the podium, I am going for the top three average finishes (most points scored) as when we look back at the race that is what is going to matter. For first I am going to stick with Briscoe, I think he is due for a good run he had one going at Indy before “the Townsend Dollar Bill” bounced off the wall and took him out plus Texas has been good to Ryan in the past. He may not come out with 50 points but unless something happens, he should have a good showing. For P2 I will go with Dixon, someone else who has a very good record at Texas and I expect him to split the wins with Briscoe so it is going to come down to who has the better other finish. For P3 let us go with Helio. As much as I would love to go with a non-Death Star team I just think that the logistics of the format plays into the hands of the well organized teams and even though Penske has not really looked well organized so far this season heads will roll if that is not turned around soon. For the story of the race, I am going to go with Marco Andretti he could be very fun to watch if he gets, is car hooked up on the high line as he has in the past. Finally, the “Legend In His Own Mind” award is a “Legend In Her Own Mind” this week as I am expecting Danica to prove that last year when she had a good race at Texas was in fact just a flook. She is on her way to NASCAR and IndyCar is not going to miss her we just need to get companies to promote other driver. Plus I am not sure how much Danica is helping IndyCar anymore already as she is always introduced as “NASCAR driver Danica Patrick” whenever she is on TV.
No comments:
Post a Comment