Backstretch Motorsports

Still the Scottish Racer

My final thoughts on Indianapolis, with a week or so of thinking with hindsight.

There is a literal plethora of cliches to go with the insight to be taken from the Brickyard 400. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”, or “there’s enough blame to go around for everyone to have some” and finally, “The buck stops here.”

The Indy surface has been a tire-eater for the last few years, Friday practices at the Brickyard ususally see no more than 5 or 6 laps before tires are worn completely out.

So for Indy to say they deserve a by and their responsibilty is nil is ludicrous. It is a factor that makes up the whole of the problem experienced.

NASCAR needing to revisit the CoT is not going to go un-noticed either. There are compromises in the design of this car that can be made.

The teams certainly know what those compromises are.

If it is NASCAR’s postion that this car is end to the race team’s burden, they should be willing to work to actually make it so and provide what is necessary.

All involved should be willing to work together and with every finger pointed elsewhere, there are three that point back from the same hand.

With that said, and given that IMS will not change to accomodate NASCAR’s car, there comes where the finger of fate should point.

Making simple the complexity involved, the ultimate responsibilty comes down to Goodyear.

Goodyear is charged by NASCAR with being only tire manufacturer. Others need not apply. That potential for disaster would be so costly, to the teams themselves, safety issues and danger of injury for the sake of proving (or not) any point is too great to be pursued.

Goodyear’s stance in all this should have been to demand from NASCAR that testing be done. They being solely responsible for with what these race cars are shod, there should be no question in performing tests by the sanction.

When a track is on schedule that has not been run with the new car, tests should be as long as needed. And year-to-year, as needed follow-ups should be a no-brainer.

I remember Dave Marcis doing countless hours of testing for the tire company to get a complete and true picture of what the company had for virtually any situation that could be encountered.

There are some drivers with knowledge of the CoT that are sitting on the sidelines and should be capable of performing such testing.

As humbling as that may be, getting off the sidelines in any capacity should be an indicator that racing is an all-encompassing sport and roles need to be played.

Goodyear has done a good job in carrying out NASCAR’s charge to them.

Two bad weekends (Atlanta and here) do not erase the other week-in , week-out successes.

I have no doubt that what was witnessed at the Brickyard 400 will not be seen again. And the fans that were in attendance will think a bit harder about shelling out the ticket bucks for next year.

Simply apologising and assuring as an act of contrition will not be enough.

The proof will be in the actions. Actions will be scrutinized.

This is the ultimate in 20/20 hindsight for eveybody involved to make good use of.

One cliche that is truth that will not be lost in all of this: “Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”