The International "Problem"

Last Tuesday, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced a new driver for the 2009 season. Many fans reacted with horror and calls of ride buyer (which Mike Conway supposedly isn’t). Compounding their sorrows was the rumors that Mike Conway’s appointment to DRR would be the end of Buddy Rice’s tenure with the team, as his poorer skilled but richer funded teammate Milka Duno would be a more likely choice for the second car. It was a tragedy, as yet another American driver (one with a 500 win to boot) was forced to the background.

The key debate set off from Conway’s hiring was not about ride buyers and the like, but the increasingly smaller field of American drivers in IndyCar racing today. Is it really a problem, or is the problem something else?

Along with being a huge fan of racing, I happen to enjoy hockey. I bring up these sports because like open wheel racing, at the top levels they happen to be very international in their demographics. The National Hockey League has 83 percent of its teams in America, but only draws about one-fourth of its talent from the USA. More than half its players come from Canada, and the remaining from a smattering of Scandinavian and Eastern European nations. Fans still show up in spite of this lack of American born boys. Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York (the Rangers), Minnesota, San Jose, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington, and Dallas all average at least 95 percent capacity.

I have never felt having a majority American lineup has been essential for IndyCar. It can be beneficial to have an international field to help grow the series fanbase, as unlike NASCAR there is a broader global appeal for open wheel racing. If a driver is really serious about having a career here in the States, should it matter?

I do have one concern. I want to use another sports league for an example of what I worry about. I also follow soccer heavily, in particular the English Premier League. The EPL is truly the most international sports league in the world, with stars from every continent with names, like Cristiano Ronaldo, and Fernando Torres. Some of the stars, however, have grown up on home soil. Guys like Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, and Rio Ferdinand are held in similar high regard as those born outside Britain. Certain folks might like the fact they had similar upbringings to themselves and kids dream about being the next one too.

What am I saying in all this? The international flavor of IndyCar works when there is a mixture of foreign and domestic talent, both in the entry sheet and the podium. Unfortunately, what has happened in the past few years is that the American talent at the top has withered to non-existent.

I have studied IndyCar results since 2000 to look at the receding results of American drivers. Take a look at the win percentage for American drivers in that period:



The amount of wins has dropped dramatically since 2001. For those of you who have not followed the sport for long, the drop coincides with the arrival of Penske (2002), Ganassi, and Andretti Green (both 2003) to the IRL. Each brought primarily foreign drivers with them (save for AGR’s Bryan Herta). This stat doesn’t necessarily tell the entire story since a dominant foreign driver or two could easily take the majority of wins (like 2007, when Dixon, Franchitti, and Kanaan won 13 of 17 races). Further proof of the drop-off can be seen in the amount of Yanks in the top 5 and top 10 (FYI, blue lines are Americans, red from other countries):



Eek. Not only has the amount of Americans in the top 10 tailed off, the majority of those that did make it to that point finished in the sixth-tenth range. Only once since the Ganassi/AGR move have two American made the top 5 (Hornish and Sharp in ’05), but for the first time in series history no American was in the top 5 last year. Danica Patrick was the highest ranked American at sixth, but she was a distant sixth to Ryan Briscoe.

The problem exists that there are only eight or nine cars every that can win every week, and only two spots are held by Americans: those being the AGR cars of Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick. Marco has not been able to put together a complete run to win despite some great promise last year, and Danica has not run in a “leading” position in a long time.

So what can be done to alter this situation? The hope is that Marco has a breakthrough year in ’09 and Newman/Haas/Lanigan can return to its old glory and thus bring Graham Rahal towards the top, but that is not enough. The push to grow American talent needs action, not prayer.

Australia powering Penske in '09

The long awaited decision by Penske as to who would replace Helio Castroneves in the #3 car was (sort of) announced today, with Will Power joining Team Penske. I say sort of, since Tim Cindric only announced the Power would be running the preseason tests at Homestead and Barber, not at St. Pete or any other race. The situation was a tad bit strange, with Helio present and presumably still under contract with Penske. Should Helio escape a jail term and be able to race again, there is no word on what if any rides Power would have. My guess would be a ride in the 500, but nothing else barring that he is not farmed out to another team (Luczo Dragon maybe?).

I wonder if the arrangement set up by Team Penske may have scared a driver or two off from the deal. Yes, it's a possible Penske ride, but with no known guarantee to drive this year or in the future is scary. Just look at the "development" deal Alex Lloyd has been in with Ganassi which has led to a single run at Indy. Personally, I think Lloyd has been hung out to dry. For someone like Wilson or Hunter-Reay there isn't much to fall back on, like a family name (AJ IV) or a fanbase (Sarah Fisher) that could help.

Speaking of Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter-Reay, somebody give them rides please! They're damn good drivers and don't deserve this limbo.

NASCAR 2008 Rankings

Now it's time for the release of the 2008 NASCAR Driver Rankings. I broke this away from IndyCar & F1 not because the other two are open-wheel, but because I have multiple charts for NASCAR.

One unique feature of NASCAR is that its drivers often run in multiple series. Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, and David Ragan to name a few ran full or almost full Nationwide Series, and Shrub also did a lot of Truck racing as well. As a result, I felt the need to have more than one chart was necessary. There are in fact three charts: a Sprint Cup only chart, a single-series season chart, and a chart combining a driver's performances between all three national NASCAR series.

Sprint Cup Rankings




Unlike the previously released Overall chart, this one extends to the top 50 point earners in the Sprint Cup series for 2008. Unsurprisingly Jimmie Johnson occupies the #1 spot, with Carl Edwards #2. Kyle Busch is #3, although when I began charting he was in the #1 spot for NASCAR drivers and fell coinciding with his poor Chase performance. Mark Martin is fifth despite his part-time schedule, which may mean good things for his full-time ride with Hendrick next year. Not bad for a guy who could have gone to high school with my dad (that is, if he lived in New Jersey or my dad lived in Arkansas).

Single Season Rankings


Kyle Busch occupies both the top two spots on this chart, with his performance in the Trucks at #1 and his Nationwide season with a record-tying win tally at #2. In the trucks, strangely enough Ron Hornaday bested Johnny Benson in the rankings although Benson was #1 in the points that actually counted.

The best total overall though is not listed here. Tony Stewart had the best season in the Nationwide Series, with an ranking average of 29.460. He did not make the cutoff though, as he ran 9 races in the season. In those nine appearances though he had five wins, finished in the top 10 all but once, and had 2 poles and a front row appearance. Ryan Newman's sole Truck appearance also bested Kyle Busch's best marks, as he won the race to pick up 26 points.

The Combined Rankings


Running just the Craftsman Truck season, Ron Hornaday tops Kyle Busch for the #1 spot. Still, Shrub's work is an impressive feat considering that he had 86 races in major NASCAR competition this season, and he won 21 times. Also breaking double digits is Carl Edwards, who had 16 wins in 2008.

The hyped "Next big driver" in NASCAR, Joey Logano, finished in the top 10. Note above in the Sprint Cup chart he's dead last, so his Nationwide work went a long way towards securing the top 10. I don't think he'll be there next year, although if he does we won't hear the end of it.

So what can be done to save racing as we know it?

The recent announcement by Honda that it is pulling out of F1 came as a shock to probably every racing fan, myself included. Furthermore, Audi, the defending champs of both the Le Mans Series and ALMS, is downsizing its program to focus on Sebring and Le Mans. To see major factory teams cutting their losses is pretty big. While much of the press about the auto slump at least here in the good old U.S. of A the extremely precarious positions of GM, Ford, and Chrysler, it is also affecting foreign makes too.

It makes me concern about the position of motorsports and if it can survive and still retain what makes it so great. The talk of the much-ballyhooed standard Formula One engine has returned, and people seem more willing to listen a few weeks later.

NASCAR faces a similar problem with the fact 3/4 of its automakers are dying without government assistance, with the ultimate possibility of having one or more makes gone by the green flag at Daytona. Several teams have merged (DEI-Ganassi) or closing up shop to make matters worse. For the first time in NASCAR history, a car owned by a Petty won't be in the field, since Petty Enterprises, the last original team, is basically done.

What can be done to save racing as we know it? I want to look at some ways the major racing series can significantly cut costs while retaining their identities. For example, I won't talk about a standard F1 engine, since it would radicially alter F1's identity. What can we do to prevent that from happening, while achieving the same effect? Likewise, how to save NASCAR from the slump as well?

The best thing NASCAR can do to save itself it to shorten itself, both in schedule length and race length.

It is a very easy way to reduce costs by simply running less events. Less weeks racing means less money is needed to run the team, thus a lesser burden on big sponsor dollars. Even if you don't extend the winter break and just take more break weeks in the season, that would have the added effect of more sponsor appearances opportunities for drivers, which could keep sponsors from fleeing the sport.

So what gets the ax? I would cut one of the Pocono races, as well as some of the weaker attended 2 race tracks, Fontana topping my list. Promoters will probably see attendance go up, since fans who previous attending the second race only will buy tickets to the single event instead. One well attended event has the added advantage of looking better on TV.

Shortening the races can also help save a bit of green for NASCAR teams. Less laps = less opportunities to wreck and spend costly dollars and man hours fixing the cars. Cuts tire costs, since there are less pit stops. I'm not too knowledgeable about the tech aspects of NASCAR engines, but something tells me a shorter race could stretch an engine's lifespan just a tad bit longer.

I am not advocating making it the Daytona 300 though. I'm talking about the 500 milers at tracks like Texas. All races would be limited to 300 miles, except for the ones the superspeedways (Daytona, Talladega), the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500.

As for Formula One, there are many avenues to cut costs other than standardization. I've just read a story by Martin Brundle detailing how to cut costs. That article has a lot of solid solutions and is worth the read. I won't repeat any of his ideas, but I have one of my own.

Brundle's article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article5298985.ece

The schedule, for instance, poses a problem. The focus on expanding the season towards Asia with high fees has hurt the sport in retaining traditional venues like France and Canada, and perhaps even Germany in the near future. Most if not all that money is going into Bernie Ecclestone's pockets, and not into any assistance for teams. European GPs are certainly less expensive on the teams in transportation costs, since cars can be trucked to Hungary but have to be flown to Malaysia.

I understand the desire for Asian GPs, but the scheduling that exists is a hinderance to F1. In 2009, three separate trips must be made to the Asian continent: the post-Australia trip of Malaysia, China, and Bahrain, the late season trip to Singapore and Japan, and a one-off trip after Brazil to Abu Dhabi. This is a ridiculous idea. Attempt two trips instead, with an emphasis on putting nearby GPs together better.

For example, why are Malaysia and Singapore, with tracks separated by 210 miles, not together on the schedule when that could save the teams on transportation? Teams could fly into one country, run the grand prix, then take everything by truck to the other site, before driving it back after the race and flying back to Europe or onto a different Asian site. They did not run the US and Canadian races apart most of the time, so why do the same with these two races?

Series Rankings: 2008 in Open Wheel

It's a delay in getting these out, but here is a look at the complete ratings in major open wheel. These lists will include anyone with 2+ starts. In F1, that means I've include the Super Aguri guys and for IndyCar it's everyone but the one-offers at Indy & Long Beach. There are few surprises on these lists - the only one that may register is Paul Tracy joining the IndyCar top 10.

F1


IndyCar

Rankings by Category

As promised, albeit a day late, here is a category by category look at the tops in each of the three major categories of the rankings: Race finishes, Qualifying, and Bonus Statistics. I've included the driver's overall rank as well, just for your information.

Race Finishes


Considering he's the #1 overall driver, it should not come as a shock that Scott Dixon is #1 on this list. Jumping up quite nicely in this ranking is Carl Edwards, #7 overall but tied for third with Lewis Hamilton based on race results.

All ties noted are truly mathematical ties. It's actually pretty easy, since F1 and IndyCar ran 18 races while NASCAR Sprint Cup ran 36. Ergo, Carl earned twice as many race points as Lewis, but are tied when averaged.

Two other gents who moved up quite nicely are #9 Dan Wheldon (13th overall) and #12 Jeff Burton (23rd overall). Neither is an impressive qualifier, but move forward as the race progresses.

Which drivers are being propped up by the other categories? Ryan Briscoe is the only top 10 overall driver not in the top 10 of race results - credit a poor showing in the early part of the '08 season when he was 19th in points leaving Indy prior to his breakthrough win at Milwaukee. Ditto Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen, each 8 spots lower than their overall ranks, and the inconsistent Marco Andretti, 7 spots lower.

Qualifying




Dixon is #1 again in qualifying, but with 6 poles and qualifying in the top 25% in all but one possible qualifying session it's no surprise. Felipe Massa was extremely close - one position higher in Canada or Italy would have made him the top qualifier of 2008.

A few of the big NASCAR names, namely Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are much lower than than their overall positions would expect. The nature of NASCAR though can be a key reason. As the only series that features DNQs on a regular basis, there's often guys who will qualify better in a single session in order to make the show. Not to mention the length of a NASCAR race and the (relative) ease of passing compared to, say, Formula One that positions can be made up easily through time and only taking two tires on some pit stops. It's less necessary to qualify well, so the results show that.

Bonus Points

Bonus points consist of leading laps, leading the most laps, running the fastest lap, and improving the most positions in the race.


The Iceman Kimi Raikkonen leads racers in the bonus points category by a pretty fair margin. Kimi had 9 fastest laps that were key to his #1 placement. Scott Dixon is a lot further down in this category than most.



Towards the bottom of this list are two drivers you wouldn't expect in a positive top 30 list: Michael Waltrip and Giancarlo Fisichella. Waltrip was the best improver twice and regularly led a lap (in order to gain bonus points in NASCAR races). Fisi also improved the best twice, which considering Force India's poor qualifying abilities (he earned 0 points in that category), there was nowhere to go but up in classification.

2008 Driver Rankings (Finalized)

Here are the Final Driver Rankings for 2008. These rankings relate to top-flight, four-wheel circuit racing series, and do not include motorcycle racing, feeder series, drag racing, or rally racing. I will release a number of other charts through the winter that will incorporate those series as well, but this chart is my primary one and the one I updated each week as the season went on.

In order to be ranked on the main chart, a driver had to run at least half the season. Since NASCAR has tons of guys in this category, I cut it off at the top 35 when I started. Other guys would have made this chart in decent position (A.J. Allmendinger, for instance) but was not in the top 35.

Here's my tentative schedule for future postings:

• Dec. 3: Best of Category
  
• Dec. 4: Full IndyCar, and F1 Charts.
• Dec. 6: NASCAR Charts
  
• Dec. 7: Feeder Series Chart
• Dec. 10: MotoGP, NHRA, and World Rally Championship
• Dec. 14: Overall & Comprehensive Charts (there is a difference, it will be explained then).
• Dec. 17: The only currently running chart, the 08-09 A1GP chart.

The Rankings

Scott Dixon is the #1 Driver on the chart for 2008. With 6 wins and 13 podium finishes in 18 races, it's unsurprising to see him near the top. Helio made for an IndyCar 1-2 thanks to 8 runner-up finishes for the season.

The top 20 is fairly balanced amongst drivers from each of the three series, but the 2nd quarter of the chart is throughly dominated by NASCAR. When inputting the points, it is clear that NASCAR drivers have a difficult time reaching the pinnacle of the chart, but the Chase and almost Chase drivers had really strong stats to make it to the top.

Bringing up the bottom of the list is Force India's Adrian Sutil, who had a major combination of poor qualifying, difficulty finishing races (albeit many were mechanical errors), and failing to score a single bonus point to thank for an 80th place finish. He does have Kimi Raikkonen to blame for preventing him from his shining glory of the '08 season, when he was running 4th late in Monaco when the '07 World Champ clobbered him in the Nouvelle Chicane and knocked Adrian out of the race. Had he finished 4th or even 5th, his season ranking would have been 1.028, enough for 78th place and placing Jaime Camara at the bottom.

A1GP Qualifying @ Sepang

I have enjoyed watching A1GP for a few years. The racing was pretty decent for most of the feature races, and it fills a major void after IndyCar & F1 end their seasons. Having an IndyCar team affiliated with it this year makes it a tad more interesting, although I will miss see the promising Jonathan Summerton in the Team USA car.

Qualifying for A1GP at Sepang was so-so for Team USA, as Marco qualified 12th for the sprint race and 8th for the feature. In the sprint race only the top 8 are scored, so he'll need a great start and a good pitstop to do it. I hope the pitstop rule mixes things up, since the sprint race tends to be very processional with few people trying to do anything that would impact the car in time for the feature.

In other AOWR driver news, Canuck racing for Lebanon Daniel Morad pull a shocking third place for the feature race. His qualifying was otherwise bipolar, with his qualifying time being 18th of 20. Fellow Atlantics Driver David Garza of Mexico did the opposite, qualifying eighth for the sprint and 18th for the feature.

Sprint Race Grid (AOWR Drivers in Bold)

1. Switzerland (Neel Jani)
   
2. France (Loic Duval)
   
3. New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
4. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
   
5. Italy (Edoardo Piscopo)
   
6. Great Britain (Danny Watts)
7. Ireland (Adam Carroll)
   
8. Mexico (David Garza)
9. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
10. India (Narain Karthikeyan)
    
11. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg)
    
12. USA (Marco Andretti)
13. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
14. Australia (John Martin)
15. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)
    
16. Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
17. China (Ho Pin Tung)
    
18. Lebanon (Daniel Morad)
    
19. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto)
    
20. Korea (Jin-Woo Hwang)

Feature Race Grid

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll)
2. Great Britain (Danny Watts)
   
3. Lebanon (Daniel Morad)
4. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
   
5. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
6. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
   
7. India (Narain Karthikeyan)
8. USA (Marco Andretti)
   
9. France (Loic Duval)
10. China (Ho Pin Tung)
11. Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
    
12. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)
13. Australia (John Martin)
    
14. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto)
15. New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
    
16. Switzerland (Neel Jani)
17. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg)
18. Mexico (David Garza)
    
19. Italy (Edoardo Piscopo)
20. Korea (Jin-Woo Hwang)
    

The new "Power Boost" for one lap rule turned everything on its head for this round. If you screw up on the boosted lap for feature qualifying, you will fall way behind like surprisingly Neel Jani did. He had a bad Q4 lap, and got pushed all the way to 16th! This is the series champion who had won three straight poles at Sepang, including the Sprint race.

NASCAR to Kyle Busch: No Test for You!

The F1 test Kyle Busch was given by Toyota has been cancelled by NASCAR.

Because Kyle finished sixth in the Nationwide series in his abbreviated schedule (including a record-tying ten wins), he is being strong armed to the Nationwide awards banquet, which falls at the same of time as the proposed test for Toyota that is in Japan.

In case you were wondering why a NASCAR driver would get such a deal, it is more of a gesture of appreciate for kicking so much butt early in the season than a trial for a ride.

"I don't get to drive the formula one car anymore," said Busch, who did not contest the entire Nationwide calendar this year.
"I have to go to the Nationwide banquet and accept my sixth place awards instead," he confirmed.
"NASCAR took me away from the formula one car."

While NASCAR thinks it's the greatest thing to ever happen to racing, worldwide F1 is king, in spite of its numerous flaws. It's good PR, and would especially be so if Shrub runs competitive lap times.

This decision is one that might hurt NASCAR's relationship with Toyota. That's one I wouldn't want to disrupt. After all, they are the only manufacturer in the series that isn't in financial shambles at the moment. It may be the only one left in a few years for all we know.

Chinese GP Trouble?

Autosport is reporting that the Chinese Grand Prix may be in jeopardy after 2010. Poor ticket sales and sponsorship uncertainty may force F1 to leave Shanghai for the foreseeable future.

Shifting away from GPs with certain audiences (Canada, France) to places that can give a huge fee but lack racing heritage or a hardcore fanbase has lined Bernie's pockets well. There are plenty of problems with these races though. Anyone watching the newer Grands Prix, especially China, Malaysia and Bahrain can tell the attendance is poor. Whatever novelty existed in their inaugural runs has subsided, and as a result fewer fans come out. Combined this with the fact tickets for F1 races are far out of reach for the average person in many of these countries, hopes of bringing new fans to the track are doubtful. While you could argue the demographics of Brazil are similar, consider that Brazil had three native sons on the grid of its Grand Prix, one of whom nearly become World Champion.

Save the Japanese Grand Prix, most of the Asian GPs exist because the organizers have been willing to dish out the money. They are hanging by a thin cord, and in China it looks ready to snap.

From a racing standpoint, I would not be so sad to see the Chinese GP go. Shanghai is yet another Hermann Tilke track with all the things you've come to expect: flat and a long straight leading into a hairpin. It never seemed like the fans that did come were very enthusiastic. The racing was not special either. In the last two years, the only interesting thing that happened was Lewis Hamilton's crash on pit in last year. On a plus side for F1, it would save money for teams to not have to go to China as well (particularly in '09 when it is not bundled with Japan).

My hope is that it causes Formula One to relook at Canada & the US for races in the future. The organizers actually made money on the events, which of course means they have the opportunity to stick around a very long time. Likewise, the brass need to think long and hard about future Asian races planned in India and Korea.

I don't think it will happen, after all this is Formula One we're talking about. Logic and F1 goes as well together sometimes as Alonso and Hamilton.