It was announced on Tuesday that Dan Wheldon will participate in IndyCar’s finale at Las Vegas in October. The more intriguing part is that if he wins he will also win $5 million. That would be one heck of a year for a race car driver. He already has a win at Indy that rewarded him $1 million so if he could win at Vegas he would have only driven two races in 2011 and earned $6 million.
The part that got me really interested in this story is what Wheldon had to say at the press conference regarding NASCAR.
"When you look at the depth of the field in the Izod IndyCar Series right now, it's full of talent. When you consider the talent level of the grid, I think quite honestly, it far outweighs NASCAR."
Really? Seriously? Are you kidding me? I am just stunned at why or how he could say this. Should I remind IndyCar fans and Mr. Wheldon of how the NASCAR careers of Dario Franchitti or Sam Hornish Jr. went? Those were two Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champions that completely failed at racing in NASCAR. Juan Pablo Montoya won an Indy 500 and a few F1 races but only has one win in his four-year NASCAR tenure.
Look at the Top 10 drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and compare them to IndyCar’s Top 10.
Sprint Cup: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
IndyCar: Franchitti, Will Power, Scott Dixon, Oriol Servia, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves, and Graham Rahal.
Put any of those Sprint Cup drivers in an IndyCar for a season and I’ll guarantee you they’ll at least contend for a win. Could you say the same for ALL those IndyCar drivers? NO WAY.
Kevin Harvick announced that he will be shutting down his “Kevin Harvick Inc.” racing team. The team participates in the already financially struggling NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Many see this as a move that triggers the eventual demise of the series. I hope not because the racing in that series is all great. It lets some of the older NASCAR drivers race against the best up-and-coming drivers.
Staying in the NASCAR World, Carl Edwards recently signed a contract renewal to continue racing at Roush-Fenway. This leaves current Richard Childress Racing driver, Clint Bowyer, as the sport’s biggest free agent. It is almost a certainty that Bowyer will not be at RCR next season. Some speculate that he will be at Joe Gibbs, Michael Waltrip Racing, or even Richard Petty Motorsports.
I apologize for not covering one of drag racing’s biggest events, the NHRA U.S. Nationals. The “Big Go” took place at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana over Labor Day Weekend. I have never been out to Clermont to see the races but I do want to go eventually. I live about 5 miles east of Clermont and you can hear the roar of the cars clear as day. I can only imagine what it would be like in person.
I did however get out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for some GRAND-AM testing. The test session was two days but the only day I was able to go it rained shortly after I got there. From the 20 minutes I saw, I was thoroughly impressed. It was great to hear the tires squeaking in the turns and seeing the cars nearly banging into each other to get by slower traffic. I bashed everybody involved in bringing the GRAND-AM racing to IMS, but it should be a great race that draws plenty of fans.
Here’s some pics I took:
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