The Official Blog of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Plenty to catch up on after a day away from Splashing And Going. But first, it was good to be Bruce Barhydt on Tuesday, Sept. 21. Damn good.

Bruce and his wife, Barbara, visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to pick up the keys to their 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Indianapolis 500 Pace Car that they won in the Indy 500 Pace Car Sweepstakes simply by renewing their tickets for the 2011 “500″ at www.imstix.com. And two-time and reigning Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti was there to hand the Barhydt’s the keys to their new ride and take them for a spin around IMS in the Camaro. Dario is a hell of a driver and a classy dude – a magically delicious ambassador for the Indy 500 and IndyCar.

Not a bad way to spend a day, eh? Speaking of Indianapolis 500 tickets, it’s time for a friendly Public Service Announcement: Tickets for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 29 – the 100th anniversary of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” – are on sale now at www.imstix.com.

While Japan’s rabid-but-polite IndyCar fans are still coming down from their fun last weekend at Twin Ring Motegi, attention in IZOD IndyCar land has shifted to South Florida for the season finale Saturday, Oct. 2 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Will Power leads Franchitti by just 12 points entering their titanic tussle, but Pop Off Valve has those drivers reversed in its latest power rankings. Hard to blame them. Will never has won an oval race; Dario has won plenty, including last year at Miami.

VERSUS will televise the finale, and Pressdog interviewed ace racing TV producer Terry Lingner about all the hard work that goes on inside and outside “the truck” just to get an IZOD IndyCar Series race broadcast on the air. One of Lingner’s charges that night will be reporter Jack Arute, who curiously wonders out loud why the season finale is going up against SEC and Big 12 football.

I’m really getting tired of the “we need to avoid football” argument. First, if the finale was contested on Sunday afternoon, it would clash with the NFL. And is there really enough room in the schedule to end the season by the end of August, before football? No.

So all IndyCar can do is put on a good show (it does), have a compelling championship race (it does, without gimmicks) and promote the hell out of it. Every other sport in America – not just IndyCar – is a fresh asphalt speed bump ready to be flattened by the steamroller known as football. Even NASCAR, the self-proclaimed No. 2 sport in America, is struggling with ratings against the mighty giants of the gridiron.

Plenty of reasons and solutions for the disappointing TV ratings of the Chase opener at New Hampshire are being tossed about in the blogosphere. One of the reasons I see often is the proliferation of high-def TV’s these days. The camera angles are great from the track, the picture is crystal-clear on an HDTV, and the beer is a lot cheaper and plentiful and the traffic is a lot thinner at home in front of the 50-inch plasma than it is at the racetrack.

That might be true. So how is Charlotte Motor Speedway responding? By building the largest HDTV in the world at its track. It’s even bigger than Jerry Jones’ vaunted board hanging over the field at the new Cowboys Stadium, which has to rankle Jerruh’s considerable ego just a smidge. Everything is big in Texas, but it’s even bigger in Charlotte.

Can you play Xbox 360 on that thing?

I have mixed emotions about this board. It will be good for replays. I’m also guessing advertisers and sponsors will dig it. But “Bruton-tron” also will breed more of the loons who pay good money to attend sporting events and spend more time watching the video boards than the action on the field or on the track. I’ve never understood that. If I wanted to watch TV, I would have stayed home. Am I a lone, crotchety voice in the video wilderness?

This just in, almost literally as I type, from the halls of NASCAR in Daytona Beach: Clint Bowyer was using an illegal car when he won the Sylvania 300 last Sunday at New Hampshire, the opening race of the Chase. Bowyer was docked 150 points, and his crew chief, Shane Wilson, was fined $150,000 and suspended six weeks. I guess it was more than a misplaced wheel nut, then.

Richard Childress, Bowyer’s car owner, claims the car was out of specification because other drivers tapped the rear of it during Bowyer’s victory lap. Childress also said the tow truck that pushed Bowyer’s car into Victory Lane knocked the rear out of whack.

Childress vowed to appeal the penalty all the way to the NASCAR Commissioner. This could get interesting. What if the penalty is overturned, Bowyer stays on a hot streak and ends up winning the Chase by less than 150 points? What if the penalty is upheld and he ends the season 149 points or less behind the eventual champion?

Sticky. And fun.

Well, so much for the Bowyer Cinderella story, at least for now. Bowyer now has yo-yo’d from 12th to second back to 12th in the points since last Sunday morning. Leader Denny Hamlin now enjoys a 45-point gap over second-place Kevin Harvick.

The soap opera continues in Formula One, where a battle is brewing over who has control of the iconic Lotus name. It’s a typical F1 sh*tstorm between two guys with wallets to match their egos. But does it really matter? Lotus isn’t Lotus without Colin Chapman running the show, and reviving the classic British Racing Green paint job doesn’t instantly play Lazarus with an esteemed racing marque.

All this does is besmirch the names of late Lotus greats like Chapman and Jim Clark. Sad.

There also are rumblings that Michael Schumacher may pull the plug on his ill-fated comeback attempt after this season and hang up his helmet. So the ego really has landed? I’ll believe it when I see it, but it would be a good idea. Right now, Michael looks like Willie Mays in his final, sad season with the Mets, losing routine fly balls in the sun.

From a four-wheeled legend to one on two wheels, Kenny Roberts, the first American MotoGP World Champion, is selling his house and practice facility in California. Check out King Kenny’s Krib. It’s a roomy place, but in time-honored gearhead tradition, the garage is almost as big as the house and contains a complete machine shop:

Ducati also was in the news recently, but it had little to do with Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi or Nicky Hayden. The iconic Italian manufacturer presented two of its Multistrada models to the motorcade for Pope Benedict XVI. Maybe it’s a gift for His Holiness using his WATS line to above for Ducati, as Stoner answered the Ducatisti’s prayers by earning the team’s first victory of the season Sept. 19 at the Grand Prix of Aragon. Hey, they don’t call it the Red Phone for nothing.

There is real, on-track news in MotoGP. Seriously. The Grand Prix Commission rubber-stamped a change of the schedule for the rest of the season in which the three hours of MotoGP track time Friday and Saturday will be divided into two 45-minute practices Friday, and one 45-minute practice and one 45-minute qualifying session Saturday. Since 2009, there has been a one-hour practice Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, with a one-hour qualifying session.

That revised schedule debuted at Aragon, and it looks like it also will become the rule of the land for the 2011 season.

Sorry for the late-evening version of Splash And Go, but I had to wait for the first practice results from Motegi. They’re in, and Will Power is on top of the time chart. His closest pursuer in the points, Dario Franchitti, was sixth.

It’s a strong statement of intent by Power, but it’s not like the guy has looked shabby at recent oval races at Chicagoland and Kentucky. Still, John Oreovicz of ESPN.com makes a really good point about Will: He’s never raced on the asphalt egg at Twin Ring Motegi.

Still, I think it’s only a matter of time until he earns his first oval victory in the IZOD IndyCar Series for Team Penske. Dario just hopes that time is next year.

I was stunned when I first saw the time sheet and noticed Takuma Sato was at the bottom, even beneath Milka Duno. Say it ain’t so at your home motor dojo, Taku-san. But then I read where Taku crashed after an oil line failure splurted oil on the tires, causing Sato to spin.

Good thing Taku is OK. It’s pretty safe to say that normal order will be restored, with Milka in the caboose. But you have to feel for Sato in front of his home crowd. And do you think KV Racing Technology has gold card credit status with Dallara for chassis repair yet this season?

While practice is underway at Motegi, it’s not too late to check out this humorous preview of the race at Pop Off Valve.

She's still an elite race driver, ladies and gents

Tony Johns of Pop Off Valve also takes on the white elephant in the room with the IZOD IndyCar Series, the future racing intent of 5-2, 100-pound Danica Patrick. Tony thinks IndyCar doesn’t need Danica anymore.

Sorry, Tony, but I beg to differ. Danica is the most popular driver in the series, has attracted countless fans of both genders to IndyCar and is a magnet for attention, good and bad. No one can force her to stay in the series if she wants to run NASCAR full time after her contract expires with Andretti Autosport, but to say the series doesn’t need her? That’s a big step off a very narrow ledge.

Johns brings up Danica’s relative lack of success — one victory in nearly six full seasons of IZOD IndyCar Series racing — and says her results don’t match her hype. Well, the stats don’t match the buzz for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR Sprint Cup, either, but he remains the most popular driver in that series by about six ZIP codes.

Sports is a personality-driven entertainment business now. People follow personalities more than results. But results are still a factor, and Danica gets it done at the biggest race in the world, the Indianapolis 500. Five top-eight finishes in six career starts at the Brickyard. ‘Nuff said. She’s a plus for the series. Period.

On a final IndyCar note, it’s really heartening to see that Mike Conway is almost ready to climb back into the cockpit. This boggles my mind considering the ferocity of Mike’s wreck at Indy, but he’s trying to beat the clock to return to his Dreyer & Reinbold seat for the season finale Oct. 2 at Homestead. Dude’s a racer – what else can you say?

Hey, did you know the Chase starts this Sunday? THE CHASE! THE CHASE! I’m starting to sound like Herve Villechaize calling for the plane on “Fantasy Island.”

The always excellent Dustin Long analyzes what each of the 12 Chase drivers needs to do to hoist the big silver mug at Homestead. Mike Mulhern also takes a really interesting look at how a strong, candid relationship between drivers and crew chiefs, especially when the driver is a bubbling young volcano like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, is vital during the Chase.

Mike Hembree at SPEEDtv.com wrote an interesting piece stating that sleepy, small Loudon is an odd place to conduct the first race of NASCAR’s postseason.

New England is a stronger racing bastion than one might think, and Nor’easter fans go especially nuts for the superb NASCAR Modified Tour, the most exciting division in NASCAR, in my opinion. But New England also is a pro stick-and-ball haven, with the Patriots, Celtics and Red Sox Nation inhaling most of the available media oxygen.

Still, that’s not stopping track president Jerry Gappens from beating the drum. Jerry is an Indiana native, so racing is in his veins. He also worked for the legendary promoter Humpy Wheeler at Charlotte Motor Speedway, so the guy clearly knows how to sell and connect with fans.

The new Grand Prix of Aragon is underway in MotoGP, and the Motorland Aragon is one trippy racetrack, as this photo feature at motomatters.com shows. There are so many blind entrances to corners that I think Ray Charles and Jose Feliciano designed the circuit.

Dani Pedrosa was quickest overall as MotoGP returned to two Friday practice sessions. Pedrosa has been en fuego since Indianapolis and was rewarded with a new two-year deal with Honda. It will be very interesting to see how the notoriously fickle Pedrosa and his attack-dog manager, Alberto Puig, get along with Australian hard-ass and sometimes chronic complainer Casey Stoner next season in the Repsol Honda garage. Expect little love lost between the two.

James Toseland: Don't hate me because I'm beautiful, baby

Speaking of unloved men in motorcycle racing, it seems like James Toseland has alienated another teammate. American Colin Edwards couldn’t stand Toseland after Toseland orchestrated a swap of his crew chief with Edwards’ before the start of the 2009 MotoGP season. The Texas Tornado got the last laugh, as he clicked better with his new crew chief, Guy Coulon, and kicked Toseland’s ass so thoroughly that the Brit lost his ride and dropped back to World Superbike.

Well, it appears that Toseland’s WSBK teammate, fellow Brit Cal Crutchlow, also doesn’t have Toseland on his Christmas card list this year, either. Crutchlow was asked if he sought Toseland’s advice on MotoGP in advance of jumping to MotoGP in 2011 with Toseland’s old team, Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Crutchlow dropped a hammer on Toseland with his answer!

I sure hope Edwards remains at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 next season. The verbal volleys coming from that garage will look like Volkswagen Beetle-sized shells being fired from the USS Missouri.

In a very classy move Thursday, Moto2 points leader Toni Elias suggested in the pre-event press conference at Aragon that the Michel Metraux Trophy, presented to the best privateer rider of the season in the Moto2 class, should be presented to Shoya Tomizawa, who was killed in a Moto2 racing crash Sept. 5 at Misano.

The trophy is awarded based on a vote of the Moto2 riders, and they unanimously agreed to posthumously award the Metraux Trophy to Tomi.  A very proper gesture from a solid, tight community of racers.

Formula One is off this weekend, but the news and rumors never stop in the “pinnacle of motorsport,” as Nigel Mansell used to call it.

Joe Saward writes that it makes little sense for Renault to dance with Kimi Raikkonen despite reports that the Kimster and the French team are courting for 2011. Joe also throws cold water on the rumors that Lotus will switch to Toyota engines, instead writing that the shadow of the once-colossus fronted by Colin Chapman and Jim Clark will switch to Renault engines in 2011.

Sorry, but if a Cosworth DFV isn’t in the back, it’s not a real Lotus regardless of the paint job or team name.

Finally, Michael Schumacher is excited about the first night race of his career at Singapore on Sept. 26. Be careful what you wish for, Weltmeister: The spotlights of Singapore only will more brightly illuminate both the decline of your career and a possibly ham-fisted, lethal attempt by you to stuff a faster driver into the numerous concrete barriers of the street circuit.

One of the tasks my wife and I assign to our kids is to set the table before dinner. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s important. The same could be said for the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race before the Chase for the Sprint Cup last Saturday night — it was anticlimactic as hell, but it set the table for what could be a very interesting Chase.

Denny Hamlin won the race before a hometown crowd, earned his sixth victory of the season and the top seed in the Chase. Some media members and fans played the momentum card and christened Denny as the title favorite heading into the 10-race stretch run. And some rivals already think the trophy engraver should learn how to spell Denny’s name, even though I think that’s a coy ploy to deflect pressure and attention from them.

But as Monte Dutton pointed out, there’s that Johnson kid with whom to contend.

I’m with Monte: Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe’s team have won four straight Cups, and they’re the favorite to complete the drive for five. Momentum, schmo-mentum. Someone else seemingly has been named as the contender to Jimmie’s throne each of the last three years, and they’ve ended up being pretenders.

And before the Chase starts this Sunday at New Hampshire, expect all sorts of analysis and permutations, dissecting this auto race as if it was the Federal budget proposal. If Hamlin wins the Cup, can he thank his teammate Rowdy Busch for pushing him to new heights this season and in the Chase? Then again, Shrub doesn’t plan on helping Denny much if both have a mathematical chance Nov. 21 in Homestead. Or can a driver without a teammate in the Chase win the whole enchilada, such as the steady Kurt Busch?

Of all the Chase analysis and crystal ball polishing I read over the weekend, I think Mike Mulhern sums it up the best. This Chase could be good, but don’t expect a 12-man battle to the end. It never has happened historically, and Hamlin, Johnson and Kevin Harvick have been too good and too steady all season to let too many other guys play consistently in their world.

There is one famous guy who’s not in the Chase, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and after a horrible race Saturday night at Richmond, Junior was left to pick up the pieces of another tattered year. This team’s lack of success — only making the Chase once in three seasons with Hendrick Motorsports, arguably the most powerful team in NASCAR — is a riddle wrapped in an enigma trapped in a mystery.

NASCAR already expanded the Chase from 10 to 12 drivers in an attempt to ensure megastars like Jeff Gordon and Junior make the postseason. Now there are rumors the Chase field could grow to 15, and Junior is feeling the pressure. He knows an expansion could basically be called “The Junior Rule.” I feel for the dude, as the margin between swimming and treading water is so thin in any form of motorsport. But right now, that cat needs some serious Red Cross swimming lessons or a life jacket.

With all the Chase talk, it’s interesting to see that Formula One — which often is criticized for processional, parade-like racing — has a very tight points battle brewing without a reset of the standings to tighten the field for the “postseason.” Fernando Alonso’s victory Sunday at Monza — in a Ferrari in front of the adoring homeland Tifosi, no less — put the top five drivers in the standings within 24 points of each other with five races left. Leader Mark Webber is just five points ahead of second place Lewis Hamilton.

Sure, the winning pass by Alonso over Jenson Button took place in the pits. But this was still a very good race since both Button and Alonso were at 10/10ths until their pit stops two-thirds of the way through the race. Button’s gap ahead of Alonso never wavered from six- to eight-tenths of a second, and it was captivating. One mistake, one bobble, and either Button was gone or Alonso was ahead.

But it never happened until the quick work of the Prancing Horses in the pits leapfrogged Alonso past Button. Still, it was fantastic, precise, on-the-edge driving between two cars with completely different aero packages. It was damn good motorsports theater, summed up well here by the brilliant Nigel Roebuck.

The race also was refreshing because Hamilton took full blame for an ill-timed attempt to pass Felipe Massa on the first lap. The resulting contact damaged the front right wheel of Hamilton’s McLaren and left him beached in the gravel before the end of Lap 1, his title hopes starting to smolder like touch paper in an ashtray. I can’t imagine the petulant, arrogant Alonso accepting blame for anything.

Speaking of Formula One and miscues, it’s time for six degrees of separation by shining the spotlight on Kimi Raikkonen. Remember him? The vodka-swilling, monosyllabic Finn who won the 2007 World Championship for Ferrari and then bolted for the World Rally Championship last year.

Kimi is still tearing it up on the stages. Well, tearing up some perfectly good Citroens, as seen in this video at WRC.com. Kimi crashed out of the rally Sunday. He seems to be having more fun in the more carefree, laid-back world of rallying, where there are no Ron Dennis sightings to torture him. Still, Kimi isn’t exactly gaining a ton of traction on the stages and was an immense talent in an F1 car when motivated. I’d love to see him back in Formula One, challenging Webber, Alonso, Button, Hamilton and Vettel every race.

MotoGP will be back this Friday at the new Grand Prix of Aragon in Spain after a weekend off. The big wrinkle this event will be a change to the time schedule which sees riders participating in four 45-minute sessions Friday and Saturday — two practices Friday, a practice and qualifying Saturday — instead of the three one-hour sessions.

I like the idea, as fans will get two sessions of MotoGP practice on Friday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The shorter sessions also will compress more action into a tighter timeframe. That’s never a bad thing.

Loris Capirossi will not race this weekend on his Suzuki, recovering from surgery to rebuild a bone and attach a severed tendon in his finger after a crash with Nicky Hayden at Misano. No replacement rider was named, so Suzuki will field just one factory bike for rookie Alvaro Bautista at Aragon. I doubt there was a big line of riders banging on the factory door wanting to ride the worst factory bike on the grid.

A provisional 2011 MotoGP schedule has leaked, with the event lineup rumored to be confirmed this weekend at Aragon. No major shakeups other than Portugal moving to the spring and the season-opening night race in Qatar moving up a few weeks so the season begins in March. Plus, the only date you really need to memorize now on that schedule is Aug. 26-28 — the dates for the Red Bull Indianapolis GP at IMS!

One key aspect of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule announcement last Friday that may have been overlooked was significant — CEO Randy Bernard’s decision to eliminate Indy Racing League as the sanctioning body name and switch to IndyCar. It’s a VERY smart move, as the acronym IRL still is a symbol of 12 seasons of open-wheel strife in the U.S.

IndyCar is easier to market, easier to remember and creates a great image in everyone’s mind. Smart move.

People are still talking about the ramifications of the 2011 schedule, and Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star does a good job of answering fan questions in his daily Q&A.

The IZOD IndyCar Series released its 2011 schedule today with few surprises from various guesses and sleuthing by media and bloggers and Randy Bernard statements to the media this week. Nine road/street courses, eight ovals. Milwaukee, New Hampshire, Baltimore and a TBA oval to end the season are in, Kansas, Watkins Glen, Chicago and Homestead are out.

Bernard took questions from the media during a teleconference this afternoon, and most of the queries centered on two topics: The apparent divorce between IndyCar and International Speedway Corporation, as all four tracks gone in 2011 are ISC properties, and the site of the TBA oval season finale.

You don't think Bruton looks a little like Don Rickles? Not just a little?

While Randy went to great lengths to emphasize that he wants to keep the door open with all ISC tracks for the future, he made it pretty clear that scheduling, sanctioning fees and marketing were sticking points in the talks between IndyCar and ISC. And Randy also said he thinks Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc. are “absolutely fantastic marketers.”

It doesn’t take a Wharton School MBA to figure out that Bernard thinks SMI is going to do a better job in promoting IndyCar than ISC.

But ISC still has a shot at getting one track on the 2011 schedule as Bernard identified Las Vegas Motor Speedway (SMI) and California Speedway (ISC) as potential venues for the season finale. But Randy poured out the love for the city of Vegas, where his Pro Bull Riders Finals took place, and reminded the media of his strong relationships with Vegas and casino officials. Randy said a decision could come as soon as two weeks on the venue of the season ender, and a smart fan would bet on Lost Wages.

Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star touches upon the schedule and a few other issues today in his daily Q&A blog, which is always a good read.

The eyes of the NASCAR world are focused on the fine short track in Jefferson Davis’ old stomping grounds, Richmond International Raceway. The 12 drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup will be set after the race Saturday night, and it’s almost a lock the lineup won’t look any different than it does today.

Only two drivers, 11th place Greg Biffle and 12th place Clint Bowyer, are in danger of losing their spots. And using the term danger is quite a stretch. These guys are about as much at risk of falling out of the Chase as Bill Gates is of going broke.

The Biff needs to finish 42nd or better. There are only 43 cars in the race. Do the math. Uh, yeah. And Bowyer needs to finish only 28th or better. That’s a pretty safe bet, as his average finish is 10th there over the last four years.

But that doesn’t mean Richmond will be a dull show. Au contraire. It probably will be a fine show, as the always colorful Monte Dutton writes that RIR is one of the best tracks in NASCAR.

Plus even if the race is a stinker, how can it get any better than seeing Kyle Busch in pink, praising the virtues of bunnies, kittens and baby seals while doing the he-man task of driving a 3,500-pound stocker?

But if Rowdy is the next Dale Earnhardt, as Ed Hinton of ESPN writes, then he’s going to need to ditch the pink firesuit quickly. Can you imagine seeing the Man in Black in pink? Hell, no: That’s why he was the Man in Black, not Molly Ringwald in “Pretty in Pink.”

Oh, and by the way, 3 Nation, ED WROTE THAT KYLE BUSCH IS LOOKING MORE LIKE DALE EARNHARDT, NOT ME. So please don’t paper the IMS Facebook page and layer comments of spiteful venom at me. Then again, if you want to, feel free. Nothing like a bit of passion.

The biggest NHRA event of the year, the U.S. Nationals, finished up Labor Day at Indianapolis. ESPN’s John Oreovicz stepped out of his IndyCar zone to cover the race and wrote a fine feature on the return of Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden at age 66. Bob is a Hoosier racing icon and a very decent human being. He didn’t make the show at The Big Go — thankfully NHRA doesn’t offer bogus provisionals to past champions — but it was still great to see him back behind the wheel.

Dean Adams (red hat) - one seriously funny dude

Bouncing around the racing globe, MotoGP is off this weekend before racing at the Aragon circuit in Spain for the first time next weekend. But Dean Adams at Superbikeplanet.com continues to crank out the fine photo galleries from the Red Bull Indianapolis GP last month at IMS. Gallery No. 6 of fan photos is live. While the pictures are great, Dean’s cutlines might be the wittiest, most clever and flat-out funny writing in all of worldwide motorsport. The man is a mad comic genius.

In F1, the team orders’ controversy won’t die even after Ferrari International Aid, ayem, the FIA, slapped Ferrari on the wrists for rigging the finish of the German Grand Prix earlier this season. Sir Frank Williams, the purest of the racing purists, thinks team orders should be allowed because it’s a team’s right to impose its will.

Hmm. Sir Frank, whom I respect GREATLY, has a point. But what about the fans who pay their bucks to attend or watch a race on TV? Don’t they want to see a legitimate sporting contest?

Then again, the FIA continues to prove itself utterly unable to police the sport it’s supposed to govern. So maybe a return to team orders would be the most transparent move of all.

Finally, the greatest pure drivers — drivers, not racers — in the world are competing this weekend in Japan. No, not at Suzuka. No, not at Motegi. On the stages of Rally Japan, silly. The World Rally Championship is competing in the Land of the Rising Sun, and ebullient former World Champion Petter Solberg leads after day one.

If you’ve never seen a World Rally event, check out the delayed broadcasts on Discovery HD Theatre or read about the series and watch some video on the official site, www.wrc.com. It’s seriously bad-ass driving.

Despite having 25 races in the books this season, much of the talk surrounding the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series remains focused on nearly everything but racing. Voices in the media, blogosphere and fan universe continue to debate, bleat and wring hands about the perceived “problems” of the sport, which still remains the most popular form of motorsport in America.

One of the topics of discussion has been the stagnant TV ratings for the Sprint Cup Series. Two interesting solutions have been floated by bloggers this week. Bob Margolis at Sledgehammer proposes NFL-style blackouts in local markets where races aren’t sold out, while Patrick Reynolds at All Left Turns thinks weeknight races — similar to “Monday Night Football” or “Thursday Night Football” — can revive ratings.

I’m not sold on the blackout concept. TV coverage fueled NASCAR’s explosive growth in the 90s and 00s. Races were sold out coast-to-coast seven or eight years ago despite network coverage. And fans have to come to expect wall-to-wall TV coverage of every Sprint Cup race, so I don’t think taking from the customer would be a positive.

Home-market blackouts have been a fact of life in the NFL for a long time, well before saturation coverage became the norm on TV. But it’s different with NASCAR. I think it would go over like flatulence at Mass.

Weeknight races? Another mixed bag. One, it would be tough to attract fans to a weeknight show, especially those who must work the next day. Many fans travel hundreds of miles to attend a Cup show, and it would be tough to ask them to drive home all night to ensure they clock in on time for work the next morning.

Plus there’s also the issue of race lengths. If a weeknight show started at 8 p.m. Eastern time, it probably wouldn’t end until close to midnight. That would cut into “SportsCenter” if the race was on ESPN or local news — which generates beaucoup advertising bucks for local affiliates — if the race was on FOX.

Maybe it would work if Sprint Cup races were shorter, which I think is long overdue. But it’s a tricky proposition.

Another NASCAR issue that has spurred plenty of conversation this year is the sanctioning body’s edict of “Boys, have at it” in regards to aggressive, full-contact racing. Some drivers who are active users of social media, such as Denny Hamlin, also interpreted that maxim to apply to Twitter. And that belief bit Hamlin in the posterior earlier this season when he was fined for posting comments on his Twitter feed that NASCAR didn’t like.

Blogger Bill Daly believes that decision by NASCAR has placed a veil of silence on Twitter among drivers. I can see both sides of this issue. Drivers are independent contractors working for race teams and feel like they should be able to speak their minds. But NASCAR also is the sanctioning body that provides the sandbox in which they play every week, so it also should have some control.

A tricky situation. Wasn’t life simpler when all we had were newspapers, TV, radio and static websites? You know, the old days of five years ago?

That Rowdy Busch kid

Bruce Martin at SI.com also has a panacea for what supposedly ails NASCAR, and it isn’t a clever TV scheduling tactic or a social media policy. It actually deals with a live human being named Kyle Busch. Bruce thinks NASCAR would get a huge shot in the arm if Rowdy won the Sprint Cup this season.

I agree. Love him or hate him, Shrub evokes emotion unlike any other Cup driver. And emotion is what fuels all of our passions.

And the Gluckometer shows that no one in NASCAR stirred more passion during driver introductions last Sunday night in Atlanta than young Kyle Busch, even if it was 89.3 decibels of boos.

By the way, do you really think Jeff Gluck carries a decibel meter to Cup shows? Man, that’s dedication. Or is there an iPhone app for that?

Emotion continues to fill the MotoGP paddock after the deaths of Peter Lenz and Shoya Tomizawa on consecutive weekends. And few riders are dealing with more emotion now than Moto2 rookie standout Scott Redding, who was involved in the fatal accident with Tomizawa. Redding is trying to cope with the loss of Tomi before remounting his bike for the Grand Prix of Aragon on Sept. 19.

Not an easy task. Best wishes to both Redding and Alex De Angelis, the other rider involved in the accident.

In IZOD IndyCar land, the announcement of the 2011 schedule Friday in Milwaukee continues to be the main topic of conversation. More Front Wing takes its best guess at the 2011 schedule in a post that also includes its latest podcast. The podcast is a solid listen, if a touch long at 68 minutes. I’m a firm believer that no podcast without guests should be more than 45 minutes, but probably that’s just me. Good work, as always, from Paul and Steph.

Nearly all of this blog, like seemingly more and more of the news from the racing world these days, deals with business and off-track incidents and episodes. So it’s time to finish up today’s “Splash And Go” with a reminder of why we love racing, why we still have the FEE-VAH.

Motor Sport Magazine recently ran two pieces about two iconic European circuits, Monza and Donington Park. Rob Widdows’ blog about Monza describes why it’s a must-visit for any racing fan, like Indianapolis one of the true temples of worldwide motorsport. And Andrew Frankel wrote about how Donington — one of my favorite tracks in the world – is being resurrected after it was emasculated in the intent of staging the British Grand Prix before Bernie Ecclestone pulled the race back to Silverstone.

Both circuits have a soul, a petrol-fueled pulse, that no Tilkedrome can replicate. If you’ve been at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a quiet day around sunset, you know what I mean. You look at the Turn 1 grandstands in the shadows of twilight, and you can just feel and hear the ghosts.

It’s a goosebump-bulging feeling from a spine-tingling place.

Time for a quick merry-go-round to see what’s shaking and baking in the motorsports world today, with tasty links to full stories elsewhere on the Interwebs about these topics, to boot. We’ll focus on the three series that compete annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — IZOD IndyCar Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and MotoGP — but anything with wheels and an engine is fair game.

The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule will be announced Friday, Sept. 10, and the announcement is taking place in Milwaukee. Hmm. Think there’s any coincidence there? Is series CEO Randy Bernard going to unveil the sked in Packerland just because he loves a good beer and a brat as much as the next guy?

You can connect the dots.

While the biggest story this week in the IZOD IndyCar Series is what tracks will and won’t appear on the 2011 schedule,  there’s still a crazy 2010 championship chase going on. Will Power leads Dario Franchitti by just 17 points, and — start the foreboding music of doom — the last two races take place on the equivalent of kryptonite to Superman Will, ovals.

Still, Power thinks he will conquer ovals sooner than later. It better be sooner, Little Dingo (yeah, I love those Verizon commercials, too!), or the not-so-wee Scot will become just the second driver to hoist the IZOD IndyCar Series championship trophy three times.

This has nothing to do with the schedule or the championship chase, but much like E.F. Hutton, when A.J. Foyt speaks, you listen. Paul Dalbey at More Front Wing offers a podcast with Super Tex this week. I don’t know what’s more refreshing, an interview that actually features questions instead of statements with responses or that the hard-drivin’, two-fisted Texan actually is doing a podcast. Either way, it’s a good listen.

Taking stock in NASCAR, the final race before the Chase this Saturday at Richmond has all the suspense of a deflated balloon, as Clint Bowyer has a 117-point lead over Ryan Newman for the 12th and final spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Still, SBNation’s Jeff Gluck and NASCAR.com’s David Caraviello both warn that the lack of drama this Saturday shouldn’t force NASCAR into a knee-jerk reaction of expanding the Chase to 15 drivers, as has been rumored.

I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes even the best plan doesn’t work out. This year is an aberration, as the fall Richmond night race usually features at least a couple of drivers fighting with every drop of sweat for the last spot or two.

Michael Waltrip Racing vice president and GM Ty Norris urges Corporate America to take a chance on a young fresh face as the leading man for its stock car sponsorship program. While Ty’s piece is a compelling story, perhaps the best part is the pictures of current NASCAR superstars as young turks. Tony Stewart without two chins and a gut! Jeff Gordon with a trucker hat, Gargoyles shades and a porn ’stache! Junior with the Clorox look in his locks! Epic.

Formula One continues to be the most melodramatic soap opera on wheels, as the FIA ruled today that Ferrari will face no more punishment despite issuing team orders to its drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, to fix the finish of the German Grand Prix. That decision only plays into the cynics’ belief — and I’m one of them — that FIA stands for Ferrari International Aid.

The decision also led to cries that FIA President Jean Todt, the former sporting director of Ferrari, cannot judge a case against his old team without bias. It’s a case that veteran F1 journalist Joe Saward lays out convincingly, as usual, in his blog.

Colin Edwards

The MotoGP world understandably continues to reel with sadness following the deaths in consecutive weekends of USGPRU rider Peter Lenz at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP and Moto2 rider Shoya Tomizawa at the San Marino Grand Prix.

MotoGP officials and American riders Colin Edwards and Ben Spies paid tribute to Lenz with a minute of silence before the 125cc race at San Marino. The always-excellent superbikeplanet.com also re-published an excellent feature from earlier this season about the bright light of Tomizawa by longtime MotoGP journalist and TV commentator Julian Ryder.

Godspeed, Peter and Tomi.

Credit Wired.com: View from the Gods

In a recent web posting on WIRED Magazine’s website, wired.com, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was featured in “The 10 Greatest Racetracks from Outerspace”.  Some of the other tracks to get featured were:

• Nurburgring
• Circuite de Monaco
• Eldora
• Circuit de Spa Francorchamps
• Philip Island Grand Prix Circuit
• Bonneville Speedway
• Daytona International
• Circuit de la Sarthe
• Las Vegas

I’d have to say that I am personally a wee bit disappointed with this list.  Don’t get me wrong…Bonneville is cool, but as the top ten of all race tracks this list isn’t it.

Here is my list of keepers: Nurburgring, Spa (can we see Eae Rouge), Philip Island (“the Pebble Beach of race tracks),Circuit de la Sarthe (Le Mans, like Indianapolis is rare in that the race track is what has defined the city.  But what is so impressive about Le Mans is that the 24 hour race takes place partially on city streets.)

Photo Credit-Google Maps: Paul Ricard Circuit

I had to to laugh at some of the other tracks that were picked.  Las Vegas?  It must have been because they have LAS VEGAS painted in

the tarmac? Daytona? I guess the track looks cool from the sky with lake inside the track but how about Disney Superspeedway with Mickey’s head carved in the infield!  And lastly Eldora.  I know its owned by Smoke, but its not pretty to look at from the sky and I wouldn’t say that its pretty in person.

Here are a few of the other tracks that I though would have been nice to look at from space.

• Circuit de Paul Ricard: I’d say that this track is probably the most photogenic track anywhere.  The blue and orange lines that outline the track are a photographers dream!  Check it from the sky.
• Monza: With its super oval in ruins, Monza is a modern facility with the Colosseum of motor racing surrounding the current Formula 1 circuit.  What I really like about Monza is that its strikingly similar to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Both are located in the middle of the city, both are surrounded by striking oval circuits and both have golf courses surrounding them….
• Abu Dahbi: It may not be impressive from through google maps, but I can certainly image that its extremely impressive from space at night.
• Laguna Seca: Carved out of the mountainous coast line of norther California, Laguna Seca is majestic from above, especially when low laying clouds hover between th many levels of the track.

The last track that I like, which won’t make the list is AVUS.  This track is extremely unique and was the home of several German Grand

Photo Credit-Wikipedia: 'Dega-like in Berlin

Prix’s through the 30’s.  This is a unique tid-bit—-”The Silver Arrows of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union raced only once on the banked version, in 1937. As the race did not count towards the championship, non-GP cars were allowed, which permitted the use of streamlined cars, similar to the cars used for high speed record attempts. Hermann Lang’s average race speed of about 260 km/h (160 mph) was not beaten at Indianapolis Indy 500 for 3 decades.”

Take a look at the picture to the right.  AVUS was nearly 18 MILES in length and had two ends.  Turns 1-5 were shaped like the Carousel at Road American and the other end was like Talledega!

There are plenty of other tracks that deserve to be mentioned, but these were the first to pop into my keyboard…..What are your thoughts?

Say what you will about the 2010 Indianapolis 500, but the right man won. Anyone who disagrees with that either had too many pops while watching the race on TV or sat in the Easy-Bake Oven otherwise known as a broiling Race Day at IMS for far too long.

Sure, there were moments you wondered who was going to win the fuel game. Sure, there were times over the last two laps where you thought maybe, just maybe, Dan Wheldon might finally put Panther Racing into Victory Lane at Indy after two straight years of near-misses.

But the right man won. Dario Franchitti drank milk and caressed the Borg-Warner Trophy for the second time. He clearly deserved it.

How could anyone say otherwise? Dario led 155 of the 200 laps. He catapulted to the lead on Lap 1 from the outside of the front row, putting a boot to the throat of the rest of the field.

It was the most dominant winning performance at Indy since that Juan Pablo Montoya kid crushed the field in 2000 to lead 167 laps and win as a rookie, also in a Target Chip Ganassi Racing car.

Despite Dario’s dominance, there still were plenty of drivers and teams who put on strong performances Sunday at Indy inside and outside of the spotlight.

The first tip of the Lexan visor must go to Andretti Autosport. Like most after Bump Day, I thought this team was out to lunch, gorging on the all-you-can eat special at the Old Country Buffet. When Tony Kanaan stuffs two cars into the wall, problems are much deeper than simple driver error.

AA started none of its five drivers in the first five rows but put three drivers in the top 11 at the finish. That’s not a bounce-back; that’s an atomic super ball dropped on a driveway from your sister’s bedroom on the second floor. Ba-BOING!

Kanaan’s charge from shotgun on the field – 33^rd for those keeping score at home – to second, challenging and taunting Franchitti until a late pit stop, was breathtaking. TK passed EIGHT cars on the first lap in one of the most stirring displays of driving skill since Tomas Scheckter sliced through seven cars in Turn 3 alone after a restart in 2004.

Marco Andretti also proved again that he is a victory waiting to happen some year at Indy with his strong third-place finish, and Danica Patrick made amends for throwing her team under the bus on Pole Day by singing deserved hosannas for the GoDaddy crew after great stops and smart strategy vaulted her to sixth at the finish on Race Day.

Ryan Hunter-Reay also was competitive during the race for AA, and he showed serious stones by driving the second half of the race with torn ligaments in his thumb. He also must have taped four-leaf clovers throughout his cockpit or ate a water tower-sized bowl of Lucky Charms for breakfast on Race Morning after escaping without injury when Mike Conway’s destroyed car sailed overhead in the horrific accident on Lap 200.

Conway and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing teammate Justin Wilson also were unsung heroes on Race Day. Sure, Mike and Justin led 15 and 11 laps, respectively, late in the race because they were on a different fuel strategy than Franchitti. But they didn’t look out of place, and three-time winner and 2010 pole sitter Helio Castroneves couldn’t catch Conway or Wilson while running third behind them on a similar fuel strategy.

D&R also was the only team to put four cars into the show on Pole Day. If you had told me that before Opening Day, I would have asked you for your bottle of Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka. D&R just might be the “best of the rest” in the IZOD IndyCar Series right now behind Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport.

Panther Racing also had a very strong Race Day by finishing second for the third consecutive year, the second time in a row with Wheldon. Danny Boy really does turn it on for Indy. And Ed Carpenter proved again that he’s one of the best oval racers in the series, as he was headed for a strong finish for Panther before an ill-timed late caution forced him to drop to 17^th at the finish.

But my MVT (Most Valuable Team) for the month was the FAZZT Race Team. Alex Tagliani was quick all month, qualified fifth after making the Fast Nine and finished 10^th. Bruno Junqueira turned about six laps for the month before becoming the fastest qualifier on Bump Day with a speed that would have put him into the Fast Nine a day earlier.

FAZZT has nowhere near the resources of a Penske, Ganassi or Andretti. It punches WAY above its weight, like 147-pound Manny Pacquiao trading shots and standing upright against a prime, 220-pound Mike Tyson.

Still, when it comes to North American motorsports teams, nobody can stand up to the Penske and Ganassi organizations right now. They’re both major league ass kickers.

Chip Ganassi might be smug. He might be irascible. He might be a demanding SOB. But he wins – a lot. And that’s the goal of any race team. With the last two IZOD IndyCar Series titles, two of the last three Indianapolis 500 victories and a Daytona 500 victory in February, Ganassi is the reigning Red Baron of internal combustion right now in America.

Roger Penske also had a month to remember, winning the Indianapolis 500 pole for a record 16^th time and seeing his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch double up by winning the Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600.

Both Ganassi and Penske also have won major North American sports car championships in the last three seasons.

Seriously, name me two stronger racing organizations in the world – across a variety of disciplines – right now than Penske and Ganassi. You can’t.

•Formula One: Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished 1-2 in the Grand Prix of Turkey on Sunday, which many people called yet another thrilling F1 race.

I call bull excrement.

This race was “exciting” only because drivers violated one of the cardinal rules of F1 – don’t race your teammate. Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel ran 1-2 when Vettel decided to – GASP! – pass his teammate for the lead. The two cars collided, knocking Vettel out of the race and Webber to third, where he finished.

And then Hamilton and Button had “confusion” about team orders – don’t kid yourself; team orders still occur in F1 despite regulations banning them – and ended up racing each other at the end, with Hamilton prevailing.

Sure, it may have looked good on TV. But the bleating by Steve Matchett of SPEED about Vettel making a critical mistake by not asking his team to tell the slower Webber to pull over illustrates exactly what’s wrong with F1.

Race drivers are paid to pass people. F1 drivers are paid millions of pounds, Euros or whatever to pass people. They NEVER should be forced to request from a team boss to pass someone, even if it’s their teammate.

Yes, this is another rant from me about the sad state of F1. And it’s not because I dislike the series or have a serious case of “Screw them furriners.” Au contraire. I love F1. But what disguises for excitement in the series these days is pathetic. Team orders and complaints about dirty air. Oh, joy.

At least there’s a MotoGP race this Sunday at Mugello to satisfy my proper international racing jones.

•Song of the Week: This week’s top tune is the obscure but cool “Faster” by the late, great George Harrison, who was a Formula One fanatic. There are two reasons why it came to mind immediately after Dario Franchitti’s victory Sunday at Indy. One, the video opens with a still shot of the great Jim Clark of Scotland, the 1965 Indianapolis 500 winner who is Franchitti’s racing hero. Plus it was an easy choice since Franchitti was just flat-out, ahem, faster than anyone else Sunday at Indy.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel … and don’t forget to visit IMS on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IndianapolisMotorSpeedway and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/IndyTalk.

You know it’s a bit of a strange racing weekend when two legends are penalized for going TOO fast.

But that’s exactly what happened last weekend at Dover and Monaco.

Four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was locked in a tight duel with Kyle Busch for victory Sunday at Dover before he was nailed for speeding in the pit lane with just 35 laps to go. Three-time Brickyard 400 winner Johnson ended up 16^th, and Busch sailed to his second victory of the season.

This strong performance by Johnson should dispel the ridiculous notion that he and crew chief Chad Knaus are in a mini-funk because they aren’t adjusting well to racing without the wing on the back of the Car of Tomorrow. That’s a joke: Remember, Johnson and Knaus won two of their four straight titles with a spoiler on the back of the car.

Still, it’s hard to deny that Hendrick Motorsports might not be the crushing mastodon of Sprint Cup this season. Only Johnson has won this season for the team, with four victories. But he’s winless since March 21 at Bristol.

Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Busch and Denny Hamlin have combined for five victories in the last seven races and are second and fifth in the standings, respectively.

Almost like when Tony Stewart seemed to be untouchable during 2005, the Gibbs team has found something that is putting it atop the NASCAR heap.

Hamlin finished fourth in the Cup race Sunday, but I thought his most impressive performance came in the Nationwide Series on Saturday. Hamlin flat-out dumped Clint Bowyer on a late restart, starting a chain-reaction melee. Bowyer, taking full advantage of NASCAR’s new “have at it, boys” policy, retaliated by body-slamming Hamlin into the Turn 2 wall.

When interviewed after the incident, Hamlin responded by saying he made a mistake by clipping Bowyer due to his limited Nationwide starts this season. A reasonable explanation. But Hamlin manned up when he said he didn’t blame Bowyer for stuffing him in the wall out of frustration. That was large.

At Monaco, Mark Webber led from lights to flag to win the most prestigious race of the Formula One season. Webb-ah also is tied atop the World Championship with his wunderkind teammate, Sebastian Vettel. But Red Bull, the best team on the grid, is quickly becoming Webber’s team. Don’t be surprised if tough man Mahk Webb-ah becomes the first Aussie World Champ since legendary hard-ass Alan Jones in 1980.

The oddest moment at Monaco came on the final lap. The field was under a Safety Car for a scary late crash between Karun Chandhok and Jarno Trulli, and the Safety Car pulled off just before the final corner on the final lap. But F1 rules state that if the Safety Car is deployed on the last lap, drivers are not supposed to race to the flag – even if the Safety Car pulls off! Racing is discouraged – only in F1. This rule must be called “The Photographer’s Rule,” eliminating the clutter of a Safety Car for the finish-line pictures.

Michael Schumacher thought otherwise of that rule and passed Fernando Alonso for sixth place when the Safety Car pulled off. How DARE YOU RACE, Weltmeister! Schumacher was docked 20 seconds, which dropped him from sixth to 12^th.

Are you kidding me?

The greatest event on the motorsports calendar, the Indianapolis 500, opened Saturday. By the time Sunday rolled around, Helio Castroneves was fastest on both days, topping out just above 227 mph in his Team Penske machine. Not a bad way to start his quest for a record-tying fourth victory.

We’ll have much more on Indy next week, hopefully without an umbrella. The new qualifying format on Pole Day, in which the nine fastest cars have a 90-minute shootout for the pole, should be very interesting and a hell of a lot of fun.

•Song of the Week: This week’s top tune is offered with my tongue firmly in cheek: It’s the Judas Priest classic, “Breaking the Law,” in honor of Michael Schumacher actually showing the stones for trying to steal a position and getting his knuckles rapped.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel … and don’t forget to visit IMS on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IndianapolisMotorSpeedway and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/IndyTalk.

A funny idea swept through my brain over a light beer – YUCK, but buddies brought a ton of it to my house May 1 for the Mayweather-Mosley fight, and you never turn down free beer – while watching the Showtime Southern 500 on Saturday from Darlington.

Why the hell didn’t ISC, SMI and any other groups who have built racetracks in the last 20 years build an odd-shaped oval like Darlington?

Of all the ovals built in the last 20 years, I can only think of four that didn’t feature symmetrical turns – Gateway, Motegi (Japan), Lausitzring (Germany) and Rockingham (UK). Three of those four tracks are in Asia and Europe, where oval racing is about as popular as cricket in the U.S. Every other oval built since 1990 is the answer to a geometry exam – perfect symmetry between Turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

Why?

Darlington is a fantastic racetrack. It’s a man’s track. A place that separates those who can drive from those who can’t. It has character. It has the “Darlington stripe.” It has large, large incisors that can bite at any time. If racetracks were Animal Planet programs, Darlington would be the one about piranhas in the Amazon or killer hippos on acid in Kenya.

Sure, Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch were the dominant drivers in the Southern 500 Saturday night before Denny Hamlin – who lingered near the front all night – drove away for victory, completing the weekend sweep of the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races. But this still was a fascinating race – one of the best all season.

Sorry, but I’ll take a race at Darlington over a race at Talladega. Any. Day. Of. The. Week.

Talladega is an aerodynamic lottery. Success there is based on drafting and luck. It’s not really based on the workings of a driver’s right and left feet.

At Darlington, drivers need to pedal the living cow manure out of the car. If I closed my eyes a few times during in-car shots Saturday night from drivers exiting corners, I would have thought I was watching an NHRA Funny Car driver pedal a car losing traction at the 60-foot mark. These dudes were pedaling the hell out of their COT’s, as DW and Larry Mac reminded us numerous times.

Plus it was fascinating to see the speed differential between drivers on fresh and worn tires. It’s probably the most dramatic of any track in NASCAR.

Darlington is a superspeedway that races like a short track, as DW said. How perfect is that? And why didn’t anyone else come up with the obvious idea to build an odd-shaped oval?

•Formula One: Thankfully Darlington was a good show, as the Formula One race at Barcelona was a race made for DVR or TiVo. Thank God for fast-forward, otherwise that race would have been a waste of two hours.

It says everything about the quality of a race when the best overtaking zone was the exit of pit lane. Seriously – that was the only place I saw any action, and one of the only places where you heard SPEED commentator Steve Matchett spurt his customary spasm, “GO ON, SON … (gurgle) … COME ON, SON … (gurgle) … YESSSSSSSS!”

Mark Webber ran away from the front for a victory, as Adrian Newey has built another uber-car that is becoming less brittle by the week. At this rate, the biggest question regarding F1 will be which Red Bull driver wins the World Championship.

The only remaining question is when – or if – Michael Schumacher will step on the podium. The European F1 press hailed Schumacher’s fourth-place finish Sunday at Barcelona as his “comeback race.” Funny, a fourth place would have been considered a failure during the Weltmeister era of Schumi. And Michael was a minute behind Webber at the finish Sunday.

Expect more tedium this weekend at Monaco. It’s the most overrated motor race on planet Earth, hands down. The first driver into the Ste. Devote corner on Lap 1 probably will win, as it’s damn near impossible to pass at Monaco. Sure, it’s a visual spectacle, with the large yachts, mega babes and Robin Leach “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” set everywhere.

But it’s a crap motor race. The idea of modern F1 cars running on a street circuit tighter than two coats of paint isn’t charming. It isn’t nostalgic. It’s ridiculous.

Still, there’s cause for huge hope and optimism for race fans worldwide, as Indianapolis Star Opening Day for the 2010 Indianapolis 500 is this Saturday, May 15. Indy is just about here, and I can’t wait.

•Song of the Week: With Opening Day for the Indianapolis 500 just five days away, there’s only one song bouncing around my rocky brain this week. The theme to “Delta Force.” To me, that means INDY! Here’s a classic opening to the ABC broadcast of the 1992 Indianapolis 500, with “Delta Force” pulsating throughout.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel … and don’t forget to visit IMS on Twitter and IMS on Facebook.