The Official Blog of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

On the surface, it would have appeared that two of the three major worldwide motor races last weekend were compelling as hell, and one was not.

The Le Mans 24 Hours featured its usual overload of drama and strategy, most of it coming when three of the four dominant Peugeot prototypes were forced from the second half of the 24-hour race with apparently the same engine problem. This let archrivals Audi claim a sweep of the podium positions in the premier P1 class and in the overall race.

Formula One put on its best dry-weather race of the year, with ease, at the Canadian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished 1-2 for McLaren in a race packed with action, passing and fascinating strategy.

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin dominated the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan, leading 126 of 200 laps and pulling to 10-second lead late in the race before a late caution bunched the field.

There’s no doubt that Le Mans and Montreal were thrill shows. But I found Michigan to be quite interesting, too, because it was a rare sight of a team and driver in NASCAR simply crushing the competition.

Nobody wants to see races in any series decided by double-digit margins of victory every Sunday. Nobody wants to see winning drivers lead more than half the race every Sunday.

But what’s wrong with seeing it every once in a while? People appreciated the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who won 72 of 82 regular-season games en route to the NBA title. People appreciated the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who won the Super Bowl as an unbeaten team. People appreciated the 1927 Yankees.

And I appreciate that Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing are on an incredible roll right now, winning two in a row and five races together since the end of March.

So one question must be asked: Why was there a debris caution with less than 20 laps to go, when Hamlin led by 10 seconds? Did that make the end result of the race, Hamlin pulling away to a comfortable victory over Kasey Kahne after the final restart, any more thrilling for the fans?

Sorry, but I don’t think a team or driver should be penalized for brilliance. If Hamlin won by 10 seconds without a debris caution that Hamlin even admitted was dubious during Victory Lane interviews, it’s because he and JGR kicked everyone’s ass, fair and square. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Speaking of brilliance, Audi must be commended for its 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans. The German marque’s top two finishers ran like diesel-powered metronomes for 24 hours at the La Sarthe circuit in France, and the crew working on its third finisher showed fantastic resolve to keep the car running after an early accident while trying to lap a crippled BMW GT car.

It took a special kind of discipline for Audi to stay calm while rivals Peugeot ran ahead into the distance with its fleet of bubble-top diesel prototypes, seemingly headed for another victory. But Audi and steely team boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich know the ebbs and flows of Le Mans better than any team. Ullrich is one of motor racing’s great tacticians and hard men. He rules that team with an iron fist. I know I wouldn’t cross him.

Peugeot lacks that tactical nous. There was no need for it to push its prototypes to the limit on every lap, gaining three or four seconds per lap over the Audis. An advantage of one second per lap is more than enough over the span of a 24-hour race, but Peugeot boss Olivier Quesnel doesn’t seem to get that. Even after flames belched from the right side of the first Peugeot to fall out of the race, the team’s other cars continued to blister around the French countryside.

It made no sense. Neither did the racecraft of Peugeot driver Anthony Davidson.

Davidson was on a tear in a Peugeot 908 late in the race, trying to catch the leading Audis after losing four laps due to an electrical problem. He approached the GT2 class-leading Corvette in the Porsche Curves and ran it off the road, forcing the Corvette to spin and back heavily into the wall. The American-based Corvette team did a remarkable job to replace the back half of the car in just 31 minutes, but an engine problem later in the race sidelined the car for good.

The incident was so unnecessary. And the diminutive Davidson couldn’t help show a Napoleon complex and a lot of “I’m a former F1 driver” attitude when he took absolutely no blame for the accident and even had the gall to say “I don’t care” about Corvette losing the GT2 lead during an live, in-race interview with SPEED.

Get over yourself, Ant. Yes, you were in a faster car. Yes, you were driving it like you stole it in an effort to catch the Audis. But you also were trying to overtake a much less nimble car with much less downforce at a part of the circuit where passing is tough even for two high-downforce prototypes.

You screwed up, Ant. Man up and at least share some blame.

Speaking of blame, it would be hard to blame Michael Schumacher if he hung up his helmet for good after this season. His comeback tour has been a disaster, with the Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday in Montreal a new low point.

Seven-time World Champion Schumacher never has been the most ethical driver in F1 history, mastering the chop block to hold rivals at bay, famously ramming Jacques Villeneuve off the road in 1997 at Jerez and parking his crippled Ferrari on the circuit in qualifying in 2006 at Monaco to prevent Fernando Alonso from winning pole.

But Schumacher’s weaving and blocking last Sunday at Montreal were different. They were the signs of a desperate driver with no answers for the speed of his younger rivals, starting with teammate Nico Rosberg. Mercedes changed the wheelbase of its car to better suit Schumacher, whose driving style is different than Rosberg’s. But Nico still is beating him.

It’s a sad sight, much like watching Willie Mays fall down in the outfield while fielding a routine fly ball during his final year with the New York Mets. Hang it up, Michael, before you become the butt of too many jokes that cause people to forget your brilliance.

•This weekend: All three series that compete at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are in action this Sunday. So put down your World Cup vuvuzela and check out MotoGP at Silverstone (9:30 a.m. ET, SPEED), the IZOD IndyCar Series at Iowa (1:30 p.m. ET, VERSUS) and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Sonoma (3 p.m. ET, TNT).

•Song of the Week: Here’s a song I would love to see Peugeot’s Anthony Davidson sing karaoke-style in a tune-o-gram sent to Corvette Racing manager Doug Fehan and the entire team – the blistering “I Was Wrong” by the great Social Distortion. I don’t think Doug and his incredibly talented crew should hold their breath for a rendition by Ant, though.

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.

Friday, May 15, 2009

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Colin Edwards, a Houston native nicknamed “The Texas Tornado,” will offer candid insight about his performance, competitors and life in the exciting world of MotoGP motorcycle racing before every event in 2009 in “Tornado Warning.”

Two-time World Superbike champion Edwards, 35, is in his seventh year of MotoGP competition, riding this season for Yamaha Tech 3. He is sixth in the season standings after three races this season and will compete with the rest of the MotoGP grid at the Grand Prix of France on May 15-17 at Le Mans.

The colorful Edwards will compete in the second annual Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Aug. 28-30 at IMS along with fellow American MotoGP star Nicky Hayden, and MotoGP superstars Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo.

In Jerez, you knew you couldn’t stay with the leaders right after the start because you had trouble getting the bike to turn. What happened?

Friday afternoon practice didn’t seem bad. Temperature was a bit cooler, track temperature was down. So it seemed like OK. But we were still fourth, fifth, sixth, somewhere around there as far as pace. Saturday morning was fairly good; we were all excited. Went out Saturday afternoon, had a few ideas to stop some issues to fix the bike. We had a couple of things go wrong. Jacked with the bike a little bit with suspension settings and went out Saturday afternoon, and man, I could not hit my ass with both hands. I was like, “Something is not right here.” I can’t turn the thing. It just felt like it was sitting down on the rear. Front was high, couldn’t get any weight on the front to turn it. After that, we kind of said, “OK, let’s go back to Saturday morning settings.” And again, nothing real special. I’ll just say that. We ended up qualifying eighth or seventh. But it was just kind of one of them weekends where nothing really seemed to be fantastic. We didn’t change the bike that much. We just changed little bits and little bits, and we should have probably changed a little more drastic or something.

Is that more track-related or package-related, that you made changes and nothing really worked?

I think it’s me; I think it’s bike. I’ve had one good result there, and I don’t know why, there are a couple of corners on that track that, I don’t know, I just seem to be dorking around there. There are a couple of corners that I follow somebody, and they pull like a bike-length or two on me through them, and I’m like, “What am I doing wrong?” I’ve got the front moving; I’ve got everything moving, but I just can’t really hold the pace. There are like two corners that I just lose a couple bike-lengths on. And then, as well, our package, as soon as it heated up, we loosened the rear setting up quite a bit. Too loose. Again, in the corner it would just sit on the rear, just sit on the rear, the front would be high and push the front everywhere. And I knew after like three corners, I was following those guys, and they just pulled bike-lengths on me, and I thought, “Oh, (crap).”

Is any of that attributed to getting used to the Bridgestones, or is it a chassis issue?

I think we were good with the Bridgestones. It was mainly just a big chassis setting. We knew what we had at Qatar, what we had at Japan and kind of basing off of that. And even the test at Jerez, we weren’t fantastic. Years past, I know we’ve done some pretty dramatic things when we go to Jerez. For some reason, that track, you’ve got to change the bike up a little bit to get it going. They just repaved it at the end of last year. We were chewing tires up at the test at the end of last year. We really needed to change the bike up.

Well, Valentino and Jerez are kind of notorious for him pulling something out of his ass, which he seems to do pretty often around there. There are tracks coming that some he struggles with, but Mugello, Jerez, even Le Mans, there are a couple of tracks that he just always has done really good at.

You have said you like Le Mans. What is it about that track that suits you?

I don’t know what it is about Le Mans. I just always seem to go good there. I show up, and usually first practice I’m always at the top. Hell, I’ve got the pole there once or twice, I forget. But I always seem to go good at that track. It’s not that I particularly like it or the place or anything about it. Maybe it just suits my style. I remember on the Aprilia I actually had a good run there, with the Honda I had a decent ride there. The Yamaha there, you just look over years past: It’s always gone good there at Le Mans. With the bike package and with me kind of clicking with the track, it’s just one of those things, you know?

It seems like the last couple of years it has rained there, and that suits you, as well.

Nobody ever wants rain, but rain or shine, I think we’ll be in good shape there. The particular area that it’s in, hell, it could be a bright, shiny day, and then five minutes later it’s a downpour. It’s one of those little places on the planet where you don’t know.

We’re getting into the part of the schedule where there’s a good rhythm to the races, every other week or so. Very few big gaps in the schedule until the summer break. How does that suit you?

Yeah, I like it. I don’t mind it at all. It seems once you get into the groove … Them back-to-backs are a bit hard sometimes, especially this early in the year. We had a major problem, obviously, in Japan, and trying to back-to-back that. One weekend off, one weekend on, yeah, I enjoy it. Come home for a week, go back for a week, come home for a week; it works out good.

So you want 36 races per season like NASCAR now?

Man, I think we’ve got enough with 17.