Jeffy to F1?

F1/IRL/NASCAR It was an interesting weekend of racing here in America and one that may have a bearing on what happens in Formula 1 next season. As I wrote yesterday, Scott Dixon is having problems at Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Yes the Toyota is underpowered, but his performances this year have been abysmal. Yesterday I pointed out some of those reasons. Jeff Gordon on the other hand had another great weekend. He won both the pole and the race at Daytona Beach. Gordon continued his string of excellent performances as he seems to be at the very top of his game. Sure the Dupont/Pepsi team is great, but at the end of the day it is Gordon who has to get the car to the end. So what does Jeff Gordon’s performance have to do with F1? Well last week I predicted he would be in the Williams next season. With his performance Saturday I think the deal is sealed. Scotty D. got the test and apparently failed to impress. He seems to have lost his edge because of it. F1 wants an American and Jeff Gordon has expressed interest especially when it was suggested he was too old to start an F1 career. He is confident and that confidence will ultimately land him that seat. IRL Congrats to Buddy Rice who won the race at Kansas yesterday. His victory over Vitor Meira was the second closest 1-2 finish in IRL history. The last 15 laps were a trophy dash between the two. Rice took the inside line and held it for the entire time. Meira managed to lead at the stripe a couple of times just barely lost out at the end. It was an exciting finish to say the least. Unfortunately only 21 took the green flag. Greg Ray allegedly took his car through tech, then loaded it back on the hauler and took it home. I wish things would turn around for Ray. The IRL needs him. F1 Schumacher! What can you say? Yesterday he won the French Grand Prix for this 8th win in 9 races this year and he did it using an almost unheard of 4 pit stop strategy. Fernando Alonso started the race from the pole and lead the first 12 laps before pitting. Normally this season Schummi has been the last of the leaders to pit, clicking off fast laps while the leader is in the pits. Didn’t happen that way yesterday. What did happen was this. Schumacher, leading by just over 10 seconds knew he needed a splash and go to get to the finish. He also knew he needed to be in the lead by 20 second to be able to pit and come back out in the lead as there would not be enough time to make a pass if he was in second. What did he do? Well in the course of 6 laps he increased his lead to 22 seconds. When he pitted he came out a full 7 seconds ahead of Alonso. Say what you will about Schumacher, and if you can’t tell by reading this blog, I don’t like him, he is simply the best. His performance in France yesterday certainly proved that to me!