Late Racing Season 2005

It is now football season and that generally means the end of the racing season. Of course NASCAR will run until Thanksgiving with their chase and the IRL and F1 still have a few races left, but for the most part, their champions have been decided.Congrats to Dan Wheldon for his victory Sunday at Chicagoland which virtually wrapped up the season title and ensured that Wheldon becomes the first Indianapolis 500 winner to win the series championship in the same year since the inception of the IRL.

Congrats also to Fernando Alonso who finished second to Kimi Raikkonen at Spa yesterday and also made losing the championship an impossibility. Unlike Wheldon, Freddie does have to show up and race and actually score a point. Wheldon just has to show up and start at the Glen in two weeks.

NASCAR goes into their ridiculous chase starting next week. As much as I hate Tony Stewart, he has earned the title with the season he has had. He ended up more than 200 points ahead of anyone, yet at the next race he will have that lead reduced to 5. NASCAR is stupid for punishing a season like Stewart has had and like Kennseth had a couple of years ago. But then again, FUCK NASCAR!!!

It has been a bittersweet season for both the IRL and for F1. In the IRL, attendance was up at most venues, but at Indy it was down and Phoenix was awful and is being pulled from the schedule. Fontana, which has suffered several years of poor attendance, is also on the chopping block. These cuts wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that they will most likely be replaced with road or street courses.A rookie sensation, Danica Patrick, spurred Danicamania and has captured a couple of poles and nearly took the pole at Indy. She has since been exposed as the rookie she is, but she did really give the league a boost coming out of Indianapolis. Unfortunately, when her talents failed to live up to the hype, the mania waned and only the IRL and FTG bootlickers are really interested in her.

It was good to see former league champ and 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier back at Indy and a few other races. My boy Scheckter won at Texas and in all, 8 different winners have graced victory lane so far this season. St. Pete was a huge success crowdwise. Kentucky had a few more than last year. Kansas City, Nashville, Chicagoland and Texas had nice crowds.Sadly, the Toyota engine has been crap again this season and they have announced they will hang it up in the IRL after next season. GM is out after this campaign despite the thoughts they might stay after 4’s win in Texas. Mo Nunn Racing officially closed down this year. Dreyer and Reinbold Racing has been pitiful. AJ has had another crap year and rumors of AJIV’s departure to NASCAR have swirled. Besides Indy and Phoenix, Milwaukee and Michigan had terrible crowds.

But with all of that going on in the IRL, the worst is yet to come. That would be next years schedule. Keep in mind; this is a league that told us how it was growing after Indy. How attendance was up in key markets and with the targeted audiences. This was all told to us by Fred Nation and Brian Barnhart with straight faces. Now we find out that Texas will not follow Indy, but rather Watkins Glen will settle in between Indy and TMS. Fontana, out. Phoenix, out and Pikes Peak, out.

The schedule is reduced to 14 races. 11 ovals and 3 roads/street.If you have followed this blog, you know I have said I didn’t feel the league would make it past next season. I have no reason to think I am wrong. This thing has been a shoestring budget, low rent thing since its inception, yet it seemed to make some progress over the past couple of years, albeit minor, and with Danicamania seemed to be on its way. Somewhere along that way Danica was exposed as just another driver out there who doesn’t have what it takes to get to the top.I am so sick of what is happening to the sport that I am almost to the point of just giving up. I know I will be at Indy next season, but the powers that be, and that is not just George and Barnhart, but Kalkhoven and Forsythe as well have just about taken the fight out of me.