Tires are hard to figure out

I am not one who enjoys the failures of Nascar. Nascar stands for everything I love about racing. Haulers, lucky dogs, competition yellows, and "the chase" are all things that define racing to me. Things like technology, safety, speed, and performance are all secondary in my book. So this whole tire thing is really trivial.

Seriously, I hope this puts an end to the constant references to the 2005 US GP. At least those guys were smart enough to stop racing. To be honest I am not sure what is better... competition musical chairs, or a six car exhibition.

Tony George made an uncharacteristically blunt statement in defense of the track today. Good for him. Nascar would have loved to pin this on the speedway. Luckily Firestone and IndyCar have slammed that door shut.

Open wheel fans who are enjoying a fantastic season of racing, are now the ones laughing. One of the readers from My Name is IRL states:

"I haven’t seen a Goodyear screw up that bad since Scott Goodyear passed the pace car in ’95."

PressDog, blogging in his always enjoyable alter-ego jokes that IndyCar may want to emulate Nascar's poor tire performance.

Lets be honest, we love seeing this type of thing. I think it goes much farther than simple rivalry though. One of the reasons I enjoy auto racing is the technological advances it brings with it. First it was speed. When speed became unmanageable focus was shifted to handling and durability.

Here is my point. Nascar places very little importance on the technology side of racing. Seriously, what innovative contributions have they made in the last 10 years? It took them forever to introduce a car that employs a wing. They refuse to use fuel pumps and air jacks. The organizations effort is directed solely on the entertainment aspect and as a result testing and equipment improvement take a back seat. This weekend may be a sign of things to come. As they become more outdated the difference will become more apparent.

I do believe that there is another side to this coin though. The 2005 US GP was a good example of how the FIA suffers from the exact opposite mind set. They refused to allow a chicane to be installed allowing the race to continue with a full field. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the unreal speed and performance of an F1 car, but no one can argue that the passing is always abundant.

There may be one good thing that came from the AOW split. If your honest with yourself, CCWS had better technology. The DP01 was a beautiful machine and had many advantages over the Dallara. The IRL's talent was salesmanship. The Danica-madness campaign was also a beautiful machine. Hopefully now that they are together, the people involved will find a good balance. If they can pull it off we may find ourselves with a racing league that provides consistent entertainment that isn't stuck in the 80's.