2007 Commentaries from the Paddock.........

[mlittle]

note.....this is a 2-part commentary..........

[1]Another IndyCar Series Championship Fight Goes to the Finish......

For the third time in the past five years, the IndyCar Series has a championship fight that will go down to the last lap in Chicagoland, as three drivers--Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan--have a shot at winning the series championship and the $1 million dollar prize that goes with it. This is good for two reasons......(1)it didn't take a contrived-of gimmick like the NHRA's "Countdown to 8" and NASCAR "Chase for the Cup" and (2)this championship, to quote motorsports curmudgeon Robin Miller, is "getting downright hateful." (note...no, not between the Scotsman, the Kiwi and the Brazilian.......between the respective team owners, Michael Andretti/Kevin Savoree for AGR and Chip Ganassi for TGR.......... )

Case in point--this past weekend at Detroit's Belle Isle race. On the last green-flag lap, Scott Dixon was in the process of passing Dreyer & Reinbold's Buddy Rice, who had run out of fuel, when Dixon spun........right in front of Dario Franchitti, who tried to dodge Dixon only to get caught btwn. the Kiwi and the concrete canyons of the track. Afterwards, AGR co-owner Michael Andretti accused Dixon of dirty racing and Kevin Savoree(a/k/a Mr. Bean Counter...... ) tried to entice Chip Ganassi into a fight. Dixon, to his credit, said that he tried to get out of the middle of the track and that his contact w/Franchitti was accidental, something Franchitti agrees on. But, for the sake of argument, let's say Dixon did it on purpose........in all honesty, was it any different than when Franchitti's teammate Tony Kanaan ran in "protection mode" for his wounded teammate at Sonoma?

I didn't think so, either!

Maybe that is the reason everyone in the IndyCar paddock, while silently rooting for the Scotsman to win the series championship in what is likely Dario's final IRL season, they also can't stomach the thought of them celebrating alongside Franchitti....... In a sense, AGR is on pins and needles because I suspect, if Franchitti loses the title to Dixon this Sunday, they will have no one to blame but themselves!!


[2]Steering-Gate.......
Reading some of the other motorsports message boards, one gets the forboding sense that AGR's Danica Patrick must have a bullseye' on her over the reports in some quarters that the IRL has "given" here a "power steering" system in an effort to help her win her first IndyCar Series race....(mod's note......yeah, right.....and I've got some cheap land in south Florida for any s@&*^) who want it..... )

News flash.......there is no power steering assist in use(series rules prohibit electrical OR hydraulic assists; they do allow mechanical assists....), in this case, "variable rate steering" which is a mechanical system designed to assist drivers in driving their 650-hp cars around road/street courses. Would it help Patrick? It wouldn't hurt......as IRL president of competition Brian Barnhart(a/k/a the Iron Hand of Justice) said to reporters over the weekend,

We've had some of our drivers admit to having fallen out of their chairs (on the road and street circuits) so we've been looking at new steering technologies that help resuce the effort this is needed.

Barnhart confirmed to the press that at least two teams, AGR and Foyt Racing, have gotten permission to run a "variable rate" mechanical system on the road and street course; Danica used the system at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, while Darren Manning used it at Sonoma and Belle Isle....and for the record, Danica didn't have a variable-rate system in use at Detroit and she finished 2nd.

Now, do I think series officials are trying to help her get her first IndyCar Series win? Probably.......what gets me and most other motorsports journos/bloggers and etc. is the seeming animosity towards her in the paddock. Sure, she can be full of herself at times(WHAT DRIVER ISN'T???) and she probably needs to be a tad bit friendlier to the press and fans.....but she's a d----- good racer who runs with the big dogs most weekends......over in NASCAR country, they're still looking for a top woman racer and have made numerous attempts to lure her over to "the Dark Side"(considering NASCAR's history, they would've already gotten her to victory lane......just look at Juan Pablo Montoya for proof......

When she does get past that last duck and wins her first IndyCar Series race, it will literally put the IRL on a different plain with both the media and with the public, for like it or not, Danica Patrick is AOW's only ticket out of the proverbial wilderness.......oh, and to the Danica-bashers out there, she's turned in some d--- impressive performances this season; CHEW ON THAT!

That's my say.......what's yours?

[mlittle]

Ever since IRL officials announced their "renevue-sharing" plans, I've been going over as many numbers as I can find(props to sources Pressdog and the Indy Insider!) and their plans actually make sense from a financial standpoint on both ends.......

Essentially, the new "value" plan that Brian Barnhart and Terry Angstandt laid out in brief at Belle Isle and that they expanded upon at last night's championship banquet is remarkably similar to the "Leader's Circle" program that the IRl used to run the first few years of the series' existence; each team will receive from the series $1.3 million that is theirs free-and-clear(it takes around $5-$7 million to run a mid-pack team; increase that to about $8-$9 million for a front-runner) before any and all expenses. For most teams, that amounts to 20-30% of their budget before they begin sponsor-searching. It doesn't seem like a lot, but most teams run individual team budgets around $6-$8 million so getting almost a qtr. upfront is an incentive to enter the series. Will it hurt the larger teams? Most likely, but not as much as you might think; this part of their plan is geared towards the smaller-end teams.

Currently, the Indy Racing League's purse outlays are as follows............
--Race Purses, $12.8 million*
--Indy 500 Purses, $9.75 million
--2007 ICS Points Fund, $3.2 million*
(total for 2007, $25.75 million)
*--technically, the race purses outside of Indy equal $16 million, but the ICS holds back 20 percent for the points fund

Projecting ahead for 2008(assuming 16 races and the Indy 500)
--each team is guaranteed $1.3 million to race(300k at Indy + 62.5k times 16)
--assuming 300k per entry, the minimum purse for the 92nd Indy 500 will be at least $9.9 million(add $1.7 million to bring the front-runner purses up, including $2 million for the 500 winner and the total 500 purse goes to around $11.6 million)
--assuming the points fund remains at $3.2 million, that means at least 24 teams will get an increase in prize money from 2007 to 2008 on the order of $200-$350,000 dollars(doesn't sound like much, but included in that amount are the expected one-off's at Indy and scattered one-off's throughout the season)

~~Expected purse layout for each race outside of Indy................................
1st--$100k, 2nd--$82.5k, 3rd--$77.5k, 4th--$75k, 5th--$72.5k, 6th--$70.5k, 7th--$67.5k, 8th--$66.5k, 9th--$64.5k, 10th--$63.5k, 11th down to 24th--$62.5k each**
--performance and contingency awards are factored into the purse layout above

~~For the Indy 500, the purse layout should look as follows.....................
1st--$2 million, 2nd--$1.3 million, 3rd--$1.05 million, 4th--$850k, 5th--$750k, 6th--$650k, 7th--$575k, 8th--$550k, 9th--$525k, 10th--$500k, 11th-14th, minus 25k down to 400k for 14th; 15th-19th, minus 10k down to 350k for 19th; 20th-22nd, minus 7.5k down to 325k for 22nd; 23rd--$320k, 24th--$315k, 25th--$310k, 26th--$308k, 27th-33rd minus 1k down to 300k for 33rd
(total Indy 500 purse for 2008 should be around $17-$17.2 million)

~~Finally, there should a season-ending points fund to reward performance throughout the season....assuming the 2008 points fund resembles past years, the fund payouts should look as follows..................
--1st, 25 percent[$1 million guaranteed]
--2nd, 12.5 percent[400k]
--3rd, 9 percent[288k]
--4th, 7 percent[224k]
--5th, 5 percent[160k]
(58.5 percent of the $3.4 million would go to the top-5, which amounts to $2.072 million total; the remaining positions 6-24 would get an equal amount of roughly 69-70k each)**
**--the points fund is $3.2 million plus an additional 200k to ensure the series championship gets a guaranteed $1 million

However, in all that above, there are three other revenue streams that must be figured into the above................
--any and all revenues that IMS garners from the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400 and the upcoming MotoGP race
--the IRL's television contract with Disney(a/k/a ABC and ESPN) where Disney pays the IRL in exchange for broadcasting their events on network and cable(not counting fees collected from both Grand-Am and the ALMS for using IMS equipment to help with their broadcasts)
--the monies Honda pays the IRL through its' engine leasing contract with the series

My take............one of the reasons for the low car counts the past few years has been the increasing inequality of purse/prize layouts amongst the teams; if series officials can find a way to make this whole plan work.....could the car counts increase? We shall see..............

[mlittle]

IRL officials at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today presented their new payout structure for IndyCar Series teams beginning in 2008. The plan, known as IndyCar TEAM(Team Enhancement and Allocation Matrix) essentially does away with the present payout structure(note...see the previous commentary on this thread for an explanation of the former payout/purse system) and instead guarantees full-time IndyCar Series teams(those running the 16-race schedule in 2008) $1.2 million dollars. In addition, the purse payouts for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 will total upwards of $13.4 million with the 500 winner receiving $2.5 million. Now the numbers-crunching.........

Assume that the IndyCar Series has a 22-car grid every race outside of the 500........each team will get $60,000 for those races; in addition, the top-5 finishers will each get a bonus of from $35k down to $10k............those purse payouts would look as follows:
--1st, $60k + $35k($95k)
--2nd, $60k + $25k($85k)
--3rd, $60k + $20k($80k)
--4th, $60k + $15k($75k)
--5th, $60k + $10k($70k)
--6th and lower, $60k($60k)
Total...........$1.425 million*

For the Indianapolis 500, the payouts roll out as follows:
--1st, $2.2 million + $300k($2.5 million)
--2nd, $950k + $300k($1.25 million)
--3rd, $450k + $300k($750k)
--4th, $175k + $300k($475k)
--5th, $75k + $300k($375k)
--6th down to 22nd, $300k($300k)
--23rd to 33rd, $270k($270k)
Total...............$13.72 million*
*--does not include contingency and performance awards

Current Contingency and Performance Awards...........
--AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award, $10k
--Firestone Performance Award, $10k
--Lincoln Welders Hard Charger Award, $5k
--Chohula Hot Sauce Fast Drive of the Day, $5k(Indy only)
--Ethanol Fast Drive of the Day, $5k(Indy only)
--Fastest 2nd, 3rd and 4th day qualifiers, $10k(Indy only)


For the 16-race schedule, the TEAM payouts total around $35.095 million. In addition, there is a new season-ending points fund, which awards a guaranteed prize to the top-5 points finishers at season's end and an additional $60k for the remaining teams.....that payout structure is as follows...........
1st, $1 million(37.8 %)
2nd, $250k(9.5 %)
3rd, $175k(6.6 %)
4th, $125k(4.7 %)
5th, $75k(2.8 %)
6th-22nd, $60k(combined 38.6% or 2.27% each)
Total, $2.645 million

Combined total....................$37.74 million; compared to 2007, when the IRL paid out a total of $25.75 million, the new TEAM payouts amount to a 31.7 percent increase.....

According to series officials, the new TEAM concept will be expanded upon in subsequent seasons, either by increasing the base payout per race or by adding more contingency/performance awards to the mix; in addition, the individual events and racing facilities outside of Indy can add their own monies to the mix as well.


My take......at first glance, this is a great plan that IRL officials have put forth; the question will be how many of the smaller teams will use the TEAM structure to either field full-time teams or to move up from the Indy Pro Series(which will continue with a more-traditional purse system), both of which will add cars to the grid in years to come.