Indy Racing Revolution (temporary site)

When Dario Franchitti walked into the press room after last night’s SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway, he asked the assembled media if they were still awake.

One of them chimed, “Not after that one.”

Franchitti had just finished second in the 300-lap race to his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon. Even better for the Ganassi gang in terms of the championship, Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe crashed out early in a rare double debacle for Team Penske.

But as far as the show itself, the fans in attendance at RIR probably got a bigger kick out of the post-race fireworks instead of the race itself. The lack of side-by-side action throughout the field made for a boring affair, with Dixon leading the final 161 laps and Franchitti unable to mount any challenge despite being in striking distance in the final stages.

Versus cameras caught Franchitti apologizing to the fans afterwards for “a dreadful race.” When he was holding court in the press room, he struggled to find an answer on how to cure the unexciting racing that has prevailed in IndyCar Series oval events this year.

“We have run the zero package before with good results,” he said. “Whether it’s just the track is getting older…or it’s a new compound tire, I don’t know what the deal is.

“Because we’ve got the same ingredients we had two years ago and three years ago when we put on great shows. So we can do it. We just got to figure out what’s missing and I don’t know the answer to that.”

Dixon was glad to have won but called the night both fantastic and frustrating in terms of navigating the 3/4-mile bullring.

“The only guy that kind of got close is my teammate and, to be honest, I don’t think there was any way he was going to pass me even if I went a half second or second slower,” he said when asked about the problem.  

“It’s not one thing. It’s not going to be one thing. There are many things we’ve changed over the last two years that have maybe stopped the amount of passing that we have had. But we’ve got to keep in mind what we’re here to do and we’re here to race.”

Saturday night didn’t see a race, but a parade. Dixon and Franchitti were the class of the field all night long and with Briscoe’s Lap 27 crash and Castroneves’ on Lap 248 — both coming in Turn 2 — there was nobody to stop them.

Dixon took over the point at Lap 139 under yellow after Franchitti pitted for fuel on a closed pit road. While that’s legal, it also meant he had to go back a second time for four tires and more ethanol.

Later in the night, Andretti Green Racing’s Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick pitted on Lap 213 and 224 respectively. Hoping that both Ganassi drivers would have to blink and come to pit road, their plans of stealing a victory were scratched when Castroneves had his wreck.

The ensuing pit stop on Lap 250 saw Dixon retain his lead as he came out of pit road ahead of Franchitti and Graham Rahal. That was basically that.

“Once Scott got ahead, we did our best,” Franchitti said. “And we were pushing like hell to pass him, but we couldn’t get it done. And the guys in the pits tried their best as well. And they almost got it.

“But when you’re up against the Target guys, it’s the same with the cars, the cars are equal, the guys are equal in the pits. It’s hard to find an advantage. That was it.”

Expected challenges from drivers such as defending Richmond champ Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, and Tomas Scheckter never materialized as well.

All of it came together to create a very dull event in a place that isn’t called “The Action Track” for nothing. 

And even though the winner and runner-up were happy with their performances, their joy was tempered by the fact that the fans had not gotten a good show.

“We’re here to put on a show,” Dixon said. ”Without our fans, we don’t exist. I definitely want to keep on racing for many years. I want to put on a show because I want the fans to come and watch and love what we do.”

“I apologized to the fans because they came out to see good racing and traditionally the IndyCar Series put on fantastic races, especially at Richmond,” said Franchitti. ”I didn’t feel tonight was that.”

Tens of thousands of race fans that showed up last night are probably agreeing with him now.