Indy Racing Revolution (temporary site)

Wilson, Hunter-Reay part of second and third place teams respectively

Before 1 p.m. ET today in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, Justin Wilson thought he heard something amiss while driving the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry — something he later described to SPEED Channel as a “clunk.”

But when the team decided to bring the car behind the wall to check it out, they were unable to find the problem. By the time Wilson went back out onto the track, Mike Rockenfeller and his No. 9 Action Express Racing entry had passed them for the lead.

“We had a strange incident out of the bus stop chicane and the car shook around with a rattle,” Wilson said after the race. “I thought it was a wheel bearing and I had five seconds to decide what to do. We dove in the pits and checked it out. But we continued on and that’s part of racing.”

That turn of events would be the game-changer. Wilson handed the No. 01 to Ganassi teammate Scott Pruett for the final stages of the event, but the American was unable to chase down Portugal’s Joao Barbosa, who took over for Rockenfeller and took the checkered flag in the No. 9 machine by 52.303 seconds. Terry Borcheller and Ryan Dalziel were also part of the winning team.

Another IndyCar driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport, drove the No. 95 NPN Racing entry under the checkers to claim a third-place finish for himself, Richard Westbrook, Lucas Luhr and Scott Tucker. Theycame home four laps off the pace.

The No. 59 Brumos Racing team, which had Luczo Dragon Racing’s Raphael Matos as one of the drivers, finished in 26th place with 582 laps logged.

As for the No. 02 Ganassi team that featured IZOD IndyCar Series champ Dario Franchitti and his open-wheel teammate Scott Dixon on the roster, they finished 37th overall after seeing their race end due to an engine failure. The team, which also included NASCAR’s Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray, had led 139 of the first 249 laps before the incident.

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Material from a team press release was used in the updating of this post.

Vision Racing may have suspended their operations last week, but they’re still doing all they can to return to the track — including asking the Indy Racing League’s fans for help in their effort.

Yesterday on the team’s Facebook site, the team posted a note asking for letters, e-mails, short notes and faxes supporting the team that they’ll pass on to potential and past sponsors. Vision asked that these “letters of reference” be sent in as soon as possible so they can show them in presentations “first thing [tomorrow] morning.”

“The on-going economic environment has been difficult on all the IndyCar teams and their sponsors,” the note read. ”Sponsors need to know that you are still there to support open-wheel racing, the Indy Racing League, teams, and sponsors. If you don’t want to do this for [Vision Racing]… then please consider doing it for the teams/drivers you do support or for the league as a whole.”

Fans can send their letters via e-mail at visionmedia@visionracing.com, by fax at 317-295-7066, or by snail mail to: Letter of Reference, c/o Vision Racing, 6803 Coffman Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268.

The note also had contact information for home improvement chain Menards, which served as the sponsor for Ed Carpenter in the No. 20 Vision entry for several years. Letters to Menards can be sent in to Vision and will be passed along, but fans can also send in their letters directly to the company via fax at 715-876-2774.

However, the team asked fans to refrain from giving Menards a hard time.

“We are not asking you to harass our friends at Menards,” the note said. ”In fact, all we’d like you to do is let them know that you still support us and appreciate the support Menards has shown us. The folks at Menards love racing as much as you do, but they also have difficult decisions to make sometimes.”

Last year, Carpenter and Vision finished 12th in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship, with a high finish of second at Kentucky Speedway after engaging in an electric duel with winner Ryan Briscoe. Carpenter collected six top-10 finishes in 2009, all on ovals.

We’re almost three-and-a-half hours into the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway and the boys at the Furious Wedge, plus a gaggle of other IndyCar bloggers, are also well underway with their annual Blogathon.

But don’t think this is just following the Rolex 24 — so far, the assorted word butchers have also put up: two reviews of Stewart’s Root Beer; comparisons between Grand American sports car racing and women’s tennis, gay sex, and indoor football (“It’s perfectly pleasant, but not quite as good as the real thing”); news on baseball pitcher Mark Prior’s comeback attempt; and a rap about Mario Kart.

It’s absolutely nonsensical. And of course, I’ll join in — especially for the IndyCar/motorsports roundtable tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Feel free to watch the fun at FuriousWedge.Blogspot.com.

Already beleaguered by two years worth of big financial losses, the Edmonton Indy may have lost its title sponsor as well.

In another good find by Pressdog, we receive word of Rexall apparently re-thinking their backing of the Indy Racing League event. According to a column from Terry Jones of The Edmonton Sun, they’ve been eliminated from the Indy site of race promoter Northlands and not only that, Konica Minolta is no longer a sponsor as well.

Jones writes that Rexall’s removal from the marquee may have something to do with an arena battle between Northlands and the Katz Group, which owns Rexall. Its subsidiary, Rexall Sports, owns the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. 

Here’s what I’ve gathered from research: Last month, the Katz Group hired AEG Consulting as advisors on their arena project, which would be part of a bigger plan to create a sports and entertainment district for the Canadian city. But this past week, Northlands announced that they had hired two other consulting firms – CSL International from the States and Alberta-based Spotlight Strategies — as part of creating their own plan for a new arena.

Another story from the Edmonton Journal talks of a source mentioning the Northlands Park horse-racing track as a potential site for their building, which has been dubbed by Northlands as a “made in Edmonton” solution to the problem. The company currently runs Rexall Place, which has been the home of the Oilers since it was completed in 1974.

Adding to the strangeness is that representatives from both sides were apparently once together in supporting the creation of a downtown arena (as part of that aforementioned district). Since Northlands’ announcement, they’ve tried to downplay the subject. In an interview with CTV Edmonton, company president Ken Knowles said that Northlands was behind the Katz Group’s plan and that they want to be a part of it.

I had a conversation on Twitter with Pressdog on this matter and eventually, a few Canadian racing followers joined the talk. Apparently, there are bigger plans in the works for after this year’s edition of the Edmonton Indy, which is the last under the current three-year contract between Northlands and the IRL. So maybe this will eventually be much ado about nothing. I get the sense that we may have a new promotion company for this event. That’s not gospel — just a hunch on my part.

But if Rexall doesn’t come back as the title sponsor and Jones is right about Konica Minolta leaving as well, then I don’t see how it wouldn’t add fuel to the fire for people in Edmonton that can’t get over the significant money losses on this race. I know I got word that things will be okay, but I can’t help but feel pessimistic for the future of this event.

Maybe I’m just being a worrywart.

There’s no bull about it — Professional Bull Riders CEO Randy Bernard will be the new CEO of the Indy Racing League.

Curt Cavin of The Indianapolis Star reports that according to industry sources, Bernard will be confirmed next week as the open-wheel series’ new leader. The 43-year-old Bernard, who has helped grow the PBR into a international entity with name-brand sponsorships and regular national television exposure, will take over for Tony George, who relinquished the IRL’s CEO position after being ousted as CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last spring.

You already know my thoughts on a Bernard hire, but also check out what Pressdog has dug up: A link to a question-and-answer session with Bernard from 2008. In it, Bernard talks about his organization, and in one comment that Pressdog has highlighted in his post, talks about how there’s different elements in it that people can get hooked on.

Bernard gets the point about creating a product that enables wide varieties of demographics to enjoy it. If he can utilize some of the tricks he’s used in the PBR, the Indy Racing League will be much better off in terms of mainstream presence and television ratings. However, I’m still not fully, well, bullish on Bernard due to his lack of motorsports experience — we have to see how much that can hinder him, especially while he’s in the acclimation phase.

Will his promotional prowess overcome that problem? We’ll find out soon enough.

Back in high school, my father was a volunteer for the Professional Bull Riders’ official fan club. Whenever the series visited New England stops at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., and the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., we’d always get free tickets thanks to his connections. After he was done with his pre-event shift at the injured riders’ fund booth (a five dollar donation got you a picture of yourself riding a life-sized, high-kicking stuffed bull), Dad and I would take our seats and watch the fun.

Even if you aren’t a fan of the whole Western lifestyle, you can like the PBR for several reasons. At the forefront is the danger factor, which occurs naturally when humans attempt to ride for eight seconds atop pissed-off, 2,000-pound-plus animals. However, instead of a down-home rodeo, the PBR manages to come off as a star-driven spectacle that’s good for mass consumption. Cowboys from Texas and yuppies from New York City can get hooked on what the organization delivers.

A product that lots of different people dig is what the Indy Racing League wants to be, so when you think about it, it’s natural that they’re going after PBR’s chief executive officer to take the same position with the open-wheel series. 42-year-old Randy Bernard has been offered the job and if his comments to The Indianapolis Star‘s Curt Cavin are any indication, the bull riding boss is seriously thinking this one over.

As I’ve said before, whoever lands the CEO job with the IRL is going to have a tough challenge to deal with. There’s the matter of sorting out the 2012 chassis/engine situation, which will evolve again when the Delta Wing chassis prototype debuts in Chicago on Feb. 10. Car count is starting to become a concern again as solid drivers like Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alex Lloyd are facing difficulties in landing full-time rides. And of course, the perpetual problem: How to increase the IRL’s mainstream presence through higher TV ratings and better marketing support.

Bernard has no motorsports experience. His bio on the Professional Bull Riders web site says that prior to joining the PBR in 1995, he served six years in the marketing and entertainment department of the California Mid State Fair. The PBR has grown nicely under his watch, but if he took the job with the IRL, he’d have to learn the lay of the land quickly. It would be essential to have a good team of people around him while he got acclimated to the league and more familiar with the issues that face it.

You also have to wonder how he’d react to the politics involved, which was a point Cavin made on his “Trackside” radio program last night on WFNI-AM in Indianapolis. There are so many elements with the sport, from manufacturers to team owners. But I also have to imagine that with the ongoing Dallara vs. Delta Wing debate, Bernard could find himself pulled every which way by people on both sides who may think he can be persuaded due to his lack of racing cred.

However, it’s clear that Bernard can do good work and perhaps, after 15 years of rule under a man that’s part of the Hulman-George family — the guardians of open-wheel racing in this country — the IRL could stand to get a fresh perspective from the outside. Hindsight helps me in this statement, but I get the sense that the sport has been run by “insiders” for such a long time that a changing of the guard was, if not necessary, then definitely inevitable.

The last 15 years got the IRL next to nothing in terms of presence amongst American sports fans, unless you figure in the rise of Danica Patrick. Why not go outside the box and find good people beyond the racing world that know how to grow and promote an entity and its stars? Bernard has shown that he can do that, helping the PBR go from a group of 20 bull riders that threw in $1000 each to start the company into an international sport with its own minor league, big-brand sponsorships, and national TV contracts with Versus (the IRL’s cable partner) and NBC. Will it ever be an NFL or a Major League Baseball? Probably not. But it is a solid organization that has found a pretty good niche for itself.

Still, you have to take the pros and the cons with Randy Bernard possibly joining the IRL. In my view, it’d be like riding an ornery bull in the PBR — plenty of risks, but, potentially, plenty of rewards as well.

A lack of sponsorship funding has forced Vision Racing — the team that IRL founder Tony George created in 2005 — to suspend operations. ESPN.com’s John Oreovicz reports that around 20 employees have been laid off as a result of the decision.

With that, it appears that Tony’s fall from the top of the sport is now complete. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll leave up to you. But it’s never good when both the car and team counts go down in one shot. As for the time being, Vision has indicated that they will continue to search for sponsorship, so we may see them again down the road. But for now, I’m sure there’s some great people that are being forced to look for jobs in a hellish economy and that’s just an awful thing.

I wish them all the best, especially team spokesperson Pat Caporali, whom I had the pleasure of meeting last fall at the IZOD title sponsorship announcement in Indianapolis. I told her how impressed I was with her team’s social media effort, which she and colleague Michael Kaltenmark spearheaded. Check out their Twitter and Facebook pages to see an example of how all motorsports teams should push themselves in this wired age. Points to Oreo for mentioning their work in his story.

For the team’s sake, let’s hope this timeout isn’t permanent.

Well, my friends, hell has frozen over — the IRL has an actual, authentic, and legitimate pre-season promotional push.

We can thank IZOD, the new title sponsor of the IndyCar Series, for that. During the NFL’s conference championship games, nearly 100 million viewers in the United States caught the revamped version of last year’s IZOD IndyCar tv spot — which featured a three-abreast pack of CGI’d race cars, mentions of the opening race on March 14th, and the red-and-black IZOD IndyCar Series logo.

This year’s NFL conference title games wound up nabbing the most viewers since 1982, so it’s safe to say that this was not a cheap ad buy for IZOD. It’s also safe to say that this was the biggest promotion in IZOD’s preseason marketing of the IndyCar Series so far, which began about a week and a half ago with national spots on multiple cable networks.

And if IndyCar’s official twitter account is any indication, the league will get more ad time on major upcoming events such as the Grammy Awards and the NFL’s all-star contest, the Pro Bowl. Let’s not forget that billboard on Times Square, either.

It’s a bit strange seeing all of this happening. Not that I’m complaining — I’m happy for the series and its teams to finally have the chance to take advantage of a real promotional build to the season opening race. I guess I’ve become used to IRL promotion on television not starting until the week of the first event!

This won’t solve all the problems that the IRL faces, but IZOD is already being the shot in the arm that the open-wheel series has needed for some time. I got to check out the new IZOD ad while watching the AFC Championship at my aunt’s house last weekend. I couldn’t help but say, “There’s that push!”

Enjoy that feeling, IndyCar fans. That’s the feeling of being impressed.

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Danica Patrick has already made plenty of headlines this offseason with her new contracts for Andretti Autosport in the IRL and JR Motorsports in a part-time NASCAR Nationwide Series program. Expect her to get more ink (actual and digital) after her latest Super Bowl advertisement for sponsor GoDaddy.com.

The racing superstar’s newest GoDaddy spot will have her spoofing a pair of 80′s movies (“Weird Science” and “Flashdance”), as well as Marilyn Monroe’s famous billowing skirt scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” Examiner.com’s Greg Engle has a photo from GoDaddy’s PR department of Patrick as Monroe.

What’s more, this series of ads involving Patrick has been approved for broadcast, so apparently this time around, GoDaddy will tone down its usual penchant for controversy in their Super Bowl promotion.

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Once again, the IRL will be represented well at this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. The season opener for the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series starts this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on SPEED Channel.

Reigning IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti and teammate Scott Dixon will drive for Chip Ganassi’s Grand-Am team as part of the No. 02 team that also features NASCAR pilots Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya. Ganassi’s No. 01 team will also have a bit of IRL flavor, with Justin Wilson on the roster alongside Max Papis, Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett.

Other current IndyCar drivers in the Daytona Prototype class include Luczo Dragon Racing’s Raphael Matos (No. 59 Brumos Racing)and Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 95 Crown Royal/NPN Racing). Four-time CART champ Sebastien Bourdais, former Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice, and KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser are among the other open-wheel notables in the Prototypes.

In the GT division, there’s also a few familiar names to IRL fans including Roger Yasukawa (Sigalsport) and Patrick Dempsey (Dempsey Racing). For the full entry list, go here.

With less than two months to go before the start of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series championship, we finally have official details of the course that will play host to the season-opening race.

The 300-mile event (March 14, Versus) will be contested on a 2.6-mile, 11-turn street course in the Anhembi section of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The course features three long straightaways, including the 30,000-capacity Sambodromo — the home of the city’s lively Carnival parades — which will have the start/finish line placed on it. Also of note is that the course will have a very long backstretch (nearly one mile long), which leads into a sharp right-hand hairpin that will take drivers into the Sambodromo.

Former IRL vice president of competition Tony Cotman has been hard at work creating this layout with his new track design firm, NZR Consulting. He expressed confidence that the Sao Paulo course will produce excitement throughout the 75-lap event, but also left open the possibility of tweaking the course for future races if necessary.

“Everybody we’re working with is incredibly motivated to showcase the event,” Cotman said in a press release from the IRL. ”I’m sure there will be some fine-tuning in the future, but to be perfectly honest it’s no different than going to any of the temporary circuits where we currently race.

“It will be fast. It will be fun. It will be exciting. It will be safe. Most importantly, from a fan’s perspective, they’ll see a lot of action.”

The Sambodromo sprint will end with a pair of left-right chicanes. From there, the drivers will gear up through the second main drag, the Avenue Olavo Fontoura, before braking for a quick set of right-hand, 90-degree corners. Following that, plus another chicane and two more 90-degree turns ( a lefty, then a righty), the IndyCars will tackle the nearly mile-long backstretch made up of Avenues Assis Chateaubriand and Marginal Do Tiete that leads to the hard hairpin and the return to the Sambodromo.

Cotman mentioned that he wanted to create a course that can yield both rewards and risks for drivers.

“It’s a track that’s challenging but can create some exciting racing,” he said. ”I like to see a course that is really quite challenging on a driver and has potential for the driver to either A, take multiple lines or B, entice them into mistakes.”

He also noted surface changes in the Sambodromo section of the track that could have an effect on the cars.

“That portion of the track through the stadium is concrete and everywhere else will be asphalt, so there will be some surface changes,” he said. “That’s always good for the racing.”

Watkins Glen International recently announced changes to their track that are designed to increase safety and the on-track product. Multiple spots on course will see new rumble strips, catch fence tweaks, and the removal of gravel traps and grass for paved runoff areas. But Chris Gill of the Corning (N.Y.) Leader isn’t too thrilled about these changes (save for the addition of the SAFER Barriers) and believes that they can neuter the track and its challenge for drivers.

While I see Gill’s points — as much as people hate road/street courses that are too difficult to pass on, they hate road/street courses that are too “easy” as well — I think that the top priority for track promoters these days is how to accommodate the fans. In this tight economy, tracks need the people’s money and they’re not gonna get it by having facilities that produce crappy racing.

Gill writes that the racing at the Glen last year “sucked” and that fans weren’t happy about it, so it was a given that the Glen and parent company ISC were going to do something to enhance the show. Note the word “show,” because at the end of the day, that’s what fans want. I’m reminded of a lyric from Nirvana’s ”Smells Like Teen Spirit” when it comes to fans that show up on race days – here they are now, entertain them.

Besides, there’s neutering a track and then there’s neutering a track. Gill mentions how the “grand old road courses in Europe” have been “clipped like stray cats at the ASPCA.”

Then he knows full well about the changes that went down at Hockenheim, the home of Formula One’s German Grand Prix, back in 2001. Once known for enabling grand prix cars to go on balls-out straightaway romps through the forest, the course got hacked down from 4.2 to 2.8 miles and the forest section got replaced with tighter corners. People have been up in arms over it ever since.

Here’s a video of the old layout there:

And here’s the “new” layout that has been in place for almost a decade:

Big difference, huh? In short, while the Glen’s changes may alter the style of racing there, I’m not sure if we’ll see a shift on the scale of other tracks like Hockenheim. Just my two cents…