Makes F1 Look Pretty Good By Comparison, Huh?

I got home yesterday from visiting the girlfriend's in time to see about the last 20 laps of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. I was sort of half listening, but kept hearing references to "when they throw the next caution." Huh? Did Paul Page suddenly go all psychic? Then I heard the phrase "competition yellow," which was even worse. What the heck was going on?

Turns out Goodyear screwed up. And big. Seems the tires they brought to the race (Goodyear is the exclusive tire supplier for NASCAR's top division) sucked and wouldn't last beyond about 10 laps of green flag racing. We're not talking "after 10 laps they go off," we're talking "after 10 laps, the cords start showing." To deal with the problem, NASCAR took to throwing "competition yellows" ever dozen laps or so. The race took four and a half hours to finish and the fans are not pleased.

It makes me think of the 2005 US Grand Prix, also at Indy, where problems with Michelin tires led to 14 of the 20 cars not taking the grid. The 6-car race (dominated by Ferrari) was rightly derided as a fiasco. But I'll say this - the F1 powers that be refused to mess with the competitive integrity of the event to bail out the Michelin teams. It was their responsibility to show up with adequate equipment and they didn't. Tough shit.

My opinion is a minority one, however. Most fans - both those who watched the show on TV and those who went to the race - thought something should have been done to get the full grid rolling. A makeshift chicane, a speed limit in the crucial Turn 13, etc. Something - anything - to produce something like a real race.

Well, that's just what NASCAR tried to do yesterday. It could have, after confirming the tire problems with an early pitstop, left the teams to their own devices. Pit more often? Go slower? Pack up and go home? Who knows? Instead, it came up with the long-series-of-heat-races solution. Guess what? The fans are still pissed.

In other words, NASCAR did just what the F1 fans wanted FIA and crew to do and still nobody's happy! It makes the F1 situation look not quite so ridiculous. At least it could be justified as a harsh application of the sporting regs.