INDYCAR – Bernard Takes Hit for Duels

no images were found

In a nice article put together by Racer Magazine, Randy Bernard has taken blame for the ‘gimmick’ that was the Texas Twin 275s. Many were left a bit conflicted on what we saw last weekend and Bernard was quick in the article to point that future duel events will see different formatting. Bravo good sir!

Many fans of the IZOD IndyCar Series were critical of Dario Franchitti and his post race comments. Many blamed him for being a sore loser but at the end of the day, Franchitti was 100% correct in his points. This is about the bigger picture and that is the championship.

“We have to evaluate everything we do this year and make sure that we are providing the best competition, entertainment and value to give that great fan experience,” Bernard said on IndyCar.com. “It was a little bit gimmicky and I take the blame for it.

“In saying that, I think it’s important to make sure we sustain credibility for that (IZOD IndyCar) World Championship. I’m not convinced that what we did Saturday night does that. A draw takes away from that, especially if somebody loses the (title) by five points to a draw. -Randy Bernard, Racer Magazine Quote

Regardless of your views on the event or how it turned out, the fact of the matter is you cannot have a creditable championship with things like this going on. You are taking it out of the driver’s hands and leaving it to chance. While any driver could have suffered Franchitti’s fate, it is wrong. This is a championship and one that is billed as the best drivers on the planet. While that may be debatable, the fact is, if you are trying to push that point to your fans and the casual observer, you cannot turn these races into a joke like we saw during race 2. Randy realizes this and it is why I respect the hell out of him. It didn’t go over really well, so changes need to be made.

While there have been a number of different options suggested by fans and experts alike, the fact is that if you want to achieve that level of excitement, the best option is inverting the field. Simple! Make those drivers who won start towards the back of the grid and work their way up. This does two things, makes all the good drivers start on an equal footing and still offers another driver not related to Penske/Ganassi a shot at victory if the big guns can’t get it done. While some may think of sandbagging, I say what is the point? So you sandbag in the back on race 1 with a shot to win race 2. You have obviously taken a points hit if you are running for the title so why do it? Offer a large financial bonus for winning BOTH races so everyone is giving their all through the whole event. Team owners have shown they are a greedy lot, so extra money will be welcomed I’m sure. Hey! Maybe if they win both races they can shut up about the aero kits? Just a thought!

Regardless, it looks that the random spectacle that was the Texas Twin 275s carried and some momentum from the 500 as well was enough to slightly boost the ratings over last year’s event. The early overnight number was a 0.38 which even with a slight fall is better than last year’s 0.3. Keep it at Openpaddock.net for more coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series as the series now heads to Milwaukee. After a year’s absence from the schedule, the best short oval on the schedule returns!

Related posts

2 Thoughts to “INDYCAR – Bernard Takes Hit for Duels

  1. SMJ

    This post makes me laugh. Less than a few months age shaun was writing about the need to make things exciting and add ‘drama’ to the series and was actually defending the case for the lottery. Now it’s a mistake!
    Oh, how good is hindsight.
    Perhaps telling us how your views have changed rather than reporting what everyone else has been saying since the end of the race (and I’ve been saying since it was announced) might go some way in making people understand why decisions like this should not be made to create a show.

  2. I will admit that I did not take the title into account with the lotto. I think that a lot of people did not. Hindsight is good! I still think we need some drama produced, just going to have to find a fine balance between entertaining and not going NASCAR on everyone with the title. Either invert the field or make a non-points race out of the lotto. Thanks for the comment!

Comments are closed.