For the midweek installment of the blog, I thought I would weigh in on a few topics that are creating conversation and controversy in the IndyCar Series paddock …
• Dixon's win record: For a few days after Scott Dixon won the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the indycar.com Web site ran a splash page congratulating Dixon on becoming the winningest driver in IndyCar Series history.
With a prominent asterisk and disclaimer.
Dixon's 20th race win under Indy Racing League sanction indeed puts him atop the standings when the only consideration is IRL sanction, from 1996 through the present. But calling him the best of all time is a slap in the face to the real Indy car racing victory leaders -- A.J. Foyt (67), Mario Andretti (52), Michael Andretti (42), the Unser family and on down the line.
If you want to talk about 1996 to the present, you need to factor in CART and Champ Car, which were what Indy car racing was in the years before Tony George established the IRL in 1996 and reclaimed the trademarked and licensed name "IndyCar Series."
Not to mention the AAA (1909-1955) and USAC (1956-1981) eras when speaking in overall terms.
Looking only from 1996 to now, Sebastien Bourdais won 31 Indy-style races in CART/Champ Car. Paul Tracy won 21 races in that span, matching Dixon when Dixon's sole CART win is factored in. Dario Franchitti is also parked on 21 total wins, with 10 in CART and 11 in the IndyCar Series.
Factor out CART and Champ Car wins, and a legend like Al Unser Jr. who competed in both CART and the IRL would have only three wins (not 34) to his credit -- and none at the Indianapolis 500. Michael Andretti would sit at a big, fat zero instead of 42. Same with Rick Mears (29 wins, including four Indy 500s, wiped away), Johnny Rutherford, Rodger Ward, Bobby Rahal and so on.
Looking at the full history of Indy-style racing, 20 wins ties Dixon with 1920s board track star Earl Cooper for 20th place on the all-time list.
So, yes, Dixon may have eclipsed Sam Hornish Jr.'s IRL IndyCar Series record of 19 wins. It's a wonderful achievement, one that cements the New Zealander's status as the best driver in American open-wheel racing in the last few years.
But when the IRL starts bandying about phrases like "Best of All Time*," it's also a tremendous disservice to the 100-year history of Indy-style racing and the legends like Foyt, the Andrettis and the Unsers who built it into the institution it was before its decline in the last 15 years -- a decline that, ironically, is almost completely attributable to the formation of the IRL in 1996.
There is a group of fans out there who are blindly loyal to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IRL, who subscribe to the notion that Indy car racing -- other than the Indianapolis 500, of course -- was invented in 1996.
If the IndyCar Series would place more emphasis on the true history of the sport, maybe those zealots would become a bit more open-minded.
• Milka Duno: Duno made a fool of herself at Mid-Ohio in some eyes, consistently lapping at least six seconds off the pace. Yet IndyCar Series competition president Brian Barnhart plans to take no action against Duno, who many believe has no business competing in almost any form of professional racing.
Duno's best practice lap was 6.5 seconds slower than leader Justin Wilson's, and 3.5 seconds slower than the next-slowest driver. In qualifying, the gap was nearly eight seconds a lap on the leaders -- and almost five seconds slower than her closest competition at the slow end of the grid. In the race, she was again close to six seconds a lap slower than the leaders and more than four seconds off the rest of the back of the pack's pace.
Paul Tracy understandably trashed the Venezuelan on his Web site. "She's a disaster out there and it's beyond even funny," he wrote. "Why do they give her a license? Why do they let her drive? Why does she want to embarrass herself so bad?"
In the race, when she was being lapped about once every eight times by for the leaders, Duno was a hazard, plain and simple. Yet with the IndyCar Series struggling to maintain 20-plus car fields, Barnhart came to her defense, claiming that Duno has been competitive in her other starts this year.
"She's done a good job in those and kept a competitive pace," Barnhart told Indianapolis Star/AutoWeek reporter Curt Cavin. "She's earned her way into every event this season, and I think we're making a bigger deal than is necessary."
Duno's Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team owner Dennis Reinbold also laughably defended his driver.
"She was at race pace all day," Reinbold said. (Really? D&R's other car, driven by rookie Mike Conway, was 4.7 seconds a lap faster in the race.) "She's come a long way as a driver and continues to improve. People need to keep that in mind.
"Fans love Milka because Milka loves the fans," Reinbold continued, speaking to the Indianapolis Business Journal. "She's an upbeat person who is great to work with at every level."
Duno's form didn't improve this week during testing at the Infineon Raceway road course. She was more than seven seconds a lap slower than teammate Conway.
Every form of auto racing has a history of pay-drivers who are put in the car because they bring sponsorship, rather than talent. And Duno is at the very top -- or maybe more accurately, the absolute bottom -- of that list. It's time for the IndyCar Series to consider parking her before she hurts herself or somebody else.
• Five cars from AGR: There's been a lot of speculation over the summer about the future of Andretti Green Racing, most of it concluding that the team is likely to downsize from four cars to three, or even two, in 2010. But before AGR contracts, it's going to expand. The team announced it will enter a fifth car for Frenchman Franck Montagny in next weekend's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County.
Montagny has tested an Indy car in the past for AGR, and he was one of the team's drivers when it competed in the American Le Mans Series in 2008. Other than a couple of impressive runs for Peugeot in sports car racing this year, Montagny has sat on the sidelines.
To put it mildly, AGR has had a bad season in the IndyCar Series. By bringing in a road-course ringer like Montagny, it appears AGR is trying to sort out its road-racing woes, and also light a fire beneath its underachieving driver lineup of Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Hideki Mutoh.
Montagny is fast and hungry, and I will not be surprised if he is AGR's pacesetter at Infineon. But it seems doubtful there is a place for him within the team in the future. Kanaan has a long-term contract, Andretti is the team owner's son, and re-signing Patrick, if possible, is a no-brainer. That leaves Mutoh as the odd man out, but unless Montagny brings a bag full of sponsorship cash, he's unlikely to have the inside track on a full-time seat next year.
John Oreovicz covers motorsports for ESPN.com and has reported on Indy car racing for 17 years. He is a longtime contributor to National Speed Sport News and many other automotive and racing publications around the world. He is also the author of "A Winning Adventure," a detailed look into Honda's American open-wheel racing exploits.
"Oreo" attended the Indianapolis 500 for the first time at age 13 in 1978 and has been on the scene for more than 350 Indy car races under USAC, CART, IRL and Champ Car sanction as a reporter, PR man or fan. He joined ESPN.com in 2004.
John lives in west-central Indiana and can be reached at indyoreo@earthlink.net.
John Oreovicz
