pressdog.com: Brian Barnhart Goes on Record with pressdog

That's right. Brian Barnhart, President, Competition and Operations, Indy Racing League -- the Iron Hand of Justice himself -- has gone on record with pressdog.com.

Click below for the IHJ's thoughts on being the head ref of the league, what he thinks of his nickname, overtaking, the Big 3 and how freaked drivers are right before the drive the highest-pressure, most airway-closing 10 miles of their lives.

A trillion thanks to the stylish, highly skilled IRL PR squad, including Amy Konrath, Arni Sribhen and John Griffin for helping get the IHJ on record in these 100% legit, unedited responses.

pressdog: Many (at least some) fans are bothered and even turned off by the domination of three teams in the IRL, especially on ovals. Do you see that as a legitimate concern? If so, what can the league do about it?

Barnhart: I think to some extent, it’s a perception issue. Clearly the three teams represent a large portion of our field. The Big Three, I think that are being referenced are Penske, Ganassi and Andretti Green and that’s eight out of 22 cars. That’s more than 33 percent of our field, so clearly those teams are going to have success and the perception is that the events are being dominated by the Big Three.

Overall, we set a record in 2008 for number of race winners, including Will Power’s win at Long Beach. Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing won with two cars. Ryan Hunter-Reay won with Rahal Letterman Racing at Watkins Glen. I know all of those wins were on road courses, but I think there is a perception that it can’t be done on ovals. I think that perception is incorrect.

pressdog: There are several bloggers who focus on the league now. What do you think is good and bad about blogger interest?

Barnhart: It’s certainly the way of the world. It doesn’t matter if its blogging, Myspace, Facebook or Twitter, it is the way things are moving. The challenge I see is that it is all opinion-based. Some bloggers don’t know all of the facts, all of the rules, all of the reasons behind things so it’s not always accurate. People feel pretty strongly in their beliefs, so their beliefs may not be consistent with what the rulings or the facts are.

pressdog: What do you each see as the top three challenges to the league right now? What steps are you taking to meet those challenges?

Barnhart: Stability of our teams is very, very important in these economic times. We are always trying to maintain costs to provide stability to our teams. I think TV ratings are an important and critical aspect. We need to do what we can to continue to improve that scenario. I think the third one might be acquisition of a title sponsor and official sponsor categories. It’s kind of four-fold, with the reduction of costs to improve the stability of teams as two of them.

Then increasing TV ratings and finding officials sponsors as well as a title sponsor for the IndyCar Series. The steps we’re looking at to meet each of them; we’re always looking at everything we can do to reduce costs and stabilize teams.

This year we did a spec suspension everywhere we go, a 122 inch wheel base suspension. We’ve eliminated the 118 and 120 inch options on the wheelbase. We have a spec radiator that in the cars now. We continue to try and reduce the options. We’ve limited testing basically down to 800 miles per car-driver combination, and it reduces from there to 1,200 miles for a two car team and so on. So that’s a significant reduction in testing and its associated expenses.

Terry Angstadt and the commercial divison are working diligently on TV ratings. I think we’ve been reasonably successful with the move to VERSUS this year, especially with the additional hours of programming and additional exposure on the network. There’s been a lot of activation by VERSUS and talk from fans in the improvement in quality of the production and presentation of the events. TV numbers were a little low after the St. Pete race, but they came up for Long Beach. They’re certainly moving in the right direction.

And again Terry and his crew are working hard on the sponsorship front. Whether it’s the APEX-Brasil partnership or the IZOD relationship, we’re starting to get more sponsors involved in the sport. Hopefully they’ll keep moving in that direction as well.

pressdog: Some fans and bloggers, (including me) have been critical that the league is too focused on teams and sponsors and not focused enough on the ultimate source of revenue -- fans, both through ticket revenue and more critically TV ratings points. How do you respond?

Barnhart: I think we’re focused on what we need to be focused on. I think we’ve identified our challenges and we know where they’re at. Clearly we want to maintain our strengths. I think our on-track competition is as good as any product in the world right now. We have an incredible depth of field. The first few races, St. Pete and Long Beach, we had a couple of occasions where we had 20 cars within one second. So the competition and the depth of field is really one of our strengths right now.

We do need to focus on sponsors and we need to focus on fans. We need to focus on the entertainment aspect and the presentation on television. We need to focus on getting TV numbers up and getting fans in the seats.

pressdog: When you’re in race control, is your policy that you have to see something live in order to make a call (for example, blocking) or do you use replays, etc?

Barnhart: It depends on the situation. Sometimes if the situation allows for a replay, it can be used. In the past, I have used replays to help validate a decision. Sometimes under green flag racing, you have to make the decision after seeing it live just one time. It’s one of the unique challenges to our sport versus everyone else out there. There are no time outs.

Even under yellow, things happen, as we saw with Dixon and Briscoe at Watkins Glen last year and Long Beach this year. Without any time outs, you have to make decisions quickly. From a competitors’ standpoint, they’re looking for quick decisions. They’re looking for consistent decisions. That’s what we try to provide for them.

pressdog: What’s the most frequent question or concern that you get from random fans? And your answer to that question or concern?

Barnhart: I don't know if there's a common or consistent question asked. I think everyone has their own unique one. To be honest, I guess if I had something that was more commonly asked, it would probably be, “What’s Danica really like and do you think she’s going to stay in the series?”

pressdog: Heading into the economically challenged 2009 season, what do you think the league has going for it in terms of weathering the storm?

I think we’ve answered the bell pretty well in 2009. We’ve had 22, 23 cars on the grid for the first three races. It looks like the Indianapolis field is going to be somewhere between 35 and 38 cars competing for the 33 spots. And I think that is a good reflection that in these economic times we’ve been better positioned to be less affected by the economy than maybe other series have been.

I think it’s a reflection that we have done a reasonable job at maintaining costs and allowing teams to participate. I think our best situation is that we have a good group of cars out and the depth of field and competition level is at an all-time high. When you look at how close they are from a competitive standpoint and the number of teams and drivers capable of winning races, it looks like an exciting season from a competition standpoint.

pressdog: Some of us bloggers call you the “Iron Hand of Justice” based on your duties as chief referee for IndyCar races. Are you aware of that nickname? What do you think of it?

Barnhart: No, I wasn’t aware of it. I don’t know. It’s kind of funny. I guess if I had to give myself a nickname based on the way things transpire over a race weekend, it would be more like Chief Babysitter.

pressdog: Fans seemed concerned on the lack of overtaking on street and road courses. What, if anything, can the league do to encourage overtaking?

Barnhart: One of the challenges is that the evolution of the race car in some way has obsolete the permanent road courses and even some of the street circuits that have been around for a long time. The brakes have become so good, that the deeper you can drive them into the corner the less passing opportunities you have. The evolution of the race car in some extent has overpowered the tracks and it has led to, in my opinion, a kind of processional or parade-type race in that environment.

And absolutely, the Alternate tire is something that Firestone brought to us and is something we whole-heartedly support because it creates a situation where a team has got to make choices. Some teams will make the right choices and some teams will make the wrong choices. And then when you get the performance difference in the Primary Blacks and the Alternate Reds big enough, it might get to a position where there is some overtaking on a racetrack that in the last several years hasn’t had much overtaking.

Conversely, once the Reds have done their job and provided the extra boost of speed, by design those tires are meant to fall off faster in terms of performance. So as that car’s tires reach the stage where they’re falling off and losing their performance level, maybe overtaking takes place again or they come back into the pits through a strategy standpoint and the timing of the yellows, it’s clearly a way of trying to add some strategy, some drama and some excitement around those events for that very reason.

pressdog: What’s your favorite moment/element/duty of your job during the race?

I don’t know if there’s a favorite moment. I’ve just felt an incredible passion for the sport for so long. Having been born and raised in Indianapolis and my father taking me out to the Speedway at such an early age, it’s just something that I have an immense feeling of responsibility for, with the safety and care of the drivers and the level of competition.

Just feeling like a caretaker and a steward of open wheel racing for the future creates an enormous sense of responsibility that I take a lot of pride in. The passion for trying to do the best job possible while maintaining order and safe competition out there is probably the best part of it.

pressdog: When you lean in there and give the drivers their instructions when trying to qualify for the Indy 500 are they listening to you at all or are they bug-eyed and hyperventilating?

It varies driver to driver. It’s just amazing. Because of challenge associated with qualifying for the Indy 500, it is by far the most difficult ten miles a driver will drive a race car in their life. It is when the car is absolutely trimmed down with the least amount of downforce, the most difficult conditions and the highest pressure situation. It’s amazing that some of the most veteran drivers come through there with blank stares and deer-in-headlight looks.

You can really tell the pressure and intensity around the situation just by looking into their helmets and looking at their eyes. For a long time I just tried to provide a familiar face to them and to provide a level of comfort to some of them to get them to relax, breathe, go out run four smooth laps and make sure they hit their marks. Somebody will come through there and I’ll just try to give them a little boost of energy and pick me up. Or kick them in the seat of the pants a little bit to encourage them.

Bottom line is I want to see them all do well. I’m rooting for all of them to have success in the cockpit, as well as the crews that work so hard on these cars. It’s a little bit both. A little bit of a deer-in-headlight look. It’s encouragement for some while for others it’s a kick in the pants to boost them up. It’s a nice moment between me and the driver.