Greetings, RACE FANS! If I lived by Bristol Motor Speedway I could get someone to pay $193 a night to stay in my guest room! MURICA!! I could also probably charge $9 for this dark roast I'm chugging. But I live in Des Moines, so coffee is free. Let's chillax and discuss ...
Kimi Räikkönen Wins the Festival of Tire Management at Australia -- Remember when F1 first introduced the alternate tires? It was several years ago now, and I believe it was patterned after Champ Car, which did it first (I think). Remember further when a vocal cadre called alternate tires "artificial" and worse? Yeah, so do I. But Kimi Räikkönen and his team, Lotus, probably aren't recalling any issues with having alternate tires today.
Again, the Tire Management was a lot of the story in this race. Quick rules (or "sporting regulations" as NBCSN announcer Steve Matchett likes to carefully enunciate) recap: Official tire supplier Pirelli brings two kinds of tires to every F1 race. One is softer than the other. The softer one is grippier (allegedly) but doesn't last very long compared to the harder tire. The rule says every team has to use at least one set of each tire during the race (unless it rains).
Well Pirelli has taken to bringing a soft tire that has all the durability of a sand castle in a thunderstorm. During the Australia GP teams were changing from their softer tires to their harder tires on LAP 8 because the softer tires were a festival of crap. You could see big chunks of rubber flying off them in super slow motion. So in a lot of ways, Tire Management is the big story in F1 lately.
Personally, I prefer tire management to fuel saving and either of those to a Festival of Non-Overtaking. There is no fuel saving in F1 because the cars start the race with enough fuel onboard to go the distance so there is no refueling in F1 races. The three-to-four-second pit stops are for tires only. Plus tire management lets Steve Matchett say "deg-GRAY-day-shun" (degradation) about 19 times during the race.
Alternate tires along with the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) were all changes made in response to fans who said "if I have to watch another one-pass F1 parade I'll slash my throat open, post a photo of the flowing blood on Instagram, and then die." Based on NBCSN posse comments during the race, Lotus engineers went to work to create a car that is as easy on its tires as possible while still being pretty fast. Put car-control savant Kimi behind the wheel and let's win some races!
Post-race Kimster was a little more animated than he was after his last win in Abu Dhabi during which he famously said "Leave me alone. I know what I am doing" causing me to spew coffee all over my TV (T-shirts available. Just Google!).
Right after winning Kimi said from his car "Thanks everybody. I told you the car is good." I hear Kimi has an enormous fan base around the world. I'm one of them mainly because Kimi just doesn't give a shit. By that I mean he doesn't get all knotted up about stuff. You like him, or not, Kimi is just ambivalent about it. He just drives the car, maybe wins, maybe doesn't, has some ice cream. I have no idea what the off-track Kimi is like, but on track he seems like the non-flashy, introverted guy who has a "do what you whatever you want" attitude. For guys like me who don't hop around and scream and make demonstrations of joy and are labeled "stick in the mud" etc., Kimi is our hero.
Off the track he may be the anti-role model (I have no idea), but on the track he's the poster child for Introvert Nation™.
Kimi also managed to answer the questions from the podium (which is still kind of awkward) in as much detail as you get out of Kimi (which is not very much). (Read transcript here.) He was so fired up he gave us a joyous smirk when accepting the trophy and actually showed teeth in a smile with P3 Vettel after Kimi almost dropping said trophy. JOYOUS KIMI GONE WILD. Next F1 race is March 24 in Malaysia. Bob Varsha will make a tearful (I assume) reunion with Matchett and David Hobbs (insert tinkle of scotch on the rocks here) for the Malaysia race broadcast. NBCSN lap-by-lap announcer Leigh Diffey will be covering IndyCar. Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett spent a lot of years doing F1 races on SPEED until this year when NBCSN acquired the rights.
As far as the broadcast goes, it was pretty on par with the good stuff we've come to expect from F1 broadcasts. A few graphics issues during the starting lineup (they seemed to get stuck). A good start. Seems NBCSN is giving their F1 broadcast a lot of promotional support, have created a swanky set for them, etc. With Speed TV changing to Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports talking about challenging ESPN, NBCSN needs to step up its game or ESPN and Fox will suck all the air out of the room leaving them with F1, IndyCar and Dodgeball.
Swapping Paint at a Half Empty Bristol -- Ah, Bristol, you're an enigma (wrapped in a riddle, surrounded by a mystery, etc.). Many people tweeted "THIS IS GREAT RACING" during both the Nationwide race, which was won by about a foot by Kyle Busch over young upstart Kyle Larson, and the Cup race, which was won by Kasey Kahne after a big knife fight with Brad Keselowski late. My peeps who are big into NASCAR gave it 4 out of 5 stars. The down side was Bristol Motor Speedway was half full.
Couple things here: First, the place being half full in no way should lessen the quality of the race. A great race is a great race, even if there are five people watching it live. Second, Bristol is a barn. It's 160,000-ish seats per Wikipedia. So half full is 80,000, which is a packed Chicagoland. It's weak compared to the days when the race would sell out, but it's still 80,000 (OK, even if it's 50,000, its hard to complain about those numbers.) The consensus seems to be that it's just too expensive to attend the race. The tickets to the race itself aren't out of line, from what I hear, but Bristol is located in kind of a remote area with relatively few motels around, so the law of supply and demand means places like a Super 8 can get $200(ish) a night for a room.
That goofy Geiko Insurance commercial notwithstanding, people aren't made of money. I kind of get put off by people tweeting "where are all the fans?" like it's the fans' fault for not showing up. The fans are likely doing something they believe is wiser with the $1500 they'd drop on going to a race at Bristol. American sports seems to think if the sporting event is great, people will just pay whatever insane price to attend it.
I, for one, am always glad to see consumers exercise their right NOT to buy something when they see fit. Seems to me not as many people find the benefit of attending Bristol in person to be worth the cost. Plus there are TWO races at Bristol, so how many buying units can that one location attract these days? 320,000 (two sell outs)? Doubtful. There's not much track owner Bruton Smith can do about high hotel prices except maybe build a 29,000-room hotel complex. So stop yelling at Bruton and watch it on TV if you don't think it's worth the money. If enough people stop paying, prices will come down. If not, they'll stay the same.
Bristol had the obligatory pushing and shoving after the race between Joey Logano who thought he was wronged by Denny Hamlin and Hamlin's team members. Hamlin himself was still in the car at the time. Logano thought Hamlin spun him on purpose. Hamlin said he hit Logano's car on purpose, but didn't mean to spin him. The AP's Jenna Fryer rightly observed on Twitter that IndyCar needs more of this kind of drama in and around its races. I agree but many others will say IndyCar needs to have the focus be on the racing and everyone be gentleman drivers afterward.
Danica Patrick had a tough day at Bristol. Her car was tight tight tight and every pit stop they took a "big swing at it." The team took more big swings than you'd see at a home run hitting contest. Swing and a miss, mostly. Then Danica got a penalty for too fast leaving and there was confusion on when she should come to pit road. It was the second race in a row that was highly forgettable for Danica and her team. Danica's boss, Tony Stewart, blew a left rear tire early on and went multi laps down. Stewart Haas Racing is glad to get out of Bristol.
During the race I made the observation on twitter (@pressdog) that my attention span may not be long enough for NASCAR since the races seem to go on for upwards of four hours. Jon Diggs (@digger3210) replied: "Maybe it's the baseball fan in me, but I love the long-ish type feel of #NASCAR races. Ebb and flow, not a sprint." I've heard that explanation of the duration of the races before and Jon has a pretty good point there.
There is a basebally feel to some of the races. Baseball games are really more "pastime" than anything for a lot of the fans, especially in the stands. They chat, attention wonders, then the crack of the bat brings them back to the game. Interesting parallel with NASCAR. In some ways NASCAR races are like road and street race in that the middle part of the race is just kind of a set up for the end and strategy plays out during the entire race and there is definitely ebb and flow. Of course there's not the contact, lead changes, and ability to view the entire track at time in road and street races that most NASCAR fans demand. Of course some NASCAR fans want it both ways. Sprint-car level action for three hours. Not sure that is a reasonable expectation. It give me something to ponder on lap 190 of a 400-lap NASCAR marathon.
IndyCar is Racing this Weekend -- Seriously! St. Petersburg on March 24 after a long, four-month off season. Starting with a street race. Ahhhhh, scheduling. BUT, IndyCar fans (at least the ones I know, follow on Twitter) seem to be hip to the twisties (road and street races), so more power to them. Cue the fuel and tire strategy. Just like not all ovals are great, not all road and street courses are awesome. We'll see how this one goes. I hope there is some emotion. Some anger. Some something. Seems to me that IndyCar has been extremely buzzless for several months.
IndyCar had its media day down in Barber last week. Why in Barber, I have no idea. I suspect because it was convenient for the teams and drivers. Convenient for the media who they want to cover them? I wouldn't think so. It would be like having media day at Iowa Speedway ... kind of off the beaten path. I would think Indianapolis would be a better site for media day.
ANYWAY, IndyCar PR is stuck between two opposing forces, which kind of makes them screwed no matter what they do. On the one side are the people who want to hear from the leaders of the series about where it is going, possible changes, administration and race control stuff. That's me. We say "give the media what they want, whatever that is. If drivers want more pub, they need to do things to attract it."
On the other side are people who think there has been too much focus on the leadership and that Randy Bernard got too much ink and was overshadowing the drivers. That's a lot of other people. They say "keep the new Randy out of there so the media won't be distracted from the real stars, the drivers." The teams and drivers for sure don't want the new chief, Mark Miles, attracting all the attention at Media Day. So Mark Miles et al weren't at media day. I thought it was a mistake, frankly, to give up all that ink to try and channel attention onto the drivers. But, again, others probably said "I'm glad IndyCar PR is focusing attention on the drivers."
I guess where I come down is an organization with as relatively few fans as IndyCar can't really force any media outlets to cover them ... at all. And many don't. Sports journalism is extremely audience driven. The more fans something has, the more stories it gets in general. If the media wants to talk to Miles and he's not there, no economic or market forces prevent them from just ignoring the entire thing.
Jenna Fryer was at media day and did some color stories on some of the drivers. But she also was a little incredulous (based on her tweets) that Miles and chief steward Beaux Barfield weren't available on the first day (when she was there) what with the new stuff in the front office and on the competition side that was going on this year.
I guess it's a big question mark right now regarding what the IndyCar season will be like. We'll know more after the first race in St. Pete. If St. Pete 2013 is just like St. Pete 2012, that'll be discouraging, because "same as last year" is not a good thing in any form of sports entertainment.
Finally, author Tammy Kaehler (left) is the 25th Woman of pressdog® mainly for creating her saucy fictional Corvette race car driver Kate Reilly. Look for a story on Tammy and some info about her books coming soon.
Also shout out to wopd Ashley Freiberg for two top fives in her first two sports car races EVER last week at Sebring. (Read more here.) She drives a Porsche in GT3 Cup for EFFORT Racing. Ashley had a lot of success in Skip Barber which is a zero downforce open-wheel series (the cars have wings, but they are merely decorative), so the sports cars aren't that big of a stretch for her. Ashley is a great person and great talent so I'm geeked for her.
Day job calls. Word to your posse ...
Thanks for a good read pd and an awesome choice on your 25th WOPD!
Posted by: Sylvia Louch | March 18, 2013 at 11:20 AM
Kimi is by far my favorite driver in any series right now. His "Leave me alone..." quote sealed it for me. Off the track he is a throwback has been compared many times with James Hunt. He is (or maybe was) a hard partier and a playboy. That just makes me like him more. He will definitely Drink Ye Bastards with the best of them, 'dog.
Regarding Bristol, saying it is in kind of a remote area is an understatement. I drove past there a couple years ago on Route 81. It is a few hours away from anything. There isn't really anything in Bristol except for the racetrack, so hotel builders must figure that it isn't worth building there for 2 weekends a year. Most fans probably don't like choosing between paying $500/night for a hotel and a long drive to and from the racetrack to sit in the stands on a 50-degree day. I don't know why they put a race there in mid-March. This isn't south Florida - it is in the mountains at the TN/VA border. One year it is going to get cancelled due to snow.
Posted by: Savage Henry | March 18, 2013 at 12:33 PM
Pressdog, need to find video of Kimi at Monaco a few years back. Crashed out of race, then not too many minutes later was seen on yacht "drinking ye bastards" with some nice looking young women :-). Classic Kimi, evidently.
Posted by: Diane | March 18, 2013 at 02:31 PM
Thanks PDog...I just wanted to touch on Bristol. The Races there are a Goat Rodeo... No other way to describe them. I think they are fun to watch. It is a shame that Hotels/Motels are taking advantage of the situation....
Posted by: Chiefswon | March 18, 2013 at 10:11 PM
Catch 22 between the media providing coverage of the sports and its athletes that have a lot of popularity and the fact that their coverage drives that popularity by keeping the ones everyone wants to know about front-and-center in the spotlight nearly 365 days a year.
You're a journalist, Pressdog...who decides and how is it decided on how much coverage is given when it's a 'low-profile' sport or event. Does the organization have to promote to the media via PR peeps and glossy media handout pamphlets/folders? Who, then, is to be looked to for getting more involvement by the media?
When I was working on the cars, it was the responsibility of our team's PR rep to get out there and work the print and broadcast media to get some coverage for our team/driver.
Posted by: Mike R | March 19, 2013 at 04:16 AM
I used to be a journalist, Mike. I don't consider myself one now because my definition of "journalist" is someone's who primary livelihood is generated from the activity. BUT, yours is a good question, and I am going to do a whole post on it very soon.
Posted by: pressdog | March 19, 2013 at 12:31 PM
Drought was busted quite nicely, IMO. While the St.Pete race started as a bit of a procession when they sorted out, the race ultimately turned into a barnburner.
And what fireworks in Malaysia!
This is gonna be fun...
Posted by: Mike R | March 24, 2013 at 03:29 PM
I was wondering if you ever considered changing the structure of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two images. Maybe you could space it out better?
Posted by: Karina | September 11, 2013 at 03:59 PM