Monday, August 27, 2007

Aug. 27 newsstand: Sonoma redux

A plethora of stuff today ... Sonoma race recaps & news.

Today's news
Curt Cavin checks in with a Silly Season update in the Indy Star.
Among the items:
*-Wheldon will remain with Ganassi in 2008.
*-Carpenter is guaranteed a ride with Vision, but the other two drivers are free agents if funding can't be found for the cars.
*-Foyt is going to pick up Darren Manning through 2008, and is exploring the possibility of adding a second car.
*-Dario says his options next year are the ICS or the AGR ALMS team.
*-RLR is *not* going to Champ Car, playing down the annual CC fan fantasies that the team might be considering the jump.

A lot of the same ground is covered in AutoWeek.

Dallas Morning News: TMS, IRL agree to two-year extension
TMS agrees to an extension until 2009, which coincides with the end of the Milwaukee contract. Eddie Gossage is *insisting* on being the race after Indy again, saying the attendance has dropped 18% since then.

Gossage is playing hardball, and this is, next to Indy, the IRL's most important venue. "Our ticket sales have dropped by 18 percent in the two years that there's been a race scheduled between Indy and our race ... you don't have to be a genius to understand why. It's not a lack of promotion. It's having a considerable effect, and if it were to continue at that pace for a couple of years, we wouldn't have an interest in holding IndyCar races."

Eddie Gossage is a showman ... one of the most pro-IRL people out there until it's negotiation time. Problem is, TMS (not the IRL) moved their race back one week, opening up the (lucrative) week after Indy. If TMS wants the race after Indy, then it needs to negotiate to move the date back up to the week after -- like it was before a couple of years ago. Not coincidentally, the attendance drop also came after Texas II was dropped from the schedule and a second Cup race came to TMS.

AP notebook: Kanaan gives up points to protect teammate
The lead item is about Infineon, but a new venue is to be announced soon. Speculation centers on potential street parades in L.A., San Diego, San Antonio or Washington, D.C. Although the article doesn't mention it, Daytona is also a possibility. John Griffin says it's in the U.S. and is a place where the IRL hasn't raced before.

Infineon redux: Dario punts Marco while Dixon zooms past
Now, we return for another installment in As The Vision Turns

San Francisco Chronicle: Franchitti's mixup opens door for Dixon
The verbal war after Marco & Dixon tangles begins ... even without the AGR guys getting into it.
Says Dixon about AGR's alleged (OK, seriously, anyone with two eyes knows what was going on) blocking, "Tony Kanaan was not playing fair at all. We were warned at the drivers' meeting ... they must have been watching another race."


Michael says to Dario, "I hope he sleeps well tonight." Dario says he won't talk to Michael "until I can talk with Michael face to face."

Indy Star: Gift-wrapped victory
Says Dixon of AGR, "What goes around comes around. All in all, it doesn't matter. They took each other out."

San Jose Mercury-News: Dixon capitalizes on late-race collision
Says Dixon, "It was sort of ironic when Marco and Dario hit each other." The writer also estimates the crowd at 40,000.

Adds Dario, "
Marco was out there trying to win the race, and we were out there trying to win a championship. He had his priorities, I had mine. You saw what happened."

AutoWeek: If Franchitti loses IndyCar title, he'll remember Infineon
Curt Cavin checks in with his AutoWeek column.

Napa Valley Register: Dixon takes lead with win

Sacramento Bee: Dixon prevails at Infineon

Contra Costa Times: Franchitti suffers special hurt
Is ABC writing this colunn? Lots of Ashley Judd quotes, including this Marco nugget, "He's a good kid and we all make mistakes."

Autosport: Dixon unhappy with AGR tactics
Says Dixon, "There were definitely two sections of the lap that (Kanaan) was making it very slow and very pronounced that he was trying to give Dario a gap."

He adds, "I think it's six races in a row we've earned more points than them. That is obviously going to cause a bit of questioning within the team and obviously a lot of stress. We've just got to play on that."

IndyCar.com: Team player: Kanaan sacrifices championship drive to protect teammate
Translation: Kanaan blocks like crazy for teammate.

Marin Independent Journal: Not every teammate on Franchitti's side
Dario says, "Obviously it would be a perfect day, right up until Marco and I got together in Turn 1." Uh, duh.

IndyCar.com: King of the road
Says Scott, "The race was all about strategies. We were trying to save fuel early on. All kinds of people were trying to do the same things. Very hard to tell what was going on until sort of the last stint."

That might explain why the race was a snoozer for 68 laps, followed by 12 pretty darned entertaining ones.

AP story

IndyCar.com: Free passes? Forget it
Especially if Tony Kanaan is between you and Dario Franchitti.

Scotsman.com: Franchitti left to rue costly intervention

San Jose Mercury-News: Patrick finds trouble in the pits

Easton Express-Times: Teammate takes out Marco

Looking ahead
If you're going to Belle Isle, there will be no parking on the island. The Detroit News tells you to take shuttle buses at three suburban spots or one near the Fox Theatre downtown.

Interestingly ...

This NASCAR blogger is saying what I've been saying for years ... the IRL has the most entertaining product in motor racing, if only people would take off their fenders and discover it.

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