Sept. 4 newsstand

Chase? We don't need no stinking Chase!
As the Nextel Cup Series prepares to throw its annual debris caution on the season and allow 11 Lucky Dog passes to those chasing Jeff Gordon in its annual battle of NFL-envy, the IndyCar Series hasn't had to manufacture excitement the last couple of years. It's already there, without competition yellows & jumbling points late in the year.

Among the NASCAR writers who jump in on the subject ...
Brent James of the St. Pete Times says the close IndyCar points fights the last couple of years are "uncontrived drama."

"As the Nextel Cup "regular season" meanders to its final race Saturday night at Richmond, there is little drama surrounding who will qualify for the 12-driver, 10-race championship, and if the past three seasons are indicative, there will be no last battle to decide the champion in the finale ... The Indy Racing League, meanwhile, has staged a virtual melee the past two weeks leading up to its ultimate race Sunday in Chicago. Dario Franchitti leads Scott Dixon by three points after yet another controversial finish at Detroit, with the contenders colliding in the final moments. There has been spirited racing, rotating points leaders, and team tactics at Sonoma, Calif., where Tony Kanaan protected Franchitti, his Andretti Green Racing teammate, and his points finish. How did the IRL do this? By leaving the system alone and letting the drivers sort it out."

AP motorsports writer Jenna Fryer, one of the best in the business, weighs in.

Her story begins ... "The championship race is so tight and so tense, tempers are boiling. Car owners have nearly come to blows. Accusations of dirty driving abound. ...This, however, is the IndyCar Series, its final month full of bickering and blocking. All of which is a tremendous buildup for Sunday's season finale in Chicago, where Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti will attempt to hold off Scott Dixon and teammate Tony Kanaan for the title. Meanwhile, back in America's No. 1 racing series, NASCAR's much-hyped "Race to the Chase" has been a bit of a dud."

Says Ms. Fryer: "Yet it's way too early to call it a bust - the Chase may still be fantastic. And there's still time to hope it produces a fraction of the IRL's fireworks."

Florida Today's Mark DeCotis tells us not to miss the upcoming Chicagoland race.
Says the author: "The Indy Car Series has Sunday's racing landscape to itself, and that's good because with the chaos and the considerable suspense that has emerged during its last handful of races -- not to mention the razor-thin championship fight -- there's no room for anyone else."

Looking back
Curt Cavin checks in with his AutoWeek postmortem on the Detroit Grand Prix

The Windsor Star says Belle Isle is on the right track

Looking ahead
Dave Lewandowski of IndyCar.com asks: What if, Tony? If not for the blocking episode at Infineon or a couple of DNFs -- like at Nashville -- TK would be right in the thick of the points chase, instead of needing to get max points and hope the other two contenders wreck each other on the first lap. Says Dario: "I said this was going to be a hell of a championship battle, and it's gonna be. We want to win and they want to win. On the track, we don't take any prisoners, either team."

Gordon Kirby weighs in with his assessment of how the championship chase came to be, through Dario Franchitti's eyes.

Chicagoland schedule


Tech stuff
I stumbled upon this column from Gordon Kirby looking at technical aspects in racing, and future formulas -- and how to make things fair without using equivalency formulas. BB is quoted as saying the ALMS model probably won't work for IndyCars.

And finally
Back to the Champ Car suicide watch, this Montreal Journal article mentions that Alex Tagliani hasn't been paid since 2004. If you can read French (and I can, barely), have at it. Translated excerpts: "This hasn't been one of the good years for Champ Car. And when one begins to ask how long the series will survive, the situation worsens ... There are few drivers, races have been canceled, the majority of drivers must pay out of pocket, very few are paid, and in the case of one who is supposed to be paid -- Alex Tagliani -- he's not getting paid. ... One anonymous member of Paul Gentilozzi's team has said they can't afford to buy parts -- they're borrowing them from other teams. RSports hasn't paid Tags since the beginning of the year." Ten days ago, I would've put ChampCar's odds of having a 2008 season at 75%. Now, I'd say they're about as good as Sam Hornish Jr.'s odds of running the full IndyCar season next year -- probably 25% if you're looking at a rosy picture.

Since we started today's entry with some NASCAR writers, we'll finish at NASCAR.com, where David Caraviello asks "what's gone wrong" at the attempt to create a major holiday-weekend event in California. One of his suggestions to the California Speedway president was to "plead with NASCAR for better dates." She *has* one of the three prime dates on the calendar, and still can't sell out.