IRL Begins Difficult Season

The Indy Racing League begins what is likely to be a difficult season with the Homestead 300 on Saturday night. The 2006 season was difficult enough with only two teams all but monopolizing the season and Penske Racing winning it all yet again, something they weren't able to do earlier this decade in IRL.

Therein lies the league's competitive difficulty. Earlier this decade it showed a nice diversity of winners and could be counted on for breathtakingly ferocious racing up front - its intermediate superspeedway races were must-see races with all-time greats at Texas in 1998, 2000, 2001 (twice), and 2002, at Chicagoland in 2002-4, and at Kansas in 2001, 2004, and 2005. Kentucky also displayed excellent racing in 2000, 2002, and 2004 and the 500 saw some terrific racing in 2005 followed by its greatest finish ever in 2006.

Homestead qualifying didn't indicate that the ennui of 2006 will change right now, as Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon won the pole and Sam Hornish of Penske timed second. Andretti-Green Racing had several strong spots other than Little Miss Perfect Danica Patrick, who was slower this year than she was last year and was well off the pace of her teammates. Maybe this year the league as a group finally figures out that Danica Patrick is a fraud.

Uninspired qualifying efforts came from Panther Racing, Vision Racing, and A.J. Foyt's team; the downfall of Foyt's team remains a stain on Indycar racing.

IRL has restructured its management team for 2007 and that restructured management needs to come up with some different ideas as well as to get back to what made Indycar racing great. It needs larger car counts and it needs much better racing than it generally had last year. The kind of continuous sidedraft battles up front that were once a staple of the league became a rarity in 2006, never a good sign for racing.

It needs, in short, to make itself relevent again.


POSTSCRIPT - Dan Wheldon pretty much had his way in a rain-marred Miami Indy 300, beating the Penske cars and an encouraging effort by Panther Racing. Andretti-Green Racing had a terrible night. The racing was for the most part uncompetitive, showing how much work the league faces in improving its competitive product and also showcasing how overrated the use of progressive banking is for racetracks.