2011 Indianapolis 500

[garyshell]

Well if the forecast for Indy is anything like the one for Cincinnati on Sunday (and they usually are pretty close) all the setups are out the window. Predictions are for 90 degree temps by then. This could get even MORE interesting!

Gary

[Mark in Oshawa]

This nonsense over RHR taking Bruno's ride is just a lot of whining. It is a business guys..and this has been done over and over and over and over.....almost every year you would see something like this. If a big sponsor wants into the race and their driver cant get in because he his team screwed the pooch on setup or guessed wrong on air temp, or got caught by rain...well then you saw it.

I always remember reading how someone qualified a car and then got bumped....and it is usually lesser funded teams like AJ's that benefit. What is more, unlike some people (comparing this to slavery or women's sufferage...please kill the hyperbole); I don't see anything wrong with it in this race. Everyone who goes to Indy knows the rules. Everyone when they sign a contract to climb behind the wheel can put a clause in saying they drive or not...and the owners can insist on it and the drivers can make the call then. IT is business..and it is time people quit ignoring that reality.

[beachbum]

This nonsense over RHR taking Bruno's ride is just a lot of whining. It is a business guys..and this has been done over and over and over and over.....almost every year you would see something like this. If a big sponsor wants into the race and their driver cant get in because he his team screwed the pooch on setup or guessed wrong on air temp, or got caught by rain...well then you saw it.

I always remember reading how someone qualified a car and then got bumped....and it is usually lesser funded teams like AJ's that benefit. What is more, unlike some people (comparing this to slavery or women's sufferage...please kill the hyperbole); I don't see anything wrong with it in this race. Everyone who goes to Indy knows the rules. Everyone when they sign a contract to climb behind the wheel can put a clause in saying they drive or not...and the owners can insist on it and the drivers can make the call then. IT is business..and it is time people quit ignoring that reality.

But....But...... What are the intardnet experts going to complain about now?

Reading various racing forums I am almost (almost) amazed about how little some "expert" fans know about the rules, the history, and how racing really works. They have forgotten the days when ride hopping on bump day was expected and last minute deals were common. The only unusual thing about this deal was it occurred after qualifying. Had it been announced it at 5:55 Sunday, it wouldn't have even seemed that unusual.

At least it is more transparent that some of the NASCAR deals where a team "buys" the last couple cars in the field to get them to withdraw so some big time team who screwed up qualifying can get back in. Or the "provisionals" that almost every series has or the points buying allowed in NASCAR to get a guaranteed start. Without the points buying, one highly promoted Nationwide driver would not have qualified for many of their first races.

I think one factor that says a lot is that Larry Foyt talked to Bruno before completing the deal. That shows that Foyt at least is a class act.

[Alexamateo]

Yep, and really watch what you complain about, because the solution in this case will be a rule for guaranteed spots for the top 20 or 25 on points(owners) to protect the regulars and their sponsors. I predict that next year there will be a rule in place to do just such a thing.

It might have already happened, but when others in the past like Bobby Rahal and the Penske cars failed to qualify, they were CART drivers in a USAC race, so technically there were no regulars to protect even though CART did actually pay points for the Indy 500 most (but not all) years.

[Chris R]

Yep, and really watch what you complain about, because the solution in this case will be a rule for guaranteed spots for the top 20 or 25 on points(owners) to protect the regulars and their sponsors. I predict that next year there will be a rule in place to do just such a thing.

It might have already happened, but when others in the past like Bobby Rahal and the Penske cars failed to qualify, they were CART drivers in a USAC race, so technically there were no regulars to protect even though CART did actually pay points for the Indy 500 most (but not all) years.

good point - I had not even thought about that un-intended consequence of changing the existing rule... this is, in effect, letting the free market do its job in lieu of socialized allocations of a scarce resource.....

[DBell]

Dixon leads Carb Day. Tags second and Ryan Hunter-Reay is seventh.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91781

[Will Rogers]

I always remember reading how someone qualified a car and then got bumped....and it is usually lesser funded teams like AJ's that benefit. What is more, unlike some people (comparing this to slavery or women's sufferage...please kill the hyperbole);

Anyone who thinks the point of my post was that Bruno getting bumped is the equivalent of denying woman's suffrage...wow, that's some willful mis-reading on a epic scale. My point, which was clear, is that too many posters have claimed that, in essence, the rule under which Bruno lost his ride is valid because it has existed for a long period of time. That's just dumb, and I used some examples of far more important injustices that had existed for a long period of time to illustrate how sad and wrong it is to try to pull the fig leaf of "it's been the rule for a long time" to justify a bad rule. It's OK if you don't agree with me, but it's not OK to make stuff up.

[harvick#1]

no driver should ever be replaced in the starting grid unless they are unable to compete. Bruno was tossed to the dogs after easily Qualifying for the 100th Indy 500. only 33 drivers get to say they were a part of the 100th. Bruno got the shaft because the corporate greed pushed him out and AJ was money hungry. if by some miracle RHR wins, he would know, he really wouldnt deserve it for not even qualifying for the race in the first place.

[billiaml]

I couldn't have put it better myself, h#1. Of course, if RHR doesn't win -- or at least make a really good showing -- he'll have a lot to answer for. I'd say this puts him in a very awkward position either way -- and it's one that they never should have gotten him into.

[garyshell]

Anyone who thinks the point of my post was that Bruno getting bumped is the equivalent of denying woman's suffrage...wow, that's some willful mis-reading on a epic scale. My point, which was clear, is that too many posters have claimed that, in essence, the rule under which Bruno lost his ride is valid because it has existed for a long period of time. That's just dumb, and I used some examples of far more important injustices that had existed for a long period of time to illustrate how sad and wrong it is to try to pull the fig leaf of "it's been the rule for a long time" to justify a bad rule. It's OK if you don't agree with me, but it's not OK to make stuff up.

Then why even bring them into the arguement? You were the one who drew the comparison, and now want to distance yourself from it.

Gary