TBK-Light.com

Moraes has been released from Hospital:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86811

Lets talk shop for a minute.

Franchitti HAS to win at Homestead, to have a realistic chance of winning the Championship.

Possible Outcomes

• Franchitti Wins, gets pole, and leads the most laps: Franchitti wins the Title
• Franchitti Wins, Power comes third or lower: Franchitti wins the Title
• Franchitti Wins and gets pole, Power comes second, and neither lead the most laps: Power Wins the Title
• Franchitti Wins and leads the most laps, but does NOT get pole, Power comes second: Power wins the Title (On Wins)

If Franchitti comes second, then Power needs 6th to win the title.
If Franchitti Starts on Pole, and comes second, OR if Franchitti leads the most laps, then Power needs 5th to win the title
If Franchitti Starts on Pole, leads the most laps, and comes second, then Power needs 4th to win the title
If Franchitti finishes third, after getting pole, and leading the most laps, then Power needs 7th to win the title.
If Franchitti finishes third, neither getting pole, or leading the most laps, then Power needs 8th to win the title.

If Power Crashes out, then Franchitti needs 17th, unless Power leads the most laps or gets pole (Or both), in which case Franchitti needs 14th to be safe.

_________________
"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"

Has there ever been a American Open Wheel driver, who became champion without winning on a oval?

Al Unser in 1983 and Scott Sharp in 1996 are the two latest.

_________________
07.04.1968 - Flower of Scotland when will we see your like again?
01.05.1994 - We'll never forget...

It'll be a travesty if Power wins without winning on an oval...

How long till he packs his backs and tries F1 though?

Cautions will be the key to the championship I think. The Ganassi boys are supreme in Pit Lane, and a mixture of that, and Power's inability to drive when not leading may well just give Dario the back to back...

_________________
"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"

CART:

2003 - Paul Tracy
1987 - Bobby Rahal
1983 - Al Unser

USAC:

1978 - Tom Sneva

IRL:

1996 - Scott Sharp

you're assuming they'll be a caution, everybody expected last years final race to be a wreckfest and it went green all the way

But last year, there was no Takuma Sato.. Plus, Milka Duno, and one or two others....

_________________
"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"

Booo Franchitti, woooo Power.

I like them both, but I have a slight preference for Franchitti, since he drives for Ganassi.

Franchitti tied with Montoya in '99 without an oval win

But still, JPM had more wins over the course of the 1999 season (won 7 times) than Franchitti did (won 3 times).

The key word here, is Pressure.

Dario, like before, knows the key is the win. He's been there, done that, and is used to these big situations.

Power, doesn't have the pressure of having to win, BUT, has not been in a big race situation like this in his Indycar Career.

If you look at Experience, both in Indycar as a whole, and at the track, then Franchitti is clearly the better of the two. Team wise, I'd say it's even, although Penske has made so many mistakes this year, and Ganassi as a team are on the highest of highs (Winning the Daytona and Indy in the same year, and the Triple Crown at the Glen.) Team-Mate wise, Penske edge it out, more because they have 3 cars and can be more versatile, although Dixon/Franchitti for the first 10 laps last year was mind-blowing.

I don't want to be mean to Power, but I've got Malaysia/Japan 1999 from F1 in my head, and I have a bad feeling that Briscoe and Castroneves will literally have to draft him round for the Championship. Which is a shame, as I don't think there has been anyone as Dominant on a road course as Power, and as big a Ganassi fan as I am, short of him winning an oval, he deserves the Championship this year....

_________________
"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"

The big difference here will be the outsiders. If Ganassi can put Dario and Scott 1-2, Dario wins the championship. Assuming that the win will come to a Penske or a Ganassi I believe that Helio and Ryan will give position to Will. So it's all about Dario winning and having Scott on his back if not he will need Wheldon or an Andretti driver to be 2nd and take points from Will.

Well, Dixon has been a bit out of shape in the last few oval races, so it should be more difficult for Dario to get help, but then again, it's Dixon, so no one should count him out. Ever.

Just make sure you qualify inside him and crash Franchitti out on the first lap...that's the way you do it.

It does seem odd for that to happen, but I look at it similar to the way I look at the Chase in NASCAR. There's always the chance that the driver with the most points in the whole of the 36-race schedule will not be the champion, but given that everyone is racing with full knowledge of the rules and possibilities, whoever wins the title is objectively the fair champion by nature. Same thing here. The points system in Indycar does tend to reward race wins more, and with an abundance of ovals you'd expect the champion to have a win or two in that column. But consistency is still important enough to have helped Power into a great position to win it...fairly. And in comparison, Power's five RC wins to Franchitti's one should be given its due attention as well.

Not as much as Formula One, but yeah, I agree.

Power has done a good job this year. He's been far and away the king of the road courses, although he has never looked like he could actually win an oval (Even if we take away Chicagoland and Indy pit dramas). But, he's been always there or thereabouts, which when fighting for a title, as good enough in many cases...

_________________
"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"

People almost forgot how much Franchitti had been mocked about his lack of oval wins back in CART days

_________________
07.04.1968 - Flower of Scotland when will we see your like again?
01.05.1994 - We'll never forget...

It's been mentioned a few times on Commentary, but yeah, I agree. In many ways, the way Power is now is very similar to Franchitti back then.

Roll on Miami I say, and the wild-cards (People like Danica, Whedon, TK, Sato etc, in various forms), will be the key to the championship.

_________________
"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"