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| By Greg Spotts | |
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SpeedCenter Mid-Season Score Card Who's up, who's down? |
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At the halfway point of the 1999 Fedex Championship Series, we proudly present the first annual speedcenter mid-season report card. Who's up, who's down: it's all there in our concise, easy-to-read format. We've fleshed out our grades and one-liners with a paragraph on each team in order of total points earned, praising those who are exceeding expectations and panning others who aren't living up to their potential. We gave grades to all drivers who have earned at least one championship point, and ignored the backbenchers who haven't yet finished a race in the top twelve. We've even developed a brand new statistic for you to explore, the Driver Index. First we calculated the points-per-start for each driver. Then we divided that figure by the average points-per-start for all drivers running the same engine-chassis configuration. The resulting number is greater than 1.0 for drivers who are outperforming their peers who run the same equipment, and less than 1.0 for drivers who are underperforming. Thus Juan Montoya, the most successful Honda-Reynard driver, gets an index of 1.62, while his struggling teammate Jimmy Vasser has a 0.49. Drivers who ran unique equipment packages or kept changing their equipment package throughout first half of the season did not receive an index number.
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So here we go, team by team: Newman Haas: 177 points. All is calm, professional and stable at powerhouse team Newman-Haas. Michael Andretti is second in the championship, and Christian Fittipaldi has blossomed this season, finishing every race and notching his first career victory at Road America. The new-for-'99 Firestone tires are working great, and nobody else around the paddock can figure out that darned Swift chassis, which suits Michael and Christian just fine. The one frustration with Michael is that his raw aggression and desire to win go hand-in-hand with mental mistakes and equipment failure from overdriving the car. Target Chip Ganassi Racing: 147 points. The most intriguing and surprising story of the season has been the feast and famine at TCGR. Just eight months ago Jimmy Vasser finished second in the '98 championship. Torn between following his buddy Alex Zanardi to the catty and complicated world of Formula One or re-signing with safe and comfortable Target, Vasser decided to stay put. How could Vasser have know that his rookie teammate Juan Montoya would win three out of the first five races and quickly establish a position as the team's primary driver? With the silly season around the corner, how quickly can Chip lock up Montoya for another season, and will he and Vasser declare a mutual parting of the ways only one year into Vasser's new contract? Team Kool Green: 145 points. The Green Machine is a threat to win at every race, but they can't seem to find success for more than one driver at a time. The first quarter of the season was all Dario Franchitti, who was consistently finishing on the podium while his teammate Paul Tracy was struggling. Then Tracy got a new race engineer, won at Milwaukee, and all of a sudden Dario started accumulating DNF's. Franchitti can't be happy about slipping from second to fourth in the standings, and faces a challenge from three hungry drivers that are within six points of catching him. Players: 109 points. It's been a strange year for the all-Canadian team who can't even put their name on the car. Greg Moore is a very ambitious young man who wants a PPG cup now, and is running out of patience with Mercedes' problems on the road courses. Meanwhile, his teammate Patrick Carpentier has only 28 points, just two more than Roberto Moreno has accumulated on identical equipment in only six races for Pacwest. Patrick Racing: 107 points. PJ Jones is getting a undeserved bad rap from owner Pat Patrick. It wasn't Jones' decision to change from Reynard to Swift this season, and yet he's been left in the unenviable position of developing the Swift alone while Adrian Fernandez pursues his championship hopes in a Reynard. Ironically, Fernandez was in the same tough spot at Tasman in 1997, suffering in a Lola while Andre Ribeiro got to use the Reynard. Both drivers are doing a good job under the circumstances. Walker Racing: 89 points. What does it mean when your primary sponsor Valvoline announces the end of their sponsorship in the middle of Gil de Ferran's legitimate championship quest? Wouldn't it be deliciously embarrassing if Gil indeed won the PPG Cup and Valvoline couldn't even defend their title next year! This team deserves better, because their ability to develop a single car effort on Goodyear tires has been outstanding. It should be interesting to watch Memo Gidley learn in Naoki Hattori's seat, and to see if running two cars saps any resources from Gil's cup chase. Team Rahal: 82 points. Here's a statistic that's liable to make Bobby Rahal re-think his retirement: Christian Fittipaldi has scored the same number of points as Bryan Herta and Max Papis combined. Team Rahal is blessed with an excellent Ford-Reynard-Firestone package, Bobby's lifetime of racing experience, the backing of Miller beer and Shell oil, and occasional comic relief by co-owner David Letterman. Papis is doing a solid if uninspired job, but tell me that Helio Castro Neves or Cristiano da Matta wouldn't be kicking butt in Bryan Herta's ride... PacWest Racing Group: 45 points. What was the problem here, gentlemen? Owner Bruce McCaw has a huge fortune yet couldn't seem to live up to the promise of his breakthrough 1997 season. That is, until supersub Roberto Moreno came along. Moreno has somehow breathed new life in a team that looked complacent and had consistent failed to get the most out of talented drivers Mark Blundell and Mauricio Gugelmin. Now closed-circuit speed record holder Big Mo needs to step on it and get on the podium at Michigan. Forsythe Championship Racing: 34 points. Tony Kanaan is good. He finished ninth in the championship in his rookie year. So 34 points just isn't enough, especially when you're running the coveted Honda-Reynard-Firestone package with the logo of one of America's great companies on the hood. Whatever's broken, fix it. And soon. Hogan Racing: 21 points. Helio Castro Neves is one of the most exciting drivers in CART. He's got a lead foot, no fear, and the biggest smile in the paddock. This team should have a primary sponsor, and a crew that's able to put a reliable Mercedes-Lola-Firestone on the grid. It's a waste not to maximize the excellent work being done by Helio and his team of talented young race engineers. Marlboro Team Penske: 20 points. What a mess. They trim down to a one-car effort, and Unser jr. gets taken out in the first lap of the season. Give little Al plenty of credit for a courageous recovery from his injuries, but he and the team are just not cutting it. At least when they used a proprietary chassis they could blame their design shop. But with Helio rocking in Lola and Gil jamming on Goodyears, what exactly is stopping this team from qualifying consistently in the top fifteen? Arciero-Wells: 19 points. Who would have predicted that rookie Cristiano da Matta would be body-slamming teammate Scott Pruett week after week? Pruett was supposed to be the experienced, engineering-savvy driver who could take Toyota to the next level. A driver with 125 career starts and a season as Firestone's test pilot should be able to wring every drop out of a well-financed Reynard-Firestone effort. Pruett better have a guaranteed second year on his contract, or retirement is just around the corner. Team Gordon: 14 points. In a nutshell, here's the problem. Robby's a good driver, but can't stand to work for the man. So now he works for himself, and is thus forced to drive a poorly-prepared car week after week. Put this guy in Kanaan's ride, rename the team "Gordon Championship Racing" and this guy's on the podium. Kudos to Robby for putting on a great show at Indy and going on the record against CART's sorry decision to abandon Cleveland. Della Penna: 11 points. Budweiser - the number one beer in the country. Hearn - the number 21 driver in the series. What's wrong with this picture? Payton-Coyne: 6 points. Even Walter Payton has a beef with Dale Coyne at this point. Quality sponsors Herdez and Tang are getting a raw deal, because this is the shabbiest operation in the series. Michel Jourdain should take his Herdez money to a team that's serious about competing. All American: 4 points. This is a strange one. Gualter Salles has driven all the various cars, and says the Eagle is good. PJ Jones drove the Eagle last year, and says it's good, maybe better at times than the Swift. If Dan Gurney really wants to show the world he's a great car builder, he should cut down the number of variables and run a Ford engine and Firestone tires. That way he isn't developing Toyota, Eagle, and Goodyear all at the same time. It's just too much for a one-car effort.
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©1999 Greg Spotts and champcar.com
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