The spicy rivalry that IndyCar needs

When an on-track clash between Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal escalated into a minor verbal spat in 2012, former IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard spotted what he believed to be an opportunity.

During his tenure with the series, Bernard's efforts to tout IndyCar were unfailingly energetic and well-intentioned if, as was the case here, occasionally misdirected.

Seeking to capitalise on a clattering of antlers between two of racing's most heralded families, he attempted to contact professional wrestling maestro Vince McMahon via Twitter, promoter to promoter, to sell the prospect of turning the feud into a broader spectacle.

"Hey, I have a lot of interest in a Rahal family vs Andretti family bout. This will sell your pay per views #wwe #indycar"

That Bernard accidentally pitched his idea to a fake McMahon account rather than the real one has denied us the opportunity to know how the wrestling world would have responded, not to mention the prospect of seeing a spandex-clad Bobby Rahal launch himself off a turnbuckle to clothesline Michael Andretti.

Spats between the current generation of Andrettis and Rahals just aren't enough © LAT

But it's a safe bet that the idea would not have gone far. The WWE draws a different line between 'contest' and 'entertainment' to most sports, so while wrestling rivalries are as malleable as its storylines, rivalries in other sports need to develop organically.

A genuine rivalry needs to elicit some deep emotional response, both from the protagonists and from spectators who have invested themselves in the outcome.

That situation doesn't really exist between the Andretti and Rahal camps - no books have been written about Mario or Michael vs Bobby - and even if they had been, rivalries don't always survive generational change. You're not going to sell many tickets on the premise of Bruno Senna taking on Nicolas Prost.

So when a genuine rivalry, one that has fermented for years, finally does come along, it's something to be cherished. And venom is not necessarily a prerequisite for authenticity. Case in point: Penske vs Ganassi.

The battle for US open-wheeler supremacy is perhaps the greatest current rivalry anywhere in the sport. The traditional Ford/Holden element of V8 Supercar racing is fading year-on-year; partly due to the arrival of new manufacturers and partly because star drivers move more freely between manufacturers than they did even a decade ago.

Meanwhile, the constantly shifting landscape in Formula 1 means that it's rare that two teams - or even drivers - are competitive enough over the long haul to allow a real rivalry to develop. A Ferrari fan doesn't necessarily want to see the Prancing Horse beat McLaren, they want to see their team beat whoever stands in the way of glory for Maranello that season.

Michael Schumacher once identified Mika Hakkinen as the driver he most feared, yet Hakkinen's threat to the German's dominance didn't really extend beyond the 1998/'99 seasons.

Ganassi clashing with Penske on track - Franchitti and Power got together in Toronto last year © LAT

Yet there's something about Penske and Ganassi that lights a spark, whether they want it to or not.

Indeed for a rivalry so well-developed, the public manifestations have traditionally been left to the drivers - see, for example, the tension that was developing between Dario Franchitti and Will Power a couple of years ago.

But when senior team figures get involved, the environment is rarely anything other than one of cordial respect. Roger Penske will speak of Ganassi's recent IndyCar achievements; Chip Ganassi will point to Penske's immense success over a sustained period in the sport.

So when Penske team president Tim Cindric lobbed a hand grenade at Ganassi in the lead-up to the IndyCar curtain-raiser in St Petersburg a couple of weeks ago, it was news. These, we'd been led to believe, were two teams that did their talking on the track.

"Chip has more to gain by putting himself in the same league as Roger," said Cindric when questioned about the rivalry for a story in USA Today.

"Roger has accomplished so much more inside and outside racing. Anytime you can compare yourself to him, it's a positive. [Ganassi's] primary concern is how Roger is performing. Our concern is how we perform in terms of everyone else.

"We wouldn't be content just beating Chip, whereas I feel like Chip would be content just beating Roger."

It's worth noting at this point that the flame war actually began in Baltimore last year when Scott Dixon referred to Cindric as a "piece of s**t", although on that occasion the Kiwi had been pancaked against the wall by Power on a restart, and said that his team had subsequently heard Cindric coaching Power over the radio on what to say about the incident.

That was heat-of-the-moment stuff. Cindric's comments, on the other hand, appeared unprompted.

Cindric kicked off the row © LAT

Predictably, both team patriarchs sought to pour water on the whole thing.

Ganassi spoke of his admiration for Roger while relegating Cindric to the periphery.

"From time to time, Tim probably cashes cheques in a lot of currencies that Roger doesn't like cashing. I don't dignify Tim's comments good or bad."

Penske, meanwhile, noted privately to his rival that the Ganassi team has recently enjoyed the upper hand where it matters - Chip Ganassi Racing's drivers have won five of the past six IndyCar titles - and downplayed the rivalry when speaking to the media.

"There's more than two power teams," he said. "You've got Andretti, you've got a bunch of these teams that are showing well.

"As far as I'm concerned, Ganassi's got a great record here the past three or four years. We've been there but haven't been able to execute. So we've won races, we've got a lot of poles but I think the noise in the system always is intriguing to a lot of people.

"Quite honestly, I'm not getting involved."

With the current drivers humming to the same tune, it was left to Dario Franchitti to take a final potshot; the Scot embracing a pleasingly unfiltered approach to retirement.

"I think it's been a great rivalry," he said. "It's been going on for 25 years now.

"Roger Penske is a class, class operator. I thought Tim's comments weren't [classy] in any way. I think they kind of summed him up a little bit.

"If I had the resources that he's had in his hands, I would be a little upset with the success ratio they have had recently."

As well as reinforcing the idea that the Ganassi organisation's genuine respect for Roger Penske doesn't necessarily trickle down to his lieutenant, Franchitti's comments helped to show why RP's assertion that there are more than two power teams doesn't hold water.

Ganassi himself tried to stay above it all © LAT

Yes, there are more that two teams capable of winning. But fleeting success, even growing success in the case of Andretti, cannot compete with more than two decades of trading blows.

And let's not forget, this is not strictly an IndyCar rivalry. It took Roger Penske to remind the world of Ganassi's recent track record in single-seaters, but bring NASCAR and Brad Keselowski's 2012 title for Penske into the picture, and things become more complicated. If Penske delivers on its wish to enter sportscars, a world already occupied by Ganassi, things are only going to get better.

So Randy's critical mistake with his Rahal/Andretti tweet was not that he picked the wrong person to send his message to; it's that he had the message wrong in the first place. He didn't need to try to create a rivalry. IndyCar already has one.

The problem is that most of the time, it's too civil to offer the IndyCar PR machine any sort of traction. On that basis, thank heavens for Cindric's decision to stir things up.

AUTOSPORT understands that he reached out to Ganassi via email during the St Pete weekend with a communique that sought to 'clarify' his comments if not exactly apologise, but if anything, the IndyCar world should thank him.

His comments might have seemed ill-conceived given the recent track record of the two teams, but they gained great exposure for the series on the eve of its new season.

And more importantly, it reminded the entire sport that a real rivalry - even if it's a mostly polite one - is something to be relished.

Follow the Long Beach IndyCar race as it happens on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 9.30pm UK time on Sunday April 13