The hardest job in IndyCar
IndyCar's president of competition Brian Barnhart has few friends and little respect from the teams competing in the series. But, as Jeff Olson explains, his job of ensuring correct application of the rules is anything but easy
"What this series needs is some good, old-fashioned hate."
Journalist Robin Miller coined that sentence a few years ago, but until this year it never got very far beyond the paddock at IndyCar Series races. That's before he repeated it on TV broadcasts. Now it's the championship's unofficial motto, and it's gaining traction.
The intended meaning, of course, is fairly straightforward: IndyCar racing needs some rivalries. Heated rivalries. Angry stuff. The kind of NASCARish, helmet-throwing fury that draws an audience. It isn't enough that the racing is compelling; what matters is that it has a sharp edge. Will Power must be calling Dario Franchitti "princess" on Twitter or open-wheeled racing as we know it in the States will be relegated to the scrap heap of professional womens' basketball or indoor football.
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