We’ll start here with Mark Miles, if you can, give us some insight on the decision to bring Derrick on board to oversee the racing and competition side for INDYCAR.

MARK MILES: I can and I will, but let me first say I’m looking forward to when we have Derrick back and we have the official shirt-changing ceremony as he transitions from his Ed Carpenter Racing role to INDYCAR, which is a day we’re really looking forward to just after the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

So we made the decision that we really want to strengthen this organization. It’s a good organization, but we’ve got a lot to do, and we decided to bring on the strongest horse we can find to help us with our technical and operations and racing, our product, really, and then separately to find additional leadership to help us with our commercial activities for INDYCAR.

And we sort of focused on the product first and talked to lots and lots of people. We had a number of great candidates who are interested in the job. And Derrick was one of the first I spoke to. You can’t read his résumé and talk to folks about his lifetime of experience without immediately having great respect for his journey in open-wheel racing from being a mechanic to owning a team and having enormous success all along the way.

So his experience is the first thing that strikes, struck me as I got to know Derrick. But then there’s a lot about this person that I really like. He’s straightforward; he’s got great common sense. He’s got the conviction of his principles and his — we know that he’ll help make clear, firm decisions and have the strength of character to stick by them. And we’ve talked to a lot of people in the paddock. I know that Derrick’s experience is well regarded as broadly as anybody’s could be in the paddock. So we think there’s a lot to do, and Derrick is the right man to lead us through it.

MODERATOR: Great. Thank you very much.

And, Derrick, congratulations on this new exciting role with INDYCAR. Can you talk about the decision to join the sanctioning body?

DERRICK WALKER: Certainly. First of all, good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I wasn’t actually thinking about working for INDYCAR at first until I was invited to go to a meeting with Mark and we were talking about INDYCAR and what it represented and what over the years had happened to it. And so I shared with him some of my thoughts. Little did I know that I was actually being interviewed for a job. (Laughter) But a couple of meetings later, he finally showed his cards and he said, yes, would I be interested. And it was a resounding yes. 

I’ve obviously come from and am in the team mode. I’m from the team background. Never have crossed over to the official side. So this is for me not only an opportunity, but a real challenge that I’m looking forward to. 

Obviously I’ve been around enough to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of the competition sports, but that doesn’t deter me. I think I’ve had probably a good 20-odd, maybe more, 25 years of Indy car, which has really helped me a great deal, and I feel if I can give something back to the sport in whatever way that is, then I’d love that opportunity.

So long story short, that, that’s what brought me here, and I’m anxious to get started.

MODERATOR: Great, thank you, Derrick.

We’ll go ahead and open the floor for questions. Just a reminder, we do have a wireless mike, so please wait until you have a microphone before asking your question.

We’ll start taking questions for Derrick and Mark. Start with Rich and then Robin.

Q: Derrick, Rich Nye from Channel 13. Having been on the team side all these years, do you feel at all like you’re going to the dark side?

WALKER: Funny you should say that. That is a favorite quote of mine. I am going to the dark side and happily so. It is a lot to learn. Fortunately there is a lot of good people at INDYCAR that have been around a heck of a lot longer on this side of the fence than me. So I expect to be on a very steep learning curve and find my place in how to influence or how to help steer the governing body.

I think when you look at the quality of the field of INDYCAR, it demands a strong governing body that has a vision and the leadership that is required to match the quality of our teams.

So we have a responsibility and obligation to be as good as we can as a governing body. So hopefully I can fit into that matrix somewhere there.

MODERATOR: Robin, then Annie.

Q: Derrick, do you think it’s important that you go out and immediately seek more manufacturers, engines, chassis? Do we need more, do you want more? Will that be one of your first assignments?

WALKER: Well, I don’t know if it will be my first job. My first job will be to understand what we’ve currently got and how it functions from a day-to-day, and get into the long-term stuff if and when it comes up.

Certainly as far as I’m concerned, but my personal opinion is INDYCAR is about competition. So unless there’s a very good reason not to have more manufacturers or more of everything that helps make competition happen, I think that would be missing the point. That’s the history of Indy car, and the sooner we can get more guys in battling it out there, the sooner the fans are going to be interested in what we’re doing. The fans come, the companies come, and everybody hopefully enjoys what we do and makes money doing it.

Q: First of all, congratulations, condolences, however you want to take it. To whom do you answer, and is there more than one person?

WALKER: Well, I report directly to Mark (Miles). And so far that’s all he’s told me I need to worry about, is keep an eye on him. (Laughter) No, my direct superior is Mark and that’s more than enough, I’m sure.

MODERATOR: Other questions?

Q: Derrick, you’ve had a black driver and a female driver, and so you’ve covered the whole length of what can take place in racing. What is it you visualize is most needed now?

WALKER: Good question, Dick. I mean, I think there’s a lot — we tend to, from my perspective being on the other side, we tend to really hit hard on almost everything in our sport. We’re our worst enemy in some respects. We’re very, very critical about everything we do. We tend to pull it down probably further than it needs to be. I think there’s a lot of good things that are in INDYCAR. There’s the competition arguably, you could say, when you look at what’s happening on the racetrack, it couldn’t be better. So it’s not a major change, it’s like everything in racing, it’s an evolution. We’ve got to continue to strive to be better and in every way, our decision-making, our planning, our safety concerns and how we address those.

There’s a whole number of things that, as I said earlier, is the responsibility and the obligation of people in the front office who’s steering the ship. But I don’t think there’s anything more than that really, just be as good as we can.

MODERATOR: Other questions for today’s participants? Yes, Robin.

Q: Derrick, a couple fans had pretty good questions the last couple weeks to me and said, “Look, the competition has never been better and everybody is clamoring, we’ve got to have more innovations, we’ve got to go back to the old days of breaking the speed record.” It’s a fine line and delicate balance. Where do you stand on innovation and how far it can be taken? You really probably have to lean on Will Phillips as far as aerodynamics and things like that.

WALKER: Well, as I said earlier, Indianapolis and the Indy cars was and should be about innovation. The thing that’s happened over the years, if you look at the evolution of racing, we got very smart, we got very good at doing the things, and we made cars better and better and we went faster and faster.

One day, you know, there was less people in the stands for whatever reasons, and the cost of racing became a major talking point. A major concern is survival and the cost. So it’s a delicate balance between innovation, the speed, the cost of racing. Any number of factors that you’ve got to take into account.

But I think if you look at what our goal has to be or should be, is to open up that door just enough to allow it to grow and improve and innovate, but yet keep it in a measurable amount, not only the teams but the manufacturers, every supplier that is involved in our business. It doesn’t price them out of the market — we can’t have in the U.S., maybe in other parts of the world it works — but we can’t have such a super-expensive series that the fans can’t afford to come along and buy a ticket. And we’re racing in front of, you know, lots and lots of people that don’t turn up.

So getting that balance I think is going to be key.

MODERATOR: Mike, and then Larry.

Q: Mark, can you talk a little bit about what, if anything, is going to change for Beaux (Barfield) and Brian (Barnhart) and Will (Phillips) with this?

MILES: Well, we don’t anticipate changes in that team. They are committed to us and we to them. They will continue to add value, but they will report to Derrick. And I have no doubt that they can be more stitched together as a team. I think one of the things our organization can improve on across the board is the extent to which we work closely together and communicate better and break down silos and plan a little farther ahead. Without any way meaning to be critical of those folks who we will count on going forward, I think Derrick brings a practical approach that’s so well grounded in the technical aspects of it, that they will be a higher-performing team under his leadership.

Q: Derrick, after what was arguably the best street race in the history of street races at Brazil, there’s a lot of comments about the push-to-pass being a gimmick, you know, the limited numbers and all that. What’s your feeling about that and what direction would you like to see it go in the future, with, without?

WALKER: Well, push-pass is maybe perceived as a gimmick, but in actual fact it’s a response to today’s world and reality that race cars become incredibly close because the technology and the know-how that migrates from team to team or the way teams structure their racing, that the cars become very even.

And we go to some tracks where it’s not always possible to have the perfect racetrack that allows places for overtaking to happen. So we use a modern, relatively modern gadget in the push-to-pass that allows us to artificially give the opportunity for overtaking. 

I think it’s a reasonable solution. There’s more ways to do it and over time, you know, those ideas become relevant to where we are. But right now I think it’s a positive and it’s a very efficient way to do it.

MODERATOR: Marshall.

Q: Mark, do you foresee you and Derrick working together collaborating on some of the things you’ve mentioned in the press, your desires to see not just technology but speed become more of INDYCAR’s future, and is it more of a collaborative process you’re looking at for 2014 and beyond, or do you think that’s something you can jump start right away?

MILES: Our relationship, in general, will be collaborative. Derrick is a good communicator; he’s an early riser, as am I. So there will be lots of contact on a daily basis, I’m sure, and I’m looking forward to that.

On the particular question of speed, I would have said — I would reframe the question, if I could, to talk about speed and safety, which to me have to go hand in hand. I’m sure that’s a widely held view. It’s something that we’ve talked about; it’s something that I believe is part of INDYCAR. We’re the fastest series, and it’s part of our brand, it’s part of what we’re about. But we’re not quite as fast as we used to be, so if we can work through Derrick and through the paddock to think of ways to make incremental improvements in that, I think that’s a good thing. We’ll be talking more about that perhaps before long. 

But, yeah, I think it will be a team effort. But we’re going to count on Derrick to help shepherd us through that process.

MODERATOR: We’ll take our final question from Don Kay.

Q: I guess, Mark, Brian (Barnhart) has been director or president of competition. Will he still be that and work with Derrick on that, or will Derrick be at the racetrack and director of competition? Is that the on-track product as opposed to putting it to the track?

MILES: So Brian — it will be a team, but Brian’s primary job will be what we think of as operations. Beaux (Barfield) is the guy at race control and Will (Phillips) is the guy at engineering and Jon (Koskey) is the guy in scoring and timing, et cetera, et cetera. They’ll each have their specific responsibilities reporting to Derrick, and they’ll operate as a team so that I think they’ll have the ability to contribute to the broader challenges that they face.

But Brian’s primary responsibility will be with respect to operations.

Q: And Derrick, you had mentioned the push-to-pass, you were talking about that and using it to pass in areas where cars can’t. Well, I’m sure you’ve been observant enough to realize even though the drivers say in Brazil there’s no place to pass, sure as hell they found it. At Birmingham, they found it.

It seems that this new car races extremely well, and where in the past, the older car, they had one line through a corner, they’ve got now two and sometimes three. The racing, it seems to me, is wide open; if you’re a good enough driver you get by. You don’t need the push-to-pass, maybe.

WALKER: You could definitely make that case. We’ve come a long way, and the cars are easier at overtaking at certain tracks, but I think the combination of those improvements in the cars and the teams with a push-to-pass is probably the best mix. But push-to-pass isn’t the panacea of everything. It’s an aid that you use a few times during a race. So you’ve got to choose your time wisely and use it in the right ways, but it doesn’t necessarily out — you know, decide the finishing position of a race. It is if you use push-to-pass, and the other guy’s got it, he’ll probably get you at the end if you’re that close. But it’s just another tool for the teams to use. I don’t think it’s any negative at all.

Q: I think both of them, one push-to-pass and (inaudible). The driver outbroke the other.

WALKER: No, there was other technical reasons that went with that, which was good. And that’s what racing is all about and should be about. But like I say, I don’t think it’s, you know, necessary that you use it every time, either.

Gage and I spent Mothers Day together at IMS with friend and fellow #SMGarage cohort Kelsey as well as our other friends Jimmy and Matthew, watching IndyCar practice. Gage saw Dario, and Takuma Sato, and was able to say hello and have some really great pictures taken with both, but what he REALLY wanted to do all day long was to go down to the garages. He of course, wanted to go see one of our favorites, Pippa Mann

When we came upon Pippa’s garage, there was quite a crowd gathered, and she was smiling, signing autographs and posing for pictures. We stepped aside to allow some other children to step forward to see her, and the Mom of those kids wanted to make sure Gage had gotten an autograph. Pippa smiled at her, nodded towards Gage and said “this is my friend, Gage!” to which he responded with an almost inaudible “Yeahh” accompanied by his adorable toothless grin. Pippa waited for some of the crowd to clear and then asked Gage if he’d like to come behind the rope into the garage to see the new car. His eyes were as wide, and he grinned and nodded.( I had to giggle because he had just visited the face painting booth in the Kids Zone, and had them paint his face up like a pirate.)

Pippa took him by the hand and led him into the Dale Coyne Racing garage. Her crew were all working very diligently on her car, and at that point it was still a gorgeous shade of red with white, just waiting for the Cyclops Gear decals. They smiled at us, and continued their work. Pippa took the steering wheel out of the car and handed it to Gage for a closer look. She kneeled down, and showed Gage the shifter and clutch paddles, and explained all of the buttons that she uses to help with the handling of the car on the track. She also showed him some other aspects of the car, making sure he understood what everything was. I won’t lie here folks, I had tears welling in my eyes from the moment she took his hand. Partially because I understood the immense amount of hard work she had done to get herself back on track for the 500, and partially because I am a Mommy, and that’s what I tend to do when truly meaningful things happen to my son.

What an incredible Mothers Day with my son! Some Moms might want to go to the spa, or have a massage, definitely not me. Spending the day with my son, observing him as he had his very first Indy 500 experiences was the best Mothers Day gift ever. He chattered about Pippa, Dario, and Taku non-stop the entire 90 minute drive home, grinning like the Cheshire Cat the whole ride.

When he’s not fine-tuning the No. 27 car for team owner Michael Andretti, he’s making promotional appearances for sponsors or trying to sell the sport to non-IndyCar fans. And if he’s not busy doing those things or goofing around with friends and colleagues in Gasoline Alley, Hinchcliffe can almost certainly be found patrolling the Internet as the self-appointed Mayor of Hinchtown.

Somehow, Hinchcliffe has found time to do all of it, still win races and become one of the most popular drivers on the circuit.

“He’s a dream for a sponsor because he’s great out of the car and he’s great in the car, too,” Andretti said Sunday, the second day of Indianapolis 500 practice. “James has a way of turning it (the racing focus) off, and then turning it back on, which is a real talent.”

He’s a new breed of IndyCar driver, too.

The Oakville, Ont., is nothing like the feisty rivals that dominated the sport in its glory days and he doesn’t have the same personality of his team owner, who admittedly came across as standoffish during his career because he was so focused on driving cars.

Instead, the 26-year-old has embraced social media and enjoys life. His unusual list of includes flannel shirts, maple syrup and dog sled racing.

Over the winter, Hinchcliffe and a few other drivers carved out time to dress in fire suits and cut a series of humorous online videos at the IndyCar office. The way Hinchcliffe and series officials see it, there’s no such thing as overexposure.

“When you have someone that has the talent, results, personality and understands the business side of IndyCar racing as well as engaging fans, you have a near perfect combination that allows a driver to transcend outside of motorsports,” IndyCar vice-president of marketing Kasey Coler said.

But the attraction goes far deeper than Hinchcliffe’s engaging personality.

A year ago when Hinchcliffe got his big break, replacing Danica Patrick as the driver of the No. 27 car, he immediately started cracking jokes about becoming the first Go Daddy guy. Turns out, he’s just the big man on the IndyCar series this year with two wins in four races — one more win than Patrick had in her IndyCar career. He’s currently fourth in points, trailing leader Takuma Sato of Japan by 24.

What’s different for Hinchcliffe this season? Not much.

“I knew there was always going to be a big gap stepping into the Go Daddy car and following Danica,” Hinchcliffe said. “But I think it was important to make this ride our own and create our own identify, and I think we’ve done that.”

His rapid ascension has been remarkable.

Three years ago, Hinchcliffe came to Indianapolis as a rising star in the Firestone Indy Lights series. A few days after competing in the Freedom 100, he returned to the 2.5-mile oval to help call the better-known Indianapolis 500 on the radio — as an analyst.

By 2011, Hinchcliffe’s exuberant personality helped him land a full-time gig with the once heavyweight team of Newman-Haas Racing. The IndyCar rookie produced three fourth-place finishes and seven top-10s in 16 starts that season, then lost his job when Newman-Haas ceased operations.

He wasn’t out of work long.

Andretti needed a personable driver with oodles of talent to replace Patrick and keep the sponsors happy, but he also wanted somebody who would fit in with an already established team.

Hinchcliffe was the perfect choice, and it showed. Ryan Hunter-Reay wound up winning year’s points title and this year’s second race while Hinchcliffe won the season-opener at St. Petersburg and last weekend’s race at Brazil. Andretti’s son, Marco, also is coming to Indy with the best start of his career.

It’s not a coincidence.

“He (Hinchcliffe) is just putting it all together, same as me,” Marco Andretti said. “You could say it’s a team thing because it started last year.”

But Hinchcliffe is not satisfied.

After qualifying second for last year’s 500, a bad pit stop forced him to settle for a sixth-place finish.

He’s come back as this year as one of the hottest drivers in the series and with a team that has dominated the first two months of the season.

It happened again Sunday when the Andretti drivers nearly swept the top five spots on the practice speed chart.

Rookie Carlos Munoz, of Colombia, had the fastest lap Sunday, 223.023 mph. Hunter-Reay was second at 222.825 with E.J. Viso third at 222.523 and Marco Andretti fourth at 222.485. Hinchcliffe was sixth at 220.907 before heading off for yet another appearance before starting all over Monday.

That’s life in the fast lane for Hinchcliffe.

“It never really shuts off,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s fun and he brings out more in me. It’s a good atmosphere within the team, but he’s fun to work with and as much as he is great in front of the camera, he’s got a lot of obligations. Like now, he’s got to go cut out for the ‘Wind Tunnel’ obligations and he’s fast in a race car, too.”

But a funny thing happened to IMS on its long march to immortality – the American sports’ fan changed.  While still loving iconic facilities like IMS, Churchill Downs, and Augusta National, fans want more than an event; they want an experience that transcends the event itself.

Before a knee jerks in response, I will add that a die-hard race fan does not need more than the Indianapolis 500 offers.  The slow, daily rise in speed at practice, the expectant pause as fans wait for each lap time during Pole Day, the shattering disappointment or the sudden euphoria of Bump Day are moments of history repeated every year.  On race day, the march of bands, “Back Home Again,” the invocation, and “Gentlemen, start your engines” prove to us that we share something with history.  These links to Indy’s past are powerful reminders that we are not alone as we ride the wave of history into our individual futures.  The power behind that wave is our shared human experiences.  For race fans, that shared experience is the 96 other Indianapolis 500′s that have come before now.  The problem is that not everyone cares about the history.  Many just care about right now.

Tony George, Tony Hulman’s grandson, changed the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Under his watch, the original Snake Pit in the first turn was sanitized.  His vision was a venue that was clean and safe for its patrons.  Do I miss the original Snake Pit?  I don’t miss it as place to watch the race, but I miss it as a touchstone of the past.  IMS has hijacked and monetized it by adding modern music and amenities that attract modern fans.  Face it, the original Snake Pit was a place to party and watch one lap of the race.  The new version is a corporate attempt to lure a specific demographic of twenty-somethings into the track to have an experience that will bring them back again.  It helps create a history for them that does not include listening to Donald Davidson amaze with his arcane knowledge of races, cars, and drivers.  IMS and IndyCar need the fans in the new Snake Pit to come back in the future just as much as they need the die-hards to continue their love affair with history.

George also added a road course, a new Pagoda, modern garages, and, most galling to purists, additional races with F1, NASCAR, and MotoGP.  While not to the liking of many purists who want to see IMS remain host to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing only, the track and its owners have a vision for the future that includes racing at night and most likely another IndyCar race on the road course.  While reviled by many, these are simply economic decisions to improve the bottom line.

If adding lights increases the attendance at the Brickyard 400, then add lights.  If adding an IndyCar race to the road course is profitable, then add it.  Will it diminish the historical relevancy of the 500?  Maybe, but I doubt it could be diminished much more than it is now to the vast majority of people who just do not care.  For the continued success of the Speedway, more money needs to be made and more fans need to be found.  The die to maximize profits was cast when all the major infrastructure upgrades that were needed were made.  These upgrades to seating, technology, and the fan experience need to be made every year.  Money is needed to support these upgrades, and fans are needed to supply the money.  Fans want video boards and dependable cell service.  Maybe we are spoiled, but these are the expectations.  Attendance, sponsors, and TV ratings are the coin of the realm when it comes to profits.  Businesses that survive use sound business practices.  IMS is no longer a hobby for a philanthropic family; it is the source of income.

The cost of keeping a historic venue like IMS up and running is enormous.  While I certainly like touring historically significant houses, I would not enjoy the daily and expensive upkeep that such a house requires.  Plus, I like the modern conveniences that I have come to expect in life.  The cost of maintaining the facility at 16th and Georgetown will never decrease.  The business masters at IMS will spend money only if they can make more money.  If not, you can expect cracks in the foundation and dandelions in the grass, just like at home.  You can only slap paint on the old gal for so long.  Sooner or later, you have to feed the bulldog.

So bring on the tin-tops, the motorcycles, the sports cars, and a second IndyCar race if it makes more money and allows the Greatest Spectacle in Racing to still be exactly that and not just some faded piece of history.  Winston Churchill said it best: “If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”  It is time for fans of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500 to accept that the future is now.

Last year I felt like she was being held back. She wasn’t racing for points in the Cup series and the important thing was to log laps and get experience in the Cup car at tracks she hadn’t been to in a stock car before. She did well with that and towards the end of the year they brought in Tony Gibson and let her loose a bit for Texas and Phoenix where she got top 20s at both tracks and would’ve gotten a top 15 or a top 10 at Phoenix if she hadn’t been wrecked by Jeff Burton. Now she was going full time into Cup this year and the hype was huge. Tony Stewart was saying how well she was doing and Tony Gibson was cheerleading her all the way. She snags the pole at Daytona and runs in the top 3 most of the day and then finishes 8th, largely due to not knowing how to race the Gen6 car at the end of a plate race. All of her previous experience at plate tracks used bump drafting and tandems so side drafting to pass was something that was a whole new thing. Reality hit after Daytona but like I said before, she was showing signs of improvement in the racing. Qualifying was poor consistently but practice speeds would improve from session to session and then she would finish much higher than her start by the end of the race. Track type didn’t matter. Short tracks, which had been her Achilles Heel, have given her the best finish of 12th other than Daytona. Mile and a halfs, which she had been better at, were now horrible for her.

This weekend she goes to Darlington and smacks the wall in practice and has to go to a backup car. No biggie, it happens to everyone sooner or later. Jimmie Johnson did it last year and countless others have done it this year and years before. The backup car was the car she drove last year at Darlington. She qualifies 40th and struggles throughout the day. She hits lap 29 and gets lapped. That would be the last time she saw the lead lap the entire race. She managed to finish and through some attrition scored 28th. Not horrible for a rookie, but not where she needs to be with the equipment and people around her.

She’s not in danger of losing her ride. She brings attention to the Go Daddy brand and Stewart Haas Racing and NASCAR as a whole, but I think we can probably say that she was moved up prematurely and as a result will continue to struggle until she runs out of contract and sponsor money or something clicks and she starts becoming competitive.

Personally I think she should be in the Nationwide Series. I think that’s where her talent level is at. She should be racing against Austin Dillon, Trevor Bayne, Travis Pastrana, Sam Hornish Jr. and Justin Allgaier instead of Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. Dillon, Bayne and Allgaier were raised on stock cars. They are still struggling at times. Pastrana and Hornish come from other backgrounds like Danica, but have won at those levels and are still taking the time to learn the art of stock car racing. Look at other open wheelers and see how they struggle at the Cup level. Hornish was awful and Penske benched him and then put him in a Nationwide car where he has improved and won races and is contending for a championship. AJ Allmendinger, drug suspension not included, has struggled in Cup and never been more than a mid-pack driver. He’s going back to primarily an Indy Car driver for Penske. Juan Pablo Montoya has won a road course race but has struggled with Ganassi. JPM has won in Indy and been successful there and has had years in NASCAR now and still struggles. He shows flashes of brillance but most of the time you hear about him when he hits the wall or another driver or a jet dryer. The competition at Cup level is intense and Danica simply isn’t there yet. Tony Stewart may have to talk with Bob Parsons and make some tough decisions next year. Maybe he starts an SHR Nationwide program and runs her double duty for most of 2014. I think that would be wise, otherwise this whole thing will blow up in his face and everyone will scream “I told you she wasn’t any good!” and if the next driver to sit behind the wheel of the #10 car has any success at all then it will further drive the point home.

There is also the point to be made though that all of Stewart Haas Racing is not fairing well at the moment. Tony and Ryan barely managed to have semi decent days. Tony caught the wall late in the race that dropped him to 15th and Ryan finished in 10th after getting the Lucky Dog 3 times. Prior to that there wasn’t much to write home about. Ryan has been the best this year but it’s kind of like being the least stinky turd. They’ve been slow in practice, slow in qualifying and barely managed to squeak out top 15 finishes. It’s almost like they are getting second class motors. Tony is frustrated. Newman is in a contract year and the spotlight continues to burn on Danica. They are testing constantly and trying to find the speed, but something is lacking that Joe Gibbs racing and their chassis and motor partner Hendrick Motorsports have. Jimmie, Dale, Kasey, Jeff, Kyle, Denny and Matt are the class of the field week in and week out. Meanwhile Ryan Newman is in 17th, behind rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tony is in 21st and Danica is in 28th, behind Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin, who haven’t even run all of the races this year. Something has to change there.

I like Danica but I do wonder if there is something there that is dragging her teams down. In IndyCar last year Andretti Autosport won the championship with Ryan Hunter-Reay. This year James Hinchcliffe has won 2 races in the Andretti Go Daddy car and RHR has won 1 race. This is an Andretti Autosport team that couldn’t buy a win when Danica was there. Now the car has changed and some rules have changed, but the similarities remain. When Danica was on the team they didn’t perform. She’s gone and they are winning. Prior to Danica’s arrival to SHR they were winning races, contending for and winning championships and now that she’s arrived they are also-rans. Same at JRM. Now that she’s gone they are winning races and leading the championship standings with Regan Smith in the #7. There were some changes made with personnel at JRM but again, the results are the same.

Of course the driving factor to this is money. The sponsor wants the exposure at the Cup level and as long as the merchandise is selling it’s good business in the short term, but in the long term I think it hurts NASCAR, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart and any other female trying to break into the business.

We’ve seen flashes of talent from Danica. I want to see her succeed. She’s broken through areas where no other woman has but if she wants to just be thought of as a racer and not “Danica Patrick, Sexy Model, spokesperson and race car driver” then she needs to start racing like one. I want to see her prove all of the haters wrong. I’m not a hater but the Kool-Aid is starting to taste a little stale and I want her to show me that she can succeed.

I’m not asking that she win a championship. I’d like to see her be consistently competitive. No more racing third rate teams in the back of the field and finishing 6 laps down. I’d like to see her get mentioned for lapping cars instead of being lapped. I want the announcers and twitter to be amazed at how she narrowly avoids a wreck that happens right in front of her. I want to see her gain positions on restarts instead of dropping like a rock and becoming a moving chicane. Get up front and mix it up with Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson. Make everyone talk about what you’ve done, not who you are.

Welcome to May

Welcome to the official opening day Social Media Garage live blog on a chilly day at the Greatest Race Course in the World. We’re starting a bit late due to the ridiculously chilly weather today but that hasn’t dulled the mood here at all. This morning started with The Celebration of Automobiles in the Pagoda Plaza. There are some stellar examples of rare midcentury cars out there; not your run of the mill corvette/mustang car corral. In fact, there were no less than 30 Deloreans rallied together! I had no idea there were that many still in driving condition. An opening day miracle for sure!

Not all teams are loaded into Gasoline Alley quite yet with Dale Coyne Racing still putting together Pippa Mann’s machine up in Chicago. That gave her the perfect opportunity to stop into the Social Media and do a quick QA for those lucky enough to find us.

And I cannot believe we have made it 11(!) days into the month without mentioning said Social media Garage. Myself, @Kelsey USA (visit her blog #SteelOvaryNation), @openwheelmom (visit her blog Openwheelmom’s Blog), @Andhesonit (visit his blog …And He’s on It!) and @nascarcasm (he is a man of mystery… no blog from him). We are based in the old F1 garages in stalls 34 and 35. If you missed then chance to join us today, make sure you head there during qualifying, we will be open both days.

Joseph Newgarden made an afternoon appearance in the garage for the second tweetup of the month and answered some fan questions. If you’re curious, the SFHR gnomes did not help the team move but have slowly started making their way to the new shop on main street, Joseph had a blast with Pippa and Sarah Fisher during the street party on the cold and rainy Friday night.

Newgarden was the first driver to hit the bricks once the track went green shortly after noon. Fun fact: no “first driver out” has ever won the race. When informed of this, JN proclaimed: “THAT CHANGES THIS YEAR!” you have got to love his energy.

As of writing, AJ Allemdinger has successfully passed rookie orientation and Munoz is through two of three phases and should have no issues completing phase three.

The sun has broken through the clouds out here and the afternoon looks to be a bit nicer than this morning was. However, I do not expect to see much heavy running as teams will probably run a few shake down laps to make sure the car is in the ballpark and park for the remainder of the afternoon in hopes of warmer weather later.

Considering the tire supply and engine miles, a driver would not be able to run all day every day anyway; the mileage and equipment just in not available to teams to do that. A possible quirk in the cost imited spec era, but this also builds in bad weather contingency time so it may not be the worst thing in the world if we are forced to only run a single week.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check back regularly throughout the next two weeks for more pretend inside access and mindless ramblings from one of your four sources of Social Media Garage craziness!

If you want to get into the May mood, check some of the content from last year.

Surviving the Coke Lot

What Indy Means

Aerodynamic Case Study: Engine Covers at the 500

Eric Hall

Err, What?

BT Sport is a new venture from the telecoms company after it bought ESPN UK & Ireland, which itself grew out of the ashes of Setanta Sports. The line-up will be BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 – each with HD and SD simulcasts – and the existing ESPN channel will be retained, but it’ll be run by BT instead of ESPN. The existing ESPN Classic and ESPN America will be discontinued. MotorsTV has moved on the Sky EPG to make way.

Is this a good thing? The elephant in the room is Sky Sports, the dominant player in subscription-TV sports. If Setanta nor the mighty ESPN could make it work against Sky, could BT, despite little experience operating linear TV? BT already offer an on-demand service via IPTV (it beat Sky to that by a couple of years), could that make the difference?

Given Thursday’s announcements they are certainly giving it a damn good try!

No Free-To-Air MotoGP

Now for the bad news for many – no more BBC or Eurosport MotoGP coverage.

The free-to0-air* BBC2 airs all races live, and Moto2 and Moto3 races, and MotoGP qualifying, are live online and on the red button.

* excluding the Licence Fee but since everyone has to pay it anyway it is moot.

British Eurosport – but I believe not many other branches of Eurosport across the continent – air all sessions live for all 3 classes apart from the MotoGP race, which is delayed to give BBC2 the priority. Eurosport only requires a £5 extra fee on Sky (along with a whole host of other channels in the Entertainment Extra pack), and is on a fairly reasonable tier on Virgin Media cable TV, I think? It also has a very affordable web and app presence costing only £2.99/mth which is how I watch it.

The sharing agreement was set up in 2009 specifically to boost ratings by giving priority to the more widely available BBC2. It seems priorities have changed at Dorna!

As of now the only UK TV coverage is exclusive to BT. Sadly this means, unless a highlights deal is announced, MotoGP will no longer be available on free-to-air to the whole population.

This is a huge loss for MotoGP’s UK fans. I am sure Dorna took this option for their own reasons, possibly financial. The BT deal will inevitably result in far lower viewing figures. BBC2 gets about 1 million people per race, this is sometimes higher than F1 races on Sky! BT would be doing extremely well to reach 20% of that and it might be more like 10%.

There are some people who will get it free-to-air, effectively. More on that in a minute.

What MotoGP Will They Air?

Everything. All sessions and races will be covered live. Tthey’ll be covered live from site and from a London studio, perhaps they’ll send one or two pit reporters (and crew) and keep the presenting team at home? That’s a backwards step, the interaction you get from Matt Roberts, and previously Suzi Perry, is very much worth the investment. Talking heads sitting in a remote studio is not interesting to me.

What is interesting is the promise of extra programming between races, they’ve not given specifics but I imagine that might include profiles of legends of the sport, insights into GP history, a tour of a team HQ.

How.. And How Much?

First things first – the hook:  If you have BT Broadband you will be able to get BT Sport’s channels as a free extra. I’m a BT Broadband subscriber so this makes me quite happy! Effectively MotoGP remains ‘free-to-air’ if you are already with BT.

There are those who complain it isn’t “free” but that is only valid if you are now with a competitor at a lower rate – you’ll end up paying more by switching. That’s fair enough. For those of us already paying BT’s higher rates, this offer makes those prices better value. I’m paying them anyway so anything extra is a bonus. Ok it isn’t ‘free’, it is a new feature that makes my higher cost more bearable. Believe me I was seriously considering switching away at the end of my contract and this deal will heavily influence my decision.

Don’t have BT Broadband? A subscription costs £12 per month or £15 for HD but at the moment you can only get it on Sky.

Here are the four options. They say three but there are four, I consider the web player to be separate from the app. There’s a possible fifth.

Option 1)  Sky. If you have Sky you can ring up BT and give them your viewing card number. You DO NOT have to be an existing BT customer – the difference is only in cost. If you are with BTB you’ll get Sport free, if you’re not you’ll be charged £12 or £15. Seemingly you can only get it direct from BT (don’t call Sky), I bet this is to check you’re a broadband customer which Sky wouldn’t know.

Option 2) BT TV. BT have a couple of TV options of their own. You’ll need their broadband to get either.

They want you to get YouView but that requires some hoops to be jumped: You need to have BT Infinity (“superfast broadband” as they call it), their fibre-optic system which is slowly rolling out across the country.

If like many people you currently can’t get Infinity you can have BT Vision instead. For that you will need normal BT Broadband, or ADSL as most of us may know it. There appear to be no other restrictions on getting Vision. (Annoyingly there’s also a Vision-branded section on YouView – don’t confuse the two).

BT Sport will be delivered by encrypted Freeview channel needing a viewing card in exactly the same way ESPN is currently, but it’ll be the SD channels only and there’s a £10 fee for the card.

Update – more details here.

Both systems are focused on ‘On Demand’ services so I hope BT Sport content will appear there for free.

Option 3) Web Player. Seems to be BT subs only. Go to btsport.com and login with a MyBT username (the one you use to look bills). A big concern here is the use of unreliable Microsoft Silverlight which is my main bugbear with ITV Player.

Option 4) App for tablet or smartphone again needing a BT login.

I hope options 3 and 4 become available to non-subscribers. If BT are serious about bringing sport to the masses at lower rates than Sky, they would surely allow people to subscribe only to the web player and/or the app.

Potential Option 5) Virgin Media cable TV. No deal has been agreed right now but you can bet they are working on it.

Away from BT, another option for fans is the VideoPass on MotoGP.com – real diehards only though, a standard pass costs £85 per year or £21/month! A ‘MultiScreen’ pass is £30/mth.

Existing ESPN subscriber? I’m pretty sure I saw that your subscription will only run until ESPN changes hands at the end of July. If that means you have unused months I suggest you ask ESPN for a refund.

The Takeaway

Depends on what you have already.

++ for anybody with BT broadband and a Sky dish or YouView. Just ring BT and get all this stuff for free. If you currently pay for ESPN you’ll save £10-15 per month.

+ for anybody with BT broadband but no Sky dish. You (and I) will get the web player and the app for no extra fee. Most of us are perfectly used to watching BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD or Eurosport Player so this is a very good thing for us.

~ for people with Sky but not BT. £12-£15 isn’t going to break the bank if you only want BT Sport, but if you want Sky Sports too it’ll soon mount up. If you pay for Sky Sports and ESPN right now nothing will really change, a sport or two will have moved from one place to another as they do every year.

- for those who can and would pay for BT and/or Sky but are currently with other providers – switching is a hassle.

– if you can only afford one set of premium sports channels, do you choose Sky for F1, or BT for MotoGP & IndyCar? It’ll fall on your preference of racing and other sports.

— for anybody without BT or Sky and are unwilling or unable to switch for whatever reason. Cost is likely the main reason as both BT and Sky are expensive. There are a lot of people who just can’t afford it.

MotoGP’s ratings are going to drop substantially in 2014. ESPN’s ratings at the moment are dire and that will not change for a while. Even Sky Sports, the market leader in subscription sport, usually has poor ratings compared to Free-To-Air.

The increase in shoulder programming is a good thing – will anybody watch it?

I applaud BT for not only allowing their current customers access for no further fee – remember how often people complain the sweet deals are only for new customers – and also for keeping the monthly cost at a minimal level for non-broadband customers.

On a Personal Level

I have BT Broadband with BT Vision TV – unfortunately the Freeview part is broken so I can’t get ESPN, but even if the box worked I live in a transmission blackspot – if you pick up a main transmitter you see all Freeview channels but if you use a local repeater transmitter you only see half of them. Guess where I live! I must get an engineer to move the aerial.

I should be able to see a lot On Demand for free with Vision which is good. Anything I want live I can see on my PC or iPad for no extra charge, also brilliant.

Alternatives? I’m in a rented property so I can’t have a Sky dish – I might be allowed at this address but who’s to say how long I’ll be here and if my next landlord would let me? I also live well outside Virgin’s cabled area. These are the reasons I went for BTV in the first place.

Is this deal any good for you? Let me know! It certainly feels better than the Sky F1 deal but is that because I’m now used to that idea, is it because I know I’m getting availability for no extra cost?

Other Racing

IndyCar – BT seem to have taken over ESPN’s current IndyCar deal right off the bat, from channel launch this August. Good news. IndyCar fans were faced with having no coverage at all so it is a very different position to MotoGP which is reducing viewers. I’m *VERY* happy to finally be able to watch one of my favourite series completely legally for the first time since 2002!

NASCAR – There has been mention of NASCAR which I presume to be the 1-hour highlights show of the Sprint Cup. Time will tell. If so it might even mean I’ll stay with Cup for a season for the first time.

At the moment that seems it for motorsport but anything could change between now and the 2014 season.

Other Sport

Football, football, and more football: English Premier League, Scottish Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Europa League, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, MLS, English Women’s League.
English Premiership Rugby. WTA tennis. Red Bull ‘extreme sports’ (interestingly including Red Bull Crashed Ice!). UFC. And these from the head of digital production: “Our confirmed list of US sports: college basketball, Indy car, NASCAR, college football, MLB, Red Bull, MLS.”

It seems like a very decent line-up if you like those sorts of things. I’m not too into the different types of football so I wouldn’t pay for the channels, but since they are free-to-me I might dip into a few things to see if I like them!