Winners/Losers in CARTs Deovalization

Arneal · 8 Feb 2002, 06:05 (Ref:212153)

Ok, maybe deovalization isn't really a word.

What I am referring to is the lack of ovals on CARTs 2002 schedule. Nazareth, Michigan, St. Louis, Miami, Rio, Texas, and Chicago have all left the schedule over the last couple years. Between 1998 and 2001 CART ran 8, 9, 9, and 8 oval events. This years calander is down to just 5 ovals out of 18 races.

This deovalization will no doubt help some and hurt others. Last years runner up Kenny Brack is a likely loser as he racked up 116 of his 163 points on ovals last year. Other potential losers are Lola and Ford, both of whom had better percentages on ovals than on road/street courses.

Interestly, one of the prime benefactors, Penske, whose drivers would have finished first and second in a road/street course only series are bailing to compete in an oval only series. Penske drivers combined for only 99 points on ovals, but scored 241 on the road/streets.

If you go to www.cart.com and click on STANDINGS you'll see that they have split out the results from last year based on the track type. It makes comparisons easy.

macdaddy · 8 Feb 2002, 09:02 (Ref:212173)

What's funny is that there are only two oval events scheduled in the US.

And it's a good thing that Motegi is owned by Honda and not Toyota!

KC · 8 Feb 2002, 15:51 (Ref:212364)

I think that Ganassi's depth will be a huge benefit to Brack's road course speed. I think he carried Rahal a lot more than they carried him.

I think it will come down to Team Green v. Ganassi for the title this year.

Speedworx · 8 Feb 2002, 19:20 (Ref:212498)

The losers in all this have got to be the fans.

Jay · 10 Feb 2002, 00:10 (Ref:213434)

I'm a fan, and I like it

. But, I know others may feel differently. Hey, if you don't like it, there's another all oval series that has a 500 mile race every year in Indiana....and some cart drivers usually drop by to show their stuff!

Liz · 10 Feb 2002, 00:31 (Ref:213449)

I'm with Jay -- I don't like ovals so will love having more road and street courses. Here's to the last year of turbos and watching the real race car drivers show their versatility on many different courses.

enemy-ace · 11 Feb 2002, 12:13 (Ref:214015)

Personally I'm a Road Racing fan first but in the last little while I have come to appreciate the intricacies of oval racing, due partly to an article I read about Rick Mears, so I would like to see them stay. Road Courses, Street Circuits and Ovals are what makes CART so special losing even one of these aspects of the series would be bad.

The Beer Baron · 11 Feb 2002, 20:05 (Ref:214207)

Me, I love the mixture and liked CART for its oval races , oh well they didn't prove to be financially viable......

StuiE · 20 Feb 2002, 12:52 (Ref:219425)

well the losers r just about everyone duz ne1 know ne winners?

djb · 21 Feb 2002, 03:31 (Ref:219871)

gtr, I'm sorry but my universal translater is malfunctioning and so I couldn't get the gist of your comments.

As Enemy-ace and others have mentioned, I am another fan who while doesn't have much interest for the shorter ovals, I do find the "long term" strategy of the larger and longer oval races fascinating. Not to mention again the appreciation for the wide range of courses that the teams and drivers have to contend with over the season. It is exactly this difference to F1 that makes it so entertaining for me. The fuel limit changes should be an improvement in my opinion and can't wait to see how things pan out this year.

StuiE · 21 Feb 2002, 13:22 (Ref:220048)

take 2:
well the losers are just about everyone does anyone know any winners?

happy djb?

djb · 21 Feb 2002, 17:50 (Ref:220171)

gtr, I should have stuck in a wink face thingee....

I still think the CART season is going to be highly entertaining even with a few less ovals.

djb

StuiE · 22 Feb 2002, 13:24 (Ref:220637)

i didnt put a smilie cos i dont know how 2 do them when i click on one nothing, happens how do i do it?

Arneal · 24 Feb 2002, 19:23 (Ref:221874)

I don't know why clicking on the smilies to the left of the reply box wouldn't work for you, but you can put in smilies manually.

If you type a semicolon followed by a right paren a wink will show up after you hit the SUBMIT REPLY button. A colon followed by a right paren will make a standard smile. There should be no spaces between the characters when you type them.

All of the smilies have manual methods. Here are some of them:

:banghead :

:bag :

:laugh :

:cool :

Again there should be no spaces between characters.

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