Auto Racing Should Be An Olympic Sport (Just Imagine Jimmie Johnson, Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Vettel & Travis Pastrana All in One Race)

I know this is a pipe dream and something that will never happen, but I think auto racing should be an Olympic sport. 

Just imagine NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson (left) & IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti (right) racing for gold.

Think about it, auto racing is something that is done everywhere in the world and has successful and world champion drivers from a large group of countries. I know that this certainly doesn’t mean a sport will be an Olympics sport, just look at baseball and golf (which will be an Olympic sport starting in 2016).

However, how cool would it be to see the best drivers from around the world, stars of NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1 and others, competing in one big race or tournament of races to crown the top driver in the world?

There actually used to be a series similar to that called the IROC (International Race of Champions) Series from 1974 to 2006 where champion drivers from a multitude of series would compete in a four race series to determine a champion. It was mostly dominated by NASCAR drivers on mostly NASCAR tracks, with NASCAR stars (like Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Tony Stewart) winning every year from 1989 until the series folded in 2006, but other racing stars like Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Jr. were crowned champions, as well. The series went out of business in 2007 due to financial problems.

While the IROC Series was mostly run on ovals, a potential Olympic event (again this is just a dream) would most likely have to be run on a road course or street circuit because most series around the world are exclusively run on those types of tracks.  

The series would also have to choose what type of car would be used in the event. My suggestion would be to use something like the Daytona Prototypes used in the Rolex Grand Am Series, because most drivers from around the world are already familiar with these cars from running in a race like the 24 Hours of Daytona (which often brings in big names from top series like NASCAR and IndyCar).

The format for auto racing in the Olympics is really something that I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into, but could easily be anything from just one big race with a qualifying process of either fastest laps or heat races or could be a series of races. The number of racers per race or the length of the race is also something that I haven’t put any thought into. As long as auto racing was involved in the Olympics I honestly wouldn’t care so much about many of the particulars.  

I have, however, compiled a list of 50 world class drivers from 19 different countries as proof of why auto racing in the Olympics would be such a great idea. Can you imagine some of these guys going up against each other for the gold?

1.       Fernando Alonso (Spain) – Formula 1 – 2x Formula 1 Champion, 30 wins

2.       Marcos Ambrose (Australia) – NASCAR - 1 Sprint Cup Series win, 2X V8 Supercar Champion

3.       Max Angelelli (Italy) – Grand Am – 1x Grand Am Champion, 17 wins

4.       Joao Barbosa (Portugal) – Grand Am – 2010 24 Hours of Daytona Champion, 3 Grand Am DP wins

5.       Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) – IndyCar – 11 Formula 1 wins, 1^st driver to have 300 starts in F1 history

6.       Sebastien Bourdais (France) – IndyCar – 4x Champ Car Champion, 31 Champ Car wins

7.       Ryan Briscoe (Australia) – IndyCar – 6 IndyCar wins, 3 American Le Mans Series wins

8.       Kyle Busch (United States) – NASCAR – 24 NASCAR Sprint Cup wins, 105 total NASCAR wins, 1x Nationwide Series champion

9.       Jenson Button (England) – Formula 1 – 1x Formula 1 champion, 13 Formula 1 wins

10.   Helio Castroneves (Brazil) – IndyCar – 3x Indianapolis 500 champion, 21 IndyCar wins

11.   Mike Conway (England) – IndyCar – 1 IndyCar win, 1x British F3 Champion

12.   Ryan Dalziel (Scotland) – Grand Am – 1X 24 Hours or Le Mans winner, 3 Grand Am wins

13.   Simona de Silvestro (Switzerland) – IndyCar – 5 Atlantic Championship wins

14.   Scott Dixon (New Zealand) – IndyCar – 2x IndyCar Champion, 29 IndyCar wins, 1x Indianapolis 500 winner

15.   Ron Fellows (Canada) – NASCAR – 3X 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner, 6 total NASCAR wins

16.   Dario Franchitti (Scotland) – IndyCar – 4X IndyCar Champion, 3X Indianapolis 500 winner, 20 IndyCar wins

17.   Jeff Gordon (United States) – NASCAR – 4X NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, 86 Sprint Cup wins (3^rd all time)

18.   Lewis Hamilton (England) – Formula 1 – 1X Formula 1 Champion, 19 Formula 1 wins

19.   James Hinchcliffe (Canada) – IndyCar – 2011 IndyCar Rookie of the Year, 8 IndyCar Top 5s

20.   Ryan Hunter-Reay (United States) – IndyCar – 6 IndyCar wins, Currently 2^nd in IndyCar Points

21.   Jimmie Johnson (United States) – NASCAR – 5x NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, 58 Sprint Cup wins

22.   Tony Kanaan (Brazil) – IndyCar – 1x IndyCar Champion, 14 IndyCar wins

23.   Matt Kenseth (United States) – NASCAR – 1X NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, 22 Sprint Cup wins

24.   Steve Kinser (United States) – World of Outlaws – 20X World of Outlaws Champion, 555 World of Outlaw wins

25.   Tom Kristensen (Denmark) - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters – 8x 24 Hours of Le Mans winner (most all-time)

26.   Andy Lally (United States) – Grand Am – 2x Grand Am class champion, 3X 24 Hours of Daytona class winner

27.   Sebastien Loeb (France) – World Rally – 8x World Rally Champion, 73 Rally wins

28.   Andre Lotterer (Germany) – FIA World Endurance – 2x 24 Hours of Le Mans winner

29.   Jan Magnussen (Denmark) – Le Mans – 4x 24 Hours of Le Mans winner

30.   Allan McNish (Scotland) - FIA World Endurance – 2x 24 Hours of Le Mans winner

31.   Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) – NASCAR – 1x Indianapolis 500 winners, 7 Formula 1 wins, 2 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins

32.   Simon Pagenaud (France) – IndyCar – 1x American Le Mans Series Champion, 5 IndyCar top 5s (this season as a rookie)

33.    Miguel Paludo (Brazil) – NASCAR – 2x Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil Champion, 10 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series top 10s

34.   Max Papis (Italy) – NASCAR – 3 Champ Car wins

35.   Travis Pastrana (United States) – Rally Car/NASCAR – 4x Rally America Champion, 10X X Games gold medalist

36.   Nelson Piquet Jr. (Brazil) – NASCAR – 1 NASCAR Nationwide Series win, 20 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Top 10s

37.   Will Power (Australia) – IndyCar – 16 IndyCar wins

38.   Scott Pruett (United States) – Grand Am – 3x Grand Am Champion, 4x 24 Hours of Daytona winner

39.   Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) – Formula 1 – 1x Formula 1 Champion, 18 Formula 1 wins

40.   Memo Rojas (Mexico) – Grand Am – 3X Grand Am Champion, 21 Grand Am wins

41.   Takuma Sato (Japan) – IndyCar – 6 Formula 1 top 5s, 5 IndyCar top 5s

42.   Michael Schumacher (Germany) – Formula 1 – 7x Formula 1 Champion, 91 Formula 1 wins

43.   Oriol Servia (Spain) – IndyCar – 1 Champ Car win, 17 IndyCar top 5s

44.   Tony Stewart (United States) – NASCAR – 3x NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, 1x IndyCar Champion, 47 NASCAR Sprint Cup wins

45.   Alex Tagliani (Canada) – IndyCar – 1 Champ Car win, 6 IndyCar top 5s

46.   Paul Tracy (Canada) – Grand Am – 1x Champ Car Champion, 12 Champ Car wins

47.   Sebastien Vettel (Germany) – Formula 1 – 2x Formula 1 Champion, 22 Formula 1 wins

48.   E.J. Viso (Venezuela) – IndyCar – 3 IndyCar top 5s, 1x National Class British F3 Champion

49.   Mark Webber (Australia) – Formula 1 – 9 Formula 1 wins

50.   Justin Wilson (England) – IndyCar – 3 IndyCar wins, 4 Champ Car wins,

Olympics Unfair to Banish Strategic Badminton Players

One of the biggest controversies from the first week of the 2012 London Summer Olympics was the dismissal of eight women’s badminton players for reportedly “violating the Olympic ideal and spirit of fair play.”

It seems that the majority of people agree with the International Olympic Committee’s decision to exclude the players from the remainder of the games, however, I certainly do not.

I understand that it seems ridiculous to attempt to lose in any sporting event and I also understand that people paid good money to see this event and the result was not what they expected. However, I don’t support the removal of athletes from the games when they didn’t do anything against the rules. Yes, these badminton players were throwing their games, but it wasn’t written anywhere that they couldn’t.

This was the first year that Olympic badminton included a round-robin format instead of a win-or-go-home format. This meant that teams could lose and still compete in the next stage of the tournament. In fact, the way things were going losing could help out a team because the team with the worst record plays the team with the best record first in the quarterfinals. When a surprising team beat a high-seeded team in the round-robin stage it set up a scenario where teams were intentionally trying to lose to face the expected weaker team that had won.

That may sound confusing to some, in fact it’s a little confusing to me, but what it boils down to is that these eight athletes, or four doubles teams, were playing the best strategy they could think of to succeed in the games.

Some people have called their actions cheating, but that is an extreme over-exaggeration, in my opinion. If you’re not breaking any rules than you’re definitely not cheating. This is simply an example of athletes being punished for making the best of a bad system. I’ll be surprised if the round-robin format returns to Olympic badminton in the 2016 games, because it can lead to this type of controversy, but as long as it is a part of the format, athletes shouldn’t be banished for manipulating it.

To Spoil or Not To Spoil

The biggest controversy from the first few days of the 2012 London Summer Olympics has been the tape delayed coverage given to Americans by NBC. NBC has chosen not to show some of the bigger events (mostly swimming and gymnastics) live on any of its television networks and instead hold them until primetime when there’s a bigger audience.

This decision by NBC, which almost everybody seems to agree is poor, has led to many viewers finding out the results of these events prior to the airing on television through news outlets like ESPN and social media outlets like Twitter.

You really can’t blame news outlets like ESPN because one of the biggest goals and responsibilities of journalists are to break the news when the news breaks. So, if Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte win swimming medals in London when it’s early or mid-morning in the United States the news will report it when it happens, as they should. It’s not the American media’s responsibility to wait until Americans have had the chance to see it to announce the results. However, NBC News giving the results before its own broadcast is another story.

This poses a major issue for me that I struggled with for the first few days of the Olympics. What should I do about my Facebook fanpage for my sports podcast Basement Sports?

Typically when sports news breaks I publish it immediately upon seeing or hearing it on the podcast’s fanpage (because I view it as a form of media). However, some of these updates are a few hours old before I get the chance to post them, because of my day job that does not include access to a computer throughout the afternoon hours five days a week.

The 2012 London Summer Olympics are the first Olympic games during my podcast’s tenure and so I found myself having to deal with something new in attempting to cover a sporting event (the largest one at that) on such a time difference.

My journalistic experience and instincts tell me to publish the results of the events when they occur or at least when I see or hear about them. However, I’ve refrained from doing that thus far and have made the decision to keep doing so until the events have completed on American television. Here’s why …

I’ve long believed and told people that I didn’t think spoilers affected my feelings about movies or television shows and I honestly believe that to be the case. Does knowing Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father prior to watching the “Star Wars” trilogy affect the movie’s greatness? No. Knowing a surprise twist or ending to a film or TV show ultimately doesn’t change whether or not a movie is good and it shouldn’t have any result on whether or not you enjoy it either.

However, when it comes to sports spoilers are everything. Because the sole intention of sports is to win or lose knowing the outcome of the event really takes all of the fun and excitement out of watching it. Sure, many people will still watch the event despite knowing the results just to see exactly how it happened, as NBC’s Olympic ratings have suggested, but it just isn’t the same.

Unfortunately I’ve known almost every single major result before it aired on primetime. I just can’t manage to stay unplugged long enough not to find out the results even accidentally. For this reason the Olympics simply haven’t been nearly as fun or exciting as I anticipated.

I know that my not posting Olympics results until after they air on NBC on the Basement Sports podcast fanpage is likely not going to make a whole lot of difference for most sports fans, who like me probably already know the results anyway. But, I don’t want to spoil the fun and the excitement of the Olympics for those intentionally staying away from the results, because I know how much that sucks.  

NBC Idiotically Spoils Own Olympic Coverage

Seventeen year old U.S. Olympian swimmer Missy Franklin won the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London early on Monday. The event wouldn’t be shown until hours later during NBC’s Olympic primetime coverage on tape delay, meaning viewers would have to successfully avoid Internet spoilers and watching sports networks like ESPN all afternoon and early evening.

NBC has been ripped by viewers and critics alike for holding the perceived most important or popular Olympic events until primetime without ever showing them live earlier in the day on television. It only makes sense for the network to show the events in primetime, but it’s inexcusable not to also show them live and then replay them in primetime. It’s something that’s no doubt hurt the experience for fans that accidentally view or hear spoilers, but hasn’t been a hindrance to the network’s ratings.

However, what NBC did on Monday night during their primetime Olympic coverage was just stupidity at its highest level. Just a handful of minutes before the network was going to air the 100-meter backstroke, which Franklin won, the network aired a promo for Tuesday morning’s “Today” episode in which it mentioned the gold medalist would be reunited with her parents for the first time during the games. Thus by showing this promo NBC spoiled their OWN EVENT.

This wasn’t the first time during the opening days of the Olympics that NBC has spoiled one of its own primetime events either, though it is the first time it’s done so during its actual primetime showing. On the opening day of the Olympics on Saturday NBC’s Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who’s generally one of the best around, idiotically gave the final results to the highly-anticipated Ryan Lochte/Michael Phelps event in the men’s 400 IM, which the network later aired in primetime.

It’s hard enough for fans to go almost an entire day without seeing or hearing who won certain events via television or the Internet, but hearing the news on NBC’s own coverage is just irresponsible and bad business on the part of NBC. It also goes against everything NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas said during the opening night of the events when he told the audience that the events they’d be seeing were previously recorded, but that they wouldn’t be spoiled on the air. The commentators haven’t done the spoiling, but the network certainly has.

NBC really should be ashamed of their coverage thus far during the Olympics, but I’d almost guarantee that they don’t and won’t care, because they’re shattering records according to EW.com.   

'What just happened?' ... 'I don't know, but I think I like it'

What's going on?

Saturdays are extremely slow at my job. It’s not unusual to turn on the television that sits in the dining room to a sporting event and try to catch bits and pieces of it in the sporadic moments of working. This Saturday was no different. Everything was cleaned and stocked and there weren’t any customers so I sat down at a table and switched on some sports. Pretty soon a co-worker joined me at the table. Then a few minutes later another co-worker joined us. Shortly after that my supervisor made the group a foursome.

Typically during the summer the television has been on a golf tournament or a baseball game. Today it was on fencing coverage during the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

We sat there and we watched two Italians fencers compete in something called women’s foil. I really don’t know exactly what that is or means, but the gist of it appeared to be to see how many times you can stick somebody in their body armor with your sword-like weapon. For the purposes of this piece I just looked up what “foil” means … it’s actually the name of the aforementioned “sword-like weapon”… you see, doesn’t that take some of the fun out of fencing already.

None of us four really had any damn clue what was going on. We didn’t know how the scoring system worked. We didn’t know what the lights meant. We didn’t know any of the rules. I was shocked, and I think my feelings were shared, to find out that the event had three periods.

I do think I was the most fascinated with the sport out of the group. It’s not the most exciting sporting event I’ve ever seen by any means, but I didn’t for one second find it boring. However, maybe that had to do with the exceptionally slow pace of the work day. But, it’s certainly not one of the five or maybe even 10 most boring Summer Olympic sports.

It’s something that I’ve spent minimal time seeing before in Olympic action and would enjoy watching again, though I don’t know if I’ll catch it again during these games. In my entire life I probably won’t see enough fencing action to ever know exactly what’s going on (when and where, after all, can you see fencing when it’s not an Olympic games?).

The fact that four of us were captivated together by this foil event for the maybe 15 minutes that we watched before returning to our responsibilities was unique because it really explains the allure and specialty of the Summer Olympics. Typically none of us would really care about this event, but for one moment on a quiet Saturday afternoon it captured us. Why? Because it’s the Olympics and you must watch the Olympics.

Sundays aren’t typically as slow as Saturdays at work, but they are often slow enough to have moments were there isn’t anything to do … maybe tomorrow will find us entranced in some water polo action or perhaps some field hockey. I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a thrill two weeks every four years.     

Brickyard Owes Montoya One

Juan Pablo Montoya: Racecar Driver. If there’s ever a biography written about current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Juan Pablo Montoya than that should be its name. I have the utmost respect for Montoya because he’s proven throughout his illustrious career that he can drive and win in anything he pleases. He’s a true racecar driver. Give him something with wheels and a motor and he’ll kick your ass.

Montoya has won in many major forms of auto racing. In his one and only Indianapolis 500 in 2000, he won. He was a champion in the CART Series. He was a champion in the Formula 1 Series. He’s won the Rolex 24 @ Daytona twice in the Grand-Am Series. He’s also won twice in NASCAR’s top series, which is the most popular motorsports series in the United States.

Not only is Montoya a fantastic wheelman, but he also has that true racer persona, like many greats that came before him. He’s going to do whatever it takes to succeed and win, even if that means knocking another out of his way. Some people just can’t stand Montoya because of his driving style, which many wrongfully call “reckless”, because he’s relentless when racing their favorite drivers. Fellow Sprint Cup racer Kyle Busch is “reckless”, he loves to win, but he also loves playing the heel. This bad guy act that he loves so much leads him to want to do reckless things. Montoya loves to win, but he doesn’t give a damn what you think about him. He’s not intentionally trying to ruin your day (unless he thinks you deserve it); he’s just trying to make the most out of his.

That’s why I like Juan Pablo Montoya. Now, here’s why I really want to see him in Victory Lane on Sunday after the Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sometimes in racing a track just owes you one.

Despite Dale Earnhardt winning at Daytona more than any driver that ever competed there he never had a Daytona 500 win prior to 1998. The track owed him one. He finally got it. Like Earnhardt, Tony Stewart has won in almost everything at Daytona, but not the Daytona 500. Daytona owes it to him.

Montoya, as previously mentioned, has won at Indianapolis in his truly dominating Indy 500 victory. However, the Brickyard, desperately owes him one. 

Despite winning at both of the Sprint Cup Series road course races (Watkins Glen and Sonoma) in his career, Montoya has yet to win on a NASCAR oval track (in this his sixth full season), However, Indianapolis, has arguably been his best track in the sport. He’s never had the finishes at the track that he’s truly deserved (other than a second place finish in his rookie season of 2007) with an average finish of only 22.4 at the track, but as far as I’m concerned Montoya should’ve won the Brickyard 400 twice by now.

In 2009, Montoya had likely his finest performance in his NASCAR career, thus far, when he thoroughly dominated the race. Not only did he kick the rest of the field’s asses, he also kicked the track’s ass. The Colombian native led a race high 116 of 160 laps and he was going to lead a lot more. Nobody could beat Montoya that day, except for depending on how you saw it: himself or NASCAR. On a late pit stop Montoya was penalized for speeding on pit road. Montoya was adamant that he didn’t speed, as all drivers always are. However, I actually believed him then and still believe him today. I know he still believes himself today, too. The penalty caused him to fall back in the running order and he drove his ass off to one of the most dominant 11^th place finishes in NASCAR history and by far the most dominant I’ve ever seen. Jimmie Johnson would win the race.

The next season, in 2010, it looked like Montoya was going to put that misfortune to rest with another dominant performance. Again it looked like he couldn’t be beaten. Unfortunately this time his crew chief Brian Pattie didn’t do him any favors. After leading 86 of 160 laps, again a race best, Montoya made a late pit stop in which Pattie called for four tires. Many other drivers took two tires instead and this placed Montoya in the middle of the pack where he would get caught up in a wreck and finish 32^nd. His Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate Jamie McMurray would go on to win the race.

Two years in a row Juan Pablo Montoya had both the competition and the track licked. He had nothing to show for it.  

Last season Montoya started toward the front, but didn’t have a good race finishing in the 28^th position. Even though it’s arguably his best track in the sport, his only top 10 finish was his second place as a rookie.

Montoya is frankly struggling pretty badly this season. In 19 races he only has a measly two Top 10s and his average finish is 20^th. His year started with him crashing into a jet dryer at Daytona in maybe the oddest accident in NASCAR history and it hasn’t gotten much better from there.

However, as we embark on the Brickyard this weekend I just know that Montoya’s going to dig down deep and find a little something extra that he hasn’t had all season. It just remains to be seen if he has a capable car underneath him.    

Yes, this magnificent two and a half mile cathedral of racing with its famed yard of bricks owes Montoya one. It owes him big. Hopefully it pays out on Sunday afternoon; I know Montoya’s damn sure going to do his best to collect.

  

Despite IOC, Costas to Properly Memorialize Munich Massacre Victims

The 2012 London Olympics mark the 40^th anniversary of what is likely the most tragic and disturbing event in the history of the games and sports, in general. It marks the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Massacre in which 11 Israeli athletes at coaches died at the hands of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. 

Despite the anniversary the International Olympic Committee (or IOC) has repeatedly said that they have no plans to pay tribute to the murdered Israeli athletes, which has angered many around the world, especially those in Israel.

I think the decision by the IOC shows a distinct lack of class on their part, but they don’t want to play politics and potentially anger other nations. However, I’m happy to say that NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas doesn’t give a damn about what the IOC has to say on the subject. Costas has told media outlets that he plans to honor the fallen athletes and coaches from 40 years ago with an on-air tribute during Friday night’s Opening Ceremonies on NBC Sports with a moment of silence. Not only will Costas memorialize the Israeli athletes, but he said he also intends to note the “baffling denial” by the IOC during the event.

I’ve always given Bob Costas a hard time in the past, because I’ve often felt like he thinks he’s the show more so than the sporting events that he covers. However, I’ve got to say that I’m very pleased with his intentions for the Opening Ceremonies. The IOC has chosen to do the wrong thing, in my opinion, and Costas is doing his little part to right that. Good for him because the tragedy that occurred in Munich in 1972 is something that should never be forgotten for if it is it might repeat itself.