Patience is a virtue

The title reflects a belief that I am trying, desperately, to hang on to. But there are doubts about the long-term health of the one IndyCar Series that no-one seems to be reporting. Good things take time to build, yes, and after the blending this year there still remains much work ahead.

I just question, though, whether a series that has not made strides in several areas ever will.

Put simply, I had never been as bored watching a road course race as I was for the IndyCar's at Watkins Glen this Sunday. The unfathomably unattractive Dallara chassis, of course designed for ovals, is a dog of a car on road and street circuits. The engine sounds awful as well but again, that's not going anywhere for a while either. Everyone knows it but there will be at least two more years of that before it changes.

TV coverage was pathetic of a race starting late in the day. There was almost no passing, shown or otherwise, something that was a staple of close competition during Champ Car events. The former Champ Car teams incurred a rash of mechanical issues that prevented them from winning despite great qualifying runs.

Then there was Race Control. Most oval events this season have suffered far too long of full-course cautions, i.e. 10 laps at Richmond last week after Ryan Hunter-Reay spun, corrected it and didn't hit anything.

But on Sunday, RC did nothing to penalize Scott Dixon more than a slap on the wrist. Having passed two cars from 4th on the grid, Dixon was only ordered to drop one spot. He promptly passed that car back within a couple laps.

Later when Danica made a glaring error by crashing in the pits, she received a drive-through penalty. Is that all you can do? She has made several pit errors this season, highly amateurish of someone competing in a series claiming to be the top open-wheel division merely by default.

And under caution, there were, count 'em, three accidents! First A.J. Foyt IV ran into Milka Duno. Nepotism met attractiveness on that account, but frankly neither should be out there based on their prior credentials or speed. There was Danica's pit shunt, and then there was the series points leader, Dixon, spinning while warming tires! His mess claimed Ryan Briscoe, a hapless victim who was one of the contenders all day.

At least Dixon apologized and took full responsibility, and each of their interviews had class. But all told, a race was boring for 40 of 60 laps and was only spiced up thanks to some very amateurish driving and RC work the last third of the event.

Was it a necessity to merge? Probably, given how the IRL made it through last year without the same internal turmoil as Champ Car, and how the latter effectively killed itself by a thousand of its own cuts. But things aren't as rosy as people want to make them out to be.

While the olive branch was extended to the Champ Car teams who wanted to be a part of it, the fact is there have been vastly more parts failures for those teams than established IndyCar efforts. Because the economy is currently in a standstill those teams couldn't even bring over some of Champ Car's big guns, and had to settle for whoever brought the biggest checks.

And what appears to be a half-hearted effort to get Paul Tracy in a seat for Edmonton and possibly additional events is nothing more than a PR spin job. Tracy has never been kind to the IRL and perhaps his words have cost him in the long run. But a third Vision Racing car, prepared by Derrick Walker, is never going to contend with the leaders as the resources just simply aren't there. PT hasn't even driven the latest Dallara once.

Put simply, the IRL has to address flaws within their product sooner rather than later or this post-unification high everyone is on will dissipate quickly.