Juan Montoya backed up his Indy win on Monday with a victory in the CART Champ Car race at the fabled Milwaukee Mile. Strangely enough, Indy winners don't fare well at Milwaukee, which is traditionally run the week after the 500.
On average, the Indy winner takes the checker at Milwaukee about every six years.
The biggest thing about Montoya's Milwaukee victory was that it was the first-ever Champ Car win for Toyota. I wonder it Carson City Toyota is going to have a big sale in celebration. You know, "Buy an Avalon, get an Echo free" kind of deal. Dick Campagni, are you listening?
Montoya wasn't too impressive in testing earlier this week at Mid-Ohio, however, as Penske driver Gil de Ferran dusted everybody. Using the No. 2 car that won at Nazareth the day before the Indy 500, de Ferran's run harkened back to the first half of the 1990s, when the Penske team won four consecutive races (92-95) at this track, establishing race-speed records that stand to this day.
De Ferran not only set the fast time in his primary car, but he was also second quickest in his backup No. 2x machine - you might say he was beside himself. Montoya was two seconds slower than de Ferran's best run, finishing 15th on the charts. I plan to be at Mid-Ohio for the CART race in August, so I'll bring back a full report.
- In fact, I just got back Sunday night from a three-day adventure at Mid-Ohio. I was there for the Grand-Am sports car race, announcing the American City Racing League doubleheader event.
One of the ACRL cars was driven by an up and coming young driver named Andy Lally, who reminds me of Jimmy Vasser, Richie Hearn, Memo Gidley, and some other young drivers whose talent I was privileged to observe at early stages of their careers. Lally won the Saturday ACRL race from the pole, won his class in the three-hour Motorola Cup event on Sunday morning, and was leading the second ACRL race from the pole when a half-shaft broke on the car three laps from the end. Remember the name Andy Lally...you're going to see it again.
- Some time back, I wrote about the NASCAR points system and how it was developed. Well, some of the Winston Cup drivers weighed in last week with some suggestions for changes. NASCAR is looking at tweaking the system to give more weight to winning drivers.
As the system works now, the winner can walk away from a race with the same number of points as second place if the runner-up leads the most laps.
"The simplest way to do it is give the championship to the guy who wins the most races. In a perfect world, that's the way to do it," said John Andretti. "That would really put a premium on winning races and pretty much make second place what it really is -- the first loser."
Unfortunately, there would have to be tie-breakers even in such a system, in case two drivers won an equal number of races. By rewarding consistency and not giving extra weight to winning, the championship has failed to go to the driver winning the most races in 12 of the 25 years the points system has been in place. Four times has a driver has won 10 or more races and not taken home the title.
The one thing the current system has accomplished is to keep things interesting right to the end of the season. Last year, when Dale Jarrett clinched the title in the next-to-last race, it was the first time in a while that the championship didn't go down to the wire at the Atlanta season finale.
Under consideration are changes that would give a bit more weight to race winners, and perhaps points would be awarded for pole positions and fastest race laps. If you have any good ideas about this, don't tell me...call Mike Helton at NASCAR in Daytona, and give him your suggestions.
Roger Diez is the Nevada Appeal motorsports columnist.
