CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
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| 1. While the IndyCar Series races in Japan this weekend, the old Champ Car teams will race in Long Beach. Agree or disagree with the IRL's decision to count both events in the standings? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Pete Pistone |
 My knee-jerk reaction was that it was just plain dumb. I mean, rather than make both races count, why not do the reverse and make neither count for this week? That would seem to make more sense. But I've softened my stance since I heard the plan. In fact, I'm starting to think it might be a cool idea if we saw more such weekends. I don't know that I have the perfect plan, but I think there's something that can be made of this split in the future. It could be similar to the divisional system in the stick and ball sports. Half the drivers race ovals, half on street/road courses and then after a certain number of races, the top 10 drivers from each division meet in an eight-to-10 race "playoff" similar to NASCAR's Chase in which they'll race on an even split of oval and street/road courses to decide the champion. |  Disagree, but I guess I don't have an alternative. This hopefully will be the last mess to clean up in the unification of open-wheel racing, which so far is off to a good start. But this weekend certainly won't help any with one side of the series racing in the prestigious event through the streets of Long Beach while the other competes halfway around the world in Japan. Maybe the fairer thing to do was make both races non-points events, as will most likely happen to the season-ending round in Australia and since both will be back in 2009 start fresh then. But the momentum of Homestead and St. Pete will certainly be lost with this split-squad weekend. |
| 2. Big Daddy Brink asks: Jimmie Johnson's fuel management strategy: Desperate attempt at a win or calculated risk? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Pete Pistone |
| I don't think it was so much desperation for a win but a bit of cockiness on the part of the No. 48 team. Crew chief Chad Knaus isn't one to play it safe and race for points. When he sees a win in sight, he makes the call and goes for it. If Johnson had run out of fuel, depending on the lap, he could have lost a bundle of points. But that wasn't of too much concern to Knaus. Even after its slow start to the season, there is probably no team more confident of making the Chase than the 48 gang. But it wasn't as if Johnson won simply because he gambled on fuel mileage. His 48 car was strong all night. Even had he pitted, he probably wouldn't have finished any worse than second and might still have won. | I'd say a little of both. Don't let the cool demeanor of Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus fool you with all their "we're not worried" talk about the slow start to the year and lack of wins. Johnson blew off his last vacation to test and I sensed a little tightness around the No. 48 garage the past two weeks. The strategy they played in Phoenix was risky but as the cards were dealt in the closing laps -- with challengers being forced to pit road one-by-one for fuel -- the risk became less and less, with Johnson able to back off the gas as his lead grew. Championship teams win races they aren't supposed to and that was the case in Phoenix for the No. 48 squad, which should be applauded for its strategic work. |
| 3. brnelson81 asks: Was Ryan Newman's 25-point penalty fair to all the other drivers who have been penalized 100 points, $100,000 and had their crew chiefs suspended for six races? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Pete Pistone |
| I think for Newman's particular infraction -- his car was 1/8 of an inch too high following post-race inspection at Texas -- 25 points has been the standard. And I actually have no problem with the 100-point penalties NASCAR has doled out in the past -- those usually concerned parts that didn't meet specifications. What I don't particularly understand are the suspensions. If the 100-point penalties also bring a six-week suspension for a crew chief, how does the 25-point penalty not draw at least a one-week suspension? I wouldn't be surprised if in the future that becomes the case. | NASCAR has been pretty consistent on rules infractions with the COT with the $100K/100-point penalty, but I think there also has to be some common sense thrown into the mix, which was used in the Newman case. The height of the rear end was found to be over the limit but due to a broken part, not an intentional move by Newman's team or crew chief Roy McCauley. It's sort of a ball and strike call by inspectors in each case and the decision in Texas on the No. 12 car was deemed not in the same category of what was levied against Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in past COT inspection failures. But I could see that opening a can of worms down the road. |
NYG_Babe28 
