...about the return of the Verizon IndyCar Series to Phoenix

The Verizon IndyCar series returned to Phoenix International Raceway after an 11 year absence. It also marked the first time in several seasons that IndyCar has raced on an oval before the Indy 500.

While the IndyCar community (teams, drivers, and fans, including me) were excited to see Phoenix return to the calendar, the event had its share of problems.

Both Takuma Sato and James Hinchcliffe both destroyed their cars in the sole practice session leading up to qualifying. Neither would be able to qualify, and started at the back of the grid for Saturday night's race. Carlos Muñoz crashed hard in qualifying and would also start from the back. All three were cleared to race on Saturday night

Interestingly, all three wrecks were in Honda-powered cars, which lead me (and some others that I follow on Twitter) to speculate that maybe Honda was trying just a bit too hard to catch up with the dominant Chevy teams. Were they trimming out too much? All of the top 10 positions in qualifying were taken by Chevy teams.

However, Honda proved again that whatever they lack in qualifying, they make up for it in the race. Graham Rahal finished 5th after starting way back in 20th. Ryan Hunter-Reay made a monster start, going around the outside in turns 1 and 2, gaining several positions. He would eventually finish 10th.

Only two drivers, Ed Carpenter and Carlos Muñoz failed to finish. Both Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya had tire problems during the race, perhaps due to some overly-aggressive setups.

But I think the biggest problem with the return of IndyCar to Phoenix was a severe lack of people in the seats around the track. We (IndyCar fans) have been clamoring for this series to come back to Phoenix for years (well, 11 to be exact), and it's frankly shocking that so few people showed up at the track. Was it a lack of promotion?

There were also some issues with the on-track "product." The high downforce configuration that all of the teams were running meant that it was difficult for one car to follow closely behind another, making it difficult to pass. NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) remarked on Twitter, "I'm so thankful @nascar is taking the downforce off our cars. These @IndyCar guys haven't made a competitive pass yet."

This led to some, shall we say, heated debate on Twitter, but he's not wrong. Former driver Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) agreed, saying "skill + bravery of @IndyCar drivers off the scale, series needs to look at downforce levels + how the car produces it though."

They both make excellent points. High levels of downforce created by multi-element wings creates a huge amount of turbulence, leaving the following car in "dirty" air, so they can't get close enough to pass. Formula One has had that problem for years, prompting the sanctioning body to create the Drag Reduction System (DRS), which opens up the rear wing of the car that's behind, adding several miles per hour and making it easier to set up a pass. However, if there were lower levels of downforce overall, and simpler wings (front and rear), a lot of these problems would simply not exist. (I'll talk about other issues I have with F1 in another post.)

Anyway, enough of me blabbing on for now. That's my two cents about the Phoenix IndyCar race over the weekend. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below!