Dale Coyne Racing

With attendance at an all-time low, who would have ever thought the IZOD IndyCar series would be willing to lose more revenue by penalizing one the series' hottest drivers?

Now, I’m not talking about hottest as in a driver, who is consistently in victory lane, but instead a driver who at one time was probably a prom queen, and she holds four masters degrees in naval engineering.

In the sex sells society in which we live, not even those accomplishments were enough to keep Milka Duno, a Venezuelan born, former model, Indy car racer who holds the record for the highest finish for a female driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona from being put on probation.

The Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body for the IZOD IndyCar Series, has placed driver Milka Duno on probation through Dec. 31, 2010 for not consistently meeting minimal performance standards.

Duno's probation requires immediate and substantial improvement to her driving during the remaining events on the 2010 schedule.

Substantial improvement is defined as consistently meeting the performance standards set by the league on a particular circuit.

On road and street courses this is measured in terms of time (107 percent of lead car), and on ovals it is measured in terms of speed (10 mph of the lead car).

In addition to time and speed, other requirements include car control/placement and interaction with other cars on track.

If the improvements are not met, the league may impose other penalties at its discretion.

Pursuant to Rule 9.3 (C): The Senior Official may place a member on probation. Probation is a state of limitation upon a Member's privileges usually following an act or omission occurring before or during membership with which calls into question the Member's willingness or ability to abide by standards required for membership.

The purpose of probation is to establish a process to allow a Member to prove, by the Member's conduct, that the standards of membership are understood and will be honored at all times.

During probation, a member is under heightened scrutiny and a member can be required to abide by specific standards of conduct which are more stringent than those which are otherwise applicable.

If a member violates probation, the member is subject to a more severe penalty. The duration and condition of the probation are within the discretion of the officials.

Duno will have the opportunity to contest the penalty, pursuant to the IZOD IndyCar Series rule book.

At long last fans of IndyCar may be relieved of watching Milka Duno take up space on tracks where she clearly does not belong.

The IndyCar officials have placed Duno on probation for the rest of the year for failing to consistently meet minimal performance standards.

The series officials also say Duno needed to show "immediate and substantial improvement to her driving" by the end of the season.

Her inability to compete was cited as was her decision making ability. 

It is about time. She was considered a hazard last week at Toronto for driving so slowly.

She has been pulled off the track by officials at two races this season.

Duno has received criticism from other drivers because of her on-track antics behind the wheel of her Citgo No. 18 car.

She has never won a race and never will at the IndyCar level. 

After all the laps she has logged since her debut in the series during the 2007 season, she still fails to show any signs of potential with the open-wheel cars.

Duno's record shows her highest finish as 21st in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She did not qualify for the Indy 500 and currently ranks 25th in the series points standings.

The 38-year-old Venzuelan drives for Dale Coyne Racing with teammate Alex Lloyd.

Duno was invited to a Porsche Driving Clinic by a friend in 1998. She progressed through various series, finally landing in an IndyCar race.

Her automotive expertise appears to be with sports cars where her finishes have been more impressive.

It just may be that recent decisions made by IndyCar officials may have her reconsidering a return to a career for which she is more suited.

She has the credentials of a woman with considerable intelligence. Her educational background includes master's degrees in Organizational Development, Naval Architecture, Maritime Business and Marine Biology.

Duno has also worked as a naval engineer.

Just maybe it is time for Milka Duno to pull off the track for good in the IndyCar series and perhaps utilize all that education for the good.

A competitor in a road race has a gearbox malfunction. He pits, but the box is jammed in fourth gear. The team opts to send him back out to finish the race instead of effecting the time-consuming repairs.

Dude motors around well off the pace, stacking up traffic at several corners on the circuit. He wants to stay out and maybe collect a couple of extra championship points, and his sponsor would rather see the car on track. So he does his best to yield the racing line, but it is what it is. No way he can stay in the hunt.

Should he be black flagged? In my opinion yes, but it depends on the rules. If the rules specify a minimum speed in relation to the leaders, there is no grey area. Too slow = day over.

If the rule says the discretion of the Senior Official is the determining factor, he either grabs the black flag...or the blue one.

Milka Duno is no different. Most days she is, by far, the slowest car on the track. Safer than many, and sometimes there are slower cars. There were cars that could have been black flagged at Homestead last year, Sarah Fisher in particular.

The IRL rules give the decision to the Senior Official. So he black flags Milka when he sees fit, and Brian Barnhart has seen fit to do so very often. No problem.

No need to show anybody up, alienate a sponsor, cheat a team owner out of appearance money, or exaggerate the safety concerns: there are drivers on track who have caused a number of wrecks, and some may have even been intentional. Not Milka Duno.

So the problem is handled safely and discretely. Then a few bloggers shoot their mouth off, the masses jump on the bandwagon, and now it's a problem for everybody from the CEO to the guy who rebuilds Alex Lloyd's gearbox.

That's the kind of crap that should be black flagged. If better logic is required to determine who is granted a competition license, or whether a 93% minimum speed regulation is necessary, then fix it.

Otherwise, use the existing rules with discretion as Barnhart has done. No witch hunt required.

Ryan Hunter-Reay complains about getting balked of a qualifying lap, after having lost a couple by spinning himself out. The next week he punts Dixon off course.

Penalties for causing a yellow? Black flags? Witch hunts?

Nope. Racin' deals, according to the decision of the Senior Official.

So are slow cars on track. Hunt down the Senior Official and hand him your complaint if you don't like the call. That's his job.

As for the witch hunters: your Twit fingers now have the green flag to race into action. That's the way issues get settled these days, by gathering enough support to shout down a minority opinion. Pop off a few cheap shots, taken behind the back or not. Maybe let your hon do it for you instead. 

Or you can cowboy up, hunt down the Senior Official, and hand him your complaint.

Door's open.

 

The stage was set.

A winner-take-all finale, with the three top drivers in the sport in a 200 lap showdown.

Blasting through lap traffic, Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe drove like heroes. Briscoe ran the high line like a man possessed, and both chased the right to claim the title of IICS Champion...no matter who was chasing who on every lap.

And lurking behind, staying on the lead lap and within striking distance, was Dario. He had matched Dixon's pace early on, but lacked enough front grip to maintain the flat-out pace and dropped back behind the leaders.

Ganassi decided to take advantage and change Franchitti's fuel strategy. A bit of front wing on his first pit stop, and Dario had the grip he needed...and a four lap advantage on his pit sequences, compared to the blistering pace set by Dixon and Briscoe.

I never sat down after lap 50. The stage was set. It was magic.

You can tell me that this was another tarnished result, dependant on fuel mileage and not driving skill. Since when? Fuel strategy has been a strategic variable in every IndyCar race ever run. Varying mileage rates from different engine types, sequences altered by yellow flags...or the absence of them. Different mileage from varying levels of drag and alternate driving styles.

Stretch the interval, and you shorten the refueling time for your pit stops as the race progresses. Gain speed differential as you race with a lighter fuel load on board than your competitors. Those are factors in every race, and this was no different. Just better.

And when it was over, there sat Briscoe on the blistered front tire of his rocket. Exhausted from the heat, and the effort of a championship performance that came up short. Only then did he realize who it was he had been chasing, and how it came to be that he couldn't catch him. Magic.

If you were at the race, you might not have realized the drama that was building. Few could hear the P.A. system, or manage to sort out the leaders among the string of cars that had missed the setup by a Florida mile.

If you watched on TV, maybe you were depending on those announcers to spell it out. They missed it, until the building signs had reached the point of becoming obvious.

People, there isn't much more to say. That was good product. Maybe it wasn't explained well enough, or sold well enough to attract the attention it deserved, but the entertainment value was in full display, and it couldn't have been scripted much better.

Eddie Gossage of Texas Motor Speedway says that the Izod IndyCar Series needs a Nascar-style "Chase" for the championship. Are you kidding me?

You think any better "chase" can be contrived than the one everybody missed at Homestead? Fuggedaboutit.

I read that Mr. Gossage is a great promoter and an ally of IndyCar. Mr. Bernard holds him in high regard, and selected Gossage as the race track promoters' representative to sit on the ICONIC panel.

Right now, I hope there is a massive crowd assembling at the Texas Motor Speedway for tonight's Firestone 550K. There was almost no one in the stands last night to see who was chasing who in the Nascar Camping World Truck Series race.

Tomorrow, I hope Mr. Gossage and his boss Bruton Smith continue to plan future IndyCar oval races at Texas. And New Hampshire, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and all the tracks under the SMI umbrella. IndyCar needs them.

More importantly, IndyCar needs effective promotion that attracts the fans that they need even more. If Robby Knievel motorcycle jumps or Mark Wahlberg in the two-seater gets the job done, hats off to the guys who figured out how to run the show.

And if Texas is a success, and SMI adds even more to the Series next year, then they can have a "Chase" or whatever contrivance Messer's Gossage and Smith require.

That's all it will take. I'll be happier just to stand up and watch the show. You won't have to tell me who is chasing who.

Notes for tonight

Beware the marbles. Firestone has brought the right side tires from Kansas, which might show durability problems under the increased loads and track temperature. Two grooves shouldn't be a problem. Three-wide might be.

"Push to pass" continues to produce a thousand words of hype and a whopping 9 HP. That's why the leaders often don't even bother to use it most of the time.

This is full throttle, pack racing specs at its finest. Low aero drag, and the setup that IICS says will enable nose to tail running from the reductions to wake turbulence. We'll see.

Huge props to Alex Lloyd and Dale Coyne Racing for qualifying sixth, and for their well-earned fourth place finish at Indy (thanks to a steady drive and effective FUEL STRATEGY).

To those who decry the lack of Americans on the grid, I'm right there with you. Ryan Hunter-Reay might well be running his last race of the season. Thanks, Izod. Here's to you, Snapple. Maybe if Snapple spokesman and Poison frontman Brett Micheals was riding in the two-seater, 200,000 Snapple Facebook fans would turn on the race tonight. Nuthin' but a good time, indeed.

And that No. 19 car? Isn't that the one that Graham Rahal passed up to avoid a two year contract with a mid-pack team? Didn't Hildebrand have a shot at that seat too?

At least the Boy Scouts of America are getting the representation they deserve from Alex and Dale. That's over two million young fans and their families to please. Why the IndyCar Series hasn't done more to promote that endorsement is another example of missing the setup.

Tag, go win some money. We need you. Hideki, too. They are both stand-up guys.