Cubic Bucks Equal Cubic Inches Every Time
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It's interesting that last evening's Foyt decision to fire Junky, then put Ryan Hunter-Reay in the #41 car for Sunday's race, should come on the heels of writing about a reporter Q&A with John Andretti (Who's Wagging The Dog Here?) Now I may be cynical, but if last night's Texas two-step isn't an illustration of why Little John did his own 2011 Indy deal with Andretti Autosport, I don't know what is. As Steve McQueen opined in Le Mans, "This is a professional blood sport, and it can happen to you....then it can happen to you again." In Junquiera's case, truer words were never spoken, whether on, or off the racetrack.
I've been reading accounts of the eleventh hour deal struck between Andretti Autosports and AJ Foyt Racing, in addition to considering all the weeping and hand-wringing about the "integrity of Indy," and what a rotten deal it was. In my view, I have only five words to describe the entire affair - "too bad, but that's racing."
The Indianapolis 500 is not club racing folks, where decisions are made on the basis of who you do, or who you don't like. And in the case of Andretti Autosports, the organization had to literally cover its "ass-ets," since it had just completed a new sponsor deal for Hunter-Reay in the form of Sun Drop, in addition to comforting current sponsor DHL.
Since open-wheel cars cost upwards of $10 million per copy, that ain't hay, even if the car's not particularly competitive. But with the economy up its kaboodle, and with IndyCar going through its own management and financial boot camp, to have failed to get both of these sponsors to the racetrack on Memorial Day, would have been tantamount to committing corporate suicide.
On the other hand, Foyt wanted another Indy showcase, this time under his team brand. However, since the Texan has a reputation for being hard to do business with, its been slim pickin's in the "good driver" department for some time. So, to have an opportunity to put an emerging driving talent in his car for Indy, and on the cheap too boot, made a whole lot of sense.
So, in the end of the day, poor Junquiera got the hook, while the principals and their backers moved on to Carb Day. Years ago, former Jaguar Team Manager Tony Dowe counciled me that, at the top of the sport, winning is based on dominance. But to make dominance work, one has to fuel the experience with liberal amounts of cold hard cash. So, the next time you get yourself wrapped around the axle about a driver swap follow the money. Because cubic bucks do, in fact, create cubic inches, whether literally or figuratively.