The IZOD IndyCar Series announced today that beginning this season, both an oval and road/street course champion will be crowned in addition to the overall champ. On August 22nd at Infineon Raceway, the last twisty in 2010, and on September 19th after Twin Ring Motegi, the 2nd to last oval, the highest-scoring driver in each of the respective categories will be honored. The season finale at Homestead-Miami will not be included in the oval championship, and instead will be used to crown the overall IZOD IndyCar Series Champion.
In addition to a monetary prize that will be announced at a later date, the top dog in each discipline will receive a trophy, each of which will be named by the fans. Media reps will nominate both oval and road/street course legends, the top-five nominees from each genre will be posted on IndyCar.com for the fans to vote. The oval championship trophy name will be announced at the Texas Motor Speedway in early June, and the twisty trophy honoree will be announced at Watkins Glen International in early July.
"The IZOD IndyCar Series offers one of the most challenging and diverse schedules in all of motorsports. We want to recognize the drivers that master the disciplines that make up this sport as they pursue the ultimate prize - the IZOD IndyCar Series championship. We feel this platform will give added value to events on our schedule and creates more momentum behind the drivers and teams that excel at ovals and road races.
The sport of Indy car racing has such a long and storied legacy of so many accomplished legends that we feel this is a great way to honor their accomplishments. Many of our current drivers admire these legends, so why not have them vie for a trophy named in honor of the drivers they strive to emulate." - IRL CEO, Randy Bernard
1 comments:
Alot of people throughout the Indycar blogosphere seem to not be too happy with this. Personally, I like it. It gives smaller teams a more attainable goal to reach and it may help them to have more credibility with sponsors. For example, Panther Racing tends to be better on the ovals while DRR tends to be better on the street courses. If they perform well, they will have something that they can use to try to attract new sponsorship. I know it sounds gimmicky, but this does not affect the on-track racing (unlike NASCAR's GWC) and the best driver of the season is still being honored.
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