A thousand miles away from the Lone Star State — in the middle of preseason testing in Florida — a race at Texas Motor Speedway three months from now is the hot topic among IndyCar Series drivers.
And while many have voiced concerns about the safety of racing on the high-banked 1.5-mile Texas track, competitors wholeheartedly dismiss recent speculation that there could be any type of organized driver boycott for the June 9 race scheduled there.
“It was quite clear (a boycott) was never an option,’’ reigning IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti told reporters Wednesday at the series’ preseason Media Day in St. Petersburg.
Since the tragic death of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon in the IndyCar Series finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October, safety at the 1.5-mile high-banked tracks such as Las Vegas and its sister venue, Texas Motor Speedway, has come under scrutiny.
As first reported by FOXSports.com in the days following Wheldon’s death, drivers have specific concerns about the fencing at those Speedway Motorsports Inc.-owned tracks, where the support poles on the wire fencing are on the inside of the track. Wheldon’s head hit a pole in his fatal accident. The accident investigation found that while the fence resulted in Wheldon’s non-survivable injuries, the fence system did “function as designed.”
Drivers say a boycott at Texas is nonrealistic despite the idea being tossed around by news outlets in recent weeks, but they are frustrated and disappointed by what they perceive as an unwillingness to, literally, mend the fences.
Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage has insisted all along that there is nothing wrong with the fencing system at his track. And he was miffed at any talk of a boycott because of what that might do for ticket sales at his massive facility - which consistently boasts the largest IndyCar Series crowd outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m really disappointed and don’t know why IndyCar drivers feel the need to constantly damage the sport,” Gossage told Racin’ Today website last week. “You know, engineers have told us over and over that the current fence design is the best that technology provides us today. But if you were a sponsor, if you were a fan, if you were a TV network – why would you get involved with IndyCar racing if they can’t tell you today where they’re going to race tomorrow? And the drivers – the spokespersons for the sport – are tearing it down?
"It's absolutely irresponsible of those drivers, and they deserve — because of the way they conduct themselves sometimes — they deserve where they stand now in the food chain of motorsports."
IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard went so far as to publicly reassure Gossage that the series is 100 percent committed to racing there this June. The Las Vegas track is not on the 2012 schedule.
“We want the tracks to be as safe as they can for us and the fans,’’ Franchitti said. “Everyone should be moving forward to make the sport safer and we want everybody, all the promoters help in that.
“I think it seems as if Gossage is trying to use the drivers concerns about this as a way of promoting. And that’s not very nice.’’
The way IndyCar veteran Oriol Servia sees it, there are two issues with Texas – both resolvable.
“And I kind of hate that it’s getting mixed up,’’ said Servia. “One thing is the pack racing – there shouldn’t be pack racing anywhere. Texas being a high-banked oval, sometimes it happens more often and that’s up to the series to come up with the right package so we aren’t pack racing. And that’s doable.’’
Then Servia’s voice rose and he made careful eye contact with the small group of reporters.
“My biggest issue is how the fence is built in those tracks,’’ Servia said. “I’m not a fence engineer. I just know if I can avoid hitting a post or a pole, I would rather slide through the wire before I hit a pole. Those tracks I believe are the only ones on the planet who are built that way.
“We had many races there without issues, but every time a car hits the fence there it’s been horrible and that’s why. You hit a pole because they stick out. That’s my issue, nothing else.
"Pack racing can be solved and it’s a little bit in our hands to take care of each other. It’s up to the series to make it difficult for us to be in a pack. The fence is the issue. I use this example, if I’m on a freeway in a motorcycle and I crash and I am going to hit the guardrail, I want to hit the guardrail, not the poles behind the guardrail and I don’t need any kind of scientific study to tell me that.
“It’s just common sense to me. I just hate that it seems like we’re not working together to find a solution.’’
