Motorsport News: Russ Bond's Weekly Report

The problem from a team standpoint was that Ryan Newman was also a lap down, and with Busch passing Kenseth, he effectively gave Newman the 'Lucky Dog' and put him back on the lead lap during the

The Roush Racing crew busts out a pit stop on the race leading Ford Taurus of Matt Kenseth. Teammate Mark Martin won the race while Kenseth finished 5th. (Photo: Autostock)

next yellow. Had Busch fallen into line behind Kenseth, he would have gotten the lucky dog, leaving Newman still a lap down. Newman didn't have the pace needed to earn the Lucky Dog on his own, so had Busch been more alert to the overall situation, rather than just proving he was faster than Kenseth, Roush could have likely made Newman finish in the 30's, rather than where he did - on the lead lap in 23rd. The highest he could have finished a lap down would have been 26th, a 15 point difference. Those 15 points would have dropped Newman to fourth, instead of second, where he is now.

Charlotte is Saturday night, and with the new surface, most that have tested there say it is 'nearly' flat out all the way around. This means passing will be difficult, and expect the 'move me up the order' two tire stops to be more en vogue this weekend.

Finally, Roush finishing one, two, and three is a good thing for the Roush team, but it could also fuel more 'competition' between teammates. Keep an eye on how the teammates interact at Charlotte and beyond, it could get ugly.

Ganassi's Plan

One of the most interesting 'plans', or rumours of plans circulating within the open wheel ranks has been attributed to Target's Chip Ganassi. The idea is basically to have a championship without a series. You see, Ganassi

Ganassi thinks setting up an open wheel championship which lets you earn points in both the IRL and ChampCar is a good idea. (Photo: Autostock)

thinks setting up an open wheel championship which lets you earn points in both the IRL and ChampCar is a good idea. Teams could run races on either schedule, and then gain points towards this new championship. This will be a tough sell to both the IRL and Champcar, as neither would have control of the championship - and teams would come and go each race weekend. For teams, it means they could basically cherry pick what races they want to run, and more importantly, those they don't want to run. For instance, teams would take IRL cars to Indy, Champcars to Long Beach and so on, gaining points in this new championship. The chink in the armour is a team that elects to run all the races that don't conflict in both series, but that's easy to solve, making only a team's 10 or 12 best results count towards this new championship. Regarding this new idea, Jimmy Vasser's famous quote, "There is no 'I' in team, but there is in Chip," has never been truer.