The 2000's, in Review: Part 2

The 5 Worst Races at IMS
Because they couldn't all be amazing, a few had to fall flat

5. 2007 Indianapolis 415


The race itself was not bad. In fact, it was quite exciting as Andretti Green Racing dominated most of the day and Marco Andretti wound up flipping over to bring out the caution that would eventually lead to the end of the race. But what made it the 5th worst race in the last decade was that it rained. Not once, but twice. It cut the race short by 34 laps. Dario Franchitti wound up winning. I think what ruined this race the most for me was that Tony Kanaan was going to finally win at the Speedway but he had to pit right before the rains came.

4. 2009 Brickyard 400

Boring. Just boring. The COT is awful. I took my buddy to the race and he fell asleep about 30 laps in. Juan Pablo Montoya was destroying the field, which was pretty awesome, until he decided to speed down pitroad, killing his chances of winning. And then it turned into the Jimmie Johnson show. Really? In the history of sports, has there every been anyone as dominant as Jimmie Johnson who also had the personality of a plastic bag? I think I saw 2 green flag passes. So boring. So yeah, that was a pretty bad race.

3. 2002 United States Grand Prix

This was just your usual run-of-the-mill Michael Schumacher-dominated Formula 1 Grand Prix. Until Schumi decided to repay his teammate Rubens Barrichello for slowing down and letting him drive by for the win on the last lap at Austria the year before. They decided on a repeat performance, which was quite obvious as Michael was 45 seconds ahead with 2 laps left and slowed down to let Rubens win by .011 of a second. It was a decent race but no one wants to see results manipulated. You drive to win the race!

2. 2008 Brickyard 400

Ah, yes. The first race of the COT era at the Brickyard. If only I'd had nails with me that day, I would have gladly jabbed them into my eyes. To make a long story short due to the nausea of remembering that day: Goodyear was really smart (sarcasm) and decided to only have 3 cars test their tires with the brand new car at the speedway. The new car was extremely top heavy and the tires could only last for about 10 laps. So NASCAR, being the genius problem solvers that they are, chose to throw a competition caution every 10 laps to let teams change tires. And on top of this, Jimmie Johnson won. Just a perfect storm of boredom. It only took 5 hours to finish the damn race. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

1. 2005 United States Grand Prix

The Michelin cars are retired before the race.
The fans immediatly got pissed, especially those that had traveled from afar.
The 6 remaining cars start the race.

I don't believe that a worse racing event has ever taken place (outside of one in which life is lost).
In Formula 1, there were 2 tire manufacturers, Michelin and Bridgestone. 3 teams ran with Bridgestone and the other 7 ran with Michelin. The tire that Michelin brought to the race kept failing and Ralf Schumacher suffered two terrible accidents during practice that were blamed on the tires being insufficient. As a result, Michelin demanded that a temporary chicane be put in Turn 13 (oval Turn 1) to slow the cars down as this was the corner in which the tires kept failing. The Bridgestone teams completely disagreed with this (why should they be punished for their rivals' bonehead) and no resolution was ever formed. So when it came time to race, all 20 cars took the the grid and looked ready to roll, but on the warmup lap, the 14 Michelin cars pulled into the pits and retired from the race, leaving 6 cars on the starting grid. Unbelievable. And the 6 cars that were left: the Ferraris who were going to dominate anyway, the Jordans who were pretty bad at that point, and the Minardis who gained notoriety for consistently being the worst Formula 1 team. Sure enough, the Ferraris ran away with it but I wasn't around long enough to see this. After many folks in the stand began throwing their beer cans and water bottles onto the track 10 laps in, we packed up and left. The worst day I've ever witnessed at 16th and Georgetown, and hopefully I never see a worse one.

Tomorrow's Review: The 5 Best Colts Games