SPOILER: It finally happened...

[Insomniac]

The mandatory pit wondows turned the race upside down. Up until now, people gained a lot of places but never won the race. I'm personally surprised it took this long to happen. Seems comparable to the number of times someone won saving fuel. It is cleary not immune to these problems. With that said, maybe it is time to just do away any control of the pit stops or go back to the way of last year.

[nrc]

With that said, maybe it is time to just do away any control of the pit stops or go back to the way of last year.

I disagree. As you said this bit of luck seems no more likely than the chance than winning on a fuel strategy used to be. But the difference is that this year we're seeing racing while last year we saw a lot of people settling into a strategy and just circulating.

[Ruben Barrios]

Both Tags and Lavin were fast too. Not like the backed into a win (a la Mad Max). It was a great effort by all the teams involved.

[losedagrooves]

that yellow was early in the race and Tag had lots of opportunities to screw the pooch over the rest of the race. Surprisingly he held it together. Should have been at belle isle.

[P Hanley]

I know that every driver has the same rules, but I really believe that todays race is a perfect example of rules taking the racing from the drivers and pit crews. Mandatory Pitstops is silly to me. Give everybody the same amount of fuel, same amount of tires, and the same amount of laps to complete, and may the best driver and strategy win the race. Please explain why it should be different than this.

[Michaelhatesfans]

I know that every driver has the same rules, but I really believe that todays race is a perfect example of rules taking the racing from the drivers and pit crews. Mandatory Pitstops is silly to me. Give everybody the same amount of fuel, same amount of tires, and the same amount of laps to complete, and may the best driver and strategy win the race. Please explain why it should be different than this.
Ah, F1 pre-94. Sigh. I miss that.

[Railbird]

The purist in me says "scrap the pit rules" while the racefan in me says "what the hell, they were getting after it all day today"

Of course the purist in me says "my two year old pickup truck has traction control" while the racefan in me says "wow, did you see that?"

I have these arguments all the time.

[Ziggy]

I tried to watch the race from my TV set

when did it start???

[FanofMario]

I know that every driver has the same rules, but I really believe that todays race is a perfect example of rules taking the racing from the drivers and pit crews. Mandatory Pitstops is silly to me. Give everybody the same amount of fuel, same amount of tires, and the same amount of laps to complete, and may the best driver and strategy win the race. Please explain why it should be different than this.

The best common sense post of the season to date! :thumbup:

[Railbird]

Come on Zig, we all know you were just too overwhelmed by the Jethrocity today to take in any other event..

How'd lil E do today?

did ya see anyone wearin any cool gear?

[Sean O'Gorman]

The pit rules were put into effect to try and encourage passing and discourage winning on fuel strategy, mainly because of such a large portion of the schedule being made up of dull street circuits with no passing opportunities. Of course, once we get to a real race track, the pit rules are unnecessary and the rules only ruined what could've been a good flatout run to the checkered.

[darrylkropp]

There was a lot of hard racing yesterday, but the mandatory green flag pitstops sure made the result more of a crapshoot than anything. SB did had better strategy than Tracy to get to 3rd (I cannot figure out why Forsythe didn't bring him in when SB went in), but Tag's strategy to win was more luck than anything. However, it was good to see him finally get a win.

[nrc]

The pit rules were put into effect to try and encourage passing and discourage winning on fuel strategy, mainly because of such a large portion of the schedule being made up of dull street circuits with no passing opportunities. Of course, once we get to a real race track, the pit rules are unnecessary and the rules only ruined what could've been a good flatout run to the checkered.

I think that's nonsense. Setting a fuel strategy and just circulating became the standard procedure at *alI* the tracks, including the natural terrain courses. The increasing lack of passing or even hard racing was rampant across all types of courses. Teams would rather qualify well and "engineer" a good finish than actually race.

[Old3Fan]

The pit rules were put into effect to try and encourage passing and discourage winning on fuel strategy.

And now the strategy is when you are behind, pit early and pray for a yellow so you can advance to the front ahead of the leaders who qualified up front.
In the IRL this is known as the Sarah Fisher strategy. :thumdown:

I guess the only way to get around this wonderful rule is for everyone to pit at their first pit window opening then the yellows would not matter. :confused:

How about smaller fuel tanks and a tanker of fuel for each car to be used in a balls to the wall fight to be in front and win by going "FAST" and let the teams decide when "THEY" want to pit. :thumbup:

[Sean O'Gorman]

I think that's nonsense. Setting a fuel strategy and just circulating became the standard procedure at *alI* the tracks, including the natural terrain courses. The increasing lack of passing or even hard racing was rampant across all types of courses. Teams would rather qualify well and "engineer" a good finish than actually race.

I didn't say that it wasn't an issue at road courses, because I remember passing being difficult even at Road America back in 2002. The whole messing with the fuel windows came about in 2002, when passing was as rare as ever. Surely you can agree that there are enough on-track opportunities to pass at Road America that a mandated pit window isn't necessary?

[Dirty Sanchez]

Drop the flag and don't make them jump through your little hoops along the way. I hate pit windows and mandatory stops and whatever. :thumdown:

[nrc]

Surely you can agree that there are enough on-track opportunities to pass at Road America that a mandated pit window isn't necessary?

No I can't. And stop calling me Shirly.

The problem has less to do with course configurations than the cars and the teams. Things imrpoved some last year when they got rid of traction control and fuel mixture adjustments and they've improved more this year with some tire and rules tweaking.

The fact that people are ignoring is that yellow flag stops have *always* skewed the field. The best thing about these rules is that by requiring green flag stops races are less often decided in the pits under yellow and more often decided on the track. The bad thing is that things can still get skewed by when a yellow falls.

My preference would be to eliminate the windows completely, give them plenty of fuel and simply require all stops to be done under green. If you *must* stop under yellow then you just have to make a stop and go under green to make up for it.

[Methanolandbrats]

Drop the flag and don't make them jump through your little hoops along the way. I hate pit windows and mandatory stops and whatever. :thumdown: Exactly right. All the goofy assed micro managing makes it impossible to follow the race and the results have more to do with luck than racing strategy.

[FTG]

Is there any reason why the mandatory stops need to be under green? Seems to me that if PT's and Bourdais' yellow stop had counted, we might have had an even bettter race.

[Clown]

Everyone has to work under the same rules.
If a team can't put together a decent strategy: Too ****ing bad :cry:

[losedagrooves]

Which makes it all the harder for pure racers like PT, JPM, Zanardi et al. I can't recall them playing the fuel game. They just put the pedal down, which is really all I want to see. if someone knows differently, enlighten me. That said, you won't change my mind.