Teams Power Plants Selections – Can We Start an Engine Points Cap?

The last few weeks we have seen some awkward moments regarding engine manufacturers and powerplant’s designation. We have basically seen that manufacturers have ALL the saying in who will drive their engines. When the manufacturers were brought back to IndyCar you surely would let them run its course so they are delighted to be back in the series. After all, it is their engines who will do the marketing punch once they reach that precious checkered-flag finish line. But, how effective is that for the overall sport? Let’s try something:

As most of you know, NFL, NHL, and NBA have a Salary Cap in place to essentially assure each sport has its balance and create parity. One thing I have started to distance myself from MLB is that the rich teams always have the “better” players. Granted, they don’t always win but, boy, they surely win a lot!

INDYCAR should establish this same philosophy with Engine Manufacturers: You can have all the teams you want, but the allocation is not based on 40% of total Full-Time cars but the amount of points (or money) the league specifies is best suited to cap the engines.

Let’s say that each engine manufacturer has 115 points in allocation at its disposal. The basic concept is as follows (previous year final standings):

• Level #1 = Cars #1 through #5 cost 20 points
• Level #2 = Cars #6 through #10 cost 15 points
• Level #3 = Cars #11 through #15 cost 12 points
• Level #4 = Cars #16 through #20 cost 9 points
• Level #5 = Cars #21 through #25 cost 6 points
• Level #6 = Cars #26 and over cost 3 points
• New driver will count toward team’s top seat position (ex: Josef Newgarden would be SFH Racing 2011 position)
• New Team will count as mid-pack team which is Level #3 per seat

On the above premises, the current 2012 IndyCar Season would have the following points allocated by each Engine Manufacturer:

• Honda (112 total points) – 10 powerplants

1. Chip Ganassi Racing (#1, #3, #9, #19) = 64 points
2. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Level #3) = 12 points
3. AJ Foyt Enterprises (#16) = 9 points
4. Dayle Coyne Racing (#22, #23) = 12 points;
5. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (#26) = 3 points
6. Sam Schmidt Motorsports – (#15) = 12 points

• Chevy (157) – 11 powerplants

1. Penske Racing (#2, #6, #11) = 47 points
2. Andretti Autosports (#7, #8, #10) = 45 points
3. Panther Racing (#14) = 12 points
4. KV Racing Technologies (#5, #13, #18) = 41 points
5. Ed Carpenter Racing (Level #3) = 12 points
   

• Lotus (51) – 5 powerplants

1. Lotus Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (#21) = 6 points
2. Lotus Dragon Racing (Level #3 x 2) = 24 points
3. HVM Racing (#20) = 9 points
4. Team Barracuda BHA (Level #3) = 12 points

Based on the information above, Chevy looks to have the advantage based on current drivers and team rosters. They seem to have picked up the best teams after Honda chose Ganassi Racing to lead them and Lotus basically took potential over reliability. It is safe to write that after a 2-year contract with the teams at the moment, there should be a cap for Chevy until the end of the 2013 season (not counting Indianapolis) unless the engine results so unreliable and everyone drops like flies in the standings this year (it won’t happen!).

You could argue that one manufacturer may produce 50%+ of the field based on this recommendation but the point is having INDYCAR control part of the process as the Series Sanctioning Body and Ruler.

I still think that Lotus could be a winner this year and compete better by 2013. They may be able to “steal” a top-tier team or may even convert one (Dragon Racing?) into one.

What do you think?

Tags: finish line, indycar season, newgarden, salary cap