IndyCar to reverse doubleheader grids in 2014?
“As soon as I saw this story, my comments were really taken out of context and spun in a different direction," Barfield confirmed. “What I had mentioned to the writer was that among the possibilities of many different things that we considered for setting the grid for 2013 doubleheaders was inverting the field. I was explaining items that had been batted around, not what people can expect to see."
The doubleheader concept and place on the 2013 calendar at Detroit’s Belle Isle, the streets of Toronto and around Houston’s Reliant Park, was the brainchild of former IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, but the enthusiasm for administering those three events wasn't universal.
“I went into some detail saying that I'm not a believer in the inversion like they did at Texas a couple years ago, or in that case, it was more of spinning the wheel to see where you’ll start, which kind of split people into areas on the starting grid with people they wouldn’t usually race side-by-side with. It wasn’t something we were going to here," he said.
“So the only real solution that came to that really gruesome experience was to invert the field, not based on any times or finishing order from Saturday, but based on points, championship points, after Saturday's race. Then if you're in contention, if you’re racing someone legitimately for either a position or for the championship, at least you would still be near them." Speedtv.com
02/07/13
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| Beaux Barfield |
IndyCar race director Beaux Barfield told this week's AUTOSPORT magazine he will consider a reversal of the grid order for the second race of doubleheader weekends in 2014.
“For the sake of what we'll try to achieve with the doubleheaders, I want to do something to set the two races apart, to give them the potential to look different without being arbitrary in doing so," Barfield told this week's AUTOSPORT magazine. “One item that I had in mind is a kind of inversion of the field on day two. This year we decided to be conservative and go with the open qualifying session."
“Inverting the field based on points would leave you racing with the people you ‘should' be racing near, or at least that you are contending with in a championship scenario," he said.
Barfield noted, however, that there will be no decisions made about a revision of the starting rules until later in the year, after this season's “conservative" approach is evaluated. Racer.com