Overheard in Miami

It was warm and sunny at Miami Homestead Speedway Friday where the IndyCar teams were gathered for their season finale. All eyes are on Dario Franchitti and Will Power who are neck and neck for the title. The two team's garages are side-by-side as are their pits……..The first practice was rather processional with no major incidences……..Sarah Fischer's car is painted pink this weekend in support of the Susan G. Komen Cancer foundation, but Dollar General is still on the car on black letters……….Hearing that Tip Nunn is stepping down as PR director for the St. Petersburg IndyCar race. No word yet on who will step in to fill the role…….Some of the track personnel here think that IndyCar will be back after a 1-year hiatus in 2011. Don't hold your breath…….Target Chip Ganassi Racing owner Chip Ganassi met the media this morning. TCGR driver Dario Franchitti is 12 points behind points leader Will Power entering the season finale this weekend. He feels his driver has the edge going in. "We’re in this sport for weekends like this. We’re in this sport for competition like this." (Does your experience in these championship fights give you an edge this weekend): “I think we have an edge. I look back to where we were a year ago coming into this race, where nobody gave Dario a shot at winning the championship last year. It was Dixon or Briscoe. We were back there on another strategy that worked out. Coming into this situation, the pressure is off us. It’s very hard to do what our competitors have to do, which is maintain. It’s very hard to do as a race driver. While I’d rather not have a 12-points deficit on our side, I like our position better. I think we have the driver and the team to do what we need to do. I think it’s his sort of a “been there, done that" kind of thing. I think he has all the tools he needs. This will be just one more feather in his cap."…………We hear that Dale Coyne's team will probably look the same next year with Alex Lloyd and Milka Duno……Ran into Oriol Servia who is still trying to put together a deal for next year. He is frustrated because in a small country like Spain they get 1 million TV viewers for the Nissan Series races, yet IndyCar is lucky to get 1/2 million in a big country like the USA……….Also ran into Bruno Junqueira who still lives in Miami even though he races in the truck series in Brazil. He gets paid by Ford to drive in Brazil and he said there are 4 or 5 manufacturers in the series and it is a big success. "We go out to the middle of nowhere and we still sell out every seat." The lesson learned here is that auto manufacturer involvement is the key to the success of every prosperous race series and that will be the legacy of Randy Bernard – whether he can land more manufacturers for IndyCar……….Jonathan Summerton is in Miami this weekend looking for a possible IndyCar ride in 2011. Mark C. reporting from Miami