Driver talent not required

We have said for years that winning on the oval tracks is almost all about how fast your car is and almost zero driver. Oval lovers may disagree, but the facts are the facts. If you drive for the top-3 teams in the IRL, the teams that have all the money to do R&D (wind tunnel work shaker rig, rolling resistance, etc.) to make their cars faster, you are almost assured a win on the 100% throttle oval tracks.

Buddy Rice said he and everybody not involved in one of the top three teams – Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi or Andretti Green – are quite happy to have hit the road course run of the schedule. "They've won almost all the races the last few years," he said of the Big 3. "Racing (and winning) on the ovals is all about money."