Helio - Barnhart - White Line

[Wilf]

Apparently Brian Barnhart told the drivers durng their meeting that they are not to drive below the white line.

For the life of me, I don't understand why this became an issue; its not like you can shortcut the circuit. Helio went slower because he moved to the left instead of taking the normal arc coming off turn two. Why would he intentionally test Barnhart?

The white line has always been a guideline for the edge of the racing surface, but it hasn't been an out of bounds designator. Even Taladega paints a yellow line to designate the out of bounds line on the backstretch.

Keep in mind, this was a situation which occurred in qualifying.

[drewdawg727]

If anyone watched the qualifying on http://www.indycar.com, Castroneves told Cindric on the radio that they were going on with their "plan". What does he do? Runs below the white line all four qualifying laps. He did it purposely to test Barnhart, perhaps.

[thelurker]

Actually at chicagoland you can short cut it by going inside the white line. They mentioned it at the beginning of qualifying that the back stretch curves outwards and so a driver could short cut it a bit by going inside the white line. Therefor they said, BB told everyone not to drive below the white line.

[Mr Jinxx]

If you go below the white line you shorten the track, simple as that. Take it to its logical extreme and do a donut in the paddock

[EagleEye]

Apparently Brian Barnhart told the drivers durng their meeting that they are not to drive below the white line.

For the life of me, I don't understand why this became an issue; its not like you can shortcut the circuit. Helio went slower because he moved to the left instead of taking the normal arc coming off turn two. Why would he intentionally test Barnhart?

The white line has always been a guideline for the edge of the racing surface, but it hasn't been an out of bounds designator. Even Taladega paints a yellow line to designate the out of bounds line on the backstretch.

Keep in mind, this was a situation which occurred in qualifying.

The shorter the arc, the shorter the distance, the smaller the lap time. It is exactly short cutting the course. The fact this was discussed in the drivers meeting makes it a complete mystery why Helio drove below the line.

Having said that, Helio is still one of the best drivers in the series, and finished strong. I'm looking for the continued battles between Helio, Dixon, Kanaan and others in '09.