Rahal and Earnhart car swap

[Jack]

It is interesting to read of the potential for Graham Rahal and Dale Earnhart to switch race cars in order to promote the National Guard. The information posted on several sites seems to indicate that Dale is worried that Chevrolet may not want him to drive a Honda (Rahal's engine brand) What do you think is the reason?

1) NASCAR doesn't want their driver in an Indy Car?

2) Chevy really has an issue with the Honda?

3) Earnhart is afraid that he may not have the skills to drive the more sophisticated Indy car? Or that he may like it?

Seems a shame that this could not take place in order to promote the National Guard.

What are your thoughts??

[Starter]

I don't think it's #1 because it has been done before. Not #3 either because all race car drivers have big egos (you need one) and until proven otherwise they think they can. So #2 it is.

[R.Lee]

Well, I'm not in favor of this. Earnhardt Jr. is off to the best start he has ever had and is in serious contention to win his first championship, this year. He needs to devote his FULL attention to winning races and the championship. He DOES NOT need distractions, period. If it is SO important that it has to be done, then wait until the end of the season to do this! As to the reasons listed above, of the three, Chevy is most likely the reason. If it were any other driver, it might not be as big an issue. Earnhardt Jr., just like his father was, is the face of Chevrolet. From the experiences that I have had, with most indy fans, they will claim it is number three and will claim that he is a coward, scared, etc. if this does not happen. Their elitest attitudes toward NASCAR drivers, NASCAR fans etc. play a HUGE part of why so many of us will have nothing to do with their series or with them!

[FormerFF]

I'd think that Chevy would veto this even if Junior could find the time. If it happens it would be with a Chevy team.

I'm sure Junior would do fine. I would hope they'd tune the suspension with a little bit of understeer since that's easier to deal with. He would have to get used to the Indycar's more rapid response and its quickness, but at least he has good oval reflexes. Some of the road course guys don't have that. Probably the most extreme example of that is Gordon Smiley's crash at Indy. If you have a strong stomach you can find it on Youtube, but I will warn you it's pretty horrible.

I don't know that he'd be particularly quick, look at how slow Juan Paul Montoya was at St. Pete, and he has years of open wheel behind him that Junior doesn't. It works both ways, look at how little success the Indycar guys have had in NASCAR, Tony Stewart excepted.

[champcarray]

How about staging this on a Saturday afternoon (after qualifying) at a NASCAR race? They race on plenty of weekends when Indycar doesn't. They could do it like the Hamilton-Stewart swap from several years ago. I think it would be good publicity for Indycar if they could pull this off during June or July after the Indy 500 buzz has died off.

[R.Lee]

I say, if it has to be done, do it at the end of the season, when nothing else is going on. That way, there is no distraction, no diversion of attention from the championship run. Just pick whatever track, do it and be done with it. Also, since at the end of the season, no one has nothing else to watch, racing wise, it will give those that care to see it something to watch, before racing goes into hibernation, for the long off season.

[FIAT1]

Now, it's true in this case that I (AKA, I don't give a crap about nascar ) don't see the point of this stunt.

[airshifter]

I don't see why they wouldn't do it. Swaps were done a couple times with Formula 1 cars. First it was Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya back when Montoya was still in F1. Then later Tony Stewart and Lewis Hamilton did it.

If nothing else it's a good way to cross promote the two sports. There are a lot of people that watch one and not the other. It also gives some good perspective of the differences in the cars, and some of the drivers comments were interesting.

[SoCalPVguy]

I think its "All of the above"


It is interesting to read of the potential for Graham Rahal and Dale Earnhart to switch race cars in order to promote the National Guard. The information posted on several sites seems to indicate that Dale is worried that Chevrolet may not want him to drive a Honda (Rahal's engine brand) What do you think is the reason?

1) NASCAR doesn't want their driver in an Indy Car?

2) Chevy really has an issue with the Honda?

3) Earnhart is afraid that he may not have the skills to drive the more sophisticated Indy car? Or that he may like it?

Seems a shame that this could not take place in order to promote the National Guard.

What are your thoughts??