This is the Statt Mann, Baby. It’s time to Scatt a Little Bit…

I’m completely confused at motor racing these days.  For all the talk of safety, it seems that money is in charge of decisions and that’s troubling in the extreme. (LA Times Image)

Now I don’t pretend to know all that’s going on behind the scenes at IndyCar. So this is hyperbole on my part. But watching cars flip and fly around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.

Upper most in my mind is the flip by two-time defending Pole winner Ed Carpenter. He flips upside down and slides on his helmet for a quartermile. Then he gets back in a car and goes at it again.  Where’s the concussion protocol? Is it that important for his sponsors to see him get a third straight pole?

What about flips by Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves?

And why did the auto makers produce aero kits that needed fixes right away, just days before the race?  A week ago they were all popping their collars over 230-plus mile an hour average speeds around Indy.

So knowing the cars could reach speeds nearly 100 miles an hour faster than commercial planes take off and land, why wasn’t more done to test what might be normal conditions at the Speedway?

Cars spin at Indy. Drivers make mistakes. Wind gusts play with vehicle aerodynamics in an outdoor stadium in Indiana.  At best their computer models were wrong. At worst they’re making educated guesses.

I’d hate to put my butt on the line with those odds. Obviously that’s why I’m a hack writer.

Peace.