This is the Stattmann Baby!!  Time to Scatt a little bit.

This afternoon, a friend was wringing her hands over Indy and what APPEARED to be too much separation between the fastest and slowest qualifiers for The 500.

Let’s look at it though.

The 33 qualifiers at Indy were within 4.4 percent of each other when the bumping ended.

For comparison, the 19 Champ Cars in Mexico this weekend were within 4.5 percent in time from fastest to slowest.

More comparison: The top 19 IRL cars were with 1.6 percent in qualifying times.  The spread was much closer or more competitive.

The 18 F1 cars at Monaco were nearly eight percent apart in qualifying times.

And the 43 Nextel Cup cars at Richmond, the last NASCAR points race, were separated by about four percent in lap times.

We all know there are lies, damned lies and statistics. But I think this shows that competition can be sport as well as entertainment.  And there’s close competition in all of these racing formulas.

So for my friends, former friends and qualified enemies who emailed me otherwise this week, get a grip!

Peace.