Last Sunday’s “Block Party” at Detroit elicited as many screams of outrage as it did cheers of joy when IRL race director Brian Barnhart took the lead (and probably the win) away from Helio Castroneves for his door slam on Justin Wilson.

Robin,Robin,Robin, Helio wasn't blocking he was dancing. He was leading Justin was following. to the right to the right to the left,right,left,left. You'd better spend a little more time watching Dancing with the Stars,Mister. Don't confuse IRL with racin

I guess blocking is OK when Danica does it for half a lap and that leads to an accident. Of course to Robin she is from the good old USA and not one of those awful Brazilians. The IRL needs to worry more about these boring fuel runs.

blocking is a joke, it shouldnt be allowed in any type of racing. any dingbat could slide the car up and down the track, if nascar had this rule it would be no where near as lame

KimiLauda - 04 September 2008 01:09 AM

I guess blocking is OK when Danica does it for half a lap and that leads to an accident. Of course to Robin she is from the good old USA and not one of those awful Brazilians. The IRL needs to worry more about these boring fuel runs.

Briscoe did the same thing coming out of the pits to Dixon and blocked him on cold tires to maintain his position at Sonoma.

Difference here is that Dixon didn't press the issue once he got blocked and stayed where he was, Vitor did press the issue by trying to pass on the outside, so you end up with an accident.

DamonG19 - 04 September 2008 03:04 AM

KimiLauda - 04 September 2008 01:09 AM

I guess blocking is OK when Danica does it for half a lap and that leads to an accident. Of course to Robin she is from the good old USA and not one of those awful Brazilians. The IRL needs to worry more about these boring fuel runs.

Briscoe did the same thing coming out of the pits to Dixon and blocked him on cold tires to maintain his position at Sonoma.

Difference here is that Dixon didn't press the issue once he got blocked and stayed where he was, Vitor did press the issue by trying to pass on the outside, so you end up with an accident.

So your saying blocking is OK if the driver behind just plays along and lets themselves be blocked? Are you also saying that the IRL's position is that blocking is legal as long as you block with cold tires?

Robin:

Interesting for you to say that blocking has no place in racing. I guess you forgot about the slide job.

It has been a tradition in open wheel racing since the beginning. And it's still the bread-and-butter tactic in USAC, in The World of Outlaws, and on short tracks across the nation.

The slide job combines the two most exciting maneuvers in racing -- passing and blocking -- in an impeccably timed sequence.

That's why we fans love it.

What we fans don't love is investing two hours watching a boring event, then having some mindless official decide to arbitrarily change the rules at endgame.

Rules are worthless if they're not consistently enforced. And sanctioning bodies are worthless as long as they are ruled by a "fan be damned" arrogance.

Robin, you got it completely right, as usual. Blocking (OF ANY KIND) has no place in racing. PERIOD. And forget the warning, if you are a real racer you don't need it because you don't do it.

Am I the only one who is not completely surprised that Dario is returning to the IRL? His NASCAR career/sponsorship didn't work out, He won the championship and Indy 500 in 2007, Ganassi is probably the best team. Probably the surprise is this wasn't speculated more after Kanaan stayed with AGR, Chipster wasn't happy to have Wheldon returned.

Robin,

Many of the pieces in your Mail Bag this week related to Helio's blocking penalty. In general, I agree with you on the whole blocking issue. To me it is kind of like in NASCRAP where if the following driver can not get by on skill or speed they just bump the other car out of the way. The officials in that series often talk about not allowing bump drafting before race, but of course it happens all the time.

I would be in favor of progressive penalties. The first driver, regardless of who or in what position found to be blocking gets a warning that every team is aware of and then next one gets moved back a place and if anyone is dumb enough to be the third driver to block gets a stop and go. I bet that blocking would stop very quickly. Blocking is for the football field, not a race track.

As for Mad Dog or Milk and Doughnuts, as you have mentioned before, what is wrong with the 120% rule? If you can't qualify with in 120% of the pole sitter, either get a driver in your car who can (PT, Tags, Nelson Phillipe, Sarah Fisher or Jay Howard) or put the car back in the truck and go home.

In the moto world, the "slide job" is called a "block pass". Key thing is that it's a pass first, and then, if it will stick on the other guy's line, he has to lift. It's offense, not defense; passing, not blocking. It's OK, Helio's move wasn't.