Indy Racing League Set to Introduce B-Features

Note to the overly serious: everything below is made up.

The Indy Racing League hopes a page out of the tried-and-true sprint-car program will help increase interest in the IRL.

Starting in 2007, the Indy Racing League will introduce "B Feature" races. Long a staple of dirt-track racing, the IRL hopes the B Feature will help hold the interest of people who are "getting a little sick of watching four guys battle for the win."

During a press conference at the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa Saturday the league outlined details of the new program. Based on qualifying speeds, the back half of the field will hold a "B Feature" race as a warm up to the "A Feature." The top four of the B Feature will be added to the end of the field for the A Feature.

The goal is to provide a second race on IRL weekends for fans of drivers other than the big three teams that generally bitchslap the field every race weekend. "We hope that these B Features will give fans who don't happen to cheer for one of the Penske, Ganassi or Andretti Green drivers for a reason for showing up at the race," said Skeeter Backmarker, director of "competition" for the IRL. "I mean, if you're a fan of Scott Sharp or Kosuke Matsuura or Sarah Fisher or Jeff Bucknum -- any of the drivers for the lower-budget teams -- you might as well have taken a nap during the IRL races last year. No way on God's Green Earth your driver is going to win. This B Feature means you'll at least get to watch your driver compete for a B Feature win. That's better than watching him or her fight hard for 12th in the regular race."

The B Feature move is the latest effort by the IRL to address the disparity of equipment and funding throughout the league. In 2006, even once-mighty AGR got slapped silly by Penske and Ganassi on ovals over one mile.

"When two teams (Penske and Ganassi) win 12 of 14 races, that's a bitchslapping," said Backmarker. "We're trying to address the problem in the same way we addressed the total lack of drama during 'bump day' at the Indy 500, by dicking around with the format."

Fans were generally OK with the change, although they said they'd prefer cost reduction methods that would allow more teams to actually compete for a win.

"Yeah, you know, I guess it's OK," said one Sarah Fisher fan who asked not to be identified. "Last race I went to I just watch Sarah race with Bryan Herta and Jeff Bucknum for 15th during the race. I knew one of the Ganassi cars was going to win so, you know, kind of no drama there. I watched the front four (Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Sam Hornish) for maybe 10 laps."

In other news, ABC/ESPN reportedly is considering having a second set of announcers who will broadcast every IRL race on ESPN2. The Deuce's announcers will concentrate on places 6 through 20. "If they want to know who of the four is winning the race, they can tune in to ESPN or ABC," a network spokesman said. ESPN/ABC thinks ratings for the "Sixth and worse" race will quickly exceed those of the "which Penske or Ganassi Car Wins this Week" race coverage.

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