LEBANON, Tenn. — Is there a more frustrating race experience than waiting out a rain delay at an oval track?
Actually, yes. Having a road race postponed due to inclement conditions is an even rarer event. But it happens — witness the CART/Champ Car non-shows at Road America in 1986 and Montreal just last year. The snow-out at Nazareth Speedway in 2000 was another unlikely occurrence.
As a predominantly oval series, the Indy Racing League has been lucky in that regard. The last IRL race that did not run on the day scheduled was all the way back in June 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway. 
And only one other race in series history (the 1997 Indianapolis 500) got completely washed out.
In that time, two Indianapolis 500s (2004 and 2007) and the 2003 event at Richmond Int’l Raceway were shortened by rain. There have been several delays, most recently at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan and Michigan Speedway.

• At least two drivers are calling for the IndyCar Series to bring back pre-race warm-up sessions.
The Indy Racing League eliminated the final practice session at most oval tracks in early 2006 after Paul Dana was killed in the Sunday morning session at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In fact, despite having only 18 regular entries, the League now splits the field into two groups for most practice periods.
Nashville winner Scott Dixon didn’t find out his pole-winning car’s steering was incorrectly assembled for Iowa Corn 250 until the race had started. And he thinks the quality of racing in general has suffered because teams can’t assess their cars in race-day conditions.
“To be honest, I think the League maybe needs to bring back the warm-up,” he said. “Everybody gets lost in trying to go fast and qualify well, whereas the warm-up always concentrated on race setup. You go out full tanks, you run in groups and try to get the car good for the race.
“I think it's hurt the racing this year,” he added. “That's my point of view.”
Marco Andretti believes not having race-day warm-up sessions has affected his development as a driver. The 20 year old had run only two oval races prior to stepping up to Indy cars in 2006 and struggled at oval venues in the first half of the current season.
“Having no warm-ups this year is hurting me in particular,” Marco remarked. “We practice, qualify and then race, and last year we would have a warm-up the same day of the race with everybody out there and similar conditions. You would know where your race car is. I’ve gone into warm-ups last year saying I cannot drive this thing. This year, that’s happening in the race.”

• Prior to the Nashville weekend rumors started flying that Dario Franchitti is a candidate for a ride at Team Penske. Dario has driven for Team Green/Andretti Green Racing since 1998, operating on a series of one-year contracts since the team switched from Champ Car to IndyCar in 2003. With Sam Hornish, Jr. set to pursue a NASCAR career, a plum Penske seat could soon become available.
It’s an interesting dilemma for Franchitti. He’s spent 90 percent of his American career with AGR, a team he is very comfortable with. And he is very highly regarded by Honda, which has given Dario additional opportunities to road race this year in the American Le Mans Series.
But Franchitti has a polished personality (not to mention a famous wife) that would fit right in at Team Penske. As a connoisseur of motor racing history, he is well aware of Roger Penske's legacy in American motorsport. And Penske has his own successful ALMS team, with the lure of being the factory Porsche program.
From thoughts of retirement a year ago, Dario Franchitti now finds himself a man very much in demand.
And it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.