Roger and his boys have bolted a Honda to a Reynard in a fashion that's left them untouchable on purpose-built road courses. Castroneves and de Ferran simply are the class of the field when everyone's ready to turn left and right.
Since the two Team Penske cars were on the front row when the green flag waved at Laguna Seca Sunday, you'd guess they weren't in the group of drivers grumbling about track safety after Patrick Carpentier climbed the wall in a scary qualification practice crash.
Carpentier was ready to race Sunday, but he probably was also eager to get a copy of the safety recommendations former driver (and current television commentator) Parker Johnstone presented to Acting CART CEO Bobby Rahal earlier in the week.
A little speculation and wishful thinking: Johnstone said little or nothing about his recommendations during the broadcast, and there's minimal news on the Internet about it. Johnstone has expertise and experience, and he isn't afraid to speak out. You've got to believe he'd be a good choice for permanent CEO of CART.
With all the controversy -- and with the apparent lock on the proper road course set-up held in secret by Team Penske -- no one seemed ready to talk much about the contenders for the series championship being mired several rows back in the back as the flag dropped.
The cars strung out early, and, with the parade in full flower, Paul Page and Johnstone were left mostly to discuss the news of the week, which revolved around the Silly Season.
Martin Blundell, according to the two, is the latest to lose his seat. That influences one team, of course.
Something that influences several teams will be Mercedes dropping out of CART to concentrate on F-1. Ilmor actually prepares Mercedes engines -- Ilmor once built Chevys for Penske and other CART teams -- and there was speculation that Ilmor would continue to supply engines, but under what name no one was ready to say.
If not, the commentators expected a scramble to supply the former Mercedes teams, since, as Johnstone said, the process of building, tuning and distributing engines is much more complicated than ordering a crate engine from GM for your street rod.
