Can the Denver race be more important for AJ Allmendinger and Cristiano Da Matta? 3 DNF’s in a row for AJ. He’s still 5th in the championship, so you could imagine the dent he would have made in the standings if he had finished the races (and probably won in Edmonton at least). There’s nothing better for a young driver to experience the kind of pressure he’s feeling right now. You can’t teach something like this. It has to happen. Its definitely happening to AJ right now. Let’s not forget the fact that RuSport is based in Colorado. As if AJ needed any additional pressure to perform. I know a lot of people talk about how he’s a young driver and that he will get better with time and will be better able to handle the pressure in the future. That may be true. But let’s not forget that he’s in the show now. He’s in the big leagues and when in the bigs, no matter what age, you are expected to perform. The guy can drive the heck out of his car, there’s no question about it. The guy has one of the best careers ahead of him in all of open-wheel racing, there’s no doubt about it. But, in a lot of ways, the future is now for him. I make it a point not to cheer for anybody in particular, at least publicly, at the track. But I would be very happy if he could snag a victory in Denver and get back to his winning ways and make a strong run at the championship.

Da Matta has 4 DNF’s in a row. He must be starting to curse his win in Portland, cause it has been all downhill since and looks to be getting worse. I’m not saying the team is getting worse. I’m talking about Lady luck. You need her on your side to perform well and she has been nowhere near the PKV 21 since Portland. I don’t know the reasons for his downfall. I don’t know if he made a deal with the devil to win Portland. But the fact is, he’s a world champion, he had one of those rare dominant seasons in 2002 and should be a lot higher than where he is. He’s sitting in 10th, thanks in part to his ‘10th’ place finish in San Jose. He needs to turn it around and do it quickly. He’s had some hard luck last couple of years in F1 and expectations were high when he came back to Champ Car in the off-season. He has not lived up to those expectations, there’s no way to dance around that one. Here’s hoping Denver is the start of the turn-around for PKV’s number 21.

Well, I was going to leave it at those two, but let’s talk about the 27 for a second. He’s fallen to third in the rookie standings and 12th in the overall standings. He has 3 DNF’s in a row and 5 for the season. Think about it. Of 8 races, he’s finished 3. It’s simply unacceptable for a driver to put up those numbers, no matter how old he is or whom he/she drives for. Sure, he may be one of the brightest stars in North America with a long and prosperous career ahead of him. But see what I wrote about AJ above. At this point, Andrew needs to bring it home. It doesn’t matter if he finished 12 laps behind in 18th, if he can bring his 27 home clean, then it’s a step in the right direction. Unfortunately for him, Denver isn’t exactly ‘open’ and one small mistakes and Eric Bachelart has to dig even deeper in his pockets.
3 very good drivers with huge expectations this weekend, most of it coming from themselves. As if there weren’t enough good story lines right now in Champ Car, add this one to the mix. It’s going to be a great race this coming weekend!