September 19th

So Mario Dominguez has signed on to replace Nicky Pastorelli for the remainder of the year. Dominguez apparently (and this is all hearsay) some discouraging remarks about his ride at Dale Coyne and wanted to be in a more competitive environment when he would face his hometown crowd in Mexico. That was the early reports anyway. In a statement, he thanked Dale Coyne, mentioned how hard they work together. Bottom line is that according to Mario, it just wasn’t a good fit together. Sometimes team don’t mesh, don’t gel and let’s face it, Mario was more or less ‘dumped’ at DCR after being let do by Forsythe. Still, he’s been competitive in that car. Since joining DCR racing he’s got 4 top ten’s, which is pretty decent. Perhaps his gripe with the team was qualifying, where he didn’t fair as consistent and found himself playing catch up come race time. Whatever the reasons behind it, it’s done and now he is with Rocketsports. Paul Gentilozzi had a good idea in bringing him now and giving him time to mature and gel with the team so they are tight come Mexico City. I feel bad for Pastorelli, but let’s not mince words, he struggled this year. He was not putting up the kind of numbers that that car is capable of producing. Whether HE didn’t gel with the team or just never got completely comfortable behind a champcar is anybody’s guess. Hopefully he’ll land on his feet. He’s a good kid. Now, for Mario, the pressure is on. He’s got the backing (as I understand it) of some Mexican sponsors for that race and he’s running with his third team this season. Many factors could determine Mario’s future and the next three races can make or break his future champcar career. Although he has produced decently with DCR, his exit will not sit well with everybody and if somebody steps in that #19 and out performs him (kind of like AJ with that number 7), it’s not going to look good at all! More importantly, if he produces poorly with his third team of the season, does he stand a chance of having a job next season? What this moves does is it continues to put Mario in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. I say continues because he’s been the focus on many topics of discussion this season, little having to do with on-track performance. His run-in with PT, his blown race in Houston, his dismissal from Forsythe, and now his apparent discontent with DCR and his sudden move to Rocketsports. I hope that Mario produces phenomenal results in the final three races and we can get back to talking about SuperMario and not some other adjective that has sometimes preceded his Mario moniker.

Now, who fills the number 19 seat? This whole thing was sort of sudden, but we know there are ample available drivers out there and that seat is no longer a last result seat (in my opinion). Someone can come in, take that seat for the final 3 races and impress owners for employment next season. This is a GOLDEN opportunity for someone, one that wasn’t supposed to be there at all. I have no idea on who it’s going to be. But I know they will be smiling ear to ear at Road America.

Happy birthday Cristiano.