Lazier out, Meira in at Menard

[racer69]

Going via the entry list for Texas, Jacques Lazier is gone from Team Menard and Vitor Miera moves from test driver to race driver.

Did Lazier get sacked? Was he injured at Indy?

If he was sacked, maybe Meira should be looking over his shoulder. Another Menard driver bites the dust, what does it take to stay employed, especially considering Lazier won the shootout for the seat this year between him and Meira. Lazier has driven less than 10 races all up for Menard as well.

[rush1]

Lazier was fired. John Menard just loves to fire drivers. He might be a billionare but is very tight with his race operation. I wouldn't be surprised if Meira brings extra sponsorship to the car.

[BootsOntheSide]

Meira's superb drive at Indy must've helped him regain the seat. I doubt that sponsorship is an issue.

How many cars are entered for Texas? More than the 24 at Motegi.

[Down F0rce]

Maybe Lazier could land a ride with A.J Foyt Racing? Looks like they have ditched Shiggy and need someone for the No 5 car...

[Muzza]

Regrettable news. Jacques Lazier is a competent driver and he is much rounder (no pun intended from a CART fan like me) than his brother Buddy. Jacques is better than his sibling on technical feedback, and he is a more precise driver.

Unfortunately, that's the way motorsports go. I am happy for V�*tor Meira, a promising driver who seems not to make many erreurs de jeunesse. It is nice to see another Brazilian getting a seat, but I am disappointed that this came at Jacques' expense.

I live in Eau Claire, where John Menard is from, and where his chain of hardware shops are based. I have asked many people in town how is working with him in and out of the track, and basically everybody has the same answer: Menard is a sort of temperamental individual, very "driven" and with a short fuse.

His motorsport efforts on oval racing (either CART or IRL) are quite confused and, in my opinion, suffer from complete lack of strategy. Menard has taken his team from left to right and back to left many times since he began to take a serious look at winning the Indy 500, back on the early 1990s. Years ago he fielded up to six cars, and had no mechanics to cover them - a friend of mine who runs a autobody shop in Eau Claire said that one of John Menard's employees drove back from Indy to Eau Claire to look for people to complete the operation... That's not a professional way of running a race team.

What is most strange is that John Menard is considered a very astute businessman - so why has his racing team been such a mess since its inception?

[rush1]

It is an interesting question Muzza. John Menard is a self made man right? I think he started Menards in the early 70's. If that is correct he is surely no dummy.

Was Menard fielding those cars around the inception of the IRL Muzza? If so TG might have been kicking in the cash and Menard was skimping on mechanics.

[racefanatic]

Wasn't Foyt supposed to run Airton Dare again after the 500 anyway? I didn't think it would be INSTEAD of Hattori though.

It's crazy how many drivers Menard hes gone through in the past 2 or 3 years! Remember last year's 500?

[evo]

Menard used to run 6 cars or so per Indy back before the split. Had some pretty talented racing drivers in them too.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by evo
Menard used to run 6 cars or so per Indy back before the split. Had some pretty talented racing drivers in them too.

One of them being a certain gentleman called Nelson Piquet.

[Fish_Flake]

You have to remember, though, Menard only fielded a team for the Indy 500 before the split. He might have fielded a lot of cars, but they were all one-off performances by one-off drivers. Look at 1992. After Piquet (who was badly injured in an accident prior to the race), his drivers in the race were Al Unser Sr., Gary Bettenhausen, and Tom Sneva, three ancient drivers who were on their last legs. (Sneva retired after the race, Unser and Bettenhausen would come back for one more try in '93.) 1996, he did field a lot of cars, (Brayton, Stewart, Cheever, Dismore, Ongais) but most of the field was made up of Menard, Hemelgarn, and Simon cars, so that doesn't count. Since then, he's put together a full-time program.

It is John Menard's dream to win the Indianapolis 500. I think he wasted his best chance, back in 1999-2000, when Menard was the team in the IRL, by sticking with Greg Ray, who is the possibly the worst driver to ever win a major motorsport championship. I don't doubt that he runs his racing operation very loosely, and that is why he won't win the Indy 500 anytime soon.

[Muzza]

Hello, Fish_Flake,

Good points, and I agree with you - including your judgement on Greg Ray.

Just a little clarification/addition: Piquet was injured in 1992, and then returned to race with Menard again the following year.

Cheers,

Muzza

[Fish_Flake]

Menard was very lucky to have some very good drivers in the beginning, but he couldn't win the race as long as Penske, Ganassi, Newman-Haas, or Green were around; they were better teams who had full-time commitment to the Indycar championship, and the chemistry and experience of that cannot be bought with an infinite sum of money. Once the IRL was formed, he had no competition, and only bad luck kept him from winning in 1996-99, especially Tony Stewart's engine woes and Robby Gordon running out of gas in the lead.

As I said, 1999 and 2000 were probably his best chances of winning the 500. Unfortunately, as I said, he had mistakened Greg Ray as an exceptional driver. Greg Ray, along with Sarah Fisher and Ralf Schumacher, is one of three drivers in the world who cannot pass anyone on the track. You simply cannot win a 500 mile race without passing anyone. 1999, he was able to stay in front with a superior car, but then he was rammed in the back by Eliseo Salazar, the only driver in the world less competent than Ray, which unfortunately Menard must have mistaken for another string of bad luck. Ray has no excuse for 2000. He's sitting on the stinking pole position, and can't stay off the damn turn four wall! Finishes dead last.
I say that either of those years, if Tony Stewart was driving in a Menard car (impossible, not because of his involvement in NASCAR, but the fact that he must be sponsored by Home Depot, which led to obvious conflicts in interest), he would've won, even in a mano e mano battle with Montoya.

Back to my point. Menard isn't on top anymore. Penske, Ganassi, and Green, the teams he couldn't beat at Indy when he was a one-off owner, are back. He doesn't stand a chance, unless he finds another diamond-in-the-rough talent like Tony Stewart. John Menard's going to be firing many more drivers in the near future, looking for that extraordinary driver he had in the old days that stood a chance against the big boys.

[racefanatic]

I totally agree with you about 1999 and 2000. You made a very good point, he's not the bast team anymore! It would have been great to see Tony battle with Montoya, practically no one else did that year at Indy! As far as finding another great driver, I fully expect Vitor to improve every race. If Menard lets him stay, I think he'll do very well. After his performance last year I was really impressed with with how quickly he seems to pick things up.

[marcus]

it seems jaques is in at Foyt racing now , but hes qualified last for Texas

[flatlander_48]

It seems that Menard has subscribed to the George Steinbrunner School of Team Management...