Oilpressure

This may come across as taking a shot at a friend of mine. I’m not. In fact, what started me off on this topic did not make me mad at all. It just got me to thinking, which I see as a good thing.

I don’t mean to namedrop, but I consider motorsports writer John Oreovicz to be a friend. I’m not exactly sure when we became acquaintances in various track media centers, but we’ve known each other for a while. We usually get together for dinner at Dawson’s, just about every time I’m in town. I’ve grilled steaks at his house before, and when he came to Nashville for a concert a few years ago, we got together for a couple of adult beverages.

When my mother suddenly passed away in July of 2020, he offered to be guest-writer on this site for a couple of posts – so that I could deal with everything, and not let the site go dormant. That’s the sign of a good friend. Whenever someone experiences the loss of a close family member, friends say “let me know if I can do anything”. Good friends say “this is what I’m going to do for you”. That’s what John did, and I’ll always be grateful to him for that.

My understanding, he is not crazy about the nickname “Oreo” that I tend to use frequently, so I’ll simply refer to him as John throughout today’s post. Before I get to the point, I will say again – I consider John Oreovicz to be a good friend, and I am not taking a shot at him.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter (I refuse to call it “X”. It sounds like a porn site), you know that I always post a monthly countdown to the next running of the Indianapolis 500. It burns John up that I am so Indy-centric, and I can always count on him to comment something to the effect that there are sixteen other races on the schedule that are not the Indianapolis 500. He thinks he is poking the bear, but he is really taking my bait. I sit waiting each day to see how long it takes him to comment. It’s all in good fun.

I will also use social media to promote this site. Monday’s post on this site was about Callum Ilott partings ways with Juncos Hollinger Racing. In my writing, I referenced what Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee had said on Trackside over the past few weeks. John commented on my Facebook page about the article and said “Your loyalty to Trackside is amusing”.

It was a short comment, but it got me to thinking; am I loyal to Trackside? I don’t think “loyal” is the right word, but I am dependent on that weekly show. As I tried to convey to John in my Facebook response to him, this is a fan site. It is written by a fan, who has a day job. I am not an insider. My sources for information are the same as everyone else’s. I listen to Trackside on a weekly basis. I always used to listen to it live; but I drive a lot on Wednesdays for my job, and I now listen to the podcast on Wednesday morning, while the info is still fresh. I subscribe to Trackside Online, which is not affiliated with the radio program, but they e-mail their own content, as well as every press-release from every team. It’s a bargain for $22 a year. I also read Racer.com and that’s pretty well the extent of my information gathering.

I have a few friends that work for IndyCar and/or IMS, and I know some folks who are employed directly with some of the teams, the radio network or NBC; but they share very little with me – unless I ask, and I don’t like putting them on the spot, so I seldom ask. I could pepper John Oreovicz with questions, but again – I don’t like putting people on the spot, or using them. I don’t want to make people think that the only reason I am friends with them is so I can use them for information. This is not a job for me, and I don’t make one cent off of this site

Next May, this site will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. Throughout that time, I’ve always tried to make it clear that I am not a journalist, and I’m certainly not a reporter. A reporter has tons of sources out there and a good one will verify a story through multiple sourcing before running with it. Oreovicz is a good reporter. He has been immersed in the sport as an intern, then working at PacWest Racing, before going to work for ESPN as a motorsports journalist for two decades. He has put in the time and sweat to build a credible reputation in this sport.

I don’t have the training, the experience nor the time to do that. Quite frankly, I don’t have the desire. My role as one of the few remaining IndyCar bloggers is not to report the news, but to give my opinion or perspective on the news after it has happened. Sometimes, I will speculate as I did on Monday – but I will usually use this site to opine about what is going on with the NTT IndyCar Series and how I see it. Sometimes readers agree with me, sometimes they don’t. Either way, I enjoy the dialogue going on in the comment section. I rarely respond, but don’t think that I don’t read every single one.

So my question to John, is this – being an IndyCar outsider, what else am I to use for information? My time is limited to after-hours, due to my day job that has absolutely nothing to do with racing. I travel across twenty-seven counties throughout the month and am responsible for the operations of twenty-two offices. Being about 275 miles from Indianapolis and working all week doesn’t really give me a lot of networking opportunities within the IndyCar community. Quite honestly, I’ve surprised myself I’ve been able to build the relationships I have mostly over race weekends.

I understand John’s cynicism. Trackside is not how it started out fifteen years ago. At that time, Curt Cavin was the IndyCar beat-writer for The Indianapolis Star and Kevin Lee was on the IndyCar Radio Network. Both were able to comment freely and candidly about what they knew, and to speculate on what they thought they knew.

Today, Curt works for IMS and Kevin works for NBC. Either directly or indirectly, they are both expected to promote the IndyCar narrative. They both have to be careful to not share what they might know, or to be critical of the series. If there is anything controversial, Curt will now predictably take the IndyCar side of the controversy. Kevin has a little more latitude to speak out, but in the end of the conversation, will side with whatever position Curt takes.

So at the risk of sounding like I’m taking a shot at John Oreovicz, when you are an IndyCar outsider trying to comment on IndyCar three times a week – I’m not sure what else I can do to stay current on what is going on in IndyCar. I’m not loyal to Trackside, I just depend on them.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on November 1, 2023 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.