Pseudo-Live Blog: ABC Supply Co. A.J. Foyt 225

Well, It's been 30 seconds and Marty Reid already seems to have messed up. We were led to believe that "fans have been coming through the turnstiles here since 1912." Okay, perhaps they didn't invite fans to the events for the nine years before that, but I have a feeling Mr. Reid was misinformed....good start.

3:32, pre race
Interview with Helio. Car just stepped out on him in qualifying and he needs to race for points...no crashes today.

3:33, pre race
Is there no Eddie Cheever today? That makes me sad...he knows what the hell he's doing in the booth...

3:37, pre race
Ryan Briscoe = confident...and he has pretty good reason to be after his result last year and his run in qualifying.

3:38, pre race
Poor Tony Kanaan! Very tough day ahead of him with the cracked ribs. A fan favorite if he wins, for sure.

3:39, pre race
Nine minutes in, first Danica interview. Pit stops are important today, especially after the tough times of last year in the pit lane.

4:40, pre race
Marco Andretti just wants to do well after last week's issues. Being very mature about the Mario Moraes thing a week on, thankfully.

4:42, pre race
Whoever runs the advertising department at Firestone needs to be hired by the IRL. All of their commercials are ALWAYS good. Crowd shot after the ad break...stands are FULL!

4:43, pre race
Hey look, it's A.J! Sad to see Vitor get hurt, but the show must go on. The team gave Paul Tracy a bad car for qualis, but he's a good driver and all that. Goood ol' A.J.

3:45, pre race
A.J.: lady and gentlemen, start your engines! ABC forgot to pick up the P.A., so we could barely hear...good work again.

3:46, pre race
ABC does a great job of putting NO anticipation into the start. VERSUS has the track marshals calling the cars "hot", the crowd roaring, and all that. Can't wait for them to be back next week.

3:48, pre race
Erm...double-box to watch Helio chill at the back on the start.

Lap 1
GREEN! Graham leads the field into 1, Kanaan BLITZES the front row to lead the lap!

Lap 4
First shot of Danica, plodding around mid-pack.

Lap 6
Dario fighting...SCHECKTER? Bet D&R's glad they hired him. He's strong so far.

Lap 10
Okay, Scheckter dropping like a rock now. Still, strong start for Tomas.

Lap 15
God, the camera work is awful during the side-by-side stuff. I can hear my director Jay yelling at the cameramen, were he the director.

Lap 19
Helio and Tracy fighting for....18th. Tough stuff for two of the best drivers on track

Lap 22
Rahal trying to use the lapped traffic as a balk for Briscoe, loses a spot instead.

Lap 26
Briscoe to the lead, Dixon follows him through. Let's see how "back-brace" Kannan can do here.

Lap 33
Kanaan dropping like a rock now. Maybe his back is starting to affect him now? He's down to 7th.

Lap 36
Helio trying to run far away from Briscoe to stay on the lead lap

Lap 42
Scott Goodyear with actual insight! Kanaan's head is lilting a bit to the right as he goes through turns. Car is very loose.

Lap 43
Dixon tried hard to get past Briscoe, but could NOT

Lap 45
Briscoe is very obviously staying back to keep his teammate on the lead lap, but Dixon doesn't want any of that.

Lap 50
It's been just about 20 minutes and we're 50 laps in with no yellows...this might be a quick race...

Lap 54
Helio told to go to fuel position 1, which is obviously helping as he's running away from the leaders.

Lap 57
YELLOW! Mike Conway finds the wall for the umpteenth time this year. Looks like he washed up the track and glanced off the wall. Helio gets to pick up the back of the pack.

Lap 59
Pit stops! Nobody picked up any spots, really. Helio stalled the car, but was lucky to escape on the lead lap.

Lap 63
Revs were apparently not up high enough when the car hit the ground and that was that. E.J. Viso never left the pits, by the way.

Lap 68
Restart! Danica to 5th, Dario looking for 3rd from Dixon.

Lap 75
We've settled into parade mode for the time being. That'll happen at this point on a mile track...

Lap 79
Replay of Tracy's crew putting about 900 turns into the front wing, since the car's so loose...must be awful for him.

Lap 93
Yawn. The problem with races like Milwaukee is that they are really tough to sit through on TV. That's why NASCAR's ratings are so bad.

Lap 97
Briscoe catching Helio again...let's see if he slows down againto keep Helio ahead of him.

Lap 103
I'm going to give Scott Goodyear some credit for at least trying to find something interesting in what's going on out there...

Lap 108
Briscoe puts the lap on Helio. Tough break for Helio, but Briscoe has his own race to run.

Lap 113
Past halfway. It's been just about 50 minutes, so it looks like ABC will get their TV window they want.

Lap 114
Dixon can't get past Helio. Briscoe....RUNNING AWAAAYYY

Lap 125
Green flag stops should be coming soon. That oughta spice things up a bit.

Lap 130
Kanaan pits. Still in the car. Lots of respect for the man with the busted ribs.

Lap 132
Dario in and out. No stuck fuel hoses today.

Lap 134
Briscoe got balked HARD on his way into pit lane. That could be the break Dixon needs...

Lap 135
Fire on Kanaan's car! I have no idea who ended up with the lead after everything...looks like Franchitti might've done it.

Lap 139
Kanaan not happy about the engine fire. Says he was fine during the race, but I bet he'll be feelin' in the morning.

Lap 150
Hot view through Marco's front suspension as he wrestles his car around the track. Things are settled at the front.

Lap 154
Lapped traffic balks Dario, Briscoe grabs lead. HUGE block thrown as Dixon tries to get past both of them.

Lap 160
YELLOW! Looks like a yellow for "debris". Barnhart must have fallen asleep in the booth and hit the yellow light button.

Lap 162
Pit stops! Briscoe, Dixon, Dario the top three off pit road. Marco picked up some spots farther back.

Lap 163
Helio didn't pit, got his lap back. He'll need fuel before all is said and done.

Lap 165
Serious air time for the street sweepers. Pickin' up the marbles and making the racing like wider is always a good thing.

Lap 166
Helio is drafting the pace car under caution...anything to save fuel for sure.

Lap 170
Helio FINALLY gets the wave-around. We're gonna go green in a bit.

Lap 172
GREEN! oh wait...no start. Brian Barnhart needs to get a life and let the drivers race.

Lap 173
GREEN! Briscoe dominates at the front. Lots of dicing towards the back.

Lap 175
50 to go. Some 3-wide action with Matos, Marco, and Danica.

Lap 177
Nothin' like Danica passing lapped cars to keep the fans enthralled.

Lap 179
We were green for exactly 5 laps before ABC went to commercial...dopes

Lap 186
The top three have a TEN SECOND advantage on Graham Rahal. Holy smokes!

Lap 190
How is he front of the field more interesting than the rest of the top ten? That almost never happens

Lap 191
Viso whitewalls his tires! No yellow, good work by Viso to get his car out of the way.

Lap 196
Ugly knot of lapped cars being dealt with by the leaders. Dixon still can't challenge Briscoe.

Lap 197
ABC goes to a full screen commercial at perhaps the most important juncture of this race....yay?

Lap 200
25 to go. Something must've gone wrong with Marco, 'cause T&S showed he lost a lot of ground.

Lap 201
"Great thing about side-by-side is that you didn't miss the pass" Turns out we were in a local break and EVERYONE missed what was probably the winning pass. lovely.

Lap 206
Briscoe is really dropping back. Dixon might find traffic before it's all over, but who knows if Ryan can catch up.

Lap 212
Ooooh, Helio came out of the pits not far in front of Dixon. Can Helio make his car a little extra-wide and help out the teammate?

Lap 216
10 to go, Dixon still running off...

Lap 217
Lots of traffic....can Briscoe catch?

Lap 220
Dixon actually PULLED AWAY in traffic...wow

Lap 225
White flag for Dixon. Miracle airstrike needs to happen for anyone to catch him.

Checkered Flag!
Domination of the last bit of the race for Dixon! Great win!

Briscoe, Dario, Rahal, Danica, Matos, Marco, Mutoh, Moraes, and Wheldon are the top ten.

There was no catching Dixon once he got around Briscoe. His car was absolutely hooked up at the right time and he could not be stopped.

My predictions ended up looking okay, despite getting the wrong winner. Briscoe did dominate the race, but he didn't have the lead when it counted. Still a great run for him. Dark horse pick Hideki Mutoh did pretty well and was knocking on the top five for a while, but he ended up falling a lap down to finish eighth. My ninja dark horse was completely wrong, as Paul Tracy apparently had little control over his car -- he finished last of the running cars, 6 laps down. My Danica watch, however, was spot on: she finished fifth to catch the tope five for the fourth time this season. Consistency equals points, and Danica's doing a great job there.

That's it for Milwaukee. Next, we move from old-school into high speed, side-by-side new-school at the 1.5-mile bullring at Texas Motor Speedway. It's usually an entertaining race, and hopefully the 2009 edition doesn't disappoint.