Review: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Well, now that I've finished hyperventilating over yet another exciting street race and compared notes with my coworker Mike, it's time to share some thoughts on the race between the (temporary, thunderstorm-caused) lakes that was St. Pete.

First off -- and this is special, because it's not something I say a lot -- all credit to Brian Barnhart for getting something right TWO races in a row. In spite of all of his shortcomings, he does a good job dealing with rainstorms.

I think back to Indianapolis in 2007, which was honestly one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had. Not long after the halfway point, there was an absolutely awful storm that turned the track into a swimming pool. Some of the older fans who had seen this situation play out in the past decided it wasn't worth it to stick around and went home. Barnhart, on the other hand, decided to wait it out; he was rewarded by some fortuitous sunshine and the fact that the pavement that was put down in '05 dries like no road I've ever seen. Seeing the cars come back out of the garage and hearing Dave Calabro make the call to restart the engines was just as exciting as the start of the race. About 60 more laps were run before it clouded over again and the skies opened around 7PM, leaving the remaining fans drenched, but fairly satisfied.

Two weeks ago in Sao Paulo, Barnhart saw a massive storm hit the track, tried to keep the race going, but decided to throw the red when it became unreasonable and make the track safe again. In St. Pete, though it may not have been the popular decision, he again made the right decision to send everyone home for the day on Sunday when the weather and track condition became unreasonable with little end in sight.

Instead of a festival of rain-induced spinning (like we occasionally have in Formula 1) we had a pretty exciting race on a drying track that emphasized car control and rewarded some of the best twisty drivers in the series...which brings me to my predictions.

What can you say about Will Power's ability on street courses? I feel as though there aren't any suitable superlatives to apply to the man -- he simply wins these races. The final, IRL-sanctioned Champ Car race from Long Beach in 2008 was won by Will, last year's race on the Edmonton airport circuit was flat dominated by Will, and he's taken the first two street races of 2010. It stands to reason that he'll be the runaway favorite for Long Beach, Toronto, Edmonton, and perhaps some of the natural-terrain races. At one point in the St. Pete race, it seemed like Justin Wilson might reel Power in, but Will suddenly found his accelerator pedal and shot off into the distance -- game, set, match.

My Dark Horse (simply because of where he started the race; nothing to do with a lack of ability or team strength) may have had the fastest car on the racetrack. When Dario Franchitti had his car pointed in the right direction and with all four tires pumped up, he was, true to his Italian ancestry, a Forza Azzuri. The blue Cottonelle/Target car, after stopping to replace a flat tire in the second half of the race, shot from tenth to fifth within about twelve laps. If the Grand Prix of St. Pete were 110 laps or 115 laps, who's to say where Dario might have ended up.

Ninja Dark Horse Graham Rahal did not disappoint either, especially given the fact that his temporary team, Sarah Fisher Racing, is lucky to even be in the series at this point. Sarah has a fighting spirit, and she loves driving a race car, but she also wants that team to succeed; Sarah Fisher can only turn a wheel to the right when holding a slide on a dirt oval, so she rightfully decided to throw the most talented person who didn't have a ride behind the wheel. If Sarah had driven, she would've been lucky to be the last car running; with Graham at the wheel, they picked up a well-deserved and much-needed top ten. Who knows what this team will be able to do in Alabama, but it will only be beneficial for Sarah and her small, scrappy, barely-meeting-budget team.

Danica Patrick...the girl always finds ways to surprise me. However, I may have to retire the Danica Watch because the only way she's gotten ahead of Simona de Silvestro these first two races was when Simona's car broke (either internally or from...er...outside influences). Even Marty Reid, noted lover of all things Danica (figuratively, of course), acknowledged the talent that is Simona and even showed signs of thinking the Swiss Miss might be *hushed whisper* better than Danica. The next few races shall tell the truth of the matter.

Thankfully, the IZOD IndyCar Series will skip Easter/Final Four weekend, because I will be far too distracted by Butler University's awesomeness to devote time to racing. IndyCar returns to the track the following weekend for its inaugural event at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama. See you then, folks!

Yellow Shirt Preview/Live Blog: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Well, unlike last year, the above picture will not be an accurate representation of how the weather will be in St. Pete today. If you click the "Is It May Yet?" link over there, you'll see resident weatherman Will's assessment of how things are going to look.

While I can't give you an accurate judgment on the chances of rain, I can give you an accurate judgment of the chances of a first-turn incident as the field comes off the runway in the wet: 110%. The runway at Albert Whitted Airport is approximately 30 miles wide (give or take a few) and there's plenty of runoff on the inside of the turn. Therefore, nearly every year, cars go about 4-wide into the funnel that is turn 1, then the carbon fiber starts flying.

The rest of the course is fairly typical street circuit fare: narrow, 90-degree turns with very little room for error. There is one nice blast along the harbor that can create some passing opportunities, but the turn at the end of the blast is fairly quick and preceded by a couple of kinks, making the setup for the following car difficult. Some drivers will try to pass in other spots, but as Rafa Matos and Danica Patrick found out last year, the results can be disastrous.

As far as the outcome of the race is concerned, the rain will make things quite interesting. If the weather dies off, the track will start drying and the dry-versus-wet tire strategies will start affecting things. One of the smaller teams with nothing to lose could pull a crazy strategy out of their pocket and benefit big time.

Also, any incident at the first corner, depending on where it occurs within the field, could put a driver who qualified low back towards the front.

Winner: Will Power The kid is good, as we saw down the stretch at Sao Paulo. He's on the pole at St. Pete, putting him clear of most first-lap incidents, and out ahead of the spray from the rain tires. Driving a Penske car doesn't hurt him either.

Dark Horse: Dario Franchitti Odd to see Mr. Dario as a dark horse, but I attribute it to his difficult qualifying that placed him 13th on the starting grid. As his wife will tell you, though, he's one of the best and one of the classiest on the grid, and he is well capable of keeping the car pointed in the right direction in the rain. If he avoids other people's problems, the light-blue-for-this-week Target car could be at the front at the finish.

Ninja Dark Horse: Graham Rahal He won in his first ever IndyCar start at St. Pete with a team that had just joined the League. Now he's paired with everyone's favorite underdog team in Sarah Fisher Racing and coming back to one of his better tracks for his first race of 2010. Some pit strategy calls and a bit of luck could get Graham up near the head of the field.

Danica Watch! Street course, rain, so on and so forth. She's starting really low in the field too, so the possibility of being hit by another car is high. Danica will be a non-factor today.

I'm watching a little basketball right now, but the TV flips over at 3:30 for IndyCar action. I'll be back on here to do some live coverage then.

*UPDATE*
St. Pete is being freight trained by thunderstorms, which means there's lighting in the air and they can't have spectators or participants out in that kind of weather. The race will be at 10 in the morning Monday on ESPN2. No live blog from me, since I'll be at work, but I'll have the DVR fired up and ready to go. Cheers.

Well, Not Much Is Going On, Really...

Of course, I say these words before I have had a chance to sit down with my DVR and throw down on some of Sunday's Wind Tunnel With Dave Despain Robin Miller.

See, It's always a momentous event, in my opinion, when Dave Despain -- who really is one of the best racing commentators out there when reporting track-side at a USAC or AMA event -- vacates his chair for whatever reason and is replaced by someone whose knowledge of NASCAR is akin to my knowledge of why the Large Hadron Collider keeps breaking. For once, we can get a break from, "Brad Keselowski this," and, "Carl Edwards that," and comments on the sexual orientation of Kyle Busch or Jeff Gordon and we can bring fans of those other race series into the discussion.

It was so momentous, in fact, that I went to sleep right before the show started last night. What are you gonna do -- my boss wanted me in at 6 AM today.

Anyway, since the media didn't explode this morning, I'm assuming there were no announcements that the IndyCar Series was going to use a twin-turbo V16 Silver Crown car for 2012 or that Randy Bernard has already balanced the budget or whatever. I suppose it IS notable that Bernard announced a new committee to debate over the merits of new chassis and engines...which is slightly better than what we had before (Barnhart sitting around, not doing anything, while fans tried to storm his castle).

As far as IndyCar was concerned this past week, one thing of any importance that happened was this: Graham Rahal has plopped himself in an IndyCar for the first time in 2010, testing the #67 Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing Dallara at Barber Motorsports Park. Apparently, we are not privy to his test times or anything, but the fact that he is at least in a car is uplifting.

Oh, and there was something about 25% of households that used to have access to the VERSUS network, who lost it due to a petty dispute over money during an economic recession, once again being given access to VERSUS once more. Good work, lawyers. Hopefully we see a bump from that in the ratings when the Barber race rolls around.

Oh, and Jack Arute apparently has a blog. I believe the proper response is this (just replace the lyric "white man" with "artfully bronzed gentleman-extraordinaire").

Cheers.

Pseudo-Live Blog: Sao Paulo Indy 300

The fans are in place, the Sambadrome has been ground down for grip, and...nothing's happening. The sprinkles have started falling in central Sao Paulo which, this being a road course race, it's not really a problem. The league officials need to figure out how wet the track is and whether or not they need to mandate use of rain tires, then we'll light up the Honda's and get rolling. At least the Brazilian fans are having fun...

12:02, pre-race
Pace car has done its rounds, some Brazilian fellow gave a very dull engine start command, and we're ready to roll!

12:05, pre-race
The grinding and the quick shower seem to have made a bit of a dusty situation on the Sambadrome section...we'll see how that affects things.

Lap 1
Pace car off, we are...GREEN! Tons of dust on the concrete....and...we are YELLOW! Lots of cars falling apart and running into each other. Mario Moraes parked on Marco Andretti's head, one of the KV cars (Sato?) and Scott Dixon spun. Castroneves involved as well. Sato appeared to lose control under braking to nail Dixon, similar thing happened to Moraes. Let's hope everyone's okay...

Lap 2
Andretti calls his crew, says he's a-okay. To celebrate, we get our first GoDaddy commercial of the day!

Lap 3
Ryan Briscoe also appeared to lose bits of his nose as cars came around after the wreck...we're not seeing much about that. Marco Andretti finally able to get out of his car to a chorus of cat-calls from the Brazilians.

Lap 5
Alex Lloyd in the pits with an apparent engine issue. We're still yellow, trying to get Marco's car out of the way.

Lap 6
The pace car is moving impossibly slowly, and yet we've still taken five laps of caution without Andretti's car being cleared...The safety team is clearly out of practice.

Lap 7
Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous. Now we're checking for bits of carbon fiber around the rest of the track. I would dearly like to see some racing here, guys.

Lap 8
FINALLY, we're given the one-to-go signal. I've nearly gone back into nap mode watching this.

Lap 9
And we are...GREEN! Most drivers staying single file...and we're still green! Franchitti leads, Tagliani follows, Hunter-Reay holding on behind those two. Interview with Marco, and Marco being himself finds a way to blame Moraes for the wreck...what a joke.

Lap 12
Justin Wilson apparently having some issues with all of the bumps and banging his tall frame around inside the cockpit.

Lap 14
Franchitti still leads, but Alex Tagliani's simply not going away.

Lap 15
Replays showing that Castroneves has a problem with his front wing. He was still able to get past Simona de Silvestro, though.

Lap 16
Tags must've made a mistake because he has lost contact with Franchitti and is being hounded by RHR...pass for second! We got Tony Kanaan's view of the proceedings on the in-car.

Lap 18
We've settled into parade mode a bit here. (flips TV to check Caps vs. Blackhawks...no score there)

Lap 19
Totally gonna watch Junior Seau be a tire changer with Scott Dixon...oughta be fun. Pass for second! RHR takes Tagliani and sets his sights on Dario.

Lap 20
Kanaan trying to take third from Tagliani. Replay shows a banner has come off the wall and into Justin Wilson's face.

Lap 22
In the most surprising development of the day, Milka Duno spins unassisted in turn 3...*facepalm*

Lap 24
Pit stops? Yes I do believe so...these guys really zing down the entrance to pit lane. Franchitti out first, RHR out second, Kanaan third, Tagliani fourth. Simona de Silvestro stayed out and will lead a few laps.

Lap 25
Hellish thunderstorm looming to the west of the track. We're told that Simona had pitted just before Milka brought out the yellow...therefore, she is on the lead lap and on the same pit cycle as everyone else. Simona, ftw!

Lap 26
The longer we stay yellow, the better chance we have of being caught out by the rain. Lights finally out on the pace car.

Lap 27
We are...GREEN! Simona got the jump on Dario as Dario skidded a bit out of the final corner. Clean start through the first couple corners. Hunter-Reay looks for second into turn 11 and has it.

Lap 28
Hunter-Reay takes the lead supercross-style into turn 5, and he is...RUNNING AWAAAYYY!

Lap 29
Crash crash crash! Tony Kanaan and...Tagliani perhaps? Haven't seen a shot of the other car yet. Ryan Briscoe, using his awesome ESP powers, ducked into the pits for wet tires. Looks like the wreck was caused by Wheldon shoving Tagliani into Kanaan...fallout to come. Still green.

Lap 30
Rain clearly beginning to fall...We're still green, but expect to see some cars in the pits here in a moment...

Lap 31
Pit stops for rain tires. De Silvestro clearly against the concept of pit lane as she stays out again, as does Hunter-Reay. Ana Beatriz goes ass-around before getting to pit lane.

Lap 32
It starts getting really insane on the course as many cars start going ass-around in turn 1. we FINALLY have a full-course yellow.

Lap something-or-other
The thunderstorm has knocked out some of the communications between race control and the rest of the world. No rundown at the top of the screen. Still under full-course yellow.

Lap whatever
The drivers are taking a break so the standing water can get cleaned up. Therefore, I'm taking a lunch break. BRB!

I have no idea what lap this is...
I'm back from cooking just as the drivers are back on the track. We're now in a timed race situation, so there's no more lap counter apparently. Right now, the drivers are movin' around behind the pace car.

37 mins to go
We are...GREEN! Dario jumps away Dixon follows, Conway behind them. Everyone clean through the first few corners.

Lap 40
Simona de Silvestro has an issue on the course...pity for her. The Ganassi cars have flown away. Cars on slick tires have been driving well so far.

Lap 42
Many many pit sstops for slick tires as the grip levels change on the course.

Lap 43
Near disaster as cars battle in the top 5...well played by everyone in the line there to keep from bashing each other to pieces. Craziness continues as the drivers try to lap Danica.

Lap 44
Danica clearly holding everone back in this crew...everyone finally through as they go down the long straight.

Lap 47
Mario Romancini clearly having an issue. Judging by the direction the wheels are pointing, I'm going to say there was some contact somewhere.

Lap 48
Looks like Romancini overcooked it coming out of turn 10. Classic understeer, hits the wall, breaks the left-rear. Still under green as Mario gets back to pit lane.

Lap 50
Much speculation on how the fuel game is going to play out over the last 20 minutes of this race. Hunter-Reay and Briscoe in lock-step...er, no Briscoe takes the lead in Turn 11. Oughta be interesting.

Lap 51
RHR goes for the lead back, but looks to have cut the second corner...iiiiiinteresting scenario coming here....

Lap 52
In the meantime, Will Power has caught up to this battle for the lead. Might be VEEERRRRY interesting.

Lap 53
Briscoe clearly trying to push the pace, locking up the breaks. Remember the fuel situation here...

Lap 54
Jack Arute busts out the computer and...Briscoe crashes!!! RHR takes the lead! Full-course yellow!

Lap 55
As I was saying, Arute breaks out the computer and shows us what looks like Satan's hemorrhoid on the radar screen. Interesting to see how the weather situation plays out now...Ten minutes on the clock as we get ready to shoot for the finish.

Lap 57
We are...GREEN!!! Shootout for the finish! RHR and Power get the jump on the rest of the field. Everyone clean through the opening complex. Meira gives the wall a slap coming onto the pit stretch, everyone keeps rolling. Vitor unaffected as he goes to third in the final turn!

Lap 58
RHR, Will Power, Vitor is the top three. Matos warned for blocking by Barnhart. Battle for the lead heating up! Power has it in turn 11!

Lap 59
Three minutes on the clock. Power in the lead, RHR in second, Vitor in third. Wheldon working Matos for fourth.

Lap 60
Under two minutes on the clock. No white flag in the air, so we have to assume two to go. Order remains unchanged so far, but the Target guys nearly got together. No shots of the leaders at the moment, but they are faaaaaar away from third place.

Lap 61
White flag! Power really gapping RHR here. Barring a disaster, he should take the win.

(Green) Checkered Flag!
Power wins it! Hunter-Reay, Vitor, Matos, Wheldon, Dixon, Franchitti, Conway, Castroneves, Kanaan round out your top 10. Great race for guys who got injured last year, as Power had the back injury at Sonoma and Meira had the scary back injury at Indianapolis.

The three podium drivers taking their ceremonial lap of awesomeness as they head for the podium at the Sambadrome.

Jack Arute attempting to conduct the interview through a kazoo...VERSUS shuts that off and says let's sort this noise out before we let you speak again.

In other news, I decided to check on how my Capitals are doing against Chicago....AND WE CAME BACK TO TIE IT AT THREE! That's AFTER the officials decided that they didn't want Ovechkin in the game after an admittedly rough hit...but not enough to warrant an ejection.

Back to Sao Paulo, and Jack Arute is in full interruption mode with our winner. "Yeah it's really great to have a full season and --" "WHAT ABOUT YOUR HANDS!? WHAT ABOUT MY SUPPLE BRONZED HANDS?!?!"

Hunter-Reay looks decidedly happy and sounds decidedly happy. The car was apparently slow on the straights compared to everyone else. Feeling the pressure of having IZOD ride the side of his car and it would've been nice to get them in victory lane. Comments that it's good to see A.J. celebrating on the podium with his team...couldn't agree more with that.

Vitor Meira: happy man. The last time I saw him in a car, I was looking at the underside of his car as it slid along the wall at Indianapolis. Says he tried his damndest not to cry because A.J. would give him crap for it! Bwahahahaa, I love it!

Okay, so let's recap: The beginning of the weekend was awful, with the ridiculously slippery start/finish straight. The middle was bad with a ridiculous wreck and a torrential rainstorm. The finish turned out pretty well, with Hunter-Reay forcing Briscoe into a key error to take the lead, then Power simply dominating the restart to ride off with victory. Meira also did a fantastic job on Rafa Matos in order to pick up a podium finish in his first race back from injury.

Checking my predictions, I'm looking pretty smart right now, eh? Will Power won, Ryan Hunter-Reay came second, and Alex Tagliani was in the hunt until being punted by Dan Wheldon. Danica was never a factor, especially once the rain came out.

Again, I interrupt regularly scheduled programming for this: THE CAPITALS BEAT THE BLACKHAWKS!!! Four unanswered goals, capped by Nick Backstrom's unassisted OT score to be the first team this year to triple digit points! Here's to my boys on the ice!

As for IndyCars, they'll be in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida, in two weeks' time. See ya later, race fans!

Yellow Shirt Preview: Sao Paulo Indy 300

No word yet on whether or not Randy Bernard is pursuing sponsorship from this particular product, but it would seem to fit with Saturday's on-track product.

Everyone was ready to go, the cars were fired, the fans were fired up, the drivers were zoned in. Cars came out of the pits, wound through the back parking lots of the Anhembi convention hall, took their first blast down Chateaubriand Avenue, made the sharp right turn into the Sambadrome, and found themselves on what may as well have been a curling sheet. Grip was not to be found anywhere on the smooth concrete of Sao Paulo's Carnival ground and all of the drivers had to short shift and keep their revs down -- anything to keep from pitching the cars into the surrounding walls.

Given the situation, Brian Barnhart rightly postponed qualifying, as drivers trying to put down a fast lap would surely overdo it and crash. The track is being ground down with diamond grinders (which sounds like a tool Blofeld might invent) as I type and should give the drivers much better grip as they round Turn 11 on Sunday.

Because we will have what amounts to a different track tomorrow morning, it's difficult to make predictions on how things will turn out when the checkered flag falls around 2PM Sunday afternoon, but I will try my best given the times that were set in practice.

Winner: Will Power Power's best time in practice was a half-second clear of Tony Kanaan's which, in spite of barely being able to drive on a crucial stretch of the track, is still fairly indicative of how things might look on Sunday. Power is a very controlled and mature driver and to throw down the top time with things as they were shows a fine level of car control on his part. Kanaan is interesting to see up there as well, but I don't think he'll have the car to match Power's.

Dark Horse: Ryan Hunter-Reay Remember when Ryan, IZOD's poster boy, was plugged into a last-second ride with Vision Racing and nearly pulled off a shock victory in St. Petersburg last year? He now has a much better ride underneath him than Vision's entry from last year and he threw down the third-fastest time in practice, ahead of two Penske Cars, two Ganassi cars, and two of his three teammates (as well as some other established twisty track drivers). RHR is a very competent road racer and I could easily see him knocking on the door as the laps wind down.

Ninja Dark Horse: Alex Tagliani I'm having a hard time explaining this one to myself, but I just liked seeing Tags' name in the top ten of the practice times. He's a good driver, to be sure, but in spite of his team's name (FAZZT), I'm not so sure how quick the car will actually be. Still, if a few cards fall the right way, Tags could crack the top five.

Danica Watch! Danica on a street course with no grip? Yeah, I don't see much good happening for her this time around. Sure, driving stock cars will teach you how to control an out-of-control race car, but she won't have the room for error that NASCAR tracks allow.

Qualifying at 7:30 AM Eastern *Daylight* Time tomorrow (don't forget your clocks!), with the green scheduled to drop around noon. Hopefully the overnight improvements to the start/finish straight will be resolved and the season will kick off smoothly.

Yellow Shirt Preview: 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

And so it begins...The cars are in the paddock, the drivers are going over their final offseason notes, and the fans is Sao Paulo are ready to head to the parade grounds to get the 2010 season rolling.

Say what you will about the financial state of the series or the current IRL formula or the lack of American drivers (and then feel free to go over to Robin Miller's mailbag to read a lot of opinions that agree with yours); I feel as though there is a marked improvement in this offseason over last year, and I am genuinely excited to see the first race this weekend.

There are new teams and drivers that weren't there before, some of whom are fully deserving of the rides they now have (Simona de Silvestro, anyone?). The ride-buyers are still out there, but there's not much that can really be done about that until the sponsorship dollars begin flooding in again.

There is a new face at the top of the leadership ladder in the IndyCar Series with the installment of new CEO Randy Bernard who, by all accounts, hit the ground running a week and a half ago and has impressed members of the media (including Miller, which is tough) and did damn-all to get Graham Rahal a two-race ride with Sarah Fisher Racing -- a partnership that could end up being good for Rahal, but spectacular for SFR, who is always in desperate need of a good result. Bernard took a niche sport in rodeo/bull-riding and, while not exactly making it mainstream, made its niche a good bit bigger and brought money into the sport. Let's see if he can do the same with the IndyCars.

Finally, the media, blogosphere and the participants are abuzz over what the field will look like two years from now. Five different companies have put designs forth for the new generation of car, from the familiar look of the Lola and Dallara designs to the wild and futuristic DeltaWing. For a series that, if you believe some of the louder voices out there, is dying, it seems like there are quite a few people who are interested in keeping it alive. Hopefully the buzz can remain alive for the next two years.

As for the on-track product in 2010, I see it being similar to 2009, but slightly more interesting. Yes, the red cars will dominate -- er, the red cars and the black cars now. Yes, that's not necessarily a good thing, even though having Dixon, Franchitti, Castroneves, Briscoe and Power are pretty good people to have battling it out for the title. I do think we'll see some fresh faces in victory lane on a couple of occasions, though. I'm not sure exactly who, but I feel as though the Andretti Autosport cars, in spite of how weak they look in testing and how disorganized they sometimes look; Tony Kanaan should find his way back into victory lane at least once this season. I also expect to see a yellow car carrying #67 find its way towards the sharp end of the field at St. Petersburg and Barber -- again, Rahal being in the car will only be good for Sarah Fisher Racing.

My picks for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series:

Champion: Will Power Power showed us what he is capable of last year at Edmonton: flat out domination. He's a very good driver in a very good car, and I see no reason that he will not come out of the gate swinging. If he isn't involved in a wreck or slowed by bad fortune, Will Power should be a top five finisher at just about every race. Consistency like that wins championships.

Championship Dark Horse: Helio Castroneves Always a little strange to put Helio's name in a "dark horse" category, but he certainly did not have a very strong season in 2009 (apart from Indianapolis, of course). Teammate Briscoe slid past Helio last year in every measurable aspect and became top dog on that team. Helio is starting to get up there in age and has to be looking at his job security with Team Penske. He'll want to get the results in his home country this weekend, in his home state races at St. Petersburg and Homestead, and in a quest to join the open-wheel elite with a fourth Indianapolis win.

Ninja Dark Horse (so dark, you can't even see him/her): Tony Kanaan To see Tony Kanaan have no victories last season was very tough and very disheartening. Sometimes he was on fire (like...literally on fire), sometimes the car simply wasn't good, and sometimes the rear suspension would break halfway down the back straight at Indy and pitch him into the wall. Tony should be a man on a mission this year with a hopefully re-focused team and a little help from his teammates -- especially new teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Danica Watch! Oh, she's that stock car driver, isn't she? Kidding aside, I must do my obligation as an unofficial member of the media and keep track of the series' golden egg. Mrs. Hospenthal will be as fast and aggressive as she always was, but it's hard to know where her team will end up. She was quite slow at the Barber Motorsports Park test. However, there is one place that Danica is always fast: Indianapolis. Here's Danica's Indianapolis record: fourth, eighth, eighth, DNF (crash that wasn't her fault), third. Give her two weeks at a track and she can knock it dead. She'll be fast on some other roundy-round tracks too. Will she repeat her Motegi triumph of 2008? Probably not, but that bright green and black car may see quite a bit of the sharper end of the field this year. Remember, she was the first driver behind the red cars in the points last year.

Practice and qualifying from Sao Paulo begin in just about 24 hours! Quite frankly...I'm pretty stoked for the drop of the green flag on Sunday and I hope you are as well.

This Just In...

Sarah Fisher is officially the coolest person in the history of auto racing. Period.

Robin Miller reports here

Other coverage on the blog list along the side there -->

Looking forward to Sao Paulo that much more now.

It's That Time Again!

The one and only IZOD IndyCar Series begins blowing your mind via cathode ray tubes (or LCD's, LED's, or plasma cells) from Sao Paulo, Brazil, starting at 1 PM Saturday with the "fast six" qualifying shootout and finishing on Sunday with a Noon green flag.

What that means is that it's time for the CG types at VERSUS to drop some beautifully-rendered knowledge on us:



There are many predictions and observations that can be made about this brand new course, but I will make just one: there will be an extremely important accident at Turn 11, and it may very well decide who wins the race. Expect to see Honda's magic button light up on the mile-long blast to the final turn.

Classy Chassis

Unfortunately, this post does NOT pertain to the establishment-of-questionable-repute on S. Harding St. in Indianapolis. Too bad, right?

Instead, now that we have all pertinent information (read: photos) of the four chassis concepts that are to be considered by Messers. Barnhart, Bernard and Angstadt, it's time for me to throw my small and insignificant hat into the ring for my favorite design.

First, let's consider some pros and cons of the various designs.


Dallara
Pros: Dallara has been supplying cars to the IRL since Day 1 (or Day 366, as the IRL used old Reynards and Lolas for its inaugural season) and Dallara has an established supply connection with the league; The car (that's my fave of the three pictured right there) is a nice evolution of the current car with a much sleeker and attractive look, but elements that still say "Dallara!"; Dallara wants to set up shop in soon-to-be-redeveloped Speedway, IN, bringing jobs and money to a piece of the world that could use it.

Cons: All of that stuff about Dallara being a chassis supplier from the beginning is one of the reasons people don't like them: the current car, introduced in 2003, was considered ugly from the start, in spite of working much better than the prettier Panoz/G-Force; the '97-'02 Dallara was not the safest thing on the planet and there were some driver injuries that were based on the aerodynamics and chassis structure; Dallara chassis have nearly bankrupted the IRL recently, as Gian Paolo & Co. have been charging exorbitant money to build and ship an eight-year-old design of which they've sold hundreds of copies.


DeltaWing
Pros: Being designed by Ben Bowlby and endorsed by Chip Ganassi -- two guys who I'm pretty sure know a thing or two about racing -- gives this car a big leg up on both conceptual and political merit; the "wingless car" idea is very ideal from a racing standpoint: cars are planted, but won't create the "aero push" for the following car that a big wing does; having the engine as a non-stressed piece of the car (meaning the engine block is not physically part of the chassis) means that essentially any engine that will fit in the engine bay can be installed with little additional development.

Cons: The much-ballyhooed look of the car ("phallic" seems to be the consensus on that one); An impossibly narrow front track, which makes those of us who aren't intimately involved with the project wonder how the thing will go around turns such as the Long Beach Hairpin; what we've seen is apparently nothing more than a foam block and may not actually resemble the final product -- not good when we're only two years out from the supposed debut of the car; wingless downforce has been tried before and did not work -- Bowlby is a smart guy, but is he smarter than Colin Chapman?; conspiracy theories that actually seem somewhat sensible make me think the DeltaWing is some sort of power play by the owners (who are largely behind the project) to demand input into IndyCar's 2012 design.


Swift
Pros: My word, look at that thing! It's beautiful!; Swift is an established name in open-wheel circles, producing highly competitive cars for Formula Nippon and the Cooper Tires Atlantic Series; the SwiftLight concept (see previous post), which has many possibilities from providing fans information to allowing for tons of sponsor and livery possibilities is a rather innovative package; the engine sticking out of the back looks like an early 70's F1 car, and that is NOT a bad thing; did I mention the look of the thing?

Cons: As far as I know, Swift has never built a car for the high speeds and hard impacts of oval racing, which calls into question their safety; Swift is based in California and hasn't given any indication of setting up shop in a more convenient spot, which could hurt car cost; speaking of car cost, how much would it cost to make some of those uber-complicated shapes out of carbon fiber?


Lola
Pros: Apart from Dallara, Lola is the most established name of the four choices and has the most history with Indy-style race cars of anyone here -- also apart from Dallara, Lola's '02-'06 Champ Car was considered a resounding success; the shape is not nearly as complicated as some of the others, which holds back production costs; chassis commonality between the IndyCar Series and Indy Lights cars (bottom and top, respectively, in photo), which would allow FIL teams like Sam Schmidt Motorsports to take at least one of their cars and stick it in an IndyCar race without having to spend the money to buy an entirely new tub.

Cons: There is very little evolution of the common IndyCar "look", which is a major part of the criteria for the IRL's top brass; wings, turning vanes, and fins are all bad things when it comes to trying to get cars to follow each other on a track (especially on a road course) -- it's not exactly a 2008 F1 car, but there's a lot of extra jewelry on this design.

My Choice
Were I in charge of the IRL (which, thank the heavens, I'm not), my choice would be Lola. There is a practicality about the Lola, with its simple design and chassis commonality, that really draws me to it. Ideally, I'd like a new car to be based on the Lola, with SwiftLight position indicators and the non-stressed engine of the DeltaWing concept. However, if there is no mashing of the concepts, give me the Lola.

Ugly old Dallaras are getting ready to be tested at various locales in the southeast, and race one from Sao Paulo goes off in less than four weeks...get pumped, IndyCar fans!

Light My Fire

Well, I've perused the lengthy PDF from the good people at Swift Engineering and looked at the photographs therein. After my deep analysis (or brief glance) of the release, two things stand out to me.

First, the half-covered engine gives all concepts a totally awesome throwback look and, in the words of Swift, shows off "the engine and some of the 'jewelry'". Plus, the name of the engine manufacturer can go...ON THE ENGINE! What a truly novel concept that is.

Second, the SwiftLights (patent pending) are something that has been long been missing from major motorsport and would be a great tool for the fans. I grant you, I'm fairly certain the lights for the accelerator and brake traces will be fairly useless, especially at the pedal-to-the-metal ovals. I'm also pretty sure the fuel level trace won't be too popular with teams trying to strategize and it would actually decrease what excitement there is in the fuel mileage races because the drama of waiting for someone's car to sputter to a halt will be lessened.

HOWEVER, the position light on the roll hoop is something that absolutely must be implemented -- tomorrow, if at all possible. This is the part of the SwiftLight concept that could be a game-changer in the world of major auto racing. It's too bad that no one has ever thought of something like this as a service to the fans before...

...OH WAIT!

ALMS beats everyone to the punch yet again! Not only do those lights signify first, second, and third places, but they are also different colors for each class. Great help in the chaos of sports car racing, and would be especially fantastic on the IICS twisty races.

Analysis of Nelson Piquet Jr's ARCA Debut

Not shown in this photo is the instigator of this spin, instigator of another large wreck, he who steals candy from small children, and he who eats the cute baby animals from all of those online photo galleries -- not to mention former Formula 1 driver: Nelson Piquet Jr.

This exact sentence came out of my mouth not long after the eye-searingly green car of some rookie lady driver named Dan...er...Dani...er...Danica-something flying across the infield of the Daytona tri-oval: "The only thing Nelson Piquet Jr. has ever done right in a race car is crash it when his boss told him to."

The kid kept his F1 job for an extra six months because of his ability to follow a team order to throw a multi-million-dollar machine into a wall...AND THAT'S IT. Tonight, his incompetence nearly derailed the aforementioned "rookie" Danica's attempt to make a little history in her first-ever stock car race.

Coming through Daytona's fourth turn, Nelson and some other guy had to check up for some reason or another, opening the door for many cars to pass. Nelson, having not been trained in English as his first language, obviously didn't understand the concept of "car low" as relayed by his spotter. He cut back down to the inside where a certain Ms. Danica happened to be driving and sent her careening sideways around the tri-oval. (by the way, if you can find the in-car video of Danica as she goes through this spin, it's quite a lesson in how to work through a spin)

However, not to be perturbed, and with a fresh set of tires, Danica found her way into fifth position in the closing laps before dropping back into a bump-and-grind fight with supercross legend Ricky Carmichael to finish sixth. Impressive, and possibly good for open-wheelers who have to take crap from pro-NASCAR media all the time for not being able to drive a car or something.

Of note to this blogger were Leilani Münter and Milka Duno, drivers of open-wheelers in Indy Lights and IndyCar, respectively, who were moving up through the field when all hell broke loose in front of them. Two cars wrecked, then two more cars wrecked, then spotters apparently took a union break because nobody slowed down and a lot of drivers went the wrong way, making the wreck larger and more dangerous by the second. Leilani and Milka both found their cars bashed to bits when the smoke cleared.

Also of note was the frankly terrifying wrecks of Barry Fitzgerald and Jill George (no relation to Citizen Tony). Fitzgerald lost control coming off of the second turn and the car immediately came off its wheels, rolling five times before coming to a rest. Jill George's accident looked similar to Fitzgerald's in that, after going low to avoid a car with a flat tire and losing control herself, her car simply left its wheels. George's car was pointed towards the wall when it left the ground and the front end caught the catch fence, causing a lengthy repair.

Also notable was the drive of Allison Owens, who ran third for a good chunk of the race before getting a shove out of the way and losing ground. The attention will remain on Danica, but I think Owens might beat her to the punch on putting a lady in a stock car victory lane.

Oh, and some old-timer named Bobby Gerhardt won the race. Congrats.

Verdict Forthcoming...

The Dallara concepts are covered in very great detail at the links to the right of these words. Between the three, I'm partial to the crimson car (I think it's because it shares a primary color with my favoritest of universities). However, I won't pass full judgment until the mysterious enigma that is the Delta Wing makes an appearance at McCormick Place.

I will be sure to take many many photos if the Delta Wing does indeed show up in Chicago.

Sunrise Over Daytona

Okay, perhaps that title doesn't have quite the ring of "Sunrise Over Le Mans", but it's still pretty cool that the various stars and guest stars of the Grand Am series storm the beach for two full circuits around the clock to open the American racing season.

As I'm watching this long, long race with near-empty stands while there's snow on the ground outside my window, I find myself wondering, "Why do I like this race?"

It's a fair question. At Le Mans, you have ultra-sleek, ultra-advanced, realevant-to-the-real-world prototypes from Audi, Peugeot, and Aston Martin slugging it out at the head of the field with a bevvy of fantastic international drivers holding what amounts to a day-long touring car race in Ferraris, BMWs, and Porsches. You have the 108-year racing history of the city of Le Mans, the great European racing fans, and fast cars racing down public roads while thousands of people grill up their breakfasts just on the other side of the catch fence.

Daytona just doesn't come across the same on TV. There's never that classic camera shot of some guy wrapped in blankets laying across three seats in the grandstand, there are no quaint French villages and cafés along the backstretch at Daytona -- just a big, ugly grandstand, some parking lots, and an airport. Most importantly, instead of those sleek prototypes, Grand Am's Daytona Prototypes look like warts on TV and can barely corner faster than the GT cars.

Yet I still enjoy watching this race.

One thing I like is that the nature of this Daytona road course, which uses the entire length of the NASCAR oval, lends to some great racing. It easily offers as much close racing as the much more popular NASCAR races, but with some tight right turns thrown in. The slipstreaming one sees for all three hours of the Daytona 500 is in play during the 24, but the drivers also have to know how to properly use their brakes and drive through a corner. Oh, and the prototypers have to do that while trying to get past the 20-mph-slower GT cars.

Yes, the prototypes are not the prettiest things on the planet, but here's what they definitely are: cheap and tough. This lends to a lot of entries in the prototype class with a lot of celebrity drivers from NASCAR and IndyCar getting a ride. When someone like Juan Pablo Montoya stuffs their car into a tire barrier, there isn't some corporate bean counter facepalming over the expense that went into the car as there might be with a broken Le Mans car; there's just a team of regular guys with new parts ready to go in the pit lane. Plus, as I've said, the racing can be very close and there's no giving up if a team gets down by two laps, because your car is just as fast as the other guy's.

As with Le Mans, though, the main reason I enjoy this race is simple: it's a 24-hour race. People talk about how tough it is to get through the Indianapolis 500 or NASCAR's 600-miler, but those races are 3-4 (maybe 5) hours long. At Le Mans and Daytona, the cars and teams have to last a full day. It doesn't matter how ugly or slow a car might be; if it can constantly go around 180 m.p.h. for 24 hours, I'm impressed.

The Dish Comes Down!

One reason that I sort of stopped caring about IndyCar racing as the season wore down was that I have a big, grey, round, concave thing on my deck, pointing at the sky, with the word "DirecTV" printed on it. Instead of the final races, my TV showed details of the high school-level catfight that DirecTV and Comcast over the broadcasting fees for the VERSUS network.

Don't get me wrong, I was decently happy with DirecTV the whole time I had it (lack of VERSUS notwithstanding). Picture quality was pretty good, channel lineup was good, and the thing that everyone points at as the chief disadvantage of satellite television -- signal going out with the slightest wisp of cloud -- was only a problem in the absolute worst weather. Most importantly, DirecTV was not Comcast: a compay I absolutely refuse to give my money to.

For some time, Comcast and the dishes were my only options for getting a TV signal to my house, and since Comcast stinks and didn't carry the Big Ten Network, my choice was pretty simple. At one point, though, some fellows in an AT&T truck rolled by and threw some nice fiber-optic cable into the lines around my building, which meant I suddenly had another option.

Looking over the available packages for AT&T U-Verse, I saw one that was similarly-priced to the DirecTV package I have, and had nearly the exact same channel lineup but for one key channel: AT&T has VERSUS.

It's fitting that, as i write this, I am wearing a Washington Capitals jersey, because hockey is big reason #2 that I wanted VERSUS so badly. Big reason #1: On March 14, 2010, I will be firmly parked in front of my TV to watch the IndyCars take to the streets of Sao Paulo.

See you there, folke!

New Year's Resolutions

photo: www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com

#1: Write on these pages again, maybe continuing past August 31 this time.

#2: Punch the person that designed these

Cheers to 2010. Opinions and baseless "facts" this way come!

Lorenzo Outlasts the Competition at Indianapolis

photo courtesy of motogp.com

...While he was at it, he perfected what shall forever be known as the "Lorenzo Leap".

There's a certain amount of ridiculous available to the world of racing each weekend. The level of ridiculous is directly proportional to the number of races happening in said weekend. With the large number of big-time races happening this weekend, there was plenty to go around.

Unfortunately, the IRL and Formula 1 did not use their full allotment of ridiculous -- otherwise a non-big-two would've won Chicagoland and Giancarlo Fisichella would've passed Raîkkönen's Ferrari to win Belgium -- so the leftovers were released into the public domain. Since the MotoGP race at Indianapolis was the last major event of the weekend, it got its pick of the remains.

As such, the following happened. Dani Pedrosa, far and away fastest on the straightaways, made it down the main straight (quite quickly) three times as the leader before his bike slid out from under him in the final corner of lap 4. That left Yamaha buddies Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo to duke it out until lap 9, when the single most ridiculous racing-related incident of the weekend took place:

Valentino Rossi CRASHED!

Check it out, here's the proof!

So that left Jorge Lorenzo to, for the first time since the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, have a race all to himself.

Scoring one for the home team, for Ducati, and for his future employment, was Nicky Hayden. Hayden survived the race, passed Colin Edwards, and held off Andrea Dovizioso to land on the right side of that picture at the top, in third place. Of note: this was Ducati Corse's FIRST top-flight MotoGP podium by someone other than Casey Stoner -- impressive.

One thing Lorenzo understands fully is that victory at Indianapolis means you get to do this:

The final result:

1 J. LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 47'13.592
2 A. DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 9.435
3 N. HAYDEN Ducati Team + 12.947
4 A. DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team + 13.478
5 C. EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 26.254
6 J. TOSELAND Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 32.408
7 L. CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 34.400
8 M. KALLIO Ducati Team + 34.856
9 T. ELIAS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 45.005
10 D. PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team + 45.377
11 C. VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 45.478
12 R. DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP + 52.294
13 A. ESPARGARO Pramac Racing + 1'03.552
14 G. TALMACSI Scot Racing Team MotoGP + 1'15.086

Not classified
M. MELANDRI Hayate Racing Team 3 Lap
N. CANEPA Pramac Racing 5 Lap
V. ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 16 Lap

Preview: Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix

photo courtesy of indianapolismotorspeedway.com

A wonderful weekend of racing is woefully incomplete if the Greatest Racecourse in the World is not included. Luckily, grand prix motorcycle racing makes its second-ever visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its second visit to the U.S. this year.

One thing about this event compared to, say, that other big international event the Speedway used to hold (F1's U.S.G.P.), is that this track suits bikes very well and makes for a very interesting race. Last year, the remnants of Hurricane Ike, still in low tropical storm guise, played havoc on the event with scads of wind and rain. The 125 cc race was wet and wild, the 250 cc race was canceled outright, and the MotoGP race was contested is some of the worst wind and rain conditions I've ever had the pleasure of sitting in.

And you know what? That race was still fantastic, with Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi going at it for a large portion of the race.

Fast-forward to this year's race: not only are we blessed with fantastic weather today, but this season has included the best intra-team battle in recent memory. Nearly every race has featured a wild battle between FIAT-Yamaha teammates Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. The best moment of the entire season can be re-lived HERE (insert manly Italian weeping...those guys put Spanish soccer announcers to shame). At the most recent contest in Brno, Czech Republic, Lorenzo was putting the charge on Rossi again, but the wily veteran forced the kid into a mistake and Lorenzo low-sided out of the lead.

Another wrinkle in today's race is the presence on the pole position of the man who won the first U.S. event of 2009, Honda's Dani Pedrosa. The Honda is far and away the fastest bike in a straight line, and there's a half-mile's worth of straight line every lap as the cars come through the aluminum canyon that is IMS' front straight. Pedrosa will be a challenger for sure in this race.

The final wrinkle will be how the Americans perform in their home event. Nicky Hayden figures to have a lot of support in the stands, being just under 200 miles from his hometown of Owensboro, KY, and he starts on the outside of the second row in sixth. Personable Texan Colin Edwards starts next to Hayden in fifth and rides what could be the third- or fourth-best bike on the grid: the Tech3 Yamaha. I expect both of these guys to be past fourth-place starter Alex de Angelis pretty quickly and perhaps challenging for a podium slot.

The front of the field, I expect, will be all about the Yamahas. Pedrosa will be strong, but the technical nature of a large portion of the Indianapolis track will put him behind the blue and white bikes. Lorenzo will be challenging hard for the lead as he has all season, but when you've got an eight-time world champion riding the same equipment as you, it's hard to come out on top. Put Rossi down for a second victory at Indianapolis.

Race is at 3PM on FOX...be there! Recap from me later tonight or tomorrow.

Pseudo-Live Blog: Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300

It's time for one of the most exciting races on the IndyCar schedule! How do you make one of the most exciting races better, you ask? Well, you run it under the lights on a Saturday night!

Believe you me, if the Indy Lights race is any indication, we are in for some sort of show when the big cars take to the track. The only drivers in the entire FIL field that weren't consistently side-by-side were Daniel Herrington and Wade Cunningham -- and that's probably because they had gotten their fill of that earlier in the race. There was three-wide racing, and even some FOUR-wide racing in that event, and it held me captive for the entire hour.

As far as the big cars, here are my picks:

Winner: A Penske Car. Just pick one. They start on the front row, they're fast, and as long as Ryan Briscoe is ahead of the Target cars, he'll keep his championship lead. He knows that, and he'll follow Helio to the line if that's what it takes.

Dark Horse: Graham Rahal. I would really like to see this guy win the race. He's been strong at a lot of the other oval tracks, and it's entirely possible that he'll be near the front when the race begins to wind down.

Ninja Dark Horse: Ed Carpenter. After Kentucky, do you really have to question this pick?

Danica Watch: top five, probably. If she's not in the wall at some point, she should be strong here.

Let's repeat that thrilling FIL race; VERSUS' coverage is about to start up!

9:02, pre-race
I was all pumped up, and then they put that stupid "VERSUS and DirecTV are breaking up" crawl at the bottom of the screen. I really don't care right now, thanks. Sonoma carbon-fiber-fest being recapped currently.

9:04, pre-race
Killer Bee Dario talking up Chicagoland with Lindy Thackston, who is now a noted member of the blogoshpere. Recommended reading there, folks!

9:06, pre-race
Fans are huddled about Jack Arute to see if they can get radiative warmth off his fantastically bronzed skin.

9:07, pre-race
Dan Wheldon is the only repeat Chicago winner in the field? How about that for a little-known fact. Recap of how racy this track is....video of Dan Wheldon...THREADING THE NEEDLE in practice.

9:09, pre-race
Scott Dixon: "It's cold out? I hadn't noticed because I have semi-frozen boring running through my veins and have no feelings."

9:14, pre-race
A deep look with Robbie Buhl and Ed Carpenter on how it feels to be that awesome guy who nearly beat Team Penske.

Side note: it's not really a beer of the race, because my selection is nowhere near as classy as those of the pressdog, but I will be consuming a fair amount of Miller High Life tonight. Expect belligerent ranting by lap 150. Also, enjoy this.

9:18, pre-race
If you had RIGHT NOW picked for first mention of the Rookie-of-the-Year battle (which is good, by the way), you win....A CHINESE IPHONE!

9:20, pre-race
Tony Kanaan rips Jack Arute for not being on Twitter...also explains the spat of tweets between himself and Helio over the wreck at Infineon.

9:22, pre-race
Mad shout-out by Lindy to the FIL race today...which was 100% fantastic. Also, a quick note on the fact that Alex Tagliani will be driving....FAZZT next year!

9:27, pre-race
Professor Jon takes us through how ridiculously awesome the Delphi Safety Team is. Lots of computers, procedures, and tests involved.

9:29, pre-race
Mandatory re-living of Briscoe's ridiculous 2005 wreck at Chicago. Today's fun fact: Ryan Briscoe played rugby in Australia, could probably knock me OUT.

9:32, pre-race
Dang...I nearly passed out listening to Floyd's interview of Ryan Briscoe before driver intros. Why does the boring Penske driver have to be the one who's kicking ass this year?

9:35, pre-race
Danica really looks like one of those X Games female snowboarders with her giant Alpinestars beanie and petite self. Being native to these exact weather conditions, she's probably wondering what all the fuss is about.

9:37, pre-race
Jack Arute film noir interrogation of Danica Patrick. Will she spill the beans on next season? Probably not any more than she already has...and Jack Arute refers to her as a "commodity", which is obviously something she does not want to be called...

9:41, pre-race
Still doing the Danica black & white video...she seriously stares lasers at Arute every time the word "commodity" comes up...I gotta give her a lot of credit for being able to take the media attention in stride and still remain at least somewhat sane.

9:43, pre-race
I really should've checked the official schedule before watching...I probably could've napped for a while. SARAH FISHER! is on my TV right now, which wakes me up a bit because she is probably the coolest person in all of racing.

9:46, pre-race
Hideki Mutoh, still painfully single (from all indications), graces the VERSUS broadcast, and TK shows up to talk up the "Find Hideki A Date" campaign. Kanaan is going to pick some lucky girl to go to Homestead and the awards banquet as Hideki's date...and E.J. Viso is apparently Hideki's wingman, which may or may not be a good thing.

9:51, pre-race
Willy T. Ribbs moment! It really was cool when he stuck that bright yellow car on the 500 grid...shot of Silent Pagoda's trash can fire at their happy, beautiful campground.

9:54, pre-race
Video of how TCGR wins mondo races. The secret: be very very boring over the radio. Robbie informs us here that the aero tweaks "are going to work." God help him if he's wrong...

9:56, pre-race
NEWS FLASH! It's chilly and windy in Chicago! As opposed to the winter, when it's downright unreasonable and windy...

9:59, pre-race
What really makes the new ApexBrasil ad legit is that it's voiced by Indianapolis radio personality Laura Steele, who lends that sultry voice to stuff like the Bob & Tom Show, many local advertisements and Q95...oh, and the IMS PA system...and that's a good thing

10:01, pre-race
Time for the command! Well done, boring boring man with long corporate title from Advance Auto Parts!

10:02, pre-race
In order to maximize pre-race boredom, the league is keeping the cars on the grid longer and giving them an extra warm-up lap to get the cars nice and toasty for maximum performance.

10:04, pre-race
Starting grid: Briscoe, Castroneves, Franchitti, Kanaan, Rahal, Dixon, Andretti, Moraes, Servia, Patrick, Wheldon, Carpenter, Mutoh, Scheckter, Wilson, Conway, Matos, Hunter-Reay, Fisher, Viso, Duno, Doornbos, Lazier

Lap 1
GREEN GREEN GREEN! Sort of decent start. Lots of side-by-side-by-side already...Briscoe leads the first lap.

Lap 3
We're already watching Danica zing around the back...near pass for the lead through Turn 4.

Lap 5
Ed Carpenter, with killer ownage around a huge group of cars....bright yellow = fast.

Lap 8
Dixon had been relatively slow...suddenly not so much as he goes after Briscoe for the lead.

Lap 10
Too much excitement! Must have ad break! What with the floodlights and the various flourescent-colored cars at the front, the side-by-side is a blur of brightness.

Lap 17
Back from commercials. Steady Eddie blew by Helio and is FOURTH now.

Lap 20
Apparently, AGR re-geared all of their cars this morning. from what we've seen so far, that may not have been the best idea. Their drivers are grabbing gears mid-corner and losing position.

Lap 24
Here's something that's probably not a surprise: Tomas Scheckter is wildly fast right now...SCYTHING through the field (yes! I got to use that word!)

Lap 27
Rahal and Servia are 6th and 7th. Good on ya, N/H/L!

Lap 29
Let's do a quick top ten update: Briscoe, Dixon, Fran-fisher (it's the yellow car), Carpenter, Helio, Rahal, Servia, Moraes, Scheckter, Wilson. Kanaan just lost a TON of spots.

Lap 34
OMG moment in the VERSUS booth as Rahal nearly pops the front wing off Moraes' car. Good evasion by Moraes; warning to Rahal from IHJ.

Lap 38
Good job by the VERSUS behind-the-scenes people, working with prof. Jon to explain aero differences between various cars...definite Steve Matchett moment there.

Lap 43
Nothing gets the blood going quite like watching T&S during a full-screen ad break!

Lap 45
RHR, about to set the pick and cause some silliness, and we cut away as fast as possible for pit stops.

Lap 48
LOTSA pit stops. Briscoe, Carpenter, and someone else in and out. Briscoe makin' it happen FAST!

Lap 50
At the quarter post! Battle for the lead coming...who exits the pits first? Scott Dixon may be the big winner here, but the Penske cars are stalking him.

Lap 52
Trafficus Maximus behind Ed Carpenter. He appears to be single-handedly making the race interesting right now.

Lap 55
Marco Andretti trying the REALLY outside line, looking to go three wide in the back of Trafficus Maximus.

Lap 57
Battle for the lead! Dixon and Briscoe...SIDE-BY-SIDE! Neither man giving an inch here as their respective posses catch up behind them.

Lap 60
What if all four of these guys crashed right now? Wouldn't that just be ridiculous?

Lap 62
On my list of "Things That Would Make This Battle Better", the IZOD music is pretty low. Briscoe snatches the position, finally. Helio looking to follow.

Lap 65
Marco is HOOKED UP. He's the only guy consistently running the waaaay outside line and making it work.

Lap 68
The current situation: big two are running together, then five second back to a MASSIVE CLUSTERBOMB! That led by Carpenter, still.

Lap 70
A "debris caution" would really spruce things up here...not to say that the racing isn't exciting, but i'd like to see it be exciting for the lead.

Lap 72
Marco in the pits?! Oh man, he didn't get a full tank on his first pit stop...his totally awesome race: OVER...probably.

Lap 75
MASSIVE gaggle of lapped cars causing issues with the leaders. Briscoe goes THREE WIDE to get by all of them.

Lap 79
Dario looks to challenge Dixon in the traffic for second? Helio catching back up to the Target guys.

Lap 83
I've been calling the wrong leader and fourth place for some time now. Maybe it's because the Penske cars look...EXACTLY THE F**KING SAME.

Lap 88
Gap from 4th to 5th now over 8 seconds...the leaders caught traffic and GAINED ground.

Lap 92
YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW! Painfully single Hideki Mutoh catches the wall with the back of the car. If you just pitted, you're screwed. If you haven't pitted, you're gravy. If you're Marco Andretti, you wonder why your tank was half-filled back on lap 40-something.

Lap 95
No conclusive replays on the Mutoh wreck...judging by where it happened and the past reputation of the team, I'd say something broke on the backstretch.

Lap 96
PIT STOPS! It's Dixon, Helio, Dario, Carpenter, Scheckter (!) out on the top. Briscoe had a fuel fill problem..caused by him missing the mark in his box. Wheldon looks to be blowed up...looks like in the half-shaft region.

Lap 100
Halfway through, we are! Still under yellow. Briscoe's mishap puts Fran-fisher in the championship lead by all of a point.

Lap 101
We are...GREEN! Carpenter with an immediate challenge for third. Dixon rockets off. Moraes and Scheckter goin' at it for fifth.

Lap 104
Dixon and Helio doin' it for the lead right now...the field is starting to catch up and make this one FUUUUUUN. Moraes for fourth!

Lap 106
Moraes for THIRD! Side by side, three rows deep, now THREE WIDE in the third row!

Lap 109
Scheckter and Moraes battling for THIRD! YELLOW YELLOW! Marco's very high line takes him a touch TOO high...white-walled the tires, but the suspension is all straight from what I can see.

Lap 111
OOOH! DirecTV is upping the ante on Comcast, callin' those greedy jerks (who own VERSUS) for making "unreasonable demands". This is some real, high school-level drama here.

Lap 112
RHR hit pit lane with the unreasonable thought that the pits would be open after three laps of yellow for what amounted to nothing. Those sorts of thoughts are dangerous, boy!

Lap 113
PIT STOPS...? Lotsa guys in, but not Scheckter. Moraes beat EVERYONE. Matos did well too. Carpenter the big loser on this round.

Lap 115
Order when the restart finally rolls around: Scheckter (!), Kanaan, Moraes (!), Fran-fisher, Matos, Dixon, Helio, Carpenter, Rahal, Patrick

Lap 117
GREEN GREEN GREEN! Kanaan looking for the lead. Fran-fisher jumps on Scheckter for second, Matos tryin' THREE WIDE!

Lap 118
Eddie under Moraes for fourth. BIG FIGHT FOR POSITION!

Lap 122
Carpenter, Moraes, Dixon THREE WIDE for fourth. This...this is good stuff.

Lap 125
This would be the perfect time to not go to an ad break, thanks. Seriously...is VERSUS that poor?

Lap 130
The Target guys have hooked up for the top spot and Moraes is chasing them down...fourth on back is a massive CLUSTERBOMB!

Lap 132
The Penske cars have, miraculously, fallen prey to Danica, who is in 12th.

Lap 135
We've gone to....ANOTHER AD BREAK! And this one's a fullscreen! HUZZAHHH!

Lap 138
In spite of all the dumb crap that's happened to him so far, Marco is up to 13th, on the lead lap...that's just crazy.

Lap 140
Dixon, Fran-fisher, Moraes....fourth on back still ridiculous.

lap 143
I really wish DirecTV and Comcast would stop posturing via my TV screen...I'M TRYING TO WATCH SOMETHING HERE.

Lap 147
Things have calmed down a bit...we still have one pit stop before things go nutty...another ad break!

Lap 150
At the three-quarter pole, it's Fran-fisher, Dixon, Moraes, Briscoe, Kanaan, Servia, Carpenter, Rahal, Wilson, Andretti.

Lap 152
Remember the '06 500, when Hornish had a catastrophic pit stop, then came back to win? Yeah, Briscoe is on pace to easily do that.

Lap 153
Scheckter, who didn't pit on the last yellow, does so now. Kanaan follows.

Lap 159
Fran-fisher pits! Briscoe took second while I was spaced out. No one else looking to pit just yet...

Lap 162
N/H/L teammies side by side for what is now third...Servia dives for the pits, though.

Lap 164
Dixon has an alternate identity...which is an oil refinery. Seriously, nobody "makes fuel" like Scott Dixon.

Lap 166
Dixon and Helio in! Dixon out ahead of Helio...will he have the lead? Looks like he's got it by miles and miles. Briscoe was in lapped traffic while trying to catch Dixon.

Lap 170
30 to go! Will anything ridiculous happen?

Lap 173
We could totally use a "debris caution" here....the boredom is intense now.

Lap 175
Marco Andretti trying his damndest to make this race interesting. Still has the waaaay outside line owned. Currently in seventh, is he.

Lap 180
Moraes, Eddie, and Marco, three wide for fifth...MUCH better than the lead pack (or lack thereof...)

Lap 185
15 to go...YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW! Helio crashes out of third! We were watching the battle for fifth, looking for the wreck. Instead, Helio's suspension very obviously broke and shoved the car into the wall.

Lap 186
The last stretch of this race...will be interesting, to say the least. Obviously, Helio was target of the IRL snipers, out in force to make this race interesting.

Lap 188
They are running an ungodly slow pace under yellow here. Under 70 MPH. I applaud this, as it will give us more awesome at the end.

Lap 192
Nine laps of racing to go, and we are...GREEN GREEN GREEN! Front three in line, Rahal holding up the rest of the pack in fourth.

Lap 194
Rahal now catching back up to Fran-fisher...now trying for third!

Lap 196
Rahal really takin' the battle to the big guys with FIVE to go!

Lap 197
Briscoe, trying for the leeeead!

Lap 198
THREE WIDE FOR THE LEAD! RAHAL RAHAL RAHAL!

Lap 200
Rahal fell back, Briscoe and Dixon for the lead!

Checkered Flag!
BRISCOE AT THE LINE! Dixon (+.0077), Moraes (!), Fran-fisher, Rahal (!), Carpenter, Servia, Scheckter, Matos, Wilson, Andretti, Patrick, Kanaan, Fisher, Hunter-Reay, Conway, Viso, Doornbos, Lazier, Castroneves, Duno, Wheldon, Mutoh.

We'll count that as the fourth-closest finish in league history, and what a finish it was. I really thought Grahamburglar would have the run off the way high line towards the end, but he wiggled a bit and fell back. Moraes was real strong on that very last lap and might've had another shot if the race were 201 laps long. History will show the big teams took the top spots, but once again, it was all about who was coming along behind them. Fantastic racing for little guys KV and N/H/L.

My predictions were actually not too shabby: a Penske car won and Rahal made a really strong late run before finishing fifth. Carpenter was decently strong, but couldn't break top five in the end...still, not too bad. Danica Watch was waaaaay off, with Lady Danica finishing outside the top ten.

All in all, a pretty damn good race. The circus has a couple weeks off before it hits the big oval in Japan, Twin Ring Motegi. Of course, channel 603 may be going dark for me on Tuesday, but whatever...I don't know that I'll even be awake for Motegi, so I won't concern over it too much.

Midnight is upon us (on eastern time, at least), and the weekend's racing has just begun! F1's most excellent event (Belgium) early in the morning (Speed), ALMS from Mosport out in Ontario (Speed), MotoGP from Indianapolis (FOX). All great, world class events, and highly-recommended viewing. Ciao!

Support Your Local Speedway

Every once in a while, assuming it makes sense with my schedule and my pocketbook, I'll take a Friday night and make a journey to Bloomington Speedway to take in some real, live short-trackin'. Chiefly, I do this because I really love to watch motorized vehicles go fast and because the sound of giant, stock-block V8s rumbling around a 1/4-mile oval is just fantastic.

I also like to go there because, at its heart, Bloomington Speedway is yet another locally-owned business -- just like Nick's Bar or Mother Bear's Pizza (both highly recommended if you're in Bloomington, by the way). A good way to keep the economy of a town going is to put money into the coffers of a local business, especially if that business presents a fantastic product. This holds true from the eastern tip of Maine to the islands of Hawai'i and in every country on the planet.

Since I'm a resident of Central Indiana, I also like to pour some money into the economy of Indianapolis. I go to Pacers games, Colts games, the State Fair, Shapiro's Deli, Dawson's on Main in Speedway, Union Jack Pub, shops in Broad Ripple, some places in Carmel and Westfield...so on and so forth. The one local business in Indianapolis gets more of my business than just about any place on the planet is the local speedway -- you know, that place out on 16th Street.

Sure, it's a corporation, and sure, it's run in a rather questionable way sometimes. However, the fact remains: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway started as a local, privately-owned business, and it remains as such to this day. In this slowly recovering economy, where locally-owned businesses were hit harder than just about anyone, places like the Speedway need as much support as they can get.

Many fans of auto racing in America have this us-versus-them attitude when it comes to who they pull for. There's this idea that you can support NASCAR or you can support the IRL, but you can't support both. When the Brickyard 400 rolls around, IRL fans will point to the vast swaths of bare aluminum at the Speedway and claim victory for their favorite form of motorsport. Likewise, NASCAR folks will point to empty seats at Chicagoland, Homestead or Kansas and claim a victory for themselves.

What people don't realize sometimes is this: if an IRL race at an ISC track bombs, it ultimately hurts their partner, NASCAR; if the Brickyard 400 bombs, the IRL's parent company loses out on money.

With the Speedway's "other" event starting up tomorrow, I put this simple plea out to people within and without Central Indiana: support your Speedway. If you can, go to the MotoGP race. Even if you've never seen a motorcycle race in your life and think it's probably a waste of time since it's not your favorite motorsport, quit prejudging and go to the race.

While you're at it, apply for tickets to next year's Brickyard 400 and Indianapolis 500. Maybe you don't like MotoGP, NASCAR or the IRL, but that money, whether its $20, $45 or $150, goes into keeping a locally-owned business open and bringing your preferred product to you every year.

Who knows, maybe you'll even discover that you like the other races...I certainly follow MotoGP a lot more now than I did before last year.

MotoGP preview and IRL pseudo-live blog forthcoming. See you then!

Updates on Various Drivers

-Sarah Fisher, recent recipient of a shiny new Dallara, will be painting her new car pink for the Homestead-Miami race way off in the distant future known as October. Her pink-ness will have some sort of tie-in to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, one of those charities that sticks out above the rest for simply how prolific and awesome they are. Details forthcoming on how Sarah fans can get involved in the charitable giving...or you can just give through the above link. Either way, many will appreciate it.

-From future pink car drivers to past pink car drivers, Alex "Pink" Lloyd seems to be inching closer to a return to the track. According to 16th & Georgetown, Alex says it's better than 50/50 that he'll have a ride by year's end. James speculates N/H/L's #06, currently piloted by Oriol Servia, and I don't see much reason to disagree with that speculation. If that's the case, we'll need to come up with a new, McDonald's-themed nickname for "Pink".

-Some driver named Danica Patrick is apparently getting a new contract with whatever AGR is named next year. Nothing's done yet, according to team honcho Michael Andretti, but when both Curt Cavin and Robin Miller say it's a done deal, I'm going to just mark that down as a done deal.

-Nelson Philippe, following his awful crash during practice at Sonoma, has got to be done for 2009. He has the open fracture on his foot, a compound fracture of his ankle, a broken leg, and a concussion; no doctor in their right mind would clear him to get up and make breakfast for at least a month.

-Also featured in aforementioned accident was Will Power. Deep-voiced hair product endorser Dave Calabro from Channel 13 just informed be that Will may be moved to Indianapolis (presumably to Methodist Hospital) soon. Some are speculating that Will may find his way back into a car by the end of '09, but who knows what El Capitan will go for in that situation.

-In Indy Lights news, the gal with the coolest name ever given to someone from Minnesota, Leilani Münter, is returning to the track this weekend in Joliet. Her car is sponsored by the ladies' version of Extenze, which is not suitable for discussion amongst children. That aside, it's fantastic to see Leilani, a champion of carbon-neutrality and a fine person to be around from all accounts, back on the IndyCar scene. If you've got money to throw around after your donation to the Komen Foundation, buy some recycled-material Leilani swag.

It's past midnight, so my brain has shut down and I can't think of any more driver news at this point...more to come as 2010 starts to loom on the horizon.