It took us some time, but the IZOD IndyCar Series is finally back to making only left turns!
I'm not one hundred percent sure why I'm writing this pseudo-live blog on a Saturday afternoon (though I have some conspiracy theories about that), but it's all okay because today is one of the best days of the year...
MAY 1ST!!!
Yes, that lovliest of months is upon us, and thirty days from now, the eleven rows of three will take the green flag on that little strip of road on the west side of Indianapolis.
Today from Kansas Speedway, however, is IndyCar's tune-up for the 500-Mile Race. Let's not mince words and let's jump straight into the predictions:
Winner: Scott Dixon Dixon has had an interesting season so far, to say the least. However, this is a track at which he excels and few driver/team pairings are as good on the mile-and-a-half ovals as Dixon/Ganassi.
Dark Horse: Alex Tagliani Imagine my surprise when, as I was watching qualifying, the number 77 shot towards the top of the leaderboard. I'm not sure exactly how the ex-Champ Car twisty specialist with the brand new team has had such a good year, but something special could be happening at FAZZT Racing. Tags starts fifth, and could surprise today.
Ninja Dark Horse: Dan Wheldon Wheldon was another surprise in qualifying yesterday, but he and Marco Andretti were shot down by Brian Barnhart for putting a wheel over the white line on the backstretch during their runs. Wheldon is good at these ovals, though, and Panther racing is still one of the better oval teams out there. Watch for Dan to try and scythe his way through the field.
No lady watch today because Marty Reid can't pronounce "Simona De Silvestro". ABC is in pre-race mode. I'll get the live coverage going when the cars are fired.
1:45, pre-race
National Anthem over, and a flyover by four A-10 Warthogs...THE MOST BADASS PLANE OF ALL TIME
1:55, pre-race
A lady who looks rather like a librarian gives a rather enthusiastic command, the engines fire, and we are ready to go!
1:57, pre-race
Scott Goodyear interviews Dan Wheldon via the in-car radio. Distracts Dan with his epic Canadian-ness and Dan stalls the car on the roll-off. As the 'Dog would say: viewing enhanced.
1:59, pre-race
God, that KV/Lotus car looks SOOO GOOD. Can't wait for Pole Day to see that one. Cars cycling around for the final time before the green.
Lap 1
Pace car off and we are...GREEN! Halfway-decent start for once. Briscoe leads the field around and they're going three-wide in the background.
Lap 2
Marco cutting through the field like a swiss army knife already. Briscoe still leads.
Lap 4
Mike Conway driving quite impressively at the moment. He's up to 7th.
Lap 7
Don't look now, but Vitor Meira really making it happen in fifth fighting Helio for fourth.
Lap 11
Ryan Hunter-Reay with the go-fast IZOD paint job cutting through the field early as well. He's up to 10th now.
Lap 13
Unlucky 13 for Dixon as he gets a bit loose and loses second to teammate Dario.
Lap 18
John Andretti putting the workover on Will Power! Cool to see that, though it's kinda far back in the field.
Lap 21
1/10th of the way through the race. Apart from the Ganassis battling each other every once in a while, the top 5 (6, 9, 10, 14, 3) staying in a nice, clean line.
Lap 23
The second five (11, 06, 32, 8, 37) also in a line trying to catch up with the lead pack, which has taken off a bit.
Lap 26
Dixon looking on the outside for the lead, but he can't make it stick.
Lap 28
Dixon has to let off the gas in Turn 4 quite a bit. The wash from Briscoe's car is really playing havoc with Dixon.
Lap 32
Marco and Uncle John are running together in 12th and 13th. Occasionally, I forget John is in this race and the T&S confuses the crap out of me. Oh, we hve a new leader, by the way (Dixon)
Lap 39
Danica's car: not happy. Convenient huge lift as ESPN had the on-board and telemetry on.
Lap 41
Interestingly enough, this does not look like a typical 1.5-miler race. Cars quite strung out...looks like a real oval race as opposed to a Daytona-style clusterf**k
Lap 46
Pass for fourth. Helio around Meira. Sato has pitted.
Lap 48
Briscoe in from second. Kanaan also pits, rest of the crowd on its way in too.
Lap 50
Dixon pits from the lead; everything looks good. Now Dario pits from the lead.
Lap 51
Awful pit stop for Will Power...the team could barely reach the car with the fuel hose. Dixon cycles back into the lead.
Lap 53
Total lack of caution flags here at the moment. It's kind of nice to see a clean race, but Dixon does look a little lonely out there.
Lap 63
9, 10, 6, 3, 14 are your top five. We're nearly a third of the way through this one and Dixon is dominating the crap out of this one.
Lap 74
We are...YELLOW! Viso tags the wall in 4. Pit stops over and everyone back in place. Circling about behind the pace car now. Big WOAH as Sato and Duno exit the pits and make contact.
Lap 84
We are...GREEN! lots of two wide as the flag flies, but Dixon runs off.
Lap 88
RHR flies past Helio to make the top 5.
Lap 94
Now RHR working on Kanaan for fourth now.
Lap 105
Just past halfway now...9, 10, 3, 11, 77 aare your top 5. RHR washed out a bit and let Tags by. Danica really holding up some of the leaders as they try to lap her.
Lap ??
We are...YELLOW! Big hunk of carbon fiber chilling on the apron in Turn 1.
Lap 123
Pit stops! Ganassi guys still running the show. Kanaan, Mutoh (!), Helio round out the top 5 out of the pit stops.
Lap 124
Still under the yellow. Sorry about a lack of updates over the last several laps...I was on the phone and the race was starting to dull up a bit before that caution flew.
While we have a moment, let's look at some of the surprises in the leaderboard: Mutoh in fourth, Tagliani in sixth, Hunter-Reay running through the field to be seventh, and JOHN Andretti in ninth.
Lap 129
and we are...GR-er...YELLOW! False start, try again.
Lap 130
Take two a bit better, we are...GREEN! Back of the field fans out to two and three wide. Hunter-Reay jumps to sixth, now working on Helio.
Lap 133
Huge battle for sixth as Meira, Tagliani, RHR, and others were going two wide all the way around vying for the spot.
Lap 140
60 laps remain. The Ganassi guys still dominating, with Kanaan, Mutoh, and Briscoe following.
Lap 142
Briscoe nails down fourth from Mutoh. The crowd goes...um...wild?
Lap 147
Mutoh and Briscoe actually having quite a fun battle
Lap 149
Don't look now, but Takuma Sato is making those Lotus colors fly, battling Helio for sixth.
Lap 160
We've settled into a bit of a parade here, but green flag pit stops are now starting to happen.
Lap 165
Battle for third! Mutoh trying to work the outside line against Tony Kanaan.
Lap 174
Dixon's car seems to have a bigger fuel tank than everyone else...
Lap 178
We are...YELLOW! Jay Howard heavy into the wall. Dixon was in the pit lane as the yellow came out, so let's see how that will affect him...he should be alright, but we'll see.
Lap 180
Replays show that Howard had a similar incident to E.J. Viso's, though Howard struck much harder.
Lap 181
Of interest: Helio Castroneves is in second place. He had just hit pit lane when the yellow came out, so Dario had to slow down and Helio slotted into place in second.
Lap 182
My eyes are actually watering up a bit as they talk about the Indianapolis 500 coming up...so, so epic.
Lap 185
and we are...GREEN! Lots of lapped cars between Helio and...we are YELLOW! Sato and Mutoh make a Japanese sushi roll up against the wall on the front stretch. What a damn shame...those guys were having such a good race.
Lap 186
There was a lot of congestion as Conway got a little squirrely on the restart and Mutoh just sort of drifted up into Sato....just a tough break for those guys.
Lap 191
Lots of caution laps here towars the end...Dixon has to be loving this and Helio probably can't stand it. Barring disaster, Dixon should take this one easily.
Lap 193
We are...GR-er...yellow. Again, we're going to do a second take on this one.
Lap 194
Better this time, and we are...GREEN! Dixon runs off, much battling towards the back of the field.
Lap 196
Big battle will be for second. Dario working on Helio and clears him!
Lap 199
Two to go! Dixon way clear, Kanaan working on Helio for third now
Lap 200
White flag for Dixon.
Checkered Flag!
Dixon dominates! Dario holds of Kanaan for second. Castroneves, Hunter-Reay, Briscoe, Moraes, Tagliani, J. Andretti (!), Meira round out the top ten.
Holy smokes, can you get much more dominant than Scott Dixon was today? Once he got past Briscoe, this race was OVER. Scott almost shows some emotion in celebrating his victory...woah there, buddy!
Dario said he was getting a little nervous when Kanaan suddenly found speed at the end of the race, but he was happy with this lead-in to May.
Kanaan happy with the fact that Andretti Autosport cars are actually functioning this year. Helio his usual bubbly self and can't wait to try and throw down for 500 number four.
All in all, this wasn't a bad race. Sure, Dixon made the sharp end of the field a bit of a snooze, but there were a lot of fun battles further back in the field, capped off by Franchitti and Kanaan putting on a show for second.
One thing that surprised me a bit is that this looked like more of a traditional oval race as opposed to a pack racing extravaganza and I actually kinda liked that. Sure, the packs can be exciting, but they're so unnecessarily dangerous. Today was a lot safer and still held some excitement, so I count that as a win.
As for predictions: Dixon won it running away; Tagliani was strong, but couldn't really break the top 5; Wheldon was not as strong as I thought he'd be, and Ryan Hunter-Reay was the one who made the big run from the back of the field.
The next time the green flag flies, it will be at the biggest single-day sporting event in the world: the one-and-only Indianapolis 500-Mile Race! I can't wait!
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