Monday, August 9, 2010

Wrapup: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio


Well, circumstance has put me in the entirely awkward position of having to try and do a wrapup of a race based on nothing but what I've read from other writers across the interwebs. I have no Versus and I have no DVR, plus I was at work during the entire race. However, as someone with nothing better to do, I'll go ahead and try to make this train wreck happen.

First off, we've heard plenty of criticism of just about everything as we go through this doldrums of three relatively boring twisty tracks during a part of the year where all sports seem to struggle to hold the interest of fans. We've had two weeks to go over The Block, which is the only thing that made Edmonton noteworthy, and I'm frankly tired of it and I've even gotten tired of Barnhart-bashing. Somehow, people are still asking questions about why Milka Duno continues to drive even though she's supposedly on probation (hint: the name "Citgo" on her sidepods helps quite a bit); that's a situation that should resolve itself in October. Everyone still seems to be piling on the fine folks at Dallara, though the teams seem to have a legitimate gripe on that front (they're apparently getting no information on how this "safety cell" is supposed to actually look and behave). Finally, we look at the schedule and see Mid-Ohio and Sonoma next to each other and I think most of us want to take a nap just thinking about that.

Certainly, as Mike King and Bob Jenkins will drill into your skull, Mid-Ohio is a lovely facility. A neat ribbon of asphalt laced over a set of rolling hills in northern Ohio sounds like a fine place to spend a weekend and listen to noisy engines go by. The trouble, as with all facilities of this pedigree, is that passing is at a premium, and that doesn't translate to TV at all. Driver skill is rewarded through the winding back section of the track, but the aero-dependency and lack of power in these cars means that, once you've caught the guy/girl ahead of you, you'll have a devil of a time getting past. As I said, I never did watch the race in full, but I've seen highlights of the last lap, ad it seems like Will Power (who I think is a superior road racer to Dario Franchitti) just could not get close enough to make a serious passing attempt.

Thus, Dario, through the superior work of his pit crew, managed to beat Power to the checkered flag by a cool half-a-second. I think it's almost safe to say that, somehow, Dario has been quiet in lurking around in second place in the championship. He's now only won twice and, although it was the Indianapolis 500, that first win was entirely overshadowed by Mike Conway's massive accident that ended the race. However, while people seem to dwell on the job security of the Penske drivers (save Power) or how much money KV Racing has wasted on broken cars this year or the dramas involving other drivers running into each other, then tweeting about it, that #10 car has been consistently lurking in the background, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

With only one road course (Sonoma), two bleed-out-your-ears-fast ovals (Kentucky and Chicagoland), and two "driver's ovals" (Motegi and Homestead) remaining on the schedule, that 41-point cushion that Will has over Dario in the points standings seems a lot smaller than it did after Will took the win at Toronto.

In other news at Mid-Ohio, some drivers that seemed to have their luck run out in June and July made some waves, and there was one name floating around the top ten most of the day that might make some people sit up and say "who?" Simona de Silvestro, who started her post-Indianapolis run literally on fire at Texas, watched the results slip away from her as the "J" months went on, capped by getting speared out of sixth place at Edmonton; at Mid-O, she drove solidly and safely to a nice eighth place result. Alex Tagliani had been opening eyes with his brand new team through the early parts of the season, including a massive qualifying day at Indianapolis, but the copper-wheeled FAZZT car was nowhere to be seen for the last couple of months; he led a good portion of the race through pit strategy and finished a solid fourth. Finally, Bertrand Baguette, who came into the league as a complete unknown, spent a good portion of the race in tenth, holding off Ryan Hunter-Reay (who, admittedly, had a bad car after pit lane contact with Helio Castroneves), before succumbing to RHR and finishing eleventh.

Finally, Kevin Kalkhoven would be bashing his head against a wall, but he probably had to sell the wall to finance yet another set of broken cars. Takuma Sato would be in fantastic shape points-wise if he'd just stop running into stuff; he tried a bonzai pass on Dario early on and the car just sort of kept going until the tire wall stopped him. E.J. Viso put a cap on Justin Wilson's awful weekend by being a little too optimistic on one of his pass attempts, sending both cars back to the haulers.

The teams will be making the big cross-country trip to wine country for the Indy GP of Sonoma on August 22. Much fermented grape juice will be consumed to wipe our memories clean of how dull that race is likely to be.

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