Will AGR's St Pete "pounce and bounce" strategy work at Infineon Raceway? That will be the question of the day, the "targets" then were the Ganassi cars, and the next question is whether they will be in payback mode? Intentional contact with IndyCar's is an exact science, and done wrong, will result in one or the other of the cars getting a wheel launch and end up flying through the air. Tony Kanaan did the P&B move it well at St Pete until his last bounce forced himself wide and Dan Wheldon passed him for the win, but he'll have to catch Helio Castroneves to attempt a race win in that fashion today, and that won't be an easy task. While Ryan Briscoe may have the pole position, MTP wins in pit road position over TCGR, so I expect that at some point in the race Helio will get past Briscoe. The optimum spots on pit road go to the AGR drivers, so they will be in the mix all day, but I don't think we will see a repeat of the St Pete top four spots for them today.

 I'd rather see the IndyCar's turning left AND right at a venue that would suit them better, Infineon is what we have, I expect a contact filled, exciting race. Follow the running recap of the race here.

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AJ Foyt made a great call in putting Jeff Bucknum in the car, Kosuke Matsuura proved he can road race and Ryan Briscoe appears to have taken some 2002 Tomas Scheckter pills before the start of the season. The IndyCar series couldn't repeat the excitement of St. Pete, and I can only hope the race at Watkins Glen will be a better event. To me, this IndyCar offering was little better than the CART events I disliked so much in the past. Here is the final IndyCar T&S chart of the race.

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(caution flag stops) Enge in to top off the tank, Dixon, Franchitti, Pantano and others first in, Kanaan, Sharp and others can now go the distance, Sam Hornish is back on the course. Eddie Cheever wants the race to resume quickly.

Enge pits, Kanaan stays out, as does Rice and Meira. Once this round of stops are over, Herta, Franchitti, Dixon and Pantano will have lost their strategy bid and will have to get any position gains on the track unless they catch a caution before pitting by lap 60. Rise in, Kanaan and Barron, who is having a great day are still out. Dan Wheldon will go a couple of more laps do to his earlier fueling problems. Wheldon must have been cutting some great race laps though to get as high as he is on the chart.

Kanaan pits on lap 50, and comes out on the track in front of Tomas Enge, who is in warm tires and needs to pass Tony back. It isn't going to happen. Wheldon in trouble, his claim, "it cut out," my guess he is out of fuel. Now the off-cycle guys catch a break, and will pit under caution.

(Lap 43) Tony Kanaan is now putting the pressure on Enge, the teams will want to run until lap 50, but it if things go according to form, Kanaan has a better chance of going that far than Enge has, as now there are reports that Tomas will pit on lap 46, and my guess he will have to stop again.

Surprising me, Franchitti and Dixon came in on lap 31 and Dixon beat him back out. Herta pitted on lap 33, Tomas Enge is now leading the race, Tony Kanaan is 2nd, and in yet another surprise, Buddy Rice is making a solid run in 3rd. These drivers will stay out until as close to lap 50 as they can to be able to make this a two stop race. ENGE OVER COOKED A CORNER AND SAVED BOTH THE CAR AND THE LEAD. Enge had a 7-second lead over Kanaan and lost more than half of it. With Scheckter having shifting issues, can anything else go wrong for Panther Racing? Enge lucked out and appears that he did no damage to the car, running faster than Kanaan and opening up his lead again.

(Lap 23 restart) Herta leads Dixon and Pantano, with Dario 4th, these four drivers will have pit before lap 35, and Tomas Enge is the driver of those that have pitted who would inherit the lead. Franchitti is pressuring Pantano, but not too aggressively, because I think that when they all pit, Dario will pass both Giorgio and Dixon. Enge has teammate Scheckter between him and Kanaan, but Scheckter will have to pit. Pantano pitted in what I think was a three lap early move. It's Herta, Dixon and Franchitti in the lead.

The lap 19 restart, a tangle between Danica Patrick and the dueling duo of brain-fade Briscoe and Helio Castroneves. With Castroneves ahead  of Briscoe on the restart, I guess Ryan felt that if Helio got away from him he wouldn't win, so he chose to go inside of Danica while Helio went outside. Briscoe wouldn't have made that corner on his best day, he slammed Danica's car into Helio and all three are out of the race. I love Danica's "stupid driver" radio call, it appears to describe Briscoe perfectly. Never in the IndyCar series has there been a better example of how to and not to run a rookie on a good team. Briscoe is rapidly causing everyone to forget Mark Taylor's crashes with Panther Racing last year and the price tag for the carnage, setting new damage records with every race

(Lap 10) Can you say "lockstep" or "parade," I expected better. Briscoe is running away from Castroneves, Hornish seems to have major troubles, it wasn't. Seems to me that it must be the clutch. I expected a jam up behind Buddy Rice, but it is Herta, running behind him who appears to be holding up traffic. While we are all familiar with most of the Sears Point track from countless NASCAR races, fenders are an asset to good racing, and for the first time that I can recall, a NASCAR race appears to be more interesting than what the IndyCars are showing now. Ed carpenter spins on lap 18, a full course caution. Some will pit, others will opt to go further, so there will be a split strategy race from now on. Herta, Dixon, Pantano, Franchitti Scheckter and Danica Patrick remain on the track and are running in position 1-6, Castroneves passed Briscoe on pit road, as I expected and now is the leader of those that made stops. Dan Wheldon had fueling issues and had to make a 2nd stop.

The lap 4 restart, Briscoe still in the lead, Hornish car behind pit wall now. Franchitti, now behind Carpentier, has lost his forward progress.

(The start) I expect Giorgio Pantano to be spectacular as long as he lasts... Briscoe chose to start in the outside position and got the lead at the start. On lap one Hornish was off the pavement once before spinning. Enge passed Kanaan for 3rd and then there was a full course yellow flag for a tow in on the Hornish car, Sam has gearbox issues. Franchitti had passed six cars plus Hornish by the time the yellow flag came out and is 13th on the chart since Danica Patrick and Tomas Scheckter opted to pit.

While many have issues with "the mouse family of networks," ESPN did one of their best pre-race shows, and the off-course shots were great.

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