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Please note, I
was going to let my running
recap stand as my final word on the race, but the internet is
full of comments on the lack of action last Sunday, so I figured I
would get in a few thoughts as well, late or not.
While the NASCAR
cars race well at Infineon Raceway and present an entertaining
race with their ability to tap bumpers, make contact and force
their way past contending cars. That isn't possible with the
IndyCars, with these cars, without bumper protection and with
unprotected tire and wheel assemblies more than 15 inches wide,
there was no way to force passing on the few short and strait
sections of Infineon Raceway. That resulted in a race long procession
of cars riding in lockstep, not an Indycar alone issue when open
wheel cars are road raced. End of the race attempts to force past
slower cars resulted in wing and suspension damage, lost positions
in the final race results and debris on the track. That said,
there is beauty and some excitement in seeing a car driven through
a succession of turns at 110% and ESPN presented it well. The
track was immaculately prepared, and the promotional effort
produced a crowd far better than most expected, due to rival
events in the San Francisco area. The long duration turns, and
semi-straightaway's with kinks in them made it difficult to find
even one truly safe passing opportunity. Tomas Enge did manage one
early race pass in the turn 7 area, but in doing so he probably
caught Tony Kanaan by surprise and Tony didn't protect his
position. Enge practiced that move earlier during one of the
practice session (shown on the ESPN pre-race show) on Panther
Racing teammate Tomas Scheckter, and the resulting contact
probably had a $10,000 price tag.
Much has been said
about Dario Franchitti gaining 8 positions at the start of the
race, but in truth, 6 of those were backmarkers, and two spots
were gained by the Sam Hornish spin and Danica Patrick making an
early pit stop during the resulting full course caution. Once
Franchitti got to the competitive car of Patrick Carpentier
though, his forward progress ceased.
Even strategic pit
stop decisions were no help. Franchitti's team opted to remain on
the track when Patrick and Tomas Scheckter pitted, saying it was
too early. In this 80 lap race, where it would be possible for
most of the cars to run 30 laps or 69 miles, in order to make this
a 2-stop race, they would need to get close to lap 20 before
pitting. As it turned out, that is what Franchitti, Patrick and
others did. Ed Carpenter spun close to the start/finish line on
lap 16, short of the needed 20 laps to make this a two stop race,
but with many expected caution periods, it would turn out to be
close enough. The first 5 cars in the field chose to pit, but as
has usually been the case, Andretti Green Racing chose to keep
Bryan Herta on the race track, and Herta's chance to contend for
the race win was over. TCGR brought race leader Briscoe into the
pits, but left Scott Dixon, then in 8th and Giorgio Pantano (11th)
on the track as well. Franchitti was stuck in 13th, still behind
Carpentier, who pitted along with Team Cheever teammate Alex
Barron, then in 10th. AGR chose to leave Dario on the track with
Herta as Kanaan and Wheldon stopped, with Wheldon having fueling
issues. RLR chose to pit Rice and Meira. Scheckter and Danica
Patrick also remained on the track. Danica was running a decent
pace, keeping Scheckter in site after they both pitted on lap 3.
Before the race
started, in my race day preview I pointed out that while Briscoe
would probably set the early pace, once the two pitted I thought
pit road positioning and the pit road skills of Team Penske would
result in Castroneves coming out of the pits ahead of Briscoe, and
that's the way it happened. At pit-out it was Helio in front of
Briscoe and Wheldon beating Kanaan out of the pits, but only
because Wheldon's crew was unable to get any fuel in the car and
sent him back out and around for another stop. Kanaan did manage
to beat Enge out of the pits, but I expect that was a pit road
positioning issue as well, AGR gets the first four pit stalls in
every race, or at least first choice due to having the best
combined team results.
At the restart, the
lineup would be Herta in P1, followed by Dixon, Pantano,
Franchitti, Scheckter and Patrick: those cars that hadn't pitted,
followed by Castroneves, Briscoe, Kanaan, Enge and Rice. Briscoe
must have thought he was relegated to watching the backend of the
Castroneves Dallara if he didn't make something happen on the
restart lap, with Helio stuck behind slower traffic. Once the
green flag fell, cars began to stack up behind 5th place Scheckter
and going into what I think was turn 8, one of the few passing
opportunities, Briscoe and Castroneves decided to split the car of
Danica, who was holding a normal line but had fallen further back
from Scheckter. Briscoe tried the inside and Helio to the outside
under braking. Once Danica made her normal turn-in, Briscoe had
nowhere to go but into the dirt. The speed bumps launched him into
the air and into the Patrick car, who was forced into Helio. While
it isn't likely that Helio would have made the outside pass, he
took the safe route, Briscoe was in the dirt long before contact
was made with Danica's car, and he had no chance of completing
that pass. Amazingly, Briscoe was able to drive away from the
carnage, but he didn't get very far before stopping. The Patrick
and Castroneves cars were out of the race at the point of contact.
Danica said it best when referring to Briscoe when she said,
"stupid idiot!" Scott Goodyear mentioned "cold
tires," but that wasn't the issue, by then the tires were
warming, but they don't work well in the dirt; or the air.
Now questionable
strategy came into play, and because of the elimination of two
contenders, things were looking better for Herta, Dixon, Pantano
and Franchitti. They would still have to pit before lap 33, and it
was likely that it would be a green flag stop. That wouldn't hurt
all that much, a 12 second stop plus pit-in and pit-out time can
be accomplished much faster than a 79 second race lap. Any lost
time would be made up during any ensuing caution period, but they
would still be behind the leaders and still not able to pass them.
Pantano would be
first in on lap 30, Dixon and Franchitti would pit on lap 32,
Herta would be in on lap 33. Once Bryan pitted, Tomas Enge inherited
the lead, then Kanaan, who give way to Wheldon and then Herta when
he pitted on lap 50, and was back in the lead for good when Herta
pitted on lap 52.
Because of the long
duration turns and the virtually non-existent passing zones, I can
think of no strategy that would have allowed those with poor
starting positions like Franchitti, Pantano, Scheckter and Sharp
to contend for the win. There were several surprise finishes,
including that of Buddy Rice, finishing 2nd and Alex Barron in
3rd. Patrick Carpentier continues to post solid finishes (4th) and
road racer Tomas Enge finished 5th after leading
"strategy" laps and doing a 360 degree spin while ahead
of Tony Kanaan and losing more than half of his 7-second lead over
him.
Infineon Raceway did
a great job of hosting the race, and it was announced that the
IndyCars will return again next year on the same weekend,
supported by the cars of the ISC backed Grand Am series. Infineon
Raceway owner Speedway Motorsports has been pro-active in the past
in dealing with track issues, I can only hope they can find some
way to redesign the course to provide additional passing
opportunities.
In closing, I have
to commend the teams of the Indycar series on car and gearbox preparation,
the fastest laps of the race, all in the 105 mph range; were set
by Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon (out with fuel pump issues) Buddy
Rice, Carpentier, Barron, Enge, Herta and even Sam Hornish very
early in the race, perhaps that's why he spun? 8 cars above 105
mph, perhaps that is another reason it was so hard to pass.
In closing, let's
look at the finishing order, and where the drivers started the
race; Tony
Kanaan, started 3rd, finished 1st, the two drivers that started
ahead of him crashed out of the race. Buddy
Rice started 6th and managed to pass one driver that finished the
race and started ahead of him, Tomas Enge. Hornish started ahead
of him but spun and lost countless time in the pits with gearbox
woes. Alex
Barron finished 3rd and started 10th, Barron passed only one of
the drivers that started ahead of him and was on the same pit
cycle, Tomas Enge, surpassing Dixon, who started 9th and Herta who
started 8th because those two drivers were victims of a failed
strategy move that forced them to make a green flag pit stop. The
other driver that started ahead of Barron besides the ones already
mentioned that had troubles was Dan Wheldon, out late in the race
with fuel pump issues. Patrick
Carpentier finished 4th, and like Barron, Carpentier, who started
12th finish higher than 4th place starting Enge and Vitor Meira
(started 11th) as well, but Meira had late race issues. He passed
no other finishers. Tomas
Enge started 4th, led the race, did a 360 degree spin and kept his
race lead, but made a 3rd pit stop and was the only top five
driver to finish lower than he started the race. Kosuke
Matsuura started 15th and finished 6th, and while he appears to
have passed several drivers that qualified faster than he did, in
truth 14th starter Scheckter didn't finish the race. Matsuura did
surpass Pantano (13th starting position), Meira (11th at the
start) and Dixon, but Giorgio, as with Dixon was another victim of
a failed pit strategy too, and as mentioned above; Meira made
contact late in the race. I
could go on and on, but I think I made my point, Enge was the only
driver with a decent finish that lost ground to cars that started
behind him, a recipe for a yawner of a race if there ever was one.
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