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. Read my final thoughts on the Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix here...

People have always made difficult-to-pass assumptions about IndyCar events, but as the series has matured and the chassis/engine combinations refined, that is rarely the case now, and I don't think that line of thinking will be correct today. Usually there is plenty of passing at the back of the leader group in open wheel road racing, and that will have to happen often today if one of IndyCar's best road racers, Dario Franchitti is to find a way to content for the win. Franchitti spun on his warm-up lap in yesterday's Q run, and will start last. On a track where a good starting position is a must, several of the possible race contenders qualified poorly and will start the race out of the top ten. While Franchitti got the worst of it, Chip Ganassi's imported "road warrior," Giorgio Pantano, screwed up the chicane in qualifying and will start 13th. All IndyCar consistency leader Patrick Carpentier could manage was a 12th position on the grid, and I expect a top ten finish from him today. Tomas Scheckter, perhaps fighting "drivability" issues with the high-powered Chevy engine, will start 14th. Scott Sharp is another that blew his "Q" run and will start 19th, Sharp is an accomplished road racer and he'll either be in Franchitti's way or will follow him through the open holes on their way to the front.

In his SPEED NEWS interview Tony Kanaan was very candid in saying that drivers will have force their way past others and take advantage of any mistakes made as their cars "go away" due to changing conditions. It was Kanaan and Franchitti who did most of the "forcing" on the streets of St. Pete, and ironically the "target" was usually one of the Ganassi cars, I look for that team to be wary of such tactics this time and ready for paybacks when and if the opportunity arises. A look at the grid shows two possible "rolling chicanes" in the top ten, Buddy Rice and Sam Hornish Jr. while both drivers had what it took to make single lap runs, I doubt they have the lap after lap consistency needed to prevent a log jam behind them, so look for the first four cars to open up a big gap before Wheldon, Herta and Dixon find a way to pounce and bump their way past those two.

If I were to rate IndyCar's best road racers, my top five would include Castroneves, Franchitti, Kanaan, Herta and Dixon, but it is Helio that I consider the best of the lot, his runs are so smooth and effortless looking that at times the speeds he posts surprise you. Had he not lost his patience in trying to pass AJ Fort IV at St. Pete, I doubt the AGR drivers would have gotten close enough to him to force their way past him the way they bullied the TCGR drivers.

It may hard to understand the thinking that a temporary street circuit could afford more passing opportunities then a purpose built road course, but I think that is the case with the first two IndyCar right and left venues. In Kanaan's interview, he talked about the "duration" of the corners, and therein lies the problem, the cars appear to always be in a turn, and AGR's St. Pete "pounce and bounce" strategy will be the order of the day, and it won't just come from the AGR team. Blocking will also be an order of the day issue, I think we will see it often, and I also expect Brian Barnhart will be all over the problem, both in the driver's meeting and in ordering up black flags when required.

As for the race, I expect that if Helio can get past Briscoe, he'll distance himself from the field. Briscoe, who has made far too many mistakes this season, has been fast all weekend, and if he has his head/helmet on straight will be a tough pass. Many are talking of pit stop strategy as the key to the win today, but to me the only issue there is not losing positions in the pits, when and if to pit won't be that big of an issue. The race  distance is 184 miles, and the IndyCars will still be able to run a minimum of 70 miles between stops, making this a two-stop race at the most. Frequent caution periods of a long duration could make it possible but very unlikely to go the race distance on one stop though, but I can't see that happening. If there is a pit stop strategy that could win the race, it would be the "first in that can go the remaining distance" ploy, and the key to that move is picking the lap number, my best guess would be somewhere near the 50 lap mark. I look for Franchitti to find his way to the front, Wheldon to protect his points position, Herta to be steady and take what advances he can get, Kanaan to be "the show" and when it becomes time to "force" the issue, an AGR/Honda car will be able to "pounce and bounce" past any Toyota other than Castroneves.

I'll follow the race in a live running recap format here, and also open the O/IRR Chat Room for a race chat as well, here is that link... which can also be accessed by clicking on the link in the left menu on the home page.

The qualifying session is over, and Ryan Briscoe has won the pole position as a result of setting both fast time in the single car runs and the Firestone Fast Six runoff. Morning practice pace setter Dario Franchitti spun on his warm up lap and didn't complete a "Q" run, Franchitti will start 21st.

Giorgio Pantano may have had the best run of the day but had a bad trip through the chicane and will start 13th. Buddy Rice got the most out of a slower car while others like Dan Wheldon, Bryan Herta and Scott Dixon were coming up short and gained the last spot in the Firestone runoff. Rice only lost .9 mph from his morning practice speed, while Wheldon was 1.6 mph off, and Herta missed his practice mark by 1.2 mph, Dixon missed his mark by a full mph. The other surprise was Sam Hornish Jr., an oval tract specialist that will start 5th.

Toyota powered cars will hold the front row, and position's 5, 9 and 10 as well, placing 5 cars in the top ten, along with four Honda's and Enge's Chevy. The Saturday practice and qualifying recap is finished, see all the coverage here...

Ryan Briscoe set the fastest speed of the day this afternoon, turning a lap of 108.130 mph, Helio Castroneves was 2nd quick. The two are shown at the press conference following practice.

All O/IRR photo by Dennis Sylvia

The above picture shows some of the elevation changes at Infineon Raceway, see more pictures here...

21 cars are entered to compete in the first IndyCar Series race ever on a purpose built road course this weekend at the Speedway Motorsports owned Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Dennis Sylvia will be covering the event for O/IRR this weekend, and is at the track this morning shooting pictures.

The only other time the IndyCars raced on anything but an oval was on the streets of St. Petersburg, FL in April, and while almost everything went well, there were issues with two of the more oval-centric drivers, AJ Foyt IV and Ed Carpenter. While not mentioning names, both made frequent contact, and while one was awful at it, the other was worse. Since then Tony George's Vision Racing hired Roberto Moreno to sort out the Carpenter car at the Infineon Open Test and act as a driving couch for Ed. In addition, Ed also ran the MIPS road race connected with the USGP at Indy. Vision Racing, Larry Curry and Carpenter have learned a lot about what it takes to road race, and we should see some improvements from this weekend. While they will still probably remain at the back of the pack, perhaps they will manage to do it safely.

As for Foyt IV, whose car was a DNF at PPIR for driver/handling issues, he'll be sitting out the road race, replaced by road racer Jeff Bucknum. According to the not always accurate entry list, AJ Foyt Racing has entered a Dallara Chevy, the last time the team used their Panoz chassis to road race at St. Pete. The cars are on the track now and I just talked to Dennis and he is now online, look for pictures soon. Follow today's running recap of the two practice sessions here...

They ran the IndyCars on the streets of St. Petersburg, FL last April, and it was such a success that the race will be on my yearly calendar from now on, and I'm as oval-centric as an IndyCar fan can be. Not only were the IndyCars nimble in turning right and left, but they were faster than most would have expected, and carried a lot of speed through the turns. While the circuit had three "passing zones," I doubt anyone thought we would see the amount of passing we did.

Since then they have held open tests at both of the permanent venues on the 2005 schedule, Infineon, and Watkins Glen in upstate New York and this week it is time for the first road race in IndyCar history.

Yesterday I got an unexpected surprise in driving down the main street here in Wendover, NV. Two of the TCGR transporters had exited I-80 for a pit stop on their way from PPIR to Infineon. That brought a smile to my face and a thumb's up to the two drivers, who waved back. The versatility of the IndyCar's is such that they can go from an oval track to a road course and convert the cars on the site of the next race within a matter of hours. Had that been a NASCAR event, either the teams would have had to find a way to ship additional cars, or the transporter drivers would have had to return home, reload and head west again.

Quite frankly I am happy to see this event at this point in the season, I was finding it hard to keep the race previews fresh and entertaining in light of the Honda/AGR/Dallara domination of the 2005 IndyCar season. While the AGR team and drivers will again be the ones to beat, the road courses will more than equalize the horsepower differential between the Honda's Chevy's and Toyota's and the race could be won on driving ability once again. That has to be a welcome possibility at TCGR, a team that has struggled with lack of power from their Toyota engines and the increased drag of the Panoz chassis. I look for the three-car TCGR team to once again become a contender this weekend.

At Infineon Raceway Sam Hornish will get to test his road racing skills again, when the IndyCars tested at both tracks Hornish had more off track excursions than any other driver. On the streets of St. Pete Sam qualified well, but wasn't a contender in the race.

The Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix will  be an 80 lap, 184 mile race on a track where lap speeds will be in the 112 mph range on a course that has quite a bit of elevation change. That should suit Bryan Herta well, back in his CART days, Herta excelled at the nearby Laguna Seca Raceway. Herta tops my  "early line" as the driver to beat, but I also like the chances of Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan almost as well. In the long shot department, watch Tomas Enge, Tomas Scheckter and Kosuke Matsuura, a solid road racer. (An update), also please note that I omitted Vitor Meira from my list of contenders that could also win the race, Vitor looked good to me at the Homestead road race test as well.

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