Please note that I have moved the pre-race commentary about what to expect and my reaction to the large crowd to the bottom of the page.

(The Start) On the start Bryan Herta lagged back a little in the final turn , falling three car lengths back, and just as soon as the car was pointed towards the flagman, accelerated hard, passing Helio and then jumped into the lead, with Helio hanging in there on the outside and into turn one. Helio couldn't hold the line, washing out towards the outside and losing 2nd to Kanaan as well. The jam into the first turn came out clean, I had said I expected trouble, and on the TV, Gil de Ferran had the same feeling, so what do we know? Also mentioned on TV was that Brian Barnhart spent a lot of time in the drivers meeting talking about what can happen on the start...  I wondered how long it would take for the leaders to lap someone, probably Foyt, my guess was  6 laps, but it took 13. The leaders  caught Foyt behind Ed Carpenter in a short, straight run past the "kink" in the third straightaway, the run into turn ten that would become a favored place to pass and an issue later in the race as well. Both Herta and Kanaan cleared Foyt, past turn ten, Helio moved left and to the inside as both cars drifted out to get an entrance line into the jog before the turn 13/14 section a 180-plus degree right hand turn onto the airport runway. They ran out of room at "rumble strip" protected jog , one of several placed  on the course to define the racing line and prevent the drivers cutting the corners and getting into the grass and dirt in places. Because of that section, Helio was "pinched off." The resulting contact took them both to the right and into the grass, Foyt hitting nose first, hard into an unprotected concrete barrier. Again Gil de Ferran spoke in haste about a crash, claiming Foyt at fault for being off the pace, I was watching the pace because I was interested in seeing how long it would take the field to run Foyt and Carpenter down. Early in the race, when the leaders were lapping the track at 99-mph, the two "back markers" were running at 94-mph.  de Ferran seems to have trouble being objective about MTP drivers, Helio didn't seem all that upset with Foyt. It is the responsibility of the driver of the overtaking car to pick a place that he can safely clear the lapped car, and in my opinion, Helio saw Herta and Kanaan driving off and was impatient and tried to force his way past Foyt. All that is required of a slower driver being lapped is that he "hold his line," they are not required to pull of the course and park. Foyt did just that, he took the proper line around those speed bumps, in fact my TiVo shows his outside two wheels in the "gray," he was a half-car out of the groove. Helio's fault, end of story as far as I'm concerned.

With an early full course-caution for the third race in a row, race strategy would again scramble the field, with most of the leaders stopping while those further back opted for track position and remaining on the course. An after-contact view of the field before pit road opened showed the running order behind the Pace Truck to be Herta, Kanaan, Franchitti (lucky to avoid Helio/Foyt), Scheckter, Enge and Wheldon. On lap 16 everyone pitted but Briscoe, Barron, Patrick, Manning, Rice and Carpenter. In the pits, Scheckter had an amazing stop and cleared Herta  to "win" the pit stop round. Dixon did well also, once everything settled down for the lap 23 restart it  would be the five cars that didn't stop, (Carpenter stopped on lap 20) followed by Scheckter, Herta, Franchitti, Dixon, Wheldon. Kanaan, pitted in 2nd, and lost 6 spots initially to those also stopping, and then after a very disorganized pit stop, where he ran over an air gun and had to pause for it to be pulled from under the car, he was called back into the pits for a penalty and lost three more spots to restart in 16th. Tomas Enge also lost valuable track positions while pitting, and that put him in a position where he would soon lose a few more positions.

While watching live, Scheckter came out so quickly and directly behind the cars that had stayed on the course that I first thought Tomas didn't stop either (I couldn't always see the TV coverage). Before the race could be restarted, Ed Carpenter, who had pitted mid-caution and was in the midst of the leaders, got the wave-around  to circle the course and fall in at the back of the field, and in doing so, spun out on cold tires, not hitting anything, but further delaying the restart. As a result of the Carpenter spin, Tomas Enge ran into the back of the Roger Yasukawa car.

On the restart, further delayed to position Ed Carpenter a safe distance from the rest of the field, Briscoe opened a big lead while Danica Patrick cleared Alex Barron, who had complained that his engine was skipping. Danica close back in on Briscoe again, and  settled in behind him. The five cars at the front went virtually unchallenged by Scheckter and the rest of the field, knowing that it wasn't worth the risk of passing them when they would soon stop anyway. This was at a point in a street race where some question the excitement value, but the risk/reward factor calls for patience here. The only change in the running order at the front for 18 laps was when Buddy Rice first cleared Darren Manning and then Barron to fall in behind Danica in 3rd. Barron would eventually fall back into 5th position. Briscoe, finding some clear running, would finally be able to open up a comfortable lead over Patrick and the field.

On lap 37 it would be Ed Carpenter, 5 laps down and crosswise on the course again. The only good thing about this is that he would be done for the day, leaving the rolling chicane position in the hands of Roger Yasukawa for the 2nd race in a row... Carpenter was so far back in the field that race leader Briscoe would be the first to clear him, and it was 8 seconds later when Patrick and Rice drove past, slowing for the "local" caution. In the resulting pit stops, Briscoe, Patrick and Rice would come right in, along with Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish, who had made early stops as well. Franchitti would make a fuel-only stop. This happened under a "local" yellow flag, where the pits remain open. Two  "full-caution" laps later, when the pits opened for the rest of the field, Yasukawa came in, and the following lap, perhaps covering the remote possibility that the race would go green the rest of the way, or that they could as well, Barron, Kanaan, Manning, Scheckter, Matsuura and Enge stopped. Again Kanaan hah trouble with fueling, as did others. Perhaps the picture below shows why.

The picture shows the fuel "buckeye," and for this race, run in a traditional road race clockwise direction, the buckeye is located on the right side of the car, as shown here on the Vitor Meira/RLR car. For oval track racing, the cars run in the opposite direction and fueling is done from the other side. At the time I took the picture the car was in the tech line and the furl inlet was blocked open. On TV, Dr. Jerry Punch pointed out that most fueler's were right handed and struggling with fueling on this side of the car.

                                                                                                                                   Danica Patrick had to return to the pits with gearbox issues. The crew would fix the problem so she could finish the race, but it would cost her 5 laps. Herta didn't stop under caution and would restart the race in the lead; with Wheldon 2nd, followed by Dixon, Carpentier, Meira and Sharp. Then it would be Briscoe, Rice, Franchitti and everyone else that pitted. Franchitti was about to put on a charge, clearing everyone in front of him until he reached Sharp. Dario got Rice on the restart going into turn one, then he was pinched off by Briscoe trying the inside pass under breaking going to turn 4. That attempted block backfired on Briscoe, who drifted wide left and almost into a tire barrier as Dario cleared him on the right going into turn 5. Dario now had Scott Sharp in sight and would follow him for nearly two laps before the two came together in turn one. Dario was forcing an inside pass coming off the runway and was clearly wheel to wheel with Sharp, who was making a normal turn-in. Franchitti was far enough off-line that he ran out of room and heading for another of Brian Barnhart's custom rumble strip placements. The rumble strips launched Dario up in the air and towards Sharp's sidepod, then Sharp's right rear tire rolled over Dario's left front and Sharp was in the air and headed for the wall. He made the trip, hitting back-end first. This time in the booth, de Ferran hesitated on the call, Gil's may be tough on rookies, but doesn't like to make calls on old friends. Scott Goodyear asked what he thought and got an "I don't know Scott..." I'll make a call, Dario wasn't "there," he should have backed out and let Sharp go, but we all know that Scott Sharp is a tough pass... Let me explain where "there" is,  "back in the day," when there weren't any spotters and people in the booth or "on 'puter" to 2nd guess everything a driver did, "there" was a place where you were clearly far enough ahead of the driver you were passing that he could  easily see you. In this case, Dario was barely "there," or "there" so quickly that Sharp couldn't react and avoid quick enough. As with Helio, the overtaking car is charged with finding a place to make a clean pass, it was Dario's fault here in my eyes, he clearly could get a rough-driving call on this one. If I was Scott Sharp, he would get a payback. In a later overhead replay, clearly the front of Dario's car was launched into Sharp's by the rumble strips, but Dario shouldn't have been there. I am amazed that Dario's car raced on, these IndyCars are tougher than any I can ever recall. During the caution, Jerry Punch explained Franchitti's gas-only stop, there was a fuel nozzle problem in Dario's pit, he isn't getting all the fuel into the car.

On the restart it's Dario again, and as if he didn't learn from the contact with Sharp, he gets Meira in almost the same place, clearing the rumble strips this time. What differed this time was that in this case, Dario was "there." Now if you have TiVo or a VCR tape, you will be able to go back and look at the two passes and see where "there" really is and that it exists. 

I have said that I thought Vitor Meira was the best road racer on the RLR team, Scott Goodyear echoed that after the Franchitti pass. One lap later, Dario gets Carpentier, again in turn one. You have to admire Dario, but you also have to think that this St. Petersburg layout might be the best temporary street course we have seen in a long time. The book on street racing is that there is little passing, we've seen a bunch of it already, and we are about to see more. Next up for Franchitti would be Scott Dixon, and if Scott Sharp is a tough pass, Dixon is even tougher. But on this day, Dario Franchitti wouldn't be denied on the track, pit road was his undoing. Again, same place, same result, Franchitti passes Dixon easily and now behind Herta and Wheldon, Dario will settle in for the run to the next round of pit stops, these would come under green flag conditions. Herta would be the first contender to pit on lap 62.

Herta an Dixon both pitted on lap 62, with Dixon out first. In this kind of racing, on tracks where passing is an issue, that would almost be a free pass to the winners circle, but not with these cars and on this track. Next to pit would be Wheldon and one lap later, Franchitti was now the race leader. As it turned out, after the AGR teams pitted, Wheldon ended up ahead of Herta but behind Franchitti, and that would dictate the outcome of the race.

When Dario pitted, Ryan Briscoe and the "off cycle" bunch, which now included Tomas Scheckter and Tony Kanaan, moved to the front. Now it was reported on TV that they didn't get Dario full of fuel again and he would have to stop again.

The "off cycle" group would have to pit under the green again before the race ended, but for now Ryan Briscoe was getting his turn at the front, and Tomas Scheckter got some due credit as well, that is until they showed his first two races this season. After Briscoe pitted he ended up directly in front of Franchitti but behind Scheckter, now in the lead after a great green flag pit stop. Dario should have been in the lead instead of 3rd, but the time taken in the pits trying to fill his tank was enough that Scheckter and Briscoe were able to pit and still come out ahead of him. Then Scheckter found a tire barrier and he would be done for the day. Tomas was all alone on the track, had enough fuel, was in the lead and in a position to win. He wasn't under pressure from anyone, what was he thinking, or thinking with? Tomas Scheckter had just given away another race! Briscoe would inherit the lead, but because Scott Dixon had run over 60 laps earlier on one set of tires without problems, the TCGR crew decided to give Briscoe fuel only in his stop. At this late stage of the race, when the fuel tank is close to empty, fuel flow is greatly reduced, the crew should have been able to change the tires in the time it took to fill the tank.

On lap 80, Dario pitted for fuel, That would leave Briscoe and Manning at the front to contend with Wheldon and Kanaan, TCGR vs. AGR, and the TCGR guys hadn't won in 27 races! The restart was on lap 83 and Kanaan got past Wheldon going into turn 3, so all three passing zones came into play Sunday. Both TCGR cars were on "older" tires, Wheldon got fresh tires on lap 63, Kanaan on lap 78, this was now lap 84 and Darren Manning was about to "meet" Tony Kanaan. Tony got under Manning coming out of the "kink" on the run into turn ten and "parked" there, waiting for Manning to turn in to turn ten, when he did, the sidepod of Manning's Panoz contacted Kanaan's right front tire, and even though Manning hung in there and survived the corner, he lost another position to Wheldon. Then in turns 13/14 it was Matsuura and Dixon in contact. Matsuura was behind Dixon, who was shown in 7th. Dixon was forced outside a recovering Manning and Matsuura tried to force his way under Dixon. There was no room and Kosuke was in the rumble strips and the nose of the car washed out as in what happened with Franchitti/Sharp. Matsuura's left front hit Dixon's right rear, spinning him. The contact with Dixon straightened Matsuura out and he drove on, debris all over the track. Just after Matsuura/Dixon, there was contact between Tomas Enge and Sam Hornish, with the two cars coming to a stop in a runoff area, locked together nose to tail. The two cars appeared to be stuck together all the way down the run from turns 2/3 to turn 4. With Enge out of the race, it means that Panther Racing has yet finish one race with either driver this season, and only once was it due to mechanical problems, Enge's gearbox at HMS, and that shouldn't have happened, Enge had the same problem the day before, and either Panther failed to fix it correctly, or Enge was doing something to cause the trouble.

The race was restarted on lap 91 with Kanaan all over Briscoe. First Tony tried outside going into turn one, and that was a first, nobody had tried that, but it didn't work. Then coming out of turn three, Tony was under Briscoe early on the run down to turn four and Briscoe kept forcing him to the right. There are street lanes marked there and Ryan forced Tony over three lanes and within in 3 feet of the inside wall before Tony ""bailed" and quit the attempt, falling in behind Briscoe. I think that is where Tony said "enough of that," Briscoe was about to get passed, one way or another. I knew it would come in the run from the "kink" down into turn ten and it did. The TV crew had just finished talking about possible blocking penalties for Briscoe when Kanaan took it upon himself to dole out the punishment. Kanaan got under Briscoe easily, and although not quite "there," (tire to tire contact, as in Franchitti/Sharp isn't 'there') made the pass, Briscoe made the tire barrier, but Wheldon passed Kanaan as well, and that would be how the race ended. That is except Andretti Green Racing finished in the first four positions.

There were a lot of winner's at St. Pete Sunday, this city had tried major auto racing several times, only to lose the events, often due to financially strapped promoters, once to Tampa. Then CART made a one-year stop, and even though there was interest shown by the community, the bankrupt CART series and the promoter, Dover Downs Entertainment quit the race on the city. Now St. Petersburg has a major success on their hands, as does rookie promoter Barry Green. As I have mentioned before, St. Pete was known for years as the home of the nearly dead. The joke going around was always "that old people lived in Bradenton, FL, their parents lived in St. Pete." It was no coincidence that both "Cocoon" movies were shot on location here. I have been away since 1995, and the downtown St. Pete I saw this week was a vastly different city, with newer, taller buildings and a livelier look, and it wasn't just due to the race. There were street parties, and open-air bars with live bands. It was almost like a new Mini Ybor City (a trendy/seedy Tampa night club area) or like a "South Beach" in it's infancy. Business reasons took me to Long Beach often in the first three CART years, that wasn't much of a city then, but street racing helped the rejuvenation work, and the city's image. IndyCar won as well, the series, growing slowly, was rocked hard by the poor fan turnout at Phoenix, there were several reasons why that happened and plenty of blame to pass around, but still, in the eyes of the detractors and others, the series was slipping. Most of us knew it wasn't true, but unanswered doubts can be fatal, and Sunday IndyCar answered. Not only did they have a successful event where many failed in the past, but they reaffirmed that their brand of Indy style racing and their chassis/engine package is capable of exciting racing wherever they go, even when they take it to the streets, where happenings often have won out over racing.

Here is the final T&S chart of the race, the results are unofficial.

Here is a view of the turn 10 grandstand, find a seat if you can.

I am going to insert the pre-race comments that I had at the start of this page here for those interested in what my thoughts were before the race and the attendance.

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