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Tony
Kanaan wins 2nd IndyCar race in succession as Dario Franchitti doesn't see
the checkered flag and runs into a slowing Kosuke Matsuura and gets
"big air" all over again...
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Franchitti escaped injury
again and was pretty tough on himself in the post race interview. I think
Dario was so intent on picking up lost positions after he hit a cone on
pit-in on the final stop, forcing a nose change on his car, that he
lost track of the laps. Meanwhile Kanaan was the class of the field on a
night where it was very difficult for anyone but TK to make a contested
outside pass. The race review can be seen below the picture of the start.
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(The start) First of all, there will be no
rain tonight, we'll see a race. TK jumped the start a bit, Dario ducked
into 2nd and the next time around they were running 1, 2, 3, and 4 the way
they started, but the first two rows were 2 abreast.
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***
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(30 laps in) It's Kanaan, Franchitti,
Hornish Jr., Wheldon, Dixon Hornish and Sharp in lockstep...
Sam Hornish crashes hard on the
backstretch, Sam tried to go low under Franchitti off of two and either
pinched the car or just lost the back end, then he got the death wiggle
and he was backing towards the wall where he caught Wheldon, who had moved
high trying to clear. Everyone pitted when pit road opened, and Franchitti
beat Kanaan off pit road by half a car length. The replay showed
Franchitti played no roll in the Hornish spin. Danica Patrick was more
than a half- lap back and unable to pass Foyt IV while holding off Helio,
who made a gain on pit road. Patrick is still behind Foyt, or was until
one lap after the restart, where she got under him. Helio is 5th, Danica
now 7th. Pit window is about 47-48 laps, Look for the next round of stops
about lap 86
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***
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(Lap 67) Scott Sharp finally made an outside
pass over Helio Castroneves. I've seen Danica try Foyt on the outside,
Foyt try Danica, Kanaan make an outside run on Dario, but Sharp was the
first to make the trip. Now Foyt got past Danica as well, only to have her
get him from the bottom the next time past. This pack has the best racing
I've seen. Within a few laps they'll lap the D&R twins, having a race
of their own for last. Pit stops within 10 laps... Foyt almost marbled the
wall in turn 4 after almost tangling with Helio. All this racing has
caused this pack to lose touch with the leaders. Sharp is 6th, Danica 7th
as Matsuura is first in on lap 88, followed by Helio and the others. Race
leader Franchitti was in on lap 90, Kanaan and Dixon a lap later. Last to
pit, Carpenter and Hunter-Reay... Look for the next round of stops around
lap 135. Kanaan, in staying out another lap and getting a better stop, is
now in the lead of the race over Dixon and Franchitti, but Dario is
working Dixon hard on the outside. He isn't making the trip though.
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***
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(Lap 110) Franchitti is now 2nd to
Kanaan, followed by Dixon, Scheckter, Sharp, Foyt and Patrick. Foyt is
having a career race. TK just passed 11th place Vitor Meira, there are now
10 cars left on the lead lap and Scott Sharp is headed for pit road for an
unscheduled stop, putting him a lap down as well. Sharp didn't get a full
fuel fill on his first stop. On lap 122 Kanaan lapped Ed Carpenter. Marco
Andretti would be the next to be lapped, but it isn't going to happen,
caution for debris on lap 125.
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***
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(Lap 127, pit stops) Dixon from pit position
3 beats Kanaan and Franchitti off pit road, I wonder if he got a full
fill. Dixon's lead was short lived, Kanaan got him the first time around
and Franchitti tried the next lap and is still working on it. Stopping on
lap 129, they will have to stop one more time around lap 175, too soon for
anything but a tire stop and go, I don't think we will see any games
played.
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***
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(Lap 150) Franchitti has beat Dixon to
the line for 2nd several times, but loses ground in turns 1 and 2. While
TK has checked out, there is a heck of a race between Dixon, Franchitti,
Scheckter and Patrick for 2-5, with lots of two-wide stuff. Patrick and
Scheckter are as much of a show as Dixon/Franchitti. and as Danica slips
back, Marco Andretti and Foyt IV join the mix. While it might not be for
the lead, the fans here are seeing a heck of a race. On lap 167 Dario got
way high and in the marbles, few drivers survive that, but somehow Dario
made the save, but it cost him 4 spots. The make-up should be fun to
watch, 5 laps to pit stops. TK trying to lap Helio had to have touched
tires at the line and almost again, Scheckter in on 176. TK in on 178
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***
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(Lap 180) Danica
spun on pit out, Franchitti hit something on pit in and needs a
new nose, good thing for him Danica brought out the yellow. Now
Danica has crashed, she swerved to miss the safety truck and has
hit the wall. Looks like Danica lost a rear tire, probably too
flat spotted to get her back to pit road, the only roll the safety
truck played was that Danica spun outside of them.
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***
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(10 to go) Foyt IV in the lead over TK
off of pit road, TK beats him around on the first lap, Dixon is trying,
outside in turn 1, gets him on the inside in turn 3. TK is gone, checked
out again. Marco Andretti is 4th behind AJ with Tomas Scheckter outside of
him. Franchitti stuck in lapped traffic behind Matsuura in 8th. TK will
win his 2nd race in a row, followed by Dixon, Foyt, Andretti and Scheckter
and then FRANCHITTI HIT THE SLOWING MATSUURA and was in the air again.
Dario never lifted, he must have thought there was one more lap. The flip
looked a lot like last week.
Franchitti finished 8th and is now
only 8 points ahead of Dixon for the points lead. Vision Racing had all
three cars in the top-10. Dario has just walked out of the hospital, he
had apologized to Matsuura and admitted he didn't know the race was over.
Once home I'll do a TiVo review of the race and Danica/Dario on pit-in,
but it was a good show in front of a crowd that I think was within 70% of
track seating capacity.
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Pos
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Driver
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Best Time
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Best Speed
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Best Lap
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Last Lap
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1
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Tony Kanaan (11)
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24.4642
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217.788
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90
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200
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2
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Scott Dixon (9)
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24.4258
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218.130
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28
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200
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3
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AJ Foyt IV (22)
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24.4759
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217.684
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142
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200
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4
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Marco Andretti
(26)
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24.5073
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217.405
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51
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200
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5
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Tomas Scheckter
(2)
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24.4201
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218.181
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29
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200
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6
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Scott Sharp (8)
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24.4593
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217.831
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30
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200
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7
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Ed Carpenter (20)
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24.5213
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217.280
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10
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200
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8
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Dario Franchitti
(27)
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24.4552
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217.868
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111
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200
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9
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Helio Castroneves
(3)
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24.5452
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217.069
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6
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199
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10
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Vitor Meira (4)
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24.5621
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216.920
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151
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199
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11
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Kosuke Matsuura
(55)
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24.6643
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216.021
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23
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199
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12
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Buddy Rice (15)
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24.7470
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215.299
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7
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199
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13
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Darren Manning
(14)
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24.8518
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214.391
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193
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198
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14
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Sarah Fisher (5)
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24.8175
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214.687
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13
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197
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15
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Ryan Hunter-Reay
(17)
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24.6305
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216.317
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54
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183
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16
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Danica Patrick (7)
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24.4143
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218.233
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71
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180
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17
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Dan Wheldon (10)
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24.3701
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218.629
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27
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37
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18
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Sam Hornish Jr (6)
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24.4613
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217.813
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8
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35
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Franchitti's car launched
nose-to-the-sky, did a half-twist in air and contacted the turn
one SAFER driver-side down and rear wing first. He exited the
car uninjured. The in-car shot contained an audible gear-shift,
indicating Dario intended to race another lap. Here's more
damage photos...
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A tough night for AGR, other than
finishing 1st and 4th, here's a couple of pictures as they load
Danica's car in the transporter.
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Packing the damaged Danica Patrick
car away...
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She basically took the side off
the car when the tire let go, and did an amazing bit of driving
to miss the safety truck, going backwards, and probably with her
eyes closed.
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It's race
day at the Kentucky Speedway. The Meijer Indy 300 begins at 6:30
p.m. EDT on ESPN2...
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While it is another warm day here in Sparta
Kentucky four hours before race time, if last night at "Q" time
is any indication, the heat will be manageable from then on. The
weather outlook shows a "0" chance of precipitation, so I
better be prepared to get drenched. I need to avoid rain in order to see a
race today, having promised the boss at work I'll be on the casino floor
at 7:00 MST tomorrow evening.
The Indy Pro Series cars are on the track
now for their final warm up, and I'm seeing plenty of passing. In an
attempt to separate the post-race exit crunch, the IPS event is slated to
go green at 8:45 p.m. this evening.
Yesterday was a free day at the track for
the IndyCar fans, and I was thinking there was about 146 fans in the
grandstand as qualifying wound down, but the autograph session that
followed was mobbed, as seen in the picture below...
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And this is bad how? This is some of the
thinning crowd outside the Danica Patrick garage as the team started the
engine, there was an equal number of people or more on the other side of
the garage, and also a large number people in bay #6. You'll have to take
my word for the fact that there were less than a dozen people in front of
ANY other garage. On many of the IndyCar related forums (not ours), all
you read is anti-Danica rhetoric and continuing issue-laced doubts as to
her ability to race these cars, no matter how good her results are. I
thought Danica would win last week at Michigan and shut these people up,
and she almost did. With fewer than 10 cars running at the finish, all it
would have done was give them another excuse not to give up the fight.
Perhaps Danica will have the car tonight, she was fast in practice, and
she drafted well.
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