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It's
Honda 200 Race Day at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Helio
Castroneves and Danica Patrick are in the Front Row...
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The only three questions that remain
unanswered are:
1. Just what sort of event we will see,
as I detested the lack of "racing" we used to get in the CART
years at the course, where there was always a lack of contested passes in
races that were usually won on pit road.
2. Just how long (and if even possible)
it will take Scott Dixon, one of the IndyCar Series 4 premier road racers
to get to the front. I also wonder if the quick pit road work we usually
see from Team Penske will be fast enough to overcome Helio's
third-on-pit-road pit placement and prevent him from losing the early race
lead that is almost a given because of the pole position.
3. With the British Open looking to be
headed for overtime, just when will we get to see the race, and where. It
looks like it will be on the live Video stream, because There is now a
4-hole playoff in the British Open... THE
HONDA 200 AT MID-OHIO HAS BEEN MOVED TO ESPN, and EVEN that is in
overtime...
It now appears that there will be a close
to 20-minute delay in the start of the race as the ABC family of networks
scramble to relocate the race coverage to an ESPN channel that isn't
already locked into programming. This will put some of the Internet
forum's into meltdown, as many people have programmed VCR, DVD's and
TiVo's and will lose the race tape. Usually in these cases there is a
re-air.
It appears the hits keep on coming for
Rahal Letterman Racing, as Ryan Hunter Reay damaged the #17 Ethanol
Dallara Honda in the morning
warm up session, one dominated by the three AGR cars of Kanaan,
Franchitti and Andretti. Someone should remind Hunter-Reay how if got that
ride, but I under he has stuck throttle issues, TWICE...
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THE
RACE...
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WHATEVER THE LAME BOWLING EVENT IS, IT IS
NOW OVER AND THE RACE IS ON THE AIR ON ESPN, about 10-minutes away from
the green flag.
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Scott
Dixon wins the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio over Franchitti, Castroneves, Kanaan
and Patrick...
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(The start) The pressure will be
Danica Patrick to try and jump the pole winning car of Helio Castroneves
and be assured of leading the "parade" I expect we'll see.
Pressure would then transfer to the flagman to "hold" the green
flag, something that hasn't happened in far too many races, no matter how
bad and miss-aligned the starts may be.
Helio pulls away from Danica as the
pace car heads for pit road, Kanaan and Marco in contact and Marco is on
the roll bar... Danica was forced into the dirt as part of the mess,
here's the replay.... It appears that Danica blew the corner high,
allowing Tony Kanaan room under her and TK didn't have room and pushed out
into left front to right rear contact with Danica's car. Then as Kanaan
got sideways Marco got under him and into the sidepod, that caused a wheel
overlap and Marco was in the dirt and on his lid.
In my opinion, this is just a result
of the drivers jumping all over any opening on a track where passing is
almost impossible. While I'm not a believer in
"just-one-of-those-racin'-deals," because someone is always at
fault, this is as close as you can come to one. Never immune to knee jerk
reactions, Marco is blaming Patrick. Darren manning was the big winner in
the dust-up moving to 3rd for the restart. In truth Danica hung back
trying to get inside of Helio.
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***
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(Lap 6 restart)
Patrick will restart in 9th and
this one got away clean. It's Castroneves, Dixon, Manning, Franchitti,
Hornish and Hunter-Reay... Look for the first round of pit stops
around lap 28 or a bit past that because of the 6-lap caution, which would
make it a 2-stop race for those that didn't stop for the early caution
flag.
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***
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(Lap 21)
With no position changes since the
restart in the top-5, all that is missing is the band playing 76
TROMBONES LEAD THE BIG PARADE!!! Team Penske claims that they will use
the Hornish car as a fuel mileage test mule, but they didn't say that from
the booth. I expect they will bring Sam in, confirm how much fuel is left
in the tank and then if safe, leave Helio out for a lap or two more,
because 3X28= 1-lap- short of a full race distance. Manning pits on
lap 28, and so did Wheldon and Patrick, but Roger lied, Sam stayed out and
Helio came in first, along with Sam on lap 29. Dixon is still out and supposedly
flying before stopping, lets see how this shakes out. Dixon pits on lap
30 and does get out before Castroneves, but behind TK, who pitted during
the caution. Passing room or not, TK did advance in the standings, and
I expect to see him as high as 8th once he stops., here he comes...
As it turned out, I was overly optimistic of Kanaan's chances of
advancing through the field as he is still shown in 10th behind Rice and
Hunter-Reay. Patrick. 9th on the original restart has gained 3 positions
to 6th, perhaps mostly on pit road, where her crew is doing a great job.
With MOST of the leaders getting to lap 29 before pitting, unless an
ill-timed caution crops up that some bites on around lap 57-58, it will be
a two-stop race...
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***
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(Lap 40) Dixon appears to be in fuel
saving mode and still is opening up on Helio, who appears to not be
holding up Franchitti either. Darren manning-the-wimp complains that he
gets arm-weary on the road courses, what does that say about his
life-style when Danica Patrick doesn't seem to have the same issues.
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PROGRAMMING WARNING... If
this telecast isn't disjointed enough, they just moved it to ABC to make
room to Telecast the CCWS race, this is too stupid, now people may have
lost their recordings not only once, BUT Twice... They're gonna miss the
parade...
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(Lap 46)
Now proclaiming himself "no
longer an oval track specialist," Sam Hornish has returned to his
mistake-prone ways twice this weekend as Sam has now made a run through
the sand and gravel and into the tire barrier backwards in turn one. As a
result ALL the leaders headed for pit road EXCEPT that Kanaan, Carpenter,
Sharp and Hornish, the cause for the caution stayed out. TK last pitted
on lap 35 or so and this move to stay off of pit road could win him the
race, here's how. Kanaan will have to pit, perhaps under the green flag
and by lap 63 or so, where he will presumably turn over the lead to the
2nd place driver, who will need a splash-and-go with about 14 laps remaining
in the race, at which point TK, who then could go the distance, and then
perhaps inherit the lead again if he doesn't get hung up in traffic. Scott
Dixon lost the lead of the race on pit road, the same way he got it in the
first place, beating Castroneves out of the pits... Traffic would kill
TK's chances of winning, stuck in 7th far too long.
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***
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(Lap 51 restart) it's Kanaan in the
lead over Sharp, who is doing what he does best, driving a wide car
and holding off Helio. The way Castroneves beat Dixon out is by
quick-pitting, but Helio too will have to pit around the time TK does.
Goodyear in the booth claims "they need a yellow," but it
doesn't matter (as race analyst, he should, but just doesn't get it),
green or yellow, both groups will have the same issues. Sharp did a good
job of holding Helio back and letting TK check out, but for TK, just not
long enough. Once Helio got past Sharp, Danica forced her way past
as well, doing a VERY god job of it and now into 5th as a result...
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***
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(Lap 60) Three laps
before I expected him to pit, Kanaan gives up his lead and heads for pit
road. Once back on the track, TK is charged with the task of not being
hung up in traffic and beating not only Castroneves, Dixon and the
remainder of the top-5 when they exit pit road. One plus is that Sharp is
BEHIND him. TK came off pit road in 7th, ALL the cars he will have to beat
are ahead of him, but the bad news is that he is 16-seconds back and that
won't get the job done, he appears to need to gain position over
Manning-the-wimp and Patrick-the-strong-and-fit GIRL!!!
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***
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(Lap 73) In one of those race-win defining
moments Helio Castroneves hit pit road along with Danica Patrick and
Darren Manning, and one lap later, Scott Dixon. Once back on the track he
was slotted in ahead of Kanaan, Manning and Patrick. Once Dixon came
around again he was AHEAD of Helio, but still behind Franchitti,
who will remain out until the last possible minute, running as fast as
possible in order to shorten his stay on pit road. As it turned out,
Franchitti wouldn't beat Dixon as he exited pit road and will slot in
behind Dixon and ahead of Helio. With 9 laps remaining, I'll call it
either a "race" or "disjointed parade." Whatever you
call it, Franchitti did his best job of points damage control, and while
unable to catch Dixon, held Helio in 3rd with Kanaan finishing 4th and
Patrick 5th, ahead of Darren-the-weak. Foyt's building a rig for Manning,
but all he needs is to get his azz in the gym, I'm more than twice his age
and I do it three-times a week. Here is the unofficial finishing order,
highlighted by not only Danica Patrick's 5th place, best ever road race
finish and the 7th place finish of Ryan Hunter-Reay. Buddy Rice got
another top-10 and Dan Wheldon continues to struggle, there is something wrong
with the Wheldon/TCGR combination.
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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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Scott Dixon (9)
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1:08.2522
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119.099
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76
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85
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2
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Dario Franchitti
(27)
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1:08.0148
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119.515
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75
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85
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3
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Helio Castroneves
(3)
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1:08.3918
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118.856
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65
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85
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4
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Tony Kanaan (11)
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1:08.0583
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119.439
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39
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85
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5
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Danica Patrick (7)
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1:08.8155
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118.125
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69
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85
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6
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Darren Manning
(14)
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1:08.9347
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117.920
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79
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85
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7
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R. Hunter-Reay
(17)
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1:09.1735
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117.513
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61
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85
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8
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Buddy Rice (15)
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1:08.5416
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118.597
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85
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85
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9
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Tomas Scheckter
(2)
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1:09.2221
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117.431
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66
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85
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10
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Dan Wheldon (10)
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1:09.0273
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117.762
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38
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85
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11
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Scott Sharp (8)
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1:10.1595
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115.862
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66
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84
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12
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Kosuke Matsuura
(55)
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1:09.3610
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117.196
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45
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84
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13
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AJ Foyt IV (22)
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1:09.6521
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116.706
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27
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84
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14
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Sam Hornish Jr (6)
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1:08.2486
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119.106
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73
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84
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15
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Sarah Fisher (5)
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1:11.1841
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114.194
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54
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82
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16
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Ed Carpenter (20)
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1:09.5526
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116.873
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74
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82
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17
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Vitor Meira (4)
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1:09.5904
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116.809
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21
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54
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