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It's hard to claim a race
that ended up with two race contenders in the SAFER because of
mistakes by much slower cars, including Tony Kanaan, the race
leader with only 8 laps left in the race, was a safe one, but I
expected worse. Fortunately, three of the slower entries
withdrew with handling woes, but first Milka Duno spun into the
path of Ryan Briscoe, and than later Ernesto Viso got all the
way sideways in front of Kanaan, and TK just couldn't get all
the way under him. The contact knocked Kanaan's right front
suspension/tire askew and Tony limped around in the lead, hoping
the race would end under the caution with him at the front. When
the race was restarted Kanaan was unable to keep up the pace and
was black flagged. Scott Dixon wasn't very fast on fresh tires,
but that wasn't the case on the final restart. Marco Andretti
had been able to handle Dixon 77 laps into the race, but he had
nothing for the New Zealander at the finish.
Here are some final thoughts on the race the morning after as
I make a TiVo review and get my race report edited, corrected
and detailed. This is a new era in IndyCar racing, and a lot of
patience and understanding was shown last night by both Team
Penske and Andretti Green Racing, and the two contending drivers
involved in contact not of their own making. That was
impressive. There was a lot of give and take going on
everywhere. The best speed attained in the race by a couple of
drivers was only 202-mph, and quite often, on old tires, many
were running under 200-mph. That's black flag territory, yet
they were allowed to run, for the most part they stayed out of
the way, and if anyone complained, it was in private.
I do not think any of these transitional drivers or teams are
ready to go to Kansas Speedway in a month and run much better.
Many of these teams will get brand new Dallara's in the next 30
days. I hope these teams get an additional test session at
either close-by (for most of them) Kentucky Speedway, or perhaps
Kansas Speedway during race week.
Read more from the live running recap of the race
here... |
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(2-29-08, an
update, 90 minutes before the green flag) The two Vision Racing
Dallara Honda's of Ed Carpenter and AJ Foyt IV failed
post-qualifying inspection yesterday evening and will start from
the back of the grid. Jay Howard, who crashed last night in his
qualifying attempt, has been cleared to drive tonight, and the
team has repaired the car, Howard will start 23rd, here's the
link...
Dan Wheldon also made wall contact warming up for his "Q"
attempt, and will start 22, possibly in a backup car. No matter
how they set the grid, the front row will be Scott Dixon and
Danica Patrick. The entire race weekend coverage including
the race in live running recap format can be followed
here... |
