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 corrected, edited 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.

The unofficial IndyCar T&S race result shown below shows only four drivers on the lead lap at the end of the race, and 16 running at the finish. Kanaan stayed on the track just long enough to finish 8th. Late race fuel and tire decisions kept things interesting, and in a post-race interview Dixon said "he felt he could have run Tony down at the finish," we'll never know now.

***

(The start) Wave off, a ragged start, 2nd time was worse, but they went anyway. Danica fell back to single file. The start was safe but ugly. Wheldon roared through the field, gained six spots on the first lap, three more on the next. Wheldon was 10th after 11 laps.

(lap 9) Howard in pits early. Look for green flag stops after lap 66...
 

On lap 12 Kanaan had been trying the long way around Dixon (the outside) but can't make the trip. Then the two leaders split the lapped car of Mario Moraes, running 10-mph off the pace and Kanaan came out  of that confrontation in the lead.

(Caution, lap 18) Debris, Buddy Rice lost a right side mirror. Everyone stopped under this caution flag. I'm looking for a long run tonight to check fuel mileage against last year, when Honda took away the fuel mixture optional settings. Now that they have given those back, I'm looking for it to help the racing, but whittle away at the green flag miles run between stops. It is also interesting to note pit road team positioning, while it is nice to at the head of pit road on ovals, it is critical on roads and streets. IIRC, the ICS sets up the pit positions by collective team performance, and while I expected AGR to have the honors, it was TCGR up front, followed by AGR and Team Penske. A combination of an advantageous pit position and a slow Kanaan stop allowed Scott Dixon to regain the lead of the race. Quick work in the pits by Team Penske moved Helio Castroneves to 3rd and Ryan Briscoe to 4th, followed by Marco Andretti. During this pit sequence Hideki Mutoh had a series of problems that led to him exiting the race on lap 32. Not only had Dan Wheldon cut through the field from the back of the pack, but Ed Carpenter moved into the top-10 after the first round of stops as well. AJ Foyt IV was 14th.
 

(Lap 24) Contact on the restart, the minute the green flag came out Justin Wilson was hit from behind by Will Power, Wilson suffered a flat right rear tire, Power ended up out of the race with suspension damage. Racing after the green flag was pretty intense, Danica Patrick was unhappy with her car from the start, but pit road changes improved her car momentarily and she started to assert herself, moving to 5th. By lap 30 it was Dixon, Castroneves, Kanaan, Briscoe, Andretti around Danica again, then Patrick, Wheldon, Ryan Hunter-Reay in the RLR car, who had run as high as 5th, and Carpenter rounding out the top-10.  Mutoh was officially out of the race on lap 32 with something wrong with the steering system. By lap 36 both Vision cars were in the top-10, Carpenter 9th, Foyt 10th.
 

(Lap 30-somthing) Helio's right front tire in