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Race Day coverage for the Delphi Indy 300 is coming up today right here.
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(9-12-04, 1:00
PM EDT) It is race day and I will be doing a Running Race Recap
here as well as a Race Chat from O/IRR Race Central at
Home. Join us here for the race recap, and/or follow the link on
the left to the Chat Room.
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(9-12-04, 1:15 PM EDT) Here is
the whether outlook, close to perfect and not too hot.
Today
Sep 12 |
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Mostly Sunny |
84°/58° |
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This was a heck of a race, in
order to do it justice I will have to do a Detailed Race Recap
via the VCR, look for it on Monday.
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(7 to go, restart) Herta to the
outside, trying to get Adrian before he can get up to speed, it
didn't work! With two to go Herta will have one shot, and they
are all single file at the front, no change, Fernandez blocks
him and wins for the 2nd time this season!
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(Crash review) Rise came down
on Manning who was on a heck of a run and after contact, air got
under the Rice G Force and turned it over and up and over the
Manning car. manning had enough of a tow to actually pass under
thee car of Tony Kanaan. Tony was outside the action, bet one
view almost looked like Rice was above him as well. I am not
sure that IndyCar has addressed all the issues of air under the
G Force, but I'm not sure all of them are fixable. Great
replays, this will make all the highlight reels.
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(Lap 179 restart) 21 to go and
they go green single file, AGR cars 3-wide as both Wheldon and
Kanaan try Herta! No deal, Herta outside of Adrian and makes the
pass momentarily, he gets him and falls back, Adrian in the
lead. If Herta got the engine call I expected, it is time to
show it, RICE UPSIDE Down! Manning contact as well! This race
will have to be stopped or it is over! My concerns are fore Rice
now as they turn the car over, Race Control reports Rice OK, he
stands up and exits under his own power.
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(Lap 175, still under yellow)
Oil on the track is the reported trouble. The IndyCar series is
putting on a great show, and because of this long delay, they
may have lost whatever audience they had, I just surfed the NFL
on both the TV and net, and if I did that...
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(35 to go!) Still under
caution, a long yellow, everyone, even the cars of Herta and
Fernandez who didn't pit can go all the way. This was a big hit
to Access Motorsports, they have one car that is race ready, and
there was talk of another car for Greg Ray for Texas. If this
car is a write-off I wonder what they will do. There are three
weeks before the next event at Fontana, so it will be a
wait-and-see situation. Both Foyt's have been interviewed, and
both claim previous damage from contact, I have great slo-mo, I
doubt it was anything but driver error. Vitor Meira had to stop,
so it will be fun to watch him dash towards the front again, but
Adrian and Herta are in control of the race and no one will be
backing up or off!
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(146) Restart, a rub to the
finish and Adrian Fernandez and Herta are going for it. Adrian
moves to the front, Hornish all over him! I watchin' this for a
while, back later! Clearly the MTP cars can't keep up with the
Honda's and I expect they will go to fuel conservation mode,
because it is unclear all the cars can go the distance,
Fernandez and Herta the indicator. Big crash between Taylor and
Foyt! Foyt went high and closed out Taylor's lane. Both the TV
and radio feed claim that Foyt may have had a tire failure due
to a sudden dart to the right. I don't see it that way, Foyt was
on a path to go high and Taylor was there
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(Lap 142 pit stops) Rice
first in, Wheldon first out, Herta and Fernandez stayed out and
are in the lead, the two MTP cars, that just pitted came in for
gas only and are the leaders of the cars that pitted in 3rd and
4th, Hornish in 3rd, here we go.
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(Lap139) You read it here
first, now the TV types are saying it too, but the green is out
now and there were no further stops, I missed on this call or
the teams did, they can't go all the way. Yellow Flag! Contact,
Mark Taylor has wing damage, now they will stop again and be
good to go for the rest of the race. They are interviewing
Scheckter now and he is blaming "dirty air."
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(Lap 130) Yellow, Lazier and
Scheckter, Twice Lazier and Vitor Meira made wheel to wheel
contact, the last one put Jaques into the wall, and Scheckter
just followed him in, how Tomas did that is hard to understand,
he must have lifted and "marbled" in. Several drivers
made pit stops early and with 66 laps remaining, they can't go
the rest of the way. I look for more stops just before the
race goes green again!
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(Lap 123) Matsuura out
after posting fastest lap of the race (as I said before the
start, Honda may be "enabling"), Dario Franchitti out
with gearbox trouble.
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(Lap 120 restart) Felipe
Giaffone must have stayed out and didn't pit, so he will restart
in the lead, it lasted 100 yards as Rice and Wheldon passed him
right away.
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(Lap 114 pit stops delayed)
With the Bell car close to pit-in, pit road is closed. The
cars made it to pit road on the next lap. The replay of the Bell
incident was Bell/Sharp II, a replay of problems from the last
race. Sharp got high and Bell went outside of him and
three-wide, a poor choice. Sharp moved outside and there was
right rear to left front tire contact and Bell was in the wall,
Sharps fault for not holding his line, but Bell shouldn't have
been there.
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(Half-way) Rice, Wheldon,
Hornish, Dixon and Scheckter in a tight pack, one of the best
IndyCar shows I have ever seen. With the NFL opener this
weekend, this could be the best race no one ever saw on TV!
IndyCar blew the schedule, this race should have been last
weekend, the Labor Day weekend. Ed Carpenter making several
stops after leaving without a tire on the last stop. Bell
in the wall!
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(Lap 95 restart) Scott
Dixon got a good pit stop and restarted 5th, he has moved
towards the front but Kanaan got past him and there are 3rd and
4th now.
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(Lap 89 pit stops) Fernandez
has a terrible stop and will come out last, air jack issues.
Rice first out but almost had contact with Scheckter. Upon
further review, the pit-out view shows Wheldon out first with a
4-wide behind him.
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(Lap 85) Tomas to pit in
about seven laps, but he has been all over the track trying to
make the trip to the front from 4th. YELLOW FLAG, lap 87 for
debris, a race equalizer, 21 of 22 cars on lead lap and within 5
seconds of the leader!
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(Lap 70 contact) Giaffone
squeezes Bell high and there is RR tire contact with Bells left
front wing end plate twice. I expected "Talladega
North," I think we have it!
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(Lap 63) If this race goes
all-green it could become the fastest oval track race ever,
three G Force Honda's in front, followed by Kanaan, next fuel
window, after 90 laps!
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(Lap 47) pit stops soon, my
race pick, Herta back-of-the-pack, Tomas first to pit on lap 48,
green flag pit stops starting, Helio, in, Meira, Rice. Kanaan in
on lap 52, Scheckter 4 laps short of the bulk of the field, same
every race with the Chevy fuel issues with this team at least.
Fernandez, Taylor , Matsuura and Herta last in on lap 56. 84
Miles. Fernandez must have flew around the track while
others were pitting with a light, short-of-fuel car. because
after all the stops, Fernandez was in the lead!
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(lap 26) Wow, wheel to wheel
contact at the back of the pack between Scott Dixon and Felipe
Giaffone. Scheckter has been spectacular and dangerous as
well, often 3-wide. IndyCar has warned a couple of cars as well,
one of them Wheldon, the other Mark Taylor, don't know what the
issue is.
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(15 laps) Rice proved me
wrong and moved into 3rd as Wheldon gets past and into 2nd.
Scheckter moving to the front as well. There are too many
changes to stay on top of, I will be back when we get close to
pit stops around lap 50!
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(10 laps in) Kanaan
leads, Penske cars in lockstep behind, Rice and Meira lurking,
Buddy will hang back, Vitor will try the rest of the pack
tightly packed.
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(No Start) Again the start
was waved off as Helio jumped the start. The Toyota camp is
hungry. The next time around Helio did the same and they started
anyway
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(Start your engines) The TV
feed just confirms that in addition to the Lazier engine change,
Felipe Giaffone had his Chevy engine replaced as well, so that
makes three of six Chevy engines that won't pass muster. Not
only are these engines slow, but not very reliable either.
Yesterday in "Q" runs both Alex Barron and Ed
Carpenter posted identical speeds, so the teams must be getting
all they can out of the engine, it just isn't enough. One to go
for the start.
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PRE-RACE THOUGHTS. Many of
you are familiar with my contention that Honda may be selectively
placing their best engines in the cars of the drivers that have
yet to win and where a win might do the most good. That was my
thinking in picking Adrian Fernandez for a win and nailing it. I
have made the same call two other times and missed. Today that
would mean that either Vitor Meira, Kosuke Matsuura or Bryan
Herta will get the engine call. I don't think Honda is
"managing" the results as much as "enabling"
them. With that in mind, remember the three names, but my
choice for the win today is Bryan Herta!
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(1:30 EDT) The TV feed is about
to begin and I am looking at two issues, the INDY STAR report
that Patrick Racing will replace Jaques Lazier for the last two
events with Tomas Enge. According to Mike King on the IMS
Radio feed, Patrick first denied that and then confirmed that he
will "take a look at Enge," whatever that means?
Lazier was interviewed and concedes that there may be a change,
but insists it that it isn't for performance issues and is
sponsorship driven.
The other issue is engine
problems with some of the Chevy engines. At least two drivers
have had unexpected and unscheduled engine changes, Jaques
lazier and Tomas Scheckter and there have been reports of one
other. Scheckter made his change before final practice and has a
run on it. Lazier, who was fast-Chevy in the final practice and
still made the change. It will be interesting to see how well AJ
Foyt does today starting from 6th position.
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