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(200 LAPS) Regardless of
who is at fault this time, Kosuke Matsuura finally got caught up
in the carnage he was involved in. That's a first, usually he
drives away undamaged, perhaps meeting "Mr. Wall" will
give Matsuura a wake up call. While I am not sure exactly who is
to blame, Jeff Simmons, who was under orders "not to
crash," did just that (as they restart, I think Kanaan
wins), it appears that Simmons and Matsuura rubbed a little and
as Manning put Simmons in a 3-wide box; full contact was made.
After the restart Meira managed
to get outside of Rice and that eliminated any chance of winning
Tony Kanaan had. Single file there may have been blocking
issues, but side by side it's "just hard racin'!" As
Manning, Simmons and Matsuura demonstrated, Kansas Speedy
doesn't like 3-wide! In review, Rice's win may be the closest
margin of victory in any form of racing. Sadly, in the best
moment of the broadcast; ABC chose to break to golf instead of
building on the finish, just swell! Clearly with seven cars in
the top ten, Honda is kicking T&C butt badly. When you shut
down Team Penske and they have little chance of winning; they
must think they are in a time warp to 1995 again. Rice's margin
of victory is .0051, it looked more like an inch to me.
I have to pay the bills, so I
am off to work, there is much to look at in tape review, so I
think I will write the final recap Monday. Thanks for joining me
here for the running recap!
For those who joined us in
"race chat," I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
For those that missed it, catch us in two weeks, we'll do it again!
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(140 LAPS IN) During race
action (?) ABC left to do a Buhl fill earlier, and now they are
doing it again with Unser Jr., they put that stuff in the can to
use in cautions and rain delays, not during live racing, no
wonder the ratings suck. I expect stinker sometimes at places
like PPIR, Nazareth and Phoenix, but this is the first time
IndyCar has stunk up a "cookie-cutter." Rice and Meira
are leading Kanaan and I think he is lettin' 'em. As this thing
builds towards the "big finish," I can only hope it
isn't a big letdown. This is the last round of stops, hopefully
the race will continue caution-free and they can start racing
for the finish. Fuel is no longer an issue!
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(90 laps in) It is no
surprise that a fuel tank was pulled over in Wheldon's pit,
IndyCar has been flirting with that since Indy 2003, and now we
are in "win on pit road" mode ala CART in every
race... If I didn't see the cars and was listening on radio only
I would think I was listening to CART circa 1999! The only difference
is that the CART talking heads were better at their job, IndyCar
ratings are on a decline, Paul Page/ABC doesn't measure up to
the kind of race coverage NASCAR is giving their fans.
Now AJ Foyt IV, left with the
air hose, as I was saying...
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(40 laps in) No surprise
that TK is in charge, or that Tomas is making himself a
contender, but are the two Rahal cars letting it happen? Now
Jack Arute is mentioning "not wanting to lead," sadly
the CART morph is in a full court press, I remember when the IRL
cars would just race and not worry about fuel! No side by side
now, not a pretty picture...
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(10 laps in) Teams are
starting to work race strategy after the poor start that what
should be an exciting event. With Daytona, and this race
"over-the-air, it is time for the IndyCars to do what they
do best, high speed, wheel to wheel...
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Good morning from O'licious Race Control
at home, I have the ABC coverage on two TV's
and the VCR running. The cars are on the track ready to run and
I am ready to chat, see link above, Sharp crashed already!
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(7-4-04,
don't ask when) Having
a very healthy Honda engine in your IndyCar wouldn't hurt
either. That isn't to say that a Honda engine makes you a lock
to win today, but it sure would help. Actually, in the
"Q" runs Saturday, six drivers posted speeds above 209
mph, three with Honda's, the two MTP Toyota's and the lone Chevy
of Tomas Scheckter. In fact the entire field is only separated
by a little more than .7 seconds and 5 mph! Does that mean that
any of the top six will be able to draft right past the race
leader? No, not unless it is one of the slower cars in the
field. At the Bombardier 500 at TMS, time after time today's
pole sitter Buddy Rice tried to pass Tony Kanaan for the lead,
either on the inside or outside, and while he got along side of
Kanaan, that is where the progress ended. Many thought Rice was
economy minded and didn't want to lead, I doubt that very much,
Rice only led seven laps, and Kanaan with a Dallara could pass
him at will. More than half the field had a faster "best
lap" of the race than either Rice or Kanaan, but those were
the two cars always in the mix all night until Darren Manning
drove right into Rice and ended his night.
Even
though Rice is in a class by himself today (the 210 mph class);
that G Force will punch a bigger hole in the air than a Dallara,
so I look for the four Dallara's that qualified above 209 mph to
give the G Force Honda's of Rice and Vitor Meira fits all day.
Those four drivers, in the most likely order are Kanaan, Sam
Hornish Jr., Tomas Scheckter and Helio Castroneves. In my
opinion we have seen enough data now that I am willing to
concede that Hornish has the edge in speed, desire and ability
over Helio, but Castroneves wins hands down in a personality
poll.
I
expect a tight field all day, with lots of the side by side
racing that Sam Hornish excels at. Scheckter is hungry for a win
and under a lot of self-imposed pressure besides; he will be a
factor all day. Last year AGR replacement driver Bryan Herta won
this event on a fuel mileage strategy, between TMS and last
week's Richmond race, I've seen all of that I want for a while.
The replacement drivers today are Jeff Simmons, under heavy
pressure not to crash the Patrick Dallara, and Townsend Bell in
a very fast Panther/Menards Dallara Chevy. Bell qualified 7th,
most of us have seen him crash, I hope he keeps the Menards #2
off the fence for only the 2nd time this year. Vitor Meira zero
for three seasons, but he was 2nd last week at RIR and ran 3rd
at TMS a couple of years ago in the season finale, he's as win
hungry as Scheckter, but he also has a Rahal Letterman G Force,
and faces the same aero issues as Rice.
You
would have to look back to Sam Hornish's first IRL season
with PDM Racing to find a poorer season than Sam is having now,
after contact with Tomas Scheckter last week; Sam was running
with a mad-on, so much so that Brian Barnhart was going to
"read to him from the book" after the race, if today's
race could be won on desire, you could put Sam's name on the
trophy and check.
I'm
not usually one to go with the front runners, but of the top six
I'll pass on Helio only and go with one of the other five
for the win. Forced to pick only one it would be Sam Hornish Jr.
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