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Let's take an in-depth look at
Today's IndyCar event that saw the cars of Scott Sharp and Tora
Takagi eliminated before the race even started. IndyCar
designated this race as a two-day event, which means the teams
are only allowed to use one engine, and rarely with these
engines do you see any problems, but Andretti Green Racing had issues
with the Honda power plant in the Dario Franchitti car and
replaced it. Because of that Dario was required to drop to the
rear of the field at the start of the race.
Franchitti almost became
"part of the problem" before the start of the race,
but not the cause, as Scott Sharp turned hard right into the
path of Tora Takagi. Sharp could be heard on the radio as saying
"they stopped guys, they all stopped, there's nothing I can
do!" What I can see from the replay is that the field
started to bunch up around Bryan Herta as Alex Barron darted
left to go under Herta followed by Giaffone. Dan Wheldon moved
outside of Giaffone and AJ Foyt IV moved further outside of
Wheldon to make it three-wide with Ed Carpenter checking up
right behind him. Scott Dixon dove low and momentarily they were
even four-wide. As Sharp cut right, Darren Manning passed him
high and Jeff Simmons barely missed him low, followed by
Franchitti diving low to miss the whole mess. In a pit road
interview with Dr. Jerry Punch, Sharp said, "Well we all
just got a run goin' and all of a sudden everyone just stacked
way up and I was going to run into the back of someone; so I
turned and was on the brakes and it just snapped on me and
everyone just stacked up on each other." The race was
started but the "Detailed Race Results" only listed 19
starters. Immediately some teams
pitted to top off on fuel, Franchitti was the first in, followed
by Manning and Simmons.
On the single file restart
after five laps Tony Kanaan drove right past Rice on the outside
and I am of the opinion he had no intention of leading. Three
laps later Sam Hornish Jr. moved under Tomas Scheckter in a
battle for 4th position. The Chevy engine in the Scheckter car
was no match for the MTP Toyota. Hornish fell in behind the
panther Chevy and Kosuke Matsuura passed Castroneves and into
6th position
On lap 40 Tomas Scheckter had
passed Rice and Meira; who were mentioned on the telecast as
being in fuel conservation mode and moved outside race leader
Kanaan in an attempt to lead the race. Within a lap the field
started to stack up behind those two cars and I was thinking
this could be racing the IndyCar way, a premature and mistaken
conclusion. Scheckter couldn't complete the pass and fell back
behind Rice in 3rd. The talking heads in the booth were
reporting that Panther Racing didn't want to lead the race and
neither did Kanaan, but since he was already there...
Since there were only 5 laps
run under caution we were about to get a look at high-speed fuel
mileage and I suspected that the Honda's would be paying the
penalty for all that power. The telecast went to commercial on
lap 48 and when they returned Dan Wheldon's pit fuel tank was
lying against the pit wall, fortunately there was no spillage.
Wheldon may have been one of the first in because he had worked
is way up from a poor starting position to as high as 5th. Other
teams continued to pit, and as expected it was the Honda's in
first, but perhaps as a precaution, the Castroneves car as well.
By lap 58 all cars had pitted, and that means the best of them
went 84 miles. While Scott Goodyear said the Chevy's weren't
getting the mileage of the Honda's and Toyota's, I didn't see
that much difference. The next time the cars were to pit it
would be green flag all the way, and Tomas Scheckter would wait
too long. Wheldon was mentioned as not having gotten a full
refill, so he would return to pit road on lap 99 to top off the
tank, luckily, there were no caution periods after that until
the rest of the cars stopped. Vitor Meira was in the lead at
time and was lapping the track above 210 mph.
At the time engine wise, it was
Honda, Chevy and Toyota, and there was talk on the telecast of
new fuel injectors for the Toyota's. If they are better, it is a
good thing they had them; or they would all be racing for last.
TCGR claimed they were having too many chassis problems to see
any improvement, but I suspect that issue is due to an attempt
to flatten the wings to minimum required to compensate for G
Force drag issues that only hurt the underpowered Toyota's. The
Honda engine pulls the G Force around just fine thank you. For
those of you who wonder what is wrong with Dixon and TCGR that
may be the answer? The remedy may soon be a Dallara, a first for
that team.
On lap 105, nearly fifty laps
since the last round of pit stops, Anthony Foyt left the pits with
the air hose still connected to the car and was held in the pits
for a considerable time penalty. On lap 108 Meira and Kanaan
pitted, with Meira stalling the car. On lap 109 Scheckter
slowed, out of fuel and ruined what was a good result so far.
Rice, Dixon and Manning pitted at that time, and on lap 112 we
saw the Penske cars the last to pit. To make matters worse, once
they got Tomas' car restarted, he stalled the engine again
trying to leave his pit. Scheckter would finish the race four
laps down.
Continuing with the 50-lap
green flag pit sequence; the cars started to return to pit road
with the Chevy of Alex Barron in first. I see little difference
in fuel mileage, so this Honda engine has to be as efficient as
it is powerful. The one exception is the MTP Toyotas that are
usually the last to pit. I bet "the Captain" would gladly
give up some of that economy for more power, on the fast tracks,
the Penske cars aren't even contenders anymore.
On lap 175 Kosuke Matsuura
finally found a car he couldn't bounce into the wall and drive
away from. Actually the problems started three laps earlier,
when Matsuura, who had pitted dead-stick and out of fuel; was 3
laps down. Matsuura and Jeff Simmons made wheel to wheel
contact, the first time as Simmons drifted up into him. Simmons'
car was very unstable; as seen from the in-car camera on the
Darren Manning car. Three laps later Manning tried to duck under
Simmons, who made right front tire contact with Matsuura's left
rear tire and the crash that had been trying to happen for three
laps finally made it. Darren Manning may have used poor judgment
in forcing a three-wide, but he did hold his line and never
moved up into Simmons, who was in what has been called the
"death wiggle." Simmons, who was on notice not to
crash the car, survived one dart towards Matsuura, but wasn't as
lucky the 2nd time. Jeff showed great promise at Indy and
managed to negate that gain today; he had the slowest "best
speed" in the race by a full mile per hour and may have
confirmed that all isn't well with the Patrick Racing Dallara.
As for Matsuura, he may or may not share the blame in this one,
but he was overdue to meet "Mr. Walls" anyway. I would
be remiss if I didn't mention how much better the tether systems
are working this year. Not only can't I recall any tires and
suspension pieces becoming detached, but the rear wings have
been contained as well. There was one example of a front wing
being launched by the Robbie Buhl car at PIR and hitting the
Scheckter Dallara. The front wings are clipped off often and
they should become the next project.
The race resumed with 14 laps
to go, and Meira moved alongside Rice with 12 to go and actually
was credited with leading laps 192,195 and 199. Tony Kanaan in
third never was a factor until the two Rahal Letterman cars got
alongside of each other. At the finish we saw IndyCar at its
best, and although everyone "worried" fuel mileage all
day and stayed in line and out of the lead when they could, they
still had to race when it mattered. The finish even confused the
T&S link momentarily, giving the win to Meira, but it was
Rice that won. In spite of all the green flag pit stops three
times in a row, six cars finished on the leader lap and
surprisingly, Sam Hornish finished a lap down, along with
Wheldon and Barron. Darren Manning was two laps down and Scott
Dixon three. Toyota is in big trouble and I fear Chevy will quit
at the end of the season. It seems that how hard the others try;
Honda is still keeping up with their progress.
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