Friday's Updates Including Qualifications

Saturday's Updates

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While yesterdays practice was fraught with interruptions, when they finally did get at it in earnest, it was clear they even with a 22-car field, the leaders will always be in traffic. That traffic will be as slow as 10-mph off the leaders pace as well, so there is a potential for a vastly superior car to run off and stink up the show, and while I don’t think that will happen, that is what Scott Dixon did last year.

I think the best way to forecast tonight’s race is by the numbers, it will be a unique approach, but hand with me and we will eventually get there, some of these are car numbers mind you, so I think you will need a program. After the text I will list the final Practice results to relate the numbers to.

3-6

These are the car numbers of Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish, and if the MTP cars are race-set like they usually are, this could be where the “horizon job” will come from.

3-5-14-15-18-22

These are the starting positions of the Chevy contingent, their hopes lie with both cars from Panther Pacing and that of Alex Barron. Mark Taylor looked awesome in out-qualifying Tomas Scheckter last evening, but Tomas will be a factor here for the first time this season, unless I am wrong. Taylor meanwhile has issues, there have been five races this year, and he has crashed out of four of them. Barron and Carpenter are the other two Chevy drivers with a chance, but both had early “Q” runs last night, when USAC “rubber” ruined their early runs, Carpenter has the same crash related issues as Taylor, with only one finish this year, he has only crashed three times and had a “mechanical” once. Sadly, this is the kind of race you might expect Al Unser Jr. to excel at a place like RIR, but all P&Q results have shown him last on the charts. The only other Chevy Entry is D&R Racing, Felipe Giaffone. And while Giaffone can be good at times, he and the team have been so erratic I don’t know what to expect.

1-4-6-9-11-17-21

Those are the starting positions of the Toyota drivers, Helio Castroneves being on the pole. I don’t think he wins, IMO. If a MTP car wins, it will be that of Sam Hornish. The stats below reflect the final practice results and look who is at the top. If anyone was to have a problem here, I thought Manning and Matsuura; this would be the track most foreign to them. Manning led the session, and Kosuke was 4^th. I still like the G Force in the race, but I’ll pass on the “Main Manning,” Scott Dixon was third on the charts, finally showing his stuff, I like Dixon to win. For the first session since we arrived, Tora Takagi fell odd the pace, which Tora will we see in the race? No need to look at “Little” Foyt as a contender, but Scott Sharp could be, another case of which driver will show up.

2-7-8-10-12-13-16-19-20

These are the starting positions of the Honda contingent, and now that it is race time and they can “stand the wings up;” the great Honda horsepower will compensate, these teams are back in the picture. But for this race only, I doubt the Dallara based AGR drivers will win, and the “Q” positions, 7, 10, 12 and 20 provide a good hint at that, remember these are only my opinions. I do think that if Dixon doesn’t win I would look at the G Force Hondas of Fernandez, Rice and Greg Ray as a dark horse. If this race becomes caution/attrition marred and Ray is a survivor that can get a sniff of a win, we may just see the “old” Greg Ray!

2H-6T-8H-11T-13H-16H-19H

This group of numbers represent the G Force drivers by engine and it is a G Force that I think will win the race, so as I said in the other categories, look for Dixon , Manning, Fernandez, Rice and Ray somewhere up front.

FINAL PRACTICE RESULTS