While I didn't do a full recap of the race, I do have some thoughts about the results and some of the things learned during the running of the race, read more of what I thought about the Kansas Speedway race here... All Kansas Speedway coverage can be found on this page.

Courtesy of Honda IRL Racing

(3-17-05) When practice starts Friday morning (noon, EST) at PIR, it would be hard to overlook the domination by three of the four AGR drivers last month. Dario Franchitti posted the fastest speed in two days of testing, a 175.574, followed by Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan, also above 175 mph. Helio Castroneves was 4th fastest with a 174.394, and Scott Sharp rounded out the top-5 with a 174.271. The 4th AGR driver, Bryan Herta was 7th in the final results. With nearly a full-mph on the rest of the field, the AGR Dallara's might be hard to catch. During the week I was listening to the archived editions of Mike King's daily radio update on the IMS Radio Network, and in the interview with Dan Wheldon I was interested to learn that in the 2005 aero package they allowed more downforce than on the 2004 cars. If I recall correctly, in 2004 they took a bit of downforce away from the cars, thinking it would slow them down and get pack separation by making the drivers "lift" more. I guess when they saw that the 3.0 liter engine cut speeds nearly 8-mph at all venues, they thought they could allow some additional downforce this season. Then again, perhaps it is just because of the extra downforce needed to road and street race. For whatever reason, Wheldon and others now feel that on a "Q" run, a driver may be able to run the tricky Phoenix mile "flat," that is without lifting. Last month in the TitW, the 175-mph plus speeds of the AGR cars was actually FASTER then "Q" run of Dan Wheldon on a very hot weekend in the Arizona desert. This weekend there is a good chance for rain on Saturday. This race is designated a "two-day event" by the IndyCar series, that means that Friday will be a very busy day. The forecast for Friday is for conditions much like those of the final test day last month, when we had sprinkles twice before rain finally closed the session an hour early.

Here is the weekend schedule link, http://www.indycar.com/news/2005/phoenix/phoenix_schedule.pdf

One more thing, I know that earlier I predicted that Saturday's winner would be the first car off pit road after the last pit stops of the race. The way Team Penske cleaned up in that department at Homestead , it is likely it could be one of  their cars. If it wasn't for that, my selection for the win would be a "reborn" Scott Sharp. If the race is to be won on pit road, that team probably isn't up to the challenge. One more thing, if it does come down to winning on pit road, it is likely we will see a repeat of many of the mishaps of last season. Some team's are struggling with the "single-point" refueling system, and if that thing "hangs up" in the car, with two hoses, it is likely to take the fuel tank with it when the car leaves. I am a strong and vocal advocate of leaving the car on the air jacks until all tires are installed and fueling is finished.  

Courtesy of Toyota Motorsports

Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish, Jr. lead a pack through turn one that includes eventual winner Dan Wheldon on the outside, Tony Kanaan, pole sitter Tomas Scheckter and Bryan Herta. The cars of Scheckter and Herta sustained heavy damage in the big wreck on lap 158! The car of IndyCar rookie Danica Patrick sustained the most damage though; as she first made contact with the car of Ed Carpenter and then slammed hard into the SAFER barrier. Contrary to the opinion of Patrick's car owner Bobby Rahal, Carpenter wasn't "parked," but was slowing after hitting the spinning car of Kosuke Matsuura, whose poorly executed 3-wide excursion into the dirt, dust and rubber residue above the high-line at HMS caused the whole mess. Matsuura, trailing a rooster tail of dust, spun across the front of both Scheckter and Carpenter, who was below Tomas and even with him. Carpenter was first to make contact with Matsuura, clipping him with his right front wing and tire. That contact turned the Matsuura Panoz back to the right and drifting up towards Scheckter. Thomas had his hands full of "wiggles" at the time and was going to be unable to save the car anyway when Matsuura's right front tire made contact with his left rear, causing Scheckter to contact the SAFER with the right rear corner of the Dallara. The Panther Chevy was simultaneously drilled by the oncoming car of Scott Sharp. Meanwhile, the contact with Matsuura had damaged the right front corner of the Carpenter car, unable to steer any longer, Carpenter slowed. Patrick could be heard getting off the throttle as she aimed low and to the left. She simply ran out of room and took the right side suspension of her Panoz. The car went up-track and slammed into the SAFER, right sidepod first. Danica exited the car dazed and disoriented, but otherwise appeared uninjured. She was transported to a Kendal, FL hospital and later released. Bryan Herta and others were also involved in the crash, Herta, who had lost time and track position moments earlier when he stalled the car during a yellow flag pit stop, checked up for the crash and lost control. His car was heavily damaged as well

My biggest concern about this Sunday's race was that at least three wheel and tire assemblies became separated from the cars in crashes. I don't recall that happening even once in 2004. IndyCar officials have always maintained it was impossible to contain all suspension pieces and tires in crashes, but they did want to slow them down and keep them on the ground. Need I remind everyone that it was a tire that was in that situation and "punted" into the stands at Charlotte years ago, causing 3 fatalities? 
All this carnage happened on a restart after a small fire was started on the pit entrance road that has caused TCGR to loose two cars to crash damage in two Homestead events. The damaged another in this crash as well, Scott Dixon couldn't avoid the carnage and stuck his Panoz Toyota in the SAFER as well. This was a very expensive crash, perhaps the most costly in series history. The last "really big one" happened in Atlanta in April, 2001.

Patrick was running a smart, safe race, but was about to be called back on pit road for a pit speed violation. Before the caution that led to all the trouble, Patrick had managed to pass both of the Team Cheever cars and the TCGR cars on Manning and Dixon as well. Her is a look at the Patrick driving her RLR Panoz Honda in road race trim, also at HMS this past January.

(3-7-05)  my Detailed Race Report is going to be delayed for a few hours, look for it here Tuesday morning.  With double the video to review due to the duel -show coverage on the ESPN outlets there is an abundance of footage to review and scant time for me to review it. Also compounding the problem is the fact that the IndyCar site is late in posting most of the stat I usually rely on.

Dan Wheldon was the class of the race, and may have won regardless of what Scheckter did… Scheckter probably didn't need to crash; he appeared to clear Matsuura and yanked the car to the right in a delayed reaction. I am not sure Tomas would have run down Wheldon anyway, it could have been that Scheckter's pole run might not have been a speed-only deal. There is so much “aero” involved in these cars that it is hard to gauge power vs. slippery… Scheckter was an angry man in post-check up interview, he questioned Matsuura’s intention in being 3-wide, and so do I. My first thought in watching the crash play out was “what the hell is he doing out there?” Matsuura wasn’t going to win the race on that restart anyway, and caused a crash the turned into a “big-bill” ticket. Not since the carnage in Atlanta in around 2002 has there been that much high-priced damage in one crash… As for the MTP cars, Sam Hornish mentioned in the show-opening how they had to do things to the car to compensate for being down on power, and how it may have caused him to crash, it is clear that they have found something to make a hp-challenged car run fast on the high-speed tracks, but have they learned enough to keep them off the fence… Last year TCGR also had to make some aero adjustments, not just to keep up with the Honda’s, but MTP as well, it looks like they are still in that mode after a quick look at the Briscoe crash, while it may have been a rookie mistake, it sure looked like that car was aero-loose when it snapped around. TCGR lost some hardware this weekend; I still think they should invest in a Dallara or two. Last year, when it was rumored that Ganassi would acquire the Kelley team just past mid-season, one of the reasons stated was too get some Dallara chassis… I nominate Bobby Rahal for the "open mouth, insert foot" award. Ed Carpenter didn't "park the car," he had already lost one side of the car in contact with another, perhaps Yasukawa. As for why he was up there, “five laps down,” that is how the spacing developed after the pit stops, there is no requirement that lapped cars go to the inside or outside, or fall to the rear of the field. IndyCar restarts are single-file… In fact, I watched Carpenter forced 3-wide once during the race and thought, “if this were last year, he would have crashed here.” Needless to say, he didn’t… Danica made a great move to avoid the crash and ran out of room. That was a big hit, and clearly she didn't know where she was or where she was going as they tried to direct her into the ambulance. Thanks to the SAFER, Danica will race again. Were that a concrete wall, we could be looking at the unthinkable now. Danica destroyed that car, in one of the pre-race or practice day pieces I wrote, I questioned how well-fixed RLR was for chassis, I guess we will find out. As for Danica, I watcher her mid-race run-down of first Scott Dixon and then Darren Manning, and cleanly and easily pass both. What I did notice in the Manning pass was she gave him a lot more side-spacing than the veterans do in passing… What a difference an engine makes, D&R Racing was lost at the back of the pack for two years, either incapable of showing any speed or unable to get Chevy engines with the same parts and pieces as Panther got. Then, in one smart move, they hooked up with Honda and Roger Yasukawa and became an immediate contender, even if I lost faith and patience with the team watching them in testing at HMS and PIR. Dennis Reinbold may have over-stated the team’s possible result in the post-crash interview when he said that "we could have won the race." I doubt that, but they could have been top-five, and if they had managed that, it would have been a heck of a turn-around… Was Tony Kanaan blocking? It isn't often that I disagree with Gil de Ferran, but I think he is too close to the drivers involved to be objectively honest, IMO, Kanaan was blocking, not just "making the car very wide." If there were bumpers and fenders on the car, he may have found himself "turned around!"

Now you may read all the other accounts of the event and watch the racing related shows, I’ll take the time to do a frame-by-frame review of both ESPN shows and provide a detailed race review here late Monday afternoon. It was an exciting race, unfortunately, it wasn’t all it could have been. I’m not big on “it was one of those racin’ deals,” there is usually someone to blame for making poor decisions. I thought Matsuura learned that lesson last year…

IMS Photo of what was one of the closest finishes of 2004!          

(10-16-04) While I won't be able to stay with the race for the entire event due to a 7-hour "double-back" at work after doing 11 hours last night and getting off at 5:00 AM, I will join you for the first 45-minutes and offer some commentary here...

I will review the race later in the week, let's all hope that we see the usual excitement of a TMS event without the carnage that we have seen too often. My pick for the win is Vitor Meira, but I also expect AGR to give Bryan Herta all the support he needs to capture the win and become the 4th member of the team to win this season.

(10-16-04) The cars of Tomas Scheckter and Townsend Bell passed both pre-practice and pre-qualifying tech inspection Friday, but after Scheckter put the Panther Racing Dallara Chevy on the outside of the front row in the team's best result of the season, both Panther cars failed post qualifying inspection and were placed at the back of the field. Supposedly, fines are forthcoming. Read more about this and today's events in a work-in-progress here...

(10-15-04) With the Series Championship decided, look for the Chevy and Toyota teams of the IndyCar series to try to salvage some respect with good result this weekend, but it won't be easy. The Toyota teams have some new-found speed, and the Chevy's are trying to at least keep pace with them. Will they be able to do that, how much of a speed bump will we see now that the three engine manufacturers now that they have several months to work on the 3 liter engines.? My guess is that we will see about a 4-mph gain in speed or more, find out how close I come to that mark here...

Sunday I will be doing both an IndyCar Running Race Recap and Race Chat as well. With new-found Toyota horsepower, this should bring both the MTP and TCGR cars back into the fray, and we may even see just how good AJ Foyt IV might be with a good engine and setup on the car. Join me as we watch and comment on the Delphi Indy 300 here...

Both the Running Race Recap and the Chat room will begin 15 minutes before race time, at 1:30 PM EDT!

(9-11-04) The Practice and Qualifying Running Recap will continue in the same format as yesterday, Join me for a look at today's action here...

(9-10-04, 11:40 AM EDT) The first practice session for the IndyCars will soon begin at the Chicagoland Speedway, join us for the Friday Running Recap of today's practice by clicking here...

In addition, I have taken a look at the relative speeds of the four "cookie cutter" tracks of the IndyCar series as well. As you would expect, TMS, with the most banking is the fastest, but there is one surprise on the list, Kentucky Speedway has the least turn banking, but third-fastest "Q" speed. With the track record at Chicagoland Speedway set last year at 223.159, I look for today's speeds to be in the 216-217 range, due to the engine size reduction.

Note that I have posted a review of Saturday's final practice session and will post the final speed results as well here...

(9-11-04) I have just updated the Rolling Dyno results from both today's Chicagoland "Q" runs and those at Kentucky Speedway. As a result, Toyota surpasses Chevy and moves to 2nd place after trailing since the 3.0 liter engines were introduced. In 2003, Toyota was unquestionably the power leader. Look at the latest results here... 

(8-9-04) On Friday IndyCar returns to The Chicagoland Speedway with three races left in the season and the points race as well. Tony Kanaan has a sizable lead in the IndyCar points (72 points), understandable since Tony has finished every lap in every race this season! With the Honda engine being so reliable, it is hard to comprehend how Tony can be caught by either Dan Wheldon or Buddy Rice, his closest competition. We have seen some gains in Toyota horsepower, but with the past two events at the hard-to-handle tracks at PPIR and Nazareth, it is hard to gauge whether recent Toyota gains are as a result of more horsepower or were setup related. Lately the Dallara Honda combination has easily dominated the G Force Hondas of Rahal Letterman Racing and SAF, and the biggest question in my mind is how that fact relates to the high-speed tracks like Chicagoland. Later tonight I will take a closer look at the Chicagoland event here...

(10-4-04) Well maybe not exactly now, because of color quality issues between my DT and LT, I wanted to get the header up now. The Race Recap is a work in progress as I write this, follow the story line as I write it here... I will "save" as I go.

(10-3-04, 12:50 EDT) It is an important day at two race tracks this afternoon, the one most of interested in is the Toyota Indy 400 at the California Speedway. While I will be unable to do my usual running race recap this afternoon, I will open the Chat Room at 2:00 EDT for the first hour on the Talladega event and the first 45 minutes of the Toyota Indy 400. Look for a preview of today's IndyCar event here... in about 15 minutes.

As for Talladega, I have some thoughts about that as well. For those involved in "The Chase," this event, with 20% of the 10-race series behind them; is fraught with danger and disappointment possibilities, look for my take on this race here... 15 minutes before race time!

(10-2-04) As noted several times, I am not at Fontana as planned due to work related issues, I will do a Running P&Q recap as long as I can today, posting coverage of the morning practice session and the start of the "Q" runs here...

My Saturday work schedule starts 30 minutes after the "Q" runs begin, so I will return later to post the final results or Rob at Whitley Web Service will fill it in for me. There will also be no Running Race Recap Sunday, as my work schedule is in disarray and the race, which starts late from the West Coast; begins as I must report to work again. I will post a Detailed Race Review on Monday. 

(9-30-04) it is hard to figure out the California Speedway; it is wider than MIS, has 4 degrees less banking; yet the IndyCar track record is over 4-mph faster. Because of the shallower banking; you don't see as much side by side racing and cars three-wide is a rare sight.  See more of this brief preview and Friday's Fontana practice running recap here...

(9-30-04, AN UPDATE!) The boss also said that I was promoted to Pit Boss as well, or at least I think it was a promotion. I have spent most of the week either training people, writing training and procedure manuals or being trained in the required paperwork, to the point that I have neglected the site and the weekend event at The California Speedway. I don't know how much coverage I will be able to give to the race, because my work schedule for the weekend has not been confirmed yet. I also have doubts about going to TMS, but be assured that I will give both races all the attention I can. With that in mind, look for a preview of the Fontana event before the sun comes up wherever you happen to be in the morning, unless it is in New Zealand.

(9-28-04) We lost a significant part of our dealing crew when the European students we had working at the casino returned home this weekend, and I lost several of kids I adopted and one special friend as well. Because of that we won't have a crew large enough to support the weekend business without 12-14 hour shifts. I had asked for the weekend off weeks ago, and didn't even dare ask again, but I didn't need to, I was told I had to work. Thinking now that I will try for the Texas weekend, I am building up extra hours teaching dealing classes for 5 hours on both Wednesday and Thursday, so I will be unable to have the chat room Wednesday evening.

(9-25-04) I have just been furnished with a copy of the 2005 testing schedule for both the IndyCars and the cars of the MIPS series as well, including dates at both oval and road course venues.  I have also posted two pictures from this weeks road race test session at the Miami Homestead Speedway as posted by the IndyCar Series and shown here at http://www.indyracing.com To see the 2005 IndyCar and MIPS testing schedule and read more about this weeks test, here is the link... Remember, you saw it here FIRST!

(9-21-04) The IndyCar series is slated to begin testing it’s road race package Wednesday, with several issues that must be resolved, including gearboxes, brakes, the cooling package and engine performance mapping. The series chose the Miami Homestead complex because the felt the heat of South Florida would give them a good opportunity to see if the cars will run cool enough. As an added bonus, they might also get a chance to see how the cars will react in the rain as well, provided that Firestone brings the rain tires usually used on the CCWS cars. The weather forecast for HMS these next few days calls for temperatures in the mid-80’s and the scattered afternoon thunderstorms you usually see in every coastal Florida weather forecast, inserted to cover the weatherman’s backside on his annual accuracy evaluation. If the IRL just wanted to see if the cars would cool, they would have opted for Phoenix, and done the test as the teams headed for Fontana, at least they wouldn’t have had to postpone once for Hurricane Charlie.

Five teams and eight drivers are scheduled to test, Dario Franchitti will test the Dallara Honda combination for Andretti Green Racing, while Buddy Rice is slated to check out the G Force Honda for Rahal Letterman Racing. Two Toyota teams will also test both Dallara and G Force combinations, Marlboro Team Penske with their Dallara’s and both Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves in the cars. Target Chip Ganassi Racing will use Scott Dixon and Darren Manning in their G Force cars well. For Chevy, with all teams using the Dallara chassis anyway, just Red Bull Team Cheever will do the testing, using both Alex Barron and Ed Carpenter behind the wheel. Because the Dallara uses a “pull rod” front suspension system, many feel that the G Force will be better suited to the road courses, simply because it is easier and faster to do the oft-required spring and shock absorber changes road racing dictates. It will be interesting to see if MTP, who have at least one G Force left from 2003, will bring a G Force to the test as well.

This is a “closed test,” so it will also be interesting to see just how much information the general public will get from the IndyCar series, but this is a major promotion effort, so look for a good bit of news and photos on the IndyCar site. Mike King will report from Homestead Wednesday evening on his weekly radio show on the IMS Radio Network at 8:06 PM EDT, here is the link, http://www.indyracing.com/indycar/multimedia/radio.php

O/IRR has a friend that will be at Homestead, and I expect that upon his return home he will be able to share some information with us not available elsewhere. It is because of friends like this that we here at IRR have been on top of the road race testing news from the start, and I was able to post the original testing date weeks before it was confirmed elsewhere. I will do my best to keep everyone updated, and I will have more on the subject on the O/IRR Chat Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM EDT .  

(7-30-04) (Update,9:50 EDT) The cars are on the track and the Running Recap has begun! The IndyCar's return to Michigan International Speedway today for the Michigan Indy 400 with many questions to be answered, look for the initial preview here...

(7-22-04)  At long last, the in-depth Nashville race recap! 

(7-19-04) Frantic pit stops, impending disaster, poor decisions and blocking mar the exciting finish to the Firestone Indy 200!  More...

I wonder if we are beginning to see an alarming trend here in IndyCar events, as for the second race in a row Andretti Green Racing has resorted to either pit stop strategy or fuel management to secure victory in an IndyCar event.  At the Texas Motor Speedway, visiting NASCAR scribe David Poole of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER wrote that drivers were refusing to take the lead after pulling outside of the leader and falling back in line. He was referring to attempts...more...

Read all the articles from the SunTrust Indy Challenge weekend, including some Photolicious comparisons of the various Dallara front end configurations right here.

I didn’t quite know what to expect last night from the newly revised IndyCars at Texas, but if you were to bet me that someone would be able to have a breakaway and open up a big lead, you could have won a lot of money. But for a while during the Bombardier 500, that is what Tony Kanaan did. Tony didn’t even take the lead from AGR teammate Dario Franchitti until lap 22, but from that time on, the outcome of the race was almost a given.   More...
  

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