Notes from the ESPN2 Broadcast of Homestead-Miami

Notes taken during the ESPN2 broadcast of the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami on 3/24/07.

Props to the Southern Connecticut State University women's basketball team for winning the NCAA Division II national championship. The championship game was the lead in to ESPN2's broadcast.

Welcome to Miami and the season opener. Holy Rain Delay! We had some sprinkles, so we got the trucks circling the track. This means ESPN2 will be interviewing everyone including possibly random fans while we wait for the track to dry.

pressdog's beer of the race is Bitburger, sponsor of my posse at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Shout out to the boys in the garage.

Intro montage: Wheldon the man to beat. Won the last two in Miami (must be the shoes!) Beat Helio here last year by .014 seconds. Can Dan make it a threepeat? Stay tuned.

Marty Reid representing: "The sun has set in the west but the dawn is rising on another IndyCar season." (?)

Montage. Red cars (minus Marty Roth). Danica!

Danica scowling. Not happy with her qualifying. Ed Carpenter gets air. Kosuke Matsuura, Young Marco Andretti.

Marty on camera. Dan on pole. Down to the pits where Vince Welsh has Dan. Dan's looking a little lost without the towering Jamie Little next to him. We miss ya, Jamie! Ditch Fenderland and come back to us!

Vince: Dan, why do you bitchslap everyone here? Dan -- wish I knew. Worked very hard over the off-season. Dan says he "got rid of a big distraction Friday evening" so he's ready to go. What the hell is that about? Hey Vince, thanks for not asking Dan what the hell he was talking about. I guess it's none of our business. We're just the fans, is all. Just the people paying the bills. Did Dan take a huge shit Friday evening and now he's ready to go? PLEASE don't follow up so the fans have a clue what he's talking about.

Down to the hyper-tanned Jack Arute. Perma Tan. Nuclear-Blast-Survivor Tan. Arute gives us the lead in to the Penske Montage. Roger Penske got Hornish an Indy 500 ring and Hornish got Roger an IRL championship.

Arute with Hornish. How do you top that performance? Sam -- Work really hard off season. Try to stay with Dan until the end and make a Hornish-like move on him. Arute -- Sam sold phones to finance his break into the big leagues way back when. Hornish says people still show him the phones now. Sadly, nowadays you'd have to sell about five million phones just to get past the team reception person.

Over to the New Jamie Little, the New Pit Hotty (NPH) Brienne Pedigo.

Bri (or Bre) with Helio. Helio montage. Asks him if he sees .014 second in his sleep. Helio -- thought about it last year. Now it's past. Ready for 2007. Says he'll be thinking points every season to try and get the illusive championship.

I am Mindy montage. HEY!

Shout out to the memory of Buddy McAfee, long-time IMS mover and shaker who died of cancer in 2007. pressdog howls for Buddy. Enjoy the final winner's circle, hoss.

Marty -- We're going to kick it for Buddy tonight.

Danica Montage! Todd Harris announcing gets air! Todd's very enthusiastic call of Danica's every move, including taking a drink from her water bottle, is forever enshrined in the Danica Montage! Video of Danica stomping off.

We interrupt this montage to give a big shout out to my boy Brent Maurer, PR genius with Rahal Letterman Racing who did a killer job handling Danica when she was hot-hot-hot. Brent is leaving RLR after St. Petersburg to be the PR kingpin of the company that makes Barbasol among others.

You'll remember Brent as the guy who took Danica's helmet from her when she was stompin', hyper-pissed after running out of gas last year. Major air time for Brent on that one! We kid him about the helmet thing, but Brent is most excellent. I couldn't confirm that Danica leaving RLR was what drove Brent out of the business. Too morose to continue? Brent's looking forward to getting off the road and hanging with his posse more.

Pedigo with Danica, hotty with hotty. Danica has a frowny face. She's hating her starting position. Bri. No mercy -- Is changing teams what it's going to take to get the first win? Danica -- came to Andretti Green because they had the stuff to win. Expects to steadily move up today. Bri didn't ask Danica if she'll miss Brent.

Vince with Mike Andretti: Will Danica win this year? Mike: we think so. Hope so. Mike -- didn't have a good year last year. Tweaked it up over the off-season. Mike says Marco did an A+ job last year and cold contend for the title this year. Marco -- little bit of a dice roll on the set up today. Little less nervous than last year.

Scott Goodyear. AGR is a contendah. Make-or-break year for Danica. Mayor pressure. Has the equipment and the team to win. (Except last year, when AGR's equipment wasn't so hot.)

The Root -- first race on 100% fuel-grade ethanol. Tribute to Paul Dana who died in warm-up for Homestead last year. Dana was big-time instrumental in getting the IRL to switch from methanol (made from natural gas) to ethanol (made primarily with corn here in the USA). Tonya Dana interview clips. pressdog howls for Paul Dana. New green flag has the big ethanol "e" on it.

Vince with Dario and Tony. Dario sporting the breathe-right strip on his nose. TK expects to be fast. TK gets the obligatory question about Danica. (You were talking to Danica a minute ago what did you tell her?) Told her about restarts.

Brienne with Sarah Fisher. Sarah -- good package to start with. Obligatory Danica-related question for Sarah (teammate Buddy Rice was teammate with Danica before, any tips on how to beat her?) Sarah - Really aren't many similarities (between me and Danica). Sarah should wear a button that says "Ask me about Danica!" And yet, when Danica got interviewed, there were no questions for Danica about Sarah. Hmmmm.

Goodyear says there has to be a rivalry between Danica and Sarah. ESPN/ABC is sure hoping so. Goodyear gives Sarah the edge today based on practice.

Invocation. National anthem. Tomas Sheckter interview. Wants to win. Swilling Rock Star energy drink during interview. Way to use the sponsor's products on camera! (Alert readers point out that Rock Star is a FORMER sponsor with Panther. I must have been drowsy or something.)  AJ Foyt 4 interview. Happy to be with Vision.

RLR bumped to the rear of the starting pack. Wing used to qualify didn't pass inspection. Bobby Rahal doesn't think it was illegal. The Iron Hand of Justice (Brian Barnhart) did think it was illegal so you go to the rear, Bobby.

Arute -- ethanol gets better mileage than methanol, so the fuel tank is now 22 gallons rather than 35, so it will take much shorter time to fill. Look for 6- to 7-second pit stops.

Bri reports that two crew members of DRR have never done a live pit stop. Holy Rookie Squad!

Vitor interview. Looking to win. Goodyear says Vitor has a lot of pressure to win this year. Finished second seven times.

Speaking of women, Vince with Milka Duno of the U.S.-loving country of Venezuela. Citgo is the sponsor. Milka has a major accent on her. Very very excited. Dream come true. Starting at Khan-zahs (Kansas). Knows it will be very tough. "I like the difficult challenge, no?"

Can we please light this candle?

Starting lineup: Danny Wheldon, Sam Hornish, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon, Helio Castronevez, Sarah Fisher (!), AJ Foyt 4 (!), Vitor Meira, Tomas Scheckter, Buddy Rice, Danica Patrick, Ed Carpenter, Darren Manning, Kosuke Matsuura, Marty Roth, Alex Barron, Scott Sharp, Jeff Simmons.

Goodyear thinks Sarah Fisher will be up front all night. Goodyear also thinks Marty Roth could be top 10 by end of the day. Clearly, Goodyear has been in the Patron up in the booth.

Arute with Penske and Ganassi. Dude, has Chippy lost weight? Looking tight there, Chippy! Vince is talking about who's private jet is faster. Dude, can we please start the race? Dixon interview. Wants to win this year. Mario talking about how great Marco is. AJ Foyt the Original gives the command, "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines."

First pit stop should be lap 44 to 50.

Goodyear gives the Sarah/Danica edge to Sarah. She's relaxed. Fourth-fastest in practice session. Resurgent team.

Let's (finally) light this candle. We are green-green-green.

Dixon around Dario and Tony Kanaan by lap 4.

Lap 5 -- Wheldon, Hornish, Dixon, Dario, Helio, Kanaan, Vitor, Marco, Fisher, Scheckter.

Kanaan dropping like a rock. Goodyear is all about "dirty air" tonight.

Yellow-yellow-yellow. We got Alex Barron stalled in a corner. Stalled in turn 1.

Who will pit? Marty says ethanol can get 12 miles per gallon under yellow. That's SUV mileage.

Lap 12 -- Pitting. Leaders stay out.

Lap 13 -- We are ...... green.

Danica in car. Tony from 13th to 11th in one lap.

Lap 15 -- Wheldon, Hornish, Dixon, Dario, Vitor, Helio, Ed, Scheckter, Kanaan, Fisher.

Lap 23 -- Vitor under Helio. Helio has issues.

Lap 25 -- Wheldon, Horish, Dixon (get used to it), Dario, Helio, Vitor, Scheckter, Ed, Kanaan, Marco.

Lap 28 -- Sharp has major issues. Out of the throttle big time in the corners.

Sarah Fisher is in reverse. Dirty air. Back to 14th. Got some understeer. Danica 16th.

Lap 41 -- Marco is in trouble. Doing laps at a NASCAR-ish 185 mph.

Lap 45 -- Marco in. Major issues. Much looking at the rear suspension.

Lap 49 -- Dario in. Hornish in. Much pitting. Danica and others stay out and gain some positions, but will pit soon.

Lap 53 -- Kanaan, Matsuura, Danica, Wheldon, Hornish, Simmons, Marco, Dixon, Ed, Scheckter.

Lap 55 -- Marty is dropping. No top 10 for him this time.

Lap 58 -- Wheldon back to the lead. Leads by 1.3 seconds.

Vince with Mike Andretti. Issue with Marco. Can't drive it. Tony and Danica struggling as well. Made some changes that didn't work. (Dice roll came up snake eyes.) Will Marco DNF?  Mike is not sure.

Goodyear -- Scheckter just did a "tank slapper." Go to the replay. In car. Scheckter, woooooooo nelly. We got right rear ass slideage. Scheckter does a nice dirt-track steering move to save it. He was coming around Marty and got pushed up near the wall. Gives Marty a fist shake. Goodyear -- Depends moment.

Rain? Yep. We got yellow-yellow-yellow. Cars are staying out. Rain has stopped. Just some sprinkles.

Vince -- working on Marco's car. Marco wants to go back out. Get points. May get spring change. Not sure what is going to happen. Going to talk to Marco in a bit.

Lap 73 -- Pits are open. Much pitting.

Lap 76 -- GREEN.

Vince with Marco -- Marco doesn't know what is up with it. Couldn't drive it. Never been so scared I've in my life in an Indy Car. May go back out.   

Laps 78 -- Wheldon, Hornish, Dixon, Scheckter, Marco, Helio, Ed, Vitor, Danica (!).

Lap 85 -- Marty talks about Scott Dixon "They call him the Iceman." Yeah, buddy. Blogger nickname gets air!

Scheckter and Carpenter together on the track. Drafting. Chasing Helio.

Lap 91 -- Yellow yellow yellow. It's a festival of carbon fiber! We got Simmons, Matsuura, Quattro in a wreck. Matsuura is de-podded. Everybody is out and OK. Matsuura just wants to walk home. Safety guy stops him. The field is going to be going down pit lane while they clean up the carbon fiber confetti. Tony George gets air. Replay. Simmons. In-car. Goes ass around. Matsuura smacks him, Quattro gets collected.

Lap leader chart. Wheldon is bitchslapping the field. Led 90 of the 97-ish laps.

Vince with Tony. Tone -- Car pretty good. Doing a good job. On top side of track when Jeff lost it and just got collected. It's too bad.

Lap 100 -- Yellow and white crossed. Half way.

Pitting. Dan. Sam. Dixon. Cue the circus music! Dan's car is dropped off the air jack but rolls backward. HORNISH STALLS. WTF? Jack Dan back up to get the air gun hose out of there. Danica darts a crew member! Judas Priest. A tiny car pulls up and 10 clowns get out.

Replay -- Danica comes out of her pit, hits Dario's left rear sitting in his box, the tire goes into the changer and we got a changer down in the pits. Props to him for dancing out of the way of the actual car. He's OK.

Danica reports no obvious damage, but Danica has to go to the back of the pack for hitting a tire that was still inside the box. Iron Hand of Justice is cracking down!

Lap 109 -- Let's go GREEN. Wheldon restarts 10th.

Lap 110 -- Meira into second. Familiar position.

Lap 110 -- Dixon, Vitor, Ed, Helio, Hornish, Scheckter, Wheldon, Dario, Danica, Rice.

Lap 112 -- Wheldon is driving like he's enraged. Posts his fastest lap of the race on lap 112. Wheldon up from 10th to 6th in three laps. Lap 116 -- sixth. Lap 117 -- third. Lap 119 -- second. Lap 120 -- first.

Danica up from 10th to 7th but driving like a dirt-track driver. All over the place. Major steering. "Multiple lines."

Lap 125 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Vitor, Hornish, Ed, Scheckter, Danica, Helio, Kanaan, Dario.

Bri with Simmons. Just came around so quickly. Feels bad for the ethanol posse.

Vince with Quattro -- unfortunate. I was high. Simmons lost it. Got into me.

Lap 140 -- first mention of "lock step" all race.

Lap 146 -- Wheldon and Dixon are GONE. FIVE seconds in front of third-place Sammy.

Lap 150 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Hornish, Ed, Vitor, Helio, Kanaan, Danica, Dario.

Sarah is now three laps down. Major TV air. Will drive at St. Petersburg next week.

Pitting. Sam in. Rice in. Wheldon is now going about 2 mph faster than everyone.

Lap 154 -- Holy Ass-Around, Batman -- Danica drills the pit wall at pit in. WTF? Replays -- Ass came around on her when she was turning into the pit entrance. Darted the inside wall. She's kind of wedged in there. No yellow. Keep that yellow in your pocket, buddy. She's not blocking the entrance so no yellow. Danica -- "So sorry, it locked up on the brakes." Danica's left front is junk. She's done.

Wheldon in. 10 second stop. He could take 20 and still win this race.

Lap 175 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Hornish, Vitor, Kanaan, Ed, Helio, Dario, Scheckter, Rice.

Video of Danica storming back to the garage. Pedigo in pursuit! Shades of Jamie and Wheldon last year. Danica ripping the gloves off. Not stamping her feet, though. Doesn't look like she's going to stop for Bri.

Kanaan slicing his way up to 5th.

Lap 178 --Wheldon ahead by nearly six seconds. Has "Say my name, BITCHES" blinking on his side pods.

Lap 187 -- Sixth place (Carpenter) is lapped. Wheldon and Dixon may lap the field.

Lap 190 -- Wheldon (ahead by nearly 7 seconds), Dixon, Hornish (shocker!), Vitor, Kanaan, Ed, Dario, Helio, Scheckter, Rice.

Hornish is now 14 seconds back from Weldon. That's nearly half a lap.

White flag. Wheldon is ahead by a day. Rumored to be driving with his feet and drinking a Newcastle.

Lap 200 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Hornish, Vitor, Kanaan,  Ed, Dario, Scheckter, Helio, Rice, Fisher, Sharp, Manning, Danica, Roth, Matsuura, Simmons, Quattro, Barron, Young Marco (!).

I do believe that Wheldon didn't do any donuts. Either that or ESPN2 didn't show them. Either way, it's a shock to the system.

Post-race. Arute with Wheldon. "Fun-tastic for everyone at Target Chip Ganasssi."

Again, Wheldon says, "I got something out of the way Friday that's been bugging me." It's almost like he's DARING them to ask. Arute is not going to ask either. It must be something the league doesn't want on are. Hey, we're just the fans. Pay no attention to what we want.

Tune in to ESPN on April 1,  2:30 p.m. eastern for the Streets of St. Petersburg.

For most excellent commentary on the race, check out my boy Jeff at My Name is IRL.

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Comments

[Nicole]

You know how you Speed Report fans all call me an airhead (that hurts). Over the offseason I got back together with Danny so I could get up to SPEED(giggle!) on IndyCar racing because it'd been awhile since I really paid attention. I want to fix that for you guys.

Anyway, lets just say 1 thing led to another and well .... on Friday Danny finally gave me some money so I could go to the clinic.

[pressdog]

Easy there, "Nicole." I'm going assume that Dan was just concerned for your upper respiratory infection. Keep it clean, people.

[My Name Is IRL]

I think "Say My Name, BITCHES" would look much better on Wheldon's helmet then that Grand Theft Auto design.

[Ens]

The thing that Wheldon got off his shoulders was taking the pole. He was mad Goodyear was running his mouth saying "The red & white cars won't be on top again this year"

[Jayblues]

Good report on a lame ass race.

I think you missed a chance to comment on Mi Andretti's incredible technical insights on Marco's car. "arrrrr... i dont know"

[Thlayli]

My favorite moment was during the invocation (yeah, what does THAT tell you?) When the preacher started talking about Our Lord Jeebus, they cut to a shot of Scheckter, who is Jewish. Heh.

I'm sure Bri is trying, but the Busch Series has Jamie Little AND Shannon Spake. The IRL team has no chance.

[TomasFan]

I think you may have been right the first time about Tomas and Rock Star. I noticed the other day that he has a big Rock Star logo on his helmet and he definitely made sure everyone saw what he was drinking. They must be back sponsoring him.

[Lisa]

Fabulous notes on a not-so-fabulous race. I'm glad Dan won... but I hope not all the races are as one-sided as that one. I was proud of Marty for only 1 "lock-step" referece! He's learning (maybe). Looking forward to a great IRL season and great Pressdog commentary! You're the best!

[Ulyman]

"Brent is leaving RLR after St. Petersburg to be the PR kingpin of the company that makes Barbasol among others."

-Bernie Ecclestone has left the bulding!