Notes taken from the 2008 IndyCar Race at Infineon

Notes taken during the ESPN broadcast of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County, Infineon Raceway, 8/24/08.

Since the pdog was out of town and away from televisions during the weekend, I relied on the magic of DVR to preserve the moments for me. So I was not even slightly shocked to find that the start of the race looked remarkably like woman's golf. Although seeing Cristie Kerr drain 15-footer for the win the Safeway Classic in overtime is likely more excitement than we're gonna get at Snorenoma. Jussayin ..

pressdog beer of the race is Guinness. Hard to believe Guinness has never been the beer of the race, but it hasn't, as far as I can remember. Word to my Dublin, Ireland homeys.

Fair warning: Infini-yawn/Snorenoma/Sears Pointless is my least favorite race of the year mainly because it features fewer passes than than Tournament of Roses Parade, so expect elevated snarkiness below. I'll understand if you bail now. (Now that I think of it, at least someone new wins the Tournament of Roses Parade awards every year, unlike the IRL's Big Three-a-thon. See, snark level is set to stun today.)

We jump into the race during warm-up laps. Here I'm noticeably distressed that I missed the pre-race show which was switched over to ESPN Classic, aka the Ocho, aka The Place Shows go to Die, and my DVR blithely continued to record Cristie and Helen Alfredsson on the links. I think this means I missed upwards of 18 Penske transporter fire mentions. But I'm sure there are more to come. We'll keep track for my homezilla Oddlycalm who wants to buy a pressdog t-shirt for every transporter fire reference (kidding).

Cue the hat! (Running order at the top.) Props to my wine-hung-over posse in the B-unit!

Starting Lineup: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti, Mario Dominquez, Mario Moraes, Bruno Junqueira, EJ Viso, Graham Rahal, Dan Wheldon, Tomas Scheckter, Vitor Miera, Townsend Bell, Hideki Mutoh, Darrin Manning, Buddy Rice, Ed Carpenter, AJ Foyt 4, Marty Roth, Jaime Camara, Enrique Bernoldi.

Helio has his 26th pole.

Transporter Fire Reference #1. Amazing comeback for Penske after their transporter with equipment and cars caught fire and burned earlier this week. Penske had to get two new cars ready. Scott Goodyear says not many other teams could have swung it.

Let's light this candle. We're green-green-green.

Not a bad start by IRL standards. If you think Briscoe is going to challenge Helio at any time during this race, much less on the start, you have been in the sangria too heavily.

Goodyear says Briscoe appeared to let Helio have the first corner (and the second and the third and the fourth).

Wheldon goes under Junk and he cuts the corner. Not so good. On TV, it looks like Sonoma hasn't had rain in roughly 61 years. Brown. And there appears to be 18 people at the race. I suspect Infineon has HUGE AND MASSIVE stands. You can see one or two grandstands in the various shots that look like they have people in them, but the aerial shots shows entire grandstands with maybe seven people in them.

Lap 2 -- White sidewalls on the people who are still mathematically in contention for the championship. Firestone calls them the magic rings. They should just give those to the big three teams at the start of the year, I think, because we know it's one of them who is going to win the whole thing from day one.

Goodyear says at the driver's meeting Brian Barnhart, Iron Hand of Justice, told everyone to leave the four title contenders alone.

Graphic showing losing streak among active drivers with at least one win. Buddy Rice is sitting at 66 and that figures to grow as long as he hangs with DRR. Helio is at something like 26. OMG. Super Huge Drought. Backmarker drivers send Helio notes that say "welcome to our world."

Marty Ried offers a salute to KV Racing. Goodyear walks us through the paddle shifter which is mounted on the steering wheel so there's no letting go of the wheel a'tall. 3360 shifts per race, none of which enable a pass.

Brienne Pedigo, IndyCar Pit Hotty, says KV Racing says they are tired of it being us vs. them (IRL regulars vs. former Champ Car teams). They want to beat the big three and be the best. (Insert me spewing beer of the race all over myself here. Big three has lost twice -- both on crazy-crap-can-happen road course in THREE YEARS. News flash: they'll win again today. Gripping, isn't it?)

Lap 5 -- Lockstepathon in full effect. ESPN is trying to bust it up by going to the pit reporters roughly every four minutes.

Transporter Fire Reference #2 -- complete with photos. $1 million to $3 million in losses.

Oriol vs. RHR for seventh. Marty says it's the best battle on the track and that RHR is holding station. Not a good sign when the best battle on the track involves someone holding station.

Lap 10 -- Helio, Briscoe, Power, Kanaan, Dixon, Wilson, Servia, RHR, Danica, Marco. Marty says the pit window is opening. Right on cue, Vitor pits. Going "off sequence" to try and work the yellows to move up. It's the street-racing thing, when you are in the back on a track that makes passing on an ice-crusted two-lane highway seem easy, you pit early, get off sequence and hope for circus music.

Down to Brie who tells us no changes for Vitor, four tires and fuel and he's out.

Lap 11 -- Marty tells us Moraes (Danica: I don't even know who that is) did some off-roading a minute ago. No video, however.

Wheldon pits. In early. Mutoh was in too. Vince Welch, pit stallion, says it's a fuel strategy too. It takes me several laps to recover from the shock.

Aerial views show vast open seats. I love the chopper cam, but the league is likely screaming "NO CHOPPER CAM" to the director in the A Unit (Unconfirmed rumor: they sip Chablis and talk about energy futures in the A Unit. Just what I heard.)

Lap 12 -- Helio and Briscoe are 2.1 seconds ahead of the field. Marty reminds us that long-suffering Helio with the two Indy 500 rings and one of eight competitive rides in the league, hasn't won in 29 races. Helio video: haven't had bad luck, just someone had better luck. You gotta give it to Helio for the positive attitude. It's hard to be snarky about that.

Transporter Fire Mention #3. Starting to ramp up a little.

Vince -- On top of that, a Penske PR guy had his car busted into in the tony Greater Sears Point area and had a backpack containing a computer stolen.

Goodyear wonders if there are team orders with Penske re: Briscoe not challenging the teammate. Ya think? They should name the place Team Orders Point after Tony threw a race-long block party to "defend" Dario last year. Fans love a wingman holding station behind a teammate!

Lap 14 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Marty Roth does the spin-o-rama and stall in turn 7. Gonna be a full-courser, of course. Replay. AJ 4 gets into the dirt. Marty goes ass around.

Lap 17 -- a festival of pitting busts out.

Transporter Fire Mention #4

Goodyear talks aobut the advantage of leading the points and being in the last stall closest to pit out. Crew can look down the line and see when the rival car drops and get Dixon out ahead of that car. I favor random pit assignments, personally, because it keeps it more interesting for the fans, but I'm all about the fans. I guess the first stall is a reward for leading the points.

Danica stayed out. She's now third. Marty says Goodyear almost ran over Danica in a golf cart this weekend. Goodyear denies. Marty says Danica didn't march down and yell at Goodyear, though. I chortle here. Marty scores humor points with the pdog.

Lap 18 - GREEN. Danica gets monster air here. Marty says it's very physical to drive the road course. Talks about Danica's rack. HELLO! No, he talks about the Variable Steering Rack that Danica super-secretly tested last year. A few cars use them now, but not Danica who doesn't like how the new rack feels.

RHR spins and keeps on going. No yellow. I'm in systemic shock. Goodyear reminds us the cars have no traction control a'tall.

Replay: RHR tries to "defend" and gets snouted out of the way by Wilson. Serves him right for trying to defend (block).

Marty says something about Carl Edwards looking like Mr. Ed. I swear. I think he asked Goodyear if he thought Carl Edwards looks like Mr. Ed. I think this is some kind of vague reference to a feud over in N-word. Apparently Carl Edwards is now an IndyCar driver as well since we are talking about him during an IndyCar race. I expect the Super Deuce (Rusty Wallace) to bust into the booth any second and start talking about the Crazy Cat Kyle Busch. Confession: at this point in the parade I might welcome Rusty's comic stylings in the booth.

Lap 20 -- Briscoe, Kanaan, Danica, Rahal, Moraes, Ed, EJ, Wheldon, Camara, Dominguez.

Lap 23 -- We go up to speed which gives the pit reporters more air time. I hope they get paid by the minute because ESPN is pit-reporter obsessed for this race. Most everyone is happy with their car, holding station. Tony and Danica are both loose (but never together) many references to pit strategy and fuel conservation, the big two among fans. Brie says Vision hired Bryan Herta as a Road Course Specialists. I believe this is the first RCS mention of the race.

Lap 27 -- Danica has to pit under green since she stayed out, as did Briscoe. It's a festival of pitting for those who stayed out under yellow. Marty says someone is "soldiering on" which is the second use of said term. You could also say that about the viewing audience.

Tony and Briscoe pit together. Briscoe gets out first. Wilson dives under Power. I think this is a televised pass! Briscoe comes out of the pits and stacks up everyone. Pit out at Infineon is kind of nutty! It's where Dario and Marco banged wheels last year. The blending area appears to be about 10 feet wide.

Lap 29 -- Viso leads. Dogs and cats move in together. Jack Arute (who is at this race but oddly silent) says EJ Viso has been the subject of criticism but one of Jack's super-secret sources in the pits says if they were hiring a driver now, and they're not, but still, they would grab EJ on the theory that you can always tone a guy down which is easier than trying to make them more aggressive.

Lap 30 -- Viso (!), Wheldon, Dominguez, Vitor, Rice, Helio, Bernaldi, Briscoe, Dixon, Wilson.

Lap 32. Helio working on Buddy Rice. Marty says race control told Briscoe to pick a line any line and ixnay on throwing the block party. That means Briscoe is down to seven warnings before he gets a talking to. My viewing would be greatly enhanced if someone would be busted for blocking, especially if there was testicular fortitude enough to ring up a Penske car. But there's not so I figure Briscoe is probably laughing inside his helmet right here.

Let's go back down to a pit reporter who says "four tires and fuel and he's out" for roughly the 23rd time this race. I think ESPN is actually hoping for Circus Music. I know I am.

Replay of Briscoe throwing a block party for Dixon. Goodyear calls it a defensive move. This ain't the NFL so fans don't come to see defense, yo. Blocking is illegal in the IRL, yet drivers do it basically every race. (For some reason right here I hear Judge Schmales from Caddyshack saying "Gambling is illegal at Bushwood and I never slice ... DAMN.")

Marty says the drama continues to be very interesting. Let's just say I disagree. I found War and Peace to be interesting (I actually read it) but I wouldn't go to "exciting." Right about here Tolstoy is sounding pretty appealing, to be brutally frank.

Lap 36 -- Viso pits. Viso discussion continues. They love the fire.

Goodyear gets into his Captain Obvious outfit and says "it all comes down to fuel strategy."

Lap 39 -- Power in. Strategy pit stop. Four tires and fuel and back out. (Where have I heard that before?)

Helio leads by 12 seconds.

Lap 40 -- Helio, Briscoe, Dixon, Wilson, Oriol, Kanaan, Andretti, Bruno, Danica, Wheldon.

Lap 43 -- Helio expected to pit soon.

Transporter Fire Mention #5

Oriol vs. Tony battle. It's a great battle, we're told, and it looks pretty good, so let's break away to cover a pit stop. WTF? Must be drunk in the A Unit. Four ties and fuel and he's out! ESPN has clearly vowed to let no pit stop go uncovered.

Transporter Fire Mention #6

Lap 45 -- Marty says Briscoe has "10 laps in hand." Which he says repeatedly but doesn't explain. I think he means Briscoe stayed out 10 laps longer than Helio so he can go farther without pitting again, which can be an advantage.

RHR looks under Wilson. NO. Door slammage. Marty says yesterday Bruno through his team under the bus. Did that at Kansas for me in person, as well. Called them a "club team" and that they were there "for fun." These things happen when you drive for 10th every race and then go work the ditches for returnable pop cans to get to the next race.

Jack Arute! -- Wilson is in a John Herb car. Driving for the first time. Little something-something for the history majors out there, which I don't mind.

Brie reports Oriol gets four tires and fuel and is out cleanly.

Again, the pit out blend area is WHACK at Snorenoma. It's made for motorcycles, I swear. But, on the upside, it does provide some exciting moments, so I am NOT bitching about it.

Briscoe is 9 seconds ahead.

Lap 49 - Tony on video talking about possibility of retirement. "At some point you have to realize you are getting old." Hear ya, Tone. For me it was about 5 years ago. Goodyear says Tony told him he expected to drive for at least another three years, maybe five. This is bad news for the 12,928 drivers holding out for a good ride.

Lap 50 -- Briscoe, Tony, Helio, Danicker, Wheldon, EJ, Vitor, Rahal, Moraes, Dominguez

Helio is all up in Tony's business. Tim Cindric radios Helio it would be better if he could pass Kanaan, even though Kanaan has to pit soon. Best wishes with that, Helio

Lap 53 -- Briscoe pits. So much for having "10 laps in hand." Vince reports he gets four tires, fuel and is away. Going to try and stretch fuel to the end.

Marty says Briscoe gets "squirrelly" (excellent!) on the out lap. We do some side-by-side stuff so we can watch Tony through a block party for Helio. Tony is the master!

Goodyear says Tony has to pit soon so don't look for Helio to do anything nutty to get by him.

Tony pits. Brie reports he gets four tires and fuel and is out cleanly. Danica also coming in. You can tell by the release of the doves and trumpet fanfare. Danica does get a turn-ish of wing taken out! Break from the four tires and fuel lockstep pit stop coverage!

Lap 55 -- Dixon is 10th. Not sure how he got back there. Goodyear says Helio needs to stretch it out now that he leads so when he pits he can get back out in front. Put down some blistering laps as your rivals pit, that's the way of the road course warrior.

Helio pits. Four tires, fuel and out cleanly in front of Briscoe. If you have beer left, open it now because this one is over.

Lap 58 -- Dixon pits. Mired in the back. Not sure why. Some coverage/analysis on why Dixon went from top-5 to P 14 would be welcome, but we're too fixated on the Transporter, apparently.

Goodyear says Dixon throws a block party for Oriol. (Since Dixon knows the worst that will happen is a warning, why not?) Power gets a drive through for short-cutting a chicane roughly 12 times. Video of a recent short cutting event.

Lap 59 -- Helio and Briscoe are 1-2, so turn out the lights baring air strike or Dixon-level brain fade.

Transporter Fire Mention #7. Expect much incredulity at the feat of coming back from said fire to go 1-2.

Marty says this would be a Hollywood ending! Confession: right about here I think that Dixon finishing 14th is some kind of scripted, Hollywood deal as well. Just being honest with ya. I have no evidence and I ha

ve drank several Guinnesses at this point.

Marty says if this hold station Dixon's marker (kidding, he said points, but I was a little disappointed) lead would be cut to 41 with two races to go.

Vince reports Briscoe is going to give Helio plenty of room.

Transporter Fire Mention #8

Dixon is P14. Again, how did that happen? NONE of your business.

Dixon on video pre-race saying it's not over yet.

Lap 66 -- Vince gives Wheldon a shout out. He's P4. Average road race finish has been P15. Chip told Vince he expects to have Wheldon's contract extension signed "soon."

Bruno pits. I'm assuming four tires, fuel and out cleanly.

Lap 69 -- Dixon is 14th. Vince says Dixon complains that Briscoe threw a block party for him earlier that kept him in 14th. "Block not, lest ye be blocked" comes to my mind. Again, it might be the Guinness talking.

Lap 70 -- Helio, Briscoe, Tony, Wheldon, Danica, Bruno, EJ, Vitor, Rahal, Rice.

Lap 71 -- Briscoe is 2.8 seconds behind Helio.

Lap 72 -- Vince reports that Penske says if Briscoe is going to pass Helio he has to make sure it's very clean.

Lap 74 -- Dominguez spins. No full-course yellow! Viewing enhanced. Props, at least, to the IRL for keeping their yellow in their pockets today.

Transporter Fire Mention #9

Another Hollywood Ending mention.

Vince gives a salute to the Penske posse who rallied after the oft-mentioned fire. Love Vinny for giving love to the faceless crew people. I salute them with a chug of Guinness.

Dixon is 12th now. I think he maybe actually passing people on the track, but no video of that. It's funner to watch Helio drive around with no pressure on him.

Goodyear says the race is going to bug Dixon. Down to a mere 43 point lead with two races to go. Video of Dixon saying anything can happen.

Three to go -- Marty says we have a championship battle back on our hands with two races to go.

I see from the hat that Scheckter (Tomas Scheckter. Yes, he was in this race. Swear to God.) is out. None of your business why. Pit reporters are too busy covering four-tires, fuel and out pit stops to find out what up with Scheckter.

Helio is 5.7 seconds ahead of Briscoe. Gonna take the earth opening a giant chasm in front of his car to lose this one.

Kentucky flash back. Helio getting inhaled by Dixon out of turn four for the win.

Two to go. Power goes into the tires. No yellow. Goodyear suspects brake issues.

White flag. Hollywood story reference.

Transporter Fire Mention #10. Double digits!

Ed spins, possibly to get some air. Scheckter's crew briefly mulls pushing his car out sideways onto the track to get some air.

Helio wins. Fun-tastic! Cuts Dixon's marker lead to 43. Vince with Tim Cindric. Win shows determination of the team. Team effort. Testament to the organization.

Elio climbs fence which is about four feet tall, but still. You climb what you can. No big fences at Infineon.

Marty says someone gives Helio a "Portuguese flag." Insert me spewing beer all over my TV here, because it's a Brazilian flag, which makes sense since Helio is from Brazil. But he speaks Portuguese. It's a mistake I've made, but never on cable television. Marty is caught up in the Hollywood Storybook Ending.

Roger tells Vince everyone pulled together for the win. It's all about people. Helio is bouncing around like he had coffee in his water bottle all race. "Are you kidding, man?" Thanks the team. Props to Helio for emoting about the team putting it back together for him. "This is AWESOME." Security Chief Charles gets air! He's in bodyguard position near Helio. Not sure why? Did Helio piss off Danica or something requiring Charles' presence?

Video of Dixon stalking away from the track with wife Emma. Replay of Helio screaming into his radio at the end.

Transporter Fire Mention #11

Brie on tape catching up with Dixon. Props for Brie for chasing him down. Very Jamie Little-esque. Brie asks who Dixon is so upset with. (Good question, Brie. Way to get in there! I wipe manly tears that my girl Brie is bringing it.) Dixon -- not upset with anyone. We did absolutely nothing right. Everything we did was wrong. (Something about staying out behind a car that was three seconds slower, not pitting then, losing track position. Clearly pissed at the team's decisions.)

Marker update: Dixon is +43 on Helio. Look for the Enraged Dixon to show up at Belle Isle and Chicagoland.

Down to Arute who has Briscoe. Holy unfortunate positioning! Someone is doing the WORLD'S LOUDEST INTERVIEW next to Arute. It's so distracting I have no idea what Briscoe says. I fully expect Jack to attack and kill the LOUD INTERVIEWER. It's possibly the track announcer and they are standing by a speaker. Bizarre. Jack soldiers on.

Jack is clearly not the normal Jack this race. Maybe he got some word re: his future post-Versus and is unhappy. This is beer-fueled speculation right here.

Vince with Wheldon and Chippy. Vince asks if Wheldon could have made it onto the podium. Wheldon says he was desperate to improve "I think we all know the reasons why." I have insane love for Wheldon saying this because Chip is RIGHT THERE and Wheldon is usually fine with hinting at the real story. Dan, we'll hang at Chicagoland. Share a pint or two. Talk about married life. Meet ya in the Honda tent.

True story -- my oldest (age 17) works at Target in our town. Someone came on the little employee radio and asked the name of the guy who drives for Target who won at the Iowa Speedway this year (a race my family attended and which received the benefit of something like 500 of my personal dollars, jussayin).

My daughter was insanely pissed that she didn't know who it was since she was, in fact, at the race. She thought it was Dale Nixon (Scott Dixon). She said she was angry she couldn't text me for the correct answer which was Danny Wheldon. BUT, the employees at the West Des Moines, Iowa, Super Target were at least aware that someone drives for Target. Progress.

Chippy gets asked about the Hollywood Ending. Chippy says, basically, simmer down. If Helio wins both races Dixon just has to finish fourth or better and he still wins. We're OK. Long way to go yet.

Lap 80 -- Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, Danica Patrick, E.J. Viso, Vitor Meira, Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, Mario Moraes, Buddy Rice, Scott Dixon, Hideki Mutoh, Marco Andretti, Oriol Servia, Mario Dominguez, Bruno Junqueira, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Townsend Bell, A.J. Foyt IV, Enrique Bernoldi, Darren Manning, Ed Carpenter, Jaime Camara, Will Power, Marty Roth, Tomas Scheckter

We're out of here. Tune in on Sunday, Aug. 31, 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC for the Belle Isle. The track that Roger built. I hope the scriptwriters aren't at work right now on that one. Another race like this and I may see black helicopters. Justssayin.

Thanks for getting this far and putting up with the Super Snark. Click the banner to the right and I'll get a tiny gratuity. Better yet, click the banner, buy a ticket and check out Chicagoland with the pdog! See ya there.

Comments

[BBOvenGuy]

Most of the grandstands at Infineon are actually cut into the hillsides. And yes, there are a lot of them. It's a gorgeous facility, with plenty of great places to watch the cars. Too bad there's not much action to see - although when I was there, Ryan Briscoe did his banzai move through the dirt and took out Danica and Helio right in front of me.

[Dean]

I thought it was Viso that Danica was referring to when she said, "I don't even know who that is." I could be wrong though.

[pressdog]

It was, but I took the liberty of assuming if she don't know EJ, she for sure don't know Enrique.

[Mike]

Pretty disappointed with the choices of where to keep the cameras focused during the broadcast. The following of TK and Helio in 'lock-step' for at least 8 laps would have been a great opportunity to 'splain what had happened to Dixon, Oriol, Wilson, Scheckter, and all those "other guys" who were in that race. Too bad directors (you called them the "A" unit?) don't listen to people who actually care about racing. Simply reading what people write about these things on these blogs would clue them in about how to do their job better. Bring on the Versus package...it has to be better than what we're getting now, by far.

[Meeshbeer]

"It was, but I took the liberty of assuming if she don't know EJ, she for sure don't know Enrique."

LOL... of course your reference was actually towards Moraes... (who's first name is Mario.. not Enrique)

That said, the Princess is likely unaware of the whole damn lot of them.

Having not actually seen the race myself yet, I'm trepidacious to watch... (knowing that TSN will chop up the already horrible ESPN broadcast into something completely unwatchable)

I'm just sad I didn't get to see my little EJ leading the field for a while! Maybe he'll do a repeat performance for me in Detroit. (where I'll be in person! *bounce* )

[Andy]

Agreed on the shoddy coverage by ESPN this weekend. Firstly, just imagine if Christie Kerr doesn't drain that 15-footer? Then we've got at least another 20 minutes of golf, which would be followed by a round of commercials, a winner's interview, and then another round of commercials before the cut to Sonoma. I'd have probably shattered my DVR into about 2000 pieces. Second, the A-Unit (A-Team?) has almost certainly checked out on this season. Previous commenters said it as well as I could. Versus has got to do a better job than this, right?

The crowd was pretty pathetic, as was the "racing action", but I'd hope that a race like this might bring about more serious thought to the two-tire-compound rule for next year. Push-to-pass may or may not be a good idea when the turbos come back (though A1GP cars have something similar with N/A engines), that is open for debate, but the tire thing has to be a no-brainer. It couldn't hurt anything...

http://speedgeek.blogspot.com

[pressdog]

OMG, I'm as bad as Danica. Enrique. Mario. Whatever. I keep having to look his number up because I can't recall who it is. I SUCK. I throw a towel at myself.

[oddlycalm]

'dog, outstanding coverage as always. Thanks for the official count on those trailer fire mentions. Can you find out from your contacts if it's true that Marty & Scott have little electro-shock probes to cue those story-of-the-day mentions...?

[timnothhelfer]

"Marty says something about Carl Edwards looking like Mr. Ed. I swear. I think he asked Goodyear if he thought Carl Edwards looks like Mr. Ed. I think this is some kind of vague reference to a feud over in N-word..."
Goodyear refuses to comment as he might have to work in that series next year!... The rest of them already are...Versus coverage can't start soon enough for me... I fell asleep four times watching this!

[AGRfan26]

Tracking the # of fire mentions was hilarious. Wish I'd thought about it during the actual race, maybe then I would have paid more attention to the coverage. As usual, have to rely of P-dog's commentary to make a road course interesting.

[patricia]

I too work at a Target while I'm in Grad school up in Bethlehem, PA (right next door to Nazareth, PA) and in this weeks Target Add they actually had a picture of Dan Wheldon's car next to some energizer batteries. I said something to my co-worker and she says "Target sponsors drivers?" She then goes "what's Indycar?". Yeah...

On my break I ended up watching some of the Bristol race in the break room and the others in there had no idea Target sponsored cars in NASCAR OR Indy car. It was pretty pathetic.

Target sells NASCAR drivers stuff but not even their OWN drivers other drivers and Indy car? forget it!

[pressdog]

The Iowa Corn Star race here is a huge big deal, so it even penetrates the minuscule, hormone-effected attention of teenagers. The cars, as they say, go "faster than shit."