Notes taken at the track and from the VERSUS broadcast of the Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, IL 8/29/09.
Welcome to Joliet where it's colder than crap at race time. Temps hovering just under 60 and we got wind chill. We got blankets in the grandstand. Freakish weather for Aug. 28 in Chicagoland.
pressdog beer of the race is Miller Lite, drank festively with Brooke Patrick Andretti Green Raving hospitality area with the famous Roy Hobbson and his counsel of Silent Pagoda elders. My compliments on the robes, Roy. I only got into the AGR area because of Mr. Hobbson. Oh, yeah, and technically we didn't drink WITH Brooke, but she did pass by while we were sitting there. Nice pressdog.com shirt, Brooke. (Kidding again.)
There was much annoyance expressed to the IndyCar leaders over the late time start (10 p.m. Eastern green flag). It did seem ridiculously late. But I guess VERSUS had a TV hole at 9 eastern they wanted to fill. Ultimate Cage Fighting was on ahead of the IndyCar series and you don't move something that doubles IndyCar ratings for IndyCar.
I watched the race from the press box, which is basically a suite right on the start-finish line. Don't worry, we didn't have flowing champagne fetched to us by attractive women in tight garments. Bottled water, cookies and diet Coke. That's how we roll in the press box. But I was thankful for the seat INSIDE for the race since the wind chill was about -29, or so it seemed. I'd gladly just sit in an open seat in the stands but my media credential is "NOT VALID FOR GRANDSTAND SEATING" and some yellow shirts are pretty anal about that, even at Chicagoland when there's always, ah, maybe 20,000 empty seats on a great day.
Before the race the Firehawk, menace with a T-shirt gun, was firing them into the stands. Ever since I saw a drunk guy go flying head first like superman down about five rows of seats to get a T-shirt at Milwaukee, I've been watching Mr. Firehawk. Watching him close.
National anthem. No fly over. Viewing not enhanced. Yet another reason to go around (do not land) on night races.
VERSUS kicks it off by telling us that in 14 races the points lead has changed 13 times. This is the 15th race of the season (two to go after this one) and we got Bob Jenkins in the Sky Lair. Dario Franchitti Snorenoma montage. Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan contact montage. Helio dune buggy moment at Infiniyawn. Lindy Thackston with Dario Franchitti. Dario says the plan is to get the Target cars out front so they can fight amongst themselves.
Last lap of Chicagoland montage. 2007 Scott Dixon running out of fuel (happened right in front of me, insert unfortunate vocabulary choice from me here), 2008 Helio winning in a photo finish as Briscoe pushes him across.
Jack Arute tells us some teams are doing gear changes to account for the "plummeting temperatures." OK, it ain't Antarctica, Jack. Easy there. Chicagoland has produced two of the closest races in IndyCar history, 3 of the top 5 and 4 of the top 9.Winning by 6 feet here is a relative blowout.
Closest ever was at Chicagoland in 2002 when Sam Hornish Jr. beat Al Unser Jr. by .0024 second which is something ridiculous like nine inches or something. The closest FIL (Firestone Indy Lights) race, and I believe closest motor sports finish IN HISTORY, happened at Chicagoland as well. Something insane like the width of a blade of grass or some goofy thing like that. It's just off the hizzy.
Robbie Floyd with Dan Wheldon, NOS sipper. Dan thinks he has a chance. Sip. Team feels good. Sip. Arute again with the plummeting temperatures. Dixon tells arute when it's colder you burn more fuel. Maybe we'll be spared the Festival of Fuel Saving tonight.
Kentucky Ed Carpenter Montage. LindyCar in the SKY LAIR. She dominates it. Lindy introduces a segment featuring Ed being interviewed by Robbie "Incredi" Buhl.
Booth guys. Jenkins, Robbie, Jon Beekhuis. Robbie says Mike Conway and Mario Moraes did well in Sonoma (Conway got P3). Robbie says keep an eye on Moraes tonight.
Arute on Tony and Helio's contact (raised eyebrows) at Sonoma and the Twitter exchange 'o messages that broke out subsequently. During the weekend, the Twitterati were lobbying to get Jack on Twitter. Kanaan (@tonykanaan) is a serial Tweeter. He tweets all the time. Jack said if 1000 people TWEET to @VersusIndyCar saying "get Jack on Twitter" he'll do it. Someone wants to be begged. PLEEEEASE Mr. Arute. PLEASE join us. I stand behind my earlier contention that Jack can't communicate in any way in 140 characters or less.
Word again to everyone who showed up for the Tweet Up earlier Saturday. Ain't nothin' but a party. (Except for the part where I stood up and did my trained walrus impersonation.)
Lindy with a FIL update: JR Hildebrand locked up the points title at Chicagoland. First American in a zillion years. (His team nicknamed Hildebrand Captain America in connection to this fact.) FAZZT (I think it's supposed to be pronounced "fast") racing has formed for next year with Alex Tagliani at the helm. 2010 schedule change -- Texas moves up a week to June 4. I guess that means Milwaukee it toast for this year at least. I hope it can come back on 2011. Got my motel reservations near Texas Motor Speedway. Buckle up, Goose Gossage.
Jon Beekhuis with a black box from an IndyCar. Read out was so killer that IndyCar safety people could diagnose Will Power's injuries over the phone. Replays of the famous flaming airborne Briscoe into the fence at Chicagoland, 2005, which happened to be my first trip to Chicagoland. I've gone every year since then.
Briscoe rugby feature. Him and Robbie Floyd work out with the Chicago Lions rugby club. Briscoe looks a little strange out there since he's relatively tiny. Of course he's in better shape than about everyone, so there's that. Arute does one of his black-and-white interviews with Danica Patrick. I fast forward on principle. The harsh lighting in HD gives us a great appreciation of Danica's excellent facial pore structure. Sarah Fisher gets some air in the sky lair with LindyCar right after Danistar.
Now honorary Iowan Hideki Mutoh gets air. Tony Kanaan announces a Date Hideki Contest. For real. Email your photo and video and a few words on why you should date Hideki to datehideki@indycar.com and Tony will pick a lucky gal to jet to Miami for the season finally and to the award's fest after.
Let's get this candle ready to light. Charles Tyson, VP of merchandise for Advanced Auto Parts ... Ladies and Gentlemen, please start your engines. "Please." Points for politeness.
Scanner deployed. I'm listening to Dixon, Dario and Sarah Fisher. Sarah's guy: "Let's have a good one. Take everything it (the cars) gives you and see you at the end." Sarah: "10-4" I love hearing the pre-race "go get 'em/see you on the other side stuff." Makes me frothy. Lock and load.
Grid rolling. Cue the HAT. Word to the VERSUS graphics-creating B Unit, some of whom I met during the weekend. Fabulous peeps. Accept the pressdog love.
Starting lineup, brought to you by Trackside Online, member-supported subscription news service. Joe was on the scene at Chicagoland hanging with the big dogs and kicking out the original content news tidbits to subscribers and Kim was getting the impressive photos. Be like pdog and subscribe today.
Briscoe, Castroneves, Dario, Kanaan, Graham Rahal, Dixon, Marco Andretti, Mario Moraes, Oriol Servia, Danica Patrick, Dan Wheldon, Ed Carpenter, Hideki, Tomas Scheckter, Justin Wilson, Mike Conway, Raphael Matos, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sarah Fisher, EJ Viso, Milka Duno, Bobby Doornbos, Buddy Lazier.
The MIGHTY Overtake Button ... 20 pushes that give you 5 hp boost for 12 seconds, then take 10 seconds to recharge.
Let's light this candle (for warmth if nothing else). Packing up. Turn four ... we're ... green green green. Immediate two-wide stuff. Danica inhaled by Wheldon. Bob tells us the first lap was 203 mph and the second lap was 212. Much discussion on the cold weather's effect on tires getting "up to pressure, up to temperature." Robbie says that a lot. I smell a drinking term.
Lap 4 -- Sarah is in the trailing pack and inhales EJ Viso and now Mike Conway. Viewing enhanced. Then she gives the positions back. Unenhanced.
Sarah radio: "One at a time. Get your rhythm back. We're better than them." Sarah: "I know. I just didn't have anywhere to go." Sarah starts pushing Viso under Milka who is pretty racy early.
The deal with Chicagoland is you're always working traffic. The race usually gets into three packs -- lead, middle and trail -- usually separated by a few seconds each. Qualifying is actually pretty important for non-Big 2 teams at Chicagoland since it determines what pack you're in. Once the packs separate, if you're not in the lead one you're pretty screwed in terms of battling for the win.
No matter what pack you are in, you want to be at the front of it. But at a track like Chicagoland where you can go two-wide the entire way around for multiple laps and it can take you about 9 laps to complete a pass. While you're going two-wide a faster car may be stuck behind you. If he or she doesn't pay attention, they have to lift to avoid mashing into the back of someone and that gets you inhaled. So often you'll see one car push another around someone, then try to inhale the pushee once they are around. Fascinating stuff.
Did I mention you need to go to a track like Chicagoland to see a race in person? OMG. Pick any oval on the schedule and go. I like Kansas (although this year there was the 35 mph wind that was a fun killer) and I hear Kentucky is insane as well. Iowa is a mini super-speedway. Going in person is especially great if you are a fan of a non-front runner.
If you're a huge Justin Wilson fan, for example, you can go to the track and spend all race watching Justin race with whoever is in his pack and only now and then glance at the leaders. I'm a Sarah Fisher fan so when I go in person I watch Sarah all race and keep track of the leaders here and there. It's awesome. The nature of TV limits it to focusing on the front. Although, I believe that VERSUS could show us some battles back in the pack when things are lock-step in front, even on an oval. There's usually some crazy stuff going on in the pack. I'll get to an example in a second.
Lap 6 -- 25 second laps here at Chicgoland so you gotta pay attention, cause they click off. Ed has gone from P12 to P6. Booth talks gear stack here. Dixon looks high at Briscoe for the lead ... NO.
Lap 10 -- Briscoe, Dixon, Dario, Helio, Ed, Tony, Rahal, Matos, Scheckter, Wheldon.
Lap 17 -- Onboard with Marco. Lindy says Marco has one red shoe and one blue shoe which he is doing to try and break his bad luck.
Lap 19 -- Sarah working on RHR for about 8 laps here.
Lap 22 -- Scheckter inhales Danica. Danica's car may have issues. RHR makes a mistake coming out of turn 4 and leaves the low line door open and Sarah pounces like a viper. Inhales him. CLEAR. Insert me fist pumping (discretely) here. Ed is P4. And may have the wings back.
Lap 22 is brought to you by the Indy Racing Experience Two-Seater. pressdog readers can get 10% (up to $49.90 or more depending on package) off their online purchases. Learn more HERE. Briscoe, Dixon, Dario, Ed, Helio, Rahal, Servia, Tony, Matos, Scheckter.
Lap 24 -- Moraes and Oriol go two-wide. Lap speeds are up to 216 mph now.
Lap 25 -- Sarah's radio: "We're going to work with these guys (in our pack) and try to keep everybody in a line." (Two or more cars in a line at Chicagoland can go faster than a single car by itself or going two-wide with someone.)
Yeah, that lasts about half a lap before someone in the pack gets high and goes two-wide with someone.
Sarah: "I'm not even on the limiter in fifth gear by myself." Holy missed gearing, batman. If you're not on the limiter you cannot use the overtake button.
Lap 31 -- Danica is P16 and losing contact with the lead pack. Look who's behind her on the track AND the running order ... Sarah Fisher. Dun-dun-daaaaaaah. Sarah is about a quarter of the track back from Danica at the head of the lead second pack, though.
Ed is looking at Dario. Looking looking. Getting out wide now and then. Going to school on him for many laps.
Lap 33 -- Almost right in front of me Matos has a major moment. Tank slapper! BIIIIG twitch but he saves it. Me in the press box, out loud: "HOLY SHIT." I swear. I'm not proud of it, but there it is.
WTF? Rahal totally squeezed him below the line into the apron. Lucky for Graham that Matos caught it or we'd have cars flipping down the track like freshly beheaded chickens.
Replay. Holy schnikies. Rahal squeezes Moraes down onto the apron causing Moraes to have some issues.
In-car video of some of the new parts on the car. Wheel kick ups and C-scoops. Both for more downforce. Penske cars run neither. Everyone else has booth (pretty much).
If you listen to a driver's radio at Chicagoland you'll hear his or her spotter say "Outside .. outside .. outside .. still there .. still there ... outside ... outside .. .still there" A LOT.
Lap 39 -- Arute reports that Dixon is trying to make fuel. Happy happy joy joy. Dario radio: "40 laps complete. Tell us if you want any changes on the car." Dario: "No, the car's pretty good."
Lap 40 -- Briscoe, Dixon, Dario, Ed, Helio, Rahal, Matos, Scheckter, Servia, Tony.
Trailing pack cars are starting to pit.
Lap 44 -- Sarah pits with Conway. The two go out side-by side but Conway gets under her and out onto the pit exit road ahead.
Lap 49 -- Briscoe pits from the lead. It's a festival of pitting. Dixon's stays out longer and is able to gap the field and get position on the track. Mr. Fuel Maker.
Lap 50 -- Dixon, Briscoe, Helio, Dario, Ed, Scheckter, Matos, Tony, Wilson, Servia.
Lap 55 -- Dixon's in lap was a 214. Robbie says that's huge. It is huge because you need to fly on your in lap and out lap to minimize the loss of track position as everyone cycles through.
Arute mentions the plummeting temps. Dixon sets up on the bottom of the track, Briscoe is on the high groove. Two-wide for the lead. Helio comes in behind Briscoe to push him (aerodynamically, not literally). Now Dario comes in behind Dixon to push. We got ourselves a two-by-two formation, folks.
Right in here Sarah and Conway go two-wide for about six laps. Sarah can't manage to get around him, though. Sarah radio: "Tuck in behind him, Sarah. The leaders are coming." Sarah drops in behind Conway so the two can giddy up out of there together and avoid getting lapped. Only a matter of time, I'm afraid.
Lap 60 -- Dario radio: "Use a little fuel and go help your teammate." Dario: "I can't get any closer than this."
Lap 66 -- Second pack is four seconds back. Marco had to come in again after his first stop since they only got half a tank of fuel in him.
Lap 70 -- Conway and EJ Viso go two-wide. I expect a festival of carbon fiber to break out any second.
Lap 74 -- Sarah hears the dreaded "the leaders are behind you" from her spotter. Leaders starting to lap traffic, but they are trying to get around cars who are fighting for position, so nobody is going to lift here. Viso and Conway are all in a pack. Breath being held. A little three-wide thrown in here. Insert Brian Barnhart having a stroke here. Sarah's spotter tells her to try and follow (get a tow off of) Briscoe as he moves though.
Lap 75 -- Helio, Briscoe, Dixon, Dario, Ed, Scheckter, Wheldon, Matos
Lap 82 -- Viso is racing the leader.
Lap 92 -- Sarah banks off to pit. Yellow yellow yellow. Mutoh is in the wall. Sliding. He's going to be ok. Just got high. Something might have broken. The yellow came out when Sarah was about six feet from the pit line so she has to drive through. Sarah: "God BLESS it!" She just gave up all those hard-earned spots.
Pitting. Dario: "The car's not too bad." Dixon is out first again. Pit crew is killer. Briscoe had some issues and lost four spots. Wheldon it TOAST. Snapped a half shaft like a dry twig. Replay -- Briscoe didn't hit his marks and get close enough to the pit wall so the fueler had to lean on it and stretch the hose to make it over there. Jon and Robbie explain the teams set up their car's marks so the hose is pretty tight if everything goes perfectly since that lets the fuel run in faster. So being even a foot off can put your car too far from the fuel tank.
Wheldon out of the car.
Lap 95 -- Sarah pits to top off. Spotter tells her she's behind Conway. "Gotta get him on the restart."
Lap 100 --Restart coming. 101 -- We're GREEN. Immediate two-wide throughout the field. Helio looks high on Dixon. Moraes comes up high behind Helio.
Lap 109 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Marco gets waaaaay high and scrapes his tires along the wall. We got yellow for that. Marco continues on and the car seems to be OK. But he gets to pit for new tires but no fuel. He'll have to pit again when the pits are open to get fuel.
Another festival of pitting with everyone pitting except Scheckter and Kanaan. Sarah gets fuel only. Pit to Sarah "Tom (engineer) said you're going to be OK." Sarah: "10-4, he's the man."
Either Dixon is not talking this race or I'm missing it all.
Lap 116 -- green.
Lap 120 -- three wide everywhere.
Lap 126 -- Sarah closes on Danica. Danica is a lap up on Sarah, but still, Sarah is running her down. This is an example of the untelevised battles I was talking about.
Lap 127 -- Sarah and Helio high-low Danica coming out of turn 2. Double inhale. Insert me pee myself here.
Lap 130 -- Danica says not so fast and re-inhales Sarah.
Lap 138 -- Sarah inhales Danica back. Serious in-person viewing enhancement watching those two go at it. Danica's car looks a little unstable to me. She'll hold her line for a few laps and then suddenly push high on one lap coming out of a corner.
Lap 140 -- Moraes is P3. Replay of Rahal and Servia almost touching (and not in a good way).
Lap 153 -- Scheckter pits. He and Kanaan were hoping for a yellow. Rolled the dice and got snake eyes. Briscoe has moved from 13 after his pit screw up to third.
Arute gives us the overtaking button update. Dario pits. Right front guy forgets to toss the wheel gun so it's under the car. They have to wait a couple of seconds until he sticks his arm under the car and sweeps the wheel gun out of the way. Many replays in which Jon said the guy dropped the wheel nut. I replay it on the DVR a few times and see no errant nut. A tiny peanut-shaped clown car pulls up and 19 clowns get out and start chucking Errant brand nuts into the crowd.
Lap 165 -- Leaders approach EJ. Dario: "Talk to the 13 car because he's going to be a pain in the ass again." Spotter: "10-4"
Lap 175 -- Briscoe wraps up two extra points for most laps led. Insert much three-wide here.
Lap 185 -- Yellow yellow yellow. I was looking right at Helio when something busted and he went into the wall. Dario behind him has to go to emergency maneuver Tango Bravo X-ray to get around him. Helio is in the wall. Sliding. Not good. Dario on the radio: "Something on that car broke." Replay .. SPROING .. something broke and Helio walled it.
I pop over to Danica's channel to hear her say "Help me out with the debris. I can't see. I'm out of tear offs." Right on cue Sarah says "This is the dirtiest race track I have been on in a while."
Danica's spotter: "We're going to give you new tires." Danica: "OK." This is complete bullshit since Danica is not going to pit, nor is anyone else. Trying to throw the listeners. Tricky.
Arute gives us the Push to Pass update. Dixon has a zillion and Briscoe has about two.
It's a 10-lap trophy dash, kids. And we're GREEN. Buckle up for 10 laps of four wide. Sarah inhales Scheckter and then Viso on the restart. Wings are back.
Rahal gets out high. Looking for P3 and then the win. Emma Daves-Dixon cam activated. Briscoe needs to get him an on-camera squeeze. There's no Family Cam options for him as far as I can see.
Five to go. Rahal waaaay high now. Briscoe takes high line and leads at the line. Dixon low. Two-wide constantly. Insert the booth guys exclaiming for the 87th time how close they are. Guys, simmer down. We got it the first 86 times you exclaimed about it. Conway also goes waaaaay high and has to lift big time.
Rahal makes it three wide at the front. The Rahal kid ain't going away. Holy shit! Something happens to Tony and he comes flying backward to Sarah who is back in the pack with the leaders (but a lap down). Major lift city there for some reason.
White flag. We're going to have a Chicagoland Finish here, kids. Basically all the cars are in one swarm going around the track two and three and even four wide in spots. Briscoe and Dixon. Briscoe high. Dixon low. Briscoe-Dixon, Dixon-Briscoe out of turn four. We're mashed against the glass in the press box that's right on start-finish ..... it's DIXOOOOON .. BRISCOE! At the line Briscoe by less than a yard. I'm getting too old for this shit.
Briscoe does major donuts for the fans. Even goes into the grass in his donutting zeal. Penske says Briscoe drove the wheels off it from 13th to win. Chippy Ganassi comes by to give Penske some love. Video of Tony not looking real pleased. Briscoe is out. Roger says that's the best I've seen you run. Briscoe says he screwed up on the pit stop.
The TSO finishing order (Subscribe today!) Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Mario Moraes (winner of the Return of the Jedi award for highest-finishing non-big-two driver), Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal, Ed Carpenter, Oriol Servia, Tomas Scheckter, Raphael Matos, Justin Wilson, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan (top 13 were on the lead lap and all finished within a second of the leader). Sarah Fisher, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mike Conway, E.J. Viso, Robert Doornbos, Jaques Lazier, Helio Castroneves, Milka Duno (left on lap 155 with "handling), Dan Wheldon, Hideki Mutoh.
Points update: Briscoe leads, Dario -25, Dixon -33, Helio -167, Danica -197, Marco -208. Helio has been mathematically eliminated from the title hunt.
That's it from Chicagoland. The next race is Motegi something like nine weeks from now. No, wait, it's Sept. 19. Watch live at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on VERSUS (which will make it a similar time to the Chicagoland race).Thanks for reading. Check the copious Live From Chicagoland stuff below this. And be sure ask your self What Would Danica Think and tip your bloggers. pressdog ... out.
I believe Briscoe does have an on-camera squeeze...problem is she's on-camera at NASCAR races. He's engaged to ESPN pit hotty Nicole Manske (formerly of Channel 13 in Indy, the IMS Radio Network, and SPEED Channel).
Posted by: H. B. Donnelly | August 31, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Pressdog I will be at IMS for the grand Am test this thursday. I will send you a report, maybe some photos. I enjoy the blog..
Posted by: Davis Brewer | August 31, 2009 at 03:21 PM
That was a good time, Bill. And for the record, if you didn't speak with Brooke, that'd be the ONLY girl you didn't speak with.
Understand, everybody, that few ladies resisted the chance to speak with the infamous pressdog. And we didn't mind one bit. At least they were now coming over to our table, which they certainly weren't beforehand.
Posted by: Roy Hobbbson | August 31, 2009 at 06:26 PM