Notes from the VERSUS broadcast of the Cafes Do Brasil Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Oct. 2, 2010.
pressdog™ Beer of the Race Sam Adams Octoberfest.
Welcome to Homstead-Miami Speedway. Intro features the new IZOD IndyCar Championship Trophy. I've said I like it better than the giant circa 1976 cup trophy it replaced, but when I see the new trophy I think "codpiece."
Lindy Thackston is in the SKY LAIR which is located in front of a stairwell. YEAH! Lindy has also clearly been pounding Red Bulls or is trying to inject some excitement via super-ramped-up vocal enthusiasm!! Sundry talk off championship scenarios. Will Power leads by 11 over Dario Franchitti. Helio Castroneves montage/package. Dixon montage/package. Jon Beekhuis interviews a "damper" which is also known as a shock absorber. Dario montage/package. Jack Arute closes in to ask questions I've heard many times (or so I assume, so I engaged the fast forward right in here). "What would it meant to win the championship .."
Credit where credit is due here for Versus cranking out the feature/montage/packages but I fast forward through them because it's the same exact drivers as perious feature/montage/packages and if we were in court the objection would be "asked and answered."
Danica Patrick is now interviewing IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, causing me to drop out of FF mode. Channeling her inner pressdog! Viewing enhanced. Staging it a little awkward since Randy (and everyone) is about a foot taller than Danica and they are standing on pitroad or some such, but still. At one point Danica asks how long Randy is going to stay with the league. Randy says he'll stay as long as Danica does. So that would be two years at the most.
Down to the track for The Command. It's going to be Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan giving the command from inside their cars. This works about as well as you would expect -- that being not well at all. I heard mostly Tony say "Driver's start our engines." Saved the track having to try to find a grand marshal, I guess.
Plenty of good seats still available for this one. The crowd is so tiny even Firestone Indy Lights drivers are saying "Wow, crowd sucks." Insert allegations of crappy promotion by Miami-Homestead's owner International Speedway Corporation, which is owned by NASCAR, for the crap crowd. (I heard the real number was 12,000). Well, maybe so. Maybe so. BUT, with all ISC tracks gone next year, so is the ISC scapegoat. Cue the "first year at a venue" scapegoat for 2011. Could be that IndyCar's show just doesn't beat out the many many many entertainment opportunities in the greater Miami area -- along with crappy promotion.
Cue the HAT. Yo to the B-Unit. Hope you're at least waiting until the championship banquet Sunday night to get liquored up this year. Also what up to producer (the unquestioned czar of race telecast) Terry Lingner and the coverage-controlling A-Unit.
Trackside Online starting order. Be like the pdog and subscribe immediately to Trackside Online for the best original content, reader-focused stuff. Subscribe now for a calendar year you're set for silly season etc. etc.
1 Dario Franchitti
2 Scott Dixon
3 Will Power
4 Ryan Briscoe
5 Dan Wheldon
6 Justin Wilson
7 Ed Carpenter
8 Tony Kanaan
9 Takuma Sato
10 Helio Castroneves
11 Danica Patrick
12 EJ Viso
13 Mario Moraes
14 Bertrand Baguette
15 Ana Beatriz
16 Marco Andretti
17 Sarah Fisher
18 Graham Rahal
19 Alex Tagliani
20 Ryan Hunter-Reay
21 Vitor Meira
22 Alex Lloyd
23 Raphael Matos
24 Sebastian Saavedra
25 Simona de Silvestro
26 Hideki Mutoh
27 Milka Duno
Let's light this candle. We're GREEN-GREEN-GREEN.
Seriously, there are maybe 67 people in the stands.
It's a festival of sparks on the track as cars bottom out. The booth guys think this is Neat-o Keen! Jack Arute is now speaking unintelligibly. I cannot hear him. Audio levels are crap. Sorry. I got nothing. Most likely strategy talk.
Lap 6 -- Dixon is not going to pass Dario in this lifetime unless Power gets taken out by an air strike or Dario is BLOWN UP, sir. We go to in-car camera on Ryan Hunter-Reay for a stunning shot of nothing. Just paying some bills here, kids. (Versus gets cash for going to in-car cameras a certain number of times. I am speculating that we are checking off a revenue check box in the A-unit with this shot.)
Jon says MOMENTUM ... sooo ... DRINK ye BASTARDS.
Lap 10 -- Power is P3 looking for P2. Has to lift. We're in car and see him get INHALED by Tony. So now Dario has two wing men, Tony and Dixon. No WAY Tony overtakes Dario if it screws Dario for the championship. Not gonna happen given their organ-donation-level of fondness.
Lap 15 -- Dario, Dixon, Tony, Power, Briscoe, Helio, Wheldon, Marco, RHR, Viso.
Lap 19 -- Jon, bless him, asks "what about allegiances? He (Tony) and Dario are best buds." You just answered your own question there, Jon.
Lap 23 -- Robbie Floyd tells us that Power just radioed that if Briscoe or Helio can pass him they should "let them go." This may be Power being a stand up mench, or it may be Power realizing if those two get ahead of Dario, that's just good for him, championshipwise.
Lap 32 -- Sarah lapped. Insert a sigh from me here. Sarah remains my undisputed fav, but it has to get old hoping for P13 every race. I asked her awhile back how she goes out to the grid every time knowing there's NO shot to win.
Sarah is in her pink car for Breast Cancer Awareness and, just like other pro sports (NFL on Sunday, NHL variously, many others) IndyCar officials, teams, etc. are wearing pink to also support the cause. Oh wait, there NOT. Never mind.
Tony goes into P2 while Jack is talking about something we already know. (I think Jack is talking about teams keeping exact track of where everyone is on the track and running the championship numbers, which is what LindyCar told us earlier.) Meanwhile, in the actual race, TK passes someone for P2 and Power is P9.
Lap 35 -- Dario, Tony, Dixon, Briscoe, Helio, Vison, Wheldon, RHR, Power, Marco.
Lap 36 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Moraes stalled after coming out of the pits.
Lap 39 -- Festival of pitting coming up. Sarah stays out to get her lap back. Jon says she stays out to lead a lap but that's not right, 'cause she was lapped, so unless everyone has a 30-second pit stop, she'll only get her lap back. And then she pits on Lap 40 anyway, so never mind.
Briscoe gets two spots in the pits and comes out in P2.
Lap 42 -- Green. Bia is going roughly 42 mph on the front straight, forcing many to go to evasive maneuver Alpha Gulf Romeo to avoid her.
Lap 45 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Bia is ass around and into the wall.
Connor Daly (Star Mazda champ) and Sage Karan (F2000 champ) with Jack Arute. Jack says it's good to have up and coming stars in the Road to Indy program. Unfortunately many of said stars are up and coming ... to Europe.
Lap 51 -- GREEN. FUGLY restart. Iron Hand of Justice (Brian Barnhart) sees nothing. Briscoe looks outside Dario. NO. TWO WIDE. TOO SCARY!!!!! BAN HOMESTEAD because it's a Chicagoland HORROR SHOW. I mean, TWO WIDE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
The non-existent crowd gives this race a festive practice session vibe.
Lindy with Bia. Said her gears were junk for a second, causing the speed-of-smell moment on the front straight, then worked again, so she got up to speed and just went ass around. Lindy charges in to ask Bia how exciting it was to be out there in this exciting championship excitement!! Bia says basically they weren't worrying about the Exciting Championship and just running their race here. But I could tell she was excited on the INSIDE!
Lap 55 -- Dario, Briscoe, Tony, Helio, Dixon, Viso, Andretti, Wheldon, Power, Danica.
Lap 56 -- Briscoe around Dario ... CLEAR. Pass for the lead. At least we won't have a replay of the festival of putridness that was the 2009 finale at Homestead.
Lap 61 -- Dixon moves from P3 to P1. Holy Tank Slapper -- Danica gets seriously fishy.
Lap 63 -- Replay -- Power nearly ass-ends Danica (take it easy) back in P8.
Replay. RHR inhales Young Rahal and gives him a little hand up "what are you doing?" on the way by. Rahal should be more courteous to the Title Sponsor Mobile, apparently. Then Rahal celebrates by losing his end plate on RHR's back tire. This is NOT debris, however. Not at this time. Later, this end plate may be ruled to be debris, if needed. But for now, it is not debris.
TK leads here. Dario ... inside ... clear. Robbie -- "Looks like TK was pretty friendly for that to happen." SHOCKER, Robbie. I flash back to the road race -- someone tell me which one it was -- where Tony basically through a race-long block party in P2 so Dario could win with a damaged car in P1. It's all about sportsmanship, kids.
Onboard RHR. I hope Versus is making money off all these RHR onboards since he's in P10 and all we need is a "good time to go to the fridge" graphic to complete the viewing magic.
Back onboard RHR and Danica going two wide. Insert terrified screaming here from Robin Miller here about how it's TOO SCARY FOR HUMANS.
Viso gets fishy. Dario is +.5 now. Dario laps Simona. He is +.7 on Tony now.
Dario, Tony, Dixon, Power, Briscoe, Wheldon, Viso, Helio, Danistar, RHR.
Lap 89 -- Wheldon pits and delivers to his team -- who he filed a law suit against in August as reported by the Indy Star about 45 days later -- a writ of writ of certiorari. A day after the Star reported the lawsuit, it was settled.
In-car on Wheldon for no reason a'tall save perhaps making some revenue.
There's a fuel nozzle on the track. Excellent close up of it bouncing on the track and coming to rest in the grass. This is not ruled debris -- for the moment.
May be from Viso. There may be a penalty involved with leaving the pit with a fuel nozzle in your car, but if there is, it's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Lap 100 -- Alex Tagliani (still has to pit), Dario, Tony, Dixon, Power, Briscoe, Mutoh, Danica, Helio, Wheldon.
Lap 106 -- Power is around Sato while everyone holds his or her breath.
Lap 112 -- Danica gets air in P7. World rotation begins to slow as Danica gets air. If this keeps up, dogs and cats may soon be living together.
Jack is talking in the pit lair again but his sound levels are still shit. Can't make much of it out. Jack needs to limit his comments to during yellows, apparently.
Lap 130 -- Wheldon, TK, Dixon, Power, Helio, Danica, Briscoe, Weldon, Marco, Vitor.
Lap 134 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Power brushed the wall. OMG the BRUSHED THE WALL causing no debris so this is a yellow for a "scary situation!"
Even more insane -- this will be a SIXTEEN LAP yellow. For brushing the wall. 16 laps. Official reason tweeted by the league was a bunch of penalties and car order issues.
We go to Power's radio but it's crackly and shitty. Can't understand anything.
As Jack is opining about something, Jon eagle-eyes a broken suspension piece on the back of Power's car and tries to bust in on Jack, but JACK WILL NOT BE BUSTED IN UPON.
Replay of pitting.
Cue the circus music! Tony takes off early and knocks over his fueler. Looks like the fueler is up. May be penalty for that. I am not sure, but I am sure it will be NONE OF MY BUSINESS since we got many and sundry fuel strategies to argue about instead.
Chippy with Lindy. Honestly I didn't listen. I imagine Chippy said car is good, not over until it's over, Dario is awesome, the usual.
Thanks to this 16-lap yellow (cue the black helicopters) Will Power gets back out from having a suspension piece repaired but is five laps down. Bob says Tony will have to go to the back for bashing over his fueler. Maybe it is my business. Back of the lead lap or back of the pack or what? No drive through for that?
Bob says "Ryan Carpenter-Reay." Beer spew.
Jack and Jon are arguing. Seriously. This is attractive. Something about Kentucky fuel strategy for Helio. Reminds me of listening to my 75-year-old parents argue about whether to get the single-pass or all-you-can-eat salad bar.
Festival of Topping Off here. Cars may have to refuel because they run dry during this nine-hour yellow.
Power pits again. Power says the thing is still goofy. He's out. Toast. Done. Dario has to finish P10 or better to win it. There are 9 cars on the lead lap.
Bob says the length of the yellow is due, in part, to some pit open/closed lights malfunctioning. Given the yellow duration, they could have hung an "OPEN" neon sign on the pit entrance, ran an extension cord and gone green about seven laps ago.
Lap 151 -- Wake up the crowd (all 192 of them) because we're GREEN. SUPER FUGLY restart.
Bob gives Sarah, now roughly 9 laps down or some such, love for the pink.
FLOYD with Power -- Very disappointed. Trying to get around a couple of back markers (one of those "backmarkers" was RHR. DOH.) and got high into the marbles and walled it.
Lap 159 -- With Power out, this means Dario can stop trying, so he'll fade back and let someone else lead. Marco gets a shot at it. RHR pits in here. IZOD has gotten their money's worth of isolation on the IZODmobile this race.
Lap 165 -- Marco, Dixon, Helio, Dario, TK, Wheldon, Danica, Briscoe, Vitor.
Lap 166 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Debris. That Rahal end plate came in handy. They showed the debris and it looks like an end plate. Super close up didn't show where it was on the track, though.
Insert exciting fuel mileage discussion/argument here. More theories are thrown around here than during the Warren Commission.
Lap 169 -- green .. no yellow yellow yellow. Too FUGLY even for IndyCar. I guess NOW we need single-file restart. Last race of the year is as good a time as any to start enforcing that alleged rule.
Lap 170/171 -- Wave off number two. We're all pros here. Four wide in the back is no more fugly than what I personally witnessed at Chicagoland, frankly.
Lap 172 -- Green.
Lap 174 -- Robbie says momentum. Drink, bitches. Danica is in P4. Hold the phone.
Lap 175 -- Danica INHALES Helio for P3. Wait, yellow yellow yellow. Milka. Ass around. Wall.
Replays -- Milka spins in front of Dario. He had to go to evasive maneuver William Zulu Sierra.
Chip's wristwatch is the size of a pack of cigarettes. Just felt I had to share.
10th or better for Dario to win the whole thing. Gonna take Milka taking him out for that not to happen.
Lap 181 -- GREEN. Everyone can make it on fuel now, so those five hours of fuel discussions were for naught.
Video of Power walking away from the track. I think Robin Miller was following him. I swear. Wheldon is being INHALED by everyone on the track as he chucks voir dire and motions to suppress at them all.
Lap 185 -- Dixon, TK, Danica, Helio, Vitor, Marco, Briscoe, Wheldon, Dario.
Lap 187 -- Holy Dirt Track. Danica is "pressuring" Helio up the track. Push 'em up, push 'em up, waaaaay up.
Lap 188 -- Danica is STALKING Kanaan and greatly enhancing my viewing here.
Lap 191 -- Danica looks to dive under TK .. NO. Tony may or may not be throwing a subtle-yet-heartfelt block party for Danica.
Robbie catches the spirit and says momentum twice, so I tip my bottle to him and drink .. YE BASTADRS.
Danica radios "pick a line, any line, Tony." Kidding. She didn't really radio that. Except in my head.
Right in here we do a super goofy split screen where we have the most excellent Kanaan/Danica battle on one side and GRIPPING in-car from Dario driving on a clear track on the other. Dario's in-car rivals the excitement of televised sleeping cats.
Lap 195 -- Dixon, Tony, Danica, Helio, Vitor, Briscoe, Marco, Dario, Wheldon.
Lap 199 -- Tony comes off a corner TOOO HIGH. I yell, I SWEAR -- "INHALE HIS ASS." Danica Acapulco Cliff Dives under him and --
-- holy Greg Louganis! -- is CLEAR. P2.
Kanaan's not going quietly here ... Dixon wins (by the way) and at the line it's .... Danica. P2 by a foot. BAM. Hahahahahahaha. Looking forward to Tony's accusations of choppage. That was an epic battle and the dive inside TK for the pass took a super steel set -- a Santa-sized sack, if you will.
Oh yeah, and Dario wins the championship. Congrats to him and all, but haven't we seen this movie before? Many donuts.
Chippy with Arute. Helio comes over to Danica and gives her the point finger in the helmet thing. Haley Moore, Danica's Anger Manager, gets MONSTER air standing by to make sure she doesn't have to leg whip Helio to the ground if he gets out of hand. The Helio Danica finger pointing only last a few seconds and then they high five and part as besties.
Over to Dixon who gets a trophy in here somewhere. BAM, Cameron the Izod Trophy Girl is representing in the background. Welcome, old friend. Work it, Cameron.
Lindy with Dario. yadda yadda. Lindy "I'M A SANDWICH!" Beer spew. Apparently, Chippy comes flying in and makes a LindyCar sandwich with Dario. Bow-chicka-bow-bow.
Lindy with Tony. Says he has to apologize to Danica because he didn't see her and his spotter didn't say anything and they may have rubbed tires. Said when he heard Power was out he thought it was good because then he could race Dario. Insert groan here.
Lindy with Danica and Haley Moore. Danica said it was a tough 19 laps. Saw the opening, tried to "swoop" down low, mashed the push to pass and ... CLEAR. I would have been screaming with semi-vindictive laughter inside my helmet if I was her at that second. Maybe key my mic and say "CLEAR, bitches."
Right here my wife says "where's floppy hat?" (Ashley) causing me to spew beer all over her.
Jack is now trying to present the championship trophy. But his mic is dead. Impressive. I was in Sioux City, Iowa, watching my daughter's Morningside College Mustangs play Hastings (NE) College women's soccer game when this race happened live and we quite possibly had more people at that game than they had at the championship trophy presentation at Homestead.
My DVR runs out right here. Fitting I think. So that's it. Dario wins again. Tune in next year to watch someone from Penske or Chippy Ganassi win virtually every race and fight for the championship ... again.
Trackside Online finishing order with (starting position) noted ...
1. (2) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
2. (11) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
3. (8) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
4. (4) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
5. (10) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
6. (21) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
7. (16) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
8. (1) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
9. (5) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
10. (18) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
11. (20) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
12. (22) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
13. (7) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
14. (19) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
15. (14) Bertrand Baguette, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
16. (24) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
17. (23) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
18. (9) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
19. (12) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
20. (26) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
21. (6) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
22. (17) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
23. (25) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
24. (27) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 170, Contact
25. (3) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 143, Contact
26. (15) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 42, Contact
27. (13) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 25, Mechanical
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 158.905
Time of Race: 1:52:08.5580
Margin of victory: 2.7587 seconds
Cautions: Five for 39 laps
Lead changes: 18 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: Franchitti 1-42, Briscoe 43, Franchitti 44-52, Briscoe 53, Franchitti 54-55, Briscoe 56, Franchitti 57, Briscoe 58-61, Dixon 62-68, Kanaan 69-72, Franchitti 73-95, Dixon 96-97, Tagliani 98-100, Franchitti 101-151, Dixon 152-157, Andretti 158-167, Dixon 168-172, Castroneves 173, Dixon 174-200.
Point Standings: Franchitti 602, Power 597, Dixon 547, Castroneves 531, Briscoe 482, Kanaan 453, Hunter-Reay 445, Andretti 392, Wheldon 388, Patrick 367.
BONUS: Here's what Danica had to say about her battle with Tony, thanks to a transcript provided by IndyCar.com.
THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Danica Patrick, who finished second tonight. Danica, heck of a race you had with Tony Kanaan. Talk about it.
DANICA PATRICK: Thanks. First off, obviously, with Will walking out, it's fresh in my mind. You know, he did a hell of a job this year. He kicked ass on the road courses for sure. He really did.
He was a sleeper for the championship. But he did a great job. So he shouldn't be disappointed with himself. And obviously Dario did a great job, too. He came back in the championship throughout the year and did what he needed to do and did what an experienced driver does. You know, they finish races and get points.
And he's got the experience on the ovals. So, you know, it's unfortunate that that ended in the way that it did because you weren't able to see that dueling finish for the championship.
But leading to that, hopefully Tony and I put on a good show for the end at least. It was definitely a bit of a workout there. It was a hard 19 laps, is what we went green with.
And I had a strong car. It was a little bit ‑‑ we had a lot of stuff to start the race off. We cranked the front wing in it. And they were able to bring it to life.
And it was a good car. So it was back to what I remembered in practice. So everybody on the GoDaddy crew did a good job. They kept their heads down all year. I know it wasn't the greatest year. But I know I'm rambling on with stuff that sounds so formatted for a driver to say, but it's the time to say it. And thanks to Tony for making it exciting at the end.
It was a good race, and I think it was just a wind gust down the straightaway. I don't know, I think it was just wind.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. I like how you put that. You said at Texas that was the best oval race of your career. Do you revise that after tonight?
DANICA PATRICK: Good question. I think the end of that race was definitely my best oval racing, probably. It was fast and keep your foot in it and ride out the washouts and be calculated at the same time.
So you had to keep your foot in it, but you had to be smart as well. So Texas was a good race from a top‑to‑bottom perspective. We were strong all weekend in the race.
We ran in the top five the whole time. And I really managed my car well in Texas. But that was probably ‑‑ I also managed my car those last 19 laps, and I think that's what also attributed to me being able to pass them at the end, too, was I went low a few times down in (Turns) 3 and 4 early on in the last 19 laps.
And I could keep it down there fine, but I just didn't have the run‑off. It didn't have the oomph off the corner because you didn't exit the corner with the momentum from the wider radius. So I said, all right, we're just going to go up high for a while. Then we went high, and we went higher and then we went higher.
So finally, by the end, I think that he might have been scrubbing some speed by sliding from trying to hold it down low. So I was able to capitalize on that and get underneath them.
Q. If you could just speak to what ‑‑ this is the way you want to go out, I'm assuming, and kind of carry things over. But this has got to be good for your confidence and a real up for the season.
DANICA PATRICK: Thanks. It's been a tough year. I mean, it's been very frustrating. It seems like it's a second or a 20th this year for me.
So it's very frustrating. But we kept focused. And, you know, we revised things as we went to them. We said this isn't working for us; what do we need to do to improve?
And we adapted as well. So it's what you need to do as a team. And my engineers kept their ‑‑ my mechanics kept their confidence in me. And they did a fantastic job. These last two races at Motegi and here were a nice way to end the season.
Q. Tony said he apologized, because I think you guys brushed wheels a little bit. Do you remember that incident at all?
DANICA PATRICK: It was wind, remember? Yes, I remember very vividly. I mean, he pushed up wide out of (Turn) 4. And I came down low. And I had the momentum. And I got underneath him. And his left front wheel, I looked, was right behind my right front wheel. So I was a little ahead of him. He said his spotter didn't call inside until he was into the side of me.
So, I mean, it is what it is. I ended up getting by him and beating him. So I guess at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. But I kept thinking that our boss, Mike, was sitting in pit lane biting his nails like crazy, hoping his cars weren't going into the wall. Because he was definitely swerving over to intimidate me and moving me up the track.
It kind of reminded me of like Briscoe and Carpenter's finish at Kentucky last year, or I think maybe the year before that it was Helio and Dixon or somebody like that here at Homestead. I think it was the season opener a couple of years where it was just lap after lap, side by side.
And the fans get what they want here. And I'm disappointed it's not on the schedule for next year. We keep losing my favorite tracks. So bummer, dude.
That quote is going to come off so bad in the newspaper. It's going to come off like I'm an idiot. Please don't make me seem like that. Please follow that quote with the rest of the quote.
Q. TK is a guy you have the utmost respect for, but he's also probably one of the most intimidating guys out there. So really what was that like racing him?
DANICA PATRICK: Yeah. We've had our times together this year, at Indy and Texas and Iowa, and we've definitely had our times. And it was not a great year for teammates getting along and being buddy‑buddy.
And he definitely raced me hard here tonight. But the point is that I beat him and that's really all that matters.
Q. I'm not asking you if you're angry, but you sure would have had a right to be there in the last several laps.
DANICA PATRICK: You know, I mean, yeah, he raced me really hard. You guys could see it on TV. You guys can have your own opinions as to what you think happened.
Like I said, I ended up getting by, so it was OK in the end. But I also ‑‑ I also didn't get the chance to chase Dixon down either.
So he was holding the low line for a while. And for a while we were being pretty consistent. I went low early on, and he kind of came down low, and as the run was going on, we were getting higher and higher on the track, especially around (Turns) 3 and 4.
So I was exploring the space, for sure, higher than I had been all night. But, you know, it's the end of the race and that's what you're doing. So, you know, it kind of reminds me of what happened with Marco and I at Texas last year, when Marco was really mad that I was taking his space away going up high.
And that was, again, that was like the last sort of 20-lap range. So this was a little different because it was the end of the season, and I know we're in his hometown. So we didn't crash. And that's good. And that can always happen when you're floating around out there at 220.
So we didn't. And he was smiling at the end and he apologized for coming in at the side of me on the front straight. So I'll take that for what it is. And that we raced really hard and we both finished the race with almost no scratches.
A fairly boring race with a few good moments won by a red car, that sums up the season pretty well. Basically, 2010 was 2009 part 2, lot's of red cars winning a lot of less than exciting races. Thankfully, at least, there were a few more good races in 2010, and Homestead was almost watchable, instead of the 3 car lead lap snoozefest from last year.
Dario winning the title again... how boring... Dario kinda summed up why I can't stand him when he said "there was too much action" back in the pack. He may be a great driver, but he's not a great racer. Clearly, Fuel savings is Dario's prefered method of winning.
Overall, just an underwhelming season. And sadly, next year looks like more of the same, although Rahal going to ganassi would be somewhat interesting. And 2012, which was supposed to be a "fresh start" is looking like more Dallara/Honda spec racing, with a Lotus and Cosworth or two thrown in... Good thing we've got Chicagoland to look forward too, oh, wait, no we don't. never mind.
Posted by: Dylan | October 04, 2010 at 07:22 AM
Thanks for the fun write-ups all year.
I thought the battle between Danica and TK really made the race. I was happy to see her get TK at the line.
I was a bit disappointed with Versus/Indy Car's decision to focus so heavily on the Championship contenders to the exclusion of the actual race. Once Will had his issues and Dario dropped to the back of the lead lap there really wasn't any reason for us to have a split screen view of Dario riding around (a verbal update would have sufficed).
Posted by: Becky | October 04, 2010 at 09:34 AM
Yeah, thanks Dylan: you exemplified the phrase "kinda summed up why I can't stand him" with your insight.
Bill, you sound a bit cynical after five American beers. Maybe if you had a few more, it would have looked differently? I counted nine buds at Indy, the only difference was I had to whiz more.
Forget the complaints about crappy cars and personalities, that dice at the end is what it is all about. At least we got a taste of that this year, even if there was so few of us to appreciate it.
I hope the Versus team instructed everyone else that they were watching some good racing.
Thanks for your great reports this season, 10-4, 7-11, over and out.
Posted by: Andy Bernstein | October 04, 2010 at 09:50 AM
I enjoyed the race - some good racing and moves. Admittedly, the "Power yellow" sucked monkeyballs, made even worse in that IMS radio didn't know why it was yellow for so long, so they just said nowt.
Shame really, I may be one of the few that will miss Homestead...
Posted by: Leigh O'Gorman | October 04, 2010 at 09:52 AM
Yeah, what's with Dario now? "too much action back in the pack" and his whining that he didn't like Chicagoland-style racing at all. Dude, this is RACING not happy driving on an empty highway...oh, wait, well, it's empty driving for any red car teams, so yeah, maybe he's got a point...d'oh.
Poor Will, the ultimate rub was that Milka finished in front of him.
I'm so frustrated with the product over the last 3 years but I love racing too much. We love our Sarah, Ed, Vitor type stories and we absolutely get behind guys like Conway but at the end of the day they are racing for a hopeful 6th place most of the time. The tracks where they had the biggest chances are all gone from the schedule next year (ISC).
But this stuff is getting me more and more NOT to watch. I have the race from Homestead DVR'd but it was more fun to read the Pressdog's summary to be totally honest.
I have troubles with the fact that someone at IndyCar thinks this is great stuff. The worst thing that could happen is Comcast pushing the racing over to NBC (or maybe it'll be the best thing as ratings plummet to negligible). It's not really pushing it to NBC but doing the (ESPN on ABC sort of thing) with Versus on NBC. I heard that was a possibility. Part of me wants to see it happen just for the carnage, the other part doesn't want the emperor to be shown without his clothes.
Well, I'm all over the place like Milka with these comments. Shows how conflicted I am with my love of American Open Wheel racing.
PS: That trophy is horrible. More proof they have no clue what the public likes. At least the one bearing Mario's name looks somewhat normal.
Posted by: twitter.com/duey23 | October 04, 2010 at 09:56 AM
My favorite part was when the audio got cut just after Jack said, "Here is where I am going to have to correct you again..." to Jon when discussing Helio and fuel mileage.
Posted by: Brian Moore | October 04, 2010 at 10:03 AM
Brian: Dude, I totally spaced putting the mic cut off in my notes. Thanks for mentioning it. That exchange was seriously awkward. If they cut Arute off on purpose, that was a HUGE bucket of not-good.
Posted by: pressdog | October 04, 2010 at 10:08 AM
I was almost certain Jon and Jack were going to go 'round and 'round after the race. That dueling cut-offs segment was great fun. :-)
Posted by: Fred Hurley | October 04, 2010 at 10:10 AM
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I've enjoyed Homestead the last few years. It retains just enough of its original soul to be a challenging "handling" track. Instead of watching Danica go side-by-side with TK for ten laps hoping her wheel bearings had less drag in them, we got to watch two great oval drivers duel for ten laps, setting each other up until one of them left the door open just enough. That ten laps was probably the best racing we've seen this year.
The biggest problem I had was that while I like the individual parts of the broadcast team, as a single unit, there's just something missing. As annoying as the NASCAR announcers can be, during the Kansas race I had no trouble keeping track of what the leaders were doing, what the Chasers were doing, and what a couple of notables further back in the field were doing, all while keeping a handle on the different strategies. I was able to do this because I kept getting useful bits of info from the announcers, not one of which turned out to be wrong or based on misunderstood date (like Sarah staying out to "lead a lap"). This isn't meant as a slight against any one person on the IndyCar team. But the whole package just seems to be running with a tiny little misfire on one cylinder, and it's keeping them from really opening up the broadcast and bringing the viewer into the world of IndyCar racing (which is, by the way, what they're supposed to be doing).
Posted by: Fred Hurley | October 04, 2010 at 10:18 AM
Homestead was great last year too, Briscoe and Dixon were splitting lapped traffic like madmen. Bricoe spent more time in the grey than Rod Serling. Nobody there understood what was going on with the fuel strategy, and I got home to watch the replay and found that the TV audience wasn't instructed either.
Watch the races on-line: leaderboard up, in-car camera choice, fun radio chatter on occasion, drink a domestic and an import, rock on.
Posted by: Andy Bernstein | October 04, 2010 at 10:45 AM
My salute to the Pressdog and the rest of the gang here.
I just wanted to share with you how the race felt on the track. I was able to go to the race for the second year in a row. Last year it was a little boring (it is not entirely boring if you are on the track watching guys going at 200 mph!) but this year we finally got some action on the track rather than just the Dan/Danica contact in the pitlane that we had last year.
The whole thing started on Thursday, when I was able to get into the drivers autograph signing session that was organized in the Izod section of the Macys store. Very cool to see all drivers close and personal. I have to say that for me Helio and Dan are what Indycar drivers should be: Open to fans, smiling and chatting while signing books and autographs, etc. I printed a photo of Helio winning the 500 last year and asked him to sign it, and he was really happy to see the pic and chatted with me a few seconds. Dan was similar, when I told him that the old camouflage colors were a lot more interesting than the current white/blue/red, which is common and almost repetitive in a lot of cars in the grid, he said that he liked the car too, and especially the suit, which was also camouflaged, while signing me a photo and a copy of his new book.
Others, like Dario, seem really arrogant. I also took with me a picture of him winning the 500, and the fact that he refused to sign it because "he just spent an hour signing autographs" really offended me. How long does it take to sign an autograph... 15 seconds? And he said NO in an AUTOGRAPH SIGNING SESSION??? To hell with him.
Anyway, on Saturday I got paddock passes and tickets for a special Q&A session with Helio, which was really cool. He spent around half an hour with a group of fans and was open to any questions. As always he couldn't resist putting some moves and teaching some fans how to dance... Funny! I got an autographed copy of his new book too.
The paddock passes were also fantastic. Walking around the garages, watching the cars being prepared, as well as weighted and approved by the officials was very cool. Also, I was around the drivers meeting room about the time their briefing was starting, so I got a close look of all the drivers, including Mr. Mario Andretti which was going to drive the two-seater.
Close to the start time, I got to my seat. The fact that the track is right next to Homestead Air Reserve Base, were the 482th Fighter Wing is located, meant that we get not one but three flybys. We were surprised at first when the F16s took off and buzzed the track in full afterburner. Then the "official" flyby during the national anthem, and finally another one, this time low and slow while they were landing.
After all the ceremonies were completed, it was race time. As you said the place was empty, even worse than last year. I have to say that advertising for the race was almost non-existent, and I found about the autograph session the same day through the Indycar twitter :-(.
The Ganassi 1-2 was not a good thing for an exciting race, as Dixon was going to play bodyguard for Dario all night. It is sad that Tony was also playing wingman, because when he got in front for a couple of laps, the fans were cheering and happy (Tony, as well as Helio is considered a "local driver" as they live in Miami). The place also came alive when Marco took the lead for a few laps, when Helio got in front, and especially when Danica was fighting Tony.
I had a scanner and Danica's frequency was not the one announced. It is impossible that the radio was completely silent when she was surrounded by cars. I decided to stay in EJ Viso's frequency, as he was running with the leaders in the first part of the race, and by the time of the first caution he was running 6 with a great car. Unfortunately, a lousy pit stop ruined his race. KV really needs to change the front right guy for Viso. In Chicagoland the guy released him as Sato was coming in and they ended up crashing. This time he released him while the fuel hose was still attached.
Will's yellow was way too long. And the worst part was that we had no clue about why was it taking so long to go green.
Finally the race finished with the interesting duel between Danica and Tony. The rest of the field was pretty stable/boring with Dixon well ahead of everybody, Will out of the race, and Dario putting some Nascar speed laps to stay out of trouble, so that final duel between Andretti cars was more than welcomed.
The post race celebrations were rather small, considering the really small size of the crowd. They let the fans enter the track, and walk around the stage that was prepared with the trophy. The first to be interviewed in the stage was Mr. No-Autographs and when asked about how up and down the end of the championship had been he answered with a humble "what up and down? I was in front 147 of the 200 laps"... great way to reinforce the idea that the guy is just an arrogant SOB. He was then informed that the question was about the championship, in which WIll was ahead in most of the road courses, and he was ahead in most of the ovals...
Anyway, when I heard that initial part of the answer I decided it was time to go... I was not particularly happy with Mr No Autograph repeating last year's result.
It is sad for me that I won't have a race in Miami next year, but after seeing the place completely empty is obvious that the series needs to go to places were more fans are attracted to the race. Next year I guess I'll try too go to St. Pete which is the only one close enough to drive to.
Thanks a lot for the great articles Pressdog, I read them all the time. Hope you keep feeding us stuff during the LONG off-season. I understand some drivers are going to race V-8s in Australia so some stuff will still be going on.
Regards.
Posted by: Victorinox | October 04, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Cheers to Pressdog for all the insightful articles this season.
My wife is getting a little annoyed with me commenting "Pressdog says drink ye bastard" at every appropriate moment during the race.
Posted by: Ken | October 04, 2010 at 01:00 PM
Ken: HAR. Awesome. Thanks for the DYB shout outs. Your wife probably wouldn't think it an improvement if you switched to "DRINK ... BITCHES." We got MOMENTUM, though!
Posted by: pressdog | October 04, 2010 at 01:07 PM
The Versus TV folks were pretty careful to avoid embarrassing the 1000 or so folks who showed up to the race by showing them. Maybe it the FBI provided comp tickets to all their witness protection folks who live in the greater Miami area.
This race surely broke the IRL "record" of 8,132 who attended the last Phoenix race.
Posted by: ThatGuy | October 04, 2010 at 02:23 PM
Homestead is a little bigger than Phoenix, so there's a good chance it crested 10K at its peak, for whatever that's worth. But yeah, I realized halfway through the race that if I wasn't a maniacal fan, I'd have no idea that literally nobody was there to see the race.
I'm pretty sure Grand-Am at VIR in the rain gets a bigger crowd.
Posted by: Fred Hurley | October 04, 2010 at 03:16 PM
Maybe there's just not an audience for this type of Indycar racing. But if there is, I think Bernard will find it over the two or three years. And if there's not an audience for Indycar, then I suppose no one will notice when it disappears.
I'm not a "he-should-be-fired-guy" but I'm sick of the crappy restarts. Image might not be everything, but it's something--and these amateurish starts and restarts are enough to make me join the lynch mob. If these drivers aren't competent and skillful enough to make a two or three-wide restart work, then they shouldn't be driving.
I'll end on a positive note: I think interest (meaning ratings, competition, live audiences, alternative chassis and engines, sponsorships, drivers) will make big gains over the next two years under Bernard's leadership. That's just what I think--feel free to disagree.
Thanks for 2010 P-Dog, enjoy the writing and I'll be following the silly season.
Posted by: redd | October 04, 2010 at 03:30 PM
Thanks for the continuing comments redd. I appreciate all the comments, especially since the vast majority of the time people keep it unpersonal and talk about the issues. I agree with your take, redd. Certainly ISC didn't strain themselves promoting IndyCar, but I don't think you can put the putrid crowds entirely on them. The product in the current form doesn't exactly have people bum rushing the box office. Feel good about Bernard's moves so far. Hope he can make it work.
Posted by: pressdog | October 04, 2010 at 03:59 PM
"Maybe there's just not an audience for this type of Indycar racing."
Nail on head Redd, nail on head...
Posted by: Leigh O'Gorman | October 05, 2010 at 04:53 AM
Pdog,
The race was sonoma, and TK blocked in fourth to ensure Dario finished in third while Helio and Dixon battled it out...forget now which of those two won the race though.
I forgot to set my DVR before going to work saturday night, and got home after the broadcast was over, but it sure doesn't sound like I missed much.
Posted by: The American Mutt | October 05, 2010 at 08:26 AM