Notes Taken During the 2011 IndyCar Race at Infineon

Notes taken during the Versus broadcast of the Grand Prix of Sonoma, Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA on Aug. 28, 2011.

Welcome to the "golden season" at Infineon Raceway. I think this refers to the dry season that turns everything "golden." pressdog® Beer of the Race is Abita Jackamo IPA, Abita Brewing Co., Abita Springs, LA.

Obligatory grapes image here. Cue the HAT. (Running order at the top of the screen.) Yo yo yo to my homeys in the B Unit. Long time, no shout out. My bad. Still much love for the graphics-generating posse. Hope you saved the Thunderbird wine until AFTER the race this time.

Trackside Online starting lineup. Trackside Online is a subscription service that does NOT work for the The Man, they work for random fans who subscribe, like me. $22 for a calendar year. No brainer. Subscribe today.

1. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.6017 (105.479)
2. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.0916 (104.825)
3. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.1112 (104.799)
4. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.1464 (104.753)
5. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.3892 (104.432)
6. (06) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.4546 (104.346)
7. (27) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.9388 (105.028)
8. (19) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.9717 (104.984)
9. (59) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.0724 (104.851)
10. (24) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.1100 (104.801)
11. (22) Giorgio Pantano, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.2408 (104.628)
12. (77) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.8032 (103.891)
13. (38) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.3311 (104.509)
14. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.3717 (104.455)
15. (17) Martin Plowman, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.3792 (104.445)
16. (5) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.3836 (104.440)
17. (18) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.4744 (104.320)
18. (2) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.3955 (104.424)
19. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.6402 (104.103)
20. (4) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.4654 (104.332)
21. (82) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.7270 (103.990)
22. (78) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.5635 (104.204)
23. (34) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.7517 (103.958)
24. (88) Ho-Pin Tung, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.5894 (104.170)
25. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.7854 (103.914)
26. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.8349 (103.849)
27. (67) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 01:20.6269 (102.829)
28. (14) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 01:20.1209 (103.479)

Check out P10. Ana Beatriz. WHAM. Simona De Silvestro is not in this race because she had some kind of visa issues coming back into the U.S., had to fly back to Switzerland to get them straightened out, and missed the race. NO idea what the issue was. Lots of fragments of reporting on it. Simon Pagenaud, the Jose Oquendo of motorsports, is in for her. Giorgio Pantano continues to sub for injured Justin Wilson.

Bob, Jon Beekhius, Wally Dallenbach in the booth. Lindy Thackston, Marty Snider and Kevin Lee are the pit infantry. Let's light this candle. We're .... green green green.

First three or four rows were two wide on the start, the rest were not. I'd go semi-fugly on this start. Doesn't matter, because Will Power is a dot. Wings were going back even before the green came out and now he's supersonic ... GONE. Everyone else is polite through the first few turns. Circus clowns show noticeable disappointment.

Lap 2 -- Jon Beekhuis, booth guy calls out Tung for maybe throwing a block party.

Bad news. Nothing happened on the first three laps, so nothing is gong to happen for the next 30. Insert festival of lockstep here. Power is quickly up by 1.3 with his two teammates Helio and Briscoe not about to get nutty behind him, so we all got time to DRINK, ye BASTARDS. Get your pressdog® DYB drinkware HERE.

Jon gives Hinch a shout for hanging in there with the Death Star drivers (Penske and Ganassi) says he's "first in class." Chortle. Like the leading GT class car among the prototypes. Sadly accurate.

Lap 3 -- Rahal goes off and kicks up a rooster tail of dirt just as Wally was talking about how Rahal was complaining about qualifications. Irony savored.

Lap 5 -- TK pits. This qualifies as a huge development in this race. Jon makes the good point that when you are in the back and your car is somewhat piggy (slow), you pit early and hope for a break. Got nothing to lose, really.

Power may have actually finished this race already, he's so far ahead.

Announcers talk over pit-to-car radio talk. Viewing de-hanced. This is the only entertainment we have here, guys. Shut the CAKE HOLES, OK? Work with us.

Lap 9 -- Hildebrand pits. Off reds. Onto blacks. Vitor stalls it during stop. No, he stops after a couple feet because the left front was not on right (har). They fix it, he's out. Bullet dodged. Vitor qualified last, this probably has not "ruined his race." Yo yo yo to my boy Ed Carpenter for qualifying second to last, not last. Pretty good for an "oval specialist" with about five road course drives to his name, ever.

Festival of pitting here. Vitor lapped.

Lap 10 -- Power, Helio, Briscoe, Dario, Dixon, Hinch, Conway, Bourdais, Viso, Pantano.

Lap 11 -- Festival of Vitor being inhaled by the leaders here. Sato pits. Viso's fake camera is laying on the ground, well off the racing line. Every car has a little camera-like object on top of the intake-roll hoop. Some are actually cameras, but the rest are dummies that are the same shape and weight as a camera, so nobody has an unfair advantage. Versus spends about 10 minutes trying to figure out who lost their fake camera. MYSTERY SOLVED. It was Viso. Now, back to the lockstep.

Lap 15 -- Danica pits. Changes reds for blacks. Back out. She's driving her Go Daddy Chevrolet Impala. No, wait, that's wrong. That's the NEXT time she's at Sears Point.

Lap 19 -- EJ passes Bourdais in turn 7. I wake myself up by spewing beer. Televised pass.

Replay of Rahal inside Tag for position in P12. Not been a great year for Tags since the Indy Pole. Unless you count P2 on the road course Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve at Montreal ... in a Nationwide car.

Lap 22 -- Viso takes a position from Conway, who Bob calls Bourdais. Viso has TWO televised passes now.

Lap 24 -- Oriol and Tag. Oriol under and CLEAR. Plowman is working on Tag who seems to have popped the chute or has a car that is seriously pigging out.

Lap 23 -- Power +2.7 seconds on, Helio, Briscoe, Dario, Dixon, Hinch, Viso, Bordais, Bia (!), Rahal.

Pitting starting. Dixon and Helio pit. Viso, Bourdais, Bia.

Lap 26 -- Dario and Power pit. Briscoe stays out a lap. Power back out in P2, Dario in P4. Did NOT get a spot on Helio in the pit. Briscoe will try to fly and maybe pit and get P2, but for sure come back out in P3, to restore order.

Lap 27 -- Briscoe pits. Back out in P3. Penske drivers may actually be talking amongst themselves on the radio and popping beers. (Note: they cannot talk to each other on the radio. That's a NASCAR thing.) Ed moves over for the leaders and gets lapped. Because he has class. Doubt Ed will weep when the road courses are done. Still, seems improved from last race.

Lap 27 -- Pantano has inhaled Hinch for P6. Happened on lap 26. Pantano is now Best in Class.

Lap 34 -- Danica is last. Has pitted twice. But she does post her fastest lap of the race.

Robin reports that there are probably 25,000 to 30,000 at the race, the best crowd by far for IndyCar at Infineon. He says IndyCar will be back at Infineon if the track can come up with the sanctioning fee in 2012. I am sincerely glad 30,000 are there to watch the race, and I hope they enjoyed it. BUT, people I know who watch the race on TV, even those who love twisties, find it stuptifyingly boring. My Twitter timeline is a rash with major snark over the festival of non-passing that is Infineon.

Bob says it's a beautiful place (almost a gorgeous facility) and Wally says it's so much fun to drive. Put me in a two seater and I'd probably love the place, but until then ...

Lap 40 -- TK is toast. Something is BLOWN UP, sir. Just coasting into the pits. No yellows or anything.

Lap 41 -- Power clinches three bonus points from this race. One for the pole and two more for leading the most laps. He's led all but two when he pitted and Briscoe led.

Lap 42 -- Power, Helio, Briscoe, Dario, Dixon, Pantano (best in class), Hinch, Viso, Borudais, Rahal.

Pit stops coming. Clowns are looking hopeful, start to stretch out, but I can tell they are ONLY GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS.

Kevin with Tony who tells us the throttle cable went SPROING (broke) so he was done. "Honestly, it put me out of my misery" because his car was a pig. Now if only someone would do the same for the viewers. I eyeball the channel changer here.

Tony joins the booth team. Get someone in the booth to talk about SOMETHING, please. Bob remarks on Tony's going inverted at Mid Ohio, complete with bashing over the port-a-potty. Kanaan and potty were unharmed.

Tag takes Jakes for P18!!!!

Bob says it will be interesting to see Will maneuvering around traffic to see if Helio can close in. BEER SPEW. Ahhhh, A) I don't see Will having trouble, and B) if Power stopped on the track Helio would probably stop beside him, and slightly back, to avoid passing him.

Lap 50 -- Leaders pitting. This is the ball game right here. Dixon and Helio pitted on 49. Dario and Will pit on 50. Briscoe leads two laps and then pits. When everyone is back out, lock step restored.

Power will win barring air strike. Versus did a nice job building it up and showing the cars coming out relative the cars still on the track. Viewing enhanced. Just all washed out the same way.

Lap 55 -- Replay. Marco front wing into JR's rear tire. Puncture. Marco loses wing parts. Both will have to pit. Marco a lap down in 18th gets monster air. I theorize it's paying some bills by showing his car.

Tony and the booth guys chat amiably. Not necessarily about THIS particular race. Tony does give us a reds vs. blacks (tires) comparison from the driver's viewpoint. Says he has NOT signed with KV yet. Still talking. Expects to sign.

Lap 61 -- Plowey gets air. Goes around Sato for P13. Then goes off. Comes back on. Jon and Tony discuss (argue) whether or not Plowey will have to give back positions. Jon says yes. Tony says no. Tony appears to be correct.

Lap 65 -- Power, Helio, Briscoe, Dario, Dixon, Pantano, Hinch, (sound familiar so far?) Bourdais, Rahal, Viso.

Lap 66 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Tung is off into a wall behind a tire barrier. Personally, I think this is off the line, but, it's a close call and this case close calls go to the yellow, because this race really, really, really needs a restart to give us some glimmer of hope. 

Tony says Helio is going to go for it on the restart. Beer spew again. Helio is going to take points away from Power, who is chasing Dario? Not. Penske radios to remind everyone that their are Penske cars in P1, P2, and P3, which I think is his subtle way of saying "let's keep the same order."

Lap 69 -- GREEN. Power accelerates at the cones, properly, Helio and Briscoe got his back, lockstep through lap 1. Miller time.

Tony says re-starts are the only chance to pass here. (So we're all done.)

Jon asks if Dario is in trouble, goes wide, etc. will Dixon go for it. ANOTHER beer spew. You guys are slaying me. Um, no. Unless Dario actually goes off the road, Dixon ain't passing him. Pagenaud penalized for passing under the yellow. Pagenaud apparently thought he had passed the leader before the yellow and therefore went around to the tail, or something.

Sato is all up in Dixon's business.

White flag. Conway and Sevaadra are off. Stays green. Both continue back onto the track.

Power wins. There goes Alderaan. Death Star P1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5. Best of Class Pantano PENALIZED! Threw a block party at the end, according to the Iron Hand of Justice (steward Brian Barnhart). May have blocked Bourdais, who made with a gesture, possibly Power-like. That makes Bourdais best in class.

Replays. Sevaadra and Conway touch wheels, sending them both bouncing.

Trackside Online finishing order ...

IZOD IndyCar Series
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. - Results Sunday of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 2.303 mile Infineon Raceway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
2. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
3. (3) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
4. (4) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
5. (5) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
6. (8) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
7. (6) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
8. (13) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
9. (9) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
10. (19) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
11. (18) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
12. (15) Martin Plowman, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
13. (10) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
14. (23) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
15. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
16. (7) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
17. (11) Giorgio Pantano, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
18. (16) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
19. (17) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
20. (12) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
21. (25) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
22. (28) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
23. (20) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
24. (14) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
25. (27) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
26. (26) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 66, Running
27. (24) Ho-Pin Tung, Dallara-Honda, 63, Contact
28. (21) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 38, Mechanical

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 96.408
Time of Race: 01:47:29.7619
Margin of victory: 3.2420 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 3 laps
Lead changes: 4 among 2 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power 1 - 25, Briscoe 26 - 27, Power 28 - 49, Briscoe 50 - 51, Power 52 - 75

Point Standings: Franchitti 475, Power 449, Dixon 400, Servia 327, Briscoe 312, Kanaan 305, Hunter-Reay 285, Andretti 282, Castroneves 277, Rahal 264.

Race recap and lap chart couresty of IndyCar PR.

Cameron Haven, IZOD Trophy Girl gets air with Power. Yes. Welcome back, Cameron. She got to go to the race and did the fan zone stuff, etc. She's willing to go to all races, but IZOD does not send her to all of them. And, of course, the Firehawk. Cinnamon and habeneros for everyone.

That's it from Sonoma. I strongly believe IndyCar continues to go to this festival of non-passing because sponsors LOVE hanging in wine country. Second most popular race for sponsors behind Indy (is what I have heard). I hope that is true; then at least someone is enjoying it.

Next race is Baltimore, Sept. 4, 2 p.m. Eastern on VERSUS.

Comments

[redcar]

Infineon is the least entertaining venue on the Indycar schedule. Actually, it's less entertaining than an off week. If there were 30,000 people there then 15,000 of them must have been hidden behind one of those "golden" hills. More entertaining programs on Versus today included: Deer, More Deer! Shooting Deer, Shooting Big Deer, Buck City, Deer Center and Knives You Can Buy on TV when Not Shooting Deer.

[Dylan]

When the top 5 at the start of a race are exactly the same as the top 5 at the end of it there's something seriously wrong. What an awful race. Can you even call it a race?

[Tom G.]

Shit! I missed "Knives you can buy on TV w/o shooting deer?" Damn it! If only I hadn't fallen asleep.

My god, but I think we set a new standard for dullness. No joke, I got drowsy and feel asleep on lap 4. Woke to see a black screen, and thought for a moment I slept through the whole race. Sadly, I hadn't.

The highlight of the broadcast was Robin Miller getting all up in Randy's grill about firing Barnhart. Bet that never happened in the PBR.

[HB Donnelly]

It's kind of like the Monaco GP: everyone loves to be part of and chew up the scenery, but have you ever seen an exciting Monaco race that didn't involve rain? New rule: if Tony from Pop-Off Valve says he loves driving a track on iRacing, set the DVR and have your finger on the fast-forward button!

As with other tracks, I'm holding out hope that the ground effects on the new car will help things...

[HB Donnelly]

side note: The Red Bull GP at IMS apparently had about 65,000 people on the grounds today...I wonder if there were that many people on TV and in the stands combined watching the checkers at Sonoma...

[Andy]

The only bit of decent racing all day was during the last lap between Pantano and Bourdais, who put on a European-style demonstration of what could, in theory, be done in single-seaters on a road course. And the one who comes out ahead gets penalised.

Y'all know I'm as big a fan of IndyCars as you'll find on this side of the Atlantic, but until it sorts that kind of thing out it has no right to pretend to be a racing series anywhere other than ovals.

[Savage Henry]

I started the day riding out the hurricane watching a very entertaining F1 race at Spa, my 2nd favorite track in the world (next to IMS, of course). Then I watched the Indycars parade around on a motorcycle track, which was the opposite of entertaining. It was depressing. If a casual fan was flipping around and came upon that Indycar race I can guarantee you that they aren't tuning in for the next "race".

I think that the circuit is very underrated in determining the quality of the racing. F1 can be very boring processions, even with the gimmicks like DRS, on the Tilke tracks but when they get on a classic track like Spa it is always good racing. Maybe the Indycars would put on a good show at a track like Road America. Hopefully we'll find out soon.

I hope that the new cars can do something to spice up the racing. However, as long as they are racing at places like Sonoma, Barber, and Mid-Ohio I don't have much hope.

[Ron Ford]

A note to Mr. Redcar: Up here in Sconsin, we take our deer shooting seriously. When we are not shootin' em, we are hittin' em with our cars. If IndyCar is smart enough to return to Road America, you can bet we will be shootin' em there too.

I agree with Dylan. How could that thing that took place at Sonoma even be called a race? Pretty pathetic when the sight of Robin Miller practically drooling was the highlight (?) of the race (?).

[ThatGuy]

There are few places where the underpowered nature of the current Honda engine is more apparent than Sonoma. The Cup cars seems to have more life through the esses at Sonoma than these cars do.

IndyCar seems to be alternating snoozers with circus-music-ers, so I expect Baltimore to be a festival of carbon-fiber and anger issues. It is still quite possible, however, that Sonoma will have more successful overtakes than Baltimore.

[Marty J in Des Moines]

You called it, P Dog... it's still Sears Point to me. The on-board cameras brought back memories of the several rides around the track I did with Bob Bondurant back in the mid-seventies. I made two short movies about him and his driving school there. But this time, the race didn't excite me as much as my big screen TV did pushing down the carousel... trail braking, trail braking, stand on it!

[Brian McKay]

Baltimore will host a festival of carbon fiber - a real crash-fest like Toronto's, as drivers who're desperate to prove themselves make bonehead moves on an odd, short track.

Incidentally, I could do Wally Dallenbach's job. Pre-race exposition: "The drivers are gun a be earning their paychecks today" and "They're gun a be driving those race cars today."
I hate to listen to Jenkins and Dallenbach on Versus, and I hate to listen to Reid and Goodyear on ABC.

[BR]

I made it to about lap 25 before I had to put myself out of my misery and switched to a movie. I'm glad the owners and sponsors like this venue because it is awful on tv.

[S0CSeven]

Infineon has 1 and only 1 corner for passing for fast cars. That's corner 11 - the 'hairpin' if you will.

When NASCAR run there they have the same boring laps EXCEPT for the passing and sometimes carnage at corner 11.

Using inexplicable logic, Randy & Brian removed corner 11 from the circuit & used a shortcut to the start/finish line instead.
Ergo, no passing opportunities anywhere on the track and almost no passing in the race - just like they wanted.

How you can ruin a race ON PURPOSE before it even starts is just beyond me.

[ThatGuy]

Have the IndyCar's ever run the full final hairpin in anger? It's a runoff/safety issue.

[S0CSeven]

If it's a safety issue (and it probably is) why do they run (what) 250 mph down the straits at Indy pointed directly at a concrete wall with no runoff or crash protection at all?

The point is, if they're going to keep using that configuration, there's no point in going back to Infineon. If there's no passing zone what's the point? There could be if they chose to use it...... heck even NASCAR does.

[billytheskink]

I don't think drivers, teams, and officials fear brake failures at Indy like they do at Sears Point. I know I don't.

[Brian McKay]

-- Good answer!

[Indy Soup]

In person, there is no such thing as a boring IndyCar race! Haven't seen the replay yet, but I had a blast at the track. Most of which makes the race exciting cannot be communicated through TV, like the smell of ethanol, but Versus could do a much better job at showing bits of the race from the perspective of the fans in the stands. There were 30,000 people there and every single one of them had a great time. Seriously. Versus is completely out of touch with the folks who drive to the track, shell out the dough and cheer on the drivers. Blame Versus and not the track. I'm not a (US) football fan by any stretch, but those broadcasters always show fans having a great time...

[Brent Mossburger]

Indy Soup must be on the Indy Car PR team.

That was a dreadfully boring excuse for a race. Not sure why anyone would waste a few hours on a Sunday afternoon watching that.

I'd expect the TV ratings to be embarrassingly bad. And they should be. The ICS generally puts on uninteresting races with boring drivers and boring racing. Its just a bad TV product and the TV numbers point this out.

Two more awful races left in the season. By the time we get to Kentucky, nobody will be watching anyway. Its football season.

[pressdog]

Sincerely glad you had a great time at the track, Indy Soup. Champ Car put on races that were great times in person as well, but now there's no more Champ Car, and all those people no longer have a great time at Champ Car races. The two are connected -- ratings and great times at tracks. Without the former, there won't be the later.

[Dustin]

Can we please limit the motorcycle tracks. I love IndyCars. And I tolerate twisties, but this was a no-show.

[Tom]

A crisp Sonoma Chardonay is a beautiful thing, but it is nothing without a CORK SCREW- take me back to Laguna Seca

[Derek]

Track would lose its grade 2 FIA rating, which IndyCar needs to race, if they included the hairpin

Blame the FIA