Deluxe Race Notes Taken During the 2008 IndyCar Race at Milwaukee

Notes taken at the track and during the ABC broadcast of the ABC Supply -- AJ Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, WI on 6/1/08.

Welcome to West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, and the historic Milwaukee Mile. (Shout out to my homey, pressdog reader and Sheboygan native Arj!)

It's the oldest continuously operated race track in America. So you'd expect it to be wooden bleachers and a dirt infield. In the old days maybe, but today it's actually quite fabulous.

The main grandstand appears to be pretty new, and you sit right on top of the track. If they run toward the wall in the front straight you can look right down into the cockpit. Nutty.

The Mile is FLAT as well, which helps make for a more interesting race that's suited to IndyCars rather than stock cars. Also, if you sit in the upper deck you can see the entire track.

Everyone at the track is muy fabulous. Only drawbacks are no garages (teams pitch big tents [paddocks] connected to their haulers and that becomes the garage) and the media center is pretty tiny.

My viewing was seriously enhanced by the Mile, and I drove 6.5 hours to get there. Better plan now to roll to the race next year.

Jimmy-Jam Jim Tretow, VP of Media and Communications says, "We were up (in attendance). Lots of “man, this is like the old days 15 years ago,” and “Grandstand Avenue hasn’t been this packed in years for an IndyCar race” and we actually had one season ticket holder call while in line exiting the track, into our track president’s phone and said, “Man, you gotta do something about your parking! I’ve not moved in 20 minutes….AND I’m also one happy customer – keep up the good work!”, and Robin Miller said to his producer, “this is the biggest crowd in three years for this race at The Mile.”

11 a.m., 30 minutes in front of the Indy Lights Race, the pressdog beer of the race is selected. It's Budweiser (heavy). Budweiser is the official beer of the Milwaukee Mile, even though they make Miller right there in Milwaukee. Hey, Bud stepped up to the Official Beer Naming Rights plate and "really wanted to be here" Tetrow said. Miller, owned by the South Africans, I guess didn't feel compelled. So this Bud's for you.

I got some tasty photos of the Swiss Miss, Cyndie Alleman, signing autographs by her hauler. Cyndie had the guns out in the Wisconsin sun, and it was working for her. Oddly enough, many American males requested to be photographed with her. Hmm. (Gratuitous hotty mention #1!).

GoDaddy.com continues to show love for the IndyCar Series by sponsoring stuff. (Like Danica, I'm a GoDaddy customer!). There's a big GODADDY sign painted along the back stretch of the Mile.

Checking out the Indy Lights cars. Bobby Wilson, pride of Oconomowoc, Wis, gets a big ovation when introduced. He got an even bigger one when he WON the thing. I smell an N-word-style "call." Kidding. Kid drove a good race.

Cydnie, Indy Lights Hotty, had some kind of mechanical issue and got nearly dead last. I saw her as I left the track that night, walking alone near the pit lane. She's not a huge enough star to get recognized outside the team area or sans fire suit. Toyed briefly as I walked by with giving her my card and asking what happened in the race, but I was working to get out of there and worried a bit about the stalker vibe.

Cyndie is probably already a huge pressdog fan, like fellow high-speed hotty Leilani Münter. Oh, the chicks dig the pdog.

Speaking of chicks, I missed several attempts to see Sarah Fisher this weekend. She was meeting and greeting around the track. Just missed Sarah and her PR dude, Klint, at the Honda tent. Sucks to be me.

Trackside Online reported that AGR gave Sarah some parts to help fix her car (leaving them with an even dozen of every part of a Dallara). If you don't subscribe to TSO, you should. Unless being spammed with tons and tons of original info and photos from all things IndyCar is a problem for you. Plus a podcast. While the rest of us were walking around acting important and drinking beers of the race, Patrick was hard at work for TSO again at Milwaukee. Go there and check it out NOW.

After the Lights and before the IndyCar race, at 2:10 p.m., I'm in the stands, working on beer #2. The Firestone Firehawk was out on the track with the infamous air-driven T-shirt GUN, blasting shirts up into the crowd. The thing has some range. If the Firehawk hit you in the chest at point-blank range with a T-shirt it would take you off your feet.

Anyway, I'm continuously amazed at how grown adults become complete freaks when the T-shirts start getting tossed into the stands. People like me who probably have upwards of 43 T-shirts already, will drive for these tossed shirts as if their children are walking around topless due to lack of clothing.

So, the Firehawk fires a shirt up about four sections to my left. Some guy who was sitting maybe 10 rows above where the shirt landed (in an empty row) comes flying down the bleachers, OVER THE TOPS of the back rests, to get this shirt. Because the fastest way to get to this valuable shirt is over about 10 rows of "L"-shaped bleachers.

You know where this is going. He caught his foot on one of the back rests and goes head-first in a Superman-ish fashion down about six rows. I said, out loud, "holly shit!' It was a scary sight. The guy was hurt, but not mortally. He had to get helped out of there by a squad of paramedics and had a gash on his head. Fortunately he got more of a rib shot on the bleachers than a head bash or it could have been a lot-lot worse. I was glad the guy was OK, but imagined myself in that situation saying "That was a stupid move to get a SHIRT."(Unless, of course, it was a Danica shirt.)

Some other guys who had ran over there to get the shirt summoned help for the guy and then gave him the shirt, which I thought was the least they could do.

2:40 p.m. -- From my position in turn 4, I see Jack Arute stalking down the grid. Race Control: "ARUTE IS ON THE GRID." (kidding)

I didn't see Brienne Pedigo in race deployment mode, although I talked her several times during the weekend. She's a total non-diva. Very fabulous. (Gratuitous hotty mention #2!).

2:42 p.m. Driver intros. Danica gets ovated. I see more Danica stuff on people than any other driver stuff, by far. Again, props to Danica and especially her merchandise people for making some cool stuff. Replica Danica jerseys that look like her fires suit on the front and say "DANICA 7" on th back like a baseball uniform. PROPS to your stuff makers, Danica. Kicking everyone's ass ... hard.

Tony Kanaan also got a big ovation as did Helio. Dances with the Stars buzz! I think Helio's ovation might have been equal to Danica's.

2:49 p.m. GRID GIRLS! I am quite sure we have grid girls. I can't see who they are. I think they are some kind of cheerleader/dance quad outfit. Very striking. They're holding umbrellas for each car. NO AIR from ABC, though. Holy crap. You ALWAYS show the grid girls. Dude.

2:55 p.m. were invocating. God Bless America gets sung. National Anthem. Didn't record the singer's name, but she did a good job with it. The National Anthem is a seriously hard song to sing.

FLYOVER. Two T-38 trainers from Randolf Air Force Base. Turn and burn, baby. Next fly-over let's have them blaze over at about MACH 1.1. Nothing like a sonic boom to start the festivities. We also had about 37 Harleys go around the track with American flags for the "traditional Milwaukee Mile Harley Davidson drive by."

TV kicks in. Marty Reid welcomes us to the city that made beer famous. Marco Andretti is on the Pole-o. Graham Rahal is P2. Last time Andretti and Rahal were on the front row was Mike and Bobby in Loudon, NH (home of New Hampshire Motor Speedway) in 1992.

Emma and Scott Dixon get air. OMG, Emma's ensemble. Dude, if you mised it. I saw it in person. I had to take a minute. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to photograph it for ya. (Gratuitous hotty mention #3.)

Indy recap montage. Vince Welch, pit guy, with Scott. Vince -- In Scott's native New Zealand, champagne sales tripled after Dixon won the Indy 500. Cheers, mate!

Dixon -- been fun-tastic. Normally a quite guy that doesn't get too involved in that (media swirl) too much, but it's just been a phenomenal week. Good to get back in the car and get back to work. "Messed up a little bit in qualifying and ended up third. I think we have a good car."

For a Target Car, "Messing up" is getting P3 in quals.

Brienne Pedigo, IndyCar Pit Hotty, with Danica. Still talk about the contact from Ryan Briscoe that put her out of the Indy 500. (Replays of Briscoe hip checking Danica coming out of the pits and Danica popping out of the car only to get restrained by a snappily dressed Security Chief Charles.) Note: I introduced myself and gave Charles my card over the weekend. He didn't taser me, so I felt it was a successful meeting.

Danica -- You get on to next week. Last week was last week. This week is this week. You move on.

Jack Arute: AGR teammate crash at the Indy 500 montage. Marco dove low into a turn, Tony Kanaan said he had no place to go. Spun and took out Sarah Fisher. Arute with Marco -- Feel bad for Tony and for Sarah Fisher. We know how hard she worked to put together a team. If I could do it again I would do something different. I don't want to do that to a teammate and awesome friend.

Danica winning Motegi is now in the ABC/ESPN IndyCar intro montage. My viewing is unbelievably enhanced.

Marty says we got a great crowd and throws it down to Super Tex. 3:07 p.m. -- AJ Foyt (everyone should have to take off their hats whenever AJ Foyt speaks) "Danica and gentlemen, start your engines."

Nothing like The Command to get the crowd into a froth. We're like lions looking for meat. Nostrils flaring, teeth baring -- striking. Grid rolling. Crowd takes its froth to a new level.

Marty with booth buddy Scott Goodyear. Three times Mike Andretti and Bobby Rahal were on the front row together, and all three times Bobby finished ahead of Mike.

Cute the hat! What up and props to the B-Unit. Maybe we can hang at Iowa.

Starting lineup: Marco, Rahal, Dixon, Andretti, Marco, Will Power, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, Enrique Bernold, Oriol Servia, EJ Viso, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Danica Patrick, Hideki Mutoh, Bruno Junqueira, John Andretti, Ed Carpenter, AJ Foyt IV, Buddy Rice, Darren Manning, Townsend Bell, Justin Wilson, Mario Moraes, Jaimie Camara, Mario Dominguez, Vitor Meira.

Marty says Briscoe is right in front of Danica on the starting grid. Marty said they were joking that maybe Danica would come out with a chrome bumper and take care of some business at the start of the race.

Goodyear says drivers are professional, but they also always remember.

Points update: Dixon leads with 191, Helio is 15 back. Then Wheldon (-38), Tony (-52), Marco (-61).

Six onboard cameras, only four of them on Danica's car. (KIDDING.) They all do 360 spin-o-rama's in HD. Right on cue one of the cameras does said spin-o-ramma. Nice.

Brie reports that the pits boxes at Milwaukee, to accommodate 26 cars, are 36 feet long compared to 47 feet long at Indy. Tight. Also, Briscoe's pit is only three away from Danica's. Gives her less distance to march, I guess.

1 to go at the line. Crowd is more frothed up than the opening of Bratwurst Days in Sheboygan. Let's light this candle. Schlemiel, schlimazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated! We are .... GREEN GREEN.

Rahal gets a jump, but Marco fends him off. Power looking under Dixon.

Yellow Yellow Yellow. On TV we're not sure what is up, but at the track we could easily see the field went into four right in front of me about seven wide. Oriol Servia got some damage and then dove into the pits off 4. OMG, he went to evasive maneuver Alfa Tango Foxtrot and DOVE into the pit doing about 125. Nasty. Repays on TV. Servia gets hip checked by a Penske Twin and gets his right front wing mangled. Servia has raced SEVEN times at the Milwaukee Mile.

Townsend Bell passed 11 cars in two laps, going from 21 to 10. He gets MONSTER air. This section of the race alone equals the entire air time for DRR in the last year. 

Lap 4 -- Danica has gone from 13th to 12th. Replays. In-car with Danica. Major sawing on the steering. Total dirt tracking in effect!

Lap 9 -- Servia has wing damage. He's going to drive through the pits, come back around and get a new nose. He's back in. On his radio, the pit boss says, "The pace car is coming! Send him out." so he goes back out to stay ahead of the pace car and not lose a lap. Back in. Nose. Trouble getting it on. Many Spanish obscenities. He'll get out just AFTER the pace car. He's second car on the track, behind Marco, but a lap down.

One to go. Lap 10, we're GREEN. Oriol gets a wicked jump! He's under Marco in the front straight and unlaps himself. Goodyear: Servia timed it perfectly in three and four and got under him. Holding Marco off now. Dixon and Rahal go. Rahal gets under Dixon for P2.

Lap 11 -- Marco, Rahal, Dixon, Power, Helio, Wheldon, Bell (!), Ryan Hunter-Reay, Viso.

Lap 12. Dixon takes P2 back from Rahal. Into turn 1 Power is in the wrong spot at the wrong time and has to lift. Gets inhaled by Tony and Helio. If you lift on this track, you get passed by two or three. Power is back on it and looking under Helio.

Goodyear says he always loved the track because if you can make the high line work you can run high or low.

Traffic coming up.

Marty -- Everyone in front is sort of falling into step now. (Not a lock step, but it's close.)

Lap 16 -- Townsend Bell is 8th. Goodyear gives Bell another shout out. Paramedics arrive to give Bell's sponsor's defibrilation since they're in shock to get so much air.

Lap 17 -- Viso is getting stronger. Now VISO is getting air. Holy crap. The four horsemen of the apolcoplyse are spotted on Greenfield Avenue about a mile from the track and closing.

Lap 18 -- Tony is looking at a Penske car. Not sure which one. Goodyear -- Need your car to be consistent over the entire fuel run. Very important. If you start to go backward in part of the fuel run you could easily lose a lap on a short track like this. Huge point, Scott. Goodyear is on his game today, homeys. He's got the fan fuel knob at full rich at the moment. Props to him.

Lap 21 -- Tony under Rahal. Jack tells us that the rookies got two extra sets of tires and an extra practice sesion Friday night. (Darren Manning was not a'tall happy with that on Saturday. Pissy about it.) Arute says Newman/Haas/Lanigan has a long history here. Based in Chicago, they used to come here to shake down their cars.

Lap 23 -- leaders starting to lap people. The thing about watching this race in person is that after a while there are literally cars on every part of the track. Lots of battles all over you can watch. Very cool.

Danica and Dan Wheldon Milwaukee 2007 pissy montage. Danica was passing Wheldon low and Wheldon came down into her. Famous tape of Danica saying "I'd like to brake check Wheldon right now. Just rip his front wing off." Of course Danica had to stomp up to Wheldon afterward. No Security Chief Charles intervention in that one. Not much came of it. Little shove by Daniker.

Iowa Corn 250 at the Iowa Speedway June 22 has a commercial in here. Get your tickets now. pressdog will be in the house!

Lap 33 - Marty says Oriol is still out in front of Marco. Praying for a yellow.

Vince -- Helio hasn't won in 20 races (since St. Pete last year). Equals his longest drought. Last year Helio was dominating Milwaukee until his rear wing folded like a over-leveraged Savings and Loan. Video. Goodyear says it was a good thing it happened in the front straight and not the corner or it would have been the whoppin' HIT.

Lap 36 -- Team is on the radio to Danica telling her she is half way through the stint.

Lap 37 -- Goodyear reminds us that consistency over the entire fuel run is key.

Lap 38 -- Arute -- EJ Viso is beginning to enjoy oval racing. An 8-year-old girl gave him a bracelet with EJ on it. Wearing it (somewhere). Wants to win for the little girl.

Vince -- Dixon says he's very confident. Drives for a very confident team.

Lap 40 -- Danica and RHR are battling on the track.

Lap 40 -- Dixon takes the lead. On his radio: "Good run on him! Outside .... CLEAR!"

Lap 43 -- Tony has slowed. Back to 6th. Not sure what is up with that. Marty will keep an eye on it. Last lap was 139 mph, 7 mph slower than the leader. Eyebrows are raised.

Lap 46 -- Mario Dominguez gets inhaled. Brief air and mention. If this keeps up, the entire field will get at least some air. Scientists report discovery of a rip in the universe.

Lap 47 -- Dixon has missile lock on Oriol and is closing.

Lap 48 -- Rahal is under Marco! Marco looks like he's in a world of hurt.

I AM MINDY montage. And it was going so well up to this point. HEY!

Dixon laps Meira. Tough weekend for Vitor. Marty says Marco is "dropping like a stone." Dude, now Marty is speaking in less-than glowing tones about an ANDRETTI. I'm pretty sure the universe ends in 12 minutes.

Brie -- Andretti has zero grip. Had a moment just a minute ago. Extremely loose. 10 laps until they pit and try to do something about it.

Vince -- Briscoe has three DNFs. Wants to finish so he won't get in a hurry in this race and do something stupid.

Lap 59 -- Goodyear -- Drivers are all telling the teams about their cars right now so they can adjust at the pit stops.

Oh, I get it. The ABC crew has been inspired by my presence to come up with a viewer information-focused broadcast. Focused on actually providing fans with info that enhances their viewing rather than kissing team butt. I take full credit. This is seriously one of their better efforts this year. My viewing is honestly enhanced.

Marty -- race speeds ar falling. Coming to the end of the stint. Vitor is a lap down. Onboard with Vitor. Replay of his qualification crash. Spun in two and then hit the inside wall pretty hard. Goodyear said the team had to get a transmission out of their back up car and then work on it until midnight (and again Sunday morning) to get him back in. I took the photo to the right at about 10 a.m. Sunday.

Lap 63 -- Tony and Briscoe are in a battle for 5th and 6th.

Lap 63 -- Yellow yellow yellow for "debris in the back straight." WHAT-EVER. That was a "let's not have our first pit stop at crowded Milwaukee under green" yellow.

I call PHANTOM. SHOW ME the debris. SHOW IT TO ME ON TV. Nothing. Didn't think so. At the track a safety truck goes into turn two, I think for show. Servia is probably cheering wildly. He got the yellow he was praying for. At least someone was rewarded by this phantom yellow. AWESOME job of driving to stay out in front of the leader so now he can join the back of the field. Huge.

Goodyear -- Very timely yellow. (No kidding! If Scott calls phantom I'm going to pee myself.) You can expect everyone in.

I personally think Brian Barnhard, the Iron Hand of Justice, had to go to the can and couldn't hold it any longer so he called yellow. Just a theory.

Lap 65 -- Marco is 10th. Marty -- Boy, did he need this pit stop. Yeah. See PHANTOM call above.

Pits are open. Brian Barnhart, Iron Hand of Justice, comes on the radio and commands "let's be smart in the pits." It's a festival of pitting. Everyone in at once. Get the circus music ready. All kinds of swerving and stuff but no contact. Marty -- Buddy Rice missed his pit stall. Will have to go around again. Pits again at lap 67.

Sweepers are out. Getting marbles while the yellow flies. So many cars and so many marbles they may be starting to come down into the racing line. Goodyear says if you get on the marbles it raises your car up and you become "just a passenger" (YES) at that point.

Lap 69 -- Buddy pits again. Topping off.

Lap 71 -- Marty -- Mutoh missed his pit box by three feet so Danica couldn't get into her box (careful) cleanly. Lost some time.

Replay of Vitor about running over Viso's right front changer. Jack says Vitor was already on the radio telling Viso's peeps to cut him a break and watch out for him.

Lap 72 -- We're GREEN. We go three-wide into 1. But cooler head prevail as they back out of it.

Lap 73 -- RHR is around Power. Arute says RHR reports his car is "evil." Just holding on to it right now.

Lap 75 -- RHR -- Rookie of the year at Indy montage. Passing Danica at Indy video. Rahal is never going to pissed to see that.

Dixon, Helio, Rahal, Wheldon, Kanaan, Briscoe, RHR, Power, Mutoh, Ed. Danica is 17th (!).

Power and RHR are now side by side. RHR led every lap at the Champ Car race here in 2004. Lapped the field up to third place. That, my friends, is BITCHSLAP mode. I continue to be stunned at how ABC is spreading the air time around in this race. After covering an estimated six cars in the Indy 500, they are coming back very strong and giving more of the field air. Big ups.

Brie -- Will Power is happy. Confident and consistent all day long.

Lap 77 -- Dixon is GONE on this restart. Hit the turbo boost on that last restart.

Lap 79 -- Helio vs. Rahal for P2.

Lap 82 -- Arute reminds us Rahal is 19 years old. He also reminds us he waved off any wing change at the last pit stop.

Vince -- Tim Cindric is telling Helio that there are a lot of laps remaining and to keep an eye on fuel.

Marty -- Already talking about fuel conservation? (I appreciate and share the tone of disappointment in Marty's voice, 'cause everyone knows the fans turn out to see racers save fuel.)

Camera is pretty tight on Dixon heading to commercial and you an see him checking his mirrors going into turn 1. Very cool shot.

Marty -- Nothing has changed up front.

This is sort of street race-ish. If you watch F1 races especially, when the leader is up by 12 seconds they don't show him. They show interesting battles wherever they are in the field. And it's very interesting stuff. Watching the leader run alone is not. So, again, props to ABC and ESPN.

Wheldon's helmet is based on a design by 9-year-old cancer victim Sophie Banker. Patterned after her blanket that she clung to during treatments. Wheldon said he admired the strength and determination and decided to pattern his helmet after her blanket. Video of Sophie and her family hanging with Wheldon before the race, looking at the helmet.

I'm wiping a manly tear. Everyone in front of Wheldon should intentionally take the wall so he can win for Sophie. Dan. Extremely sidepod worthy.

Wilson has worked his way up the field. He's rocking up form a horrid starting position.

Goodyear -- It's a teeter-totter game on the throttle around her. (Goodyear is clearly on fire today.)

Marty -- Wilson has gained 11 spots since starting. Jack -- They put Graham's setup on Wilson's car after Wilson had that crap qualifying.

Now Jack is even giving me straight, useful information without Shakespearean references. I seriously think Satan is shopping for UL-rated heating blankets right now because the temperature of hell is hovering around 41 F.

Lap 100 -- Servia is still on the lead lap.

Lap 101 -- Brie -- Impressive run by KV racing and Servia. Up 15 positions from the start and happy with the car. Starting to conserve fuel.

OMG -- Brie, Jack, Vince, Marty, Scott -- everyone is EN FUEGO. The ESPN crew has the wings back in the delta and is supersonic on this broadcast.

Lap 100 -- Dixon, Helio, Rahal, Wheldon, Kanaan, Briscoe, Power, Viso, RHR, Wilson (!).

Lap 104 -- Dixon (one of my favorite drivers) is working on putting Danica (Princess Sparkle Pony) a lap down. Since I was in the stands and not in the media center, I expressed my opinion on that. I used the occasion to help myself to beer of the race #3.

Power's pit tells him he's the fastest car on the track right now. The IHJ calls Dominguez in. Too slow. Not sure how you say "pig" in Spanish.

Lap 107 -- Danica on her radio: "We need a yellow." Pit: "Doing a good job. Keep it up."

Goodyear -- She knows the leader is behind her. Looks like she picked up the pace a bit. Gained 1.5 to 2 mph since Dixon came up on her.

Marco is 14th and one second in front of Danica.

Lap 111 -- Tony. Last week flashback. Tony saying it was a very stupid move. Mike saying it was a tough call as to whether Marco should have dove in there (said it with a straight face as well). Tony says on tape the reality is we lost the Indy 500 as the team. Race to win championships and to win races, let's stop creating problems for each other. No choice but to get along.

Marty says Tony says he's not looking to leave. Hasn't been contacted by Penske or anyone.

Lap 112 -- Dixon has lost some of his mo-jo. Falling back from Danica. He might be saving fuel.

Lap 118 -- 16 cars on the lead lap and the last one is Daniker.

Marty -- First race we haven't had to make excuses for former Champ Car teams. Figuring out the ovals. Many have ran here before.

Goodyear -- Helio (I think) loses momentum an runs a "blocking line" going into three so Will Power can't take advantage of it. (Blocking is illegal in the IRL, sort of.)

Dixon had a moment in the car. In car replay. Holy Tank Slapper. Dixon has a MAJOR dirt track moment.

Lap 120 -- IHJ tells Wheldon to give Tony some room.

Lap 123 -- Dominguez back in. Hurls a piece of his collar out of the car. Done for the day. Too pigish to continue.

Lap 125 - Dixon, Helio, Rahal, Briscoe, Wheldon, Tony, Power, Viso, Wilson, Servia (!!)

Lap 129 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Rahal into the Wall. Ray-Wall. Bobby gets air on the spotter stand.

Replays. Rahal goes high trying to get around Manning who was working on Rice. No place to go. Into the marbles and then it's Wal-Smarts.

Marty reminds us that Graham is 19.

Lap 132 -- Wilson has to come down pit road for a splash or he'll run out of gas while the pits are closed.

Jack -- Not a new track for the Unification Drivers, but it is for Graham Rahal. (Another good point. Even Jack is making good points. I swear the sun is going to freeze any second.)

Third yellow. 65 since the last time. Again at the pit window. 14 on the lead lap. Festival of pitting. Carpenter gains three spots off the pitting. Danica gets one.

Pace car is out. Jack tells us how each team has to have one set of mirrors for the rest of the way, no changing mirrors from now on. My viewing is enhanced. The sun reheats. Satan stops shopping for snow blowers.

Arute with Rahal -- Rahal -- Pretty upsetting. Run really well today. Manning was all over the track. Go to the outside of him. Don't think the race officials are doing their part to help us get through traffic.

Dude. Seriously. Bawling about traffic. No. It was a bad decision to try and take Manning there.

Lap 140. GREEN -- Marty -- boy Dixon has a good car.

Viso does a high-low move on Ed and then dives under Meira. Seriously epic set of moves. That was some killer shit there, baby.

Brie -- Servia might be the story of the day. He's made up every position he lost early plus one. Team made up several position sin the pits.

Danica under Marco.

Lap 147. Goodyear. He'd say to Rahal: He's in control of the race car and can see those two drivers maybe sit back and not put your car in harm's way, which is what he did when he tried to pass.

YES. Exactly, Scott. It may be that Scott is not concerned with kissing the drivers' and teams asses or how Rahal will react to being criticized on air! Go, Scott, go!

Goodyear -- Danica picked up the pace when Dixon showed up. Now same speeds as leaders.

Lap 150 -- Dixon, Helio, Briscoe, Wheldon, Kanaan, Viso, Servia (!!), Ed, Danica, Marco.

Lap 160 to go -- Briscoe around Helio for P2. Video of Briscoe inhaling Helio. Marty says Ryan desperately needs this finish this race.

Lap 166 -- Wheldon gets Helio as Marty was recapping some Penske stuff. Pay no attention to the kick ass move on the track.

Goodyear -- "As we were looking at that graphic, Wheldon did a nice move to take over the position."

Maybe Goodyear was tweaked by the alleged praise Eddie Cheever got from the Indy 500 and has clearly amped up his game.

Goodyear -- Paddle shifter helps on this oval. Don't have to reach for the gear lever any more.

Dixon led 48% of all laps this year. Been in bitchslap mode.

Goodyear. Briscoe is faster than Dixon right now.

Vince points out that if Dixon is conserving fuel, he can go longer before the final stop so he'll not need as much gas so that will make for a shorter stop. Very street-race-like.

Lap 173 -- Ice on tape. His mouth doesn't match his audio. He says winning felt surreal like a movie. Had to get the paper the next day to make sure he really won. Was at the track until midnight.

Lap 175 -- Dixon, Briscoe, Wheldon, Helio, Kanaan, Servia, Ed, Viso, Danica, Mutoh, Marco.

Lap 177 -- Briscoe leads. Passed for the lead during the Ice Man package. Marty says Briscoe made up 2.2 seconds in 10 laps.

Arute -- Penske just said "Ryan, you've got a really good car. Make sure you take care of it."

Lap 184 -- Danica inhaled by Mutoh and Marco. She's back in 11th with Briscoe right behind.

Lap 185 -- Briscoe inhales Danica in 11th to lap her. No record if he said "foot stomp this" on the way by. Security Chief Charles briefly runs along side the cars to make sure everything is OK. You don't think Charles can run 145 mph? I wouldn't want to find out.

Lap 188 -- Goodyear -- Dixon may be fighting the car. Car may be in fuel conservation mode.

Last week flashback. Penske on the radio "She's (Danica's) walking down here. Stay in the car and keep your visor down." Danica on video -- "As a driver I wouldn't think of pulling out of a pit stall and all the way to the wall because there are probably going to be people there."

I think Briscoe lost control of his ass end and hip checked her. It's not like Danica has never lost control of her car before. Shit happens.

Briscoe -- bad timing all around. Two feet either way and they miss each other.

Lap 191 -- Briscoe is on fire. Wings back in the delta and he's supersonic.

Lap 194 -- Briscoe pits. Dixon stays out. Arute reminds us it's 60 mph down the pit lane. Left rear problem! Cost him an extra four seconds. 10.4 second stop.

Dixon leads. His pit is telling him nine laps until they pit. He needs to stretch out on Briscoe and take advantage of the slower in and out lap that comes with pit stopping. Very street-race-ish strategy here.

Goodyear -- Penske called Briscoe in when he did because Briscoe was coming up on traffic. Rather than fight that traffic and maybe lose the lead, he chose to take the stop then. Marty -- If we get a yellow now, Briscoe is TOAST.

Vince -- Longer Dixon stays out the shorter his last pit stop will be.

Lap 198 -- Viso hits the wall. He smucked it. I could see it from where I was sitting. But no yellow. Explain to me how that is no yellow (it shouldn't be a yellow, by the way) and some other cases someone whitewalling the wall and we have a 10-lap yellow. Dude. Inconsistent much? Maybe this is the "don't hose Briscoe" non-yellow. Don't get N-word on me, IHJ. Come on, man. Don't go there, OK?

Briscoe pressures Dixon. Briscoe is a lap down due to the green-flag pit stop, but wants to unlap himself. Needs to be right on Dixon or in front of him when Dixon pits so Dixon will come out in back of him on the track.

Danica pits. Trouble with the right rear.

Lap 198 -- a festival of green-flag pitting begins.

Lap 202 -- Wheldon pits. I'm sure Ice will be soon.

Yep, Lap 204 -- Ice pits. Stop is four seconds better than Briscoe's. Here a split screen would have been cool so we could see where Briscoe was on the track as Dixon as is in the pits. The drama here is will Dixon get out in front of Briscoe. Could be the race. ABC/ESPN blew a chance to build some tension here. On the radio, Dixon's team says "start-finish" when Briscoe gets there.

Dixon is out ... but in back of Briscoe.

Goodyear makes his 29th good point of the race when he says Dixon's in-lap was crap, which cost him seconds which may have cost him the lead, and the race.

Lap 206 -- Helio in. Another problem with the left front.

Lap 207 -- Briscoe leads. Bruno moves over for the leaders. Class. One of my friends said Bruno looks like a baby bird to her. I think she's onto something. Bruno chucked his team under the bus after qualifying. You can still see their bones dandling from his undertray.

Lap 210 -- Dixon is closing on Briscoe. He's all up in his business. 

Goodyear says Dixon and Briscoe's spotters are going up and down asking the other spotters to make sure their drivers stay out of the way, please.

Video of Penske yelling at a race official. Sportsmanship is important, kids.

Arute says the captain's "Butterflies turn to bullets." And Arute was on such a roll.

Lap 211 -- Briscoe, Dixon, Wheldon, Kanaan, Helio, Servia (!), Ed, Marco, Mutoh, Wilson (-1).

Lap 215 -- Rice is behind Danica (12th and 13th). Could be a spearing coming. Rice has to be contemplating how getting into it with Danica would increase his air time about 10-fold. There would be on-track video and the required ABC packages featuring Buddy in the studio talking about it. It would be an airtimealooza for Buddy.

Lap 218 -- Vince says Mike Hull just gives Dixon the number of laps left. Spotter is giving him traffic reports.

Tony goes three wide and under Wheldon and RHR (who is a lap down) on the back straight. Wicked move. That's The Move that got Tony on the podium.

Lap 220 -- Five to go. The guy in the stands next to me holds up five fingers. He may have been indicating his blood alcohol content also. Dixon looks high into one. WTF? Balls of steel going into one and even thinking about going high. NO. Makes a move inside. NO. (Briscoe ain't leaving the inside line any time soon.)

Briscoe, Dixon, Kanaan, Wheldon, Helio, Servia, Ed, Marco, Mutoh (-1), Wilson (-1), Viso (-1)

Lap 222 -- Yellow yellow yellow. WTF? We got Marco Andretti into Ed. Holy Dukes of Hazzard! Vitor is airborne! Like the General Lee jumping a river. We hear this at the track. Briscoe had a front row seat for that accident but gets through.

Ed ends up in the middle of the track. Vitor lands on his wheels and ends up mashed against the wall.

Lap 223 -- pace car is out. Briscoe will win. White and Yellow. Briscoe's first win. 15th driver to win for Penske. Penske's 300th win.

Lap 223 -- Briscoe, Dixon, Kanaan, Wheldon, Helio, Servia, Wilson (-1), Viso (-1), Danica (-1), Rice (-1).

Lap 225 -- Checkered. Dixon on his radio: "Sorry boys. Gave it a heck of a shot."

Marco is out of his car. OK. Dixon rolls up to Briscoe to give him a thumbs up congrats.

Crash replay -- Marco goes low and then drifts up and gets Ed. Ed won't be happy. May have to stamp down the hauler row to have words. Then in the smoke Vitor has no idea where to go and just Evel Knievels over the top of Marco. YEEEEEE-HA.

Replay from onboard with Vitor. Death grip on the steering wheel. UP and down. Vitor clings to the wheel as he mashed into the fence. Vitor. Baby. Let go of that wheel. Gonna break a wrist. Look for that to become part of the ABC/ESPN Opening Montage like the classic Buddy Rice up and over at Chicagoland.

Briscoe out. Penske and Cindric give him props. Team passes him around in a body surf fashion. Briscoe says he's happy it comes on Rick Mears' 30th anniversary of his first win. Gives Rick credit for helping him to the win. Happy for Roger to get 300 as well. The car was just magic. Came through the field.

Afterward, Dixon said it was the most fun he'd had in a race car in a long time. Fun way to race. Lots of driver input. Not just flat out. Said he didn't know if he could have gotten Briscoe if it stayed green. Could have gone either way. Happy for Ryan. Good friend. Media been too hard on him. Tried the outside going into 1 because Briscoe blocked the low side. But, Dixon admitted he did the same thing to Helio earlier in the race, so he couldn't bitch too much about it.

Drive of the race has to go to Servia. He got caught up on mayhem on lap 2, lost a lap, made a killer move to get under Marco on the restart and get his lap back, and then stayed out front until the caution. THEN, he worked his way back through the field to SIXTH. Dude. If not for that accident on Lap 2 he may have won it. Epic drive.

That's it. We're long on our TV hole, so we're out of here. (Note to DVR users -- always program it to record whatever's scheduled after the race as well.)

Lap 225 -- Briscoe, Dixon, Tony, Wheldon, Casroneves, Servia (!), Wilson (-1), Viso (-1), Patrick (-1), Rice (-1), Bell (-1), Mutoh (-1), Manning (-2), Power (-2), RHR (-2), Bernoldi (-3), Foyt 4 (-3), John Andretti (-3), Ed (DNF), Marco (DNF), Vitor (DNF), Moraes, (-7), Camara (-7), Rahal (DNF), Dominguez (DNF), Roth (DNS).

Huge shout outs to the ABC/ESPN crew for this broadcast. Seriously, one of their best shows for a while. Lots of info for the fans, lots of focus on the actual race, less trying to be the entertainment, Goodyear was totally wired in and lots of air time up and down the pack. Props from the pdog.

Big ups to Mile VP of media relations Jim Tetrow and special projects coordinator Steve Zautke, who is also the big stallion over at racingnation.com.

Check out my photo gallery from the weekend here.

Tune in for the mayhem that is Texas Motor Speedway on June 7, 10 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2 (TMS in HD. Buckle up.) A race pr homey of mine says he basically says the rosary every time they go to Texas hoping nobody dies.

At 1 p.m. Eastern on June 22 the IndyCar circus comes to Iowa Speedway. Get your tickets now. pdog will be in the house for extendo coverage. Here's hoping the speedway has its parking shit together. Rusty Wallace, official Iowa Speedway spokesperson, says they have the parking fixed. I invested $350 in tickets for the race, so ....

See ya there.

Comments

[mikebdot]

Glad to see you notice Kanaan getting a podium. He was coming up on the leaders hot and heavy. He went from 11 seconds down with 13 laps to go to just under 4 seconds down with 3 to go. It was not undoable. He was also 7 seconds down with 6 to go. If either Briscoe or Dixon did something stupid it would have been interesting...

Too bad it didn't finish green, but it was a hell of a race to watch, even on TV this time. I still wish there weren't so many cut away scenes from the action as they transition to and from "commercial" and commercial. Showing practice footage and footage of Danica during actual race action is beyond asinine. Show that crap during yellow if you want to show it.

But overall, a much improved performance from the guys calling the race. Congrats to Briscoe for not DNFing it somehow...

[My Name Is IRL]

The best part of this race is that unlike most in-person pressdog recaps nearly everything you mentioned was actually ON THE AIR. Guys like Servia and Viso were going like gangbusters and Marty and Scott were discussing them. Shocking!

Must have been the beer and brats easing the ESPN folks into some sensibility.

[pressdog]

Yeah, I usually type up my notes from the broadcast and then go back through and add stuff from my trackside notebook. This time there was very little I had that they didn't have. TV didnt' see the tasty, balls-of-steel pass that Kanaan made on Wheldon to get the bronze, in car-eating turn two no less, but that was about it. I been tough on the ABC peeps before, but I honestly thought this was one of their best races in a while.

[Chris B.]

Great Recap. Matched what I watched. Especially agree with your assessment of Goodyear feeling the heat, especially in so much the moment that he started to say "you were just a passenger" he kind of hesitated like he did not want to say it but could not stop himself or he realized he was saying it at the last second and wanted to censor himself because he or ABC/ESPN has made him fully aware of all his monotone never changing comments... yes he did do better over the course of this race. Do you feel like Brie got less airtime, almost like they are pulling her back a bit to make sure she has quality throw-ins/updates and is prepared?

[Thlayli]

"I introduced myself and gave Charles my card over the weekend. He didn't taser me, so I felt it was a successful meeting."

Best line of the post (yes, beating out the "Laverne & Shirley" reference).

Heard anything about the ratings? It was head-to-head with the N-word race at Dover, it would be interesting to see how they did.