Notes taken during the ABC broadcast of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, July 20, 2008
The British Open goes long, so we're diving in at lap two of the race. Marty Reid, booth dude, tells us it was a very clean start, yet we get no replay. Very clean and fugly if it's up to IRL standards. Two storms have come through the area and everyone started on wet tires.
Speaking of wet, pressdog beer of the race is a 24-ounce Coors heavy, "The Banquet Beer" since 1873 in a "cold activated can," whatever that means. (Oh, I see it: When the mountains turn blue, it's as cold as the Rockies!)
I haven't drank Coors for a strong 20 years. Tasty! To me, Coors Light is what I imagine goat piss would taste like, but the heavy stuff is good. Love the continuous bubbles from the bottom of my tall glass.
Cue the hat and my customary props to the graphics B-unit. Starting lineup: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Marco Andretti, Justin Wilson, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Buddy Rice, Oriol Servia, Bruno Junqueira, Hideki Mutoh, Vitor Meira, Will Power, Dan Wheldon, Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mario Dominguez, E.J. Viso, Enrique Bernoldi, Mario Moraes, Danica Patrick, Darren Manning, Ed Carpenter, A.J. Foyt IV, Marty Roth, Jaime Camara, Milka Duno.
Helio leads. Track is rapidly drying so Power is in for slicks. Manning, Vitor also changing to dry ties. Marco is going Jeffersons (moving on up). He started fourth, so not sure how he can move up. Must have gotten shuffled back in that clean start Marty told us about yet didn't show us.
Booth color guy Scott Goodyear tells us driving on rain tires on the dry is like driving on a gravel road. Helio has a one-second lead. Points recap. Marty says Helio is 63 MARKERS back from Dixon. Marty pops into marker speak when he talks about the points, er, markers standings.
Lap 4 -- Tony in for slicks. Wilson dives under Helio to lead. Actual pass for the lead on the track. Earth briefly stops rotating and cars float weightless above the track. The excitement is short-lived as Wilson and Helio dive into the pits for dry tires. It's a festival of pitting now.
Yellow yellow yellow -- Mario Moraes spins. Local yellow! I grab my chest. Someone must have shot the IRL a memo that you can go local yellow. It is possible. May have sent them tapes of F1 races where full-course yellows are rare. My viewing is enhanced.
Post-pit Wilson flies off the course into the grass. Off-roading. That's going to leave a mark on the timing and scoring sheet. Drops him from 8th to 16th. Gets some spots back quickly, though.
Lap 6 -- Marco under Helio. Another on-track, on-screen pass, but this time for fourth. You take what you can get.
Brisco pits for tires. Miera leads, Manning second, Power third. No big three drivers in the top three. Satan reaches for a sweater.
Lap 8 -- Vitor, Manning, Power, Marco, Helio, Dixon, Kanaan, Wilson, Rice, Mutoh.
Lap 9 -- Replays of Dominguez going into a corner too fast, off-roading! Holy dirt buggy. Smacks the rear wing on the barrier a little bit. Keeps it going.
Yellow yellow yellow. Ryan Hunter-Reay tried to dive under Bernaldi and they smacked each other. Pretty "optimistic move" as F1 color guy David Hobbs would say. (Sadly, he's not working this race.) This will be your full-course yellow for two cars off. One car, local. Two cars, full-course. At least there's some progress. Safety car!
Danica update -- She stated 20th and is plucky in 17th. Marty tells us Saturday in practice Danica and Milka had a little bit of an issue on track. In-car video of Danica trying to pass Milka during practice. Goodyear says Milka should have moved over since Danica was much faster. I think she should have just left the track entirely. Parked it on the hauler until Danica was done. But that's just me.
So, of course, Danica needs to stamp down to Milka's pit after that and yell at her. She's a spark plug! Video of the encounter. I'm enthralled. This is bound to be the most exciting moment of this particular race. Danica is jawing Milka's people. Asking of Milka saw her. Not sure what Danica expects here. Milka says she saw her. Any other questions? Milka says some stuff. Asks her to leave. Throws a towel at Danica, twice. Danica: What the hell? You're slow. You give everyone a hard time. Danica drops a couple f-bombs. I think of of them was "when you're in the (fbomb) corner," Milka says a flurry of something I can't tell what it is. Accent is inches thick. Then she says "please go away." This whole time Danica is on one side of the pit wall and Milka and her posse are on the other side. Danica storms off saying she's going to talk to Brian Barnhart, chief steward, aka the Iron Hand of Justice, who will probably promptly put Milka on double secret probation, which means nothing, because if Milka goes so does her Hugo Chavez Venezuelan oil money.
The IRL, in a surprisingly edgy marketing move, posted the video on You Tube. INSANE. They may be trying to build interest in the sport. Novel. Daniker don't look that good in this to me, but I'm a conflict avoider. People who watch Jerry Springer hoping to see people argue an throw chairs will probably be all over it. View it HERE:
Again, not sure what Danicker expects from this encounter except for Milker to be aware that she should pull over immediately for Danica. Pretty sure Milka is clear on Danica's desires.
Later Milka told The Media basically that if Danica wants to GO she knows where to find her and that she won't have to restrain herself like a man would when confronted by the Spark Plug. Dude, Danica-Milka cage match undercard would guarantee a sell-out at Texas Motor Speedway. After the race they could just go at it. Track dude Eddie Gossage is working on a plan right now.
Goodyear -- Danica has every reason to be upset. I question Danica's approach on it. He would have gone over with the team manager, sent the team manager over, had a conversation, been a little less freaky about it. "She's very feisty but that's how she drives a race car."
Sportsmanship is important, kids!
Scott, love ya, but take a position. "I question Danica's approach." That's it? Give us a ruling there, Scott. Danica screw up or not? Milka a menace or not? I question the wishy washy nature of this commentary. The F1 announcer dudes would have been hooting and hollering over this one and told us exactly what they thought of everything. Pretty sure the ESPN/ABC posse ain't going to be real critical of Danica the Meal Ticket/ratings producer any time soon.
Here's what I think: Milka should have moved over and let Princess Sparkle Pony through. But, having said that, I'm sure others had issues with slower cars in practice and didn't go marching down to the pit for some big ass confrontation that is going to achieve nothing. Danica's move post incident was just as bush as Milka's move on the track. Don't hold your breath for the IHJ to do anything more than meaningless double secret probation. For sure the Meal Ticket ain't getting the smack down any time soon.
Everyone can return to their napping now since we're going back to the track. Bernaldi is done. Other cars underway.
Lap 14 -- Green. Pit dude Jack Arute says he talked to Dixon "at length" about this year ('cause they are SUPER TIGHT) and he's driving more conservatively than last year when he had to catch up. Drive for those top-five finishes. Racing for points rather than wins. Fans love that!
Goodyear says the drivers say the track is very physically demanding.
Arute says Tim Cindric decided to add downforce for the race when the wet weather came.
Lap 20. Vitor leads. Finished second eight times. Vitor, Manning, Power, Marco, Helio, Dixon, Tony, Wilson, Rice, Mutoh. Danicker is mired in 18th.
Lap 21 -- ABC goes "Up To Speed" and works down the grid with a pit reporter-palooza. Vitor is full rich. Brienne Pedigo, IndyCar Pit Hotty, reports that Darren Manning is on fire. (Not literally, but still.) Building on the crazy phat momentum of second at Watkins Glen and top 10 at Crashville. Arute says Helio is "mired." Dixon is conserving fuel (hooray!): Tony has severe understeer. Rahal is 8th and saving fuel.
Briscoe pits. Jack says he's getting out of sequence on purpose so maybe he'll get to the front like Manning and Vitor did recently. Roger Penske us up to something.
Buddy Rice, the dream is over, gearbox issues. Pitted. Lapped.
Lap 24 -- Yellow yellow yellow -- Mario Dominguez goes off course. Spin, off-roading, Marty says the rear wing is "askew." I think it's "akimbo," Marty, and I plan to march down to your announcing booth and curse you out about it, 'cause I'm feisty.
Replay: Dominguez's back wing folds down like a convertible top while going down a straight (shades of Helio at Milwaukee in 2007) and that sent him spinning. Comments from Tyler Tadevic, Mario's pit boss. Mario stays in the car as it gets the hook. We're full course yellow for this, of course.
Yellow touches off a festival of pitting. Will Power gets out of the pits first among the leaders. AJ 4 is dead in the pits. Arute talks us about the "armco" (?) barrier that's the pit wall and how high it is. It's waist high. Pretty high. Probably a foot to 18 inches higher than normal. Crews have to scramble over that. Could be a MENACE. The "armco" has now gotten more air than Ps 12 through 20, excluding Danica.
Lap 29 -- Milka and Danica nose to tale (careful!) on the track. I'm sure I speak for the entire audience when I say I hope they just pull over, get out, pop their lids and GO. Something to stave off the naps I feel coming on here.
Marty says this could turn into a timed event. Two hour max on this race. After that the IRL will have to adhere to the Geneva Conventions for everyone held captive at the track. The Red Cross is standing by to make visits.
Lap 30 -- Briscoe is in fourth. Pitted just six laps ago. EJ Viso was optimistic he'll have a good car. Still a little weak after the mumps. May have hit a tire on pit road and that would be a penalty.
Restart order -- Wilson, Wheldon, Camara, Briscoe, Ed, Moraes, Power, Helio, Dixon, Vitor.
Lap 31 -- GREEN. Wilson gets a monster jump. Power and Helio inhale Ed. Race control says no penalty for EJ after last stop for allegedly hitting a tire.
Lap 32 -- Marco is off in turn 12. Just spun it alone. Keeps it running and is sitting by the side of the road waiting for traffic to pass so he can get back out. NO YELLOW. OMG, the IRL is keeping its yellow in it's pocket somewhat this race. Viewing enhancement.
Arute says Wheldon is conserving fuel. Just what every fan wants to hear!
Wilson up by 2.9. Goodyear -- Richmond showed that Jaime Camara may be a diamond in the rough. Camara led briefly at Richmond.
Back to Marco. On board with Marco. Ass around just got on it too hard.
Lap 34 -- Wilson is now four seconds ahead of second place. Pit dude Vince Welch says Wilson is trying to build as much of a lead as possible before he pits so he can come back out in good shape. Wilson was very confident before the race.
Yellow yellow yellow. Milka is dead stick. Justin's four-second lead is SCREWED since this is full-course yellow and everyone will pack up. Milka is on the track. Needs a restart. Wheldon has to come in for a splash since he was about to run out. Replay of Milka spinning. Viso has contact with Mutoh.
Festival of pitting. Lap 40 of 85. Not even half way. Marty says Paul Tracy will be at Edmonton next race. Sarah Fisher will be at Kentucky and Chicagoland and Bryan Herta has joined Vison as a road course consultant.
Lap 42 -- RHR got the wave around and is back on the lead lap after his spin-o-ramma.
Package here about Marco and Michael. What's it like to work for the father? Does he get more breaks than others? yada yada. Marco says he's very aggressive, which he can be, since he's unfireable. I'd be hyper aggressive too if I didn't have to worry about running out of cash for carbon fiber and didn't have to worry about being canned from the team.
Lap 42 -- GREEN. YELLOW. We got a major fubar in the back. Wilson is toast. AJ4 is in there. Marco toast. Replays. Wilson tries to jump Mario Dominguez and we got contact. That spins Wilson and then everyone tries to swerve to avoid the 27 clowns that instantly appear on the track. Vince reports spotters had a deal that Dominguez was going to let Wilson around him at the green but Dominguez got loose and got into Wilson. Replays show it was pretty close. Not an obvious loose deal. Wilson may have been over optimistic.
Lap 46 -- Radio from Dixon. Couldn't really make it out. Guys in the back did something. Viewing is not enhanced.
Restart order -- Briscoe, Moraes, Power, Helio, Dixon, Vitor, Servia, Manning, Tony, Ed.
Marco -- saw a lot of blue smoke in front of me and didn't see where could go. Marty and Goodyear absolve Marco of all responsibility for that DNF.
Lap 46 -- Green. Replay of Watkins Glen Dixon brain lock collecting Briscoe. Marco getting fishy at Nashville and collecting Briscoe. Briscoe has been hapless lately.
Vince -- Moraes is in second here. Would be huge for Dale Coyne racing to get silver. He's just 19 years old (Moraes, not Coyne).
Brie reports Power has more fuel. Three laps more than Moraes and four more than Briscoe. She says every single podium, top 5 and win for Power has been on road and street courses. Makes sense since Power never drove an oval ever until he came to the IRL.
Lap 50 -- Vince says Tony doesn't like his car (he never does). Cannot get the power down out of the corners. Vince also says Rahal also is wearing a special helmet today featuring many of Paul Newman's movie posters. The helmet will be auctioned off after the race to benefit the Hole in the Wall camps. Rahal's fave Newman movie was Slapshot.
Lap 52 -- Right on cue, Rahal spins. Off track. Nose toward wall. No reverse in the car so he gets to sit until track dudes get to him. Much gesturing. LOCAL YELLOW. I'm seriously having angina over all this local yellow. It's a shock to my system.
Lap 55 -- Briscoe pits. Briscoe is back out. Turns some 1:09 laps. Briscoe thought the track would go full-course yellow when Rahal spun, but no. So he came in at Lap 55. Moraes leads and is dirt tracking out there. Power is second and cuts the gap from 4.5 to .5 in one lap. (Moraes must have off-roaded it.)
Arute with the cutaway car which is difficult to see in side-by-side viewing.
Lap 57 -- Moraes pits from the lead. Power leads but will have have to stop soon.
Lap 58 -- Marty Roth spins. LOCAL YELLOW again. Again -- shock. Super big shout outs to race control for using the local yellows. Vitor, Oriol and RHR (P 2-4) have to pit under green. INSANE.
Lap 59 -- Power pits from the lead. Late pit stop screws his chances for winning this thing.
We pit cycle through until Briscoe leads again.
Lap 60 -- Briscoe, Bruno, Helio, Dixon, Power, Oriol, Vitor, Moraes, Manning, Tony
Lap 62 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Moraes spins. Full-course.
Bruno is second but needs to pit. Dale Coyne says they need a ton of yellow to make it to the end.
Package wherein Helio is the director of the cameras. In the A Unit! Directing. Quippy.
Somewhere in here we go green. Back to the actual race. Goodyear says Briscoe is 2 mph faster than anyone. Everyone bust out the magazines, this one is over.
Marty makes a big deal about seven leaders in this race. Only thing is, ONE was a pass on the track. The rest were during pitting. So that's not such a hot indication of the excitement of this race, Chief.
Marty says Dixon wants to keep Helio right in front of him. Will pass if he gets the chance, but won't risk his car.
Danica update -- She's 12th and is a presenter at the ESPYs.
10 to go. Bruno will pit this lap. Briscoe has 11 seconds on the field. Bruno gets back out in 11th. Some killer stuff in here showing Wilson working on Danica for position. Shot from the rear of Danica's car back at Wilson you can see how he closes on her, almost, falls back, closes, nice camera work of the battle back there. Looks like only a matter of time before he gets her.
Lap 77 -- Briscoe, Helio, Dixon, Powe, Oriol, Vitor, Tony, Manning, Mutoh, Danica.
Insert lock step here.
Brisco flash back to Milwaukee. Marco gets aggressive and takes out Ed. Vitor gets airborne but Briscoe misses the wreck.
White. Checkered. Briscoe wins. Penske on the radio: Great job. What a driver. Briscoe -- Great job, guys.
Arute with Penske -- What a great drive for Briscoe. Validate himself as one of the top drivers. 1-2 for Penske is great.
Briscoe -- Team Penske car was awesome. Roger strategy was fab.
Lap 85 -- Ryan Briscoe, Helio, Dixon, Power, Oriol, Vitor, Tony, Manning, Mutoh, RHR, Wilson, Danica, Bruno, Camara, Ed, Rahal (-1), Wheldon (-1), Foyt IV (-1), Dominguez (-2), Rice (-3), Roth (-5), Viso (-5), Milka (-6), Moraes (DNF), Marco (DNF), Bernoldi (DNF).
Markers Recap (Driver points standings): Dixon, Helio (-58), Tony (-90), Wheldon (-91), Briscoe (-159), Danica (-171).
Tune in Saturday, July 26, 5 p.m. Eastern, ESPN for the Rexall Edmonton Indy on an old airport track.
'Dog,
I've got to agree with you on F-1 vs. IRL. Due to the crackerjack staff at ABC, I watched about 45 minutes of the German Grand Prix on Fox (I was wondering if they were going to title the race "When Lewis Hamilton Attacks") and saw the following:
Actual passing, some clean, some "WHOA, what the F@#% was he THINKING!?!?!?!"
Coverage of contests further on in the field.
Excellent on board shots.
Polished announcing from Varsha and Hobbs.
After all those years of arguing with my Euro-Centric brother John, will I have to admit that, GULP!, F-1 CAN be exciting racing?
One thing I did notice was the F-1 track was a darn sight wider than Mid-Ohio, so perhaps it was more condusive to passing than the IRL race.
Also, given that darned near everybody ABC did a special feature on or talked up spun off track, are our booth announcers the equivalent of the SI cover jinx?
Props to Briscoe for winning the race, AND keeping his job for 2009.
Posted by: mmack | July 21, 2008 at 08:22 AM
Thanks to the miracle of DVR, I watched both races this week. F1 notes coming soon. The F1 race was far, far, far superior in every way you mentioned. Even the way Hamilton won it was epic. His late pass of Massa was a beer-spewer. I greatly enjoyed it.
Posted by: pressdog | July 21, 2008 at 09:10 AM
Pdog:
When someone hits Marco, is that Marco Polo???
Also, could someone wake Scott Goodyear up BEFORE he goes on air? Otherwise, he could just phone it in from home.
Great commentary bas always. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Chuck | July 22, 2008 at 03:45 PM
Yeah Mid-Ohio is fairly narrow. Glad to see they are learning about local yellows! Is this the hand of Tony Cotman?
Good that Wilson got by Patrick in the end, not that we saw it, he was clearly quicker and shouldn't have made that restart error.
How did Ed stay on the lead lap? Luck or improvement?
BTW, Armco has been used on road and street courses for decades and is the standard trackside barrier - I've never seen it used as a pitwall before.
Off to read German GP notes now..
Posted by: PatW | July 22, 2008 at 04:06 PM
Jack likes to bust out the insider talk - Armco. I bet a strong 93% of the audience had no clue. Marco --- POLO. Funny. I may steal that.
Posted by: pressdog | July 22, 2008 at 05:05 PM
No way, anyone that knows much at all about racing (particularly F1, or any series that races on American road courses) knows exactly what Armco is. Heck, some TV commentators won't even bother saying "barrier" or anything, they'll just say that someone "hit the Armco hard" or whatever. It's capitalized since it's a brand name -- or, more accurately, the name of the company that makes it -- although, somewhat strangely, the company has since changed its name and is no longer called Armco.
Posted by: Ryan | July 24, 2008 at 08:50 AM