Live from Kansas 4/25/09 Part 2 -- Rahal feeling Pole-ish

The main question here is "WTF?"

First, the very last qualifier, Graham Rahal, stuns the world by slapping it on the pole.

On. The. Pole. Newman Haas Lanigan.

At Kansas.

Human sacrifice ... dogs and cats living together ... mass hysteria.

Then, to compound the mental pecker slap, Dario Franchitti in P2 and Helio Castroneves in P3 get TOSSED for going below the white line during qualifying runs. The Iron Hand of Justice (chief steward Brian Barnhart) brings the pain.

That puts Bad Bobby D (Doornbos) in P2. In his first IndyCar oval race EVER. No one in the media center can sit down at this point because monkeys are flying out of all of our asses.

Last year Rahal started P20 in Kansas. He put the massive turn around down to the "McDonald's boys." 

"I just gotta tip my hat to the McDonald's boys," said Rahal. "The amount of effort these guys have put in over the off season ... I went up there a several days over the offseason just to hang out with them and see what was going on and there was a lot of work going on up there so we're feeling pretty good right now."

Rahal is now the youngest to win a pole, now is the youngest to win a second pole. "It just gets better and better every day. I was thinking at St. Pete I can't wait for the day when I get a second pole. But I didn't think it would come this quickly," said Rahal. "At least if I did I thought maybe Long Beach was our best shot. I'm pretty happy with this, obviously. It feels good for me, personally, but more so I feel good for the boys because, as I said, the McDonald's team has worked extremely hard and for them to see this ... especially with our pit incident last week with John Littlefield, who was my fueler, he just showed up today because he's had some headaches this week and for him to show up and do well and to see smiles on everyone's faces, it feels good."

Youngest Indy 500 winner is 22. "Yeah that gives me two years, right? I think it's possible," said Rahal. "I think that if the team continues to work as hard as we have, we know the fast McDonald's car is still sitting back at the shop and we are working on building that thing out for Indy."

But can Bad Bobby D work with Graham? "I don't think it's a good thing if we are not helping each other because I'll be sitting in an office in Chicago explaining myself," said Doornbos."The drafting is important and I'll just follow him the first stint probably and defend our positions and learn as much as we can."

Rahal said nobody should start decorating the winner's circle in N/H/L colors just yet. There is still a lot of work to do on race day.

"I know one thing, you gotta go here on the start otherwise you get freight trained and it's not easy driving around in a pack of 30 cars," said Rahal. "I'm used to it from last year. I was always stuck in the middle or the back. It's going to feel good not seeing anyone in front of me, at least for a little while."

To cap the madness, Milka Duno qualifies 12th, ahead of 8 cars (10 if you count the Dario and Helio going to the back). 

This just in -- insanity around every corner -- EJ Viso gets sent to the absolute back of the field for a "technical violation." That means his car failed tech. The IRL does NOT talk about specifics on tech inspecting violations.

Starting lineup (at this point, anyway): Rahal, Doornbos, Danica Patrick, Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, Mario Moraes, Ryan Briscoe, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, Ed Carpenter, Sarah Fisher, Milka Duno, Hideki Mutoh, Vitor Meira, Raphael Matos, Mike Conway, Justin Wilson, Stanton Barrett, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, EJ Viso.

Comments

[Bash]

Wow - you get to do sports AND weather. Nice!

Thanks for the coverage - I'm looking forward to reading more.

[mkrapfl]

It's always a good race weekend when pressdog is on the scene.

[SpeedyRB]

Thanks for the report from the track!

During the Versus broadcast, Jack Arute apologized to Graham for saying the miscue in the pits at Long Beach was Graham's fault. Apparently it was people on Graham's facebook (or was it his myspace) page that called Arute out for being blind.

They also clearly showed Dario and Helio going beneath the white line - The Professor (Jon Beekhuis) was all over it the moment it happened - and they even showed the IHJ watching the replays, and he gave his decision to Arute on the air!

All in all, a good broadcast (except that Doornbos' run happened during commercial - d'oh!)

[Mike]

C'mon, 'dog...why are you so shocked about a N/H/L car going to the front? Only one year of experience in this series, ya...but for how many years were they every bit the equal of Penske and Ganassi in CART? I maybe didn't expect it this soon on an oval, but I can't say I'm really surprised - impressed, but not surprised.

But then, qualifying isn't the whole story...and we'll see how well GR does in the race.

Heck, while we're at it, let's talk about the fact that AGR doesn't look all that potent in terms of the "Big 3" moniker, even though Danziga qualified impressively.

[pressdog]

I (and everyone else I saw) is shocked at how soon they challenged for the pole. Pretty sure Target and Penske are surprised as well. Graham Rahal is impressive, both on the track and especially off. He's working with the media like a veteran. Very poised and articulate. Will at isitmayyet.com can be proud of his Son of 'Stache. Glad Arute apologized to Rahal. I'll have to catch the replay of quals when I get home.

[Sean]

I'm still disappointed they dumped Wilson and moved Rahal to the McDonald's car, considering I see Wilson as more likable and talented, but Rahal is probably better than I thought he was. Although I guess I should be happy Wilson at least has a ride, unlike Power, Rice, Servia, or Junqueira... I suppose I can't say Wilson was dumped for Rahal; I have to say he was dumped for Doornbos, because Bobby D doesn't seem to have brought any more sponsorship than Wilson...yet.

And I hope Doornbos's second place start will cause people to stop saying ex-Champ Car drivers can't drive on ovals (as is said about Power all the time). The reason they turned in poor performances last year was greatly inferior oval equipment...

[Mike]

mumph mrrph smuff pfrrrgh wlafffbu frumph...

(Translation: Can someone please help me get me foot out of my mouth so I can eat some crow here about my dissin' of AGR?)

Really thought only TK would have that kind of pace out of the AGR team. I'll have my crow well-done (no, not Wheldon), thanks.