Live from Kansas 4/25/09 Part 3 -- Storm Day Roundup

Hello from the $49-a-night motel that is the pressdog.com temporary world headquarters in Kansas City, KS. I'm pleased to say I dodged the storms and made it to my motel north of the track.

(Only complaint: NO VERSUS or SPEED TV, so basically 75% of my normal sports programming is out of the question, AND I can't watch the F1 race tomorrow morning from non-rain-soaked Bahrain.)

Little did I know as I bolted out of the track around 6-ish that it was looking to be the bull's-eye for a TORNADO bearing down on the area. I just thought I was beating the rain and traffic and, since the motel here has wireless Internet, I could post this from the comforts of the motel while sipping the pressdog beer of the the pre-race, Molson Canadian. More on the weather below.

(I always travel to races with a few iced, emergency/post qualifying beers. You never know when you'll need a beverage or four.)

Anyway, since there is No Beer Allowed in the Media Center (a draconian rule, to be sure), it was time to bolt out of there and do my update from a more beer-friendly locale.

My World, Inverted

Biggest news today, aside from the storms, is that up continues to be down in the IndyCar series. Specifically, Danica Patrick and EJ Viso. Formerly reliable for steering wheel slaps, pointed fingers, blatant speers and kicked pilons, both have calmed down recently much to the distress of fans who "love the fire."

Danica famously told VERSUS at St. Petersburg that she was trying not to be angry all the time at the track. How's that? Exsqueeze me? Come again? Yes, Danica claims she is the kinder, gentler Danica.

I was skeptical, but then after Raphael Matos took Danica HARD into the boards at St. Pete, she passed on kicking his ass while waiting for the safety car to come get them. Odd. No Jacques Lazier head slap or anything, even though she had every right, really. Later she was positively restrained when talking to Jack Arute about it.

Then, today, I saw Danica do the following, in this order: 1) Wave to fans who were yelling "GO DANICA," 2) smile, 3) give an IndyCar guy a festive slap on the shoulder as he walked by and 4) laugh. Right before qualifying! Dancia seemed almost, you know, to be enjoying herself.

LIttle did I know this was a sign of the nutty apocalypse of qualifying and weather to come.

Second, we have EJ Viso, who has refused so far to spear people and seems almost polite. Well, rushing in where Real Journalists fear to go, I put it to EJ directly. Is he going soft on us? Is he being (sneer as you say this) "polite?"

EJ: "I think being polite has nothing to do with being fast and aggressive. I still am being the same polite driver that I am and on the track, and I am looking for the same thing. I want to be the best and take any chances that are there."

Me: "So the fans that are worried about not having the same fiery, aggressive EJ have nothing to worry about?"

EJ: "I don't know what they want to call me, but I am still being the same as last year."

I guess we'll see if he has some of the EJ fire in him after IndyCar officials slapped him to the back of the field for an unspecified "technical infraction." (Read the qualifying results story here.) I would not be shocked to find EJ in full spear mode whenever this race candle gets lit. It's looking like it won't be Sunday, but more on that in a second.

Security Chief Charles, the Iron Hand of Justice and Jack Arute try to triangulate on the 'dog

Jack Arute, tanned to the shade of over-baked oatmeal cookies, made his appearance on pit lane at about 2 p.m. as the cars were lining up to qualify. You can tell when Arute is coming your way because you see a series of people engulfed in Arutian bear hugs.

I am banking heavily on being unrecognized by Arute mainly because I don't want to be hugged. Reba Fisher -- Yes. Jack Arute (and most other people) -- no.

Anyway, Arute hugged his way out onto pit lane with his entourage of cameraman, small monitor holder guy and a guy sporting a backpack full of long, thin black cigarettes. Kidding about the cigs. Jack CLEARLY is on fire about what he does, so give him that. And if he does happen to make random shit up about push to pass on IndyCar and quote dead guys who aren't dead, well ... he's lovable.

 Shortly after Arute showed up, Security Chief Charles came on the scene. He picked up three people not far from me and hurled them over the fence -- just by looking at them. Firm in the rightness of my cause (to serve fans) and tossing personal safety concerns to the wind, I photographed Charles ... and yet was not killed. 

Strange. I thought for sure the snipers would open up on me, but only hoped some how the memory card in my camera would survive.

Anyway, thanks to my extreme wiredness, I managed to go out on the pit road and to the front of the line of cars waiting to qualify. There I turned around only to come face-to-face with none other than the Iron Hand of Justice, Brian Barnhart. Yes, the IHJ was standing right there, and, what's more, WE MADE EYE CONTACT. 

Again, I did not die. Emboldened by the fact that I survived making eye contact with the IHJ and my head did not explode into bloody shrapnel via sniper shot when I took Charles' photo, I snapped a few shots of the IHJ. Seriously.

Well, maybe that was too much, because I noticed Arute easing around the back of me there on the grid. I girded myself for kidney shots and hoped the video people who caught Danica and Milka going at it last year would get my best side as Arute and pressdog lurched together in the Battle of the Titans. 

I wasn't sincerely tense until I turned to my right and saw Charles. IHJ, Arute and Charles in a three-pronged pincer movement of death around pressdog. This was going from bad to worse. Finally, Charles motioned for me to step back behind the little barrier like area. I immediately leaped a few feet to get back behind the imaginary restraining line.

Charles seemed OK with my response, because I did not hear the shattering of my own bones, much to my relief. The deductible on a ruptured spleen operation was not in the financial plans, frankly. 

I did appreciate it when Dario Franchitti came up to talk to the IHJ. (Photo here.) The breezy conditions at Kansas Speedway tousled his lush hair as if he was in a fashion shoot. I couldn't help but thinking "Now there's a right-sexy wee bastard." No sign of Ashley yet.

Some pissiness breaks out in the bullpen

After each driver qualifies, his or her PR people heard them around for interviews. WELL, there's always been a contention between the playahs and the non-playahs in the media pool. Some are kept behind the pit wall and some are not. You can imagine that those who are behind the pit wall are not happy about this situation.

A guy with a Philly accent who I recognized from earlier races was vocally displeased. This (or something else. Frankly, I wasn't paying that much attention, still in awe of Dario's hair) prompted Charles to Spaketh with Fearsome Authority and tell everyone to get back behind the pit wall. At one point, I was on the track side of the pit wall and my homey and Real Reporter Jeff Olson was on the infield side of the pit wall. I looked at him and said "Wow, this is a bit of a role reversal, isn't it?"

Jeff and I are tight. Tight enough that I can kid him. 'Cause he can take it. Plus he's maybe the best pure writer covering racing today. Racer Magazine is his bitch every month. Subscribe today.

Wheldon breaks new ground in the shoe department

Dan Wheldon was supporting some fab cammo shoes with his National Guard outfit.

I asked Danno if he was The Great Hope for finally beating the Big Three on an oval, something not done since Kansas 2004.

Dan: Yeah, absolutely. I think on the road courses too, we've performed really well on the road courses. If it wasn't for getting knocked out of St. Pete with Doornbos we'd be right there in points. I think on both we're very strong.

(I did this interview before Newman Haas Laningan emerged as the possible Giant Killers.)

Philly Guy: Legit shot to win Indy 500?

Dan: Yeah, absolutely. The one good thing about Indianapolis is it's going to give us some time at the same track and we can fine-tune the car to my liking. Obviously it gives more time to work with your engineer and establish better communications. The  more time we have together the better.

Dan also had one of the quotes of the day when talking about the race morning practice, which is just put back into effect for this race since everyone has had about 2 hours on the track total so far. Dan said he didn't really care either way on the race morning practice issue. Plus, he was pretty sure that the rule would change soon enough.

Dan: You never know with the IRL. They changes it up all the time. If you worry about everything they could change you'd be worrying constantly.

Scott Dixon said he wasn't hyper pissed about his first two road races.

Dixon: We had a lot of luck last year and a lot of success maybe it took a bit of a turn at this point. To  be honest, the car has been pretty competitive but we've just had a whole lot of luck take us out of the races. When it's your fault you get severely pissed off. When it's someone else's fault you can kind of stamp your feet for a little bit but then you have to just move on, man, and put it behind you.

Me: So you're even with Briscoe now?

Dixon: Yeah, he got me back after Watkins, I guess. So, we'll see. I think they got me at St. Pete already with Will Power so they are one up.

Of Course, The Hair

First, I give Tony Kanaan mad props to for working the bullpen like he cares about answering all the questions, even from the non-playahs. His teammate, Marco Andretti, would clearly rather undergo unmedicated dental surgery than talk to people in the bullpen.

Kanaan doesn't appear to have shaved his head since Dario won. It's longer, if you call a quarter inch longer (see photo at left). Longer than the normal stubble, for sure. 

Tony said the car "bent" in the Kansas wind during qualifying. "Either the front or the rear, you never know, the way it (the wind) hits." 

Me: So, if you win, do you, personally, physically get to shave Dario's head?

Tony: Of course. I will do it.

Not much of what you do on the oval at Kansas translates to Indy, he said, except getting your oval brain working again. 

Tony: It's just getting back on the oval. That's all. But it's good to get back in the motions, the mind set.

Ryan Briscoe said he approaches the season in sections.

Briscoe: It's a new start, really. Obviously it's all part of one championship but you really have to almost split this championship into sections. We start this championship with the two street course rounds, and now we are at a big oval stretch with the Indy 500 there, and then I think we have a stretch of a few road courses, where we forget what we did on the ovals there and just focus on what we did at St. Peter and Long Beach and so almost nothing relates at all. It's so different. I think it's great. I think it's the only championship in the world that is like that and I think it's really exciting. You really got to be a complete in this championship to have a shot at winning this title. I think it's awesome.

Sarah is all smiles

Sarah Fisher was in a good mood when she made it to the bullpen (not always the case), glad to be back in the car after eight months. "It's just nice to have a solid run in. It wasn't as fast as we thought we could do on our own, but we'll take it. It's good to start at least half way through the field."

Sarah and Milka Dunno will start 11 and 12th whenever this race actually starts.

Sarah said a top 10 at Kansas would be like a win for her. She also talked about the pressures on her as a teammowner and with 40-ish people from sponsor Dollar General in the house. "We need to have a good run here. Everything needs to be solid. I feel a lot more confident in our equipment and just the guys and our sponsor being active about what we are doing."

Look for much more on Sarah So Far in a later post.

After IndyCar and Firestone Indy Lights qualified, the amusing N-word trucks got on the track as the sky grew darker and darker. I bolted the track at 6 when it appeared rain was imminent. Mainly I didn't want to get wet riding to my car. A lot of truck fans were fleeing when I left as well.

But it turns out tornadoes were bearing down on the track while a few thousand fans were still there, to the point that the track asked everyone to huddle in the restrooms and the media center for shelter. A tornado actually mashed a few farm houses just about a mile north of the track, so major bullet dodged there. No reports of injuries yet.

Nobody seems real confident that we'll be racing tomorrow. Forecast is for steady rain until about TUESDAY. (Insert F-bomb here.) We'll see though. They have been wrong before.

That's it from Kansas for today, kids. More tomorrow on the weather including some twittering that goes on sporadically. Follow me @pressdog. Also, PCap @VisionRacing puts out a steady stream of tweeting from the track. During the tornadoes/severe weather, it was a tweetfest. Bryan Herta Autosport (@BHA) even went to the extreme of tweeting a pic from the media center bathroom as they all huddled. The Indy Star's Flirty Curty Cavin (@curtcavin) was not in the house today. If he's here tomorrow, he'll be tweeting away.

And of course there's fellow IndyCar media types @mynameisirl and @estradawriting and @SpeedFreaks and many more. Twitter is taking over the world.

Stay dry and in one piece. From Kansas City, KS, pressdog is ... OUT.

Comments

[My Name Is IRL]

All I can say is if I had the funds I would send you and your Molson to every race, 'dog. This is tremendously killer stuff. THANK YOU!

[Meeshbeer]

Awesome as usual. I can't believe I haven't been to a race yet this year. It physically hurts, at this point, to think about .

[Seth]

Obviously, something came up with Cavin. Ballard is reporting from Kansas.

[The Speedgeek]

Excellent report from the track. I feel like I got to be there yesterday, and I didn't even have to tax the limits of my marriage to do it (that's what today's for). That's a nice job by you, 'Dog. Many, many thanks. Here's hoping that we get to see some fine, fine oval track racing today.

[pressdog]

Thanks kids. I have mad props and respect for the traveling media posse that follows the series to every venue. Lot of work. Lot of walking around. Long hours. I get spent just going to four races a year.

[Seth]

Hornish is leading at Talledega!

[Seth]

Hornish is leading at Talledega!

[Pat W]

Oh this is one of the best track reports ever, just brilliant! I agree with Jeff, you need to do every race. In the world.
I'll read your race report after I've actually seen the race, I am so far behind it's unreal.