Notes taken during the VERSUS broadcast of the Bombardier LearJet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas on June 6, 2009.
Welcome to TMS, so massive that 90,000 people in the stands looks like a few hundred. pressdog beer of the race is 312 Urban Wheat from Goose Island Brewing, Chicago, Ill. Goose Island is one of my fav beer makers and 312 has a sort of citrusy kick to it. Drinking enhanced.
Special bonus this week, kids. Friend of pressdog Bash Beard (The San Francisco Treat) is on the scene (where she sported a lovely pink pressdog shirt earlier in the weekend) and sends us this Live from TMS report:
BASH: “Possibilities” is the theme as the cars grid for another contest at Texas Motor Speedway. A bit of cloud cover with no chance of rain promises a comfortable evening after a blistering day. The folks at Firestone report an ambient temp of 90 degrees with 94-degree track heat just 20 minutes before the command - we’ll gladly take that over the 100-degree afternoon.
Teams scramble to get gear and personnel into place and ready for any possibility during the race. International Superstar Shane Rogers promotes his latest idea on improving the race experience to anyone who would listen (which was pretty much just me): “I’d like a pressdog shirt, size small, with the quote “Cute Boy in pressdog Shirt -- Female Viewing Enhanced.”
The sun sets behind the awe-inspiring front straight grandstand and the IndyCars glisten in the stadium lighting; the promise of three-wide insanity with a surprising, close outcome fuels the excitement in the stands. We wonder: Can Wheldon get his first win with Panther? Can Shaq power drive Matos to victory lane? Will we see more history with a photo finish at the checkered flag? It’s Texas - anything’s possible. Read on as pressdog fills you in on the proceedings.
With that tremendous intro from the Bashtastic one, we abbreviate VERSUS pre-game ... Bob Jenkins in the sky lair with the Salute to Scott Dixon montage, Lindy Thackston with Dixon, IZOD commercial viewing number 10,092, Jack Arute sounding like he's had 19,000 too many cigarettes, a NOS-swilling Wheldon with Robbie Floyd.
At one point we had Shaq with Arute and others, which makes Shaq look like Shrek -- a zillion feet taller than everyone. We briefly imagine here Shaq picking up Arute and hurling him over the fence in rage (like Darth Vader hurling the emperor over the railing in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) and think "could happen."
Congrats to the Carpenters and Lloyds on the birth of their children since Indy. Ed's wife, Heather, birthed first (it's a boy!), followed a few days later by Samantha Lloyd, wife of Alex (it's a girl!).
2009 Indy 500 Helio montage that features Helio weeping. (I realize that "features Helio weeping" is redundant with "Helio Indy 500 montage.") Pit reporters in pickups circling the track with drivers. Marco Andretti Texas Festival of Carbon Fiber montage shows him hip-checking Tomas Scheckter off the track for no apparent reason and with no apparent penalty, as far as I remember (leading to the famous glove throw) and getting together with Ryan Hunter-Reay late last year in the battle for P2.
Jon Beekhuis, booth stallion, demonstrates the goofy-steep 24-degree banking at TMS and does a package on the back wing being tweaked up to slow the cars down so drivers don't black out in the corners. Nobody fondles a wickerbill like Jon. Viewing enhanced with these demos and explanations. Excellent customer (fan) service here.
Booth posse of Bob, Jon and Robbie "Incredi" Buhl on camera. Robbie says it's racing madness at Texas. Bob says "deep in the heart and steep in the turns of Texas." May be writing his own material. Bob also estimates 80,000 to 100,000 people at the track. Believable. TMS is so huge that 100,000 is still 50,00 short of capacity. (These are rough estimates.) I'd believe 80,000 for sure are there.
To Shaq for the command where he channels his inner rapper: Texas Motor Speedway, ARE YOU READY? (repeat) Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.
We got 12 rows of two HOT. Time to cue the hat (running order at the top) and say yo-yo-yo to the Versus B-UNIT.
Trackside Online starting line up. Joe or Patrick actually go to every race and kick out tons of original material for subscribers (fans!). Best of all, they work for FANS ('cause we are literally and directly are their customers) not the league or the network or anyone else else. Be like the pdog and subscribe to TSO TODAY. Costs something like a buck a race. Dude, you gotta try it.
Dario Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick, Mario Moraes, Dan Wheldon, Marco Andretti, Bobby Doornbos, Hideki Mutoh, Graham Rahal, Alex Tagliani, Sarah Fisher, Raphael Matos, Tony Kanan, Justin Wilson, Tomas Scheckter, Mike Conway, Milka Duno, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jacques Lazier.
Onboard cameras with Tony, Matos, Sarah, Danica, Briscoe and Dario.
Pit Strategist Jack says it's important to keep contact with the lead pack, use race to try and figure out what works so you're ready to go in the last 30, which he calls "Short Track Saturday Night." This reminds me I could be and Knoxville Raceway watching winged-sprint insanity right now, so this race needs to entertain me.
Let's light this high-banked candle. We are ..... green-green-green.
IndyCar's standard single-file fugly start. So far no surprises. Onboard with Matos who is inhaling people.
Lap 1 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Graham and Milka. Graham got loose and lost it and came down and speared Milka who was minding her own business. Milka radios: "Who's the menace on the track now, cabrón?" (kidding).
Replays. Rahal's car is evil. Has to lift big time, EJ bashes into his ass and sends him down into Milka who went to evasive maneuver Sierra Gulf Bravo but to no avail. I'll be interested to hear Graham blame this one on Milka a la his Indy crash.
Onboard with Sarah. Replays. Rahal dirt-tracking in front of Sarah. Major fishiness there. Sarah heads low and gets around before Rahal becomes grand marshal of the festival of carbon fiber.
Jon says maybe the rubber on the track from the amusing N-word truck races is screwing with grip in the first few laps. Jon decides to try and talk to Tony in his car. This never works. "Tony, this is Jon from VERSUS, do you have a copy?" Nothing. Tony must be screening his calls. Jon tries again. Nothing again. Viewing not enhanced.
Floyd says Jacques is in the pit with a stretched throttle cable. Can't go flat out, I guess. They're trying to effect repairs.
Lap 10 -- GREEN
Lap 11 -- Briscoe outside Dario --- CLEAR. Nearly touch. Booth: "WOE!" Televised pass for the lead ON THE TRACK. It's a good start.
Danica inhales Moraes. Tony is up eight places so far.
Lap 15 -- Briscoe, Dario, Dixon, Helio, Danica, Moraes, Wheldon, Tony, Bobby D, Marco.
Onboard Sarah working on Ed. Andretti goes high on TK (or it might be the other way around). It's taking about 10 laps to complete a pass here, and there aren't a ton of them at this point. Cars have settled into ... lockstep.
Wheldon and Danica go two-wide for many laps.
Lap 23 -- is out of the sky lair and with Rahal -- right away knew something was whack on the car. Never had a car that bad. Hanging on for dear life. (No apology to EJ or Milka. Sportsmanship opportunity missed.)
Danica and Marco are now two wide for many laps. Replay -- You can see some blue flames coming out of Danica's pipes. LindyCar says Danica will get front wing when she comes in.
Lap 40 -- Milka with Arute. Milka. Insert my surprise here when she doesn't go "Charo" on him as Arute once described her. Milka says everything happened so fast. Tried to avoid but hit right rear. No place to go. (It would have been hilarious if Milka would have let go with a blizzard of angry Spanish at Arute.)
Lap 44 -- We're lapping. Conway pits. DEAD. Situation normal. Same story, different race. Cowling coming off. May be BLOWN up, SIR!
Lap 45 -- Briscoe, Dario, Scott, Helio, Wheldon, Danica, Marco, Mario, Tony, Bobby D.
Lap 51 -- Sarah gets monster air. Mention of her winning the Scott Brayton Award. Fans of Sarah are not even slightly shocked she won that sportsmanship/character award. This is a massive huge thing to win.
Lap 55 -- Matos inhales Tony who may have some issues.
Here comes a festival of pitting. Wheldon and Marco start us off. Sarah is in (according to timing and scoring) but she's not out. (Insert many violent pressdog swear words here.) TV tells us nothing of it, but she's now multi laps down.
Video of Conway's crew changing the gear stack. Yeah, that's not good. Jon says the leaders are saving fuel. Yippee. Could TMS turn into a street oval? That would surely be a sign that we all have better things to do than watch these races.
Briscoe has pitted, remained in the lead and is now up 2.6 seconds, which as TMS is like five minutes anywhere else.
My notes here say: "Arute story featuring Rick Mears."
Lap 75 -- Briscoe, Dixon (HEY, there must have been a pass for second!), Dario, Helio, Marco, Wheldon, Danica, Moraes, Tony, Matos.
Lap 86 -- recap of prior action since we don't have anything going on on the track right now.
Lap 89 -- Briscoe is turning laps at 213 mph and is now SEVEN seconds ahead of P2. That, my friends, is what it means to have your wings back in the delta and become ...ssssssupersonic.
Lap 92 -- Marco 5th (we've entered the random observation zone of my notes since it's pretty lockstepish on the track). Someone goes two wide for 19 laps, passes, the person behind goes two wide for 12 laps, passes back, repeat.
Briscoe has now lapped up to P11. Mutoh is either next or just lapped. Briscoe now up by 7.3 seconds. A very street-raceish lead.
Lap 95 -- Klint Briney, Sarah's PR stallion, twitters that she had an electrical issue and couldn't downshift, which is why she is now four laps down. Get Klint up in the booth.
Lap 99 -- Briscoe is now 6.3 seconds ahead and is lapping Moraes. Tony is next.
Lap 100 --Briscoe, Dixon, Helio, Dario, Marco, Wheldon, Danica, Tony, Moraes, Matos.
Lap 102 -- Tony lapped. How the mighty hath fallen.
Jon -- Briscoe gets faster in traffic. When he hits traffic, he actually increases speed.
Lap 105 -- Briscoe has two mph on the field. Festival of pitting is coming up.
Lap 107 -- Jon says Danica has been working on her outlaps.
Lap 113 -- Briscoe pits late from the lead. So not only is he bitchslapping the field, he's using less fuel. Perfect. I, for one, am glad to see someone going wide open. At first I thought Briscoe said "Screw the fuel nob" and just got the wings back, but now he may be saving fuel AND lapping everyone.
Booth guys say the IRL is thinking of adding a sensor to the cars so they won't go if the fuel probe is still engaged. Much agreement as to the wisdom of this idea. I guess Honda already has a system designed.
Lap 116 -- Briscoe is up by NINE seconds. It's becoming fascinating to see if he can lap the field. I'm oddly fixated on his gap on timing and scoring.
Lap 118 -- Dixon and Helio fight for P2. Helio ... clear. Televised pass for P2! Maybe I don't need to brew the coffee after all.
Lap 122 -- The Boost Mobile ads featuring Danica and the cross-dressed crew are wrong and make me far less likely to buy the product. Jussayin ...
Lap 125 -- Sarah is turning laps at leaders' speed. Too bad she's -4 laps. Briscoe's lead cut to a mere 8.7 seconds.
Lap 125 -- Briscoe, Helio, Dixon, Andretti, Dario, Wheldon, Danica, Tony, Moraes, Mutoh.
Lap 130 -- Danica is 7th. Mike Andretti calls her race. Floyd asks Mike what up -- Mike: Lot slower tonight. Don't know why for sure. Car feels like a pig (I'm paraphrasing Mike). That may be the first air Mike has gotten all year. One of the very few times they've gone to him in the pit, I think.
Lap 134 -- Dixon under Helio for P2 -- CLEAR. Another pass for second.
Lap 136 -- Sarah is faster than Briscoe, but, again, -4 laps. Briscoe leads by 9.7. Holy Street Race Lead.
Lap 141 -- Klint Tweets that Sarah no longer has first gear. Makes your pit stops a little problematic.
Lap 144 -- Marco is in P2. How did that happen? Looks like he got Dixon on Lap 138.
Lap 146 -- Briscoe leads by TEN POINT THREE SECONDS. WTF? Three tiny helicopters land in the infield and 18 clowns get out and hold up signs that say "Briscoe and the Pigs." Briscoe may be driving with his knees at this point.
Lap 147 -- Jenkins says record race pace is 185.710 and we're averaging 184.8 now. Sarah turns a lap at 209 and is rocking ... at -4 laps.
Briscoe now leads by 11.4. ELEVEN POINT FOUR seconds. Welcome to F1 in Bahrain or some shit.
Lap 149 -- Briscoe, Marco, Dixon, Helio, Dario, Wheldon, Danica, Tony, Mutoh, Moraes.
Lap 150 -- Yellow yellow yellow. ... DEBRIS.
Cue the circus music as I call BULLSHIT. Show it to me. Show me the debris. SHOW IT TO ME. F*cking phantom yellow! "Briscoe may lap the field" yellow. Unless someone can show me some debris that was a threat to the race, this is a complete horseshit N-word move here. I'm totally tempted to turn off the TV at this point. Closest I have come in a very long time. (Note added two days post-race: IndyCar said on the Tuesday after this race was over that the yellow was legit. Read their explanation here.)
A festival of pitting is coming up. A tiny ambulance pulls into the pits and 17 clowns get out with some ointment for Briscoe since he got a severe corn-holing on this one.
Tony short-fills to get out in front of Briscoe and get back on the lead lap via wave around. So now we got short-filling. TMS teeters on street oval status.
Replay of Danica stop. Right rear changer had issues.
Lap 156 -- wave around.
Lap 159 -- GREEN.
Lap 162 -- Dixon under Marco -- CLEAR. Marco drops back to fourth in a few laps here.
Lap 167 -- Helio is working on Briscoe and I am still calling bullshit out loud on the phantom yellow.
Lap 173 -- Yellow yellow yellow. AJ 4's car is yard-saling in turn 2. AJ senior gets air. Look for another festival of pitting, the last stop of the night.
Lap 175 -- pitting. replay of Kanaan's fueler coming off the car with the fuel still pouring out of the hose. Fire averted. Bullet dodged.
Helio gets out in front of Briscoe thanks in part to his pit-out box position. A pass for the lead in the pits. Welcome to the Indy Street Oval League.
Lap 178 -- Sarah gets a wave around and gets a lap back. Too bad. Given her lap times, she might have contended for a top 10 tonight.
Lap 182 -- GREEN. Briscoe looks under Helio. Looks looks looks. NO.
Lap 184 -- Danica and Wheldon battling for P6. Danica high. I wouldn't be shocked if Wheldon was just racing to stay ahead of Danica.
Lap 192 -- Danica gets Dan high ... clear. Finally. Kanaan is up to P8. Insert lock stepathon at the front here.
VERSUS rams in roughly 87 commercial breaks here, about 87% of them featuring Danica.
Lap 200 -- Helio, Briscoe, Dixon, Dario, Danica, Wheldon, Marco, Kanaan, Carpenter(!), Matos.
Lap 205 -- Jan thinks Briscoe will wait until later in the race to try a move. LindyCar says Roger just told Briscoe over the radio you've got a fast car, be nice and smooth. A thought flashes through my mind here as to if Roger would toss Briscoe under the bus to get Helio the elusive points championship. That would be very F1-ish. Who does Roger love more? Helio or Briscoe? Not a tough question.
Bob points out that the big three have won every oval since Kentucky 2005. Yeah, we know Bob, but the league says it's not a problem.
Lap 211 -- Marco and Danica smacking each other for 5th. Going two wide for many laps. Sarah pits because she stayed out hoping to get a lap and a yellow. Snake eyes on that dice roll, but she's last of the running cars so you might as well give it a shot.
More commercials here.
Lap 216 -- Matos pits. Not sure why. None of my business. Maybe he stayed out as well.
Lap 222 -- Marco finally gets around Danica. I swear they went two wide for 15 laps.
Lap 225 -- Helio, Briscoe, Dixon, Dario, Marco, Danica, Wheldon, Tony, Ed, Matos.
White flag. Briscoe has to be bleeding from the ass right here.
Helio "wins." Needs to go hug phantom debris competition N-word yellow waving Brian Barnhart for that one. Complete bullshit.
Jan says "this race was won in the pits" which is what fans long for! It was also won because Will Power raced for Helio and got enough points to give the car first pick of pit stalls. Helio is out. Funtastic. Thanks everyone except Barnhart.
Briscoe -- frustrating. Knew unless something happened to Helio "I was going to come second after dominating the race." Yeah, I feel for ya, Briscoe. You got screwed and I'm sure everyone will pretend that you didn't. Unless someone can show me the debris. Probably a bolt lying two inches from the wall in four or something. (Unfortunately, the interviewer didn't ask Briscoe on camera what he thought of the debris yellow that erased his 11-second lead.)
Dixon -- racing needs to get better. (Amen, Scott, or your ratings will achieve the elusive 0.0 and you'll all be driving Atlantics cars for food.) Used to be able to go outside, side-by-side and pass. Can't now. Need to open up the rules.
YES, Scott. Way to speak truth to power. Sure, it's easier for him when he's in the bitchslapee position of the boring conditions. This would have had even more weight if he had said it after a Dixon victory, but we will take what we can get here.
Marco -- Thinks Danica was discourteous to him. Says we are going to have to talk (with Danica). As we see a replay, Marco --"There's racing and then there's what your looking at there." Three out of four of us on the team get the camaraderie of racing. We have to sit down and talk about it. (Pretty sure Danica will blow this off since it's Marco who calls someone an idiot after every race.)
Jan gives Will Power some more props here.
Danica -- Marco made a totally legit pass on me. With 10 or so to go, after a long night, I'm not going to give the position up. Didn't make it hard for him to get next to me.
I guess I'm with Danica here. She's racing, so I don't know why Marco expects her to lift when he's beside her. Danica is in the points race, so, dude, if you can pass her, great. If not, sorry. I don't think Danica threw a block party for him. Not sure what Marco's bitch is about here.
Arute asks Cindric what the key to Helio's win was and Cindric does not say the phantom yellow that blew Briscoe's 11-second lead.
NOTE: If the debris yellow was legit, then I'll gladly stand corrected and retract all the bullshits and horseshits above. If VERSUS was serving the viewers (who pay the bills), they could easily anticipate the skepticism of said debris yellow and put a camera on whoever was out to allegedly pick it up so we could see it. Then we could all see it and say, "Wow, unlucky for Ryan." Short of that, they could actually ask the IHJ what was up with the debris yellow. (Or maybe real journalists could chat up people to investigate this yellow. Breath is not being held.)
But, since they didn't do that, we all have to suppose, and I suppose it was phantom. Too bad nobody is working for the actual viewers here, even if it means telling them something the league isn't real thrilled they know. (Update posted on 6/9/09: Looks like I stand corrected. On Tuesday, two days after the race was over, IndyCar posted an explanation to the yellow. Read it HERE.)
Trackside Online final results: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, Dario Franchitti, Danica Patrick, Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan, Ed Carpenter, Mario Moraes, Robert Doornbos, Raphael Matos, Tomas Scheckter, Alex Tagliani, Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sarah Fisher, Jaques Lazier, Mike Conway, A.J. Foyt IV, Hideki Mutoh, Graham Rahal, Milka Duno, E.J. Viso.
Number of on-track passes for the lead: ONE. (Briscoe around Dario on Lap 11). Dude. ONE. Number of on-track passes for second: 5. Note to IndyCar -- My first thought post-race was "I should have gone to Knoxville."
Next race: Iowa Speedway, 1 p.m. Eastern. pressdog will be trackside. Look for deluxe festival of verbal spewage. Thanks hugely to Bash for her contributions this time. Be sure and tip your bloggers and check the live blogs at MyNameIsIRL.com and SHWIT.ca.
LOL... it appears our heads exploded at the same point in this race. Major Bullshits being spewed at my computer screen last night. In fact I was so disgusted by the race left all my post race writing till this morning once my eyes rolled back into a normal position from the top of my head.
Posted by: Meeshbeer | June 07, 2009 at 09:44 AM
I felt the same way when the phantom yellow came out. I call it a conspiracy too! I know the league likes a "Cinderella story" but I'd rather see the best car win. I really felt like Briscoe got screwed. He's been an excellent teammate to Helio and it's about time he reaped the benefits. As for Marco, all he does is whine all season long!
Posted by: Jenna | June 07, 2009 at 10:09 AM
I'm thinking a Lone Star or a Shiner might have been a more appropriate beer? Or several beers considering the very frustrating show last night.
why can't they provide a suitable formation for starting a race? pathetic.
I still haven't seen any debris from that yellow. Interesting how they didn't even attempt to justify it on Versus. Even professional wrestlers would call that bullshit.
Loved Dixon's analysis of league at this point, and he's absolutely correct.
mario sells wine. marco just whines.
I miss the clown stamp. Surely the phantom yellow deserved one?
Posted by: redd | June 07, 2009 at 10:37 AM
That was...awful. Phantom yellow or not (and I'm on the "phantom yellow" side of that fence), that was, as you'd say, a terrible batch of the product. I'm actually completely cool with somebody walking off and leaving everybody in the dust. Sometimes it's actually sort of fun to see if somebody can lap the field. On the other hand, cars running at near-constant gaps, limited passing, the same four cars running up front for 200 out of the 228 laps, race deciding passes for the lead coming in the pits, and due to pit box placement...it's all the stuff that nobody wants to pay to see. +1 to Dixon for calling that out, but it'd be a +10 if it'd come after a race that he won.
This feels really weird to say, but given that I'm still pondering buying a ticket to Iowa (either through eBay, the track itself, or one of the "online retailers"), I'm feeling very conflicted about going now. Not real interested in spending my day doing a 6 hour round trip and spending upwards of $150 on a ticket, gas, and food, if my reward is going to be 2009's fourth consecutive "street oval".
Oh, nice write up, by the way.
Posted by: The Speedgeek | June 07, 2009 at 11:11 AM
i'm a big supporter of the irl, but i'll say three things I never thought I'd say:
1. nascar's race at pocono will be much more competitive and entertaining than IRL at Texas.
2. as kind of an ovals guy, I actually am ready for the IRL to get to a twisty, just to see if we can get some competition.
3. I understand the Iowa track is very nice and everything, and I'm sure hoping for a good race, but at this point, I think I'd save my money.
oh, and Pressdog, always enjoy your version of the "action."
Posted by: redd | June 07, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Good call on the clown stamp for the phantom yellow,redd. I added it in.
Posted by: pressdog | June 07, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Damn. I was looking forward to the Vegemite too.
Maybe that t-shirt should say, "It's a festival of invisible debris". Very easy to make the conspiracy theories go away, just film the debris.
Posted by: Shane Rogers | June 07, 2009 at 01:11 PM
P-dog-
Long time reader first time commenter.
I was in the stands last night at Texas and when the "debris" yellow came out I was listening to Marco's scanner (lots of f-bombs about Danica and Helio's restart BTW). I swear when the yellow came out Marco said, "So Briscoe is done right?" and his engineer said, "yes he touched the wall in turn 4". I don't know what happened after that, it was never mentioned again on anyone's radio.
Just thought I would "enhance your viewing" a little. Love the site
Posted by: George | June 07, 2009 at 02:51 PM
Great story! It was much more enjoyable than the actual race. Gotta get the Handford Device back in on the ovals. Oh wait, the evil empire came up with that one, can't do that, right?
Posted by: Andy Banfield | June 07, 2009 at 04:51 PM
Pocono was alwful, and so was texas. A 10 second lead is no fun, and neither is a fake yellow
Posted by: dylan | June 07, 2009 at 06:08 PM
I expect Robin Miller will at least publicly call bs on the yellow. Speed Report is on right now, so I'm eagerly awaiting the call by RM...
Seems like the Hanford would serve the purpose well, but as with most things CART/CCWS, the ICS hierarchy will simply keep their fingers in their ears about the benefits.
Posted by: Mike | June 07, 2009 at 06:20 PM
If I had to choose between someone winning by a lap and a fake yellow, I'd take someone winning by a lap every time without hesitation. At least it's honest. The fake yellow is like the ref calling some phantom fouls in a sporting event just to "make it more interesting." No excuse.
Posted by: pressdog | June 07, 2009 at 06:27 PM
2:32 to 2:36 after Buhl says "yellow" on lap 150 on the left as the cars go by there is a Delphi safety team truck that backs up next to the wall and someone comes out of the passenger side and picks something up off the track and gets back into the passenger side. Whatever it "was" it wasn't big enough to be seen from that camera shot.
Posted by: ed d | June 07, 2009 at 06:31 PM
I was wrong. After watching Pocono today, I'd have to say even the boring IRL race at Texas was better than that.
Happy Stewart won though.
Posted by: redd | June 07, 2009 at 06:59 PM
What a GREAT race. What a breath of fresh air! OK, so the fix was in and the debris didn’t exist but it’s Penske vs Ganassi so who cares. It wasn’t the fault of VERSUS!!!!!!! The Versus coverage was SUPERB. No more ABC fawning, gushing, hero-worshiping, ass-kissing, mind-numbing drivel. No more Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Penske car in the lead- Penske is a GOD … Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica, Danica,… Instead we had REAL race commentary. Danica was treated like any other driver. We saw all sorts of jockeying in the middle of the pack not just watching a Penske car driving around by itself. I loved it. I absolutely loved it!! Die ABC.....DIE you bastards. ABC will kill the IRL!
I'm not opionated though ......
Posted by: S0CSeven | June 08, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Race? what race? When I wasn't watching the insides of my eyelids (thank you, big comfy recliner)I remember seeing a parade. Hopefully the IRL will get this no passing under green crap figured out and make a change before Chicagoland. Otherwise the first Indycar night race at that track will be my last.
Posted by: Rob | June 08, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Rob, you must have been watching the front of the pack where passing isn't allowed unless the IHJ allows it. In the MIDDLE of the pack there was all kinds of stuff happening.......... and Versus covered it!!!
Posted by: S0CSeven | June 08, 2009 at 01:01 PM
The only issue I have with an otherwise outstanding effort by VERSUS is they could have helped us be OK with the phantom yellow by showing us the truck that was dispatched to pick "something" up. We see the pickup go out, it stops, someone hops out, they pick up something, simple. That alone would have enhanced viewing about 293% Saturday night. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know viewers are going to be skeptical and serve them with the aforementioned shot.
Posted by: pressdog | June 08, 2009 at 01:09 PM
Maybe it's just me, but I enjoyed the race... up until lap 150, when the competition yellow made me really angry. I'm calling race fixing on this one.
The sad thing is is up until that point it'd been one of the races of the year so far for me.
Posted by: Leigh O'Gorman | June 08, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Nice collection of pictures and congratulations to the winner who got the first position in the race. I really like the guns that Helio is holdingin the picture.
Posted by: Vicky | June 20, 2009 at 02:21 PM