Notes taken during the ABC broadcast of the Festival of Carbon Fiber, Streets of Toronto, July 18, 2010.
pressdog™ Beer of the Race is Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA. When in doubt ... torpedoes away!
Marty Reid, booth stallion, kicks it off with a little Toronto race history. Then rolls into a commercial by saying the IndyCar posse is here in the land of hockey to do a little "checking" (into the street-race-dasher-boards) of their own.
Did someone say hip check? Is Marty bogarting my material? Because you KNOW it's all about me. Everybody thievin' my material! Kidding. I kid.
Marty drops a "picture perfect day" on us. Somewhere in Key West Todd Harris rolls out from under a bar booth and screams "PENSKE PERFECT" before being dragged back under by angry cockroaches.
Last year montage. Insert Helio Castroneves getting booed for taking out Canada's Beloved (Paul Tracy) here.
Jamie Little and her Man-Killing Ponytail with Dario Franchitti. Jamie thinks that since Dario changed an engine after qualifying, he'll have to start at the back. Silly Jamie. Those rules do not apply to the Chippy Ganassi dynasty. They got a special writ from the Emperor and are staying right there in P5 for the start.
Will Power Watkins Glen montage. Bumps and change in surface (asphalt and concrete) at Toronto make it difficult.
Marty lets us now that Race Control, led by the All-Knowing Iron Hand of Justice (Brian Barhart, chief steward) was not aware that Dario changed an engine. Now that they saw it on TV, the IHJ is mulling over whether or not Dario will have to start at the back. What's your guess, kids?
Paul Tracy gets monster air with pit dude Rick DeBruhl. Tracy pulls a Wheldon and quickly turns the logo on his Monster drink bottle toward the camera. Nice. (Har. I just realized I said he got "monster" air. Get it? Monster is his sponsor. I slay me.) Insert the love of a nation for Tracy here. He's from suburban Toronto (or a town in the Toronto metro mass, depending on your level of analness).
NASCAR'S OWN DANICA PATRICK! gets air for her presenter gig at the ESPYs. (She was introduced at the ESPYs as "NASCAR's OWN!" causing some ruffling among the easily ruffled.) Danistar says she's ready to go. Haters .... START YOUR ENGINES.
Replay of IndyCar's holographic announcement featuring theoretical cars that may or may not be built before 2012, in some fashion. Scott Goodyear texts on his Droid X that thinks it's incredibly amazingly good. (Made the Droid X part up.) Says in 2012 we'll have different looking cars on the track. Apparently Scotty has some manufacturers in his back pocket ready to go. Do share who those are, Scotty.
Goodyear takes us around the circuit on board Canada's Beloved's car. Concrete patches in among the asphalt are slick. Proceed with caution. Marty lets us know that Ganassi VIOLATED NO RULES with the post-qualifying Dario engine change and will start in P5. A ripple of shock runs through the viewing audience.
Down to Greg Kinnear (right), Academy Award Nominated actor (who I presume is Canadian, given the general theme here), to give The Command. "Ladies .... and Gentlemen .... start your engines. Who-yeah" (or similar). A dramatic interpretation from a dramatic guy, I guess. I did not realize Kinnear was Oscar nominated.
You know what this race needs? More Shatner. Bill Shatner is Canadian. Get his people on the phone for next year.
Tracy and Helio 2009 festival of hipcheck replayed. Then video of them smacking in practice. Tracy Montage. Cue the HAT (running order at the top). Yo yo yo to the B-UNIT. At least limit shotgunning gin to the commercial breaks this week, OK? And make sure it's Tanqueray. Have some class. Danica and I will be over for margaritas at Chicagoland.
Starting lineup brought to you by Trackside Online. Joe was in Toronto working it like a runaway works a stripper pole. Joe knew, for example, and shared with subscribers, that Dario's engine swap would not put him at the back of the field. If only ABC and the IHJ subscribed to TSO like me, they would have been ready. You should SUBSCRIBE TO TSO imediatamente.
Justin Wilson, Will Power, Helio Catroneves, Ryan Hunter Reay, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani, Marco Andretti, Rafa Matos, Danica Patrick, EJ Viso, Graham Rahal, Dan Wheldon, Bertrand Baguette, Mario Romancini, Tomas Scheckter, Mario Moraes, Simona DeSilvestro, Hideki Mutoh, Alex Lloyd, Paul Tracy, Milka Duno.
We go down to the pit road toss around. Video of Jamie at the Race to the Party in Toronto wearing a tank top with the guns out that greatly enhances my viewing. We get to Vince Welch ... oh shit, let's light-this-candle-we're-GREEN-GREEN-GREEN. Holy f-bomb. ABC fubar's the start again. I guess the start is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. This missing the start is seriously stepping on Marty's start-of-the-race material that he's worked hard on. Discourteous at best, goofy at worst.
We're seven wide into turn 1. Have the circus music ready ... NO. Clear. Danistar gets air. Nobody gets hip checked into 1. Hold it. Spoke too soon ...
Cue the circus music! Wheldon is in for a new nose. De-nosed into the first turn. Marty drops a "holding station" on us for good measure. DRINK, ye BASTARDS.
Replay. Onboard with Danno into turn three ... were he rear-ends EJ. EJ: "I like you as a friend, Dan. I'm not ready for that kind of relationship." Doesn't look like Eeej's car was violated/damaged.
Back to live action, Helio closing on Justin. Dario overtakes RHR. I believe this was actually televised.
Lap 3 -- Jamie tells us that Dario got to keep his position after changing an engine because the rules allow you to challenge an engine if you think it's not up to snuff. Honda takes the engine back and will check it on their magic dyno. If it is OK, the team has to pay for the replacement and use the old one later. Viewing enhanced. ABC decided the engine thing was YOUR BUSINESS. Props to them for informing the viewers.
Tracy is up to P18 from starting P25. None of these passes were televised, however. This is the 272nd career start for the Hope of Canada (Tracy). Not sure how many of those starts were in a "crapwagon" though.
Marty: Holding station. DRINK, Bitches.
Lap 10 -- Wilson, Helio, Dario, RHR, Power, Dixon, Tony, Tag, Briscoe, Danica (!). Power got way shuffled on the start.
Marty says Milka has been parked. Says she can't stay within the 107% rule, which is in effect, I guess. Marty scoops the world by announcing IndyCar is using the 107% rule which says a car's speed, plus 7%, has to equal that of the leaders or your OUT. View discussion of the 107% rule re: Milka here. Good for Marty. INFORMING THE VIEWERS. Insert me breathing into a bag with excitement here.
Milka pits, changes tires, they start taking the cowling off. Yeah, right. MECHANICAL issue. Sure. Insert cheer from Beccy Gordon, RHR fiance and leader of the Park Milka effort here.
Cue the circus music! Sato. TOAST. Way off in the run-off area. So, of course, we have a full course yellow. Why? He's practically back in the fan parking area, he's so far off the course. But Full Course Yellow. Why is NONE OF YOU BUSINESS.
A tiny fan tram pulls up and 19 clowns with GPS units get out and try to plot a course back to the actual track.
Irony: Sato got hip checked out by Mario Moraes, his teammate. KV has trashed so many cars even F1 teams are starting to say "Damn. Wish we had KV-level money."
Festival of pitting coming up. Most everyone in. Wilson lost THREE spots in the pits. Not so good. Power gains two spots. Todd Harris: PENSKE PERFECT! (chugs a 40 of Olde English 800.)
Tracy stayed out and leads. Canada declares a national holiday.
Lap 19 -- this is a FOUR street course lap (at 1.755 mile each) yellow for a car that's at least 100 feet off the racing line in a run off with no possible injury to the driver. Why? Maybe because the safety trucks had to stop en route to refuel he's so far off the racing line, causing a delay.
Goodyear theorizes that Penske may have short filled. Good point. Didn't consider that. Viewing enhanced.
Sato with Jamie. Sato's British English with a Japanese accent WEIRDS ME OUT. Sorry. Sato said they were side-by-side, then Mario closed the door. Definitely not a big fan of Moraes right now. Replay looks like Sato was outside and Moraes swing out and basically pinched Sato into the wall. Whether it was intentional or not, it's impossible to know.
Lap 21 -- Apparently the repaving project is done and we're GREEN. Tracy, Vitor, Helio, Dario, Power, Wislon, RHR, Tony, Dixon, Briscoe, Danica.
Cue the circus music ... AGAIN! Helio just tried to give Vitor's car a colonoscopy (don't try this at home), made a bit of a Dukes of Hazzard meal of it and goes skidding down the run off and into the tires. So, of course, we're talking FULL COURSE YELLOW.
Helio was driving with his head up his ass, apparently. Vitor braked. Helio didn't. right front hit Vitor's left rear, went for a ride. A tiny ambulance pulls up and 24 clowns in lab coats jump out and distribute "Careers in Proctology" pamphlets to the crowd.
This'll be another FOUR LAP yellow. Helio with Jamie, who is getting monster air just interviewing the DNFs. Helio -- funtastic car. Vitor brake so early caught him by surprise.
Lap 26 -- Tracy still leads. GREEN. Power is all up in Dario's business. STAY WITH THIS SHOT ... Unless you hear ...
Alex Lloyd is ass-around and de-rear-winged. Full course? Yeah. Sure. Of course.
Replay of Dario and Power inhaling Vitor, who clearly is not having fun. Goodyear says Tracy wants to make fuel. Tracy's pit boss says he wants to stretch the field under green so he can pit and come back out mid-pack. Need several green-flag laps to do that.
This is yet another four-lap yellow to repair a water main or some shit, so we have time for a Paul Tracy package. Tracy has easily gotten more air this race than even --- gasp -- Danica.
Lap 31 -- GREEN. Dario INHALES Tracy for the lead.
Every seen a clown drop F-bombs? Circus music blares again as Mario Romancini is toast. Replay. HOLY SHIT. The Death Mobile (Moraes) SPEARS Romancini out of the way. Moraes dives down in there with all the style and grace of a bull falling off a high rise and spears Romancini into the the wall.
Marty says Moraes gets a penalty for avoidable contact. IHJ on the radio here.
A tiny golf cart pulls up and 17 clowns dressed as NFL refs get out and start pelting the crowd with yellow flags while blowing their whistles randomly.
Alex with Jamie. Alex says something may have broken.
Lap 35 -- GREEN. Danica gets air with Mad Max from Thunderdome (Moraes) behind her. Reminds me of that guy in the black-horsed chariot from Ben-Hur (right). Watched those spiked hub caps! Danica's PR Woman and personal protector Haley Moore is probably getting "armored up" in case Moraes has to be dealt with. The safety is OFF. Weapons are HOT. Haley vs. Security Chief Charles would, indeed, be the CLASH OF THE TITANS.
Danica Foot Cam! What was that I heard? (Strains to hear) ... the sound of HATERS' HEADS EXPLODING. I think it's kind of interesting seeing a driver's feet as he (or she!) goes around the track. Danica's booties have "DANICA" on them, around the top. BTW. They must have cut some holes into the top of her car to let the light in so Foot Cam could work. Her shoes for the race are way different than her shoes for the ESPYs.
Lap 38 -- Marty says Tony Kanaan warned for throwing a block party! IHJ on a rampage. But, was Tony's block a Danica Level Texas Chop, is the question. We'll have to ask Dixon, the blockee. Not now though, since Dixon is too busy overtaking Tony. CLEAR.
Lap 40 -- Dario, Power, Wilson, RHR, Dixon, Tony, Briscoe, Marco, Tag, The Foot Model (Danica).
Jamie with Romancini -- Don't know what Moraes was thinking. He was five car lengths behind me and just took me out. I totally heard "BANZAIIIIII" right before contact. (I made the banzai part up.)
Yeah, pretty much. Video capture from Romancini's rear view mirror seconds before the crash at left.
Replays. Tracy had trouble in the pits. He pulled a little too far away from the wall and the fueler has to do "unnatural things" to the car to get his hose to stretch. (Say it with me .... "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID." Shout out to LoBo, Lauren Bohlander, that Thats What She Said Girl.) I personally love it when the driver screws up, then puts on a puppet show (TM Jeff Iannucci, all rights reserved) of disgust when he doesn't get restarted or refuled or whatever quick enough.
Lap 42 -- Tracy may have just thrown a block party for Wheldon. Appeared that way to me. Dario leads by .7 on P2 (Power). Wilson 2.2 back behind Power. We're into the "don't f-bomb up" middle section of a road race before the last fuel stops.
Lap 50 -- Dario, Power, Wilson, RHR, Dixon, Tony, Briscoe, Marco, Tag, Danica.
Lap 52 -- Danica pits. Dario hits lapped traffic and pits from the lead rather than get balked by slower cars who would likely refuse to take the wall to let him by.
Lap 56 -- Power and Wilson pit. ... out IN FRONT of Dario. WHAM. Wilson out in the lead, followed by Power who comes out RIGHT in front of Dario coming around on the track. Dario tries to overtake Power but NO. Power holds him off on cold tires. Impressive.
Cue the circus music! Lap 57 -- Yellow yellow yellow. HOLD ON, this may be as LOCAL yellow. It is. Seriously. Baggy is into the tires in Turn 3. Pretty F1 staying local here. Huh. If IndyCar discovers the local yellow I may go into systemic shock.
Tracy pits. Tony pits. Rahal under Marco and CLEAR. Wilson is three seconds up on power in P2. Dreyer and Reinbold is doing shots of Patron and PRAYING for no full-course yellows. Wait, you don't think the IHJ stayed away from Full Course Yellow to maximize DRR's chances to win do you? Hey, is that black helicopter over there?
Goodyear says the lapped Mad Max (Moraes) did his bit for the Rebel Alliance by holding up Power and Franchitti behind Wilson before finally letting them get around.
Lap 60 -- Wilson, Power, Dario, Dixon, RHR, Tony, Briscoe, Rahal, Marco, Danica.
Cue the circus music! Lap 61 -- Yellow yellow yellow. LOCAL AGAIN. Briscoe is toast.
Replays. Rahal dives inside Briscoe who may or may not have ran a "defensive line." Result was Rahal totally ass-ending Briscoe and punting him out of the way. Either it was a Festival of Spearing or a Block Party Gone Wrong. Discuss.
Goodyear thinks Briscoe was about to be inhaled, tried to throw a block party for The Hope of America (Rahal) and got snouted out of the way. Nicole Manske Briscoe may soon attack and kill Goodyear for this view, unfortunately.
Cue the circus music! Are you serious? The circus orchestra is considering striking given the unrelenting work load. This time it's Matos and Viso. Basically since everyone is strewn across the track, we gotta go FULL COURSE YELLOW. Insert Robbie Buhl screaming obscenities here. DRR is in the whiskey.
Tracy stalled on the track. Replays. Tries to dive under Simona, totally overcooks it. LOCKS THEM UP, skids inside Simona forcing her to go to evasive maneuver Tango William Nora to miss him, which she does. Then Tracy slides through the corner and stalls. There ya go. Then gives the safety crew a hand puppet show to get them to hurry up ... and compensate for his mistake. Love how the safety guy always stands in front of the car with his foot on the front tire waiting to give the signal to restart the car while checking traffic. He's all like, "I got your puppet show right here, buddy."
Replay of Danica overtaking Marco with a nifty dive under. Then Matos spears into EJ.
Larry Curry, DRR race strategist, says Wilson has the mad skillz and a good enough car to win.
Radio transcript:
CURRY: Why are we still moving towards it?
WILSON: We're caught in a tractor beam! It's pulling us in!
CURRY: But there's gotta be something you can do!
WILSON: There's nothin' I can do about it, kid. I'm in full power. I'm going to have to shut down. But they're not going to get me without a fight!
POWER: Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station.
RHR goes under Dixon ... punt you very much. Hip checks Dixon into the wall on the way by. Nice. Wonder if Dixon will stomp down to RHR's pit and tell him "you have to drive your mirrors, hon." Doubt it. Not Dixon's style. We stay with a local yellow here.
Wilson ASS AROUND. Dude. Wilson goes around and has to sit until everyone gets by. But he didn't stall it and manages to 180 it out of there. Impressive. Insert polite yet well-enunciated British swear words here.
Lap 72 -- Power, Dario, RHR, Tony, Rahal, Danica, Tag, Scheckter, Marco, Simona(!)
Danica Patrick is P6. Haters are brainstorming excuses for a P6. Early favorites: Attrition. Not a real race. Illegal foot cam. Best equipment. Fluke. Rigged. Trackside snipers. Holograms.
Dixon hobbles car back to pits. Did not bring out a full-course caution; major props for that. OK, now let's keep this reticence to throw the full-course yellow for the rest of the year, AND on the ovals, so when someone brushes the wall and continues we don't have a 12-lap yellow, 'kay?
Cue the circus music! The clowns are clearly just going through the motions now. Fatigue has set in.
Tagliani and Scheckter snuggling in the tires. Together forever. BFFs. Not. Replays. Dixon hip checked. Wilson too fast into corner and just goes ass around on his own. Sheckter dives under Tag. Contact. Tires. Insert French Canadian obscenities here. A heart-shaped vehicle pulls up and 27 clowns dressed as Cupid get out and shoot love arrows into Tag and Tomas ... then file an overtime grievance.
Lap 76 -- We come out of a commercial to a restart. GREEN. Down into turn three THREE WIDE. Ye-haw. Simona is P8. Wilson is in P12 and driving with serious rage issues. Should be a festival of inhalation for him back there.
Briscoe is back out with a new nose. He pulls over for the leaders. Class move there. Wilson is focusing the rage and marching. Up to P10 by lap 79. An isolation cam on Wilson would have been great here because he's driving angry.
Dixon in the pit with Jamie/Vince/DeBruhl. Not sure which. Dixon -- Made a bobble. RHR got a run on him. Gave him room but he carried too much speed into the turn and made contact.
To be fair, if I must, it's possible Dixon didn't lift/give RHR enough room. It appeared to me that Dixon got the shitty end of that stick, though.
Lap 80 -- Wilson overtakes Simona for P9. Power will win barring air strike. Too bad this drive by Wilson is NONE OF YOUR TELEVISED BUSINESS. I got it off the lap chart.
Lap 83 -- Wilson up to P7, then goes purple (his fastest lap of the race) on lap 84. Stalking young Rahal now.
White. Power wins. Wilson ends up P7. Drove from P14 to P7 in seven laps, inhaling Mutoh, Wheldon, Vitor, Simona and Marco and getting two spots thanks to Tag and Scheckter crashing. Too bad we didn't see it.
Dario P2. RHR P3. Dario says "not a bad job" from the Target boys today. Hardly a stirring endorsement. P2 must kinda suck! Dario says his car was OK. Gotta think Dario is getting tired of the view of Power's rear wing in these street races.
Driver points --- Power leads. Dario is 42 points back, Dixon -78, Briscoe -85, RHR -91 and Helio -92. Power leads the Twisty Trophy race by a freakish 85 with three twisties left over RHR. Dixon leads Dario by three for the Oval Trophy. RHR holds down the lead for the prestigious pressdog™ Jedi Knight Trophy (for best non-big-two driver) by 13 over Kanaan.
Power is out with Jamie. Loves winning. Says he had patience going into T1 Lap 1. Fell back a few spots rather than getting into the Festival of Carbon Fiber.
Carmen the Izod Girl is DENIED. She missed her marks or something. Doesn't get into the shot. We do not see her smiling and nodding knowingly. She gets SHUT OUT for air time. Viewing not enhanced.I think Carmen has a Twitter account, @IZODTrophyGirl. If she gets married, is she a Trophy Wife then? HAR. The Twitter account looks legit, but may be faux. Proceed with caution.
Justin Wilson looks completely gutted. Said he apparently didn't get his tires cleaned off well enough for the restart and got passed. Went into T7 and locked the rears and spun. Very disappointed. Can't apologize enough. Only put it down to driver error.
JWill is a class human being, I'm telling ya. No calling foul, excusifying, claiming Power cheated, raging at his pit crew, blaming Milka, etc. etc. Taking the blame like a man. Manly tears of respect for that. RHR. Really tough conditions. Hard fighting. Almost lost it four or five times.
Goodyear says teams are catching up to the big two (on the Twisties, I think he meant. On the ovals, not so much).
Trackside Online finishing order: Will Power, Dario, RHR, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal, Danica Patrick, Justin Wilson, Marco Andretti, Simona de Silvestro, Dan Wheldon, Vitor, Mutoh, Tracy, Moraes, Scheckter, Baguette, Tagliani, Briscoe, Viso, Dixon, Matos, Romanacini, Lloyd, Helio, Sato, Milka Duno.
All the yellows put the average race speed at a blistering 83 mph.
That's it from Toronto. The street crews will be sweeping up carbon fiber shrapnel for weeks. Tune in July 25 at 5 p.m. Eastern to watch Power win the Honda Indy Edmonton on VERSUS.
BONUS: After the racing, a festival of snark broke out on Twitter between Briscoe and Rahal and Tag and Scheckter. Dale Nixon captured it expertly HERE.
FYI Greg Kinear is from Logansport, Indiana.
Posted by: boilerrx | July 20, 2010 at 07:57 AM
Indiana? He's from Indiana? What's he doing having a speaking roll in the Celebration of Canada Race then? Interloper!
Posted by: pressdog | July 20, 2010 at 08:07 AM
"Replay of IndyCar's holographic announcement featuring theoretical cars that may or may not be built before 2012, in some fashion."
Better than Foytian.
Asimov-elous.
Posted by: Andy Bernstein | July 20, 2010 at 08:34 AM
"the clowns are clearly going thru the motions now" made me laugh aloud.
Always liked young Skywalker but his badass driving skills and honest attitude moved him right up in Simona territory for me. Watch out for that dude in Edmonton.
Posted by: redd | July 20, 2010 at 09:53 AM
I've really got to stop reading these at work, people wonder why they hear so much laughter coming from my cube.
I'm liking Justin Wilson a lot more as time goes on, too. He seems like a good guy and a clean racer.
Posted by: mike | July 20, 2010 at 11:28 AM
Jamie Little with her guns out? Hmmm, I've never seen her without the fire suit on...
(does a quick Google image search)
OMG! They need to do something to get her out of the fire suit, even if it's only before the race. Perhaps they could open with a Baywatch-style thing with her running down pit road in slow motion wearing an IICS tank top. Or maybe they could modify the fire suit to show off her...er...outstanding qualities. Who knew that the rating dimemma was so easily solveable?
I'd pay big money to see Jamie vs. Carmen the Izod Girl in a charity jello-wrestling match.
I've developed much greater respect for Jamie's pit reporting all of a sudden. Thanks Pressdog!
Posted by: Savage Henry | July 20, 2010 at 11:45 AM
Regarding the foot cam, it's not really that interesting now that they have the paddle shifters and they don't have to use heel-and-toe anymore. Its just push down right foot, push down left foot, push down right foot... I'm just not that impressed. They should probably think of something better if they want to show viewers what's going on in the cockpit.
Posted by: Savage Henry | July 20, 2010 at 11:49 AM
pdog...
i watched the race Monday night from my DVR, so your notes are right on time...
I can't believe how fast you must be able to type...
I watch this stuff happen and make much the same observations, but can only manage to reach for the tanqueray...
marty in des moines
Posted by: Marty Jorgensen | July 20, 2010 at 11:56 AM
Two races in a row ABC has Vince Welch chatting in the pits as the cars come down for what should be built up as one of the most exciting moments in sport. ABC needs to FIRE the producer & director -- or get someone who knows SOMETHING about racing.
Posted by: Stephen Terrell | July 20, 2010 at 12:43 PM
Foot cam was interesting. It was on for maybe 120 seconds. I think it was worth the two minutes it got. More interesting than some of the other stuff that got 5 and 10 or more minutes. I also like when they put a camera right in front of the steering wheel so you can watch the driver's hands and the paddle shifting. They do that sometimes in F1. Very cool. Of course you need to put that in Danica's car just to make everyone insane. Chortle.
Posted by: pressdog | July 20, 2010 at 09:20 PM
Cameron is married...tied the knot with a fellow by the name of Ryan Sulte in February. Their wedding web site URL shows up on Google but has expired--a couple of months ago, though, it showed their picture, and it definitely was her!
Posted by: sejarzo | July 20, 2010 at 09:28 PM
Thanks for the entertaining summary, P-dog.
BTW, the Izod girl's name is Cameron (Haven). Feel free to Google her for more. Chatted w/her in Iowa. Very nice young lady. Says all the right things about her job and ICS.
Posted by: Scott | July 20, 2010 at 09:38 PM
Ditto what Redd said, I damn near spewed beer on the laptop, but bravely held it down (nearly choking as I did) at that Clown moment of "clearly going through the motions now".
Also thanks for the link to Dale Nixon's twitter-spat recounting. THAT was good, and that's what this series needs in front of the viewers.
Posted by: Mike R | July 20, 2010 at 10:00 PM
I'm going to vote this worst race evah! Partly because my man Wilson didn't get a win, but mostly because if they could have just kept Sato's crash a local yellow, we could have prevented about half of those full course yellows that followed. "Yellows breed yellows", as they say. They HAVE to know that. They REALLY need to do something about going full course so easily.
Glad I DVR'd it so I could fast forward through much of it. If I had to watch that live, I'd have turned it off.
Posted by: DougC | July 21, 2010 at 06:55 AM
"I like you as a friend, Dan. I'm not ready for that kind of relationship."
Holy funny on the proctologist remarks! I second what mike said about not reading these at work - could get me fired yet.
Wilson's a class act, through and through. Would have been nice to see things work out for him this time. Met him in Vegas a few years ago at the classic car place at the Forum Shops at Caesar's. He seemed surprised anyone recognized him off the track but was very personable!
Great job as always, pressdog!
Posted by: cartracer20 | July 21, 2010 at 12:06 PM
For the record, other than the second consecutive green flag F-up (for which somebody really, really oughta get fired), I thought ABC did a better job this week. Marty seemed engaged. Scotty sounded like he'd "lightened up" with a Labbatt or two before the race. We got to see a lot of the actual action (though it seemed like there was so much going on that at least one camera per lap would have something graphic happening in front of it). Not a bad job by them. Too bad that we still have The Glen stinkbomb fresh in our heads to remind us until the start of next year what ABC is usually capable of.
Posted by: The Speedgeek | July 21, 2010 at 12:53 PM