Notes Taken During the 2011 IndyCar Race at Kentucky

Notes taken during the Versus broadcast of the Kentucky Indy 300, Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, KY on Oct. 2, 2011.

pressdog®Beer of the Race is Boulevard Single-Wide IPA.

Welcome to Kentucky where Versus fires up with the obligatory horse reference. I see an ad right in here for Las Vegas that says everyone is running for $1 million? Huh? Maybe that's alluding to the $1 million bonus for the championship which only two people are running for. I probably didn't hear it right.

Bob Jenkins, booth guy, comes on to remind us this is the first oval in three months. Thanks for that, Bob. It's a little like being reminded of the time you were kicked in the crotch. And next year ... FIVE ovals total. Woooo hooooo*. (*Denotes sarcasm.)

Bob says "Ryan Brisket" instead of "Briscoe." Last week he called him Kevin Briscoe. Bob is snake bit by the Briscoe name! Bob is joined in the booth by Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Jon Beekhuis. Lindy Thackston, Kevin Lee and Marty Snider are the pit infantry. Robin Miller is running around somewhere as well.

Cue the HAT (running order at the top of the screen). Yo yo yo and DRINK, ye BASTARDS to my buddies in the B Unit. Last show for you guys this year, but let's try to NOT open the Cristal before at least half way, 'kay? We don't want a repeat of Chicagoland ... I still have the smell of tear gas on my lanyard after that one.

Trackside Online starting line up. Trackside Online is a subscription news service that covers every IndyCar race and most major tests in person. Original content that's soooooo worth the $22 per calendar year fee. Joe was at Kentucky kicking out the tasty news for us. Be like the pdog and subscribe today.

1. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 219.283
2. (38) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 218.348
3. (06) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 218.186
4. (67) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 218.004
5. (4) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 217.872
6. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 217.807
7. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 217.692
8. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 217.632
9. (2) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 217.520
10. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 217.357
11. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 217.213
12. (27) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 217.110
13. (78) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 216.924
14. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 216.768
15. (17) Wade Cunningham, Dallara-Honda, 216.763
16. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 216.732
17. (44) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 216.685
18. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 216.669
19. (82) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 216.484
20. (24) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 216.424
21. (14) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 216.300
22. (5) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 215.856
23. (59) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 215.789
24. (19) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 215.607
25. (34) Dillon Battistini, Dallara-Honda, 215.578
26. (22) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Honda, 215.404
27. (18) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 214.297
28. (77) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, no speed
29. (30) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, no speed

Wheldon's car flunked tech inspection and they didn't get the issue remedied in time to qualify. Pippa Mann biffed the wall coming out onto the track for qualifying and so had no time.

News came out yesterday from Robin Miller that Kentucky would NOT be on the IndyCar schedule next year due to crappy ticket sales, barring some presenting sponsor riding to the rescue. Ditto for Milwaukee and New Hampshire. Read about it here. IndyCar's oval product is not selling to the ticket-buying public, for whatever reason (cue vociferious debate here). Robin said there will be FIVE ... count 'em, FIVE ... ovals on the schedule next year: Iowa, Indy, Texas, California and Vegas. Insert oval fans being despondent here. If you like the ovals, make plans to actually attend one. I buy two tickets per year at Iowa, so I'm doing my bit.

Let's light this candle ... we're ... green, green, green.

Lap 3 -- Ed and JR go two-wide and get monster air. T. Bell is up 17 spots on the first lap (or so), Brisket is up 7 spots and Danistar gained 5 (none of which were actually shown on TV).

Versus is working back in the pack right now because Power has the wings back in the delta and is supersonic. Semi lock stepish in the early going.

Lap 17 -- Kevin said Hinch said it was "time to take the big boy pants off ... er ... put the big boy pants on." Beer spew. Keep those pants (big boy or otherwise) on at all times, please.

Lap 15 -- Power, Rahal, Hinch, Ed, JR, Marco, RHR, Dixon, Dario, Brisket.

Lap 19 -- Rahal gets told to hold his line into turn 1. Rahal may be throwing a block party out there for Hinch.

Dixon and Dario are fighting for P8. Bet I know who wins that one pretty much every time. (Dario, because Dixon probably won't pass Dario unless Dario's car is technically on fire.)

Lap 25 -- Ed loses two spots. Why is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Power, Rahal, Hinch, Marco, JR, Ed, RHR, Dario, Dixon, Kimball.

Power is lapping people. Pippa ... lapped. Not her day, but good comback for Pippa after biffing it in qualifying. Props to the Rahal Lanigan Racing team for putting the car back together and getting Pip out there.

Helio has a water leak! A water leak in any car is bad, and in an IndyCar it's very bad. No coolant, no go. He's screwed.

Alex Tagliani is in the booth. Tag got jerked out of his ride fo this car to give Dan Wheldon a warmup for Vegas. I and many others thought that sucked, but Tag puts the best face on it. End of the day, business is business in racing, and cash talks loudest, etc.

Helio in. Engine toast. Done for the day. Maybe Tag is getting a little make-up booth air for being hosed out of his ride.

Bob gives us a "If the World Ends this Second" points spread update so ... Drink, ye BASTARDS.

Lap 48 -- Wheldon pits. Festival of pitting coming up.

Cue the circus music! Bia spears into Will in the pits. Holy Points Leader. Bia's crew sent her out as Will was coming in, so the two had contact. Will gets a gash in his sidepod. Gets his tires and fuel and is away. Bia has to get a new nose. Bia's crew's fault for sending her out into Will who has the right of way to get to his pit in that situation. A tiny police car pulls up and 19 clowns get out and start blowing whistles and directing traffic.

Lap 52 -- Who leads is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Bob says timing and scoring says Dario leads, but they think that is bullshit. They will get back to us on the leader after the commercial. Pull out the binoculars Bob and eyeball the pole in the middle of the infield. Number at the top is the leader. No charge.

Lot of random radio traffic plays during the shots, but none of it is identified. I like the effect of having radio talk, but it's kind of disconcerting to hear "got one looking high" when you don't know whose spotter is saying it.

Rahal may still be making himself wide out of a corner. Kevin Lee says we're not sure if the impact damaged Power or not. Dario is, in fact, leading the race.

Lap 75 -- Dario, JR, Dixon, Marco, RHR, Rahal, Ed, Hinch, Power, Briscoe.

Lap 80 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Debris. I call PHANTOM and then TV shows something on the yellow line. Piece of metal or some such. Festival of pitting. Power gets tape to cover the hole in his sidepod. Replay of contact. Power goes out with tape. Tape falls off. Power comes back in for more tape. Tape falls off again. This is a 12-lap caution caused by a small piece of debris in the groove. WHY is this so long? Because Power's take keeps falling off? 12 laps of yellow is way too long here.

Lap 92 -- We're green. Power restarts P23 after all the taping. Marco looking at Dario from P2. JR opens the door and Ed says "don't mind if I do" and takes P4.

Lap 100 -- Dario, Marco, Dixon, Ed, JR, Rahal, RHR, Hinch, Danica, Oriol.

Lap 102 -- Where is Power? NOYB.

Lap 104 -- Liz Cannon, married to Will Power but works for Dreyer & Reinbold (Bia's team), get's air.

Lap 110 -- Bob gives us another "If the Rapture occured today" points update. DRINK, ye BASTARDS.

Versus goes through the field which features closeups of each car they are talking about instead of showing us battles on the track. Viewing not enhanced. Beer run to the fridge.

Lap 119 -- Power is P23. Bob says he would be 28 points behind Dario if Armageddon happens and we finish like this. DRINK, bitches.

Lap 129 -- Rahal goes two-wide with JR amid much grunting from the booth guys. Tag mentions the race at Kentucky is much like the race at Chicagoland. Insert my bitter weeping for the loss of Chicagoland here.

WTF? Ed is driving ONE HANDED. You can see him driving with one hand while holding his helmet visor down with the other. Dude. One handed at 215 mph. Some kind of pin in his helmet popped loose so Ed has to hold the shield down with one hand while driving.That's insanely butch.

Lindy says Wheldon has radio issues.

Cue the circus music! Simona puts it sideways down pit lane and bashes into one of EJ Viso's tire changers. We got a tire changer down. Dude. What the? Replays. Simona gets fuel and tires, down and away, then the car just jumps sideways and power slides into the guy, sending tires bounding out toward the track. So we're yellow yellow yellow.

The tire guy appears to be up. Limping. May have damage. Festival of pitting under yellow here. Spirit of the living Bozo! Marco T-Bone's Alex Lloyd on pit road. WTF? Replays. Marco comes out of his box, but instead of falling in behind Rahal runs even with him in the inside lane, which causes him to bash Lloyd trying to make his stop. Dude. Outside lane for exiting the pit. Marco didn't want to give up the position, though. Viso is also involved but gets back out. Marco pulled down to his pit. He's done. Lloyd's car is damaged as well. A tiny street crew van pulls up and 18 clowns get out and post NO PASSING signs on the inside line of pit lane.

Holy injury. JR comes in and totally spears one of his crew members. Bashed him against the pit wall. That looked like a crushing blow to the leg. Pain.

Ed lost four spots during that Festival of Circus Music.

Lap 146 -- GREEN. Dario still leads. I guess the yellow was because the tires Simona hit were bounding around. Or was it because of the pit road crash? TV guys think the reason for the yellow was NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Only a six-lap yellow, which is brief by IndyCar standards.

Jon says the leaders will be three laps short on fuel if we stay green all the way out. I hope we don't, because I don't dig the fuel mileage races as much as the "everyone wide open to the end" race.

Lap 149 -- Kevin says the guy Simona's car hit went to the medical center to get checked. Was limping around. The other guy was in a lot of pain and being attended to on pit lane until they could get him to the medical center. Later he was choppered out of the race for treatment.

Marco takes blame for his incident. Says he hesitated out of pits which let Rahal get outside of him.

Rahal is P2 and racing Dario. I can't imagine Rahal would have the green light from Chippy to pass Dario. Wally says if he was back in the pack, he'd start saving fuel now.

Lap 150 -- Dario, Rahal, Dixon, Tag, Ed, RHR, Viso, Danica, Hinch, Cunningham (!)

Lap 156 -- Pit is telling Rahal to stay in line so he and Dario can go faster together. Rahal is not staying in line.

Lap 164 -- Simona with Lindy. Says something went screwy with her car, acceleration wise. Just jumped to wide open on her suddenly and she lost it. She's sorry for bashing into KV's people.

Lap 166 -- yellow yellow yellow Bia. Wall. Replay. Bia ass around and into the wall. Bam. She lost it on her own and went around. Nasty video from onboard JR's car that shows Bia going around and Wheldon and JR high-lowing her. FREEZE IT RIGHT THERE. Imagine a capital "H." Wheldon and JR are the legs of the H and Bia is the cross bar. Bia looks injured. Needs help to get to the truck. Said later she had a gash in her knee that required stitches.

Lap 170 under yellow -- Rahal has to pit! From P2. This yellow should mean everyone can make it but Rahal has to pit to get topped off. Power pits again, presumably for more tape. Rahal is not happy. Radio: someone explain to me why we didn't fill (all the way last stop). I need a serious explanation. Pretty sure we (fans) won't be getting an explanation any time soon, because it's NONE OF OUR BUSINESS.

Kevin tries to make it our business by talking to Rahal's team and they refused to talk to him. Which is fine. And Kevin reports said refusal. Kevin is doing the people's business down there. Props.

Marty asks Chip: "Good enough to get to the end." Chip: "Yeah, I think so." Silence. Beer spew. Chippy, always a Festival of Information in the trackside interviews. He always says: It's close. Everyone is good. We'll see how it plays out. Always.

Another 12-lap caution, but at least they had more reason this time given the Festival of Debris Bia's car left. Restart. Bob says Franchitti to the inside and Dixon to the inside. Everyone is inside!

Lap 178 -- GREEN. Props to IndyCar for their actual two-wide starts and restarts this race. Great improvement over some of the fugly restarts in other races.

(F-bomb!) Ed INHALES Dixon on the restart for P2. Got a MONSTER restart and just followed Dario under Dixon and CLEAR. HUGE restart for Ed.

Right here it dawns on me that Ed could really WIN this thing. Cue the airway constriction. Breathing into a bag.

Lap 180 -- Dario, Ed, Dixon, RHR, Orio, Cunningham (!), Hinch, Briscoe, Kimball, Viso.

Lap 182 -- I start screaming EDDDDD at my TV randomly. My dog is visibly frightened now.

Lap 186 -- Ed and Dario two-wide -- Ed outside, Dario inside -- lap after lap. Me: "INHALE HIS ASS." Ed's wife, Heather gets air. Heather Cam Activated!

Lap 188 -- Ed leads at the line. I seriously think I am going to have a stroke. Can feel my pulse in my neck.

Lap 189 -- Dario leads. Lap 190 -- Dario. Lap 191 -- Ed. Lap 192 -- Ed. Lap 193 -- Dario. Lap 194 -- Dario. Lap 195 -- Dario.

Cue the light sabers. Ed and Dario in a total KNIFE FIGHT for the win. Dario all over the button (push to pass) to keep Ed from clearing him. Ed saving his push to passes 'til later.

Lap 196 -- Ed leads at the line. I am clearly screaming at my TV here. Festival of F-bomb laced versions of "Come on, ED."

Lap 197 -- Ed P1. Lap 198 -- Ed.

White flag. Ed leads at the line. You're all clear kid, let's blow this thing and go home.

Side-by-side. The ghost of 2009 when Ed lost to Briscoe by a yard hovers over Kentucky. Onboard with Dario looking over at Ed. Light saber sound effects raging.

Into one. Into two. Into three. I am physically shaking here. Into four. CLEAR ...

At the liiiiiiine. ED. ED CARPENTER. ED wins by a yard. Underdogs let out a chorus of howling. My actual tweet: "F*CK YEAH. EDDDD. BOOM. OPEN WEEPING."

And the Death Star goes ...

Death Star shrapnel raining down on Kentucky Speedway. Glorious. Glorious. First non-Big Three (Ganassi, Penske, Andretti Autosport) win on an oval since 2005. (Correction: Per J-Train in comments below, Wheldon winning Indy this year was the first non-Big Three oval win since 2005.)

Ed's radio:

Spotter (as Ed came to the line for the win): Pull baby ... Pull baby ... Pull baby ... YESSSSS.

Ed: Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Woooo hooooo

Spotter: (This may be a faux Scotish accent) It's a beautiful day for a motah cah race! (Me: BEER SPEW) Good job, buddy.

Ed: Thanks for sticking with me, taping my shield on, everything. We worked hard for that one. Made good changes. Woooo hoooo.

Lindy with Heather Carpenter. "You just don't know what this means. Awesome." Seriously went Little Al "you just don't know what Indy means" on us. She's farklempt. I'm farklempt. Shaking. Pulse hovering around 150. Teary. Ed's sister Lauren George is bawling somewhere (I assume at school in Notre Dame). It's a festival of celebratory Tweeting.

Dollar General team goes ape shit in the pits. Festival of hugging. Andy O'Gara leads the pit posse on the run down pit lane. Getting high fives. Hug from Dennis Reinbold, part owner of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing which was the team wherein Andy and Sarah met.

Ed out with Marty. Winning felt way better than I thought it would. Ed drove 15 to 20 laps one handed so he could hold his visor down until the pit stop, then they taped it down for him. Ed said he had Push to Pass the last five laps and Dario was out, so he felt good about his chances. Got out of four he knew he had him.

Dario -- Ed did a great job. Dario used up his overtakes keeping Ed from clearing him, because if Ed clears him it's all over. Dario gives a shout out to Iron Mike Wanser, six-year-old son of Target team manager Barry Wanser, who is battling cancer. Many many shout outs to Mike throughout the weekend. Fight like a honey badger, Mike.

Sarah joins the winner's circle mayhem. She was watching from the owner's suite. Says she's proud of everyone. "Just to see Ed drive his tail off is just so amazing," said a teary-eyed Fisher. "We figured out that next year, Dollar General is not coming back, so maybe they'll change their mind now. But, you know certainly it was just a great weekend. The guys all worked their tails off, and I haven't been to the shop in three weeks. My baby girl is obviously good luck...I'm just so happy to be here." She's getting farklempt. Andy shows up holding their newborn, Zoey. Sarah says having "someone come into your family" makes you thankful and she gives a shout out to the Wanser family and to Carey Hall, former SFR team member who has Lou Gehrig's disease. Sarah Fisher becomes the first female owner to ever win an IndyCar race.

My twitter feed lights up like a Christmas tree. Festival of Frothing for Ed and Andy and Sarah and the whole team. Pretty sure my neighbors are wondering who the hell this ED is I'm screaming about and what I mean by "INHALE HIS ASS."

Trackside Online finishing order ...

IZOD IndyCar Series
Kentucky Indy 300
SPARTA, Ky. - Results Sunday of the Kentucky Indy 300 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.48 mile Kentucky Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1.  (4) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
2.  (11) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
3.  (7) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
4.  (3) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
5.  (8) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
6.  (9) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
7.  (15) Wade Cunningham, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
8.  (18) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
9.  (17) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
10.  (14) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
11.  (26) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
12.  (2) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
13.  (10) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
14.  (28) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
15.  (22) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
16.  (21) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
17.  (19) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
18.  (12) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
19.  (1) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
20.  (5) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
21.  (27) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
22.  (29) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
23.  (23) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 192, Running
24.  (20) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 165, Contact
25.  (13) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 141, Mechanical
26.  (24) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 140, Contact
27.  (6) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 140, Contact
28.  (25) Dillon Battistini, Dallara-Honda, 124, Driver Fatigue
29.  (16) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 34, Mechanical 

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 174.039
Time of Race: 01:42:02.7825
Margin of victory: .0098 of a second
Cautions: 3 for 32 laps
Lead changes: 7 among 4 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power 1 - 48, Hildebrand 49, Franchitti 50 - 187, Carpenter 188, Franchitti 189-190, Carpenter 191-192, Franchitti 193-195, Carpenter 196-200.
Point Standings: Franchitti 573, Power 555, Dixon 518, Servia 425, Kanaan 366, Briscoe 364, Hunter-Reay 347, Andretti 337, Rahal 320, Patrick 314.

Race recap and lap chart courtesy of IndyCar PR.

That's it from Kentucky. Festival of Bag Breathing. pressdog® Beverage of the Post Race is The Glenlivet SCOTCH. It's also a wrap on Versus coverage in 2011. Well done, Versus posse. DRINK, ye BASTARDS. Tune in for Vegas, Baby Oct. 16, 3 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

Comments

[J-Train]

I don't think it's the first non-death star win on an oval since 2005. Wheldon won the Indy 500.

[redcar]

good for the yellow team. another great race on a short fast oval.

but another poorly attended event. the death of the oval is fairly depressing--not sure why they're not more popular. But I did notice the crowd at Dover seemed real spotty (for Nascar) too. Maybe it's the economy, maybe it's football or maybe it's the schedule. or maybe there's just no interest in open-wheel anymore.

but good for Ed and Sarah. And I'm still laughing about Brisket.

[Brian]

Have to think the Bengals being at home (even though they barely drew 40,000, if some are to be believed) hurt attendance. I drove through from Louisville on my way to Cincy yesterday and it was a ghost town.

As someone who went to the Cup race at Kentucky, I'd gladly have gone to today's race had tickets been reasonably priced at all. Both tracks I've considered going to (Nashville and Kentucky) have been overpriced, and now both are going to be off the schedule.

[JPIndycar]

Gotta keep up on the news Bill ;-)
Kentucky has been saved for 2012....
http://jpindycarthoughts.blogspot.com/

[FTHurley]

Wow. Just wow. I'm still stunned. What a great drive by Ed.

Interesting fact about Ed: he's only 30. It seems like he's been around forever, but he has plenty of racing left in front of him. Man, I hope that team finds a sponsor. Even if it's just for the oval races next year, the series NEEDS stories - the kinds of stories that make fans care, and make them want to drop the $400 I dropped to take my Dad to Loudon. Sarah and Ed are great stories! Please don't let next week be the end of that story!

[Carburetor]

I can relate to your neighbors wondering who "Ed" was--I mean I had the neighborhood dogs barking! ....small wonder the neighbors didn't call the cops on me for disturbing the peace! It was even more surprising in that when Ed and Dario started that last 15 lap sprint, Dario had quite a few more PTP left than Ed (figured that would be the difference), but kudos to Ed for preserving them until it mattered. Here's hoping that somehow that team can obtain sponsorship for next year.

I'm seriously disappointed in the lack of ovals next year; RB and team really needs to brainstorm how to overcome this trend; although I firmly believe the economy is much more at fault than any of us truly realize. When I see many empty seats at NFL telecasts, it tells me people simply do not have the $ to spend on "non-essentials."

Not one of the stronger broadcasts by Versus. I love Bob J., but I notice way more gaffes each race....

Great win and excitement for IndyCar; I hope we get more of the same at LV!

[Richard]

Sarah might not be the first female owner, though she's the first in a long time. M.A. Yeagle owned a 500 winner in the 20s; the M stood for Maude. Also, when Elmer George won the championship in the late 50s, Mari Hilman owned the car.

Still, no need for me to go all Donald Davidson.

[Tom G.]

Amazaballs! I still can't believe Ed won. I don't think a race has ever been so bittersweet. Why do I feel like this is the end of an era?

Five Ovals.
Three Road Courses.
Eight Street Races.

Insert manly tears here.

Also, when a series is reduced to blaming the fans for its demise, the end is near.

[ThatGuy]

Give me Andretti & Montoya at Michigan over what we saw yesterday.

Robin Miller used to write about NASCAR giving "the call" to drivers/teams in sponsorship trouble. Just sayin'.

Though if the IndyCar series was the Kentucky Speedway Series ol' Ed would be the no doubt champ!

[ramblinman]

This has been a great year due to Indy and Kentucky.

How much better could it possibly be than to have Ed win. And Sarah. And Dollar General. Wow!

"I start screaming EDDDDD at my TV randomly. My dog is visibly frightened now."...and pressdog...classic stuff dude.

Perhaps one way to save the sport of OWR on ovals, would be to drastically lower the ticket prices. If the stands are 90% empty, what difference would it make? Not at Indy or any track that actually has the demand.

When the demand over-rides the supply, then charge the full freight, but otherwise, fill the seats, sell concessions, and build the sport. They can always raise the ticket price as the demand grows. Five ovals is not growing the sport.

ED CARPENTER WINS !! WOW !!

[Ron Ford]

Relative to "ramblinman" comments: I believe more than anything that kids need to be let in free. This would not only help create a future fan base, but it would reduce the overall cost for a family to go. My dad took me to a midget race under the lights at the former 1/4 mile dirt track within the Milwaukee Mile in the late forties/early fifties. I was hooked for life and have spent a lot of money on the sport since.

[Sean]

They can only lower ticket prices so far. They have to be able to guarantee that they can pay the sanctioning fee, their employees and make money. That's why Bruton Smith and Randy Bernard were talking about title sponsors for these races.

[Ron Ford]

I understand that promoters can only lower ticket prices so far, but I still feel that IndyCar (as well as the owners) needs to rethink their business plan, particularly when it comes to the sanctioning fee. I believe they are pricing themselves out of the market during these difficult economic times. What does a second race in Brazil and a race in China really do for us? Certainly it will create more international interest in the program, but how will it put more people in the seats in Michigan, Milwaukee, Kentucky, New Hampshire, etc.?

Well, enough about that. Right now, this bright sunny morning, it is a damn fine feeling to see Sarah, Ed and the group win one. And they did it racin' hard! Ya gotta love that.

[redcar]

Kids free is a great idea. And they'll make their money from souvenirs and food because kids love souvenirs and food.

Sponsorship is essential. How many seats did Marlboro give away back in the day?

I'd like to know the sanctioning fee for each venue, how much they average from TV money at each race and how much of each team's budget is covered by the TEAM money. Could they lower sanctioning fees and still distribute money to teams? At this point I know they don't want to lose money, but would it hurt to break even for a while? (I'd still like them to distribute money according to position and publicize that--at least some of the money.)

I also don't believe anyone got "the call." If they were gonna do that they'd have Danica win just to get the press. Of course, if she wins Vegas, I might change my mind.

[Shane Rogers]

Subsidising (sic) kids entry fees is a great idea. The problem is it benefits the sport on a 10 year payback. Promoters are only interested in making a buck today, or next week, for them.

[HB Donnelly]

the price scale for normal seats at Kentucky was $50 for row one to $85 in the new "tower" stands. My parents and I had $60/seat tickets in row 19, which wasn't prohibitively expensive, but $180 before hotels, gas, food, etc. is nothing to sneeze at. Make it $40 for the whole lower stand and $50 for the towers and I bet you draw more folks. (though to ruin my own argument, I think NHMS had rows 1-30 in the entire grandstand priced at $35 and that didn't help...)

[The Speedgeek]

Two thoughts:
1) Awesome for Sarah, Ed, and the entire rest of the Sarah Fisher Racing crew. That was freaking fantastic. I've never been so happy to watch a race until midnight on the DVR after studiously avoiding the internet all day.

2) To answer a question: "What does a second race in Brazil and a race in China really do for us?" I think the idea behind those potential races might be to charge exorbitant sanctioning fees, use those as the cash cows that prop up the rest of the series, and then you can hopefully run some other places that you realy want to run at (say, Kentucky, Loudon, Vegas, a couple other ovals, maybe Road America) at paper thin profit margins. It's not really about trying to gin up 10 million or so fans in China, just soaking the local governments and/or businesses (like Tsingtao Beer, for instance) for several million bucks to the Series front office, and hopefully a quarter or so million bucks a piece for each team, which'll help pay the bills for the balance of the season. At least, that's what I'd be doing, if I were running the show.

[Ron Ford]

Trying to search out the last shred of news about the race I looked at the box score. It shows some guy named Battistini dropped out because of "fatigue"! What the hell is the story there? Back in the day there were Indy500 drivers that suffered heat exhaustion (Agabashian?), but "fatigue" at Kentucky?

[Mauri Rose]

MOAR OVALS!

[Br!an McKay]

"12-lap caution caused by a small piece of debris in the groove. WHY is this so long? Because Power's take keeps falling off? 12 laps of yellow is way too long here."

I asked myself WHY race control didn't let someone fetch the debris then wave the starter wave a green flag a lap later.

The Dario mentioned, and we saw, Penske's duct tape on the track.
Does it take 12 laps for trucks to blow marbles off the race track?
Are we entertained?

And I asked myself why megamillion-deutschmark Audi, at Petit Le Mans, and Team Penske, in Kentucky, were TAPING cars together rather than clipping replacement bodywork on cars.

I ask myself, race after race, year after year, why caution periods, including those in the Petit Le Mans and Kentucky 300 are SO unnecessarily long.
Pitiful. Not entertaining.

[Jack]

Due to this past weekend being my third wedding anniversary and having to attend my first MLB playoff game to watch my Brewers, whom I've been a fan of several years longer than Ed Carpenter has been alive, I had to DVR the race and avoid Twitter all day (difficult) and all other sources of Indycar news (not so difficult, as there aren't many). It worked, I just got done watching it and I think I scared the crap out of my sleeping wife screaming at the TV at midnight. All I could think was "Pressdog must have been soiling his drawers." What a race. I'd forgotten how much I love a good oval show, as it's been so long since I've seen an oval race, good or bad. And I'd almost forgotten why I love Indycar. Now I remember.

[web design London]

I probably didn't hear it right.Bob Jenkins, booth guy, comes on to remind us this is the first oval in three months. Thanks for that, Bob. It's a little like being reminded of the time you were kicked in the crotch.

[redcar]

it takes a long time to clear the marbles so they can have double-wide restarts. is there a better solution?

[pressdog]

FYI. I think Dillon Battistini's "driver fatigue" reason for dropping out was due to illness. Flu or something.

[DougC]

I read his uniform was too tight, cutting off circulation. Seriously.

[Ron Ford]

If we need to use a race in China, a second race in Brazil, etc. as cash cows to help finance the USA races, then I think the IndyCar business plan is seriously flawed. I believe that IndyCar is still trying to run a champagne series when we need a beer budget. Filling the oval track stands with fans without title sponsors for the race still leaves promoters on the ragged edge due to the high sanctioning fee.

[ThatGuy]

Randy was told by the Hulman Sisters to make IndyCar break even at least. Heavily subsidized, likely short-term street race deals financed by local governments is the only way forward to meet that goal. Short of some oval fan winning Powerball and writing a huge check to IMS, I don't think there are (m)any businesses out there are willing to throw ridiculous amounts of money down the rabbit hole that is AOWR.

Either that or the latest messageboard rumors that a "family from down South" is willing to take the IndyCar League off the Hulmans' hands, and maybe IndyCar is back in the situation where the bottom line doesn't matter anymore like it was when Tony was running things. There's always that!

[John S]

How long does it take to replace a side pod cover?

[SkipinSC]

While I'm not ready to go all doom and gloom, maybe it would be best for the Hulman sisters to concentrate their efforts on IMS and the 500, that is assuming that message board rumors are to be believed, (which by and large I don't.)

I have a very hard time seeing how anyone would want to buy "just" IICS from the sisters, unless they could get a fairly good sized piece of the crown jewel, the 500, to pay for the rest of it. Somehow, I doubt that the girls are going to consider that.

The sanctioning fee situation is ridiculous when you consider the attendance expectations that are required to insure profitablility. In this economy, it's just not going to happen. Either the sanctioning fees have to go down, or title sponsors are going to have to be found for ovals or both.

And, unless the economy does a big turnaround, I question how long munincipalities are going to swallow that "million dollar nut" to put on a race in their cities.

Let's face it: When Dover, thrid race in the NASCAR "chase" has 40% exposed tin, (some of it covered) and NFL stadiums aren't filling all those high dollar chairs, how is the IICS to expect that they're going to be the exception to all the rules.

On the other hand, let's look at where we were three years ago. Is the on-track product better? What will the impact of the new car and diverse engine combinations be going forward? Once we add the aero packages, won't that expand the variables?

My feeling is we're making strides, but it's going to take time, maybe more time than the Hulman sisters are willing to give Randy Bernard.

[speedsage]

Dog...I am so glad to read someone else experiences a similar physical reaction to watching an exciting indycar race. I thought I was gonna have a heart attack during the last 22 laps. It was great and although I am a roadrace fan at heart...I love Indy and other good oval races. Buy tickets and go to the races, peeps!