Indianapolis 500 Observations
INDIANAPOLIS – Thoughts, observations and a few questions following the 92nd Indianapolis 500:
• Last year, the rain prevented Scott Dixon from scoring his first win. This year, the Kiwi was not to be denied. It's not often that the best car wins the Indy 500. This year, the best car did.
• The last time the best car won the race was in 2006 with Sam Hornish Jr. Remember him, Indy car fans, behind the wheel?
• Who started the new tradition of pouring the milk over the winner's head?
• Much of the credit for Dixon's win goes to his pit crew. Their final stop was quick, flawless and put Dixon out ahead of race leader Vitor Meira.
• Meira's brief moment in the sun made Panther Racing look like the dominant force in the IRL that it once was. Hornish drove for Panther in two of his championship seasons.
• More on Meira – The Brazilian's daring "threading the needle" pass of Dixon and Ed Carpenter on Lap 160 was the move of the race as far as I'm concerned.
Runner-up was when Danica Patrick was instructed to climb back over the wall during the temper tantrum following her wreck on pit road with Ryan Briscoe.
• Patrick's drama queen theatrics have worn thin. Sorry Danica, we've seen it all before, but done better by the guy who drives the Home Depot car in NASCAR. By the way, he's a much better driver than you'll ever be and therefore is granted a pass on such behavior.
• And did ABC have to keep playing her whining about how bad her car was over the team radio?
• Sarah Fisher's display of emotions while being interviewed after she became an innocent victim to Tony Kanaan's encounter with the Turn 4 SAFER barrier was honest, real and refreshing. I would rather see her win a race than just about anyone else.
• The crowd behind Fisher's pit box had small signs that read 'Go Sarah Go.' They held them up every time she came into her pit box.
• Walking the grid before the Indy 500 is like hanging out backstage on opening night on Broadway. The electricity in the air is beyond description. There's absolutely nothing that comes close.
• Spotted while walking the grid: 1999 race winner Kenny Brack; veteran driver Roberto "Super Sub" Moreno; and NASCAR Chairman Brian France, who was spotted chatting with Roger and Craig Penske.
Maybe next year, France won't be the only one from NASCAR who will be doing "double duty" on race day.
• Graham Rahal made a rookie mistake that put him into trouble early in the race. I predict, like his namesake, the late Graham Hill, this second generation racer will one day be a winner at Indy.
• Ryan Hunter-Reay rebounded from an ugly two weeks of practice to take "Rookie of the Race" honors. A year ago, Hunter-Reay was walking the NASCAR paddock at Lowe's Motor Speedway and watching the Indy 500 on television. This race-winning Champ Car washout was hoping to find a ride in NASCAR when he got the call from Graham's dad Bobby Rahal. Talk about a reversal of fortunes.
• Dan Wheldon looked like the car to beat until he had what team owner Chip Ganassi described as a "shock failure." It likely happened after Wheldon was forced onto the grass on the backstretch on Lap 176 and nearly ended his race early.
• Milka Duno, who spun out after being forced onto the rumble strips in Turn 3 by Buddy Lazier, came within 15 laps of completing the 500 miles. OK everyone, it's time to stop making fun of her.
• Speaking of Lazier, his car was junk, his driving was erratic and it's time for the winner of the first Indy 500 after the split to call it a day.
The same goes for Marty Roth.
• It seemed that every time the yellow came out, it was out for 10 laps. In reality, a third of the race was run under yellow.
• As expected, most of the cautions were caused by former Champ Car teams. But overall, they delivered credible performances – although the top 10 drivers were all IRL regulars.
• My pick to win was Helio Castroneves. He was good, but not good enough. I still believe he'll win his first IRL title this season.
• The highest finishing former Champ Car driver was Oriol Servia, who practiced for but didn't qualify for the 2002 event. He was driving a car fielded by KV Technology Racing – KV representing Kevin Kalkhoven, who used to own the now-defunct Champ Car series and Indy 500 veteran and former CART champion Jimmy Vasser.
• I believe I'm right when I say that Team Penske's Briscoe has had some kind of wreck or incident in every IRL race this season. That's not the type of performance Roger Penske wants to see from his drivers.
• Had Tomas Scheckter not had a mechanical issue that forced him to drop out early he would have been in the mix in the final twenty laps.
• It was a bad weekend for Jeff Simmons. His Indy Lights race was a disappointment after his team missed the set up and Simmons struggled for the entire 40 laps. Then, while warming up his tires before a restart, his tires hooked up and he looked like Kevin Cogan, slamming into both the outside and inside wall on the front straight.
Postscript:
As Indy 500 races go, this one was, on a scale of one to 10, a six.
There were too many cautions, not a lot of real racing and not to take anything away from Scott Dixon and his team, a disappointing finish after all the hype.
Had Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal or Danica Patrick won the race, there would have been the monster headlines the IRL front office folks were hoping for.
Nevertheless, it was a good month of May and it likely gave Indy car racing a bit of a boost.
The crowd at the Speedway was the biggest I'd seen in well over a decade – estimates put it at over 250,000. The traffic getting into the track in the morning was just plain miserable. That's a good thing.
Welcome back, Indy 500.
