2007 IRL Rd. 14--Meijer Indy 300

[mlittle]

With four races remaining in the 2007 season and the wild, chaotic 400 miles of Michigan in the rearviews, the IndyCar Series travels to Kentucky Speedway for round 14 of 17, the Meijer Indy 300. Set amongst the bluegrass country of Kentucky, this 1.5-mile speedway has seen some of the most exciting open-wheel races of the past few years and with the championship fight in full-swing, this year should be no different.

Event schedule for the Meijer Indy 300....................
Practice Session #1, 11:30 am-1:30 pm, 10 August 2007
Practice Session #2, 2:45-4:45 pm, 10 August 2007
Qualifying Session, 6:15 pm, 10 August 2007
Meijer Indy 300, 6:30 pm, 11 August 2007, ESPN-2
**other broadcast networks of interest..............
--domestic AM radio, IMS Radio Network
--satellite radio, XM Satellite Radio(Chs. 144, XM Sports Nation and 145, IndyCar Racing)
--as always, international shortwave and tv/radio simulcasts on the United States Armed Forces Network

[mlittle]

Event: Meijer Indy 300 presented by Coca-Cola and Secret
Where: Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, Ky.
When} 6:30 pm, 11 August 2007


Past Winners..................
Buddy Lazier--2000, 2001
Felipe Giaffone--2002
Sam Hornish, Jr.--2003, 2006
Adrian Fernandez--2004
Scott Sharp--2005

~~Track Distance, 1.5 miles long/70 feet wide from outside wall to track apron
~~Frontstretch, 1662 ft. banked at 4 degrees
~~Backstretch, 1660 ft. banked at 4 degres
~~Turns banked at 14 degrees

Entry List.....................................
Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision on Joost
Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske
Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi
Sarah Fisher, #5 AAMCO Transmissions
Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Team Penske
Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola
Scott Sharp, #8 Patron Tequila
Scott Dixon, #9 Target
Dan Wheldon, #10 Target
Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11
Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co./GAF
Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater/A1 Grand Prix
(R)Ryan Hunter-Reay, #17 Ethanol
Ed Carpenter, #20 Hitachi Power Tools
A.J. Foyt, IV, #22 Indy Vision on Joost
Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group
Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Vonage
Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/TPR/Autobacs

[mlittle]

Kentucky Practice Session #1 top-5.................
1st} Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing...........................24.458 sec/217.839 mph
2nd} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing...............................24.476 sec/217.684 mph
3rd} Danica Patrick, Andretti-Green Racing............................24.520 sec/217.288 mph
4th} Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske.....................................24.526 sec/217.235 mph
5th} Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing.............................24.556 sec/216.976 mph

[mlittle]

Kentucky Practice Session #2 top-5...................
1st} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing.............................24.401 sec/218.348 mph
2nd} Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing.........................24.419 sec/218.195 mph
3rd} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing..............................24.507 sec/217.405 mph
4th} Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske....................................24.509 sec/217.392 mph
5th} Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing............................24.511 sec/217.376 mph

[mlittle]

Meijer Indy 300 presented by Coca-Cola and Secret starting grid...............................

1st} Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11.....................................24.431 sec/218.086 mph
2nd} Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Vonage...............24.575 sec/216.810 mph

3rd} Scott Sharp, #8 Patron Tequila...................................24.592 sec/216.658 mph
4th} Scott Dixon, #9 Target...............................................24.612 sec/216.481 mph

5th} Dan Wheldon, #10 Target...........................................24.626 sec/216.353 mph
6th} Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision on Joost...................24.631 sec/216.315 mph

7th} Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Team Penske..............................24.664 sec/216.022 mph
8th}(R)Ryan Hunter-Reay, #17 Ethanol...............................24.692 sec/215.776 mph

9th} Ed Carpenter, #20 Hitachi Power Tools........................24.695 sec/215.754 mph
10th} A.J. Foyt, IV, #22 Indy Vision on Joost.......................24.722 sec/215.521 mph

11th} Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola......................................24.750 sec/215.275 mph
12th} Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi..............................................24.758 sec/215.202 mph

13th} Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske.........................24.795 sec/214.880 mph
14th} Sarah Fisher, #5 AAMCO Transmissions....................24.819 sec/214.677 mph

15th} Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group..............................24.865 sec/214.276 mph
16th} Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater/A1 Grand Prix................24.934 sec/213.685 mph

17th} Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/TPR/Autobacs.........24.953 sec/213.518 mph
18th} Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co./GAF................25.005 sec/213.079 mph

[mlittle]

After sipping a couple of mint julips and enjoying the evening sun setting off in the distance following another night of close racing at Kentucky Speedway, the notebook's full of thoughts about Saturday envening's race.............where should I start?

~~Another AGR episode of "The Good, The Bad and the downright Weird." For Andretti-Green Racing, the race was an up-and-down affair; on the good side, 2 AGR cars finished 1st(Kanaan) and 4th(Andretti); for Kanaan, it was his 4th win of the season and has effectively tightened up what was a 2-horse race into a 3-horse race....for Marco, it was his 2nd-straight top-5 on an oval(which certainly helps considering the absolutely abysmal 1st-half of the season he had).....now for AGR drivers Danica Patrick and Dario Franchitti, the day didn't go quite as planned.......for Patrick, another shot at a win quite literally blew out from her following a bad chain of events; on her final stop of the night, Patrick's crew decided not to change tires(about half of the teams' opted to double-stint tires during the race.......... ) and on the outlap, she spins out while exiting pitlane. Considering what happened last race, her team looked at the telemetry coming from the tires and opted not to bring her back in......bad mistake; on the next lap at about 100-105 mph, the right-rear blows out and Patrick becomes a passenger on what had to have been a scary trip to the outside wall(note......it could have been worse; her car missed hitting one of the track safety vehicles en route to the wall). The downright weird part of the team's evening goes to the Scotsman, who for the second consecutive week, saw his car flip after hitting another car(what happened is he ran into the left-rear of Kosuke Matsuura's car after the checkered flag flew, sending Franchitti's car into a 360-flip before landing right-side up and hitting the turn 1 wall......thankfully, Franchitti escaped injury but was visibly angry at himself for what happened)


~~Career best for Quattro and the Vision boys. Of Vision Racing's three drivers, Tomas Scheckter, Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt, IV, which one do you think finished 3rd last night?
--Scheckter.....nope; he finished 5th
--Carpenter.....uh-uh; he was 7th
--Quattro.........ding-ding-ding; we have a winner!
No, that's not a typo, for A.J. Foyt, IV not only finished 3rd last night(career-best finish) but for once in his IndyCar career was in position to actually win; it was a stellar night for the team, as well; for the first time, they saw all 3 teams make the top-10..........

~~From the seen and heard files..............whilst roaming the paddock at Kentucky, I did hear a few interesting bits of news..........
--It appears Roth Racing will not be running presumptive 2007 IPS champion Alex Lloyd at Chicagoland: Lloyd wanted to test for the team prior to committing but the team wasn't able to set a date that either side liked, so Lloyd is out for the race....ironically, the team's rumored to have tapped former IndyCar Series driver P.J. Chesson for the ride, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out
--With all the crash damage from Michigan, Aguri-Panther Racing announced that an upcoming test w/IPS driver Hideki Mutoh at Infineon has been cancelled; the team reiterated, though, that Mutoh will test for them at Chicagoland and will drive a third Aguri-Panther car there for the 2007 ICS season finale
--Representatives from both Johnson Controls and Optima Batteries were seen in the IndyCar paddock during the weekend; rumor has it that both companies will be sponsoring future ICS events and that one of the teams could be sponsoring an IndyCar team in 2008

Top-10 from an interesting and weird Kentucky.......................................
1st} #11 Tony Kanaan......................................200 laps
2nd} #9 Scott Dixon.........................................-1.746 sec
3rd} #22 A.J. Foyt, IV......................................-2.107 sec
4th} #26 Marco Andretti...................................-2.300 sec
5th} #2 Tomas Scheckter................................-2.366 sec
6th} #8 Scott Sharp........................................-2.649 sec
7th} #20 Ed Carpenter....................................-2.815 sec
8th} #27 Dario Franchitti.................................-6.284 sec
9th} #3 Helio Castroneves...............................-1 lap
10th} #4 Vitor Meira.......................................-1 lap