The 92nd Indianapolis 500 Thread.............

[JayVee]

So the Indy 500 is right after the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.

Good luck Danica!

Imagine Alonso winning in Monaco and Danica winning in Indianapolis, that will make my year

[mlittle]

In and amidst all the Indy Lights activity, there were a few items of interest..................


~~Press Conference tomorrow.....according to tracksideonline.com, a press conference is set for 10:30am Friday to announce Honda's continued involvement with the Indy Racing League; terms were not listed but the assumption is, at the least, that Honda will remain around through 2012

~~New sponsor for the #5.........KV Racing Technology announced today that their primary sponsor for the 500 will be Angie's List, a nationally-recognized leader in local service recommendations; they will remain with the #5 team as an associate sponsor for the remainder of the year beginning w/Milwaukee

~~Confirmed through 2013.....IRL officials confirmed today that Long Beach will be on the IndyCar Series schedule through 2013; a couple of weeks ago, Long Beach officials extended their contract with the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach(GPALB) through 2015 w/an additional 5-yr. option beyond, so this announcement anchors one of the sport's marquee events on the calendar for a long time to come

[Southernman]

All I can say is Go Dixon Go.

[mlittle]

All I can say is Go Dixon Go.

Good pick.......good pick.........my pick for the 500 win..............
GO DANICA GO!!!

[mlittle]

Part of today's drivers' meeting prior to the running of the Indianapolis 500 is the time-honored tradition of the race's chief steward giving final instructions to all 33 drivers.....here is what the IRL's President of Racing Operations, Brian Barnhart, said to the drivers this morning during the drivers' meeting.

Congratulations to each of the drivers sitting here this morning. Your attendance signifies a successful month of May. Your hard work, commitment and professionalism have paid off with a spot in the field on Sunday.

For the start of the race, (the) green (flag) will be the third time by. The pace car will be driven by two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi and will come through the north end at 105-110 miles an hour through turn 4. All cars should be three abreast at this time.

Please consider the competitors around you. We don't start like this at any other event during the season; the key to a good start is driver patience and driver discipline between the rows. Watch the drivers in front, beside and behind you. Take care of yourself and execute a clean start. You may not pass prior to the start-finish line on the intitial start and you may need to brake going into turn 1 if you have to. Leave yourself someplace to go, and be ready for sparks from the titanium skid blocks when everyone is full of fuel.

Scott, as the pole sitter, you'll use the pace car as your reference. Don't let the Corvette get too far in front of you. Emerson's pace is the pace I want you at as you exit turn 4. At that time Dan and Ryan will pace off of you as the pace car turns onto pit road. As all rows arrive on the front straightaway the green flag will fly to commence the start of the race.

Make sure you take care of yourself as well as your competitors in pit lane. Any speeding or running over pit equipment or other unsanctioned activity will result in penalties. Spotters are located in Turns 1 and 3 and will provide great information to you. But don't rely on them to make decisions for you or drive the car for you. If you're doing your job well, the spotter will likely be providing information to you that you already know. Use the first half of the race to prepare for the second half. It's supposed to be warmer than any day we've had this month. You'll have to adjust your downforce levels and prepare for a hot, slippery track. You have several pit stops for opportunities to improve the handling of the car. Be patient. 500 miles is a long day, not a sprint race.

As we prepare for the 92nd Indianapolis 500, there's great excitement around the IndyCar Series. For the first time in 12 years we'll be racing at this event as a unified series. We welcome back teams like Newman-Haas-Lanigan, Dale Coyne Racing and Eric Bachelart's Conquest Racing. We welcome for the first time CTE-HVM Racing, KV Racing Technology and Pacific Coast Motorsports. We welcome eleven new drivers. We had a tremendous off-season with exposure in front of millions of new fans with Helio Castroneves winning 'Dancing With the Stars'. All of this provides added excitement and drama for tomorrow's race. There is a buzz around our sport and a feeling of a new beginning.

We are well positioned for growth as we lead the IndyCar Series into the next generation of racing. It comes at a great time, as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins to celebrate some very special anniversaries in the next three years, including the centennial celebration of the first 500 in 1911. In closing, I wish each of you the best of luck tomorrow. Enjoy the parade this afternoon. And, finally, take care of each other on the race track. Let's have a fast,clean and safe race.

[mlittle]

All I can say is Go Dixon Go.

BTW, Dixon won the 500.....

[mlittle]

In a sense, it was a perfect month for Kiwi Scott Dixon......he was one of the fastest cars all month, he was the fastest on Pole Day two weeks ago....and he dominated today's Indianapolis 500, becoming the first New Zealander to win the storied race, the 19th to win from the pole and the first since Jacques Villeneuve in 1995 to win in a unified open-wheel series.

As expected, the Big Three teams--Target/Ganassi, Team Penske and Andretti-Green Racing--dominated from start to finish but with the exception of Dixon and Penske's Helio Castroneves, problems befell all the other Big 3 drivers today(more on some of their problems later....... ). Dixon led 115 laps, the most by a race winner since Juan Pablo Montoya, driving a one-off for Target/Ganassi in 2000, led 167 laps and was the strongest driver on the track pretty much most of the race, taking the lead from Panther Racing's Vitor Meira on lap 172 for good. For his part, Meira, who notched his second runner-up finish in the past 4 years, was the surprise of the month as his team was not considered one of the favorites this month. Rounding out the top-5 were AGR's Marco Andretti, Penske's Castroneves and Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter; like Meira, Carpenter was not favored to win but unlike most of the Big 3's drivers, Carpenter was competitive all day long.

The fight for Indy 500 rookie honors was as competitive today as the fight for the Borg-Warner Trophy.......taking the top spot amongst the rookies' was Rahal-Letterman's Ryan Hunter-Reay, who piloted the #17 Ethanol car to a 6th-place finish; another rookie who ran with the big dogs today at the Brickyard was AGR's Hideki Mutoh, who was the fastest rookie this month; Mutoh finished 7th and it is a safe bet that one of these two cats'll walk away with 500 rookie honors.

Now.....what happened to the other Big 3 drivers? A combination of dumb mistakes, bad luck and boneheaded moves............First, who drives for the Big 3?
--TGR: Dixon(1st), Wheldon(12th)
--Penske: Castroneves(4th), Briscoe(23rd)
--AGR: Andretti(3rd), Mutoh(7th), Patrick(22nd), Kanaan(29th)

As far as bad luck goes.......while he drove well for the first half of the race, an ill-handling car sent Wheldon back for the remainder of the race. A combination of bad luck and dumb mistakes befell AGR's Tony Kanaan....the dumb mistake was courtesy of his teammate, Marco Andretti, who made a very risky low-side pass in turn 3 just past halfway, pushing TK into the marbles and causing him to spin out.....whereupon he had the bad luck to be involved in a 2-car wreck w/Sarah Fisher. But the worst incident of the day involved Penske's Ryan Briscoe and AGR's Danica Patrick......

So, what happened? On the last round of stops, Briscoe apparently forgot the first rule of racing etiquette on pit lane......don't run into other drivers' cars! As he was pulling out of his pitstall, he nailed the left-rear of Patrick's car, ending her day......and then things got interesting. After getting out of her car, her day done, Patrick starts storming down pitlane towards Briscoe's pitstall to confront Briscoe over what happened(remember Infineon, 2005?..... ). Thankfully, a couple of pit stewards and track security got to her before she got to Briscoe's pitstall.

In the end, it was New Zealand's Scott Dixon who capped off a perfect month of may with the biggest prize on the calendar.......a win at the Indianapolis 500.


Top-10 from a very interesting Indianapolis...................................
1st} #9 Scott Dixon........................................200 laps
2nd} #4 Vitor Meira........................................-1.750 sec
3rd} #26 Marco Andretti..................................-2.313 sec
4th} #3 Helio Castroneves..............................-6.262 sec
5th} #20 Ed Carpenter...................................-6.551 sec
6th} #17 Ryan Hunter-Reay............................-6.989 sec
7th} #27 Hideki Mutoh....................................-7.876 sec
8th} #15 Buddy Rice......................................-8.870 sec
9th} #14 Darren Manning................................-9.202 sec
10th} #99 Townsend Bell................................-9.457 sec

[RE30B#16]

It was a good Indy 500 this year. Not great, but good. No drivers got injured and there weren't 100 accidents.

The two best moves of the day were Tony Kanaan and Milka Duno keeping their respective machines from clocking (at least) the outside wall when trouble hit. Too bad for Tony, Sarah Fisher was there with nowhere to go, otherwise he would have surely collected the car and finished the day. I like Sarah Fisher, and it was sad to see her go out of the race through no fault of her own.

On a related note, I reject the notion that somehow Marco Andretti was in any way at fault for what happened to Tony Kanaan. Teammate or not, the idea is to WIN THE DAMN RACE!! With the Andretti history at the Brickyard, I would think no one should complain so long as the move wasn't dirty. In that corner, Tony was slower than Marco, and Marco went by him CLEANLY. His dad or his granddad would have done the same thing. It is too bad Kanaan felt the need to whine on camera about it. If Marco and Tony were not teammates, I don't think anyone would have commented on it.

That said neither the Andretti(?)/Fisher/Kanaan or the Danica Patrick/Ryan Briscoe incident were anything more than hard luck. Briscoe punched it too hard coming off his pits briefly kicking out the rear of his car. Unfortunately, it drifted into the passing Patrick who would have passed him cleanly had the rear of his car not begun coming around. Once again, if Danica was not there, Briscoe would have collected his car and continued. Unfortunately, Michael Andretti, not one for keeping his decorum when he gets emotional, had to say Briscoe "screwed up" when they interviewed him about the incident.

All in all, the best drives of the day were Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, Vito Meira, and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick were also driving well along with Dan Wheldon until problems ended their day. Hats off to rookie Hideki Mutoh for staying out of trouble and bringing his car home in the top 10. It was an uncharacteristically low-key drive to 4th by the usually racy Helio Castro-Neves, and it seems AJ Foyt IV has inherited his father's strange late career Indy bad luck of bizarre failures and hapless pit stop disasters. The best thing about today's race was many cars were competitive. It reminded me of the mid Seventies that way. Sure, one of the big three prevailed in the end, but no team dominated. This leads me to think North American open wheel racing is alive and kicking. That makes me very happy.

[mlittle]

Some assorted thoughts about this year's Indianapolis 500....................

~~First, congratulations to Scott Dixon for winning the 500.....he didn't turn a wheel wrong all race, he was one of the fastest cars all month....all-in-all, today's win capped off a perfect month for the Kiwi.

~~Why couldn't the weather have been as good throughout the month of May as it was today?

~~The hard-luck story of the month goes to driver/owner Sarah Fisher.....she starts her own team this year, only to see the primary sponsor bail on her going into the month of May(..... .......); she makes it into the field, almost literally on a wing-and-a-prayer, only to have her race end just past halfway.... Hopefully, we'll see her in a couple more races this year......

~~Besides the Kiwi, there were a couple of good drives, notably those of 2nd-place Vitor Meira and 5th-place Ed Carpenter; neither of them were on anyone's radar screens this year for a 500 win, but considering its' Memorial Day weekend, wouldn't it have been wonderful to see the National Guard car in Victory Lane?

~~Is it just me, or has A.J. Foyt, IV had one of the weirdest, most bizarre months of May on record? Couple of reasons.....he gets singed in practice when the fuel buckeye unfastens and spews ethanol over the rear tires, lighting them up and sending him into the wall......then during the race he pulls away from the pitlane a bit too soon and takes part of the fuel hose with him, which starts another fire of sorts......

~~The Andretti Curse lives on yet again..........

~~Why is it that Chip Ganassi can field successful IndyCar and Grand-Am teams, yet his NASCAR teams can't drive for ----?

[Southernman]

Well done Scott Dixon.

I know alot of people support Danica Patrick and she is a good driver but the way she carries herself is starting to become a joke. The way she was going to have a go at Briscoe was not a good image for her or the sport.

She is also getting the reputation as being a "walking headline". The media may love her but I think it's time that she should start to fly under the radar until she performs consistantly.

[mlittle]

Well done Scott Dixon.

I know alot of people support Danica Patrick and she is a good driver but the way she carries herself is starting to become a joke. The way she was going to have a go at Briscoe was not a good image for her or the sport.

She is also getting the reputation as being a "walking headline". The media may love her but I think it's time that she should start to fly under the radar until she performs consistantly.

You know, the more I see the highlight of Danica stalking down pitlane towards Briscoe's pitstall, the more I think, "Ya' know, after her racing career ends, she might have a future as a politician(insert your own politician joke at that point)........"

In all seriousness, though, Southernman, I agree.....for two reasons:
1--on the media's focus towards her......I did a quick search of both domestic and foreign press coverage of the 500, and there was a big contrast in coverage. The foreign press, by and large, focused almost all the attention on Scott Dixon(as they should....after all, he won the 500!).....the domestic press, on the other hand, seemed to devote as much, if not more, press towards Danica as they did towards Dixon.
2--there'a a line from the movie Top Gun..."Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash." That could almost describe how she carries herself at present...its' like she's picked up one of her team owner's bad habits....that is, the habit of whining when things don't go your way. Case in point.....unless I'm mistaken, her car and that of teammate Hideki Mutoh's were set up pretty much the same, yet I don't think Mutoh b------ and moaned one bit the whole race. By comparison, her team's strategist, Kyle Moyer, I suspect, was probably getting fitted for hearing aids after the race.

[RE30B#16]

RE: Danica's death march:

2--there'a a line from the movie Top Gun..."Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash." That could almost describe how she carries herself at present...its' like she's picked up one of her team owner's bad habits....that is, the habit of whining when things don't go your way.

I am inclined to agree. However, she is not alone:

Tony Kanaan was whining about Marco giving him no room! ;

Marco claimed 'sabotage' on behalf of dear ole dad's F1 foray;

Michael whined and pouted about everything


None of that crap does any of them any good.