Gosh.. no one commented on the Big Race..? Lots of lead changes.... lots of ahem "elbowing" for position... And the wonderful surprize.. the "slow" Hondas sure seemed fast on race day... It Sato had not crashed out.. it would of been 1, 2,3 for Honda.. but first and second is not bad...for both Honda and Chip Ganassi...!! Cheers...!!! Ron
I watched the whole race. Lots of lead changes and surprisingly good. Someone compared it to flushing a bag of skittles down the toilet and whoever was the last one down won.
All the tributes to Dan Wheldon were wonderful. If you went through that entire day without shedding one tear, you're broken inside.
I have to admit I was a bit concerned with the changes but this 500 May have been the best yet race wise.. Lots of lead changes.. Cars handling like true Indy cars and drivers using their heads.... It was a damned good race... 2 thumbs up to the IRL for the changes..
It was a great race. I was pulling for Sato after Kanaan fell back but he made his move too soon. Good for Dario. Maybe now he can afford to buy Ashley a bra (or not!)
I love the 500 and Indy cars in general, but damn the cars have gotten butt ugly. They look like that big assed (not in the good way) chick that you take home after last call.
I patronized target after the race and have no idea why? Between the monaco race and the indy and the DSB replay... it was a long day for my leather couch.
It was a great race. The crowd showed up even in 95 degree heat. The salute to the the military is always an awesome sight there...especially when they play Taps. That trumpet quieting down 300k people is truely amazing:up:
Helluva good race, close all the way - and I really think Weldon was riding with Dario after seeing how close Sato came to hitting him....
It was terrific racing. I always have a great time at the track when we go. The sound, the speed, the visual spectacle... awesome. But all the yellows at the end makes the first 190 laps irrelevant. Marco got screwed. He worked his butt off to get a pretty good lead only to have it erased by a yellow and he didn't compete again the rest of the race. Conversely, TK wasn't competitive all day but was somehow right there at the end. My wife had never been to the race or to the speedway. She commented that it was really good racing after the long green in the first half of the race. I told her that it was fun to watch but it didnt matter. There will be a yellow with 10 laps to go to bunch everyone back up for an exciting finish. Why not just run a 10 lap sprint and be done with it?
Sounds like you were at the track (how hot was it on those bleachers?!). Marco got screwed more by poor strategy from his team than the yellows. Kind of surprising considering the Andretti crew should have the strategy down pat after all these years. TV broadcasted his remarks after one of the late pit stops and it is a good thing that they have a 7 second delay because half of his conversation was bleeped out. Actually, I think the boy needs to relax a bit. I'm a huge Andretti fan and he doesn't have dad or grandpa's calm demeanor just yet.
Thanks for the info on Marco. Being at the race, i didn't know any of that. The sun was hot; by 10am it was uncomfortable. I thought, omg we're going to bake sitting out here. But there was a breeze blowing that kept it from being too bad. We sat just down from the s/f line close to the track (across from Helio's pit). The shade from the boxes came over us with about 25 laps to go. Good timing since we were about medium-well by then.
Seeing last year's William Rast car pull out onto the track in front of us while taps played was quite a moment. I miss Dan being in the sport. Marco screwed himself. There are 32 other drivers and their crews doing what they can to make sure you loose. There are only a handful of folks there that want you to win. You don't help your cause by yelling at your own crew and generally pissing and moaning the whole race. F him. Sato's move was too early. Of course, it's easy to be insightful observing from my seat. From the track, I couldn't tell if Dario pushed him too low but from the replays, I don't think so. If he'd waited to make that move at the end of the back straight, he had a chance to block Dario in 4 then drag race him to the bricks. Too bad Lotus brought a knife to a gunfight. Too bad Will Power got taken out by another team's poor pit stop.
Marco has a bad attitude, especially about Indy. He feels he is entitled to win that race, like Indy owes it to him, family legacy or something. He reminds me of a spoiled kid, Michael is ok, but Mario is a great guy, fantastic racer. I think someone talked to Marco about his attitude after the race, and before the award ceremony....because his words were completely different regarding the Indy 500. I thought it was very cool how Dario included Mrs. Wheldon in much of the victory celebration, especially the victory lap in the pacecar...classy move:up:
