Finally, the month of May. A long time coming, or me just too impatient to wait eleven months since last year?

The first eleven spots have been filled, thanks to Pole Day yesterday. A little disappointed with the ending compared to last year; no last minute line ups in the tech line to get out there and try to push Dixon from P1. Qualifying was still fun to watch, however. And it's interesting to see an all red starting first row, with Dixon, Briscoe, and Wheldon. It's good to see Ryan up there at the top. Hope he can put a solid race in come the 25th after what he put together with Luczo Dragon Racing last year.

Speaking of Luczo Dragon Racing, I was glad to see Tomas Scheckter get in on Pole Day and secure his space. I was just a little disappointed that they didn't withdrawl their time and try to push up a little further, but I can definitely understand their reasoning behind not pushing it.

The starting grid as it currently stands:

Scott Dixon - Target on top. Surprise? Hmmm...
Dan Wheldon - got knocked from the pole, but I still think he made the boss happy. =)
Ryan Briscoe - had the pole for about what... two minutes? Even as they were interviewing him after he qualified, Dixon was out on the track qualifying again and turning faster laps.

Helio Castroneves - happy birthday by the way. P4 isn't too bad a present, although P1 would have been a little nicer.
Danica Patrick - had the pole for all of about ten minutes until Danny boy came out and smashed it.
Tony Kanaan

Marco Andretti - didn't ever have what it took to be on the pole, but he got in on the first day of qualification, which is never a bad thing. He's going to win the 500 one of these years, maybe even this year without Sammy here to rob him of it. =)
Vitor Meira - good to see him here in the top 11. Haven't seen this guy happy in quite a while. He deserves a win, and what better race to win that the 500?
Hideki Mutoh - got in a little trouble and had his first qualification disqualified over an issue with the on board camera and battery pack situation. So he just went out and slapped on another four good laps. No prob.

Ed Carpenter - after withdrawing from the tech line before his original qualification draw because the team forgot something on their checklist, Ed went out and bumped teammate Hamilton from the bubble when he qualified.
Tomas Scheckter - beware the Dragon, that's all I've got to say. Good to have you back, Tomas. I really want to to win it, boy. But I wouldn't mind you just finishing either. =)

We had a couple of spinners during qualifying yesterday. AJ Foyt IV managed to pull another amazing feat of his as he spun on one of his warm up laps and amazing didn't hit anything. Bruno also spun and didn't hit anything. You could see him crossing himself in the car directly afterwards, thanking God that he didn't hit anything.

I was definitely bummed to hear that Jay Howard has been bumped from his own car for most likely the rest of May in favour of John Andretti. Marty Roth says he wants the more experience in the car after their engineers up and left the team and Larry Curry - fired from Vision Racing after Foyt and Carpenter were disqualfied from their qualification for not meeting standards - joined the team. My response to that? You want more experience in the car, Marty, stick John Andretti in your bloody car and let Jay drive his. I do believe he's finished better in every race that he's been in with you.

And while we're talking about boos I'm handing out, ESPN look out! You're right up there with Marty Roth on my list. I know it was a big deal that Danica Patrick hit Bucknum in the pits. But how many times do we really need to see it? It was horrible the first time we saw it - I had to close my eyes because I couldn't watch. And then we're going to rewind and show it again over and over in slow motion? Spare us please. And the worst part was that instead of talking with his team and getting an update on his status, all we saw were glamour shots of Danica? Give me a break, people. You're worse than NBC and Sidney Crosby. Honestly.

Labels: AJ Foyt IV, Danica Patrick, Ed Carpenter, Helio Castroneves, Indy, Jay Howard, John Andretti, Marco Andretti, Marty Roth, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Tomas Scheckter, Vitor Meira

Wow.

I think that about sums this one up.

It was another ups and downs race for me, with quite a few head scratchers.

It started before the race even began; the race was scheduled to start on ESPN2, but they had women's golf on that ran into sudden death shootout or something stupid like that that ran over and caused the start of the race to be on ESPN Classic, which of course I don't get. I couldn't believe that they didn't move the bloody golf onto Classic instead of the start of the race. But whatever. I already sent my complaint to ESPN. @.@

I almost started laughing at the start of the race as Scheckter got into second and Danica already starting complaining about him. I knew it was coming, and I was worried about him starting next to her [ever since she smashed him into the wall at Indy; he is definitely not in her fav five]. But I was glad he did well on the start and gunned it, and Danica just fell away to the back like she usually does on starts and restarts. Not soon after Scheckter got into P2, Bernoldi got a face full of the SAFER barrier and caused the first, early caution.

Will Power also hit the wall. He got in traffic with some of the other cars, and he didn't want to hit Duno, so he stepped off the gas, and the next thing he knew he was past the grey and in the wall. He sounded pleasant enough during his interview, all things considered. A little frustrated that he hasn't finished an oval yet and he admitted that "I need to learn to run in traffic." You could tell he was disappointed, but I gained more respect for him today.

And then things started to get really weird. The cars came into the pits for gas and tires. Scheckter was hoping to have a quick enough pit to keep the car at the front of the pack with Dixon and Wheldon. But as he pit crew was filling it up, Marty Roth spun a little trying to get into his pit stall in front of Scheckter, and Roth ran right into Scheckter's tire guy. The tire guy managed to grab a tire and get it on the car [and he wasn't hurt, which is good]. But as if that wasn't enough, as they were trying to get Marty out of Tomas' way so that he could get out of the pits, Roth ran over Scheckter's pit crew guy's foot. And that was enough for his crew guy to smack Roth's helmet in irritation. Usually, I pull for Roth, because I'd like to see him do well [especially since he signed Jay Howard to ride for him this year], but that really made me mad. I swear that Tomas really just can't catch a break. Something always happens to him.

But then he managed to turn it around. The incident with Roth in the pits caused Scheckter to fall back to 21st position. And yet, he managed to battle his way back up towards the leaders, getting close to the top ten. When the ESPN guys noted that they made "no adjustments to the wing" on his car, I had a nice little laugh. I sure have missed my wing adjustment jokes with Scheckter being out of the series.

During that series of pit stops, I had to shake my head at Patrick. She's always ragging on slow people being in her way, and she was yapping about common driver etiquette on the race track today. And then she goes and almost causes a wreck on pit lane. Milka Duno was coming down pit lane [after spinning coming in]; since her stall is towards the back, she was already up to speed. And Patrick pulls out of her pit in front of Duno, clearly not up to speed. Duno managed to find the brake in time to prevent hitting her, however. Ironic to me, though.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was having a pretty good race until he lost fifth gear in his car. They managed to get his car back on the track, but he was over twenty laps down, and was just out on the track to get laps in and hope to get position over others who couldn't finish the race.

And then the pain really hit me. Scheckter was back out there battling for position, and he got tangled with EJ Viso, who was racing really well considering that he hasn't run many laps on ovals. Tomas and EJ were driving side by side - Scheckter on the high side, Viso down below - and Viso came up the track enough to make contact with Tomas. Nothing broke on Viso's car, but Tomas' day was done. I know that Tomas should have probably given Viso a little more room, since Viso is a rookie, but I don't think that he's to blame for the contact. I was waiting for the gloves to come off as he stepped out of the car to throw, but that was a no go this time.

In fact, Tomas was actually really good about the whole thing. He was checking out the car at first, and his crew tried to get it back on the track, but no luck there. But Scheckter didn't say anything about Viso and he just thanked his team for doing an amazing job. I was really disappointed for him, because if Roth hadn't hit him in the pits, things could have turned out much better for him, and he would have been right up there with the TCG boys.

Vitor Meira had another disappointing race that ended with a DNF after he ran over the tire in the pit box in front of him, which broke the front suspension on the front of his car. He, once again, was not a happy camper. Seems to be a reoccuring theme lately, sadly enough. But he claimed that the right rear tire changer had the tire way too far out on all the pit stops, and he said "that stupid thing" cost him.

And then Buddy Rice. Something snapped on his car, and he slammed straight into the wall. He lost almost the entire side pod of his car, and he had to climb out as quickly as possible because there was an internal fire. He still had time to pound on the other sidepod of his car first though. Not surprisingly, there wasn't an interview with him following his crash, so no word that I know of on what exactly happened to his car.

Now back to Danica Patrick. She was climbing back towards the top after a terrible middle part of the race. But then she got ready to leave the pits, and her right rear tire changer couldn't get the tire off, and then he couldn't get the new tire on. The four bolts broke on her wheel, and that was the end of her race as well. And as much as I try - I really do - to like her, interviews like the one she had after she climbed out of the car make me just rub me completely the wrong way. She really didn't have much nice to say, and wasn't very complimentary of Viso at all [although she did say his car was pretty race]. This is where she put her two cents in about proper oval driving etiquette, and I just had to laugh and shake me head. I try, Danica, I do. But then you open your mouth, and I want you and Danny Boy to do another round in pit lane, with him knocking your lights out this time. Honestly. Argh.

And speaking about good old Danny Boy, how about that win? Nice little end to a dry spell since his last race win [which just happened to be at Kansas last year]. It was actually kind of funny, because he let his wife [who was just his PR at the time] pick out his rental car last year. So this year, he made her pick again, and told her she'd better do a good job because he wanted to be in the winner's circle again. Well, Susie, looks like you did a good job! She definitely got a nice big thank you kiss and hug after he got out of the car. I still haven't gotten over the new teeth yet, though.

Poor old Dixon didn't look too happy with the his results after the race. He threw that really expensive [and wicked cool] steering wheel out of the car in frustration. He got another bad luck draw for the day, but I can't say that I'm not happy that Danny won.

I'm also really glad that Ryan Briscoe and Marco Andretti both finished in the top ten with both their cars in one piece. That was something they both needed. Marco's finish was enough to bump him three spaces back up in the points standings and even perhaps put him back in the running for the championship. Jay Howard also finished the race in one piece. And Justin Wilson had a good race, finishing at the bottom of the top ten.

Labels: Buddy Rice, Dan Wheldon, Danica Patrick, EJ Viso, Enrique Bernoldi, Kansas, Marco Andretti, Marty Roth, Milka Duno, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon, Tomas Scheckter, Vitor Meira, Will Power