IRL Watkins Glen Finish Results *SPOILER*

Very strange race.

 

Unification brings strong commercial first half

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=11893

Dario Franchitti's financial troubles in NASCAR

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/2008-07-02-franchitti-future_N.htm

Impressive Guest List at Engine Summit - All-new indy cars for 2011

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-impressive-guest-list-at-engine-summit/

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Rahal Letterman Racing win at the Glen

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-hunter-reay-triumphs-at-the-glen/

http://www.ryanracing.com/

http://www.rahal.com/

 

Thanks for the update Ron, I recalled that Hunter Ray was actually pretty decent when he raced for Stefan Johannson in the American Spirt Team in Champ Car.

 

This race paralled the NASCAR race at Daytona the other night - big change right at the end with mayhem ensuring a little further back. The Ganassi pit crew guy was lucky he wasn't tagged by Patrick in her pit lane episode, he jumped in time to avoid contact. Once again, she took back seat to the other AGR drivers.

Glad to see Bobby Rahal get the win - such a great sport. Actually, the GREAT sports of the race were Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe - I don't think you'll ever find other drivers treating each other "humanely" and in a professional manner like they did one another. . . no stomping or ranting, no going after each other....professionals.

Carol

 

Throw in absolutely no alternative energy/green initiative (or other technical relevence, for that matter), sponsors being priced out, fans being priced out, and the fact that 3 of their 4 manufacturers are bordering on bankruptcy, and NASCAR ain't looking so hot right now. The IRL needs to go for the jugular on all fronts: sponsors, fans, manufacturers, drivers...

 

Excellent post, I hope the IRL gets stronger.

 

i agree w/ your sentiments including the danica insinuation. she was simply outclassed by virtually all of the other racers.

 

this is very true. there is change ahead!

 

I'm usually a fan of Danica's - I admit it - but what in the world was she thinking when she did that HUGE burnout from her pit stop under yellow, with no one else within spitting distance? Dumb as dirt. She's very lucky she didn't run over anyone when she lost it.

 

Watching on TIVO right now, the last 20 or so laps, this is pathetic. Three accidents, or was it four, two under yellow plus Danica's accident. American open wheel racing is really gotten bad. Nascar makes we want to throw up but seeing them race at infineon makes open wheel road racing look ridiculous. Please bring back F1 to the US, Bernie.

Jeff

 

Danica made a boneheaded move in the pit. Burn out is normal on exit, but she lost control. The rear kicked the wrong way. Hindsight says she should have backed off the throttle, but looked like she may have thought she could control it. Lucky for the pit guys the tires were there. Her hitting those saved someone from possible leg injury.

But if you are going to call out her boneheaded move, then you also have to call out Scott Dixon for his spin that removed him and Briscoe from any chance of winning and it was coming down to the two of them to fight it out. Dixon apologized immediately to Briscoe and admitted it was his error over the radio. You know that was relayed to Briscoe. Accepting responsibility goes a long way to helping them respond in a more professional manner. Briscoe never gave Danica that courtesy when he took her out on pit lane a few weeks back.

How about calling out AJ4 and Milka too for their boneheaded move too? What was that? Not sure what AJ4 was doing immediately out to Milka's right. Yes, she checked up the brakes, then had to bail right to avoide contact with the car in front, but why was AJ4 sitting out there? It looked like he was already there and not a result of her brake check. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this one.

EJ Viso just flat out ran Meira off the track. Meira had no place to go but into the wall. Meira was even trying to help EJ get around him and give him room. Personally, I think Viso is dangerous and they need another driver in that car. Dario...you listening?

Conquest racing is seriously struggling. Is it their drivers or their equipment?

Happy for Buddy to place up there and holding off Marco. Congrats to Hunter-Reay for the win and to Manning for second. TK looked to be willing to settle for 3rd and series points. Looked like he played the last bit safe with the bigger series picture in mind.

 

Interesting if you look at the drivers that finished on the lead lap. 9 are from IRL, 6 from CHAMP.

How many of you are surprised we didn't get a better showing by the CHAMP guys? This was supposed to be THEIR domain.

....Pos Driver Team Time
IRL 1. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 60 laps
IRL 2. Darren Manning Foyt + 2.4009
IRL 3. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 4.1054
IRL 4. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold + 4.8111
IRL 5. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 5.3132
CC 6. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne + 5.8084
CC 7. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne + 8.6248
CC 8. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 9.4563
IRL 9. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 10.1785
CC 10. EJ Viso HVM + 10.8602
IRL 11. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 11.0455
IRL 12. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 11.5953
CC 13. Mario Dominguez Pacific Coast + 12.7773
IRL 14. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 26.6599
CC 15. Will Power KV + 38.1033
IRL 16. Helio Castroneves Penske + 1 lap
IRL 17. Ed Carpenter Vision + 1 lap
CC 18. Jaime Camara Conquest + 9 laps
IRL 19. AJ Foyt IV Vision + 13 laps
IRL 20. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold + 15 laps
CC 21. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest + 16 laps
IRL 22. Vitor Meira Panther + 22 laps
CC 23. Oriol Servia KV + 22 laps
IRL 24. Dan Wheldon Ganassi + 41 laps
CC 25. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 44 laps
CC 26. Jay Howard Roth + 45 laps

 

Well,
I missed it all except for the starting laps on radio. What kind of show did Helio put on from starting in last place?

 

Congrats to Darren Manning, he's been working a long time to get that kind of result......

 

Can someone help with my question?
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204264

 

My guess is they do that in order to have consistency in their officiating across all tracks. Obviously that would require full course yellows on road/street circuits where they aren't absolutely necessary. CART was a bit better about local yellows on street/road courses where appropriate. Hopefully as the IRL has more experience away from ovals, and Tony Cottman's influence increases, this will improve.

As an aside, I am not a big fan of the IRL's pulling the pace car off nearly a full lap before the restart...letting the inmates run the asylum is not a good idea on restarts. Virtually every other series (including NASCAR and F1 during SC periods) does this differently, and for a valid reason: it controls the pace of the restart much better.

As for the broadcasters, I'm appalled at the manner in which ABC/ESPN produces their shows. They do a great job with NASCAR, NFL, MLB, etc and treat the IRL like its an ultimate frisbee show. Highly annoying, but I love open wheel racing too much to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Hopefully this improves if/when the IRL increases their fan base and overall relevance.

 

Helio had issues. Definitely not his day.

 

I've seen local yellows when I was at St Pete.

Good question though. I didn't catch that yesterday.

If I had to guess, maybe the runoffs at Watkins Glen aren't that big, so the track workers are too close the action, so might as well slow them all down and control them. Purely a guess.

 

Here's my question...did anyone actually enjoy the race?

 

Yes, I enjoyed the race. I am a race fan. I am an open wheel race fan. I am an IRL fan. Watkins Glen is a beautiful road course. So yes, I was able to watch an open wheel race at Watkins Glen and I find that enjoyable.

Is every race perfect? Nope, Nada, Never. I still got to watch racing and that counts in my book.

 

I did too , there was some good passing ,Hunter-reay win was great, he got screwd in texas by Marco , he was there for the end, lady luck found his way for a change. I love racing some races are better than other but thats racing F1 can get a bit boring time to time, but at the end of the day it's racing.