...Unintentionally, Tony George may have hit upon a qualifying system that works for the modern-day Indy 500. Rather than dragging the process out over two full weeks -- qualifying the first 11 positions on the first weekend, followed by the rest of the field the next -- I say let's do what Mother Nature forced us to do this year; run `em all on Saturday, then finalize the field with a Sunday "Bump Day." Maybe one of these years, there will be enough cars to justify a return to two full weeks of qualifying, but right now, it's tedious, unnecessary and downright dull.
...Marco Andretti may be the real deal. The 19-year old qualified ninth Saturday; four spots better than his old man, and ahead of such Indy notables as Buddy Rice, Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti. Maybe it IS genetic, after all.
...How happy were IRL officials to see "Mad Man" Marty Roth spin out in his final qualifying attempt Sunday? They'll never admit it, but nobody wanted to see Roth -- a nice guy who seems incapable of navigating Indy's first turn -- bump Thiago Medieros from the field, especially after three spins in as many days leading up to Sunday's festivities. He somehow managed to avoid hitting anything during those off-road excursions, until Sunday's fourth 200-mph pirouette finally put him into the wall, and out of the Indianapolis 500. As a driver, the 47-year old Roth is one hell of a car-owner, something someone should convince him of as soon as possible....Of all the jobs I don't want, filling two hours of Bump Day airtime on ABC with no actual bumping to talk about ranks extremely high on the list. Jack Arute and company earned their paychecks Sunday, in a big way. I wonder, though, why ABC couldn't have shown us the qualifying laps that did get turned on Saturday.
...Please don't force me to humiliate you when you call the show this week, claiming that there are 20 drivers capable of winning the Indianapolis 500. There are nine; the front six starters, plus Scott Sharp, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta. Any other outcome will require a horrific, multi-car crash that decimates the field, or the worst case of mass mechanical failure in the history of motorsports. None of us should be hoping for that.
...Of the 33 cars that will take the checkered flag Sunday, how many do you figure got some kind of financial assistance from Tony George to make it there? I can't prove it, but I'd be willing to bet that at least a third of the grid cashed a check from T.G. at some point this month.
...Speaking of Tony George, if he and Champ Car's Kevin Kalhoven don't find their way to the podium to make some kind of major announcement this week, there are going to be a lot of disappointed folks out there in Open Wheel-land. Count me as one of them.
...And finally, is Danica Patrick racing at Indy this year? Just checking. Based on the month she and teammate Buddy Rice have had, it now seems safe to say that the Panoz chassis officially sucks.
9 Drivers? Dave you are being for to kind to 8 guys who are starting that state fair race on Sunday. I think "Well Done" can chase down the Penske dynamic duo but passing either one of those guys is a whole different ball game.
ReplyDeleteThe big question in this race will be how these guys get through the slower cars that will be down 10-15 MPH from the leaders. Hornish is good but he is not as cool as Helio is in those conditions.
Based on that I pick Helio to win his 2nd YES 2nd Indy 500. We all know Paul Tracy won the 500 in 2002.
Hooray for Robin Miller!!! The longer the Indy 500 charade goes on, the bigger prophet he becomes.
ReplyDeleteI would put the number of cars capable of winning at even less than 9, just 4 - the two Penske cars and the two Ganassi cars - that's it!