The Day After: Indy 500 Recap

Slipping in and out of the draft:


Thumbs up, JR Hildebrand. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard spot. After navigating 799 turns and through strokes of perseverance, strategy, and brilliant fuel conservation, he was seemingly on the way to winning Indy as a 23-year old rookie. Then, entering the final corner with faster cars catching him quickly, he stumbled across a considerably slower car – decision time. In 1989, Al Unser Jr. backed off slightly in Turn Two due to traffic, allowing Emerson Fittipaldi to catch him and ended his race famously in Turn 3. With his foot firmly on the throttle, Hildebrand tried the pass on the high side, caught the grey of the marbles and ended his Cinderella story alongside the Turn Four wall.

In hindsight, not the right move. In the moment, absolutely the right move. Use your bullets and fight going forward. Here’s hoping he overcomes this disappointment and moves forward.

Thumbs up, Dan Wheldon. What can you say about Wheldon? I’m not sure if he knows much; in fact, after countless interviews, I’m certain he doesn’t know much. But I’m convinced that he certainly knows how to get around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is always fast and always a contender, and Sunday was no exception. He wasn’t the fastest car all day, but he was always very close, and when opportunity knocked, he answered. At midnight, his contract with Bryan Herta racing expired. I wonder what his plans hold for the remainder of the season?

Thumbs down, ABC. While the thumbs might be down, another digit might be raised. ABC managed to deliver a brilliant telecast interspersed very infrequently between a merciless onslaught of commercials. Once, within the final 100 miles, ABC returned to the telecast, whereupon host Brent Musberger encouraged us to come back to them after another commercial break. What? A commercial break as a follow-up to a commercial break? While that was the most egregious example, ABC routinely went to commercial after within 5 minutes of a previous commercial break. “Side by side,” or not, in the age of the DVR, you’re playing with fire. Sponsors beware: frustrated viewers are learning their lessons.

Thumbs down Target Chip Ganassi Racing; Thumbs up Panther Racing. Target Chip Ganassi had the fastest cars off the trailer when the Speedway opened for practice, had the fastest cars most of the entire month, had the fastest cars on race day, and had the fastest cars loaded back onto the trailers last night, all to finish just 5th (Scott Dixon) and 12th (Dario Franchitti). We saw the team conserve fuel early in the race, through most every stint, only to seemingly abandon the strategy for the final stint.

While the seat here is much different than the seat on pit wall, it would appear that the book on fuel strategy has been written by Panther Racing. In each of the last two years, they’ve had their driver conserve fuel early in the final stint, knowing two things: 1) if a yellow flag comes out, they’re right there in it at the end, and 2) if a yellow flag doesn’t come out, they’re one of the very, very few right there at the end. They narrowly missed last year with Wheldon and were even closer this year with Hildebrand.

Thumbs up, IndyCar officials. Still think the double-wide restarts are unnecessary, as we’ve seen loads of action over the years. However, if double-wide you must, having drivers start accelerating in Turn 4 is the right call over the front straight, just 900 feet from the start finish line. That Saturday decision proved to be the right one, and I’m certain the majority of the shops are thankful that their cars came back straight, with all four corners on them.

Interesting thought turns to next year and the reintroduction of turbos and “turbo lag.” Hammering the throttle at low speeds brings an uneven power band and torque path, resulting in peculiar handling characteristics in a car set up to turn left. One need only to ask Kevin Cogan about the 1982 race to learn about the dangers.

Thumbs sideways, the IndyCar season. The Indianapolis 500 is the crown jewel of the IndyCar series and, as such, is a much needed catalyst to build fan interest in the rest of the season. ABC did the sport no favors with the commercial-thon on Sunday. But, maybe the series, its teams and drivers did? Does attention wane toward NASCAR and Formula 1, or, even worse yet, baseball? Time will tell, although this morning I can tell you I’m more interested in the Formula 1 circus returning to Canada in two weeks hence than I am about the IndyCar traditional follow up at the Milwaukee Mile.

Thumbs up, Indianapolis Motor Speedway ticket renewal process. Online ordering made easy. Just hate spending my $600 for 4 Paddock Penthouse seats 364 days in advance. If there’s one thing the Hulman George families know, it’s good cash flow management. Touché.

Throttle down on Twitter @RayHartjen.

Watchful Eyes on the Indy 500

The 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 begins with the wave of the green flag on Sunday, and while this year’s race is looks on the surface to be a wide-open, competitive affair, there are, as usual, a few things to keep a keen eye on. Between drivers, teams, and new rules, there’s a little bit of something, from casual fans to the hardcore.

Double-file restarts
From the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” department might come one of the most bold – and baffling – rules changes in recent memory. Indy Car officials, in a bid to make the racing more exciting have instituted two-wide restarts coming out of yellow flag caution periods. So far this season, the result has been a bunch of twisted race cars.

This is for sure – restarts will be more exciting. They’ll likely be very expensive for car owners too. In NASCAR, a two-wide start is an entirely different beast, and a function of cars with fenders and an extra thousand pounds or so coming to grips with the bumping and grinding. For open wheel cars, it’s something else entirely. When cars come together at speed, there’s very, very little chance of both cars coming out unscathed; expect suspension and wing damage at the least. More likely, expect heavy contact with the Turn One wall. The last two years have seen terrifying accidents at the speedway as a result of wheels “tripping” over others. Let’s hope in the bid for excitement, IndyCar officials don’t have to face the effects of serious injuries like Vito Meira’s (2009) or Mike Conway (2010). Or, face up to worse.

Plenty of time to get snacks
There’s an old saying in motorsports, “cautions breed cautions.” The double-file restart will make sure the yellow flags come in bunches this year. But, compounding that, yellow flags will last longer. What’s the point of going double file if the track suffers from tire marbles and clag from degradation? As defending race champ Dario Franchitti said on Friday, “The marbles are what makes the double-file so tough, unless they clean them up very, very well in Turns 1, 2, and 4.” Look for the track to be swept during every caution. It will take time; perfect for restroom and snack runs, bad for on-track action. On the plus side, as every sofa-sitting fan can attest, “beverages breed bathroom breaks,” so maybe there’s a symbiotic relationship born.

The favorites
Target Chip Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Franchitti - Both are past winners (Dixon with Ganassi in 2008; Franchitti with Andretti Green in 2007 and Ganassi last year) and have the experience of setting their cars up for race traffic and changing track conditions as the race grinds on. Their teams are battle tested and rarely make mistakes. With the way Dixon carved up traffic during Carb Day on Friday, look for these two cars to be pushing the pace all day.

The not-to-be-discounted-too-early
Dan Wheldon – Wheldon has won the 500 before (2005, with Andretti), and always finds a way to run up front, either by pure speed, wily experience, or stones the size of Stonehenge. Wheldon will likely be fast, but as he tends to fly under the radar, you will likely get great odds on a wager.

Tony Kanaan – Always a crowd favorite, fans might have thought his best chances were dashed with his divorce from Andretit Autosport over the winter. Well, the month of May has shown that to be a not-so-bad thing, at least for Kanaan. Always a wizard on starts and restarts, look for Kanaan to rapidly shuffle his way upwards at the wave of every green flag. If ever the restart rule was perfect for one driver, it’s tailor made for this one.

Danica Patrick – Granted, Patrick has never won at the Brickyard, and for that matter holds only one career victory in IndyCar. Plus, she and her entire Andretti Autosport team have struggled mightily this month to find pace. However, if there’s one track that Patrick knows how to get around, it’s Indy, where she consistently runs up front. With her growing emotional maturity honed through experience and her time struggling during cameos in NASCAR’s Nationwide series, look for Patrick to run a steady, if unspectacular, race and find herself in the mix by halfway.

Team Penske – Since when has a 500 been run without a strong focus on a Team Penske team driver? Both Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe have had challenging months at Indy, but Will Power has maintained team pride with a solid fourth in qualifying. Regardless of performance thus far, expect one, if not all three, to make a solid run into the top five with 100 miles to go. Of course, as long-time track observers know, those last 40 laps are when the real race begins.

The dark horses
Ed Carpenter – Carpenter doesn’t have a full time ride in the series, and probably shouldn’t, as his strengths on ovals is overshadowed by his limitations on road and street circuits. But, Carpenter does excel on ovals and there’s a bit of karmic return as the driver for fan favorite Sarah Fisher's team, as well as his being the stepson of IndyCar founder Tony George. Then again, there might be a karmic backlash instead, as a payback for George dealing a nearly fatal blow to open wheel racing in the United States in the early 90’s with his CART-crushing founding of the Indy Racing League.

Townshend Bell – I know what you’re thinking. Who? Race fans will know Bell,, who finished a career-best 4th in the 2009 Indy 500, and was running fourth last year until he was penalized, questionably, for blocking. Bell is a driver who’s never really had a great opportunity to run full seasons, either in the U.S. or in Europe. But, with limited seat time in a variety of open-wheel formulas, he usually finds himself on the point edge of the field.

Follow the race on Twitter @RayHartjen