I doubt we will see much here since the IRL has completely fallen off the radar but enjoy nonetheless.
Once upon a time (when Mansell got there and the years after) the Indy 500 were broadcast live on French network TV would you believe !
Qualifying is apparently starting tomorrow on Versus. I remember when I'd watch most of the coverage during the month of May. I'll try to catch some of the qualifying before the Champions League final tomorrow.
I watched most of the first half of qualifying, I had to then go to work so I didn't see any of the Fast 9 or whatever its called. It was ok, nothing too exciting. It was nice to see Danica get boo'ed by the crowd. Like most people thought its going to come down to a battle between the Penskes and the Ganassis. Yawn.
Gonna be sitting in my usual seat in Turn 3. Castroneves laid down the equivalent of 4 laps daring the other drivers to get on the track and attempt to get up to his speed, he was that far ahead of what anyone had done all month. He got to choose when to go out in the order since he was quickest and chose #1. He was standing in Tech bouncing around like a boxer waiting for the car to get to him. Jack Arute came up to interview him and Helio said "can't talk right now". How often does Helio turn down an interview. He went out and set speeds no one else can touch. Power, Dixon, and Franchitti tried and couldn't get close. If he doesn't get in any trouble, it's hard to see past Castroneves winning. He's just the best guy at the track in the best car, I don't think his teammates can even touch him. I liked it personally. I'd rather they change it so each guy only got one run in the end. Heard they got a good crowd of 40k. She was right that something was wrong with the car, all of the Andretti cars were screwed up, she just had poor word choice saying "it's not my fault". I don't know what the Andretti team did to their cars in setup, but they went in completely the wrong direction. I think their worst-qualified car last year was 16th and this year the best-qualified car was Marco in 16th. Kanaan wrecking two cars the same place the same way and being 32nd on the grid almost not making the field... http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog...ays-she-was-correct-if-undiplomatic.html#more Bump Day was awesome. I love Bump Day anyway. It's one of my favorite racing events of the year. Saavedra, a 19-year-old rookie, makes the field after crashing his car in practice an hour earlier, his time from earlier in the day gets bumped out, but people faster than him (Tracy and Jay Howard) pull their times was just pure luck and he finds out he's in the field while at Methodist Hospital. The owner of the car is Bryan Herta, who per his words his team was just "two guys racing out of the back of a truck". And Paul Tracy not making the race...wow. You're a CART man, this is how CART always was. Except Andretti Autosport (which used to be Team Green) is now shooting their toes off and Newman-Haas doesn't have any money and had to hire a Japanese ride buyer. For the rest, Graham Rahal looks good. Tagliani's new team FAZZT is super-fast in his cars (Marty Roth's previous equipment). Tagliani's teammate Junqueira only had a dozen laps in his car before qualifying Sunday and he put in a run on Sunday that'd've been quick enough to get in the top 9. Carpenter in his first race this year after the track heated up got a time in the top 9, outqualifying much more heralded Dan Wheldon by a good bit. Townsend Bell looks racy from 10th. I don't know if Andretti will find anything by next Sunday, but if not it's going to be a long day for them. Looks like starting next year, if a driver can win the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day, $20 million bonus will be paid off in a joint promotion between IMS and Bruton Smith.