Sara Fisher was voted the peoples favorite driver for the third year in a row. She and Billy Boat were the first Chevy's to retire. Sam Hornish, Jr. almost finished in 6th place for Chevy, but his engine let go with 5 laps to go! The story this year was all Toyota and Honda engines. Chevy is going to have to start spending a lot of money if they want to catch up with the Japanese.
Late into the race, Scott Sharp hit the safer barrier in turn 1 hard. Soon after, rookie Dan Wheldon lost control in turn 3. After hitting the wall, he became airborn and flipped and landed upside down. No one was hurt today in the race.
Photo by Larry Papke
The men who lead the most laps included Kanaan, Scheckter and Michael Andretti who was racing his final Indy car race. The Andretti luck continued as his car broke down and he had call it quits. His teammate Tony Kanaan had a great race and ended up in third place. The Ganassi drivers did well most of the day and Tomas Scheckter came home in fourth place. Tora Takagi rounded out the top 5.
The Penske team worked their usual magic and finished 1-2. Gil de Ferran finished a split second ahead of his teammate and defending 2-time Indy 500 Champion, Helio Castroneves. One was driving a Dallara chassis and one was driving a G-Force chassis! It was a very close race and about 7 cars were on the lead lap at the end.
Photo by Jeff Barrie
Here is an interview with Tony:
How much will you pay attention to the goings-on during race day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
"Considering we have a night race, I'll sleep in all morning and get up in time to watch the start of the race. I'll wake up, eat my breakfast and pay pretty close attention to it."
A lot was made of the possibility that the Indianapolis 500 would not have a full, 33-car field. But after Bump Day last Sunday, they will, in fact, have a full field. Why was filling the field such an issue this year?
"The field was thin this year because of all the changes that were made. There were new chassis this year, so a lot of the underfinanced teams that had trouble finding sponsors because of the economy were forced to miss the event. There weren't as many teams, but the teams that are there this year are quality teams. I think there are more quality teams this year than there have been in the past. I think the field is probably stronger than it's ever been. We just didn't see the magnitude of cars in terms of car counts that we're used to seeing."
It wasn't but 10 years ago when CART and NASCAR were neck and neck in terms of motorsports supremacy. Today, CART is struggling to rebuild itself, while NASCAR is the 800-pound gorilla of motorsports. Some think NASCAR is in the same position that CART was 10 years ago, and that they're susceptible for a fall. Do you think that's the case?
"CART's demise came with the car owners trying to run the series. That's why NASCAR won't fall into that same trap. NASCAR knows what's in the best interest of our racing series and they're in control of it. The car owners have input, but they're not in control. That way, the series can't be corrupted by other people's agendas."
"I think so. Even for me, it's still hard to understand some of the things NASCAR does and why they do it, but there is a reason for all of their actions. And it's their leadership that has gotten this sport to where it is. You don't have to understand why things are being done all the time, but you know that the end results of those decisions are in the best interests of our sport."
You used to be a part-owner of an Indy Racing League (IRL) team. Do you have any desire to get back into the ownership ranks of the IRL?
"You never say never, but I would have to do a lot of homework to start an IRL team. The technology in that series has gotten away from me a little bit. But I enjoyed my ownership in the IRL, and I would enjoy being a part of it again. You never know what may happen down the road."
How much has the technology changed in Indy car racing since you last competed in the Indy 500 two years ago?
"It's quite a bit different. For a whole day and a half during the first week of practice when I did double duty, I would pull into the pits and the crew would tell me an aero number, but I didn't know what the aero number meant - and I still don't remember what the aero number meant when I drove for Ganassi. The difference is that those cars use on-board telemetry and live-time telemetry. It's space-age. It's technology that hasn't been available to Winston Cup cars until the last couple of years, and even then we can only use it during tests. It's not allowed for race weekends. And even at that, it's still behind what's being used in the IRL. We're using stuff in the Winston Cup Series that we had in the IRL five years ago. We're kind of behind on that, but that's also NASCAR's way of helping the teams save some money, or using that money for different areas of their program."
Muhammad Ali
Tim Allen (actor/comedian)
Neil Boortz (national radio talk show host)
Avery Brooks (actor, “Star Trek”)
Former President George Bush
Ruth Buzzi (actress/comedian)
Jim Caviezel (actor)
Former President Bill Clinton
Bryan Cranston (actor, “Malcolm in the Middle”)
Howie D. (Backstreet Boys group)
Anthony Edwards (actor)
Andrew Firestone (“The Bachelor”)
George Hamilton (actor)
Florence Henderson (actress/singer)
Orlando Jones (actor)
Naomi Judd (singer)
Wynonna Judd (singer)
General John Keane (Vice chief of staff, U.S. Army)
Jeannette Lee (champion billiards player)
David Letterman (late-night TV icon)
Charlie Maher (“The Bachelorette”)
Peter Max (Official Indy 500 artist)
Mercy Me (Christian band)
John McGinley (actor, “Scrubs”)
Brian McKnight (singer)
Bode Miller (U.S. Olympian)
Dennis Miller (actor/comedian)
Beverley Mitchell (Actress, “7th Heaven”)
James Mungro (NFL running back)
Jim Nabors (actor/singer)
Bubba Paris (former NFL player)
Daniel Rodriguez (singer)
Ryne Sandberg (Former baseball all-star)
Steven Spielberg (filmmaker/producer)
Staind (alternative rock band)
Joe Tiller (Purdue football coach)
David Wolf (astronaut)
Darryl Worley (singer)
David M. Finkel (Shelbyville)
There was a crash on the opening lap when Beardsley spun in turn 3, collected Medeiros, and the both slammed into the wall. The rear wheels and rear spoiler became detached from one car. I'd never seen that before.
On the restart, Craig Dollansky crashed in turn 2. He spun into the grass, and then drove head first into the outside wall. His head jerked forward with quite a jolt. He ended up in the hospital with a fractured lower spine. Craig, 37, races in the World of Outlaws and this was his first IPS race.
Before they could restart again, it began to rain and the race was postponed. The IPS will try to hold the race tomorrow and the Indycars will have their last day of qualifying.
A.J. Foyt Jr.: "When it first happened and I saw he was OK, I got on him pretty hard. Then when I came back to the garage and saw the setup sheet, there was so much nose-weight on the front end that there was no way he couldn't have wrecked. I apologized to him because it was a mistake on the crew's part and mine for not catching it. I feel bad for him because the three accidents here this month weren't his fault. One was caused by a cut tire, the qualifying spin was caused by a droop-stop bolt that had backed out and the windy conditions, and now this. I'm just thankful he's been able to walk away from them all."
Andretti-Green - Michael Andretti Rahal Letterman - Kenny Brack Dreyer Reinbold - Robbie Buhl Penske Racing - Helio Castroneves Ganassi Racing - Scott Dixon Mo Nunn Racing - Felipe Giaffone Panther Racing - Sam Hornish, Jr Andretti-Green - Tony Kanaan Red Bull Cheever - Buddy Rice Target Ganassi - Tomas Scheckter Kelley Racing - Scott Sharp Kelley Racing - Al Unser, Jr
Alex Barron will substitute for him at Mo Nunn Racing.
The crew members all agreed, and IMS Productions filmed Fisher's crew working on her race car in SpongeBob boxer shorts. Engineer Mark Weida, crew chief Dan Miller, data acquisition specialist Jason Lucas and crew members Andy O'Gara, Scott Merryman and Mark Talifario all participated.
When the IMS Productions crew finished filming in the garage, Fisher told them they needed one more shot to show that they were at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The crew agreed to walk through the garage in full view of all the other teams and pose in front of the timing and scoring pylon.
Fisher had the crew practice saying together in front of the camera, "Hi, we're the No. 23 SpongeBob SquarePants team." But the crew couldn't get it right, so she held up a sign that said" "Gotcha - you're on Speedway Spoofs." When the crew read the sign, they chased Fisher. According to team officials, the crew has vowed revenge, and Fisher is watching her back.
Then later that night, WFBQ 94.7 FM will be sponsoring another free rock concert. Steppenwolf will be playing downtown at the corner of Jackson Street and Meridian Street!
