Notes from the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix (2005)

Notes from the ABC broadcast of the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix on 9/25/05

Female Rookie Sensation Roundup: Erin "No relation to Betty" Crocker started 9th and finished 35 in the Busch race at Dover on Sept. 24. Some ya-ya got under her left rear and spun her. Erin was pissed post-race. You don't want to piss off those dirt trackers. Rookie Sensation Sarah Fisher started 10th, raced up to 7th, then got a flat tire and went several laps down, finishing 12th at Roseburg, Oregon on 9/17. Sarah and Rookie Sensation Allison Duncan both tested in Childress Busch Cars on the week of the 17th.

Welcome to Watkins Glen. ABC is in the enviable position of running a road race (notoriously popular with American sports fans) up against the NFL during the heart of the NFL coverage hours. Good luck with that. Anything over a 0.5 TV rating is a victory.

Open with the historic footage montage complete with Emerson Fittipaldi and his Elvis hair, sideburns and glasses. Striking.

Todd Harris says "rookie Danica Patrick." No "rookie sensation." Is she no longer sensational? Todd reminds us that Danica is still looking for that first win. Could it be today?

Video of Wheldon winning at Chicagoland. Dr. Jerry Punch, M.D., has the hard job of trying to inject some drama into Wheldon's quest for a championship. He has to make one lap, pretty much, and it's a done deal. Not much drama there.

Jamie Little (get her in a car!) with Helio, the pole sitter. Helio has been snakebit on road courses. Video of Quatro taking him out and then Briscoe going through the dirt to take out America's heartthrob (Danica) and Helio. Cold.

Jamie wins for best pit reporter makeup. Beat out Jack the Root (who is MIA at The Glen). Jamie is always "picture perfect" to borrow from Todd. What's with the hand gestures, Jamie? She's flinging those hands around when she talks. Crazy!

Interview with Dixon who says the major problem today will be passing. Huge, animated exclamation points come off the top of my head. Passing difficult on a road course? REALLY? I'm in shock for several seconds.

Talking to the Target guys gives ABC a chance to throw in some video of Briscoe crashing at Chicagoland. Three replays of it. Briscoe is out of the hospital. In a taped interview he says he feels lucky not to be dead.

ABC lineup promo! The first of many. Desperate Housewives is on tonight. I'll be reminded repeatedly. Hey, I wonder if Terri Hatcher can drive an Indy Car?

Todd and Scott Goodyear in the booth which is out in the wind. Major hair control products have been deployed. Windy as heck. Talk about how exciting the qualifying format was without telling us what the format was. Whatever it was, it was exciting. Scott says the course is fun to drive because of the 11 turns and the rolling terrain, etc.

"The wind may be blowing but the driver's are excited." -- Todd. Just a warmup for his race start line, which I eagerly anticipate every week.

Jamie voice over during dramatic shots of Danica's car. Says she could win rookie of the year today unless Quasi Rookie Sensation Tomas Enge finishes way, way, way ahead of her. Briscoe was Danica's main rival until he put it into the fence in Chicagoland. Jamie says, "Keep your eye on number 16, Danica Patrick." Like we have an option with ABC running the cameras.

Danica starts 16th.

Let's light this candle. Green flag. Green flag.

Todd -- "The temperatures are cool but the racing will be hot. It's go time at the Glen as open-wheel racing invades the Empire State."

Cure the turn-one circus music. Dario goes WAY wide on turn 1 but nobody rolls it. Wheldon has Nose Cam this time. Dario had it on the last road race.

Goodyear says fuel strategy may be key. Shocker number 2. If you can't pass on the track, then you gotta pass in the pits, I guess.

Danica Honda ad. I've heard a lot about it. Pretty good. Not FHM-ish by any stretch. Danica is good in front of the camera. Seems very natural. I can see why sponsors love her (aside from the babe-ness, she's great on camera,which not everyone can pull off).

I was so busy concentrating on the Danica commercial I missed Tomas Scheckter going into the gravel trap on the side-by-side. Left front suspension blows, he's way off the course. Not sure why this is a full-course yellow, though.

Later I read that the Panther people were cheesed that the IRL didn't tow the car in to let them determine if they could fix it up. Yahoo story quote:

"If it was the 'Princessmobile,' the IRL would make sure that car would be in the garage getting fixed right now," Panther Racing co-owner Mike Griffin snapped. "I'd like to know how many wreckers the IRL has at this course."

Holy favoritism accusations! You can almost hear Doug Boles in the background of that quote screaming "WE GOT SCREWED!" Griffin must not have gotten the IRL memo that Danica should be referred to as "her highness." Kidding. I think maybe Panther should get over it. Just me talking, though.

During the yellow, I think Enge went ass around but got back in line. The camera guys seemed to be on it, but Todd was doing some get-well-soon shout outs and missed it. Oblivious.

Danica is 10th in the Princessmobile.

Goodyear says "the 27 (car) of Tony Kanaan." Tony is 11. Dario is 27. Don't lock up on us now, Scott.

Lap 10 -- Helio, Kanaan, Dixon, Carpentier, Franchitti, Pantano, Enge, Vitor, Wheldon, Hornish.

ABC is packing this thing with commercials. One commercial every two green laps, I swear. We're going into another commercial. Let's try to keep track. I'll probably miss a few, but this is lap 14. (Danica is 12th, reporting some excess drag because of her tiara.)

Dixon Shift Cam! First view. Shifting, shifting. Todd calls it Shift Cam. Striking. Todd says: "Dario is T-H-E mad." What the heck does that mean? Anyone? Maybe I'm just "D-U-M-B" because I have no idea. (Note: later message board posters claimed Todd said "T-H-E man." If so, I stand corrected, but it's still a little goofy.)

Onboad with Danica. Danica gets so much onboard she's been able to sell the space on top of her helmet to an advertiser. That's all you need to hear. She pitted but didn't get tires. She must get good tire wear, because this is her main strategy. Pit but not get tires. Griffin claims she gets the extra-special Princess Tires (kidding).

Lap 18, we go side by side (four whole laps since the last commercial!)

Dixon passes Kanaan! Actual TELEVISED PASS! I am jolted out of my slumber. TK had been warned for possibly blocking right before the pass. Imagine my surprise.

Lap 20 -- Helio, Dixon, Kanaan, Dario, Carpentier, Pantano, Wheldon, Enge, Hornish, Meira.

Danica 14th. Reports that her glass slippers are getting a little hot inside the car. (Joking!)

Pitting. Dixon runs over his own air hose. No penalty. Danica in and takes new tires! Todd takes this moment to remind us that Danica is a rookie and that the 23-year-old rookie has done well. Todd can check "manage expectations" off his list.

Buddy Rice. What the? His left front wing is gone. Replay shows him darting the fence on the pit out. Bad.

Danica's car is dead on the course! Holy Rahal Rupture. They're dropping like flies. Looks like Danica accidentally hit the kill switch or something. Later she confirmed that she did hit it by accident. Love the honesty. "Hey, I screwed up." You'd be amazed at how athletes and people in general can't bring themselves to say that. Shout out to Her Highness for that.

Danica gets a tow and restarts it. Danica Cam! Great close-up of Danica's knuckles on the steering wheel.

Jamie with Buddy. Buddy admits he was pushing too hard coming out of the pits and got squirrelly. Shout out to Buddy for being straight up about screwing up.

Lap 31 -- DIXON PASSES FOR THE LEAD. Holy sheeeee-it. A pass for the lead on a road course. I sit bolt upright in my chair here and about spray Bud Select all over the TV.

Vitor Meira is dead in the pits now. Some kind of electrical thing. (Speaking of Bud Select) Bobby Rahal is drinking early today.

Lap 31 -- Dixon, Helio, Kanaan, Wheldon, Carpentier, Enge, Hornish, Matsuura, Sharp, Jeff Bucknum.

Lap 33. Dixon hasn't won since Richmond in 2003. 40 races.

Video montage tribute to Wheldon since we have passed the half-way point of the race and he's officially the points champion. Crazy old photos of Dan with some poofy hair. Interviews of Wheldon's father, Clive. Nice little package.

Lap 38 we go side by side!

Glenys Dixon (Scott's mom) gets air! Parent Cam is activated. Where's Bev Patrick? Lurking, lurking. Is that her in the back with the rainbow fright wig? KIDDING. I like Danica, I swear.

Lap 40 -- Dixon, Helio, Kanaan, Dario, Carpentier, Enge, Hornish Jr., Sharp, Pantano, Wheldon.

Pitting. Dixon in. 10.4. Todd: "Dixon turns the trick at 10.4." Fastest trick ever turned! You can't even say "Hey, what's your sign?" in 10.4. I guess when you have a race to finish, you have to turn those tricks really fast.

Kanaan Wing Cam. ABC is really digging the Wing Cam.

Todd declares Patrick Carpentier a "Frenchman." I thought he was French Canadian. I could be wrong.

Dixon moving back to the front after pitting. Dario and Dixon touch. Wow. What if Dario had taken him out? Chip and Mike Andretti might have rumbled.

Wing came again. Commercials. Lap 48.

Dixon passes Kanaan for the lead AGAIN. Helio is fading fast.

Glenys gets major air. Todd says Dixon has a horse named after him. Todd -- "If I had a horse named after me it would be a donkey." Goodyear -- "Stuck in the mud somewhere." Love the in-booth banter!

Lap 50 -- Dixon, TK, Dario, Carpentier, Helio, Pantano, Hornish, Wheldon, Enge, Sharp.

Danica 17th.

Jamie with Chip. Chip says we need to make sure Dixon gets to the end before we party. Would end a long dry spell. Jamie asks if Dixon will be back next year. "Where did that come from?" Chip asks. Tells Jamie Dixon is under a "long-term contract." Scott adds that when drivers are winning, it's a long term contract, but when they are tearing up cars and losing it's suddenly a short-term contract.

Barron goes nose-first into a barrier. Caution. Commercial on lap 51. MOM CAM. Jamie is dispatched to talk to Glenys. Glenys says she's nervous for the restart. She could take Dixon getting passed under green, but getting caught on the restart may kill her. She says it would be a huge win for Dixon, especially on a road course.

5 to go. Green-green-green-green. Dixon may gave jumped early. Andretti Green may have something to complain about. Not sure. Speculation in the booth but no replay. Goodyear said he would have done the same thing and been on it big time.

Sam and Danica almost touch. Sam probably not happy since Danica is a couple laps down and Hornish is racing for a top five.

Glenys Cam! Danica has clinched the rookie of the year title.

Enge and Helio get together before the chicane. Yellow, yellow.

Dixon's drought is over. He's going to win at the Glen. Todd keeps saying something about Dixon should take his wreath down to some pub or something. Not sure what that's about.

Dixon getting out of his car, but rather than the reaction and seeing him hug the team, we go to full-screen commercials because it has been five whole laps since the last commercial break.

Jamie with Dixon. Her hand gestures about knock him out. Dixon give shout outs to the team. Gets a hug from Chippy.

Punch calls Dan "The Great Britain."

Danica glad to have rookie of the year. Wanted to have good steady learning curve during the season. Happy with her progress. Maybe still win at California.

Dario interview. Doesn't yell at his crew. Seems fine with third. Maybe he's been drinking. (kidding!)

Lap 60 -- Dixon, TK, Dario, Pantano, Wheldon, Matsuura (started 12th!), Hornish, Herta, Sharp, Carpentier. Danica finishes 16th (two laps down).

Todd leaves us with "A Kiwi is King at the Glen."