Notes from the 2006 Indianapolis 500

Notes taken during the ABC broadcast of the Indy 500 on May 28, 2006.

pressdog's beer of the race is the German St. Pauli Girl, in honor of them sponsoring Danica's mirrors.

Legends montage. Dig it. First mention of Danica is at the 2:22 mark.

Up to Brent Musburger and Rusty Wallace. Rusty says he never felt this much excitement in his life.

Brent -- Danica flashback. One year ago. Danica montage to American Woman. In-car radio of Danica saying she came pretty darn close to winning last year.

Punch with Danica -- Patience is the key. No stupid moves. Stay in the race. Race hundreds of hundreds of laps an screw up and lose it. (Indy is only 200 laps long. I think she meant "miles.") Long race, driver with the fewest mistakes wins the race.

Penske Twins montage. ABC is all about the montages. Sam and Helio. Sam says he wants to finish all 500 miles first. Helio is 2 for 5 at Indy. Helio -- Respect the place. Have patience. Always finish the race.

Target Chippy montage. Jamie with Dan Wheldon who is sporting the big white shades again. Gotta be a sponsorship deal. Chippy and Scott Dixon are there as well. Wheldon says as long as one of the Chippy Twins wins it, who cares which one it is.

We're gonig to a commercial. Stay tuned for the Andretti montage, the Unser montage, and another Danica montage.

How big is the speedway -- Yankee Stadium. Bristol Motor Speedway. Madison Square Gardon, Rose Bowl, Roman Coliseum, Churchill Downs all fit into the infield of IMS.

Musburger with Lance Armstrong. Lance is the pace car driver. Lance could probably turn some pace laps on his bike. Musburger asks Lance if he's considering racing. No, Lance says. He has three kids. He's not going to do something as psychotic as go 220 in a car any time soon. Sha. Insanity. Lance says Johnny Rutherford in the pace car has to realize that Lance is nervous and has his hands full keeping it out of the wall.

Andretti montage. Mike is trying again. Mario says Indy is huge. Many great champions never won it. Video of Mike throwing a rod in 1992 and losing the race. Andretti is 0-14 at Indy. Mario wants a 1-2 Marco Mike finish.

Let's go to Vince with Mike and Marco. Marco says he's never been so nervous in his entire life. I like the kid. He's just honest about it all. Video of Mario and Arie Luyendyk Sr. talking. AJ is not there so there is no bitchslapping.

Danica is declared "probably the most beloved driver in the field" which leads us into Danica Montage II. Danica explains she likes to look like a girl. Says her FHM photo shoot was 3.5 years ago when she had no boyfriend, wasn't married and needed a sponsor. Fair enough. Likes to be a tough race driver and be a little pretty.

Punch with Mr. Danica, Paul Hospenthal. Says he doesn't get that nervous when she races. Trusts her and the drivers. Says Danica's mom and family members get nervous enough for all of them. Shout out to Paul for a nice interview. Handled it well.

I am INDY montage. Musberger says there are 300,000 plus in the stands. Some of them are disguised as aluminum bleachers.

Indy history montage.

Foyt. Mears. Rutherford. Musburger introduces some past winners. Then intros drivers row by row. Is Wheldon wearing silver racing shoes? Or just very white? Looked sliver to me. I checked the tape. Gotta be silver.

Starting lineup: Sam Hornish Jr., Helio Castroneves, Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon, Tony Kannan, Vitor "Dark Horse" Meira, Kosuke Matsuura, Scott "Lookin' " Sharp, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Tomas Scheckter, Ed Carpenter, Michael Andretti, Buddy Rice, Townsend Bell, Bryan "World of" Herta, Dario Franchitti, Max Papis, Eddie Cheever Jr., P.J. Chesson, Felipe Giaffone, Jeff Bucknum, Larry Foyt, Jacques Lazier, Buddy Lazier, Jeff "No Relation to Gene" Simmons, Al Unser Jr., Roger Yasukawa, Airton Dare, Stephan Gregoire, Arie Luyendyk Jr., P.J. Jones, Thiago Medeiros.

W.L. Sagle of Emporia, VA gets a shout out. 59th consecutive Indy 500. Been coming since he was 17 years old in 1948. Video of him and his posse in the stands.

Little Al Montage. Famous "You just don't know what Indy means" quote from victory lane after win number 1. Little Al says he was trying to replace the Indy rush with "wine women and song." Says missing qualifying with Penske in 1995 was crushing. 1996 split came and each May roll by and work on Al. "Pretty soon I didn't have nothing inside me, nothing." July 2002 gets busted in Indianapolis for domestic abuse. Waking up in the jail was "hitting bottom."

Rusty on Al: Al is ready. Incredibly focused. Just hope his car is as good as he is.

Down to the ethanol pit. Jeff Simmons. Got the In Memory of Paul Dana sticker on the car. Jeff has dedicated the race to the memory of Paul who dreamed of racing here. Dana was instrumental in getting the league to transition from methanol to ethanol in the next year.

Flyover. Killer video from Chopper Cam.

National athem. Little Al looks farklempt. Taps. Shout out to the uncredited horn guy who blew taps. Who-aah! Jam Master Jimmy Jam Nabors sings back home again in Indiania. Mari Hulman George let's 'er rip -- "Princess and Gentlemen, start your engines." Kidding. She said "Lady and gentlemen ..." I kid Danica because she's tough and yet pretty.

Up to Marty Ried, Scotty Goodyear and Rusty Wallace in the booth. Booth peeps say Turn1, Lap 1 is key. Most dangerous in all of racing. Rusty declares this is the most excitement he's ever seen in his entire life. Rusty puts attendence at 400,000. The whole place is "amped up and ready to rock and roll." Marty jumps in and puts attendance at 300,000.

90 degrees at Indy today. 140 degrees in the cockpit. When you're up front in the three-wide during the start, the view is great, Goodyear says. In the back, not so good. Mainly you see a lot of dirt and crap. We're on board with Lance. He's all about it. Lance gets radio traffic from Brian Barnhard to hold it under 110. Easy, Lance. Barnhard might give you a stop and go penalty. We're not trying to qualify, although 110 might put it in the show some years.

Let's light this candle. Green-green-green.

Turn 1 -- Hornish leads. Danny Wheldon quick off the start.

Yellow yellow yellow -- Jeff Bucknum gets into PJ Chesson. Lap 2. Done deal. Rusty was concerned that someone would roll it. You and about 1.4 million watching, Rusty. Marty points out that the national anthem lasted longer than Bucknum's and PJ's race. That's kind of cold, Marty.

Let's get our ears on -- Rusty busts out the CB to talk to Scott Sharp. You got us buddy? Car is a little tight. Got some feedback. Viewing is enhanced.

Danica is 15th, running her race.

Lap 7. Green-green-green.

Wheldon tries on Helio. Down to Vince with PJ. PJ says Bucknum got low and spun into me. Real shame. PJ goes home with a tattoo and 33rd place.

Rice and Danica make a Bell sandwitch. T. Bell: Make a run for the border.

Lap 9. Wheldon leads. Hornish second. Rusty reminds us that Sam spun by himself in last day of practice. Got a lot of concerns about Hornish's car. Not sure how that fits, since Hornish spun in his backup.

Andretti 9 and 10. Down to Jamie. No idea what she said. Cars are too loud in the background. Sounded like she was giving her report from the pit board area.

Jerry -- Tony Kanaan is playing the waiting game. Very patient.

Jack Arute -- Helio people say he's laying low. Lying in the weeds. Staying patient.

I think we're lapping cars by Lap 12, even with the yellow.

Lap 12 -- Copter cam. Shows some of the 300,000 at the race must be at the beer tent or in the can because they look a lot like empty seats.

Lap 17. Wheldon, Hornish, Helio. Danica 14th. Hunkered down. Helio is having issues.

Kanaan goes between Sam and Gregoire.

Rusty: "He just knife-edged that hot rode through the center there." (Hot Rod reference number 1.)

Lap 25-- Wheldon, Hornish, Kanaan, Miera, Scheckter, Marco, Dixon, Mike Andretti, Helio, Kosuke.

Marco passes Scheckter. Marco puts two wheels below the white line to get around Medeiros. Had to lift a little as Mederios was swerving. Marco gives him an Andretti gesture. No bird flipped, but just a "What the hell are you doing?" hand up in the air. I think Medeiros is about 8 laps down by now.

Herta into pits. He's in 26th. No reason given for the stop. Wheldon leads Hornish by 8 seconds.

Lap 35. Helio is 15th. Major issues. Marco 4th.

Lap 36 -- Danica pits. 11.2 seconds. Marco in. Jamie is in his pit. Reminds everyone of Marco's trouble busting the half shalfs.

Lap 38 -- Kanaan leads. Kanaan and Hornish pit. No changes for Tony. 11.8 seconds.

Lap 39 -- Danica 10th. 14 on the lead lap now. Medeiros is now actually 15 laps down by lap 39. Not so good. Must be in the pits.

Lap 40 --Mederios and his Car of Many Colors are done for the day.

Dan leads by 11.4 seconds.

Danica Secret commercial wherein she blows away several males (some of whom look to be about 10 years old) in succession in a simulator game. At the end, Al Unser Sr. gets into the simulator and says, "I'll show you how it's done" and Danica says, "Let's see what you got, Al." The camera loves Danica, you gotta give her that.

Michael reports that all his lights are on on his steering wheel. It's like Christmas. His steering wheel is goofy. Doesn't know when to shift (since the RMP lights are not working). Scott says it's a glitch and he's going to be OK. No telemetry back to the pit though would be bad. Scott to Rusty -- That would make it like you guys, just calculating in fuel mileage in your head. First of several pops on NASCAR from Scotty.

Lap 50 -- Wheldon, Hornish, Kanaan, Dixon, Scheckter, Marco, Mike, Dario, Vitor, Danica.

Lap 52, lapped through 13th place. Marco gets loose! Dramatic in-car of Marco getting a little fish-tail-ish.

Lap 56. On board with Danica. Dan is 13 seconds in front of Hornish. May be steering with his knees at this point. Wheldon is putting a bitchslapping on the field. Now ahead by 13.9 seconds. Has lapped through 11th. Vitor is next then Danica.

Lap 67-ish. Yellow Yellow Yellow. Danica gets a break! She was about to be lapped. We got Scheckter ass-around into the attenuator. Tomas is out of the car but now he's taking a seat. We got debris in the grandstands.

Slow mo shows Jacques Lazier hitting debris the size of a rear wing. It's sitting dead center in the track like a dead deer and he Jacques right into it and it flies like a helicopter blade into the stands.

Pits are open. Dan, Scott Dixon, Hornish coming in. We're promised a split screen deal. Nope. Not going to happen.

Danica was about to be lapped "got a heck of a break" says Rusty.

Jamie is deployed. She said the fan that got hit appears to be OK. Getting checked out. Laughing and joking as he leaves. "You know he's enjoying his time here," Jamie says of the fan. That was before, presumably, he got darted with debris.

Lap 71. Danica 8th. Last car on the lead lap. Marco 6th. Scheckter has a knee injury.

Lap 75 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Kanaan, Hornish, Dario, Marco, Mike, Danica, Helio, Sharp.

Restart during side-by-side lap 76ish. Commercial features a series of kids in helmets saying "I want a ride." For a second I thought it was an illustration of how IRL drivers get into the Indy 500 -- going around to random people asking for cash to get a ride. But it's a Honda CRS commercial instead. My mistake.

Lap 77. Restart. Wheldon comes on the radio and says "See-ya!" (Kidding)

Lap 78. Helio short pit to get back on the lead lap. I can't hear what Jack the Root is saying because he must be standing on the track. Too much noise in the background. I did hear the end of the segment when Jack gets really close to the mic and says something dramatic like "the Firestone Firehawks LOOKED GOOD."

Down to Vince who has the recently wrecked Tomas. Tomas said the car was "soop-pah." Said he got really low trying to go through so many back markers. Passing the same people every four laps. (People who, it should be noted, are still in the race and yet Tomas isn't.) Tomas said he had a good car, presumably right up until he put it into the wall.

82 -- Andretti's are 6 and 7. Danica 7th. Getting quicker. Jerry says watch out for Danica. Booth boys are all about Danica and her brute speed lately. "The track is coming to her." She's going 217. Someone wake up the queen. Danica is rocking. The booth peeps are on fire. Todd Harris is screaming "RACING'S SALLY RIDE" from the top of the pagoda.

Wheldon is leaning it back a little now. He's less than five minutes in front of everyone. I think he's just coasting for entire corners to save fuel.

Dixon is making his ass ultra wide on lap 89 to "defend against" Hornish. "Defending his position" I think is the current euphamism for blocking.

Rusty is very impressed with Marco. Says Michael is covering his back side like a wingman.

Lap 94. Video of Wheldon lapping people. Shocker. Andrettis are 7 and 8. Jamie informs us this is the fourth father-son duo to race Indy.

Lap 100 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Hornish, Kanaan, Danica, Dario, Marco, Michael, Bell, Scott Sharp.

Helio pits. Had to due to the previous short pit. There was much concern about drebris in the radiator, but they find nothing.

Jerry says pits are telling Wheldon to go to P4 on fuel settings and smoke 'em if he's got 'em to save some ruel.

Jerry says Danica is turning leader-esque laps. The booth buys are on fire about Danica. Rusty says don't rule her out. Hold the phone, Danica just got passed by Andretti (Marco, I think). Speculation that Danica may be running out of fuel.

Lap 108. Danica in to the pit. Jerry reminds us that last year she stalled it. She's in and out in 12.5 seconds. Jerry says it's a great stop. Great stops are more like 10, Jerry.

Wheldon in. 10.1. (That's a great stop, Jerry.)

Dixon in. 9.9

Marco in. No half shalf issues this time. He's 3-for-3 on stops without busting the half shaft. Boy, bust a couple half shafts and they never let you forget it.

Wheldon takes the lead.

Lap 111. Yellow Yellow Yellow. Buddy Rice and Helio got together. Let's go to the replay. Helio goes under Rice and Rice pinches down on him and it's wall city for those two. First DNF for Helio in 6 Indys.

Musburger says Danica is showing her 500 skill just like last year. Lake last year, she's doing a slow march up the field, crashing into the top 10. Don't touch that dial. Copter Cam shows massive sections of gray around the track. Disappointing.

Lap 117. Race summary. Musburger says Danica is stalking the leaders. Little Al is moving up.

Down to Buddy. Was just trying to stay alive out there. Had been burning up the rear tire. Got checked up behind some slower cars. (Those damn back markers! Scheckter knows what we're talking about. Who lets them into this race, anyway? Oh, wait.) Turned into 4 and didn't even know he was there. Holy Sleeping Spotter!

Down to David Letterman. Jerry asks David what a Danica win would mean to life on the planet. Says the history of Danica's career is "transcendent." Winning this event would be much bigger than just winning the event. Turn everything upside down, and talk about the girl to pull it off.

Promo for NBA Finals. Everyone is on the edge of their seats for that. Video of old players people actually knew. Today, not so much. June 8. Mark your calendars.

Jamie -- Mike had a black steering wheel. No lights. Now it's back on. The reset button must have worked or something. TV plays audio from Mike telling his pit to tell Marco to stay out of the "freaking snuf (?). He's getting crap all over his tires."

Vince with Helio -- What happenend? Helio -- I didn't know. Had the momentum to pass Buddy all of a sudden just came down on me. Started pretty good. Got loose. Tried to be patient. Will root for Sam now.

Wheldon leads. Prize money in 1911 was $14,250. In 2006 it's $10 million. Winner gets $1.5 million.

Lap 123 -- green green green.

Cars blow through the oil dry and Dixon in second gets a major face full of the stuff. Dixon says screw that and takes over the lead at lap 125.

Top four cars are GONE. Hornish in second. Jerry -- Wheldon isn't having problems. Just conserving fuel. Dixon got one-quarter turn of wing last stop. Much psychological benefit.

Report that all fans in the area of the debris are OK. Here's hoping the track doctor cleared them to resume drinking.

Sam 3rd. Dixon second. Sam's spotter is Rick Mears. Four time winner. We're not worthy.

Wheldon leads. Townsend Bell makes it three-wide even though he's a lap down. Much changing of the leader here. Now Hornish leads. (Lap 130). Hornish's last lap was 219.

"Flat-out, hot-rod racing and right now it's hot out there." -- Rusty.

Danica 6th and 6.5 seconds back. Going to need a miracle. Marco is working on her. Danica is being ultra patient. Reminder that fuel last year cost Danica the victory. (That or her stalling it in the pit or spining under yellow. It was one of those things.)

Little Al still moving up. My DRR homies get a shout out for tweaking the car continuously.

Lap 142. Hornish lapping people (again, what a shocker to see the leaders lapping people).

Jack -- Hornish raced go karts against the likes of one Danica Patrick. Thank you for that Danica tie in, Jack. You're always there for us.

Pitting coming up. Danica will come in soon. Her mileage is crappy. Danica in. 11.6 seconds. Danica out.

Yellow yellow yellow.

Al Unser Jr is into the wall. Replays show him losing it in the corner. "You're just a passenger at that point" Rusty says.

Goodyear says the car was "nervous." Says it about five times. "Nervous"

We got circus music in the pit. Jeff Simmons leaves early with the fuel hose still attached. We got a fueler down. We got a fueler down in the ethanol pit. Looks like he'll be OK. Sitting up.

Over to Jack who says methanol is a renewable resource. Not last time I looked, since it is made out of non-renewable natural gas. What's ethanol made of? Jack pulls out an ear of corn. "Lots and lots of this stuff." Beauty. This year the cars run on 90% methanol and 10% ethanol. Jack points out that everyone can get gas with 10% ethanol in it right now! Jack uses it all the time in his personal vehicle! (So does the pressdog!) Look for E10 where you fill up. Good for all cars made after 1980ish. Next year the IRL goes to 100% fuel-grade ethanol. Jack's looking for a car that runs on E100. (So is the pressdog, although E100 cars [which don't exist outside of Indy] are a bitch to start in the winter.)

Lap 150 -- Wheldon, Hornish, Dixon, Kanaan, Dario, Marco, Mike, Danica, Max Papis (?) Vitor

Pit cycling. Dan, Sam and Scott Dixon all in.

Hornish leaves early! Hornish takes off before the fuel buckeye was out. We got fuelers down. Shredded fuel hose. Water being thrown. Hornish stops and someone gets the fuel nozel out of his car so he can get out of there. Jack concludes, based on his extreme knowledge of the situation, that "Emotion came into play and Hornish pulled out too soon" because Hornish saw Wheldon coming out. Jack can apparently read Sam's mind and has decided what happened already. Very helpful. (Except, um, later Penske said it was his fault and he told Sam to go via radio before the fueler was out.)

Video replays of Little Al's crash. Shows Simmons coming out over the grass while leaving the pits. Stuff flies off his car (or gets knocked sideways by his car) and DARTS Little Al. Then when Al went into the corner something busted. Sucks to be Al. Later there was talk that that when Simmons left the pit with part of the fuel hose still attached, those parts came off and darted Little Al.

Simmons under caution puts it in the wall. I think he had parts missing. We got extendo yellow.

Video replays of Hornish. Rusty and Goodyear argue about when he should have gone. Ultra-alert crew member gets fuel nozzel out of Sam's car so he can get out of there.

Down to Team Chippy who is phoning up the refs asking for a penalty for Sam. "We been getting nit picked all day by the race director (Barnhart) and the owner in the Penske pit (that would be Roger)." Chip just wanted to make sure they are aware of what happened. "When you leave the pit with equipment attached, it's a penalty."

Did he put the fuel thing out before he went onto the track? Big question.

Lap 157. Brian "Iron Hand of Justice" Barnhart rules that Sam and Townsend Bell who both shredded fuel hoses have to come in for a drive through on the first green lap. Simmons too, but he went into the wall so he'd have to have a drag through penalty and what's the point of that?

Hornish comes in on yellow and tops off. Shades of Danica topping off before her drive through last year.

167 -- Green-green-green. Bell and Sam into the pit for their drive throughs. Bell ass-ends Sam going down pit lane. What the? No damage to Sam, apparently. But Bell has to park it. Chip demands Sam get a penalty for being in Bell's way. (I made that up.) Hornish nearly lights the tires coming out of the pits. He needs to stay on the lead lap to have a shot. Chip demands Hornish get a penalty for accessive acceleration.

Danica 6th. Marco 4th. Down to Jerry who says Tony is being patient.

Dixon warned for blocking! The Iron Hand of Justice is calling them tight today.

Danica 6th. Right in here it would have been cool to see the track position guide thing that ABC was using all the time earlier to see where Sam was in relationship to the field, but no.

174 -- Dixon black flagged for blocking. Drive through penalty. Barnhart is kicking some ass today! Chip cries zebra and it comes on back around.

Jerry. Brian sent someone down to Chip's pit to let them know they had video of Dixon blocking so they wouldn't have a major hissy fit.

Lap 175 -- Wheldon, Tony, Marco, Dario, Danica, Dixon, Mike, Hornish, Carpenter (!) , Sharp.

Marco will need a splash-and-go on Lap 196.

Dario complaining (shocking, I know) about Ed blocking him. Attention all drivers. Please move immediately up into the marbles and let Dario through. Thank you.

Danica coming in for fuel in mid-180s.

Sam -- no more stops needed. Penske tells him to open it up and go full rich.

18 to go. Wheldon and Kanaan both have to pit. Sam is lurking. Lap 183. Danica in. 8.2 second stop. Wheldon in for an 8.5 secons stop. Will it be enough? Stay tuned.

Wheldon gets twitchy in the marbles. Almost! We got 13 to go.

Marco in. 10 to go. Yellow yellow yellow. Felipe into the wall. Danica is hating life. She just pitted before the yellow. Would have needed green to make a charge up front. Sam is loving it because it allows for the bunching up of the pack and creating some 75-mph laps so he for sure does not have to pit again.

Graphic of people who led late and lost. Goodyear is on there twice. 1995 led at lap 195 and finished 14th and 1997 led at lap 194 and got second. Goodyear "A list I could do without being on." Shows a good sense of humor about it. Second at Indy does not suck. Unless your Vitor, then it doesn't so much suck as become invisible.

Firestone Firehawk In-Race commercial. The Root gives it to us. Talks about rubber from the tires filling the grooves in the track. Ends with the dramatic reading, "there's rubber on the road and RUBBER ON THE TRACK."

Kanaan and Dario in. Mike leads. An Andretti is leading the Indy 500. Look for lightning. Dario beats Kanaan out.

193. Mike and Marco are 1 and 2. Then Dixon and then Hornish. Jamie deployed to Mario's pit. Mario looks like he may have a heart attack. Jamie asks Mario who is more nervous of the three. "I'll let you know in a couple of laps."

Four to go. Buckle up, because we are green, green. Herta is in the second spot behind Michael. He's really in about 20th place and 12 laps down or something. Marco around him quick. Sam around Dixon and then Herta like he's going around two traffic cones. Chip demands a penalty for discourteous passing. Full afterburner mode on the Penske machine. You can almost see the Batmobile-like flames coming out the ass end of it.

Marco around Mike to lead on lap 198. Crowd freaks out. Hornish is driving like he's enraged. He's around Mike before Mike could even "defend his position."

Two to go. In-car from Marco shows Sam going low on turn three. HOLY SHIT, Sam stuck his nose under there and had to get out of it or it was wall city for them both. Nearly had the big one. Sam experiences major momentum loss.

One to go. The kid may win it. Rusty says he thinks Marco is going to hold on. Your worst nightmare is Hornish behind you on the last lap of the Indy 500, though. Hornish is flying through the corners. He's a freak through turn two. Chased Marco down by the apex of three. Right up on Marco's ass coming out of four. It's like a cheetah cashing an antelope, a Porsche closing on a Honda Accord. Down the back stretch. Marco swerves, high, low, "defending his line" as Sam is about four inches off his ass.

SAM GOES LOW. SLING SHOT IN EFFECT. HORNISH AT THE LINE. Fist up as he crosses.

Hornish wins. Hornish wins. Hornish wins. Much fist pumping. Hornish's last lap was an freakish 219.935 mph. Marco did 214.643 on this last lap and couldn't hold him off. Sam lets out a "All RIGHT!" on his in-car radio. Easy Sam, there are kids watching. He gets a "You're a hell of a man," back from the pits.

Rusty -- "This is the most exciting Daytona -- er, Indy 500 ever!" Rusty later -- "I don't think I've ever been this excited in my entire life." Welcome to open-wheel racing, buddy. Where the flags are green and racing is to the wire.

I don't think Hornish did any victory donuts. Imagine that. No donuts. Wheldon would have done donuts, pitted for new tires, and then did some more donuts.

Down to Jamie with Rookie Sensation Marco Andretti. Marco says he could have went for the hip check block but that could have dusted them both. "Defended my line" once but Sam was all about it. Said he didn't know where Sam got all that speed on the last lap.

Hornish in victory lane. Swigs the milk. Dumps it on his head. Throws it on the crowd. Gives props to his team. "We stuck together as a team and had a good plan and were fast when we needed it." Gives thanks to God for his ability and "not so much what I can do as a driver but the fact that I didn't give up and kept coming back here." Thanks also for his parents and wife. Gives props to Marco. No matter what happened he should be really proud. It's a great feeling, wouldn't trade it for anything else. Sam is all class.

The Root goes for the tears bringing up any recently dead relatives or pets he can think of. I bet Jack could name you the most recently dead relative of everyone in the field.

Over to Vince with Mike Andretti. Didn't have the car to win. Two more caution laps maybe hold him off. Marco had a run on him so he decided not to block his own son. Wished he could have blocked Hornish but he was around him before he knew what was what.

Over to Danica. She got 8th. Says she had the 8th place car today. Said she was chewing up tires. Must have used up my luck last year. What about Marco? He was fast. Did a good job. Props to Danica for running a good race. I thought she drove better this year than last year.

Vince is with Chip. Chip thinks the black was bogus. Pulled the trigger a little bit early on that one. Questionable call, Chip says.

Jack with Roger Penske. Gives all the props to Sam. Last four laps he had a good car. When the green flag dropped, he was the driver. Penske says he screwed up and told Sam to go before the fueler was done.

Dan Wheldon -- we had a fun-tastic car today. It got away from us. Had a cut tire forced him to pit. Knew he was screwed if they got a yellow.

Rusty gives props to Penske for his "I tell you want" excellent top-off strategy.

Lap 200. Hornish, Marco, Mike, Wheldon, Kanaan, Dixon, Dario, Danica, Sharp, Vitor. Ten cars finish on the lead lap.

Drink one for Sammy.