Notes from the 2006 Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix

Notes from the ABC broadcast of the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix on 6/4/06.

pressdog's beer of the race is Budweiser Select. Not bad for an American light beer.

Holy Tape Delay! Pressdog blows the tape timer and misses the first nine laps. Shades of Motegi. We'll pick it up at lap 9. But first ...

Starting lineup: Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Marco "Rookie Sensation" Andretti, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Sam Hornish Jr., Dario Franchitti, Vitor Meira, Bryan "World of" Herta, Ryan "Pinch Driver" Briscoe, Buddy Rice, Kosuke Matsuura, Jeff "No Relation to Gene" Simmons, Scott "Looking" Sharp, Tomas Scheckter, Danica "Former Rookie Sensation" Patrick, Eddie Cheever Jr., Ed Carpenter, Felipe Giaffone.

Practice on Saturday was with the rain tires. Start today was on the rain tires too.

Flash back via lap chart to Lap 5 -- Kanaan, Helio, Prince Marco, Dixon, Meira, Hornish, Franchitti, Wheldon, Herta, Brisco

Lap 9 (when I got home and figured out my VCR was screwy) -- Jamie Little (put her in a car!) talking about Scheckter switching from rain tires to slicks. Rain tires start to chunk off when it's not raining. Too much heat for them or some such.

Scheckter on slicks turning the fastest laps of the race. Simmons leads. Hornish pits to ditch rain tires. Everyone coming in to ditch the rain tires.

Danica gets loose (watch it)! In car video of her getting fishy. Didn't hit anything.

Lap 10 -- yellow yellow yellow. Simmons noses into the tires coming out on cold slicks. I think he did the same thing as Danica but didn't save it.

Lap 12 - Dixon passes Helio. Sam spins and stalls. Yellow yellow yellow. Dramatic in-car video of Wheldon missing a spinning, smoking Sam. Shout out to Wheldon for getting it under control and not darting Sam. Hornish will go a lap down as they get him back underway.

Scott Goodyear -- as track dries, the preferred racing line dries but the passing line stays wet. So, pull out to pass and you get on the wet stuff.

Jack Arute -- Matsuura, Sharp and Hornish topped off.

Lap 15 -- green green green -- Scheckter, Kanaan, Marco, Dario, Dixon, Helio, Vitor, Ryan Briscoe (!), Wheldon, Rice. Danica 12th.

Looks to be an estimated 17 people in the stands. Booth posse says it's 55 degrees and crappy out.

Dario and Dixon make a Marco sandwitch passing him high and low head into the bus stop doing about 178. In-car video of Marco doing a big-ass, dirt-trackish fish tail slide.

Lap 16 -- Yellow, yellow, yellow -- Dario and Rice are off. Dario in the gravel trap. Rice is off the course in the tires but is hung up and can't get it going again. In-car video of Dixon getting sideways.

Rusty -- Danica using her fuel position knob as a sort of traction control. Goes P8 when it's dicy and then goes up to P1 when she's ready to race (tires are warmed, track dried, etc.) Interesting.

Air temps in the 50s today. Tires are made to run in the 70s or higher. Marty gives the fans who showed up a shout out given the crappy weather.

The Root -- Helio in to top off under yellow. Try to extend the fuel window.

Safety peeps have Dario to the side of the track but he's still hung up. Can you imagine the radio traffic there? Lots of words that start with F.

Jamie -- Buddy on the radio. Crew says stay out if the tires and car are OK (which Buddy says they are).

Lap 18 -- Scheckter leads.

Green-green-green. Briscoe is 6th. DRR is doing shots in their pits. It's a party!

Yellow, yellow, yellow. Danica spins on restart. Danica radio: "(unintelligible), seriously. What's the deal? .... WHAT'S the deal?" Easy there, Danica. I'm sure they're sending a limo for ya.

Now we got Matsuura and Simmons in a heap. Cue the circus music! We got cars sliding every which way. Replay shows Matsuura got sideways in front of Simmons and Simmons was SCREWED. Simmons hits Matsuura and gets him up in the air a bit. Wild ride from the in-car camera.

Jamie -- Danica in the pit to get a new front wing. Danica says Eddie Cheever Jr. darted her from behind on the restart. Danica on the radio -- "Cheever -- is an idiot."

We'll go side-by-side for a commercial during which the camera sticks with Eddie to see if he1) darts anyone else or 2) pulls over and weeps out of raw remorse for hitting Danica. Neither happens.

Lap 23 -- replay of Danica in the pits. Danica radio -- "This is stupid. It's rediculous out there. Cheever -- is an idiot." Lap 24 Danica pits to top off.

Down to Punch, M.D. -- Wheldon made one stop and is getting such good mileage that Chip thinks he can make it on one more stop.

Lap 24. Green-green-green. Rusty opines on how great Marco is. "I tell you what, this kid isn't afraid of anything."

Lap 25 -- Wheldon, Herta, Helio, Dixon, Rice, Vitor, Cheever, Kanaan, Marco, Briscoe!

The Root -- Vitor is looking for cash. Needs sponsorship. Mr. Blank Side Pods. No sponsor. Talks about Panther auctioning off stuff to keep racing before the season started. Talks about the crew all selling their plasma to make ends meet. (OK, so I made up the plasma part.)

Rusty -- can't understand why Vitor has no sponsor for so good of a car. Goodyear should bust out the Canadian abacus and do the math on the IRL's questionable return on sponsorship investment for Rusty.

In-car of Marco going sideways through the corner. He's like a dirt track racer out there, I swear.

Lap 27. Marco blows by Eddie and Kanaan. Eddie gets passed by Kanaan. Briscoe and Scheckter behind Eddie and closing fast.

Briscoe gets a shout out from Goodyear who says he deserves an opportunity to be back in Indy Car. Marty points out that Briscoe had 7 crashes in 14 starts last year. (May have owners a bit spooked.) This gives us a great opportunity to replay the Chicago crash from last year (on 9/11!). Briscoe got airborne, hit the wall undertray first, car busts in two. Video of briscoe sitting in the tub, pretty much knocked out.

Jamie -- Ryan Briscoe is very excited to be in the car. Feels good on the road course. Not so sure about the oval.

DRR with a car on the lead lap headed for the Top 5. Not since Sarah Fisher got 4th at Richmond about 5 years ago.

Rusty can't let the Vitor Meira thing go. "I don't understand why this thing is unsponsored. If I was Harrah's (sponsored Vitor at Indy) I'd be on that pretty fast." Problem here, Rusty, is for $2 million you get $500,000 worth of exposure. Not that great of a return. HENCE the IRL's sponsoring difficulty. Not just about who's winning.

Let's go to Punch who is down with Mike Andretti. Mike says Marco is doing a heck of a job. Doing what he's supposed to doing. Punch asks if maybe Marco should be more patient. Mike -- No. He's going for it. That's what he's supposed to do. Mike knew Marco would be strong, but not this strong.

Lap 29 -- Wheldon leads by 3.4 seconds.

Lap 31 -- Triple J Ranch report. Jack talks about Vitor feeling the pressure to stay competitive. Says the team is "putting the whip to the jockey-sized Brazilian." I don't think there's any cause to start whipping people. I mean, come on. Punch chimes in and says Marco is great. Marco may be the new Danica.

Lap 33 -- Tony 6th. Herta says his visor is fogging. Very difficult to see. He's putting it up, cracking it, trying to defog.

Jamie -- Briscoe's first time in an Indy Car this year. Started 10th. Up to 8th. All is well in DRR pit. Thrilled to see #5 doing well. This race has already pretty much broken the record for the total amount of air time DRR got in all of 2005.

Lap 34 -- In-car with Dario during side-by-side commercial.

The Geikco gecko sounds a bit like Dan Wheldon to me. Could just be me.

In-car with Danica.

Rusty on Marco -- "He's just looking wild out there."

Lap 36 -- Pitting. Wheldon in. 10.0. Marco into third. 1.5 seconds faster than the race leaders.

Marco posts fastest lap of the race at 127.287 mph.

Lap 38 - Helio, Dixon, His Highness (Marco), Vitor, Kanaan, Briscoe (!), Scheckter, Giaffone (!), Wheldon, Herta.

Wheldon goes straight through the chicane (bus stop) but wisely waits for the car that was in front of him to get through before coming back out. No penalty because he didn't improve his position.

Hornish is working on Dixon. Hornish would like to get his lap back. Where's the Lucky Dog when you need it?

Lap 40 during side-by-side Marco is toast. Into the tires. He's pissed. Fist shaking. Very Andretti-esque. Eddie Cheever and Marco got together and Eddie hip checks him off the road. Replay shows Marco was going on the high side of a left-hand turn, went through a puddle and got assed off the track as Eddie turned into the corner.

Lets go down to Mike -- "The guy (Cheever) is a complete waste. He doesn't belong out there on the track. He's a complete idiot. The guy shouldn't even be allowed on the track. The guy just blatantly takes the kid out."

Marty -- So that's two drivers now who think Eddie is an idiot (Marco and Danica in case you're keeping track at home).

Goodyear says Eddie was taking the normal racing line when it happened. Faults Eddie for not knowing Marco was there. Maybe Marco was foolish to try and pass there. Attention all drivers, please pull over immediately and let Marco by. He has a fast car and he's an Andretti. Over and out.

Rusty had just been talking about Marco driving like a freak and "looking wild out there" but now has nothing critical to say of Marco. Somebody call a Cop Out.

Pitting. Helio loses five spots. Wheldon stalls. No, he broke a half shaft. Cheever blamed (kidding).

Lap 41 -- Punch with Marco. Says Cheever's hipcheck was "blatant, absolutely on-purpose deal. He's going to say he didn't know I was there then he shouldn't be in this series." If he didn't know I was there, "that's a little scary." If he didn't know I was there he shouldn't be on the track.

Lap 46 -- This is a timed event. 25 minutes left. We've had five yellows.

Buddy leads. Rahal Letterman will be switching to Dallaras for Texas next week.

Lap 46/47 -- Green, green, green. Dario and Tomas are off the course. Says green. Scheckter is back on the track. Still green. Dario is done but he's way off. The IRL goes with a local yellow. First time in history, perhaps.

Lap 48 -- Dixon, Rice, Vitor, Briscoe (!), Giaffone (!!), Helio, Sharp, Scheckter, Ed Carpenter (!!!), Kanaan.

Herta and Kanaan get together. Kanaan dove under Herta and Herta thwacked him. Kanaan needs a new nose (bah!) and Herta has a cut tire. Kanaan kind of bonsai-ed in there an got hit.

It may be raining again on lap 49. Sprinkles. Big decision on the rain tires coming up.

Jamie with Eddie -- Marco deal: Eddie says he was just out of the pits on new, cold tires. Marco passed on the high side. No room fo rme to move. I regret that it happened. I'm out of the race too. Wasn't on purpose. Danica deal: on the restart. I got inside and she didn't stay up or slipped or something and came down into me. Marco deal "I was just doing everything I could to keep the car straight." If he or his father say I'm out to get them that's not the case.

I think Marco et al got a little overly knotted up, personally. Replay shows Eddie didn't swerve or leave the race line. Marco was a little nutty for going outside Eddie at that point IMO and could have passed him a bit later without trouble. Booth guys had just been talking about maybe Marco needs to stay patient but now they give him a free pass on the accident.

Lap 50. yellow yellow. Kanaan sideways on the track. Five minutes to go in the race. Briscoe is now third. Holy shit. DRR car headed for the podium? DRR is setting up the beer bong in their pit.

Lap 51 pits are open. Dixon stays out. Decides to go with the slicks not the rain tires. Everyone else stays out too.

Lap 52 -- green green green. Yellow yellow yellow. Scheckter around.

Lap 54, looks like we'll go green and then get the green and white together.

Vitor is second, Briscoe 3rd. Chip Cam activated. Not much going on with Chip.

Rusty -- "I don't think I've ever watched drama like this unfold. These IRL cars just get me. They're fast, the racing has been unbelieveable all year long and their's always a story every race."

Green and white -- Dixon has the hammer down. Stretching it out. Has a bit of a wiggle!

Dixon wins. Dixon radio -- "Woe." Vitor is second. Rusty -- "Give me a reason not to sponsor this car." DRR's Briscoe is THIRD.

Dixon has won 2 of 5 IRL road courses and back to back at Watkins Glen. Down to Punch with Dixon -- how did you decide to stay on the slicks? Dixon said he was hoping it was the right call. The rain appeared to be letting up or not coming as bad. Chip is happy. Finish is Vitor's 5th second place finish. Ed Carpenter is 6th. Rusty says Marco was impressive.