Notes from the 2006 Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan

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pressdog's beer for the race is Miller Lite. Everybody on the Michigan car assembly line, it's Miller time!

Notes taken during the ABC/ESPN2 broadcast of the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway on 7/30/06.

Notes taken during the abortive attempt at coverage during the rain delay on 7/30/06:

Holy rain delay. 3.5 hours rain delay before the race starts. I skipped the pit reporters working the garage area. But I did tune in long enough to hear a few things. Rusty says it's getting dark out due to sunset. Dude. It's like 5 p.m. in Michigan in July. Sunset? Maybe in four hours.

Everyone is filing in. Looks like we may go green. Wait a second, we got some "weepers" on the track. Goodyear explains what weepers are. It's water seeping back out from under the track making some little wet spots. During the explanation Goodyear says "actually" seven times. I counted them.

Jack "the Root" Arute with John Barnes of Panther. John thinks Vitor Miera is really great. Up with the best of the driver's he's employed. He's a champion. John -- True test of a champion is somebody who goes to sleep every night knowing he game 110% and I tell ya he does that.

Down to Jerry Punch, M.D., with Ashley "Huge Floppy Hat" Judd. Ashley wants husband Dario Franchitti to make the choices that set his spirit free for next year. Whatever he chooses to do in 2007, driving wise, is fine with Ashley. Ashley had all the Judds in the pit with her last week at Nashville. "They get so emotional and jacked up about every single race." Punch -- Wynona seemed to want the guitar that is the Nashville prize. Ashley (I swear) -- "I thought she was going to hike her leg and take a little pee on it. She was like, 'nobody was going to have that guitar.' She was very territorial about it."

Ashley. That's priceless. Thank you very much. That's like gold to me. I hope she appreciates her script writers because on her own, well, it's dicey.

Jamie Little (get her in a car!) is out on the track interviewing a weeper. Here's a weeper. See it weep. The entire IRL is ground to a halt by something that looks about the size of someone spilling a $4 large soda. Nice.

ABC pulls the plug on coverage. Catch it tape delay. Notes from ESPN2's tape delay broadcast on 7/31/06:

We're skipping the pre-race stuff and go right to the starting lineup:

Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish, Tony Kanaan, Ed Carpenter (!), Scott Dixon, Vitor Meira, Dario Franchitti, Tomas Scheckter, Dan Wheldon, Buddy Rice, Danica Patrick, Bryan Herta, Scott Sharp, Kosuke Matsuura, Buddy Lazier, Jeff Simmons, Marty Roth, Jeff Bucknum, Marco Andretti. Fire marshals huddle and decide --- yes, MIS can handle 19 whole cars. The crowd has also thinned considerably. Looks like an IPS race. The 3.5 hour delay probably killed the "walk up" which is critical in the IRL where sell outs are rare.

Rusty Wallace, Marty Ried and Scott Goodyear are in the booth.

Pace car is out. Punch -- Target wants a "Bounce Back" race after getting smacked last week. Chip's posse won three times at Michigan but not since 2000.

The Root -- Danica, the first lady of speed in the IndyCar Series (that, I can buy. Last week she was just the "first lady of speed"), startled everyone by announcing she was bolting Rahal Letterman to go to Andretti Green. Moments ago on the radio she told each and everyone of her crew thank you for what you've done for my career. It's my turn to pay you back by taking it to victory lane.

Jamie -- Marco in back despite having the same setup as Tony Kanaan. Pit posse tells him to keep his head and bring it home in one piece.

Goodyear's keys to the race -- Draft for fuel conservation and speed. Survive the attrition. Have a teammate help you by drafting, etc. to get to the front.

Let's light this candle.

Yellow yellow yellow. We're going to start under yellow to run over those lethal weepers and get them dried out. Brian Barnhart, Iron Hand of Justice, gets air! He'll be watching to see if the weepers threaten life and limb.

Pit cam! We go from Penske (Roger) to Andretti (Mike) to Ganassi (Chip). IRL triple play!

Rusty -- drivers are all about getting points. Goodyear -- hitting a weeper at speed is like hitting a one-foot-square patch of ice on the highway. Good analogy.

Jack -- Roger is the smartest person ever. He's advising his drivers to think about another line they can take if the deadly weepers don't dry up. Amazing intellect. If there are weepers on the track, Roger is telling his drivers not to run over them.

Rusty -- Jack, are the pit roads wet? Jack -- No. Bone dry. Rusty -- good because you can't afford to have any wetness on pit road (good thing they are dry, I guess).

Goodyear -- Once your car goes out of control underneath you you just become a passenger at that point.

Lap 3 under yellow, 3.5 hours after the rain at Michigan, we are green-green-green.

Marco up about five spots by turn 1. Scott and Rusty agree that drivers are frothing to get going. Scott makes a good analogy of turning animals loose after they've been caged for hours. Props to Goodyear.

Lap 8 - Dan is up from 9th to 4th. Danica is 16th and plucky. Jeff Simmons is 15th. What the? Danica has a teammate or two ahead of her? Simmons and Buddy Rice dispatch their fathers to Indy to talk to NASCAR teams at the Brickyard.

Penske cars say buh-bye. Get in a line and rock the house.

Lap 10 -- Hornish, Helio, Kanaan, Wheldon, Vitor, Ed Carpenter, Scheckter, Dixon, Dario, Buddy Rice. Danica 16th.

Lap 11 -- Wheldon sticks his nose under Kanaan but no dice.

Lap 12 -- Kanaan is moving up the track a lot coming out of corners. Car may be "tight" as Rusty says.

Lap 14 -- Rusty says the cars need a caution to get down pit road and adjust their hot rods. If this was NASCAR, we'd have had two cautions by now (lap 14) and have cued the circus music by now. Welcome to the green-flag IRL, Rusty. Keep that yellow flag in your pocket.

Team Penske is in Lock Step. That's Lock Step (reference 1).

Lap 15 -- Team Penske is running in Lock Step (reference 2).

Rusty -- Impressed with Carpenter. Best start of the year.

Three wide -- Vitor, Ed and Tony.

Lap 18 -- The Root. Johnny Barnes put more downforce in Vitor's car right before the race. Where's Doug Bowles? God, I miss him and his "WE GOT SCREWED!" Doug, baby, come on back and give us some color.

The Root reports that RLR isn't getting telemetry from Patrick's car. Check with AGR. They have may switched her telemetry over to their pits already. Danica is in 14th after starting 11th.

Lap 20 -- Marco chasing down Danica. Rusty -- if she's thinking about NASCAR four or five years down the road she better get used to it (no telemetry) because all we have is a tachometer (and power steering!).

Jamie -- Marco is yelling on the radio (I think Jamie actually said "yelling") that his car is unbalanced. Pit replies that "You have a wait jacker. Use it." Simmer down, rookie.

Danica and Marco battle for 14th. Major air for the battle for fifth from last. Simmons is lurking.

Lap 24 -- Lock step in front (reference 3).

Jack -- Helio doesn't think he can pass.

Jack -- Danica has some telemetry, but it's just spotty at best.

Lap 25 -- Sam, Helio, Wheldon, Kanaan, Ed, Vitor, Dixon, Rice, Dario. Danica is 14th.

Rusty throws in a "Lock-step formation" (reference 4). Marty -- "If Sam hiccups, Helio will say 'excuse me.' "

Goodyear with a great observation -- coming through every corner, Helio swings high outside the draft of Sam so Helio can get some air on his wings and stay out of the wall then tucks back in behind Sam to go down the straight. Impressive display of driving.

Punch -- Wheldon went from P9 to P4 in one lap. Pit tells him to go to fuel position 2 to see if he can run the leaders down.

Lap 30 -- Marty -- next two races are critical (I think for Sam) before we go to Sonoma (since Sam isn't a huge road racer). Rusty -- Hornish just has to get through the road race clean. Finish decent. Ovals are not a problem for him.

Lap 38 -- three-wide in the back. Scheckter, Carpenter, Kanaan. The pack is looking very restrictor plate NASCARish with cars three and four wide, everywhere on the track.

Lap 40 -- Hornish and Helio in lock-step formation (reference 5).

Lap 41 -- Vitor is making it work low on the track.

Pitting -- Danica in. Princess Trumpeters herald her arrival on pit row (OK, made that up). Penske twins in. Vitor in. Tony in. Down to Jamie in the TK pit -- Just an air pressure adjustment for Tony. He's happy with the car. He's out in 9.1.

Yellow Yellow Yellow. Marty Roth is dead on the track. Holy Pit Cycle Interruptus. Wheldon had yet to pit when it went yellow. I think Marty had an electrical issue.

Punch -- Target cars have to pit. Running out of gas. IRL rules say if you're going to run out of gas under yellow and the pits are closed, you can come in for a splash and go back out on the track and then come back in when the pits are open.

Dixon is coasting on the track. Out of gas! Good call Chippy! (Or was it Mike Hull?) Tried to stay out and ran him dry. He's stopped on the track waiting for a tow.

Punch -- pit told Dixon to stay out for an extra lap. Not a good call.

Herta will be penalized for speeding in the pit lane. 60 mph limit.

Punch deployed to Chip's pit box. What happened to Dixon. Chip tells Punch to go down and talk to the other pit stand because he doesn't know. He's all about Wheldon. Somebody give Punch a map to who is running what car.

Rusty -- To run Scott Dixon out of fuel right now is a HUGE mistake. (Ya think?)

Lap 48 -- Kosuke Fever! Matsuura leads.

Sam Hornish back into the pit. Not topping off but rather looking into his radiator intakes. Arute -- Telemetry shows overheating. Helio reports a spray coming from Sam's car.

Hornish is 17th. Dixon is 18th and still looking for a tow.

ABC/ESPN has one camera that has fog inside it. Holy Leaking Lens. It's the fog cam. Marty apologizes for the fog.

Lap 52 -- Green green green

Video replay of Hornish and Wheldon swapping rubber. We got people going about four wide out there.

Lap 56 -- Meira leads. Sam working it. Helio forced below white line. Wait a second, replay shows Helio making a major dive below the line. He wasn't forced there at all but drove down there on his own. Rusty claims that Barnhart (The Iron Hand of Justice) said if you go below the white line "I'm going to be talking to you." (Maybe that's "if your car isn't mostly red.") I'm sure Brian is all over that. Right on the phone to Penske. Or not.

Lap 54 -- Vitor, Herta, Ed, Scheckter, Wheldon, Helio, Matsuura, Rice, Kanaan, Marco (!). Danica is 12th.

Lap 60 -- Reports that Vitor's pit crew is cheering like it's the Super Bowl as he takes the lead.

Hornish is toast. Pitting. Shuts it down. Cowling removal underway. He could be screwed.

Hornish's hometown of Defiance is just 60 miles from the track. 500 of Hornish's friends and family in the stands. The crowd includes the Archbold, Ohio branch of the pressdog posse, led by Mark Frey representing in the hizzouse!

Recap emailed in by Mark: "Several NW Ohio fans die of boredom due to Sam retiring early, a dearth of yellow flags and general lack of passing for the lead, unless you count lapping places 7-18. Flagman has submitted a requisition for a new blue/yellow-stripe flag, says this one's worn out. We tried our hardest to cheer for Helio. The car looks the same anyways. He took Sam's points lead! Much underbreath muttering heard while leaving the stands."

Word to Mark and the Archbold pressdog posse.

Lap 63 -- Marco fourth. Rookie sensation! Hornish back out on the track. Arute says it might have been a vapor lock. Fingers are crossed.

Lap 71 -- Vitor leads by 1 second. Tom and Ed are getting in line. Vision Twins!

Lap 72 -- Hornish back into the pit. BLOOOWN up, SIR! Sam's out. Car's toast. Sam gets dead last. Much twittering in the booth over what this does to the points race.

Jack with Sam -- Don't even know what's going on with the car. Big shame. Don't know what to say. See what we can do at KY.

Lap 76 -- Helio and Ed almost bang. Ed takes Helio up the track almost into the wall (intentionally or unintentionally, we're not sure). Review of the Ed/Helio incident from Nashville.

Lap 75 -- Vitor, Wheldon, Scheckter, Dario, Ed, Helio, Wheldon, Rice, Danica, Kosuke.

Lap 79 -- Jack says the ECUs on the Hondas are creating some false reads in the car. So they came in and changed the ECU to make sure it wasn't a false read. Went out and it was overheating so they brought it in.

Helio weaving. Low then high. Goodyear -- Helio driving like a man possessed.

Lap 82 -- Wheldon has some issues. Loses four spots.

Lap 88 -- Pitting. Helio in. Vitor in. Scheckter leads. Carpenter in.

Lap 92 -- Wheldon leads with Dixon two laps down.

Rusty -- Vitor is getting the job done.

Marty says Herta does not have to serve a penalty for speeding. IHJ (Iron Hand of Justice) Reviewed it. No penalty.

Lap 98 -- Vitor still leads. Could this be the race? Helio up to second. Vitor and Helio get in line and try to freight train out of there.

Lap 100 -- Vitor, Helio, Kanaan, Wheldon, Scheckter, Marco, Ed, Rice, Danica, Herta.

ESPN goes down the field.

Marco started 19th and is now up to 6th.

Marty -- John Barnes from Panther ran down to Tim Cendrick at Penske's pit stand and made a deal to run nose to tail to get some distance on the field and then duke it out for the win later. Later we get video of the dramatic meeting and the head nodding that says "we got a deal."

Marty -- Lock step! (reference 6!)

Onboard camera shows Marco giving someone a shake of the hand. Kind of an open-fist shake. Like "Hey, I'm an Andretti over here. Let me through." I think he did it to KANAAN. Pretty balsy for a rookie. I think he wants Tony to get in line behind him.

Lap 116. Marco and Kanaan almost touch. I think it may be lucky Marco is the boss's son or he might get the hip check or the one-finger salute.

Rusty -- Marco is on the radio complaining so much about a slow car. I guess he expects the horsepower fairy to float out of the sky and give him 20 extra or something.

Vitor has now led 61 laps.

Marty -- lock step! (reference 7! Can they make it to double digits?)

Lap 121 -- Simmons ahead of Patrick. That ain't going to sit well. We probably got some radio traffic in re: Simmons not pulling over for Danica. Ethanol power, baby! Everybody fill up with E10.

Lap 122 -- Marco 6th. Marco goes with another hand signal or shake or something. Marco looks like he's hailing cab out there or ordering another round of drinks. Could have been waving at Ed this time. Just guessing.

Ed is 5th!

Lap 125 -- Vitor, Helio, Wheldon, Scheckter, Ed, Marco, Kanaan, Rice, Sharp, Simmons. Danica 12th.

Lock step! (reference 8)

Pitting coming soon. Lap 128 -- Vitor and Helio are ahead by 6.5 seconds, which is like a day in the IRL.

Lap 130 -- Pitting. Castroneves in. He's the early pitter in this race. Vitor was supposed to pit at the same time but stays out.

Lap 131 -- Vitor in. 10.7 seconds. Helio might have been faster.

Jamie -- Marco in. No changes. Asking for help from anyone who will listen. Tony says he doesn't run well behind other cars. (Holy smack-down!)

Lock Step! (reference 9. Only ONE MORE for double-digits.)

Ed in. 9.9. Tony in. 9.1. Wheldon reports his car is ultra loose. He's in. 9.6. Scheckter in. 11.3 (holy pig pit stop). Herta in. Helio leads by 2.4.

Lap 137 -- Helio has a 2 second lead over Vitor. Must have had a faster stop or faster in or out laps.

Rusty --"Hornish concerned with Sears Point?" Sears Point? You mean Sonoma? Rusty is flashing back to NASCAR.

Rusty -- Dixon is the biggest loser in this race due to the running out of gas and the points race situation.

Lap 141. Carpenter 5th. Best run of the year. Rumors that he's thinking of going to NASCAR. (OK, I made that last sentence up.)

Rusty and Goodyear compare the NASCAR and IRL cars. NASCARs are pigs -- 3400 pounds. Indy Cars are 1350. IRL cars can stay glued to the low line. NASCARS have to run up the track coming out of the corners.

Marty -- eight drivers have the eight fastest laps. Good stat, Marty. Shows the speed parity.

Lap 144 -- Goodyear -- with everyone having the same engine, the driver is a more integral part of the team because he or she is relied on to give handling feedback to the engineers. Shout out to Scott for a good observation there.

Lap 147 -- Vision Twins 5th and 6th. Impressive display of team driving.

Goodyear -- Tony left the young 19-year-old (Marco) out to fend for himself, hence, perhaps, the hand gesture.

Lap 149 -- Dario. Pretty quiet in 9th. Helio leads by 3 seconds.

Lap 150 -- Helio, Vitor, Wheldon (get used to it), Kanaan, Ed, Scheckter, Sharp, Marco, Dario, Rice. Danica 12th.

Speculation that the difference in pit stops between Helio and Vitor is the difference on the track.

Lap 155 -- Dixon behind Wheldon. Dixon pushing Wheldon although he is two laps down. Question from the booth: will Dixon be the blocking back for Dan?

Lap 159 -- Onboard with Marco behind Sharp. Battle for 8th. Marco keeps his hands on the wheel this time.

Lap 162 -- Kosuke battling Danica. Swerving. A bit Tony Stewart-esque. Kosuke almost takes out Dario. Ashley must be grabbing her hat.

The Root -- Danica's engineer, Ray Leto, is on the radio scolding Danica for playing a game of chicken with Matsuura. He told her to get in line and save fuel. "If you listen to me, we can still win this race."

Simmons and Danica are side-by-side. Much imagined radio traffic.

Lap 165 -- four laps to pit. Wheldon is 10 seconds behind the leaders.

Lock step! (reference TEN! Bam! Double figures!)

Lap 169 -- Helio in. 10.4 seconds. Marty: "Jot that down." So I did.

Lap 173 -- Vitor in. 8.9 seconds. Ed in. STALLS IT. Shit. Sucks to be Ed. Ends up with a 17.6 second pit stop. Kanaan and Wheldon in. Ed gets back out in 7th. Scheckter in. 8.1 seconds.

Helio leads by 3.6 seconds.

Lap 180 -- Helio, Vitor, Wheldon, Kanaan, Scheckter, Sharp, Ed, Danica, Marco, Rice.

Lap 182 -- Danica 8th. One lap down.

Goodyear -- If Dixon can get around Kanaan he can block for Wheldon.

Rusty - -Blocking? That's not allowed here is it?

Marty -- It is if nobody notices. (It also is if your car is a certain number, I'm thinking.)

Helio lead down to 2 seconds.

Lap 187 -- Helio now leads by 1.4 seconds. Vitor has the afterburner on.

Vitor and Jeff Simmons almost touch.

Lap 190 -- Helio ahead by 1.8.

Lap 193 -- Vitor through traffic and down by 2 seconds. Going to take a miracle.

Marty suggests Avis sponsor Vitor because he's second all the time and tries harder. Rusty likes the idea.

Lap 196 -- Much blue flagging. Not sure anyone is paying much attention to it, though.

Two to go. Danica slow on the track. Appears to be coasting. They're telling her to get to the bottom to avoid a yellow.

White flag -- Helio up by 1.6. If he keeps it out of the wall he wins.

Helio wins. Helio on the radio: "That's what I'm talking aabbbbbout! You guys are awesome!"

Fence climbing coming. Danica video of her walking up the track from her car. Stomping her feet! Rusty: "Stomping her feet!" Marching up the track.

Penske -- Helio drove a great race. We got great pit stops. Sam was overheating.

We go to a commercial right as Helio heads for the fence.

We're back and Helio is on the fence. Cut to Danica walking down the pit road. She rears back and launches a big old F-BOMB. Holy Lip Reader. Rusty --"She's cussing!"

Video -- onboard with Danica as she comes to a stop. Fists pounding steering wheel. Now she's out and stomping away from the car. Her small size and the big helmet makes her look childlike, or someone from Whoville, which adds to the amusement of the stomping.

Here it comes -- Goodyear or Rusty -- She really wants to do the best job she can. Rusty -- She's a great competitor. One of the best woman drivers I've ever seen. (Rusty has probably seen maybe five women drivers, so that's not saying a ton. Is she one of the best drivers you've seen, Rusty, without reference to the gender?)

Video of Danica coming down the pit road. F-BOMB! F-BOMB! F-BOMB! She's doing some carpet F-bombing. Arute approaches. Danica waves him off. I'd stay away if I were you, Jack. She might bash you with the helmet. Danica punts some kind of pilon thing. It flops over. She stops to pick it up. I don't think she thought it would go over if she kicked it. Surprised her.

Rusty -- She doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. She's a great driver.

She'd fit right in with NASCAR with this performance. Throw that helmet, Danica!

Jamie with Vitor -- Second again. Led so many laps, what's the deal? Vitor -- Working with Helio and anyone who was up to speed. We did 110% today.

Danica has recovered from the implosion and is with Jack. Props to her for pulling it together relatively quickly. Jack -- what's with the hissy fit (I'm paraphrasing). Danica -- I went out two laps from the end. (Seriously, Jack, if I was Danica I'd add a "duh" at the end of that sentence.) Guys had no telemetry so they were guessing. Probably ran out of fuel. We were just slow. It was a brutal day. Shift into 6th and the car was like (makes a bogged down engine sound). Wish we would have brought the car home in 7th where it should have been but things happen.

I gotta give Danica props for the interview given the stomping and F-bombing she did just a minute ago. Recovered well. She's got the FIRE! It would be interesting to see how someone else who did the same thing would be treated by the booth posse. If my girl Sarah Fisher launched F bombs would she get the kind of pass Danica got? Kinda doubt it, but I would hope so.

Punch with Helio who is FINALLY in victory lane. The whole fence climbing thing slows down the post-race ceremony. Helio worked with Vitor to get away from field. Thought it was too early to try something crazy.

Tune in to ABC at 3:30 p.m. August 13 for the Kentucky oval throw down.