Notes from the 2006 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

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Notes taken during the ESPN broadcast of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA. on Aug. 27, 2006.

Pressdog's beer of the race is Sierra Nevada Wheat brewed in Chico, CA. Big fan of the wheat. Fruity finish. Light. Fabulous. And, I admit to eating brie. Snooty. Hey, it's a road race. I had a pork tenderloin and a 16-ounce Bud Select at the Knoxville Raceway last night, so don't get the wrong idea about the p-dog. I also wore my jumbo-logoed IRL shirt to the Knoxville track. Sadly, I saw no other IRL shirts thereabouts.

Welcome to the wine country of California. Season So Far Montage. Tightest points race in IRL history. KY montage. Penkse pit on the radio saying "We got completely screwed there." No wave around or something.

Jamie Little (get her in a car) with Sam Hornish Jr. She's got the man-killing pony tail out. Watch her, Sam. If she whips that thing around she could take your head right off. True fact -- in the wild, giraffes can kill a lion with one kick. For some reason I thought of this while Jamie was interviewing Sam. Not sure why. Sam -- Gotta be smart all day. Make it to the end. Jamie -- Starting tenth, what's the strategy? Sam -- Be smart, no mistakes, make it to the end, be patient. Make smart decisions. If Jamie asks him again, I bet he says the same thing again. Anyone?

Jack "The Root" Arute with Scott Dixon. Scott -- Have to win this race to have a shot. Put pressure on the Penskes. Helio is the guy to fight here. Easy to go from hero to zero here so be a little careful.

Jerry Punch, M.D., with Helio Castroneves -- Helio -- Can't be thinking championship here. If can win, I'll go for it. Have the opportunity to make it happen, great. But if not, let the race come to me. Punch -- Last year Helio was taken out on lap 19 and got dead last.

Points recap -- Marty Ried -- "33 markers" between top 4 with two races left.

Up to the booth with Marty, Scott Goodyear and Rusty Wallace. Rusty -- if you get off the course your going to have trouble, especially if you stall the engine. Then you have to get a tow in and that will suck. (Thanks for the insight, Rusty.) Goodyear -- Sam gonna probably struggle. Best he's done on road courses is 7th.

Marty introduces the Carnage and Screw Ups Montage featuring Dan Wheldon snapping a half shaft, Dixon running out of fuel and using beeped-out profanity on the radio, Wheldon blowing the pit stall and having to get pulled back, several others.

Marty -- What's the biggest screw up of the year? Rusty -- Sam Hornish taking the wall in Nashville coming out on cold tires and trying to get past Kosuke Matsuura. Goodyear -- Dan missing his pit in KY and pissing away the race. Marty -- Helio finishing 25th at the Indy 500.

Punch with Wheldon who has his white shades in effect. Had the black shades last race, but he's back to the white-framed numbers. Punch, what up with Target Chip Ganassi? Wheldon -- Need more speed. Wheldon -- I really shouldn't be doing interviews with you (Jerry). Jamie and I are the only ones who do interviews together. Doc to Wheldon -- "So your bad luck on road courses continues." Baaaaa. Fab line, Doc. pressdog line of the race award winner right thurrrrrr. Not sure what the deal is with Wheldon and Jamie. Allegedly Wheldon is hot for one of Jamie's female friends.

Over to Jamie who is with last year's winner, Tony Kanaan. Jamie -- you're still a contender but it might be put up or shut up time. What separates you from those guys? Tony -- I can do more push-ups than them. (Close second on the pressdog quote of the race contest.) Chortle. Gonna need to win and then get some help.

Over to Danica Patrick with Punch. Punch -- very physical driving road courses. How do you prepare? Danica -- feel better this year compared to last year. Worked on all the little muscles that caused her problems last year. Pumps more iron in prep for this race. Doc -- Don't let her 5' 1", 100 pound frame fool you, Danica is one focused, physically fit IndyCar driver.

Marty -- if you ever shake hands with her she has a shake a like a vice grip.

Video of Rusty winning here at "Sears Point" in the old Deuce NASCAR. Won in 90 and 96.

Video of going on a lap with Kanaan. Many turns. Physically demanding.

Down to Johnny Rutherford, pace car driver, for the command. "Drivers, start your engines and follow me."

Starting lineup: Scott "King of the Road Courses" Dixon, Marco "Second Sucks" Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe (!), Vitor Meira, Bryan "World of" Herta, Sam Hornish, Jr., Danica " 21-million-dollar-woman" Patrick, Buddy Rice, Kosuke Matsuura, Jeff "Grain alcohol is Your Friend" Simmons, Jeff Bucknum, Ed Carpenter, Scott Sharp, Tomas Scheckter. Scheckter's engine took a crap on him during qualifying so he gets to start in the rear.

Dixon chose the inside for the start. Pole-sitters have their choice of inside or outside of row 1 on the road races. Last year Ryan Briscoe chose outside.

Onboard cameras with Ed Carpender, Dixon, Danica (of course), Dario has Butt Cam, Tony has Rear Wing Cam, Marco has Nose Cam.

Video of Briscoe taking the dirt after breaking a push rod in practice. Didn't hit anything, though. He'll start 7th. Looking to repeat on the podium for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing.

The Root -- Not IF but WHEN for a victory for Marco. Marco wants to win. (That makes him different than every other driver, for sure!) Has the fearlessness and "cerebralness" needed to win on the road course.

Jamie -- Scheckter starts dead last. Got a shoulder injury. Cleared to drive, but sore. Townsend Bell has been doing some relief driving during practice, etc. when Sheckter is too screwed to go.

Keys to the race -- Panoz vs. Dallara, Driver Fitness, Pavement vs. Desert. (Tip: stay on the pavement.)

Much rambling here about fitness. Gotta be fit. Very physically demanding. We got it. Something here also about Popeye muscles. I was getting more brie. Sorry.

Let's light this candle: Green-green-green. We're through the first corners with no flying scrap metal.

Rusty -- Cold tires for 2 to 3 laps and then they will get "the ultimate grip."

Time for our continuing segment called "Why NASCAR is slow and bogus compared to IndyCar."

Rusty -- These cars are incredibly fast. Gotta change the track from the NASCAR configuration or the ultra-fast IRL cars would be flipping through the air in a festival of death for all who dare to drive them. Goodyear -- And we got no power steering like NASCAR.

Rusty Shifting Fixation Episode One: Drivers shift 38 times per lap at Sonoma (aka Sears Point). You only shift 13 times in NASCAR. IRL cars shift 3,040 times during the race. Rusty's mind is blown by this. Goodyear -- That's because we're not a bunch of cool-suited, power-steering-assisted, suck-ass woosies! (OK, I made up the Goodyear sentence. Couldn't resist. But I bet he was THINKING it.)

Jerry -- Sheckter had cortisone shots. May not have the strength to go the distance. But he's up to 13th right now.

Back to How Tough You Gotta Be to Drive an IRL Car -- Marty -- Rusty got into Sam Hornish's car and did the road course at Homestead. Rusty said at one point "I couldn't even turn the thing. The wheel locked up solid."

Lap 4 -- Kanaan into fourth.

Arute -- Some crazy story about a pine cone. I swear. Tony's peeps found a big-ass pine cone by his car in the garage so they put it up in their pit stall. Said pine cone gets more air than half the field. My viewing is enhanced.

Marty -- everyone is pretty much lock step. (Welcome to road racing, Marty.)

Lap 5 -- Dixon, Marco, Helio, Pine Cone Boy (Kanaan), Dario, Wheldon, Briscoe, Miera, Herta, Hornish.

Shifter Cam! Dixon. Target put a big "TARGET" on the front of the shifter knob. Nice.

Lap 7. Marco locks up the Rookie of the Year title.

Crystal Hornish gets air. Rusty says Crystal and Sam were talking race strategy the other day (seriously) and Crystal told Sam not to stall it if he goes off the course. (This is seriously what Rusty was talking about.) Good advice.

Lap 10 -- yellow yellow. Bucknum spins. Replay. Simmons makes a move inside and Bucknum comes down into him. Rusty says Simmons didn't do anything wrong and Bucknum should have known he was there. Apparently Bucknum wasn't part of the alleged Crystal and Sam Hornish conversation because Bucknum stalled it on the course.

Marty -- should people pit on the yellow? Goodyear would pit. NOSE CAM activated. Arute -- Dixon is going to pt. Wheldon in. Fuel only and some wing. Sam in for new tires and fuel. Scheckter, Sharp, Simmons, Ed all pitted.

Lap 13 -- Rusty would put spotters in passing areas on the track. The Bucknum/Simmons contact was one of those places. Rusty says if there were spotters down there, there wouldn't have been a problem. Maybe each team should have a chopper overhead as well.

Punch -- Repairing some damage to Bucknum and he should be back out, albeit laps down.

Lap 15 -- Green. Briscoe gets air. Reminder that last year he took out Danica AND Helio last year.

Briscoe and Matsuura touch. Matsuura going under Briscoe and we got contact.

Rusty calls Danica a "small little gal" who has really been pumping iron. She can almost out lift some of the guys. Riiiiiight Rusty. The day a 100-pound woman can out lift one of the male drivers is the day he should pitch himself off the tippy top of the IMS Pagoda. I'm just saying.

Lap 16 -- Punch -- Briscoe having steering issues.

Lap 17 -- Scheckter right front is going down. Went off the course. Might have punctured it. Rusty warned everyone to stay on the course earlier. Somebody wasn't listening.

Dixon leads by 1.8 seconds.

Doc -- Rahal Letterman gave Rice his release to look at or for other rides in 2007. Buddy needs to be impressive here and in Chicagoland to attract some interest.

Jack -- Dixon's peeps say he made a lot of mileage during the caution. Probably pit around lap 30. Dixon leads by 2.1 seconds. Shifter Cam!

Lap 20 --Dixon, Marco, Helio, Kanaan, Dario, Herta, Kosuke, Vitor, Wheldon, Briscoe.

Lap 21 -- Dixon up by 2.5 seconds. Stretching it out on Marco.

Rusty talks about driving the Rolex 24 Hours race with Danica. Again.

The Root relays a story about Wheldon's fire suit being washed so many times that it shrunk (or, maybe, Wheldon put on a few pounds partying with Jamie). So Wheldon took one of Dixon's suits. Wheldon thought Dixon was so good on the road courses that maybe the suit would bring him luck or something.

The Root admits that his fire suit has fungus in it. (I swear.)

Danica is 10th with Sam working her over from behind (hey, keep it clean out there).

Lap 26 -- Briscoe pits. Dixon ahead by 3.8 seconds.

Lap 27 -- Helio pits.

Jamie reports that Helio is so hot to win the points championship he's even turning down media interviews to focus more on winning. Not like the Happy Brazilian to turn down media.

Vitor pits. Lap 28. About 98% less frothing over how great Vitor is during this race. Got that Lincoln Tech sponsor so maybe the booth guys think their job is done re: Vitor.

Dixon going to pit next according to Jack.

Marco in. Lap 29. Wheldon leads. Dixon and Marco back out. Wheldon, Dixon and DANICA are 1, 2, 3. Danica is third!

Lap 30 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Danica, Marco, Sam, Buddy Rice, Jeff Simmons, Tony Kanaan, Helio, Dario.

Dixon is about one second faster than Wheldon. Only a matter of time.

Triple J Ranch Round Up. (Highlights) -- Wheldon is enjoying leading. Dixon doing what he expected but getting fewer MPGs. Danica is third. Very excited. Feels maybe her vast road course experience may come to bear here.

Danica video inset -- she feels better here than she did last year.

Danica pitted for fuel only on Lap 12, so she'll be coming in.

Marco was screaming into his radio for people to get out of his way but then they figured out they were all on the same lap so Marco had to simmer down. He thought it was lapped traffic blocking him when, in fact, it was people on the same lap blocking him. Whole different deal in road racing.

Jamie says Hornish is in 5th. Points race could be won or lost today. Rice is being patient.

Lap 34 -- Tony is working on Simmons. Doc -- Tony has special driving shoes that he wears every race with the name of the race embroidered on them. Why? Because they make great collectibles. Watch Ebay. Ka-ching for Tony.

Lap 35 -- Buddy must be pitting because on timing and scoring he's down to 15th. None of my business from the booth guys. Don't think ESPN mentions why, ever. They do mention that Dario got scolded for not pitting with leaders.

Lap 36 -- Wheldon up by 3.1 seconds.

Lap 39 -- Wheldon in. The Root -- Stay in the pit long enough to get tires and then leave. Short fill.

Goodyear -- it's a good move. Have to make another stop no matter what so short fill for track position. (Welcome to road racing. It's all won and lost in the pit. All about strategy. The race is just what you do between pit stops.)

Sharp gets lapped.

Lap 40 -- Danica in. 11.7-second pit stop. Hornish beats Danica out.

Crossed flags (half way) Lap 40 -- Dixon, Marco, Jeff Simmons, Kanaan, Helio, Dario, Herta, Sam, Wheldon, Vitor.

Lap 41 -- Simmons in. Sub-9 pit stop.

Dixon is now TEN SECONDS ahead. TEN FRIGGING SECONDS.

Rusty -- Ethanol car. Ethanol fuel is going to be in race cars worldwide. No idea why didn't run ethanol in every race car. Amazing fuel (and sponsor of the IRL race at the Rusty Wallace signature track in Newton, Iowa). Everyone fill up with E10 today!

Lap 44 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Matsuura and Rice. Rice has a busted front wing. Major draggage coming around the course. Rice comes into get a new nose.

Rusty returns to the Spotter Fixation -- Why don't they have spotters there. Goodyear -- there was a time when we drove without spotters. Rusty -- they got mirrors but they don't seem to be using those things either. (I think you finally hit on the real problem, Rusty.)

Lap 45 -- Marco pitting.

It's a jail break down in the pits. Bum rush. Wheldon in for fuel only. Helio leads under yellow.

Goodyear -- Marco about five or six laps short to get to the end. Dixon has to pit before the end.

Lap 47 -- Marco Nose Cam. Jamie earlier in the race Marco "tucked up under Danica and saved fuel."

Marco around Simmons into 8th. Mike gets air in a side-by-side fashion. Marty -- Can any Andretti save fuel? Goodyear -- very difficult. (They drive like crazy burning up the fuel because they want to win.)

Yellow -- Contact. Dan Wheldon and Jeff Simmons. Wheldon damage? Much close-up coverage. Much scrutinzing. No apparent damage. Wheldon has a doughnut on the side, however.

Goodyear -- Marco loves the yellow. More gas mileage.

Arute -- Wheldon not coming in. Wait a second, yes he is.

Lap 51 -- Pits opening. Rusty -- Marco is great. Almost won the 500.

Dixon in. Helio in. Tons of people in. Marco stays out.

Wait a second! Holy Circus Music! Dixon's car isn't high enough to get the left front wheel on. Props to the airjack guy who had the presence of mind to tip the car up so the front left wheel guy could get it on. But it's like a 25-second stop. Dixon comes out in twelfth. He's officially screwed with 27 laps to go unless Marco runs dry, and even then there's a lot of wide-ass cars to get around to get back to the front.

Lap 53 -- green. Hornish in to pit. Not sure why. Learn later that the fuel hose didn't reach the last time he was in so he came back around to pit again.

Hornish spins coming out of the pit. Keeps it going. Rusty -- Doesn't stall it. His wife was talking to him there. Good job Crystal!

Lap 53 -- Dixon 10th and driving like a possessed freak. Rice is down to 12th. Dixon is up to 9th by Lap 54.

Lap 55 -- Kentucky montage. Wheldon's screw up.

Jamie with Penske. Penske is telling Sam to make fuel mileage and keep it on the track.

Lap 58 -- Replay of Dixon sticking his nose under Vitor. Vitor is totally holding up Dixon. May have been contact. Close call.

Shifter Cam! Rusty Shifting Fixation Part 2 -- he recalls for us that IRL drivers shift 38 times per lap compared to 13 for NASCAR.

Goodyear -- we have no power steering and no cool suits either.

Rusty -- Gotta hand it to Brian Barnhart (or maybe he said Tony George) for putting together a great league with great equipment! Honda. All the other stuff is great.

Danica -- has to pit still. She's in third, but she has to pit. Danica said she got tremendous experience at the Rolex 24-hour race where she drove with someone. Who was that? HMMMMMM. Wait, it was RUSTY.

Jack -- Tony would "like" to go the distance but he may be a lap short.

Lap 60 -- Marco, Tony, Danica (!), Dario, Helio, Wheldon, Briscoe, Vitor, Dixon, Herta.

Lap 61 -- Marco leads by 5.6 seconds. Dixon still behind Vitor.

Lap 63 -- Buddy pits.

Jamie -- Marco's peeps think he can make it the distance. But he needs to make some better mileage.

Mike -- gets air. Can Marco make it? Gonna try. Think we have a good shot. Making good mileage. What else can we do?

Goodyear -- save fuel by getting out of the throttle a little early before braking into corners, at the end of straight aways, not get on the gas as hard, etc.

Marco up by 5.4 seconds.

Danica will have to pit on lap 68-ish.

Dixon in 8th. Briscoe into Vitor. Or Vitor into Briscoe. Hard to say. ESPN isn't giving us very many slow-mo replays of the contact on the course.

Danica pits on lap 69. Marco is 4.9 ahead. Danica out in 10th, one behind her buddy Jeff Simmons.

Lap 70 -- Marco, Tony, Dario, Helio, Wheldon, Vitor, Dixon, Herta, Simmons, Danica.

Lap 71 -- Dixon around Meira. Finally. Into fifth. When Meira locks them up and hoses himself and Wheldon and Dixon goes around them.

Marco 3.4 seconds ahead.

Lap 73. Yellow Yellow Yellow. Herta spins. How convenient. Marco needs a yellow and Herta gives him one. I'm sure that's a total coinkidink. Video of Herta pounding the steering wheel. Sure. Sell it, Herta.

Goodyear -- "A little team work here maybe not intentional, but ..." Where are the replays? Anyone? No replay. Replay of the key spin at the end of the race by the leader's teammate is none of my business, I guess. I'm just the audience out here, helping pay the bills, is all.

Ashley Judd gets air! As my boy MoneyCJ would say, "She's looking hawwwwwwwt." We approve of this ensemble, Ash.

The Root -- Dario is going to give it a go on the restart if he can't do it he's going to back out and make fuel mileage and try it with a couple of laps to go.

Um, sure, Jack. Dario is going to pass the boss's son in the second-to-last race when Dario doesn't know where he's going to be racing next year. Suuuuuure. If he does, I'll declare him a manly man and give him mega props for having a huge set.

Ashley gets more air. Ashley, thanks for ditching the Big-Ass Hat.

Five to go. Marco is going to win barring an air strike.

Rusty -- Marco is great. Almost won the 500.

Four to go. Doc -- Marco had a bad head cold and was under the weather recently. Nope, not going to make this anything close to dramatic, Doc. Nice try, though. Leading with five to go you'd have to be bleeding internally for it to matter.

Jamie -- Marco just needs four more smooth laps and he's there.

Three to go. Marco's mom, Sandy, gets air! Sandy Cam activated. Chewing on nails. I think Marty says that Sandy's nails are better than Mike's. Painted and more pretty. Time to have a big chug of beer Marty. Take a minute and pull yourself together. Sandy (formerly Andretti) with just three seconds on camera has gotten more air than half the field.

Two to go. Much speculation about having enough fuel to finish. If it gets close, Tony has volunteered to spin out. (OK, made that last sentence up.)

Ashley and Mike Cam! Mega pit cam action. Last time I saw this much hand-held camera action was on an episode of COPS.

Somewhere in here Tony pits because he's out of gas.

White flag. Marco. Ashley. Pit party. CAP (Combat Air Patrol) reports the sky is clear. No air strikes today.

Marco wins. Marco Marco Marco. Lap 80 -- Marco, Dario, Vitor, Dixon, Helio, Wheldon, Simmons (!), Danica, Hornish, Herta.

Jamie with Mike. Mike says this is a better feeling than when Mike won his first. Beautiful race. Perfect. Kid is smooth. The kid is good. (Gotta go with Mike on that one. Marco can drive the street races fo sho.) Just thought of this -- what if Graham Rahal and Marco run some IRL road/street courses next year. The two ultra-proud fathers will probably get into it in the pit. GO TIME.

Marco wins, so let's go to a commercial so we can come back to one of those staged getting-out-of-the-car-to-celebrate-victory moments. Always impressive.

Marco -- Pure strategy. My guys are the best in the business. Perfect strategy. Gives major props to the team. Props to Marco for how he handled the victory interview. Calm. Cool. Impressive. I'm glad ESPN didn't have time to stick a microphone in Mario's face and ask him what it was like and how Marco reminds him of Michael and blah blah blah.

Doc with Hornish and Helio. Helio says the AGR posse was doing a good job of "defending" the lead. Said people diving into him if he tried to pass, so he sat back and stayed ahead of Sam.

So, was he saying that Kanaan was blocking for an AGR teammate? SHOCKING. I refuse to believe it. You take it back, Helio! That just cannot be true.

Hornish -- No tires were set out for the last stop so he kind of lost his orientation and didn't come in close enough to get fuel. Shades of Wheldon's screw up in KY. So he went around and came back in for fuel. A win at Chicago takes it all, so he'll focus on that.

Jamie -- Dario-- I was trying to catch the rookie. He drove a hell of a race. Pit guys got me passed some people.

Pit guys should get paid more for road courses because it's all on them.

Points race -- Helio leads. Sam is one back. Dan is 19 back. Dixon is 21 back.

Tune in for the final race of the IRL season at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 10 on ABC. 1:30 p.m. eastern. Pressdog will be in the house for the race. Watch for bonus in-person coverage.