Notes from the Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky

Notes taken during the ABC broadcast of the Meijer Indy 300 Presented by Coca-Cola and Secret on Aug. 13, 2006.

pressdog's beer of the race today is Bavaria, an import from the Netherlands, and Spaten Oktoberfest, an import from Munich, Germany. Snooty!

Open with dramatic video of TJ Patrick (Danica's dad) standing almost on the apron during morning practice. TJ appears to be on the cell phone to a NASCAR team. (Kidding. Made the phone part up, but he was standing near the track.) Danica Patrick tries to pit and Vitor gets into her rear end (hey, keep it clean). We got grass flying and Vitor spinning. Shocking that TJ didn't come leaping across the track to pummel Vitor in his still-spinning car.

Bluegrass state intro -- here horsepower is measured one at a time. But in the IRL, baby, it's horsepower mayhem! Kentucky montage. Video of Danica running out of gas at Michigan. Hitting the steering wheel. Stomping down the track. Kicking the barrel. No video replay of the massive F-bombs she dropped, however. Marco fist shake video. (no montage would be complete without it). Indy cars going around the track juxtaposed with horses going around the track. Nobody does montages like ABC, bay-beeee.

Welcome to Sparta, Kentucky, for IRL race 12 of 14. The points championship is close. Real close. Anything can happen. Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish JR., The Flying Kiwi (Scott Dixon) are in the hunt for it. ABC goes away from the Danica Patrick vs. Sarah Fisher cat fight angle and instead focuses on the points race. Hmmmmmm.

Michigan montage! Dixon running out of fuel. In-car radio from Dixon that has a word beeped out of it. The tow truck shows up and Dixon says "Where have they been? Waiting for Christmas or what?" Scotty. Love the emotion. The passion. The drama.

Jerry Punch, M.D., with the Penske Twins (Hornish and Helio). Punch -- with a 31-point lead, Helio, how do you play it? Helio -- went aggressive last week and worked out pretty well (he won) so do that again.

Punch -- Sam, when do you stop being teammates and start being competitors? Sam -- always competitors. Main focus is to make sure Roger wins the championship -- Myself or Helio winning it for him, doesn't really matter. "Roger says may the best man win just don't bring them back on the hook." Props to Sam. He's interviewing skillz have improved about 340% in the last couple of years.

Jack "the Root" Arute with Dixon. Dixon -- gotta win races to win the title. Wheldon -- (Has black shades on his head today! Those nasty white ones are gone. Sponsorship deal must have run out.) Dan says it's crunch time. I'm not in this to come second. Moved to Ganassi to win races. Main thing is for Target Chip Ganassi to get a win. It may not be my day and if not, then we'll make sure Scott wins. Scott helped me out a lot last race.

Jamie Little (get her in a car!) with Vitor -- Jamie, what up with that warm-up accident? Vitor -- Unfortunate. At the end of the day we shouldn't have been pushing as hard as we were (in practice). Should be able to recover from it. Spoke to Danica. She should be able to recover from it. Got a new sponsor, Lincoln Tech. Major air for Lincoln Tech. Vitor says the support is key "for us to go do what we need to do."

The Root with Danica -- What up with the accident and will you be able to recover, mentally? Danica -- Such a strange place for an accident. She thinks she can recover from that no problem. Danica starts 11th.

Rusty Wallace, Marty Ried and Scott Goodyear in the booth. Rusty, shockingly, thinks morning practices suck. (He went off on morning practices when Paul Dana was killed in morning practice at Homestead.) "I hate these practices. Little bit dangerous." Correct me if I'm wrong, Rusty, but nobody is forcing the drivers to practice in the morning of the race. They are free to sit their butts down on the sideline if it is too dangerous. Or they could go out and do five laps and park it, no? So what's the problem?

Marty -- 31 "markers" between 1st and 3rd in the points race.

Jamie with Sarah Fisher. Yeah, Sarah Fisher! Back in the saddle for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing after than two years away. Went off and raced stock cars for Richard Childress in the minor leagues last year. Engaged to Andy O'Gara who is son of the DRR team boss Johnny O'Gara. Sarah said she got the chance to drive for DRR and was all about it. Didn't have time to get her helmet painted so she had fans sign it at the regular driver autograph fest Saturday. Shows off the helmet festooned with sigs. Striking. Wonder if Danica signed it for her. No major love for Sarah's new sponsor, Fastenal. I guess you gotta sponsor Vitor to get a major TV shout out on the air.

Down to Anthony Munoz, Hall of Fame football player formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals. Tony says a bunch of stuff ahead of what he's supposed to say and that's: Ladies and gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES.

Starting lineup: Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske Twins on the front row? Who'd a thunk it?), Dan "White Shoes" Wheldon, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Kosuke Matsuura, Ed Carpenter, Vitor Meira, Scott Sharp, Danica "21-million-dollar-woman" Patrick, Sarah Fisher (!), Bryan "World of " Herta, Buddy Rice, Jeff Simmons, Jeff Bucknum, Tomas Scheckter, Marco Andretti, Marty Roth. 19 cars! Kentucky fire marshals huddle up and rule ... YES, the track does have room for 19 cars. Barely. We're racing today!

Punch or Arute, possibly Marty, not sure which, says Marco is starting in the 18th po-sis-kin!

Danica had to change a bunch of stuff after her crash, including her engine, but gets to keep her 11th-place starting position. Usually an engine change means go to the back. But not this time. Why? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Booth guys show no interest in explaining why she can stay up front. Probably because the crash was Vitor's fault or something. But we don't get to know. Booth guys, thanks for working hard to inform the viewers.

Rusty is getting on the CB to talk to Sarah Fisher. In-car shows her sig-covered helmet. Giddy. Sarah, this is Rusty, you got us? Sarah -- Loud and clear, Rusty. Rusty -- you feel comfortable? Sarah -- "I have not felt this comfortable in an Indy car in my entire life. All the stock car driving I did for RCR (Richard Childress Racing) helped me out a lot." Rusty -- good luck. Seemed like Rusty cut things off after he heard "RCR" which is a rival NASCAR team. Maybe Sarah should put "Richard Childress says hi, Rusty" on her helmet. Baaaaaaa. Of course Richard didn't find Sarah a ride this year, so maybe that's too much pub for Rich.

ABC is totally staying away from the whole Danica/Sarah rivalry thing. Not touching it at all. Surprising.

Let's go to the Triple J Ranch (Jack, Jamie and Jerry) to repeat points that have already been made. Tony and AGR have never won here and they want to today. My viewing is enhanced. Jack says it's all about compromising on setups so the car works as consistently as possible around the track. Another news flash.

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

Marco goes from 18th to 14th in a lap. Seems fishy to me. Hey, take it easy on qualifying so you can fly up through the field during the race and get monster air time. Seriously. Sam should drive one handed during qualifications, act concerned, and then make up 10 spots by lap one, turn three.

Sarah gets major air for "flying up through the field" according to Rusty, although she's in 11th, which is one place better than she started. In-car again shows her signature-covered helmet. I can't get enough of that.

Rusty -- Top 3 drivers, "Their brains are set on 'kill' right now." Shout out to Rusty for that killer quote. Pressdog Quote of the Race Award winner.

Video replay -- Carpenter and Kanaan almost touch tires.

Lap 10 -- Hornish, Helio, Wheldon, Dixon, Ed, Kanaan, Matsuura, Dario, Vitor, Sharp. Danica 12th. Sarah 16th.

Arute -- Ed has been concentrating on qualifying and starts and restarts. He's up a few places "as quickly as you would pick apples off a tree in the fall" ??? Is that quick? Not sure. I don't think of speed when I'm picking apples, personally.

Lap 18 -- Helio and Sam are side-by-side. Now three-wide with Wheldon.

Lap 25 -- Penske Twins in formation. Jeff Simmons gets around Danica. In-car from Danica shows Jeff chopping down on Danica. Danica radio replay "Are you kidding me?" Calls for a black flag on her teammate. Jeff and Danica -- not that tight. No chance they'll be sipping $100 New Zealand Merlot together and talking about their hopes and dreams. Check the Q and A with Simmons from my blog boy Money CJ at So. Damn. Indy. Eyebrow raiser!

Lap 25 -- Hornish, Helio, Wheldon, Dixon, Ed, Kanaan, Matsuura, Dario, Marco, Sharp. Danica 12th. Sarah 17th.

Lap 31 -- Marty Roth is lapped and now in the middle of a leader diamond (one in front, behind, high and low). HOLD YOUR LINE, Marty!

Lap 41 -- Top 4 get in line and say, "See ya!" Marty says they are in lock-step!

Mike gets air. Punch on why Marco's car is mysteriously better on race day. Allegedly they just threw everything out last night and took a bunch of downforce out of it. Now he's "coming to the front like a rocket." Right. Sure. Two races in a row. Look for the same at Chicagoland. Mike is very proud. There's another news flash, Mike is proud of Marco.

Lap 50 -- Rusty says the top four have "flat checked out of Dodge." He could be talking about this race, or the entire season. Running order -- Helio, Wheldon, Dixon, Hornish, Ed, Kanaan, Matsuura, Dario, Marco, Scheckter. Danica 11th. Sarah 18th.

Lap 54 -- Pitting. Ed in. Penske Twins in. Helio gets a 9.2-second stop. Sam is sub-9.

Yellow, yellow, yellow. Ed is ass-around on the pit exit road. Facing the wrong direction. Keeps it running, though, so he can get it back out on the track after cutting through the grass. Big ups for not stalling it.

A few cars come in while pits are closed because they are about to run out of gas. Pits are now open. Major pitting. Vitor pits. 12.1 seconds. Not so good.

Lap 61 -- I Am MINDY montage featuring Danica stomping. (Props to Jeff at My Name is IRL for the I AM MINDY reference.)

Jeff Simmons is fifth! Danica has to be pissed about that. Penske Twins are 9th and 10th. Penske officials think they got hosed because they were out of the pits before Ed brought out the yellow. Like it will matter. Going from 10th to the front will take a Penske car maybe five laps.

Brian Barnhart, the Iron Hand of Justice, gets air! Everybody drink!

Lap 65 -- green green green.

Lap 69 -- Penske Twins are still 9th and 10th and it's been FOUR LAPS. In-car of Marco going past Sarah and waving or something. Not sure what that was. Looked more friendly than the fist shake. Marco, she's engaged, OK? Simmer down.

Another I am MINDY montage.

Lap 75 -- Wheldon, Dixon, Kanaan, Vitor, Simmons (!), Scheckter, Hornish, Herta, Helio, Sharp. Danica 14th. Sarah 17th.

Lap 76 -- Simons is still FIFTH. Let's get up to speed with a race summary -- Chippy and Penske are battling it out, Kanaan third (all huge news flashes), Vitor loves life but has seven career second place finishes. (Note: Marco says second is SHIT.)

ABC goes down the field here. Punch -- Sam is totally hacked after getting sent back to 9th. Now up to 5th.

Jack -- Vision Twins (Ed and Scheckter) are working together even though Ed is one lap down. Simmons is the lone RLR success so far. Trying to stay within sight of the leaders.

Jamie -- Herta having a stressful year. Jack -- Matsuura is adjusting everything he can in the car. Punch -- Marco started 18th and ran toward the front. No changes in his car last pit stop. Maybe a little too free now.

Danica is 14th. Sarah is 17th.

Lap 90 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Debris. ABC shows us a guy picking up crap off the track to convince us this isn't a "yellow to let everyone bunch up and make it nicer for the viewers." Been known to happen.

Lap 96 -- Green. Danica has issues with her head rest. A little piece of rubber that's right where her head sits against the car. Rusty thinks it may be a safety issue. Will probably replace it at the next pit stop. Speculation that Jeff Simmons or the RLR crew was down there prying on it before the race. (OK, made that last sentence up.)

Right here my local ABC affiliate busts into programming to tell me there are thunderstorms in Iowa right now. News flash on the level of "Penske is leading." Never break into a race unless their is a tornado in my personal front yard, OK?

Lap 100 -- Hornish, Kanaan, Wheldon, Dixon, Vitor, Scheckter, Marco, Helio, Danica, Herta. Sarah 15th.

Booth guys, not sure which one, say this is a big race for Sam since the next race is a road race and he's not a big road racer.

Lap 106 -- Simmons and Danica go side-by-side. Look for lightening.

Lap 109 -- Race Summary -- Hornish leads. Marco 18th to 7th (he's a SUPER DRIVER I tell you), Sarah is 15th and turning laps at 215. Danica 12th.

Rusty -- TK looks steady. After the first pit stop, his car really took off and can stay with the Penske Twins.

Lap 115 -- Jerry -- Sam on the radio asked if he can do something to the car that concerns the rev limiter. There is a hard and a soft rev limiter apparently. Here's where the booth and pit guys spend about five minutes talking about the difference between the hard and soft rev limiter that makes no sense to the average person, nor do we care, frankly.

Lap 120 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Matsuura into the wall. All alone and lost it. Ass-first into the wall, but not a hard hit at all. Goodyear is all over it. Got into the gray (otherwise known as the dreaded "marbles") and the car got out from under him.

Pits are open. Sarah in. Sam in and gets a 7-SECOND pit stop. Shut. Up. Same deal for Dan and Dixon. Chipster's pit posse is working it hard today, baby.

Video of tire marks on the track. Still photos of Steve Wallace, Rusty's 19-year-old, burning out after he won something. Blew the tires up. Set them on fire. Dramatic. Rusty calls it a "crazy burn out." Video of Sam throwing out the first pitch at the Cincinnati Reds game. High and inside.

We got SAFER barrier damage so it's going to be an extendo yellow. Gonna be 15 laps, as a matter of fact.

Lap 128 (under yellow) Herta leads. Stayed out. Had the fastest three laps of the race up until now.

Rusty on the CB down to Herta. You got your ears on, come back? Herta does and says he's gambling with staying out because his car is fast in clean air but sucks in traffic. Roll the dice and stay out. Rusty asks if they can fix the problem during pit stops. Rusty is a big believer that you can fix anything on an Indy Car with pit-stop wing adjustments. Herta says it's as fixed as it's getting.

Jerry -- Helio voluneers at the Miami Rescue Mission a few times a week. Took some residents to the Homestead race. Said if he wins the points championship he'll bring the trophy down to the center for everyone to eyeball. Props to Helio.

Little Girls montage featuring old video of Sarah and Danica talking about going fast. I think the music was "Thank Heaven for Little Girls."

Jamie says Dan Wheldon went to the X Games with Jamie's ultra-smoking hot friend, Kristie, and was in awe of it. Jamie is a big X gamer.

Lap 135 -- GREEN. Herta leads but for how long?

Lap 137 -- Wheldon looking high.

Lap 139 -- Three-wide. Rusty says the cars "so fast and so devilishly close." Wheldon around Herta at lap 139.

Lap 140 -- Wheldon, Herta, Hornish, Dixon, Helio, Dario, Kanaan, Vitor, Dario, Scheckter. Danica 11th. Sarah 14th.

Three-wide some more. Spotter: "Inside and outside, still three-wide."

Rusty says three-wide isn't a good plan if they want to leave the rest of the pack. "They might look pretty, Marty, but they're not going anywhere."

Lap 145 -- Penske twins are now third and fourth. Rusty says people are getting lined up now and that will make them faster. Penske and Ganassi could go four-wide and still beat everyone, is the thing. Dixon is fifth and trying to get up to help Wheldon who leads.

Jamie -- Herta will have to pit somewhere around lap 155 to 160. Herta now in fourth. Rusty says it's "Mr Feel Good" time sitting up in front.

Lap 149. Danica ninth! Top 10! Booth is excited.

Lap 157-- Report that Matsuura got looked at by the doc and is fine.

Video of Sam saying it's about making it to the end of the race. Not real conservative but not real aggressive either.

Rusty estimates there are 50,000 to 60,000 in the stands. Hope he's right.

Lap 162 -- Herta pits. Takes on a few seconds of fuel just to get to the end.

Lap 175 -- Wheldon, Hornish, Helio, Dixon, Kanaan, Danica, Scheckter, Marco, Meira, Dario. Sarah 12th.

Rusty says if the IRL allowed blocking like NASCAR then Wheldon would win. But they don't allow blocking here. No they don't, Rusty. I wonder which would be the more exciting finish? Blocking-enabled or blocking-disabled? I think we know the answer to that.

Sarah getting lapped. She moves down to let the leaders go because she's like that. Robbie "Increda" Buhl is her spotter! Robbie's voice gets air.

Rusty says the spotters are doing a good job getting the leaders through the traffic.

16 laps to go. Danica pits. Four tires and a splash. Does Danica's RLR pit team all have Motorola phones on their belts? No, wait. They don't. That was just my imagination.

Wheldon is in. Holy screw up! Wheldon didn't pull in close enough to the wall so they have to roll the car back at an angle until the fueler can get to it. Nice work, Danno! I'm waiting for the pit boss to go stalking off to his trailer talking about "gifting another one to Penske." Jamie tells us that Dan stopped too soon and screwed up. It's possible that Dan won't want to hang with her at the X-Games or Espys now. Probably not, though. I look forward to Jamie's What I Did with Dan report next week

Fuelers for Helio and Hornish get air time! Names mentioned on National TV. Love showing love for the pit crew.

Lap 190 -- Dixon, Hornish, Helio, Sharp (!), Vitor, Kanaan, Scheckter, Wheldon, Dario, Danica. Sarah 13th.

Lap 192 -- Marco into the grass! Marco coming in to pit was going to fast and went ass-around. No yellow, but an extendo pit stop. Fill him up and send him out. Bring him back and look at the back of it.

Lap 192 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Sharp coming out of the pit goes around. What is with the pit in and pit out circus music today? Must have ice on those pit in and out roads.

Lap 195 -- Dixon, Hornish, Helio, Vitor, Kanaan, Scheckter, Wheldon, Danica, Dario, Herta. Sarah 12th.

Lap 196 -- GREEN. It's a trophy dash, baby. Hornish gets around Dixon on the restart.

Three to go -- Rusty says Wheldon shot himself in the foot and it wasn't his crew's fault. He'll have to take some responsibility for that one.

Sam is going to win barring air strike.

White flag. Sam wins. Rusty predicts Wheldon is beating on something in his car right now. Sam's fourth win this season. 8th for Roger this year (out of 12 races. Welcome to the Penske Bitchslapping).

Lap 200 -- Hornish, Dixon, Helio, Wheldon, Kanaan, Vitor, Scheckter, Danica, Dario, Herta. Sarah 12th.

Down to Punch with Sam -- Sam -- Little bit of bad break early. Back through the field and got up to the front. Catch Scott at the end. Guys gave me awesome pit stops all day long.

Points -- Sam leads. Helio is 7 back. Dan is 24 back.

ABC is short on time (or has gone over their window) so they're out of there. Damn extendo yellow for the SAFER barrier repair! See ya on 8/27 at "Sears Point "as Rusty likes to call it.

Turned on the IMS radio network on my computer in time to hear Danica complaining about everyone blocking her, including Kanaan. Said she could see Kanaan looking in his mirror as she approached. Danica is looking for a zebra call. Dario Franchitti is likely savoring the irony of Danica accusing someone of blocking. (See Nashville.) Maybe Kanaan was "defending."

Ed admits screwing up on his out-lapand toasting his great chance at a great finish. Sarah -- finished where we qualified. Had no straight-away speed. Restarts were great, pick off some spots, then lose them back. Figure it out and have a better car for whoever gets in it at Chicago.

This just in from Sarah's peeps: She's in for Chicago. Get your tickets. The pressdog will be in the house at Chicagoland!

Next race is at Infineon, 3:30 p.m. eastern, 8/27, ESPN. Tune in or be a loser!