Notes from the 2006 Champ Car World Series at Road America, USA

Notes taken during the SPEED broadcast of the Champ Car World Series Grand Prix of Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI, 9/24/06.

pressdog beer of the race is Leinenkugel's Honey Weis. "Select malted wheat, cluster hops and a hint of Wisconsin honey give this unique refresher a clean, crisp, slightly sweet taste." Party on, heirs of Jacob Leinenkugel and your beer-making posse in Chippewa Falls, WI.

Welcome to Elkhart Lake where on August 3 Cristiano da Matta came over a hill to see a effing deer standing on the road, hit said deer and suffered major head trauma. (A deer. WTF?) Cristiano has recovered enough to jet to his home in Miami to continue his recovery.

Points leader Sebastien Bourdais montage. He could clinch his third straight points championship today if he leaves Road America 70 or more ahead of second place. It's going to take major brain lock up for Bourdais not to win his third straight title this year. Only a matter of time. Hasn't been done since Ted Horn and his leather helmet won it three times in 1946, 1947 and 1948. Back then "telemetry" was some veteran standing in the pit saying "he looks fast."

Rick Benjamin on camera. Battling for the Vanderbilt Cup. A who's who of open wheel has won it twice, but nobody has won it three times in a row since Horn.

Derek Daly on camera. Looks stunning in his mainly red outfit. Very fall-ish. Predicts Bourdais will be in attack mode today to try and clinch the title.

Jan Beekhuis in the pits. AJ Allmendinger's car is inconsistent. Went to a new set up. Justin Wilson's car is consistent -- consistently pushing. Went to a new set up for the race as well.

Cameron Steele in the pits. Big news is Speedy Dan Clarke gets his first pole ever. Sebastien is second. What kind of fireworks will we see in turn 1? (Always the main question on a road/street race, Cameron.)

Season retrospective montage including all kids of wacky driving and Paul "Nacho" Tracy showing up in a blue wrestler's mask and cape for Montreal.

Bridgestone commercial. This is a breakthrough because this commercial does not feature people dancing, preferably in the rain. An actual rebate offer. Crazy! They appear to be trying to sell tires. THAT'S INSANE.

Shot of where the deer was standing when da Matta hit him or her. My daughter asks, "Did it kill the deer?" Good question. I assume it was a large adult deer who died at the scene. Michelle Beisner is in the house. Story about going to see da Matta at the Wisconsin hospital. There he is walking down the hall. Strumming a guitar. Walking with Jimmy Vasser. Much amazement at his progress.

Cristiano on video -- he thanks everyone for support, well wishes, and gets this party started with "driver's start your engines!"

After exclaiming how great it is to see Cristiano doing well, Derek gets warmed up on the telestrator by showing us where Wilson's drink bottle tube is. Just trying to get the telestrator up to temperature. Can't perform well with a cold telestrator.

Bourdais-Newman/Haas tribute. Mario and Michael Andretti won with Newman/Haas, Nigel Mansell, da Matta, Bourdais. 96 wins. 6 championships.

Paul Newman gets air. Newman -- We got the best engineers we got the best drivers. Really a sense of brotherhood in the pit. Paul may, in fact, be 109 years old.

Carl Haas. Don't recognize him without the c-gar. Carl says N/H had a great bunch of people who work very hard.

Newman/Haas at Road America has 9 wins, 7 poles, 18 podiums. I get the feeling that Newman/Haas is the shit.

Katherine Legge is driving a pink car today. Part of the Warriors in Pink campaign to fight breast cancer. Video of Katherine posing with her car. Katherine in her pink hair scarf. Fetching.

Holy crap, it's true, Speedy Dan "Cleveland was a kick in the balls" Clarke is on the pole. What the? Who's idea? It's pandemonium. Dogs and cats, living together. Clarke got the pole by doing on slicks when the track was still damp while everyone else was on rain tires. But still, a pole is a pole.

Starting line up: Dangerous/Speedy Dan Clarke (!), Sebastien Bourdais, Charles "Chuck" Zwolsman (!), Alex Tagliani, A.J. "The Lone American" Allemdinger, Justin Wilson, Will Power, Katherine "Pretty in Pink" Legge, Andrew Ranger, Bruno "Is this Season Over Yet?" Junqueira, Paul Tracy, Jan "Van" Heylen, Oriol Servia, Tonis Kasemets, Mario Dominguez, Nelson Phillippe, Jaun Caceres.

Rick tells us Mario is with Rocketsports for the duration of the season. No reason given. Apparently Dale Coyne was not working for him, so he's over to Rocketsports. Maybe Mario said I move or I leave and, with Mexico City coming up, well ... Anyway, it's none of our business why he bolted! Uruguayan Juan Caceres replaces Mario at Dale Coyne Racing.

DD - There's a great amount of guessing today since qualifying and practice on Friday and Saturday was wet. Today is the first day in full drive setup for most teams.

51 laps. Air temp is 65 degrees F, track is 73. Let's light this candle. Kiki, this one's for you. We are green green green green.

Cue the circus music. Someone is hosed. Someone is around. Full-course yellow. Bruno is sideways on the start. Will Power is off into the "kitty litter" as Derek calls it. Replays. Bruno got darted. Will Power hip checks Bruno who goes around. Will Power goes off into the gravel. Many others spin, swerve or bang. Van Heylen may be in there too.

Will Power montage including the wicked ass-first crash into the tires that sent the camera man bailing for his life in Edmonton.

DD takes us through "Derek's Daily" (Keys to the race.)

• Will Dan be Speedy and not go mental?
• Will Zwolsman sink or swim?
• Will Newman's own the title? (Get it? NEWMAN'S OWN?)

Beisner. In effect. Champ Car gives Dr. Johnson, whose first name I missed but he worked on da Matta, a signed tire as a token of appreciation to him and everyone at the Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah, Wis. who cared for da Matta and denied the reaper like a goaltender turning away a slapshot, eh? Beauty.

Will Power in. Has black sidewall tires on. No damage from the turn-one mishap. Bruno in. Two- minute pit stop. Right sidepod change. Didn't cost him very much since Road America is FOUR MILES around and under yellow you have, like, 5-minute laps.

Bruno montage. I'm detecting a pattern here on the drivers' montages. This one features Bruno getting speared/punted at Long Beach, Milwaukee and now at Road America.

Ranger got into the back of Bruno on the turn 1 incident. Didn't help much. Bruno and Van Heylen had to pit when the pits were closed so they'll go to the back of the pack.

Dan and Zwolsman are 1-2. Nutty. Lap 3 and we are green.

Zwolsman leads into 1. Katherine Legge may have issues. Slowing. Speedy Dan is back to third.

Lap 4. Legge is OK, just got bum rushed. Zwolsman leads, then Bourdais and then Clarke.

Restart replay. Zwolsman goes inside to get Dan on the restart.

Lap 5. Bourdais leads. Try to act shocked. Bourdais checks out. GONE. He's 1.6 seconds ahead almost immediately.

Lap 6 -- Dan working Chuck Zwolsman for second.

Dan hits the power to pass to get around Zwolsman and into second.

Derek -- "Speedy Dan has hit everything but the lottery as the season has gone on." pressdog Quote of the Race right there. Derek is starting to get warmed up. Bring it, Double D.

AJ around Zwolsman for third. Chuck is in trouble.

Down to Cameron with Chris Mower who is Chuck's team manager. Issues? Mower -- Nope, just trying to get Chuck settled in and settled down.

Lap 8. DD says Road America rocks. Everyone loves it.

AJ goes off the road one tire into the final turn, kicks up some dust, but no biggy.

Beisner schleping the Champ Car text messaging service. You can see standings, etc. from your cell phone now. My viewing is enhanced.

We're onboard with Wilson who is chasing Chuck. The pit window is open. We do a lap with Justin Wilson.

Justin video -- Just gotta go for it and try to win the race. If we can win the race, we can maybe delay things.

If Bourdais leaves Road America leading by 70 or more the party is over.

Lap 12 -- Bourdais, Clarke, AJ, Chuck, Wilson, Tagliani, Servia, Nacho Tracy, Ranger, Legge (!)

DD -- Katherine is better than her showing this year. She's been very hard on herself. DD thinks she's going to get better and she shouldn't be so hard on herself.

Legge montage! I bet they have one for every driver. Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, video of Legge spearing Ranger which got her put on probation.

Derek -- Legge is doing a good job. Just needs time.

DD -- telestrator. Derek circles the engine's pop-off valve. The new Champ Car (I think Derek has a poster of it on the ceiling above his bed) does not have a pop-off valve.

The new champ car, the Panoz DP01, ran some demo laps at Road America. All teams get theirs after the season is over.

Speedy Dan montage! DD says Dan was "looking to keep himself out of hospital at one point" in the season.

Pitting. Tire Changer Cam rocks!

Lap 16 -- Bourdais in. 10.8 seconds. AJ in. Wilson in. Much pitting.

Rick -- Justin Wilson needs to get the whip out today.

Beisner. Full day for Michelle. She says Ford Cares. Teamed up with the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation. Katherine Legge is driving a pink car and wearing a special pink-highlighted ensemble. All part of the Warriors in Pink effort. All the stuff will be auctioned off after the race to benefit the foundation. Go to www.fordcares.com for more info.

Rookie of the Year update. Power leads. Dan is 19 back. Legge is 50 back. Van Heylen is 56 back.

Bourdais is now ahead by FIFTEEN SECONDS. Dude.

Lap 18. Bourdais, AJ, Clarke, Wilson, Tracy, Tag, Zwolsman, Oriol.

Lap 18. Power into the gravel trap on turn 1. Yellow yellow yellow. Full-course. Seems bogus. He's WAAAAY off the track. There goes Bourdais' 15-second advantage.

Jan with Al Speyer from Bridgestone. Cool temps are easier on the tires. No big issues. DD -- Al Speyer largely responsible for getting Bridgestone into racing at the level they are. Went to the marketing department and said we gotta be in racing.

Bourdais montage! Long Beach. Houston. Monterrey. Milwaukee. San Jose. Montreal.

Cameron with Jeremy Dale, Team President. RuSPORT. Carl Russo has retired from on-camera work, apparently. Never see him any more. Jeremy says thanks to their partnership with CDW they record eight channels of video. Constantly eyeballing it. Much technology working for them.

Lap 20 of 51. Kelly Loewen, Speedy Dan's engineer. Dan doing well. No changes during the pit stops.

Lap 20 - Green. Everyone is freaking out on the Power to Pass. Wilson into third. Passed Clarke on turn 1. Tracy has a run on Clarke.

DD -- "Paul Tracy is the bravest man I know." Dan vs. PT. DD -- "It could get ugly. When you fight with Paul Tracy, be careful because seldom do you leave with all your (car) parts."

Lap 21 -- Tracy around Clarke and into fourth.

Lap 22 -- Derek gives Dan a shout out for showing maturity.

Paul Tracy montage! Cleveland. Video of Tracy putting it into climbing gear over Bourdais. Drop-kicking Tagliani. Spearing Bourdais.

Jan -- Bourdais is 5 seconds ahead of AJ. Bourdais did 1:45.0 on the last lap and AJ did 1:47.0 on the last lap. DD -- Bourdais is running away from the field like a scalded cat.

Tracy montage again! The Fight with Tagliani. DD says something about "the legend of Sugar Ray Tracy."

Speedy Dan closing in on PT. The kid has balls. Somebody says the wrestler who wears the blue mask in Mexico wants Paul Tracy to come to the ring for some faux wrestling when they get to Mexico City. Look for Bourdais to slip the real wrestlers major pesos to "make it look very real."

Replay of Turn 1, Lap 1. Power into Junk. Ranger ass-ends Junk. Power into the kitty litter.

Lap 25 -- Half way. Bourdais has the fastest lap. Shocker. Rick -- Bruno has had a hard time getting up to pace. Derek reminds us that Bruno has two 11-inch rods and 10 screws in his back from Indy 2005.

Second pit window is open. Lap 26 -- AJ 5.7 seconds back from Bourdais. Bruno in. Filling. 7.8 seconds. Full fill? Don't think so.

Rick -- third window is around lap 37. Back markers may come in early to try to get pit strategy going, get to the front of the line. Pray for yellow.

Yellow yellow yellow! Juan Caceres is off. Turning into a yellow fest.

Half way recap. Turn 1 carnage replay.

Lap 26. Massive pitting. AJ pit cam. Bourdais loses lead. Holy short fill! Tacy and Allmendinger short fill (I believe). Speedy Dan almost smacks someone. We think Clarke may get flagged for a blend-line violation (failure to blend). Yellow lap. Wilson comes up beside Dan to send a message of displeasure.

Bruno gets the lead on his alternate pit strategy. Comes from 10th to first. Nelson Philippe in the same boat goes from 12th to second.

Denver replay. Sugar Ray Tracy again.

Craig Hampson -- Tough call on the fueling thing. (Went for a full fill while others short filled to get ahead.) Real happy with Bruno's run. Hope he and Nelson can keep other two and then we (Bourdais) can go further on a tank and get the position back.

Restart. Turn one. Much power-to-pass going up the hill to the start-finish. We got people squirrelly. Booth guys say Dan may get the black for jumping the start. Ranger is off. We got YELLOW.

Replay. Ranger tries to get inside of Katherine. Katherine holds her line. Gets tagged by Ranger. Derek declares it a "brave move by Ranger."

Katherine Legge is so pinked out today she has pink sidewall tires as alternates rather than the regular reds. Those nutty people at Bridgestone are getting into the spirit of the pink.

Black flag for Dan has been withdrawn, Rick tells us. He was out of line and didn't obey the race steward, but they say Dan can't hear anything so he didn't know. He's back in line and we got a restart so all is good.

Michelle reports on some go kart race for some reason. National championships Road America? Doesn't really say. My viewing is enhanced.

Replay of part of the front wing coming off Ranger's car. Maybe he got that little gift from Katherine Legge when they smacked each other.

Lap 31. Crack another Leinie, because we're GREEN.

DD -- Junqueira was the fastest in morning warm ups and thinks he can run up front.

Servia uses power-to-pass to get by Tracy without leaving chunks of his car behind. Tracy is out of P2P. DD -- "When you try to pass Paul Tacy he will absolutely take you to the limit." AJ is also out of P2P.

Cameron -- Oriol was complaining of spongy breaks earlier, but they are OK now.

Power to Pass graphic on the SPEED screen. Easily the most unreadable graphic in all of racing. Little bits of white and red bars. My viewing is enhanced.

Lap 33 -- Yellow. Rick -- Paul Tracy is off. Full course. Tracy into the gravel on the "Canada turn." Booth speculation that he has a bent wheel. Jan -- Tracy's pit boss Neil Mickelwright radioed to ask if there was contact but Tracy didn't respond. Too busy killing a deer with his bare hands while waiting for the safety truck to arrive, I bet. (Kidding. Lighten up.)

19 laps to go. Tracy is out of the gravel. The Champ Car guys are scrambling to get him back out. Tracy probably just gave them The Look and they knew he would eat their spleens if they didn't get him out before he lost a lap. Tracy is on it to come around and get to the back of the field so he can pit.

Mazda Power Play. Recap of the Atlantics race. Turn 1 zaniness (appear to be about eight-wide going into turn 1). Graham Rahal, BLOWN up, SIR. Engine frags and he coasts to a stop. Jonathon Bomarito wins the Atlantics race. Simon Pagenaud takes the series championship.

Back to the big leagues. Tracy pitting.

Lap 34. Green. Bruno on the Power to Pass. Bourdais 5th. DD doesn't think Bourdais will make a "banzai move" here.

Lap 35. Junk, Nelson, Wilson, AJ, Bourdais, Servia, Clarke, Tag, Legge (!) Zwolsman.

Lap 36. AJ takes a look inside Wilson. Just kind of pops out of line for a look, then gets back in line. Not going to make a move yet.

DD -- AJ (who was fired by RuSPORT) would love to make a point here by passing Wilson (who currently drives for RuSPORT).

Bourdais video. Sure it would be great to win the championship here for all the families of the team. HQ of McDonald's just down the road.

15 to go. Junk is head by three seconds. Bourdais has more gas than everyone in front of him.

AJ video -- No matter if it's (championship chase) is over or not, we're fighting for second. What to win every single race left. Never know what might happen.

AJ into third. Passes Wilson.

Replay shows AJ closing behind Wilson. Derek -- Oh he's coming like a freight train. AJ swerves a bit as he goes by. Rick asks DD what's that about? DD-- You want me to be honest? Rick -- Yes. Derek thinks that AJ "wanted to squeeze him a little bit to make a point."

Servia passes Bourdais for 5th.

Pit window is open. Lap 39. Tracy in. Tires and fuel.

Derek -- Junk's speed of stop is key and how far can Bourdais go before he has to pit.

Bruno is now 5.3 ahead.

Lap 40 -- Junk, AJ, Wilson, Bourdais, Philippe, Servia, Clark, Tag, Legge (!), Van Heylen (!).

Nelson pitting.

Nelson back out. Left rear is screwy. Didn't get the nut on it. Wobbling. Nelson is screwed. Trying to get around to get a new tire and not bring out the caution. Wheel comes off. Trying to make it on three wheels. Major scrapping. Going about 40 mph.

Bourdais stayed out. Not pitting. Hoping it stays green. Race officials say the tire came of and is in a safe spot, no need for a caution right now. Keep that yellow flag in your back pocket, Sparky. We're coming up on NASCAR-level yellowage for this race.

Bourdais is third. Rick says Nelson is "crabbing" around the track trying to get back in. Perfect description of how it looks. Bruno and AJ pit. Bourdais stays out. Takes the lead. 28 laps since he stopped. Lots of yellow in there.

DD -- Bourdais had to run like a rabbit to get as much time on AJ as he can so he can pit and maintain the lead.

Legge is third! Holy crap. Now she's second! She has to pit soon, though.

8 to go. Legg in with her pink sidewalls in effect. Jan Van Heylen in.

Lap 44 -- Bourdais is 31 seconds ahead of Junk. He's going to pit. Bourdais pit boss on the radio -- "OK, guys, this is for the money." Bourdais in. Jan says he needs a sub-6-second pit stop or less. Gets out in 6.9. May be screwed. He's out just in front off AJ and Bruno.

Lap 45 - Holy cold tires! AJ goes around Bourdais for the lead. Now Bruno goes around as well. K. Legge in 6th. Career day for her.

Hampson video. Not happy. Maybe using profanity. Hard to say. I would be in his spot.

Legge and Speedy Dan are battling for sixth.

Holy flying car! Rick -- HUGE CRASH. HUGE CRASH. Oh no. HUGE INCIDENT. HUGE INCIDENT. Someone is end-over-ending it into the catch fence at The Kink.

Derek -- "IT'S KATHERINE!"

5 to go. Much tension. Replays of Legge's car going into the fence. Got airborne. Car up into the catch fence broke apart. Cosworth goes bounding down the fence line away from the cockpit, thank God. Dirt and crap everywhere. Champ Car safety team is on it. You can see the truck approaching even as shit is still flying. Props to them for getting out so quickly.

Lap 48 - Red flag. We got all kinds off crap all over in the Kink. Rick says we're going to stop the race and the go back to green for three laps or six minutes. Not going to turn it off right here. Shout out to Champ Car for not ending under the yellow like this.

Tension City over Legge's condition. Ambulance leaving the crash site. Replays. Aerial view. WTF? You can see part of Legge's rear wing flipping off as she approaches the kink at about 190 mph. No rear downforce. She's cooked. Ass end just comes around as she turns and she goes ass first into the wall. Derek "the car just ab-so-lute-ly disintegrates."

DD -- "When you lose that wing plate the car does nothing but fly off the road." Much discussion of how the car disintegrating is a good thing since it dissipates energy that the driver would otherwise absorb. Derek -- the more pieces you can break off the car the more energy is dissipated and the less that goes into the driver.

Jan is on it in the pits. Steve Johnson, President and CEO of Champ Car says Katherine gave him a smile and a thumbs up as she went into the medical center. According to Race Director Race Notes she walked into the medical center. If I was her, the first thing I'd ask for in the me medical center after that shit would be the world's largest, coldest beer.

Race Director rocks. Go right now to www.champcar.ws and sign up for it. $30 for a year of stats, notes, telemetry, replays of each broadcast etc. pressdog digs it in a major way. The on-demand replay function by itself makes it worth $30.

Derek -- the big danger in a crash like that is that something hits you in the head.

Derek launches a telestrator fest. He's pulling it out. He's on the button, telestrator-wise. Showing us the wing going off Katherine's car. Circling the bounding engine. Double D is en fuego.

DP01 montage. Unveiling video featuring Paul Newman in the car. CC can't love that video more. I've seen it about 12 times now. They show it every race. DP01 did some laps at Road America for the peeps. First race for it is April 8. Awesome April. April 8, Las Vegas street race. April 15, Long Beach. April 22, Houston.

Jan -- Busts into the DP01 love fest with some video of Katherine Legge coming out of the medical center to wave at the crowed. Much applause. WTF? She looks like she's just back from the pub. Amazing after watching the shrapnel-fest of a crash. Smiling. Waving.

Derek -- Is that just hard to believe? Rick -- It is hard to believe.

Video of pieces of car shrapnel on the scrap truck. Derek plugs the book "Rapid Response" by a Champ Car safety guy Stephan Olivey who led the charge to drag open-wheel legend Alex Zanardi back from death's door after a crash in Germany in 2001.

Michael Cannon, AJ's engineer. First, he's impressed with Katherine. One tough woman. Mike says everyone on the track is pretty equal except for Power to Pass. Many drivers are out of it.

AJ montage. Father's Day reference. Cleveland. Toronto. Denver. Hat Trick sign. Montreal when his half shaft was BLOWN up, SIR!

Some drivers are out of the cars during the red. Cameron deployed. He's with AJ. AJ says he has no push to pass so may be a tough one. May have to crash me to get around me. Look for AJ to make his ass wide.

Jan with Bourdais. Bourdais -- great start. All the yellows played against us today. Lost the lead to a lapped car (!) and that's hard to accept. Not sure what that is all about.

Bourdais always throws in some pissy little thing like that. Doesn't help his likeability factor much. He also says his engine may be a pig. High mileage on it.

Cameron with Oriol. He's Glad Katherine is OK. Going to do his best to get forward. Dedicates this race to Cristiano.

Oriol montage. (You saw that coming.)

DD is now fixated on how much more valuable all the Katherine Legge stuff she wore and drove today will be on the open market because of the crash. It's all getting auctioned off to raise money for Breast Cancer research. DD says bust out the Sharpie. Goes off several times about it.

Speedy Dan in-car interview. Speedydan.com on the front of his helmet gets major air. Site is still under construction, though.

Speedy Dan montage. Another driver montage. Try to act shocked.

Cameron with Justin Wilson. Justin Wilson montage. SPEED has to fill this cleanup delay somehow.

Jan with Katherine -- Jan -- how are ya? Katherine -- "A bit shaken but I'm OK. All my bits are in tact so it's good. Goes to show how strong these cars are." Jan -- what do you remember? "I speeded up and hit the wall. I saw the ground and then dirt coming in. I see the fence. Honestly, I was thinking 'What's going to happen next?' Glad to see the engine split away (less chance of catching fire). I think my eyes were closed for a lot of it to be honest."

Jan -- freaked out to get back in? Katherine -- "I'd get back in and finish the race (if she had a car). I think you have to be a bit detached to be a race car driver. You have to have a bit of a screw loose. (It's dangerous) but you have to put that aside, have a healthy respect for it and move on." Says something about riding horses may be more dangerous.

Katherine Legge is definitely sidepod worthy. Everybody lift your favorite English beer for Katherine. Kevin Kalkhoven gives her a ride in the golf cart.

Rick promotes Race Director. Says "free trial when you sign up for a monthly subscription." He said this several times during the race but it makes no sense. If I sign up for a subscription, then it doesn't seem to be anything is free, because I'm paying for it. Maybe I can try it free and then sign up if I like it. Maybe I buy one month and get another month free. Confusing.

Replay number 12 of the Legge wreck.

Craig Hampson. Asked about the whole pig engine comment from Bourdais. Craig says they changed the engine for the race because the other one was a bit piggy. Bourdais says it doesn't have speed in the straight away.

Starting engines. Back on the track. First lap under yellow. Then we'll go green for a two-lap trophy dash.

Green. Servia into fourth. Bruno on the power-to-pass button. Karen Allmendinger gets air! AJ Family Cam is activated.

DD renames The Kink as "Katherine's Kink." Everyone is through OK, presumably because they all kept their rear wings.

White flag. Rick mentions that AJ ran a NASCAR truck race in New Hampshire. Rick may get disciplined for saying NASCAR right on the air. AJ fiance' Lynne Kush gets air.

Bruno making a run at AJ. Uses his last Power to Pass. DD -- "He doesn't have it. Nope."

AJ wins. Mike Cannon -- AJ just drove the wheels off it. AJ does about a dozen doughnuts.

Tom Smith, Bruno's engineer -- Little lucky the way the yellows fell. Too much understeer to stay close enough to AJ in the corners to use the overtake to pass him.

Finish -- AJ, Bruno, Bourdais, Servia, Wilson, Clarke, Zwolsman, Ranger, Heylen, Tracy.

Bruno -- Did well starting from 10th. Good car.

Bourdais does not clinch the title. He's up by 58 on AJ, 67 ahead of Wilson.

Jan -- with AJ. AJ does a stage dive into his crew. He's not a big guy so a couple of them can pretty much catch him and carry him around. AJ -- "That's the best team in the world! I'm not going to let a French guy clinch on American soil. That ain't going to happen."

AJ, what's with the jingo stuff? May have picked that up over in NASCAR truck land. That whole anti-French thing seems a little harsh. Could be just me.

Tune in Oct. 22, 2 p.m. eastern on SPEED for tape-delay coverage Champ Car race at Surfers Paradise, Australia.