Ok. So I watched little bit of prerace. Man that stand up on pitman with the booth guys looked painful. Paul Tracey never needs to be on TV ever again. I gotta give it to Bell for rocking the tennis shoes though.
Wish we could have had another way to get Hinch and Wickey together but the interview was really good anyway. The Eh Team is one of the most intriguing partnerships in motorsport and I cannot wait to see what else they have to offer in the future.
Interesting way to give the command. I can get on board with this! it wasn’t great but I can forgive anything when done from a racecar.
I always worry about the future of this race…
Damn it’s always great to see Robin Miller.
Hmm. the counter says 1 of 85. I wonder if there is a timing issue that may delay the start or of this is an NBCSN thing.
—GREEN—
OOOOOHHH DON’T TAKE YOUR TEAMMATE OUT!!!
Rossi dropping like a rock. Talk about being in the slow lane.
I can’t breathe. This is action!
2
Calm.
Onboard with Hinch really shows how smooth the race track is.
3
Rossi vs. Sato. Yes please. I would LOVE to see Sato “accidentally” “put” “Rossi” “into” “the” “tires”
5
Andretti in the Oh Boy! Oberto car. Sorry but that livery looks better on an H1 hydroplane.
6
Have we talked about Dixon driving a clone of Kimball’s paint scheme from years past? Who makes livery decisions over there at CGR? Seems they have fallen from grace in more than one aspect of being a kick ass team.
7
Fuel saving party.
Lame? Yes.
8
PT talking about caster. Interesting but this needs Professor B.
9
#TeamDixon
The two leaders are kind of driving away from the field. If this is the pace they both have over the field while fuel saving, we could be in for one of those days.
Beautiful Skyline this gorgeous city has.
13
First stops underway.
Ugh Jones kills it in the pits. Obviously I picked him today for fantasy.
14
Hell yes Jones. I love to see you fighting the leader! No reason to roll over with new tires. PT talking about some crazy conspiracy in the pits. Says Jones sat for ‘too long’ No. I replayed it and to the credit of the team they were on it. I wanted to use it as another opportunity to rip on Ganassi but they did an excellent job getting their driver out.
18
Lock Step
21
I cannot believe how smooth this track is. I guess that makes me rethink my previous comment about worrying that this race may not have much of a future. Someone has invested in the race facility.
22
Holy crap Bourdais into the tires.
OMG HE ALMOST REVERSES IT INTO TRAFFIC!!
No yellow. Well done everyone. I can tell they’re waiting a hair longer to throw the yellows on road courses.
25
Alright. Almost the entire field has pitted. Resetting the order really doesn’t do anything. Same as it ever was.
26
Spigot is making moves on old tires. I love the action even if it is a silly risk.
The booth says the wing endplate that flew off Bourdais car flew into a non spectator area. Makes me wonder what ever happened to that person that got hit with debris in St. Pete in 2012.
28
We’re having a spirited fight at the front!
Ugh Immediate
—YELLOW—
RHR into the tires and Rossi has a very broken front wing. Interesting…
Ok. replay shows they were unrelated incidents.
30
Circulating under Yellow.
Power in with right rear damage. The team is replacing some suspension pieces but that’s pretty much day done. He was speedy today as well. Too bad man.
34
—GREEN—
HOLY CRAP NEWGARDEN INTO THE WALL!!!! LEADER INTO THE WALL!!
and 5 cars into each other down in T1. Bourdais clears the pileup but there are 4 guys left sitting. What a cluster.
Replay shows that even though Rahal really really caused it, no one had grip. No one. It looked like there was rain on the track with how little grip anyone had. Power just drove straight into the tires unrelated to the crash. I can’t imagine that this restart will go much better.
Excellent. I’m excited to see Wickey vs. Dixon. Something we really haven’t seen yet this year.
—GREEN—
40
Everyone is sliding. How are we not crashing?
3 wide in the back of the field. Obviously.
Andretti is having a great afternoon. His car looks yummy. I want jerky.
41
Sato and Andretti giving us a show worth the price of admission.
PT makes a good observation that most of the rear field has sustained some kind of damage. That has got to make for some extra squirrelly racing.
—YELLOW—
Binder stalls… And reverses into the safety worker. It looks like everyone is ok… That was humorous. Kind of sums up the day, eh?
—GREEN—
45
Dixon is dropping the field.
Tons of action at the back of the field, but there are a ton of bad fast cars back there too. This is making for really frantic racing.
51
The cars have a ton of grip here. It’s cool watching the cars skate across the track while the tires and the downforce fight it. It’s an evocative sight. The chicane at IndyGP may be the only other place that has such a sight.
52
Quiet.
However, Pagenaud is having a good day. Nice to see.
Both RHR and Rossi are on their 3rd wing. What the hell guys? Keep it together, those wings don’t grow on trees. Dallara probably loves Toronto.
56
Final stops underway. After these stops, I would like to see something happen.
Dixon is in. SLOW ON THE LEFT REAR! I keep hoping for some sort of pit bobble to cost someone a race this year… No. Plenty of room. CGR get yet another free pass.
Wow Marco almost ran into Daly heading out of the pits!!
57
Pagenaud out ahead of Wickens.CHROME HORN FROM WICKENS!!
Holy Shit I cannot believe Pagenaud ran Wickens out to the wall. All the way out to the wall. Intentionally putting someone into the fence out to the wall. I know you just got chrome horned but COME ON MAN. Pagenaud is kind of fragile.
No action from race control. I agree. Wickens should have let Pagenaud spin across his nose into the wall. That may not have ended well for Wickens though. live to fight another day.
I want to see the helmet view from Wickens.
65
Sato crabbing very badly down the road. He has clearly made friends with the wall. Out of the race. As you do.
Video of Dixon into the wall. What a weird day it’s been. I wonder if we’ll have a race yet. I wonder if Wickens can make something happen?
For the record, we had 2 commercial breaks in a row. They came back and did a race recap and immediately went back to commercial. What a bunch of crap. Screw NBCSN if this is the way it’s going to be. No. I kid. This is why I don’t watch live!
70
Shout out to Kimball. Ok Ok Ok, he’s in P6. I can get on with that.
71
The top 3 are compressing…
Looks like Honda is having a pretty good day.
75
Commercials are coming hard and fast. I still can’t watch the side by side with the advertisements yelling at me.
Pigot very slow. Clearly has been into the wall. What a day of carnage.
77
I really like Pagenaud. Really like him. But I hope Wickens can get to him and say hello.
Spigot out. What a shame. I threw him out of my fantasy team in favor of Jones. Sweet sweet vindication.
79
Nose cam. Hell yes.
I need more nose cam.
I have a fever and the only prescription is more nose cam.
81
Watching the Oh Boy! car circulate makes me longingly think of 200 MPH boats on the Ohio River.
82
Wickens may yet get to Pagenaud.
84
Marco into the pits for a splash. That hurt the soul. I feel for you man.
—CHECKERS—
Dixon. Consolidates his championship lead.
I’m definitely a Dixon fan, but I am a bigger fan of close racing and close championships. I hope someone can get to Dixon before the end of the year.
Interviews… Interviews… Pagenaud seems cool about the situation. I doubt Wickens will have a similar reaction. He’s kind of striking me as a whiner. Let see, shall we?
Good hard and fair. Cool. I still don’t like the idea of running a guy out to the wall. We already lost someone here because of wheel to wheel contact close to the wall. One car width and an inch. it’s a very different story on a wide open road course, but some more care needs to be taken in these close quarters.
Not a bad race. Slow but not a snoozer.
Newgarden not blaming the marbles. That kid is a straight shooter.
Onto Mid-Ohio!!
Much love to everyone who made it to this point. The secret number is 9
Eric Hall
anotherindycarblog 