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Indycar: As the Firestone Turns #1

Welcome to the very first edition of As the Firestone Turns.  This will be your weekly hot spot for off-track news, pictures, events, interviews, and happenings to keep you connected to the world of Indycar.  Often times, the best stories within the paddock aren’t what is broadcast on television or printed in the local newspaper.  The paddock is full of exciting events, interesting people, and great stories that are never told.  AtFT will connect you to the drivers, new talent, officials, history, and moments that make Indycar awesome.  Special editions will likely occur as I will be live at the track for the 2012 Indianapolis 500 and at the Firestone 550K at Texas Motor Speedway.  So, with that, lets get to it!

This first edition of As the Firestone Turns will bring you up to speed on some of the most recent off-season Indycar happenings via Twitter pictures.  One of the wonderful things about social media outlets such as Twitter is it allows fans instant access to drivers and teams and visa versa.  Luckily, Indycar drivers and teams are excellent at utilizing Twitter to engage and interact with fans.

Credit KV Racing Technology

As we all know, Indycar has a new chassis, the Dallara DW12, for the new season.  For you NASCAR fans, the process of prepping a brand new Dallara for the track is much different than a Roush Ford Fusion.  Just in time for Christmas, teams took delivery of the first 15 DW12′s on December 15th.  Dallara placed them in nice, big present boxes just for added holiday spirit!  Not really, but there is certainly some assembly required as shown by this picture Tweeted by KV Racing Technology.  This is Tony Kanaan’s new racecar.

 

 

 

Credit Will Power

Other than the infamous New Hampshire flying fingers incident, Will Power is known to be one of the most clean-cut and well-mannered drivers in the paddock.  The piercing blue eyes and Australian accent help cement the image he portrays.  However, after Las Vegas, Power apparently lost his razor on the way home and grew quite an impressive beard over the holidays.  Luckily, Will Tweeted this picture when he shaved the beard into an equally impressive 70′s era porn star goatee and side-burn combo.  Bow-chika-wow-wow!

 

Credit Andretti Autosport

After 9 years of the Dallara IR03 chassis, Indycar teams have fleets of the old cars sitting around.  Andretti Autosport Tweeted this picture from inside their shop showing off a couple of cars that have interesting histories.  In this photo is the #7 Motorola liveried chassis that Danica Patrick drove to victory at Twin-Ring Motegi as well as the #39 Michael Andretti drove in his last Indianapolis 500 in 2007.

Credit Alex Tagliani

Alex Tagliani is a busy man this offseason.  The 2011 Indianapolis 500 pole sitter, landed a ride with 2011 Indianapolis 500 winning team Bryan Herta Autosport for 2012.  Earlier this week, Tagliani was at Miami-Homestead Speedway testing the Lotus test car on the road course at the venue.  However, from the looks of his Tweet, Tags was in the Land-O-Giants not South Florida.  The shower head in the bathroom was apparently mounted to accommodate those of Yao Ming stature.

 

 

 

 

Credit Alex Tagliani

Not long after the above shower Tweet, Alex got his first taste of the new Dallara DW12 chassis.  One big adjustment has been the switch to ceramic brakes.  One of the first things drivers have mentioned after driving the new car is the immense stopping power the new brakes have and how it takes to get used to them.  These are certainly not the brakes on your Mom’s Malibu.  According to Tagliani, this is the “Ceramic Brake Face”.  Let’s just hope none the drivers get stuck like this!

 

 

 

 

Credit Graham Rahal

Most of the new DW12′s that have seen on-track activity have sported blank carbon-fiber panels or have been painted in manufacturer colors.  As the season draws closer, cars are assembled, and testing ramps up, the new liveries for 2012 show begin to show their new shiny sides.  Graham Rahal Tweeted this picture of his 2012 NTB/Service Central scheme.  I think it will look very nice going 220+ at Indy.

There you have it, the first edition and trial-run of As the Firestone turns and a quick Twitter photo update on a few of the off-season activities.  Feedback is always welcome and is it up to you, the fan and loyal reader, to help AtFT grow and develop with the content you want to see!

Ross (@therossbynum)

Indycar: Twitter Tells the Tales

All numbers below were as of the morning of October 31, 2011.

Credit Chris Jones/IZOD Indycar Media Site

I’m about to expose how nerdy I can be.  I love math.  Yes, we Mississippians are taught math and a few of us happen to be pretty good at it.  Luckily for me, my job requires a lot of math, data, and analysis.  Because I often times work with a LOT of important data, I started creating a couple of spreadsheets with “useless” data to experiment with.  If I wanted to try something new, I could use one of the “useless” sheets with no worry of screwing anything up.  One spreadsheet is the daily number of Twitter followers for each Indycar driver.  When I started, it just seemed like easy data to dump into a file that I could track daily and could be manipulated easily.  However, over the course of a few weeks the data started to become more interesting to follow.

I love Twitter and think it is an amazing way to keep up with small bleeps of information.  Instead of taking 5/10 minutes to read some article about Wall Street, I can read the same basic information in 140 characters or less.  Also, the amount of followers someone or something has can be a great indication of relative popularity and how visible someone is on the radar screen of the world.  For instance, Snooki (you know who she is) has almost 3.6 million followers.  The official White House Twitter has just over 2.4 million followers.  Heck, Snooki has more followers than the official Twitter of the NBA, NFL, and MLB.  People are more interested in knowing what a drunk girl from New Jersey is doing than what is going on in their country.  Think about that.

So, who do you think has the most Twitter followers in Indycar?  Well, if you guessed Danica Patrick you would be correct.  With 425,815 followers, Danica has 40,401 more followers than Tony Kanaan, the 2nd most followed driver.  But, TK adds about 595 new followers each day on average versus the 270 average of Danica.  It is also important to note than Danica’s average would be a good bit lower, but she experienced a huge spike in follows the day of her big announcement that she would be moving to NASCAR full-time in 2012.  In the span of a week, Danica added 5,447 followers.

Have I lost you yet or peaked your interest?  Numbers are fun!

More than 340,029 followers BEHIND Kannan in 3rd is Helio Castroneves with 45,385 followers.  This brings up an interesting thing…the strength of the Brazilian drivers.  2011 rookie Ana Beatriz is the 6th most followed driver in Indycar with 23,647 followers (this is omitting Dan Wheldon’s Twitter).  That is a very interesting statistic considering her lackluster results and 21st place in final points.  She has more followers than Ryan Briscoe, Paul Tracy, Will Power, and Graham Rahal among others.  When we see those numbers, it makes a little more sense as to why Indycar races in Brazil and is exploring a second race.

One thing is for certain, any news coverage increases follower counts for a driver whether the news is good or bad.  For example, after the New Hampshire flying fingers incident, Will Power gained 1,831 followers over the course of a week.  His daily average for August, the month of the incident, was 88.74, but his average for September was 38.14.  Before the race at Kentucky, Ed Carpenter had added just over 300 new followers since the end of July, a 2 month span.  Immediately after the Kentucky race, Carpenter added over 350 new followers in a day.  When Justin Wilson was injured at Mid-Ohio, he experienced a 519 follower jump.  However, neither Ryan Hunter-Reay nor Scott Dixon saw those kinds of jumps in followers after their respective wins.  Dixon added 212 the day after his win and Hunter-Reay added only 238 even while his win was mired in controversy.  Are these 2 guys less interesting?  Were those wins not as important to fans?  It is interesting to think that Justin Wilson’s broken back at Mid-Ohio stirred up more interest than Scott Dixon winning the race.

Sadly, after the tragic incident at Las Vegas, drivers had huge jumps in followers easily eclipsing any previous daily totals.  Indycar drivers that were not even participating in the race experienced large jumps in the number of additional daily followers.  Martin Plowman, for example, had previously averaged 4.34 followers per day.  For the 2 weeks following Las Vegas, Martin added an average of 19.14 followers a day.  The number of followers of Dan Wheldon’s official Twitter more than double in a single day after his death going from 15,699 followers to 31,856.  Drivers directly involved in the 15 car pile-up had even more dramatic increases.  Pippa Mann had added only 201 followers in the month of September, but after her injury at Las Vegas, Pippa added 2,296 followers in October.

There are also many other interesting facts.  Pippa, with only 3 starts under her belt, has 8,860 followers.  This is more than full-time rookies James Hinchcliffe (7,960) and Charlie Kimball (4,178) and more than Takuma Sato (7,804), and Kentucky race winner Ed Carpenter (7,862).  Even Katherine Legge, who didn’t even started a race in 2011 has more followers at 2,047 than full-time rookie James Jakes (1,892) and part-timer Wade Cunningham (1,905) who are the 2 least followed of the drivers tracked.

Had enough numbers yet?

In the end, why is any of this important?  Well, at a time when marketing budgets are tight and funding is hard to come by, Twitter can be a gauge to see how much “reach” a driver has for a sponsor.  Just look at Ana Beatriz.  Although on-track performance may not be stellar at this point, she can connect with over 3x more fans than Oriol Servia (7,617 vs. 23,647) who finished 4th in points.  Sadly, popularity in racing isn’t just about results anymore.  I will dub this the Junior/Patrick Syndrome.

Even though when you click “Follow” on someone’s Twitter it may not seem very important, who you follow speaks volumes about yourself and others like you.  It gives a peek into what is popular, what is interesting, and what catches the attention of people.  I’ll continue to track the trends in followers through the offseason and see what else I can unearth. So, get on Twitter and follow away!  Oh, and remember…numbers can be fun and Mississippians can do math!

Ross (@driverswanted07)

Top 15 in followers:

  • Danica Patrick – 425,815
  • Tony Kanaan – 385,414
  • Helio Castroneves – 45,385
  • Dario Franchitti – 36,826
  • Marco Andretti – 31,313
  • Ana Beatriz – 23,647
  • Will Power – 19,122
  • Graham Rahal – 19,106
  • Paul Tracy – 18,851
  • Ryan Briscoe – 17,256
  • Ryan Hunter-Reay – 17,012
  • Scott Dixon – 16,842
  • Simona de Silvestro – 13,639
  • E.J. Viso – 13,593
  • Tomas Scheckter – 12,838

Indycar Las Vegas Qualifying Report

Maybe all drivers should start participating in the Ironman before a race because Tony Kanaan, Ironman finisher, took the pole for the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  With a speed of 222.078, he bumped Oriol Servia off the pole.  The race winner at Kentucky, Ed Carpenter, qualified 3rd.  This is the highest qualifying position ever for Sarah Fisher Racing.  Also notable, Alex Tagliani, in Dan Wheldon’s Indy 500 #98 ride, qualified 4th on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Rookie James Jakes did not attempt a qualifying run after a hard hit into the Turn 2 wall in practice after his right-rear suspension failed.  EJ Viso will have to start from the rear of the field because of an engine change, so he did not make a qualifying attempt.

Title contenders Will Power and Dario Franchitti qualified  17th and 18th respectively.  In post qualifying interviews Will Power , when asked about his qualifying lap, stated, “There’s nothing to talk about, a lap around this joint, because it’s so brainlessly easy flat, but what it did do is put us back in the pack, which is not brainlessly easy.  That’s very tough.”

Indycar takes a day off on Saturday, except for the exhibition laps to be ran by the Chevy powered 2012 Indycar before the NASCAR truck race.

I am telling you.  You do not want to miss this race.  It is going to be hair-raising, scary, fast, dangerous, risky, 3-wide, 4-wide, insane, nuts…I’m running out of adjectives but you get the picture.

Ross

Gaynalysis: Kentucky Indy 300

For the “straight” scoop checkout the Kentucky Indy 300 recap here from Indycar.com.  Otherwise, buckle up for the Gaynalysis!

Britney Spears winning a Grammy (ok, she has 1), Miss Maine beating Miss Texas for Miss America,  Ralph Nader becoming president, Payless Shoes being fashionable, Ed Carpenter winning an Indycar race.  All of those things are highly unlikely events, but one of them became reality on Sunday.  Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher Racing beat Dario Franchitti and Chip Ganassi Racing by .0098 seconds at the line (6th closest finish in Indycar history) after a side-by-side battle in the closing laps to win the Indy Kentucky 300.  Cue the fan love…glitter, rainbows, hearts, dancing unicorns, confetti, and techno-music.

For Indycar fans, this race was what makes us all love the series.  Despite the abysmal crowd on a beautiful Kentucky afternoon, fans were treated to 217mph 2 and 3-wide racing, an insanely close finish, and an underdog/ fan favorite driver and team winning the race.  There are few people in Indycar that are more respected and loved by fans than Sarah Fisher and Ed Carpenter, so to see the team triumph at their signature track is a beautiful thing.  I will go on record in saying that barring any crazy antics in Las Vegas, this will be the most popular win of the season.  The win and great racings comes as the question lingers if Kentucky will be back on the schedule next year due to falling attendance and a lack of a title sponsor and if Sarah Fisher Racing will return next year as Dollar General will not be returning to the team in 2012.

Despite leading the race early from the pole, Will Power finished 19th after a pit road altercation with Ana Beatriz.  Beatriz’s pit crew waved her to leave her pit as Power was entering his with the front wing of Beatriz’s car gashing the sidepod of Power’s.  Yes, Ana should have been held in her pit until she was clear, but who is the Penske decision-maker that told the leader to pit when pit road was at its busiest?  Pit stall selection in Indycar is based on the previous qualifying position at the last track of that type.  The last oval was New Hampshire where Power qualified poorly which gave him a bad stall on pit lane at Kentucky.  I’m pointing fingers at both crews for equally poor calls.  Heading into the Las Vegas finale, Power now trails Franchitti by 18 points.

Unfortunately, the Power/Beatriz incident was not the only pit road issue for the day.  It was apparently Whack-A-Crew-Member , Bowling-for-Tire-Changers, or Pit-Road-Bumper-Cars day.  Pippa Mann reportedly ran into a Buddy Rice crew member, Simona de Silvestro lost control leaving her pit stall and slid into EJ Viso’s Crew Chief (they were having engine stalling/power issues which may have been the culprit), JR Hildebrand ran into crewman Eric Scheumann who sustained a lower leg injury, and Alex Lloyd was hit by Marco Andretti taking them both out of the race.  There may be more I have forgotten, but I think that is enough regardless.  The Indycar boys and girls better get their act together because there will be around 5 additional cars on pit lane at the finale in Vegas.

Late in the race, Ana Beatriz lost control and made a hard hit to the Turn 4 wall.  Beatriz was assisted out of the car.  She received a minor knee injury requiring stitches.  This would be the only major on-track incident of the day with the other cautions being for debris and Simona’s pit lane spin.

Kentucky also proved to be a very good race for rookies and other part-timers as well.  Wade Cunningham, making his 2nd appearance of the season, finished the day in 7th.  Buddy Rice in the #44Fuzzy’s Vodka Panther Racing machine battled to finish 9th.  And, in his first non-Indy 500 race since 2008, Townsend Bell climbed to finish 11th after starting 26th.  Sidenote:  Wade Cunningham is one good-looking little Kiwi.  Call me!

Dan Wheldon, after failing tech inspection before qualifying, ended up starting from the rear of the field and finished 14th.  I expected more from Wheldon, but I’m sure the #77 team spent most of the day getting all the bugs worked out for the Vegas race, or at least that is what I hope.  Otherwise, the performance was certainly uninspiring.

With Kentucky in the books, the stage is set for the season finale in Las Vegas.  The championship battle will be decided between Franchitti and Power, Dan Wheldon may split $5million with a lucky fan, and the weekend is packed with activity on and off the track that can all be found here.  Expect the smoother Vegas track to provide even more 2 and 3-wide racing than Kentucky.  Can you handle that? The race will be live on ABC at 3 Eastern and keep an eye out for ticket and paddock pass giveaways on Twitter from drivers and teams and make plans to see the race in person if you can.  Tell a friend, tell your co-workers, tell your dog…watch!

Ross (@driverswanted07)

Gaynalysis: Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix

For a “straight” recap of the race, please read this great article by Marshall Pruett from SpeedTV here.  Also, highlights of the race, as provided by Indycar, are located here via YouTube.

In typical fashion, Will Power dominated the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix.  Starting from the pole, the only laps Power did not lead were the laps during which green flag pit stops were cycling.  The past few weeks he has been running like a Cheetah after an antelope.  Power sits 5 points behind Dario Franchitti for the overall championship after this weekends event.  I will say that the more Power wins, the more attractive he gets.  When he stands on the podium covered in sweat and champagne and starts talking with that Aussie accent…whew!

The race on Sunday was the first at the downtown Baltimore street circuit.  Practice was delayed on Friday as the track had not been finished due to the removal of some fencing for Hurricane Irene the week earlier.  Also, organizers placed what could be the most ghetto chicane at the beginning of the front stretch to keep cars from launching over exposed light-rail tracks.  The drivers looked like drunk drivers dodging speed-bumps as they navigated the curbs.  Turn one of the circuit was of major concern due to the high entry speed and sharp, narrow angle.  This season most drivers have been forgetting how to properly apply their brakes, so the concern was warranted.  However, there wasn’t a single caution due to an accident in turn one during the race.  But, during Sunday morning warm-up, Tony Kanaan’s brakes failed entering turn one.  Kanaan, in an attempt to scrub off speed, ran into Helio Castroneves and launched into the air and through the run-off area narrowly missing some corner workers.  It was akin to a scene in The Fast and the Furious.  Travis Pastrana should take lessons from Kanaan because he stuck the landing…thankfully.  Kanaan, Castroneves, and corner workers were all uninjured.  I am pretty sure the corner workers needed clean underwear though.  Kanaan, in a backup car, finished in 3rd.

Simona “Swiss Missile” de Silvestro returned to the US after visa issues – stated as a “big misunderstanding” by her and the team – prevented her from racing at Infineon.  Simona qualified 12th, her best start of the season, ran in the top 10 all day and led one lap during pit-stops.  However, Simona finished 12th while on an alternate fuel strategy that didn’t pay off.

Ryan Briscoe caused a massive traffic jam on lap 38 in the hair-pin Turn 3 when he spun out Ryan Hunter-Reay.  The resulting accident looked like Houston traffic at 5:30 on a Tuesday.  Most drivers were able to continue, and race control, in typical fashion, did their best to try “solve” the restart line-up issues, but they only irritated fans…as usual.  I won’t go into the details, but I will just say a monkey humping a football has a better idea of what he is doing than race control on any given Sunday.  And for that matter, there shouldn’t be anyone “controlling” the race.  Monitoring, yes.  Controlling, no.  If someone is driving with their head up their butt the other drivers should police it like the NASCAR “boys have at it” attitude.  Plus, I’d love to see Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal cat-fight over a crumpled front wing.  There would be weave and press-on-nails flying everywhere.  Briscoe was penalized for avoidable contact.

To my disappointment, Tomas Scheckter did not race shirtless.  After the race he did Tweet a picture of his blistered and beat-up hands.  Not sexy.  Many drivers did state the race was the most physical and demanding of their careers.  Tomas also Tweeted, “My body feels like I been run over by a train and then a monster truck.  It actually feels like I had an entire exgames on my body.”

Despite some community opposition, the inaugural race was a resounding success. The  event was a sellout and it was estimated by the promoter that between 150,000-160,000 race fans were in attendance through the race weekend.  It was also estimated that 75,000 fans attended on Sunday.  There were more fans at the track on Friday for practice than some races have had for the main event on Sunday.  The Baltimore GP also stated on Twitter the race had the highest ratings ever for an Indycar race on Versus, though no specific ratings have been released at this point.  Fans, drivers, and teams all praised the event, the city, and the atmosphere comparing it to Long Beach in California.  I will take a moment to say that one of the beautiful things about Indycar is the ability to run on any type of circuit, any street, anywhere.  How many other types of motorsports can go exactly where there is demand?  It doesn’t matter if it were Soso, Mississippi, downtown Los Angeles, or internationally…Indycar can race there.

Indycar has an off week this week before heading to the Twin-Ring Motegi in Japan on September 17th.  The event will be the first Indycar race on the road-course because the oval was damaged during the earthquake on March 11 of this year.  This year will be the last race  for Indycar at the Twin-Ring Motegi.  There have been concerns over nuclear radiation at the facility, though teams have been assured radiation levels are within safe ranges.  I wonder if race control is going to penalize a driver if they sprout a 3rd arm during the race?  Is that an unfair advantage?  The race will be live on Versus at 11:30PM Eastern due to the time difference.  I highly doubt I will be on a treadmill at 10:30 on a Saturday night to watch the race.

Ross

Gaynalysis: Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

Credit Richard Dowdy/IZOD Indycar Series Media Site

Ah, Indycar at Infineon…wine, beautiful track, gorgeous weather, fast cars, and a good time for a nap.  They don’t call in “Infini-yawn” and “Snor-oma” for nothing.  To make matters worse, I have to watch all races telecast on Versus at the gym on a treadmill or elliptical since I can’t get Versus at my loft.  It is a lot easier to stay on a treadmill or elliptical for 2 hours if the race is interesting, but after about 30-minutes I was on the verge of a Karen Carpenter style collapse.

Mr. Angry Birds, Will Power, totally dominated the race weekend starting from the pole and leading all but 4-laps.  We are talking a Folsom Street Fair, S&M total domination.  Rihanna would have been proud.   Sadly, I pined for the drama of New Hampshire…the Danica pirouette and ensuing melee, Tomas Scheckter’s 3-wide passes in turn 1, Tony Kanaan flipping and knocking over a Port-O-Potty, and Will Power’s flying middle-fingers.

The only yellow-flag of the event came out when Chinese rookie Ho-Pin Tung, in his first Indycar start and the first start by a Chinese in Indycar, attempted to overtake Alex Tagliani and instead ended up off track and bouncing off the wall.  I’m sure it was not how he was “Ho-Pin” his first start would go.  If you will recall, Tung attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 this year, but he backed the car into the wall between turns 1 and 2 during his qualifying attempt.  I will refrain from any Asian driver jokes, but feel free to insert your own here…at least they don’t have to use a blinker in an Indycar…

Rookie Martin Plowman made his 2nd start of the year in the #17 AFS/Sam Schmidt Motorsport entry sponsored by Snowball Express.  Plowman was impressive and finished a respectable 12th.  Martin drove hard, plowing through the field from his 15th starting position.  Ryan Hunter-Reay and Oriol Servia were in the process of getting plowed by Martin before running out of time in the closing laps.  The Snowball Express machine put a smile on my face as I’m sure it did many others.  I was confused to learn that Snowball Express was NOT what I imagined…(Between the sponsor and his last name I could go on for hours…)

HVM Racing’s Simona de Silvestro was unable to compete at Infineon.  When attempting to return to the US from a visit to her home country of Switzerland, she encountered visa issues and was not allowed to return in time.  However, it is “rumored” that de Silvestro kept referring to herself as the “Swiss Missile” which caused passenger uproar and a security breach.  Switzerland decided to keep her as the only missile in their arsenal.  2011’s super-sub Simon Pagenaud took the reign of Pork Chop for the weekend.  Pork Chop tweeted, “Pardon my French, but who’s ass is in my cockpit?!”.  Oui oui!  Sounds like a come-on line to me.  And yes, Simona’s car has a Twitter.  I highly recommend you following him as he is the funniest Dallara you will ever meet.

Andretti Autosport announced over the weekend that RC Cola would sponsor Marco Andretti full-time in 2012.  I am going to be the first to start the campaign to get Moon Pie’s to sponsor another entry for the team.  I’m most positive that the RC Cola and Moon Pie cars would be the most popular entries at the Barber Motorsports Park race outside of Birmingham, Alabama.  Being from Mississippi, I have enjoyed the pleasure of an RC Cola and Moon Pie many times in my life.  And, forget getting beads at Mardi Gras, I want a banana flavored Moon Pie!

So, that is it from Sonoma.  Next week Indycar heads to Baltimore for the Inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore.  The temporary street course runs through downtown, by the inner harbor, around Camden Yards, and the Baltimore Convention Center.  Teams have no prior experience or testing on the course, so I expect solid runs from rookies and some of the smaller teams.  My main man Tomas Scheckter will return to pilot the #07 Redline Extreme machine.  I personally think Tomas should race shirtless, but that’s just me.  One can dream…

Ross (@driverswanted07 on Twitter)

Danica is Coming to NASCAR and Will Power Gets Fined

Today, with what Danica herself said was the worst kept secret in racing, the Go Daddy girl announced she was coming to NASCAR full time.   In 2012 she will run the entire Nationwide schedule for JR Motorsports along with a few Cup races for Stewart-Hass Racing.  She will then move into cup full-time in 2013 for SHR.

Danica said the ARCA race last year in Daytona was “the most fun she’d ever had in a car,” and she said she’s now at the point where she wants to do it full time.  As for returning to open wheel to try and win the Indy 500 – Patrick said she has no plans to at this moment.

Brain France even issued a statement.  When is the last time you remember the big boss releasing a press release when a new driver entered the sport.  France’s statement said, “We are pleased Danica Patrick has chosen to race full time in NASCAR in 2012. She has demonstrated a strong desire to compete and NASCAR provides the best opportunity to race against the top drivers in the world with the largest and most loyal fan base in motorsports on a week-to-week basis. Danica has shown solid improvement in NASCAR and we believe her decision to run full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, with additional races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, will be exciting for our fans and a great challenge for her.”

That wasn’t the only news involving an Indy Car driver today.  It was announced that Will Power was being fined $30k for double-flipping off race control.  The bosses at Indy Car did give Powers an out, saying, “Power will be able to work off the fine by making a series of public appearances on behalf of IndyCar throughout the remainder of the season.”

Last year, NASCAR driver got fined $50K for shooting one bird at an official – so at $15K per bird – I’d say Powers got off easy.

Can You Hear Me Now?

UPDATE:  INDY announced today, 8/25/2011 – they have fined Will Power 30K for this gesture(s).

This should be Verizon’s next commercial – with their driver asking Race Control, “Can You Hear Me Now?”

The SPRINT Cup Race from Watkins Glen was rained out today and like most of NASCAR nation – it gave me the opportunity to tune in and watch the INDY Race from New Hampshire.

At the end of the race they were under yellow for rain but from some reason the stewards in Race Control green flagged the race and there was a huge accident.  Danica Patrick spun on the restart and collected several cars including Power.

Will got out of the car and flipped two birds to the Race Control Tower!  And he didn’t stop there – calling out the “head umpire” of the IRL, Brian Barnhart.  “He makes such bad calls all the time,” Power told ABC’s Jamie Little. “This has got to be it. They cannot have this guy running the show, because that was a decision that put a lot of drivers in danger. You saw how many people crashed on the front straight. It was no condition to race in. Shame on him.”

Then everyone started apologizing.  First came ABC who told viewers they were sorry they had let the double-bird air on TV.

The main Penske Twitter account released this statement from Power, “First of all, I have to apologize for losing my temper after the accident that ended our race. Regardless of what happened on the race track, my behavior was inexcusable and I apologize to our sponsors, the fans, the IZOD IndyCar Series officials and the Penske Racing organization.  I should not have behaved the way I did and I am sorry.  It’s definitely no excuse but I was just very frustrated because our car ran so well and our team had worked so hard to put ourselves into a position to get a good finish and I thought it was just ridiculous to restart the race under the dangerous conditions that existed on the race track. I am just glad the officials decided to make the decision to revert the finishing order back to what it was before the final restart. I want to thank my team for their hard work today and, again, I’m sorry for the way our race ended and how I handled the situation.”

Then Brain Barnhart addressed the media and admitted that they blew the call.   Amazingly he said part of the problem was that Race Control was not listening to the drivers.  Every driver was on their scanner telling anyone that would listen that the track was wet – it was not ready to restart the race.  But INDY threw the green flag anyway.

How is it possible that the race stewards were not listening to the drivers?  There really is no excuse.  Some people have been giving Indy Car Officials credit for admitting they got it wrong.  How could they not?   Indy is top tier racing series – and they should act like it.   Someone needs to loose their job.  They clearly endangered driver safety and that is a cardinal sin in my book.

To be sure Will Power is going to get fined out the ass for shooting those birds.  But several other drivers already offered to help pay his fine.   Power is second in points right now – so a point penalty would be very very painful.

Watch the debacle here:

Stick Shift Visits Indy

Brett Berk writes The Stick Shift Blog for Vanity Fair.  He went to INDY for a ride along with Will Power………..

credit Brett Berk / Vanity Fair

Indy is coming! Indy is coming! And I don’t mean another of those tedious Harrison Ford/Raiders of the Lost Ark sequels, though I’m sure one of those is coming as well. I’m talking about the Indianapolis 500—the jewel in the crown of the eponymous, sporty clothing-sponsored, IZOD/IndyCar Series—which will be taking place this coming Sunday, May 30, in the doubly eponymous (if you’re an Indian) Indianapolis, Indiana. Now, I don’t know shit-all about racing, but I do know a little something about Indianapolis, stemming both from my visit to that city during a recent business trip (the restaurant in which I ate dinner had its menu printed on a football), and from my New Orleans-based examination of its myriad “qualities” in the lead-up to the Superbowl. So when I was offered the choice between heading to the blazing Midwest over an otherwise peaceful Memorial Day Weekend to cover the race, or taking the subway four stops to watch the race come to me, it was not exactly a Sophie’s Choice dilemma.

How does Speedy City come to The Big Apple? In a caravan. Or, at least that’s what I imagined when I received an invitation to schlep up to Herald Square to see it arrive. “To kick off the 500 festivities,” the invite read, “we are bringing all of the IZOD IndyCar drivers to New York, and I want you to ride shotgun with one of them at the wheel.” I pictured myself wearing Gucci aviators, pressed jeans, and a crisp white shirt as Racer X and I laid tracks across Midtown, windows open, Thin Lizzie blaring. Then, one of my sage auto-journo friends pointed out that Indy cars don’t have radios. Or windows. Or passenger seats. I was confused. But a more careful reading of the message revealed that the whole rubber-burning experience would be taking place in a fleet of specially designed Honda Crosstour Hatchbacks. Not as hot. But still. “I’m definitely interested,” I wrote back. “Please make sure to pair me up with a very handsome driver.”

Will Power and Ryan Briscoe - credit Brett Berk / Vanity Fair

That particular request wasn’t difficult to meet. A quick Google Image search for “IndyCar Driver” revealed at least a couple dozen hunks (and a few hot ladies) in the circuit, cueing two genius business ideas: 1) A pair of IndyCar Hunk calendars, and 2) One IndyCar Hunk calendar, with each photo spread featuring a pair of drivers. (Do you think the name “Pole Position” has already been used for something like this?) The request that was difficult to meet was the whole closing off of the island of Manhattan to vehicular and pedestrian traffic so I could go the wrong way up Seventh Avenue at 200 miles per hour while engaged in Vanishing Point fantasies. Instead, the folks from IZOD/Indy gathered their 33 identically liveried Hondas, lined them up in the order in which the actual racecars will appear at the starting gate, and assigned us journalists to hop inside and talk to the drivers. Since Stick Shift is the second most important automotive blog in America, I was granted the No. 2 slot. This meant sharing a Crosstour with the Australian (Nietzschean?) miracle that is Will Power. (Yes, that is his real name. And yes, we will be using it in the calendar.)

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Rain Shortens IRL Opener

[ via AP / Tales Azzoni ]

Rescue workers attend U.S. Marco Andretti, unseen, after crashing with Brazil's Mario Moraes at the start of the IndyCar race in Sao Paulo, Sunday, March 14, 2010.(AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Will Power made a late overtaking move to take the lead from Ryan Hunter-Reay to win the rain-shortened IndyCar season opener on the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday.

The Australian passed the American with three laps to go, clinching the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 for his second career victory.

Power crossed the line 1.858 seconds ahead of Hunter-Reay when the race ended at the two-hour time limit with only 61 of the 75 scheduled laps completed.

The race had to be red-flagged near its halfway point after heavy rains made track conditions unsafe, marking another setback for the track which was initially being hailed as one of the highlights of the season but faced problems throughout the weekend.

Home crowd favorite Vitor Meira was third, followed by compatriot Raphael Matos at the 2.6-mile, 11-turn Anhembi temporary circuit in South America’s biggest city.

Danica Patrick lost control of her car as it started raining, finishing 15th.

Power, whose other victory was last year in Edmonton, got out of his car and celebrated with the thousands of fans packing the grandstands of the stadium-like Sambadrome where the race took place.

“I feel awesome,” the Penske driver said. “We battled it out, it was a great day.”

There were only about three minutes left when Power overtook Hunter-Reay, breaking late to make the pass at the end of the long backstretch.

The win was extra special for Power, who last year sustained a season-ending back injury in a crash in Sonoma and only landed a full-season deal with Penske late.

“It’s been a tough recovery,” he said. “I’m very grateful to be given this opportunity. I laid in bed at the hospital and never thought it was going to happen.”

Hunter-Reay dominated much of the race with his Andretti Autosport car, but was not able to contend at the end.

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