My Take On Brazil, Indy, and Detroit

I sincerely apologize for my lack of posts since the off-week between Long Beach and Brazil. Since the end of April, my schedule’s been nuts. I finished the final assignments and projects needed to finish my sophomore year of college, had finals, then my dad underwent a quadruple bypass on May 18th (also known as “Fast Friday” this year to us Indy fans). He was home within a few days and continues to recover and feel better. Last weekend my brother graduated from high school (Dad was in attendance) and Friday night I attended a banquet for the local press club (I received a scholarship from them).

I have kept up with all of the races though and am set to watch all the others this year. It’s been a pretty good season so far and hope this continues.

Since I don’t have enough time (or a good enough memory) to take apart and recap the three races leading up to Texas along with a few small notes.

My Take On Brazil – Power Wins Another (Yawn): What can I say about Brazil besides the fact that Will won again. Kind of boring if you ask me. The highlight for me was Takuma Sato’s third place finish. I thought that was more exciting than another goofy (and slightly disturbing) leap off the car from Power.

My Take On Indy – It’s Now a Fight to Four: Up until last night, this was the best race of the year. A lot of passing and a lot of twists and turns. Justin Wilson impressed. Marco Andretti impressed. James Hinchcliffe Impressed. Sato impressed and was on his way to victory… until the spin on the final lap. In the end, it was Dario Franchitti scoring his third “500” victory followed by Scott Dixon, and Tony Kanaan.

While Indy was wonderful, Dan Wheldon’s absence was felt by all. I was glad to see that once the green flag waved, the “sad” tributes stopped and was replaced with great racing – just what Dan would’ve wanted. Not to mention three of his closest friends finished 1-2-3.

It’s now a fight between Dario and Helio Castroneves to see who wins his fourth “500.” I know some have said Franchitti’s the one, but I’ve seen what happens when you issue “Spiderman” a challenge (Did anyone see how he nearly snatched the champion from Dixon in 2008?). These two will fight it out for four and the best man will score it first. When? Who knows?

My Take On Detroit – A Long Day: Well. INDYCAR returned to Detroit for the first time since 2008. After multiple exciting and good races, this one failed to impress. The highlight was after the long red flag to repair the track. Multiple cautions but Dixon led all through the shortened race and went to victory lane.

Power Still Leads Despite Indy Crash: Winning three out of five road and street course events really helps one who is not as good on ovals keep his points lead.

Like it has before, Power was involved in someone else’s crash. After a pit road incident, Mike Conway suffered a broken wing and went back out on the track. Not long after, Conway suffered another scary Indy crash and took Power with him.

Other than his Indy crash, going into Texas, Power continues to hold the points lead which makes me wonder, “What if we had a more math-friendly points system?” I’ll offer my version of an answer that question later in the season.

“Mayor Hinch” Continues to Impress: The term “sophomore slump” is not in the vocabulary of nor describes James Hinchcliffe’s second season in INDYCAR. Other than his crash at Detroit (which was in no way his fault; it was the track’s), Hinchcliffe has scored a podium finish, two top 5’s, 5 top 10’s and sits fourth in the standings going into Texas.

Now if we can just get him on the GoDaddy.com homepage (go and vote if you have yet to do so).

He Sure Doesn’t Drive Like a Rookie: He didn’t win the Indy 500 rookie of the year (the honor went to Rubens Barrichello whom I also feel should be in this overall fight), but Simon Pagenaud has had one of the best INDYCAR rookie of the year campaigns in a long time. Watching him, you would think he’s had years of experience not nine races under his belt.

Going into to Texas, his second oval race, he has two podiums, three top 5’s, and four top 10’s with a respectable 16th place finish in his first oval race. He’s finished every race so far this season and sits sixth in points.

Are we absolutely sure he’s a rookie? Also, did you know that he was Jean Girard in “Talladega Nights” but is not gay? Yeah. Me neither.

I Promise This Won’t Happen Again: Again. I apologize for my lack of updates but I’m sure many of you understand why. This won’t happen again.

Stay tuned for “My Take On Texas” coming soon (I mean it for real).