Indy 500
Category: Sports (Pro/College/HS)...
Posted Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 03:25 PM [GMT-6]

I confess: I succumbed to "Danica Fever" and tuned into the Indy 500 this afternoon after church. As I type this, the racers (those that are left) are on lap 157 of 200, and about 60 of those laps have been run under the caution flag. For those who are unfamiliar with auto racing, that means that no racing is actually taking place...the drivers are just maintaining their positions while the track is cleaned up following a crash. This also makes for a pretty boring spectacle.

Note: Danica just exited the race in the most frustrating way possible – getting clipped by another driver on the way out of pit lane. She was running in 7th place at the time, around lap 160 or so. Bummer.

I haven't watched any of this race since sometime in the Nineties, when my pal Jack Ferguson was a truck driver for Michael Andretti's team; his insights got me temporarily interested in open wheeled racing.

I don't think I've missed much. But here are some high and low points of this year's race:

• Lowest of the Low: ABC/ESPN's inflexible broadcast coverage. What I mean by that is that the networks seem unable to space the commercials so that most of them occur during the caution laps, thus keeping the cameras on the actual racing action. They do have a "side-by-side" split screen feature that lets them show ads on the right side of the screen while the race continues on the left. It's only slightly less annoying than cutting away completely, because the race has no audio so you can't really tell what's going on. But the most annoying ad-related tactic is ABC's insistence on pitching its own programming (primarily, the insipid "Wipe Out"). It's not like they're losing revenue by skipping that for this race.


• You wouldn't know it from the pre-race hype, but Patrick wasn't the only woman driver in the race. Unfortunately, all three of them have now been knocked out in crashes. American Sarah Fisher went first (and cried during the follow-up interview), then drop-dead-gorgeous Argentinian Milka Duno (while leading the race), and now Danica Patrick.


• Highlight of the race thus far? Watching Patrick stride down pit row intent on having words (at the very least) with Ryan Briscoe, the driver at fault in the crash that knocked her out, and being intercepted by the Indy chief of security who steered her over to clearer heads. I have new respect for the competitiveness of Patrick.


• The pit crews actually provide some of the best entertainment. Coming out of a pit stop is the only way a driver can change position during a caution flag, and we watched as last year's Dancing With The Stars champion, Helio Castroneves, move up five places in two successive pit stops. That's an amazing display of skill and teamwork. With 12 laps to go, Helio is hanging onto third place. However, Helio has been warned several times for blocking, and may get a reprimand after the race. He also just got passed by Marco Andretti (Mario's grandson).

The race just ended, and pole-sitter Scott Dixon won handily. The real fun begins for the 300,000+ spectators as they enter the Mother of All Traffic Jams trying to leave the speedway.

Danica just told the interviewer that it was "probably best that I didn't get down there, huh?" when asked what she wanted to say to the driver who knocked her out of the race.