Kentucky Indy 300

[DanicaFan]

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/KY300_ICS.jpg

Race 17 of 18

Race - Kentucky Indy 300

Location - Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, Kentucky

Date - Sunday, October 2nd - 2:00 PM

Time & TV Schedule - Pre-Race Show - 2:00PM , Green Flag - 2:45PM - Versus

Course Type - 1.5 Mile Oval

Distance - 200 Laps / 300 Miles

Practice Sessions -
Saturday, October 1st - 12:00PM -1:15PM Eastern & 2:45-3:45 PM

Qualifications - Saturday, October 1st - 6:00PM -7:00PM Eastern

2010 Pole Sitter - #20 Ed Carpenter - 217.933 mph

2010 Winner - #3 Helio Castroneves

[DanicaFan]

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/kentuckyspeedway.gif

[heliocastroneves#3]

Will Ed Carpenter get his first win here?

[00steven]

Will Ed Carpenter get his first win here?

No.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Will Ed Carpenter get his first win here?

Based on Sarah Fisher Racing's form this year, I'll be surprised if he qualifes anywhere but the last row.

[heliocastroneves#3]

Well.... He qualified 8th at Indy. ;)

It wasn't a serious question by the way, I think Wheldon might be a contender in Tags' car.... But further it will be again Penske, Ganassi and maybe AA which will fight for the win.

[SarahFan]

What happens to the superduperseasonendingindyworldchampipnshipgodaddy challenge I'd dan gets hurt this weekend?

[SarahFan]

Not to mention he now gets a nice oval warmup.... Gotta wonder if the insurance company is on the phone changing the premium this morning

[FIAT1]

Wheldon bumps Tagliani for seat in Kentucky. What a bs this is. They have old garbage cars for the last time and series couldn't prep extra car for great racer like Tags. Shame on Indycar.

[DanicaFan]

Pit Lane Assignments..

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/kentuckypits2.jpg

[Lousada]

Anyone want to gamble on Dan Wheldon getting "the call" at Kentucky? That would be the perfect way to get some attention to the 5 million gimmick.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Well.... He qualified 8th at Indy. ;)

It wasn't a serious question by the way, I think Wheldon might be a contender in Tags' car.... But further it will be again Penske, Ganassi and maybe AA which will fight for the win.

If Indy was a good performance indicator for the rest of the season, Andretti Autosport wouldn't have three wins. ;)

[heliocastroneves#3]

In my opinion that 5 million challenge is a big fail, Townsend Bell will also participate in Vegas so he also deserves that money if he wins, because he's not a full time IndyCar driver and NEVER has been. A pity Doornbos wasn't able to find a seat for that race. :(

Honestly I prefer Wheldon in the #77 then Tags... But then not just for one race, but for the whole season. Tags is like Danica; Not a bad driver, but not a Wheldon, Dixon, Castroneves, Power or whatever.. Not the real deal, that's what I wanted to say.

[SarahFan]

You sir are spot on!!!


In my opinion that 5 million challenge is a big fail, Townsend Bell will also participate in Vegas so he also deserves that money if he wins, because he's not a full time IndyCar driver and NEVER has been. A pity Doornbos wasn't able to find a seat for that race. :(

Honestly I prefer Wheldon in the #77 then Tags... But then not just for one race, but for the whole season. Tags is like Danica; Not a bad driver, but not a Wheldon, Dixon, Castroneves, Power or whatever.. Not the real deal, that's what I wanted to say.

[garyshell]

Wheldon bumps Tagliani for seat in Kentucky. What a bs this is. They have old garbage cars for the last time and series couldn't prep extra car for great racer like Tags. Shame on Indycar.

Just in case you didn't notice, but the series doesn't field ANY cars.

Gary

[FIAT1]

Just in case you didn't notice, but the series doesn't field ANY cars.

Gary

I respectfully disagree. I believe that series had everything to do with this move, obviously they are not going to publicly acknowledge that , same as 5mil stunt is not their failed bs. My opinion.

[DanicaFan]

Here is the entry list for the race..

Dillon Battistini will be driving the #34 car for Conquest Racing.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/kentuckyentry.jpg

[heliocastroneves#3]

Not that I miss him, but what happened with Saavedra?

[DBell]

Not that I miss him, but what happened with Saavedra?

My guess would be that he raced until his money ran out and Eric's ready to put in his next ride buyer.

[numanoid]

In my opinion that 5 million challenge is a big fail, Townsend Bell will also participate in Vegas so he also deserves that money if he wins, because he's not a full time IndyCar driver and NEVER has been. A pity Doornbos wasn't able to find a seat for that race. :(

Well, this is a modified $5 million challenge. They had no takers for the initial idea, so the used a very good driver (and Indy 500 winner) to drum up hype from a different kind of promotion.


Honestly I prefer Wheldon in the #77 then Tags... But then not just for one race, but for the whole season. Tags is like Danica; Not a bad driver, but not a Wheldon, Dixon, Castroneves, Power or whatever.. Not the real deal, that's what I wanted to say.

I kinda disagree. I'd like to see what Tags can do in Helio's car or what Power could do in the #77. With some obvious exceptions, I think it's more car (team) than driver in the ICS right now. That said, I think it stinks for Tags to be bumped out of his ride for this race. He put this team together and should have more say in it than Sam. But Sam has the money...

[heliocastroneves#3]

On the other hand; if you're not the real deal you won't be able to qualify on pole for the '500. Maybe I have to change my opinion a little bit. But even in his CART days when he drove for Team Players' Forsythe, he never impressed me.

[Wilf]

In my opinion that 5 million challenge is a big fail, Townsend Bell will also participate in Vegas so he also deserves that money if he wins, because he's not a full time IndyCar driver and NEVER has been. A pity Doornbos wasn't able to find a seat for that race. :(



No drivers took the five million buck challenge and so it did fail. They replaced it with the GoDaddy Challenge and offered to pay a lucky fan and the reining Indy 500 champion $2.5 million each if Dan could win the race after starting at the rear of the field. It's an entirely different challenge than the one to which you were referring.

[heliocastroneves#3]

And still I really don't like this thing.. If the series wants to call it the GoDaddy Challenge, then they better offer that 2,5 million to Princess and a fan if she wins it, because GoDaddy is more about her then hosting domains. It's weird isn't it? If the GoDaddy car would win the GoDaddy Challenge then the driver of the GoDaddy car doesn't even get that 2,5 million.... It's confusing to me, but I'll focus on the battle between Power and Franchitti anyway.

[DanicaFan]

Wow, is all I have to say about the qualifying. Will Power gets the pole position and sets a new track record in the process with a 2 lap average of 219.283 mph!

And I am shocked Danica didnt qualify better than 14th. Mile and a half ovals are her specialty. Im hoping for a good race tomorrow.

[SoCalPVguy]

Wow, is all I have to say about the qualifying. Will Power gets the pole position and sets a new track record in the process with a 2 lap average of 219.283 mph! And I am shocked Danica didnt qualify better than 14th. Mile and a half ovals are her specialty. Im hoping for a good race tomorrow.

Dude, didn't she tell you (being her good buddy and all... or are you out of the loop now that she's going bigtime?) clearly she's just "phonin' it in" for the rest of the year, wouldn't want to push or anything and risk getting hurt as to jeopardize that big Nascar contract payout (e.g. Travis Pastrana). Plus she is well positioned for another top ten, a lot of downforce, a lot of blocking, a little luck tooling around about 3 mph per lap behind the leaders....The "brand" uber alles, racing... well, not so much...

[DanicaFan]

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/kentuckylineup.jpg

[SoCalPVguy]

LOL porkchop out quals princess

[beachbum]

Wow, is all I have to say about the qualifying. Will Power gets the pole position and sets a new track record in the process with a 2 lap average of 219.283 mph!

And I am shocked Danica didnt qualify better than 14th. Mile and a half ovals are her specialty. Im hoping for a good race tomorrow.
Great job by Power and his team. The qualifying "record" claim is a bit of a stretch, as it is a 2 lap record. The single lap record is still held by Sarah Fisher at 221.390 set in 2002.

But surprised by Danica? After she announced she was leaving, do you really think her team (or her for that matter) are really giving their best?. I am a bit surprised she qualified that high.

[numanoid]

LOL porkchop out quals princess

Porkchop was looking good today. I hope he and her driver do well tomorrow. I'm not happy about the BS around the #77 car. What was all that about? I would have liked to hear from someone in authority exactly why it did not pass inspection.

Loved seeing Dario bumped further down after each driver. I'm really surprised about Briscoe and Helio though. WTF happened there? I think we'll see an exciting race tomorrow. Much needed after the # of parades we've been having to watch lately.

[DanicaFan]

I think her going out 2nd hurt too. She would of done better had she gone out deeper in the session.

[beachgirl]

I think her going out 2nd hurt too. She would of done better had she gone out deeper in the session.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.............you do your best wherever you go in qualifying. She didn't. Too bad. Like SoCal said, she's just phoning it in for the last couple races. She's already mentally in NASCAR. She's acting like a senior in high school in the last few weeks of school - mentally checked out.

[beachbum]

Porkchop was looking good today. I hope he and her driver do well tomorrow. I'm not happy about the BS around the #77 car. What was all that about? I would have liked to hear from someone in authority exactly why it did not pass inspection.

Loved seeing Dario bumped further down after each driver. I'm really surprised about Briscoe and Helio though. WTF happened there? I think we'll see an exciting race tomorrow. Much needed after the # of parades we've been having to watch lately.
Apparently, the car failed inspection because of the inner wheel covers, which Sam indicated in an interview were standard Dallara parts. He stated the conspiracy theorists would have a field day with it - and they are.

As for Penske, one article indicated that Penske put all of their best parts on Power's car, which makes sense since he is going for the championship. Throughout the season, it has seemed that Penske hasn't had the advantages of the past, so it may be they are just using up the parts and there aren't enough good parts for three cars (four or more if you count backups). After Vegas, everything will be almost worthless anyway.

[heliocastroneves#3]

@Danicafan:

Yup, she could have been 13th then.... :p :

Andretti Autosport is of course more focused on Conway, Marco and Hunter-Reay instead of that turncoat.

[FormerFF]

Go Graham and Hinch!

[00steven]

I think we will see another POWERful day.

[beachgirl]

I think we will see another POWERful day.

I hope so! I'm really rooting for him for the championship. He's worked very hard for it.

[numanoid]

I hope so! I'm really rooting for him for the championship. He's worked very hard for it.

Same here. 10 more points over Dario would be pretty good going into Vegas!

[nigelred5]

What friggin idiot designed that pit lane??

[Anubis]

Amateur hour in the pits all of a sudden, but some nifty footwork from one of Lloyd's crew!

[garyshell]

Ed! Ed! Ed! Well done!

Gary

[Anubis]

Could there be a more popular win?

[heliocastroneves#3]

YES! ED CARPENTER!! My guess wasn't bad, and I knew it! Too bad I choose a different winner in Pickem... :(

[FormerFF]

Will Ed Carpenter get his first win here?
YES! Score one for the little guy, or should I say, gal.

BTW, Graham Rahal is in desperate need of a new strategist.

[00steven]

No.

Ouch!

[gm99]

What an amazing last couple of laps.
Congrats to Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher Racing, long overdue first victory.
And yet another disastrous race for Penske Racing.

[DanicaFan]

Pit lane was crazy today!

Congrats to Ed Carpenter for the win. That was awesome! It sucks about Marco, had that not happened in pit lane, I think we would of seen that Venom car in victory lane.

[numanoid]

Amazing race by Carpenter. I cannot believe the bush league from D&R racing in the pits. Nobody from Bia's crew even bothered to LOOK for an incoming car. This wasn't Will's fault and he very likely lost the Championship on this. Add insult to injury and Bia crashes and ruins any chance for a Power fuel strategy win. So we have 18 points going into Vegas, which means if Power wins, Dario needs to finish worse than 4th. This is gonna be a race! My wife and I will be there to catch it and I'm happy it's going in close. I'd prefer a Power lead, but whatever.

Now on to Carpenter...SO HAPPY he got a win. This is a great finish for an "independent" team and give hope for the non-Penske or Ganassi teams. Also, not to take this off topic, for all the fans who think ovals are boring, when was the last indycar road/street race that had a photo finish like this one? My wife and I were hardly breathing watching the last 15 laps of this race. This was better than the last 4 road courses put together, even though "our guy" didn't do so well.

I can't wait for Vegas!

[DanicaFan]

Final Results..

1. #67 Ed Carpenter
2. #10 Dario Franchitti
3. #9 Scott Dixon
4. #06 James Hinchcliffe
5. #28 Ryan Hunter-Reay
6. #2 Oriol Servia
7. #17 Wade Cunningham
8. #6 Ryan Briscoe
9. #44 Buddy Rice
10. #7 Danica Patrick
11. #22 Townsend Bell
12. #38 Graham Rahal
13. #83 Charlie Kimball
14. #77 Dan Wheldon
15. #5 Takuma Sato
16. #14 Vitor Meira
17. #82 Tony Kanaan
18. #27 Mike Conway
19. #12 Will Power
20. #4 JR Hildebrand
21. #18 James Jakes
22. #30 Pippa Mann
23. #59 EJ Viso
24. #24 Ana Beatriz
25. #78 Simona De Silvestro
26. #19 Alex Lloyd
27. #26 Marco Andretti
28. #34 Dillon Battistini
29. #3 Helio Castroneves

[bzcam]

Ed! Ed! Ed! Well done!

Gary

Finally, one of the good guys wins! It's about time. Way to go Ed and Sarah!

Sarah said after the race that Dollar General was not coming back next year. Does this spell doom for SFR? I sure hope not. I love it when the good guys win.

BZ

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Monday is usually pizza day for me but I'm eating crow tomorrow. And I'm happy to! Congrats, Ed & Sarah! :D

[numanoid]

Finally, one of the good guys wins! It's about time. Way to go Ed and Sarah!

Sarah said after the race that Dollar General was not coming back next year. Does this spell doom for SFR? I sure hope not. I love it when the good guys win.

BZ

This got me thinking as well. As someone has has no idea how sponsorship works, does getting a win here help going forward? Certainly they got some solid TV coverage for the race and the win, but does that really help the sponsor? Do they get a cut of the winnings?

On a different note, when a sponsor car crashes and gets tons of air time (replays, removing the driver, etc) is the sponsor happy or not? I saw nothing of the Fuzzy vodka car this race and saw quite a bit of Bia's car. Sponsors want airtime, right?

I really hope SFR is back in the field part or full time next year. Costs should be cut significantly over the long haul with the new car.

[NickFalzone]

Missed the race this afternoon due to work. Normally wouldn't care but I heard it was quite exciting, so before looking at any other postings on here I'm gonna watch the re-air tonight on VS.

[FormerFF]

Missed the race this afternoon due to work. Normally wouldn't care but I heard it was quite exciting, so before looking at any other postings on here I'm gonna watch the re-air tonight on VS.

I would say that the last quarter was exciting. The first half was uneventful.

[anthonyvop]

I would say that the last quarter was exciting. The first half was uneventful.

Funny.....I would say the exact opposite.

[SarahFan]

I haven't watched yet... Got it dvred

But clearly it's a good day to be sarahfan!!

[SarahFan]

Funny.....I would say the exact opposite.

Do you ever feel like your the sole survivor on a desert island drinking your last beer?

[SarahFan]

I'm watching now....enjoying so far

But question for the class... Is there talk of the is race not being back next year? The place is empty

[MORINGA]

Ed absolutely deserved this one. I called him a "one-track guy", as a guy who goes really fast on this one. No surprise he won, though.
I hope Sarah keeps her programe growing for 2012.

[SarahFan]

How many Laps should it take to pick up debris?

[anthonyvop]

Do you ever feel like your the sole survivor on a desert island drinking your last beer?

Considering the state of the popularity of IndyCar.............Not at all.

I just don't see the drama in running Flat out without lifting with the winner being decided by who had more P2P at the end.

[jimispeed]

Not the greatest, but it was an interesting race with a great finish!

[FIAT1]

Oval flat out type racing is boring. Watching cars on expressway is more interesting, and winning the race like this does not have anything to do with a skill of a driver as much popular win this was. My opinion.

[DBell]

When I checked on Speed to see who won yesterday's race, I sure wasn't expecting to see the name Ed Carpenter. Nice going to both Ed and SFR. I hope Sarah can keep the team going with the loss of Dollar General.

I think I'll check youtube to see what went on in the pits during the race. It sounds like there was more action there than the race itself.

[DBell]

After watching the pit incidents, all I can say is I hope the injured are ok and fully recover. You would think with a pit road that big, they could manage to get through pit stops without the collisions and mistakes. Sad to see crew members get hurt because of it. Also disappointed to see the championship (most likely) decided by it.

While watching the final couple of laps on youtube, I could see the crowd, or lack thereof, was very poor. Another oval race and lots of aluminum showing. I've seen it being said here that the lack of track action at ovals is hurting the turnouts. There may be truth in that, but I think there are bigger factors in play. The freebies that use to come from Marlboro, Firestone and others has dried up the last couple of years. Also the ticket policy of ISC changed, where you no longer have to buy IndyCar tickets when NASCAR tickets are purchased. I think what we are seeing is the what the level of interest in IndyCar at places like Kentucky and Kansas really is when there are no free tickets around and no one is forced to buy tickets to get the ones they really want. When the fan has to take it upon themselves to buy tickets and go to the race because of their desire to see it, the crowds have plummeted from what they use to be at these venues.

Anthony is right when he says it's the product that IndyCar puts out. Just not that many people are interested in it. No amount of advertising or publicity gimmicks are going to change that. Without freebies and subsidies, I think we are seeing where IndyCar is really at.

[Anubis]

On a different note, when a sponsor car crashes and gets tons of air time (replays, removing the driver, etc) is the sponsor happy or not? I saw nothing of the Fuzzy vodka car this race and saw quite a bit of Bia's car. Sponsors want airtime, right?


Could be argued there's no such thing as bad publicity, although I don't suppose the link between alcoholic drinks and a wrecked car is especially helpful PR...

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Just watching the race. Sure, the DRR crew, Hildebrand and Simona made mistakes, but Marco? What an idiot.

[garyshell]

Just watching the race. Sure, the DRR crew, Hildebrand and Simona made mistakes, but Marco? What an idiot.

Simona didn't really make a mistake, the car went full throttle on her and broke the backend loose. Apparently they had been having issues with fuel pressures all day.

Gary

[SarahFan]

Does anyone know if Bia was penalized for u avoidable contact?

[Mark in Oshawa]

Well the last part of the race was interesting..not sure if I would want to watch that every week......I think Indycars on big high bank ovals are something that is going away...

[heliocastroneves#3]

The only high banked 1,5 mile oval on the calendar is Texas..

[SarahFan]

Pressdog is reporting a .1

[DBell]

Pressdog is reporting a .1

Wow, isn't that a new low for a non-Japan race? Guess I'm not the only one who's been watching this year who didn't tune in for Kentucky. I'm thinking a .8 for Vegas is a long shot now.

[SarahFan]

Will Randy even be employed by the time the banquet starts?

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Pressdog is reporting a .1

Could it be that the Danica fans already stopped watching the series?

[heliocastroneves#3]

I don't think there are a lot of Danica fans on the IndyCar side left. Or they just ignore her, because she's a quitter... Or they became NASCAR fans. Seeing her results I can understand it that it's frustrating for the Danica fans, despite she moved up top P10 in the point standings..