Kansas 300 Recap

[ACTF_ZETT]

Unfortunately I missed the Kansas Race this weekend. I have not seen a race discussion thread on these forums for the race yet, can anyone give me a quick recap?

ESPN and other sites coverage of the series is laughable. I do know that Danica pulled out in front of Kanaan in the pits and practically took him out of the race (NJ AG pit crew). How were Kanaan and Patrick running at this point?

Anything else happen that I should know about? This race was of pretty big importance going into Indy. This week should be quite exciting learning how many cars will actually be in the mix to run for the Indy 500. Would be nice to get a 33 car field on pole day for once.

[tcsparky]

The race was a little on the dull side for the most part. Marco stopped because he said his car had no grip, Tony Kaanan and Danica ran into each other in th pits. A miscommunication of some sort. Tomas was competive and finished, I believe 5th. Dan Wheldon is good and he showed it in Kansas. Milka Duno didn't hit anything so that was OK.

[Alexamateo]

No time for a lot of Detail but:

Dan Dominates, laps all but 3 others.

Sam "pushing like a pig" loses lap early before it gets sorted out.

Crew tells Danica to go and she hits TK ruining a almost sure Top 3.

Marco can't get handle on car again and parks it. :confused:

Milka runs all day and does decent job.

2 single car accidents by SHarp & Carpenter.

Strong run by Dario who finishes 2nd.

FWIW, some complain about cars not finishing in a pack, but I like to see leaders lapping cars and having to deal with lapped traffic.

[DavePI2]

It is also nice to see the best car win, and not have manufactured finishes as in certain other so called racing series.


David

[Hoss Ghoul]

Marco is embarrasing himself IMO...not the next thing for F1. Too much Michael, not enough Mario in his genes.

What happened to all the people saying this year was going to have even more pack racing than we'd ever seen in the IRL, it'd be so dangerous, etc...far from it, It hasn't been this strung out in years.

[Komahawk]

Also, Dixon almost took the win in the end. Beat Wheldon in the pits and came out with 2 seconds gap, but got a drive thru.

About Marco, outside his runner-up finish at Indy, he mostly had rather disappointing results on the ovals last year. Even Foyt beat him in Chicago. And this year he got 3 DNFs in 3 oval races. Is it possible, that a guy named Andretti has trouble racing on ovals? He should be strong on the remaining road races though, so he still might get another F1-test or maybe more.

Matsuura 4rd DNF in 4 races, no crash this time though.

Danica complained about a "crap setup" after the race.

[Komahawk]

Oh yea, and did anyone else see the "salute" from Wheldon towards Sharp when he lapped him near the end? I watched the race on the IRL-hp, the in-car-cams showed it pretty clearly. I wonder if that will have any consequences...

Sharp BTW crashed all by his own, just like last year. Damn! Was on course/speed for top10 until then.

[pressdog]

Copious notes from the broadcast here:

Kansas Race Notes (http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog/2007/04/plussed_up_note.html)

[Toe_Knee_Jorge]

Milka seemed very sweet it was a nice surprise.

I wonder if Hugo will be at the 500 or stop by the Citgo at Southport and I 65

(that Citgo is a 7-11. two sponsors, from two different drivers and teams. that's an odd combination)

[ACTF_ZETT]

How Marco keeps parking his car is beyond me. That is unacceptable from my standpoint. How can Kanaan and Dario handle these tracks and Danica and Marco keep complaining. However, complaining is one thing, parking the car is another.

This has nothing to do with the Indy 500 though. You know that every Andretti Green car is going to be hooked up for the race. I would still say the Indy 500 winner would have to be a Penske, Andretti, or AGR driver.

I also heard that after the race Michael called a team meeting with Kanaan and Danica. I was wondering what that was about. I havnt seen the replay but from what you have said here, it was not either of their faults.

Interesting that the Ganassi cars cannot make it through a race without getting a penalty of some sort.

[Alexamateo]

How Marco keeps parking his car is beyond me. That is unacceptable from my standpoint. How can Kanaan and Dario handle these tracks and Danica and Marco keep complaining. However, complaining is one thing, parking the car is another.


Really, with the exception of Wheldon and Dixon, everybody was complaining during the first segment(heck, Hornish lost a lap :eek: ), but everyone else worked on their cars and made them better, even Milka.

To me Danica has problems passing cars, she'll be fast, but then spend too much time riding behind a slower car at their pace. (i.e. she'll spend 25-30 laps trying to get around Manning, and leave him when she does get around.) Franchetti or Kanaan wouldn't spend more than 3 or 4 laps setting them up getting around a car like that.

Getting back to Marco, I don't know what the problem is. The great ones don't have to have a perfect handling car and/or will work with the crew to get it better. I hope for his sake this is just a fluke thing, but it's happened twice now. :dozey:

[Easy Drifter]

Marco does not seem to be able to deal with an ill handling car. It may be a lack of experience but you also have to wonder about the engineering staff. Sam had a pig as well but the Penske boys figured out the problem and a cure as did most others with experienced teams and except for Chip's boys almost everybody had problems. Possibly AGR are spread a little too thin with 4 cars. If so Indy could be even worse.
There are some drivers who just cannot figure out handling problems and just try to drive around the problem. I worked for one like that and we had to try and see what the car was doing and fix any problem.
That could be the situation with Marco and to a lesser extent with Danica. AGR may have to move engineers around but that would probably upset TG and DF.
The joys of being a team boss.

[Toe_Knee_Jorge]

Not any more.

okay thanks then I wont feel bad going in to get my Kannan big gulp

[ChicagocrewIRL]

I think we need to bring back race day AM practices. Rest in peace Paul Dana, but you can't work on race and traffic setup without those practices.

Don't ask me how TCGR does it.... I DON'T KNOW !!. They cheat ??? HAHA

[Hoss Ghoul]

I think we need to bring back race day AM practices. Rest in peace Paul Dana, but you can't work on race and traffic setup without those practices.

Don't ask me how TCGR does it.... I DON'T KNOW !!. They cheat ??? HAHA

Really they should do away with 3 day shows on ovals. Just practice qualify race. Done.

[Cass]

I agree with easy drifter, regarding Marco. It is either an engineering issue where they cannot interupt what he is saying about his car, or he can not communicate the problems in a way that engineers can figure it out. Either way, he is showing a lack of experience here when it matters most. I doubt it is engineering as Kanaan and Dario appear to be ok. Danica is inexperienced to and she seems to complain about ill-handling. A trend perhaps?

So far 4 races and 3 DNF's (75% of the season), of the races, 3 have been on ovals, and that makes 50% for parking the car, and 25% for finding the wall which relates to ill-handling. What I make of this is either Marco is not willing to work through a problem (Hornish did it, and even Duno did it with help from her engineers), or he is unwilling to do so. Hornish had a pig of a car, his quote, and yet his team worked through it. Marco, parked the car with AGR valet parking services.

If you think that this kind of mentality in refusing to finish something he starts is going to land him in favor in F1, there are dreams abound. If Hornish can dominate in the past, Kanaan a few years ago, Helio, Dixon, Wheldon etal, and not one get a real full on competition test in F1, there is no way a name alone will land a ride.

I would hope that if he parks the car at Indy, MA would give him his walking papers right back to Star Mazda to hone his craft further.
Cass

[Hotlavaaaa]

I would hope that if he parks the car at Indy, MA would give him his walking papers right back to Star Mazda to hone his craft further.
Cass

Sending Marco back to a road racing series is going to help his oval craft how? Oval racing is not Marco's craft anyways. He is a road racer and he is wasting his time in the IRL if F1 is where he wants to end up some day. Now is the time for him to be in GP2.

[Hotlavaaaa]

Marco is not ready for GP2 now either, but that's OK neither is Graham. They both have a ways to go to have a presense at that level.

You're probably right, but at least Graham is driving in a series that will actually prepare him for where he wants to end up.

[Hoss Ghoul]

Marco is not ready for GP2 now either, but that's OK neither is Graham. They both have a ways to go to have a presense at that level.

He ran 2nd in his 3rd race in Champ Car and he's not ready for GP2? Granted it was only one race, but what does your comment say about CC then?

I don't recall Marco having these problems last year, but if it happens again I think it would be fair to call it a trend, and not a good one...

[Komahawk]

Marco did well in St Pete, far better than for instance Wheldon. I doubt the F1-folks care much for his oval-results. However he won't win the IRL-title with road races, and don't forget he wants to win Indy.

[Marbles]

With the resources that AGR have at their disposal, I find Marco's dropping out of these races to be troubling. Being off the pace okay, but being out to lunch?
The only other driver I recall dropping out of races more than once because "they had the wings on upside down" was Brian Herta and to be honest I never felt the same way about him afterwards. But Marco is still very young and hopefully he'll get it together.

[uncre8tv]

Hi, Joined the forum just to post in this thread.

I've been an Indy Car fan since I saw Danny Sullivans spin and win on TV when I was 8 years old in '85, but hadn't followed that closely in a few years. But I just went to my first race in person at the KS Speedway and it was a great time.

I am a fan of the AGR personalities, and was watching Danica's pit with the binocs when the collision happened. I saw the right front guy wave her on, then after he'd cleared out of the way Kanaan came in hot. Neither drivers fault, bad call on Danica's pit team. I am buying a scanner next time just 'cause I was sure that would be an entertaining conversation on the AGR radios.

The racing was good, much better than on TV. Without a scanner the only sign I had that control was an issue was the fact that I was hearing TONS of backfires from what I can only assume was throttle lift as they hit the apex of the tri-oval (start-finish) during the first 40 laps. After the first round of pits only the 6 car kept doing it, and it was so loud I thought the thing would blow up! They "looked" glued to the track to my amature eye. Had a great mid-race battle for the 2nd spot (can't remember which cars) that had two cars running side by side for a half dozen laps.

Danica looked way more aggressive than she had been in prior races before that first pit, then got back to her old follow-the-leader ways, maybe shocked back into caution by the collision.

23 was hilariously slow the first few laps, figured she'd be black flagged. Seemed to get it up to snuff after awhile though.

We saw the black flag and had no clue what was up. We were speculating a pit-lane overspeed or something. The flag waved at least three times before Dixon came in, long enough for us to start watching the flag man to try and figure out who it was (he was in a pack of 4 at the time).

Only other note was that I couldn't pick Sarah Fisher out of the pack, which is a good thing I suppose. I bought a program just so I could figure out where she was (didn't know her number). Figured I'd be able to just look for the slow car to find her. Hopefully she'll have a good showing the rest of the year.

I am hooked, and will not miss another IRL race here at my home track. Trying to talk the Mrs. into a road trip might take a few seasons though. The size of the cars is what surprised me most compared to TV, they're HUGE compared to how they look even in HD. I was underwhelmed by the sound until the green flag lap, and then WOW that is a cool sound when they're at speed. At pace speed they just sounded like so many high-strung street cars. Also the breeze from all those cars was awesome. (I was row 20, just high enough to see the whole track - half way down the grandstand from the start-finish). Ethanol smell remined me of the nitro RC fuel when I went to see a friend race 1/8 scale.

[Alexamateo]

Welcome uncre8tv (uncreative?) :)

Good comments from someone who was there. This is the best forum on the web in my opinion, very international in nature so it provides some unique insights on American racing. CHeck out "Name that car" in the CHamp car forum, it's a lot of fun. There's always interesting topics in "CHit CHat" too. It tends to be pro-champcar here, but that's ok. You could also check out trackforum.com for a more pro-IRL perspective. (and surprise, surprise, you'll find a lot of the same people there as here.) ;) :)

[Mark in Oshawa]

Heck, this forum for Indy Car is a haven for the IRL guys if they would have it, but they like to troll over in Champ Car land. I hope uncre8tv you are one of the more respectful and honest fans to go over there and not just go to be a troll. I try to be more IRL sensitive to my thoughts on this forum than I am in Champ Car land, but I am out front in admitting I like aspects of both series, and I loved the Indy 500. I still like it, but OW racing just hasn't been the same since 1995....and Indy is the biggest victim of this "war".

[Toe_Knee_Jorge]

Not any more.
I checked it out this weekend and the 7-11/Citgo sign is still up just kind of odd

[45 Below]

To be even-handed I think there is plenty of trolling in the other direction as well Mark - but I don't count you amongst them. I've always appreciated your well-reasoned posts.

Welcome uncre8tv.