Indy 500 Postrace thoughts..

CrazyPsycho · Post by **CrazyPsycho** » Sun May 28, 2006 4:37 pm

Wow. Most of the race was pretty bland, there was some good sections of racing, but overall Wheldon stunk up the show early.

My hands were shaking for those last 5 laps. I was really surprised how fast Hornish was at the end there, and I think if Marco had a bit more experienced he doesn't give Hornish that massive draft he gave him. That might have been the most intense finish that I've seen with all the outside drama factored in.

pigpen81 · Post by **pigpen81** » Sun May 28, 2006 4:39 pm

wow...wow...wow...wow...wow....what a finish.

My wife and I were jumping up and down hoping ofr an Andretti 1-2....but congrats to Hornish with an incredible pass in the last seconds....incredible!

wpw721 · Post by **wpw721** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:08 pm

pigpen81 wrote:wow...wow...wow...wow...wow....what a finish.

My wife and I were jumping up and down hoping ofr an Andretti 1-2....but congrats to Hornish with an incredible pass in the last seconds....incredible!

Same situation at my house. What a great race!

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:12 pm

Holy crap...the Indy 500 was today? Woops. Apparently racing doesn't get enough coverage on sports websites or Sportscenter...I had NO IDEA whatsoever that the race was today...and I'm pissed I missed it.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:23 pm

Thank goodness at least an American won the Indy 500 in recent years. It was bitter sweet as I was hoping an Andretti would win today but i'm happy for Sam.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:33 pm

Unbelievable finish.

What a hot f*cking day at the track--possibly the hottest ever.

Had the scanner on Marco's frequency for the last lap. His post-race quote sums it up for now:

"Where the F*CK did that come from."

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun May 28, 2006 6:52 pm

Rodster wrote:Thank goodness at least an American won the Indy 500 in recent years. It was bitter sweet as I was hoping an Andretti would win today but i'm happy for Sam.

Buddy Rice of Phoenix won in 2004.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun May 28, 2006 6:52 pm

Dave wrote:Unbelievable finish.

What a hot f*cking day at the track--possibly the hottest ever.

Had the scanner on Marco's frequency for the last lap. His post-race quote sums it up for now:

"Where the F*CK did that come from."

Tied for the fourth hottest ever, at 89. Hottest was 92 in 1937.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun May 28, 2006 7:09 pm

pk500 wrote:Tied for the fourth hottest ever, at 89. Hottest was 92 in 1937.

Heard that on the news. This could be the first time that Donald Davidson has given me bad information!

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun May 28, 2006 10:10 pm

Dave:

The only reason I know is because I called the National Weather Service this morning in Indianapolis and e-mailed them all 89 previous Race Day dates, and they sent me a report with the high temperature for each of those days, including a top-10 ranking of the warmest Race Days, within about two hours.

One of the few times my tax dollars actually worked!

Take care,
PK

sfz_T-car · Post by **sfz_T-car** » Mon May 29, 2006 1:16 am

Enough about the weather already.

It was an incredible finish to a very exciting 500. The long green flag stint after the Bucknum-Chesson accident weeded the pretenders out. Wheldon looked to be the class of the field but after a few stops, the other teams closed the gap. ABC never really explained why Castroneves dropped back. His crew put a lot of wing in but he continued to lose ground and was sunk after his fuel strategy didn't work out.

It would have been very ironic if Michael Andretti pulled out a win at Indy with an uncompetitive car after failing in the past as the class of the field. If the Giaffone crash hadn't brought out the late yellow, it would have been Michael and Hornish. Hornish was gaining before the yellow and probably would have caught any Andretti (Mario included) today.

Marco probably could have still won if he'd been more aggressive on the last lap. His line in 3-4 looked very conservative to me. Hornish pulled out a blinding lap but his great run on the final straight was as much to do with Marco not getting a fast exit.

Mrs. Z and I were standing and yelling in our living room. She's not a huge race fan but she's watched enough over the years to know this one was special.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon May 29, 2006 3:40 am

Great race, piss poor announcing.

Why the announcer said Hornish wins the Daytona, I mean Indy. WTF. Did Nextel get to him last night.

Second year in a row that Patrick raced well. We'll see what Marcus Andretti does next year.

The passing between the two leaders, I think with 40 laps to go down turn 4 and into the straight-away was incredible.

This is the only race I watch in it's entirely and I was a borning first half but great finish. I was rooting for Danica and Michael Andretti.

Speaking of racing, there was a ton of racing on broadcast tv today. F1 race from Monaco? I don't know where it was. Then Indy, and the Nascar. I only watched Indy and F1 as I can't stand NASCAR.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:38 am

it should be easy to find a torrent of it on the web

dbdynsty25 wrote:Holy crap...the Indy 500 was today? Woops. Apparently racing doesn't get enough coverage on sports websites or Sportscenter...I had NO IDEA whatsoever that the race was today...and I'm pissed I missed it.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:23 am

Wheldon was putting in a vintage Michael Andretti performance early in the race. He really looked untouchable. Wonder what would have been had he avoided the rear-tire puncture that led to his earlier pit stop.

Danica was racy yesterday and was easily the fastest Panoz in the field, dusting her teammate Rice. For one particular stint I thought she was gaining on almost everyone and she passed Marco and Dario.

She also led to the biggest gaffe by the PA crew at the track after getting caught out by a yellow. She was a lap down but the leaders had to pit, yet Colabro went on-and-on about how she was going to be in the lead, leading to a big cheer from the crowd. But alas, she was just on the tail end of the lead lap.

Just a great finish though. I was half-expecting Herta to "accidently" drift up in one of the turns to bring out a race-ending yellow, but fortunately that didn't happen and Hornish was able to blast his way from fourth to first in four laps. I thought the kid was going to hold him off after slamming the door in three heading to the white-flag lap. But Hornish's last lap was about 5 mph faster than Marco's.

Hornish made the latest-ever pass for the win, didn't he? The other two in the top-three closest finishes had the leader holding off the challenger.

Oh yeah, PK, you still near the track today?

pigpen81 · Post by **pigpen81** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:47 am

I am still buzzing about that pass.....my heart is still sinking for the Andretti's.

Class move by the Andretti team (Herta included) to not block or caution a win for themselves.

Question is, would Penske's team done the same if the situation was reversed?

sfz_T-car · Post by **sfz_T-car** » Mon May 29, 2006 3:59 pm

I've rooted against Team Penske since Mark Donohue's death, but I don't think they would stoop to gamesmanship if the 500 was on the line.

The Captain has always been a class act whether they were dominant or on the rare occasions when they've been down. It would have been easy for Phillip Morris to write a check to get one of the qualified cars to withdraw in 1995 when Emmo was first alternate. Instead of doing that, they withdrew Fittipaldi's car making some other driver the alternate in the event of a Carb Day incident.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:20 pm

Today is one of my least favorite days as a race fan.

I really have to wait another f*cking year to experience the Indy 500 again? Damn.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:59 pm

The only day every year that brings me as much complete joy and astonishment than Race Day at Indy is seeing my kids' excitement and expressions as they open gifts on Christmas morning.

There's simply no single day in my sporting world -- hell, almost in my personal world -- that compares to being at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Race Day for the Indianapolis 500. Nothing is even remotely close. Race Day at Indy is about the only day of the year that I don't need an alarm clock or my wife to wake me up in the morning. I always instinctively snap out of bed a few minutes before my alarm is scheduled to buzz, even if it is 4:55 a.m.

Race Day at Indy is magical, mystical, emotional, inspirational and incredible, all in one.

Take care,
PK

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:22 pm

pk500 wrote:There's simply no single day in my sporting world -- hell, almost in my personal world -- that compares to being at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Race Day for the Indianapolis 500. Nothing is even remotely close.

Race Day at Indy is magical, mystical, emotional, inspirational and incredible, all in one.

Absolutely. Tie in the fact that it is one of the big events for me and my old man and you have an event I'll try never to miss.

I don't have kids yet but I've already thought about the day three generations of the Dave clan spend a day at IMS together.

snaz16 · Post by **snaz16** » Mon May 29, 2006 11:12 pm

pk500 wrote:The only day every year that brings me as much complete joy and astonishment than Race Day at Indy is seeing my kids' excitement and expressions as they open gifts on Christmas morning.

There's simply no single day in my sporting world -- hell, almost in my personal world -- that compares to being at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Race Day for the Indianapolis 500. Nothing is even remotely close. Race Day at Indy is about the only day of the year that I don't need an alarm clock or my wife to wake me up in the morning. I always instinctively snap out of bed a few minutes before my alarm is scheduled to buzz, even if it is 4:55 a.m.

Race Day at Indy is magical, mystical, emotional, inspirational and incredible, all in one.

Take care,
PK

Amen to that PK
I just got back this evening to Fla from Indy. Never been to a race of any kind,and really never followed racing a whole lot before,but what an incredible day I experienced yesterday. Other than I got a massive buzz in my ears(Anyone who goes to this for the 1st time,shell out the 2 clams for earplugs,along with that 1st beer),or the fact that I managed to delete the 20 or so pictures I had on my digital(perhaps they should have just 1 more button push that says...HEY MORON>>>YOU REALLY WANT TO DELETE "ALL" OF THESE!!)damn I p!ssed,it was simply one of the greatest experiences I've had in my 50 yrs of life. I sat directly across from Castroneve's pit. Got to see Hornish Jr pit where he got penalized,and every one around there thought he was done. I don't know much about the strategy, but it could have been easy to just place ,but he got on it,and never gave up,it was impressive.
And Danica ran a solid race,she is really fearless. She made a move early on,around the 1st turn,cutting inside,and almost locked tires up with another car. She fell back early,but came on,got up to 5,before that pit gaffe,she belongs out there.
I'm glad I got the oppurtunity to see one of the greatest sports spectacle's,and I take away a newfound respect for Indy car,and racing in general.
And 1 other observance, no other major sports venue that I know of,allows you to bring any kind of liquor(no glass)into it,yet for the most part,no problems. They call the Fla-Ga. game,the largest cocktail party in the world......I don't think so

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon May 29, 2006 11:21 pm

Snaz:

That's fantastic, man. Glad you had such a great time. Come again next year, and maybe we can meet!

P.S.: You sure picked one hell of a race with which to pop your Indy cherry!

Take care,
PK

vanburen · Post by **vanburen** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:01 am

it ended up being a fantastic race.

from the home viewing perspective, it was extremely frustrating. I have no idea why nascar can be in hd on 3 different channels (fox, tnt, nbc) and not have the greatest race in hd. can anyone explain this decision by abc?

also, commercials are oppressive. thankfully, I watched on dvr, stopped, rewound whenever I wanted so I could then skip thru the breaks later.

maybe it's indy's way of making fans really want to be there in person rather than on their couch.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:10 am

vanburen wrote:from the home viewing perspective, it was extremely frustrating. I have no idea why nascar can be in hd on 3 different channels (fox, tnt, nbc) and not have the greatest race in hd. can anyone explain this decision by abc?

Yep. I watch NASCAR occassionally even though I'm not a big fan just because it looks fantastic in HD and the kids like watching it. I would have watched quite a bit of the race and maybe even recorded it if it was in HD, but since I'm only a casual fan I only watched about 10 minutes once I saw it wasn't in HD.

Neckthai · Post by **Neckthai** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:49 pm

Here's why we don't broadcast any of our races in HD:

Technology. Our broadcasts utilize 180-degree pan in-car camera, remote controlled wall cameras and lipstick cameras that are not fully HD compatible. We feel it adds to our broadcasts. As of now, we won't broadcast in HD until we can do it the way we want to do it.

I don't have an HDTV, so I don't know if the NASCAR broadcasts are fully HD. I'd be curious to see if the in cars and wall cameras used by FOX and NBC/TNT are HD.

vanburen · Post by **vanburen** » Tue May 30, 2006 5:04 pm

Neckthai wrote:Here's why we don't broadcast any of our races in HD:

Technology. Our broadcasts utilize 180-degree pan in-car camera, remote controlled wall cameras and lipstick cameras that are not fully HD compatible. We feel it adds to our broadcasts. As of now, we won't broadcast in HD until we can do it the way we want to do it.

I don't have an HDTV, so I don't know if the NASCAR broadcasts are fully HD. I'd be curious to see if the in cars and wall cameras used by FOX and NBC/TNT are HD.

I appreciate your honesty, but as an HD-tv owner/viewer, I'd take some cameras in HD and some in regular, like a sportscenter broadcast or golf coverage vs. none.

I'm no nascar fan, but I don't believe the whole broadcast is in HD. it doesn't have to be. But it makes a HUGE difference if it's available. If I could see the car's number from the standard angle, I'd be able to follow the race so much better and consequently be a much bigger fan.

ABC has the technology b/c much of its sports is already in HD, especially with ESPN.

Don't wait to do it until it's how you want to do it. Do it when and how your viewers/customers want you to do it.