One year ago, we were wondering where all the white-knuckle, wheel-to-wheel action at Texas Motor Speedway had gone.
Last year’s Firestone 550k was a processional affair, a far cry from the exciting action that had been the IndyCars’ calling card at TMS. Maybe memories of that, along with the near triple-digit heat in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, played a role in why attendance for this year’s Texas shootout only reached a bit over 70,000 — a strong showing, but still a bit off from the 100,000+ souls that the race used to pull in some time ago.
But Saturday’s race was a rebirth of sorts for the thrilling ‘pack racing’ that was sorely missed in 2009 at the ‘Great American Speedway.’ It was the first race at Texas with the speedway aerodynamic package that debuted last summer at Kentucky and it appeared to help give the drivers a second groove to play with throughout the night.
Last year, the package produced two memorable oval races: its Kentucky debut and the 300-miler at Chicagoland. Saturday’s event seemed to strike a medium between the two, packing more punch than the former but not quite reaching the cringe-inducing heights of the latter.
In any case, it was fun to watch. Perhaps we’ll see the stands at TMS a bit more packed in 2011.
Let’s count some beans…
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1. Briscoe spoils the Danica show. It was clear that Danica Patrick was the fan favorite on Saturday night, especially when she took the lead from Ryan Briscoe with 37 laps remaining. But Briscoe grabbed the point right back on the next lap and pulled away to secure Team Penske’s 39th victory in IZOD IndyCar Series competition. “Surprised I didn’t have anything thrown at me,” said Briscoe about beating Patrick. Nonetheless, it’s probably a safe bet more people are paying attention to her second-place run than his victory. PLUS 5.
2. Danica keeps momentum rolling. After coming away with sixth at the Indianapolis 500, Patrick quickly showed that she would be a contender for the win in Texas and stayed in the hunt until the end. “No matter how good you are, how brave you are or anything, it comes down to that car so many times,” she said about her stout No. 7 machine. “Not every time, but so many times. It was a good car tonight. The stops were good. It was probably my best, cleanest race.” PLUS 5 for her efforts, but somebody was begging to differ on the ‘cleanest’ part…
3. Chop, chop? …And that somebody was her Andretti Autosport teammate Tony Kanaan, who lost a major amount of track position after Patrick appeared to come down and block Kanaan on the backstretch at Lap 120. After the race, he gave a warning to her — “What goes around, comes around.” Keep this little moment filed away for future reference, just in case. MINUS 3.
4. Trial by fire. After Simona de Silvestro crashed on Lap 97, fire began to consume her broken machine — and it took the safety crew over 30 seconds to get her out of the flames. Thankfully, all De Silvestro came away with was some burns to her right hand. But I’d really like to hear from the crew why it took so long for them to extricate her. This was a scary scene that, like Mike Conway flying into the fence at Indy, could have been far worse. MINUS 20.
5. Helio’s not happy. A furious Helio Castroneves got in Mario Moraes’ face after they wrecked together in Turn 4 on Lap 129. Castroneves maintained that he had a run on the high side, to which Moraes responded by saying that his spotter didn’t tell him he had a car on the outside. He then dipped into the sarcasm well: “He’s Helio Castroneves, he never makes any mistakes,” he told Versus reporter Robbie Floyd. My view: While Moraes shouldn’t have called out his spotter like that, it sure looked like he had no indication of Castroneves charging towards him. MINUS 5.
6. Hunter-Reay’s last ride? Ryan Hunter-Reay’s sponsorship funding was slated to run out after Saturday’s race, but by jumping 17 spots to finish seventh at the checkers, he at least went down fighting. Will we see him again in 2010? PLUS 5.
7. Andretti Autosport closing the gap. All four of their cars cracked the top seven, led by Danica’s runner-up performance (Marco Andretti was third; TK sixth; RHR seventh). How long will it be before the Triumvirate returns in full effect? PLUS 5.
8. Back to the good stuff. IndyCar racing at TMS has been revived…And there was much rejoicing. PLUS 15.
This week’s tally: +7 beans.
Season tally (after seven events): +52 beans.
