1. Will Power set for another rampage? His third victory of the season appears to have him keyed for another tear through the road/street courses. Next up is Toronto, where he finished third last year in what was then a part-time ride with Team Penske. And that was when he drove without setting the car up to his liking…Oh dear… PLUS 3.
2. Um…Where is everybody? The main grandstand at Watkins Glen was sparse and that’s putting it mildly. Granted, people tend to spread out at a road course, but everytime you saw the almost empty red seating in the ABC-TV overhead shots, you got the feeling that this event (as it’s been rumored) is just about done. MINUS 15.
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay gets a full season. Justice has prevailed. Now if only the same would happen for Graham Rahal. PLUS 15.
4. ABC’s coverage fails. I think we knew what we were in for when the start of the race had Vince Welch still doing his “moments-before-the-green-flag pit road monologue.” Don’t forget the multiple missed restarts as well. And oh yeah, Marty Reid: Who’s ‘Raffi’ Matos? MINUS 15.
5. Solid runs for Rafa Matos/Mario Moraes. Matos matched his best result of 2010 with his fourth-place effort, while Mario Moraes got a nice fifth-place finish for KV Racing Technology — who had all three cars running at the end of the race! Although there was E.J. Viso’s qualifying shunt, so it wasn’t a clean weekend if you think about it… PLUS 5.
6. Dark horses go missing. Lots of drivers that you’d expect to be factors at the Glen weren’t on Sunday. Folks like Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Justin Wilson just weren’t able to create and sustain challenges against the front-runners. MINUS 8.
This week’s tally: -15 beans.
Season tally (after nine events): +47 beans.
