Well, the George Sisters (plus one lawyer) have ruled, and Tony George is out as head of Hulman & Company, the master company of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC, the Indy Racing League, LLC, and the Clabber Girl Corporation.

I think a lot of people in the IndyCar Internet Community owes ol’ Robin Miller an apology.

Turns out, Robin Miller was right.  Except people are *still* arguing that Robin Miller was wrong in the first ten posts I read on an IndyCar forum.  That’s why I read forums less and less these days.

The real question at this point is what changes?  Well, as this Robin Miller article rhetorically asks,

At least one of the sisters supposedly wants IMS out of the racing series business and wants to return to the ‘80s and early ‘90s when a series like CART controlled the racing except for May, when it competed at Indianapolis. And that’s certainly not an unreasonable thought, butt for figuring out who else would be willing to step up and either buy or finance IndyCar, given its current balance sheet?

That sister is S.O.L., unless you want to give Memorial Day to the cabs.  That would destroy my everything.

Come this Tuesday, according to Robin Miller on The SPEED Report, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway "may" make an announcement that will define Tony George’s job.  He then speculated some situations, but says that "everybody in the paddock hopes he still has got some power to keep the Indy Racing League going."  We’ll see.  It might be significant.

Wait, I thought Robin completely made this up?

OK, I would never write a snuff piece on the League I care so much about, but I’ve got to be honest.  The single most exciting part of this race was staring at the monitor, watching the time difference between Graham and Dixon.  It fluctuated between 1 and 5 seconds, but in the end, it was 2.5.  The problem with that is I spend my entire work week staring at numbers and plots.  I don’t really look for that in my racing.

This race was a borderline disgrace.  I don’t know what can be done to the rules.  Was the minimum wing angle too much for this track, causing them to have to brake less into the turns?  Would more downforce allow them to get in closer to make the pass?  I understand you have limits on the 1.5 mile tracks, because it is a necessity to keep speed down, but would an average 170 mph versus 150-160 mph be dramatically more unsafe here?  I don’t know.  I’m just a weatherman.

There is an unpleasant feeling about the inner track area.  Everyone knows this was a flop.  Wedge commented that people were leaving with 100 laps to go.  Dario said post-race that he “really apologize[s] to fans because that was a dreadful race tonight.”  As he just walked into the media center, he asked the press if they were still awake.

Props should be given to Newman Haas Lanigan.  In the post race press conference, Graham said that “com[ing] home second to the Target team is like a victory to us.”  His first podium on an oval, he feels that his finish gives him momentum into the road courses.  Really, they were one of the two bright spots of the evening.  In terms of actually making movement in the race, though, he admitted that he “passed maybe two guys the entire race.”

Dario’s mistake, according to him, was using too much fuel to try and pass Mutoh.  That little extra fuel could have prevented him from needing the splash-and-go’s under the Conway yellow.  The parity between the performance of the two TCGR cars was essentially what prevented them from being racy with each other.  He was “pushing like hell to pass him, but [he and the team] couldn’t get it done.” Dario wrapped up the race at Richmond pretty well by stating that “[the drivers] cannot get close enough to make [those] passes”, and said,  ”I don’t know what the deal is.”

Scott ran a masterful race, all things considered.  He showed, once again, that he’s the master of fuel conservation in this series.  Sure, no one, including Scott himself, wants to see a win based on fuel mileage.  Tonight, though, it was the reality, and that’s what got him the victory.  Of note in tonight’s win in that it ties Scott with Sam Hornish for most wins in series.  He “definitely wants one more.” Similarly, with the failure of the Penske cars tonight, he acknowledged that “anytime you can make a gain with the Penskes, you’ve got to take that and run with it.”  In terms of the Series championship, the Target 1-2 put Dario and Dixon ahead of Briscoe in the points standings, with Dario edging Dixon by a single point, the single point gained last night in qualifying.

In terms of the broken race, Dixon noted, “it was totally down to strategy.”

A final congratulations to EJ Viso for finishing his first race of the season.  Thirteen be darned, he did it. May his streak of horrific luck be done.

I’ve never been much of a live blogger.  Others do it, including Jeffrey “The King” Mynamesirl.  What I’ll type in this space is little more than my stream of consciousness.  It’ll be what it be.

8:00 - The change in pit temperature with respect to time has become positive as the pits have been upgraded from cold to hot.  By the location of the media center here at Richmond, that means I’m under lockdown.

8:20 - And the crowd goes mild!  Driver intros just concluded.  Danica got the loudest pop, as expected.  Helio second.  I think Bob Doornbos lost.  25% of the field came through the media center to use the potty.

8:23 - Speaking of crowds, I guess it’s a good crowd.  It’s impossible to judge anything in the upper levels, because they’ve got that goofy paint scheme to make the seats look full, even if they aren’t.  The seats wrap around the track, but everything beyond the apex of turn one to turn 4 is closed.  Of the general admission seats, the last open section in turn one is the fullest.  I’ve got no way to estimate how many people are actually in the hizzy, though.

8:34 - Classy national anthem by the national guard band, and an awesome flyover by a refueling jet, with the refueling hose hanging out.  I got chills.

8:35 - Race control - Row 1 in, 2 in, 3 out, 4 in, 5 in, 6 in, 7 in, 8 in, 9 in, 10 in

8:37 - All HD tvs have been switched to either T&S or Versus.  Luckily, the CRT next to me is still on the track feed, so I’ll be unaffected by commercials.

8:40 - The miniscule chance of rain has been downgraded to Dean Wormer’s zero point zero.

8:41 - Engines started.  All hot.

Lap 1 - Green and ungreen.  Jaques puts the 3G car into the wall.

Lap 6 - The rubber Jack talks about is Hoosier rubber.

Lap 17 - Was that a chop by Ed?  Sure looks like he came down on Kanaan, and TK drops back.

Lap 25 - Ganassi checking out.  ~2sec lead over Briscoe.  Helio is in fourth and 5.5 sec back.

Lap 27 - Yellow for Briscoe.  He had completed every lap this season, but now Ganassi is free to run away with it.

Lap 31 - Pits, with Ganassi and Helio and others.  TK looks to have made progress on those stop.  Short fill?

Lap 33 - As AGR splits its strategy, being the only two not to pit, will we see a Danica or Hideki victory?

Lap 37 - Restart or not…let’s try it again

Lap 39 - Danica has nothing for Dario, loses the position, and wiggles in the process.

Lap 51 - Every time Dixon gets close to Danica, he ends up dropping back a half a second.  Is Miss Patrick If You’re Nasty throwing some blocks?

Lap 64 - Mutoh still P1, and it seems he’s driving cleanly.  Ain’t nobody running high, though.

Lap 72 - Danica and Dixon catching up to the leaders, DP is now .75 sec back.

Lap 76 - Coming up upon lapped traffic, they look happier just following in line instead of trying to pass high.

Lap 90 - The leaders are running in the 149 mph range.  The last running car, Mario Moraes, is running in the 149 mph range.  Hideki won’t push it, and Dario won’t push Hideki.

Lap 96 - Blow the hatches, we’re in lockstep.

Lap 101 - Has a position changed on track since right after the green?  I haven’t seen one.

Lap 106 - Dario is just waiting for Hideki to pit, I’m sure, and there he goes.  Lap 108

Lap 107 - Dario passes Moraes and checks out.  His lap speeds have gone up by four mph.

Lap 112 - Danica to the pits, and it’s officially the Ganassi show.  Helio 3rd, 3.5 sec behind second place Dixon

Lap 117 - Uhh, is it me or is this a stinker?

Lap 120 - Unless it stays green for the leaders this stint, the day is done for DP and Hideki.

Lap 131 - They got lucky, as it looks like pits are happening after ~90 laps of green.  Will they be a match for the TCGR in/out laps?

Lap 136 - So far, Hideki is the winner of those pitting.

Lap 139 - Aaaaannnddd that’s the race.

Lap 148 - Well, we’ll have 8 cars on the lead lap halfway through the race…feels like 1992!  Unification is officially undone!

Lap 155 - Restart.

Lap 168 - Looks like the Son of ‘Stache is the hope.

Lap 174 - They should put the derivative of the difference on T&S.  Graham has make up about two tenths, but is still 2.75 sec back.

Lap 196 - Graham making up time, 1.6 sec back.

Lap 199 - According to Wedge in the stands, fans are actually *leaving*.  Not good.

Lap 210 - Graham 1.3 sec back, Hideki 2.7 sec.  The Ganassi cars aren’t running anywhere near speed, though.  Then again, neither is Graham or Hideki.

Lap 215 - Hideki pits, throwing him back.

Lap 221 - Graham has a slow lap and loses half a second.

Lap 237 - Danica and Matos are running the quickest laps by far.  Probably not enough to actually tackle the relative lead the top three have after they all cycle through, though.

Lap 247 - Helio in the wall.  Not a good day for Penske.

Lap 255 - Well, Graham is pretty much the only hope (AGR in its entirety has some traffic to work through after the wave-around) to topple the Ganassi juggernaut.  When you look at best lap, though, Dixon has 2 mph on Graham, and Dario 1.5 mph

Lap 259 - My bad, TK and Marco are still a lap down.

Lap 263 - Aaaaand Checkout!  Team Ganassi, would you like paper or plastic?

Lap 280 - Come on, Ed…hold them up and make it interesting. (yes I’m permitting you to block)

Lap 181 - Graham has cut his deficit in half thanks to Ed.

Lap 285 - Graham within 1.2 sec of the leader, less than 1.0 to Dario.

Lap 291 - Graham loses four tenths.  Womp.

Lap 295 - I feel like Old Yeller.

Lap 300 - Our misery is ended.  Long live our misery.

Congrats to Viso for finishing a race.  You get my Tire-riffic vote.

We’re about six and a half hours from go-time here at Richmond, and activity in the garages is fairly limited. Team 3G, Coyne, KV, HVM, Foyt, and Newman-Haas are hard at work, while the rest of the teams have yet to remove the tarps from their garages.  The Panther car is also in the garage, but the crew tinkering on it. 

KV probably had a long night after Mario Moraes stuck it into the wall, bringing a premature end to last night’s 30 minute night practice.  The damage was to the rear, and the car is still not reassembled, with the right rear suspension and Honda engine still not attached.

Newman Haas looked hard at work on both cars, even though Graham’s car was fifth in both qualifying and last night’s practice.  Doornbos’ car is carrying the McDonalds arches as well this weekend, but not the Arctic Ice decaling.  The trim at the end of the sidepods still differs, as Bob Doornbos’ carries grey accents to go along with his 06 endplates versus the yellow of Graham’s endplates.