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.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 9:37 pm and is filed under ICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.