Stream of Consciousness for the SunTrust Indy Challenge
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.