I didn't get to watch the Kansas IndyCar race live, but I did record it and I watched it this morning. Here are a few of my thoughts from the race:
- Looks like Jay Howard has put SFR behind the 8 ball going into Indianapolis. I'm not sure how Sarah Fisher Racing is fixed for back up cars and spares, but that car looked heavily damaged. That team is really going to have work hard and hope for the best because Indy qualifying will be up coming up fast
- Hideki Mutoh and Takuma Sato were impressive until the restart with 14 to go. Sato did well for his first oval race. Hideki Mutoh did a good job prior to crashing with Takuma Sato, racing in the top 10 for part of the race. It looks like Newman Haas is getting their Oval house in order. I would have loved to have seen what Graham Rahal could have done with the car. Takuma Sato did quite well for his first ever oval race. No doubt racing for KV helped him out (I'm sure he got good advice from Vasser) but you have to be impressed with Sato being in the top 10 prior to the crash.
- Has the Kansas race been all that much better than the street course races? I'm sure some will disagree but I don't think so. While there was some good racing in the pack and there some battles for P2 and P3 at times, the race for P1 was never really in doubt. I just don't get how the Oval-Centric folks say that this is more exciting; road/street courses and ovals are equally exciting in different ways. On ovals you have wheel to wheel racing, on road and street courses you have the excitement of seeing who can brake the latest or who can control their car deeper into the corners.
- Andretti Autosport may not have fully sorted out the ovals, but it looks like @ and @ certainly did for Kansas. Danica Patrick finished 1 lap down in P11 and Marco Andretti finished 2 laps down in P13 but Tony Kanaan finished P3 in front of Castroneves and Ryan Hunter Reay finished P5 in front of Ryan Briscoe. They didn't beat the Ganassi cars, but they did beat the Penske cars. Finishing in front of one of the giants isn't bad considering the Andretti team's last few seasons. Obviously there is improvement to be made by two of the Andretti cars, but this race shows that 2 of their cars are definitely getting with the program.
- P3 for @! Good to see one of my favorites back on the podium. Congratulations TK!
Mac McCormick III
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