Wheldon Wins, Simmons Spins, Women Wail
Written by Allan Brewer · March 25, 2007
An Irreverent Look at Saturday Night’s Indy 300 in South Florida
by Allan Brewer
allan@fastmachines.com
Dan, you are da’ man.
The Indy Racing League season commenced under the lights at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday night, and Dan Wheldon put emphatic point to what most of us already suspected: Dan is the man to beat in the championship race this year.
After playing possum with the rest of the field for three quarters of the race, Wheldon dropped the hammer bigtime in the last quarter of the 200 lap race. He darted through the field from ninth position, the result of another botched pit stop (more on that later), gobbling up competitiors like so many dots on a Pac-Man screen.
When he pushed past his own teammate Scott Dixon for the lead, he just kept on going.
He won in a landslide, as they say, pulling away.
It was so convincing I kept looking at my clock to see if I’d suddenly been smacked into the “Flux Capacitor” and drawn back to Shumey in the F2002 laying waste to the un-red infidels.
Sports Illustrated: Dan Wins Then Drops the Indy 500 Hint
Daily Breeze: Wheldon Takes Homestead Third Time
Indianapolis Star: Telling It Like It Is in Florida
Despite another “dropped wheel nut” everyone at Target Chip Ganassi Racing kept their cool. Even Chip Ganassi, interviewed immediately afterward on TV, kept the rage meter under control, simply offering another “Oh well
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Has there been a more vocal opponent to Danicamania than I? Much to my surprise I have to admit she did a very nice job of running a poor handling car up to 7th place prior to her “oops” pit lane entry. As it was her last pit stop she may have finished as high as 10th, but we’ll never know.
As for Sarah, not what I expected either. All of the driver’s seemed to have the wrong setup for night time running, except for Dashing Dan.
5 cars on the lead lap is also not a good sign for future competition. Hopefully Penske and AGR will bring more in future races.
Why does it surprise you Danica did well with an average race car, George?
She had an average car ALL LAST YEAR and got 8 top 8’s out of it, including a better run at Indy in 2006 than she had in 2005 and as I told you awhile back, she’s in the second tier of IRL drivers and I still believe that.
Lets give Fisher & D&R a couple of play themselves in before we give the girl a kicking. Danica on the other hand has plenty of experience & is running with one of the best teams, it’s time to perform on track…..not off it.
Despite what people think about Sara and Danica. They did finished better than Andretti and other “better” drivers but I do not hear anyone kicking them around.