How it started…

…how it ended…

…and all the stuff in between…

Holy heat, Batman: As always, it was HOT in Fontana. First practice and qualifying happened in the heat of the day, with readings around 100 degrees, which really told the teams nothing about what race conditions would be like. Just like always at this track.

Heading toward the finish: Coming into this weekend, Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud were mathematically eligible to win the championship. It was a long shot for Pagenaud, but still possible to be a Penske party spoiler. Power had the upper hand and just needed a sixth or better finish to win.

Hold the phone: However…Power had an awful qualifying run (second from last) and Helio won the pole, making us all wonder if Will was succumbing to the nerves that have plagued him in the past. Simon Pagenaud qualified mid-field.

Horrible hit: In the final practice, the Rushin’ Russian Mikhail Aleshin tangled with the white line, spun up and over Charlie Kimball into the catchfence, destroying the fence, experiencing 97 lateral Gs and landing in the hospital with broken ribs and clavicle, severe concussion and chest injuries. Indy Race Place is sending all good thoughts and best wishes to Mikhail for a speedy recovery.

Hell: Must have felt like hell for Simon, who’s car was ill-handling from the start of the race. He was out of contention within the first 10 laps or so. He made many pit stops through the evening and toiled away in 20th place, where he finished the race. Not a happy ending for the Frenchman, but still a strong season for him and his team.

Hold on!: Only one yellow flag the whole race, when Ryan Hunter-Reay spun and slid but made no contact. His wild ride across the front stretch grass brought out an extended caution, as the sweeper trucks finally had a chance to clean up some of Fontana’s notorious sand, dirt and debris. And the restart was insane. The whole field was bunched up and cars were running four-wide at times, and Will Power decided it was time to go to the front, which he did with some bonzai moves that had me watching between my fingers.

Happiness x 3: When the laps were run, we saw the 11th different winner of the season in Victory Lane. Tony Kanaan took all year to get his first win with Chip Ganassi, and it was a delighted team, owner and driver that celebrated at the finish. Once out of his car, TK bent over and gave a long hug and kiss to wife Lauren Bohlander’s tummy – she’s so tiny that she isn’t showing much, but yep, there’s a li’l Kanaan due at the end of January! And Will Power put his demons to rest and clinched his first Verizon series championship, finally answering his own questions about his ability with a resounding “YES I CAN.” Pundits and fans alike think this is the first of many titles for the Aussie, who spent much of the public celebration looking stunned, relieved and exhausted. I’ll bet that was one huge party had by Team Penske last night.

—

With that, we’ve come to the end of a season of competition that will be hard to top. Many twists and turns on the way to this championship, with so many different winners and such a close field from top to bottom. Next season, we’ll have aero kits to create more diversity between teams. And we still don’t know all the venues we’ll be racing through. The off season will be too long, but there will be silly season news, baby news, aero kit news and schedule news to help tide us over. News junkie that I am, I still can’t wait until the next green flag flies.

How it started…

Points standings

Starting grid

…how it ended…

Race results

Points standings

…and all the stuff in between…

Simon’s Sad Saturday: Sitting third in the championship as the day started, Simon spent much of both practices sitting in the pits. His crew tinkered at both ends of his car and they just could not get handling and braking to suit Simon at Sonoma. He ended up qualifying 15th, with Helio Castroneves 6th and Will Power on the pole. Since starting position is everything here (no one’s won starting farther back than 5th), things didn’t look great for Simon’s chances after this sorry day.

SHAKEOUT 6.0: About 3:20 a.m. on race day, we all got a specially prepared wake-up call from mama nature and a little-known earthquake fault under Napa (one town east of Sonoma). For more about the aftermath of the quake, I recommend the bay area’s award-winning CBS affiliate, KCBS AM/FM.

Sloppy start: Climbing the hill from Turn 1 to 2 on the first lap, the field sprayed out across the track and runoff like fireworks exploding. Scott Dixon and James Hinchcliffe got together, leaving Hinch behind and causing Helio Castroneves and Sebastien Bourdais to scatter

Spinapalooza: At one point or another, we saw Sebastian Saavedra, Will Power, Helio, Juan Pablo Montoya, Carlos Huertas (and probably others I missed) spin, run off, cut the chicane, etc. After dominating the race early, Power found himself in the back quarter of the field, right behind his teammate and championship competitor Helio.

‘scuse me, coming through: On the lap 40 restart, Mike Conway decided someone else needed to lead some laps during this race, and he muscled his way to the front. The road course specialist impressed but did not surprise anyone with his move. Taking a page from Conway’s book, Graham Rahal passed the #20 machine on lap 64. Great stuff from the young American, but there was this small issue of low fuel that kept him from winning the race…

Scottied: Rahal had to stop for fuel, Conway was trying to to stretch his, and with three to go, Scott Dixon grabbed the lead and did what we’ve seen him do so many times: won the race.

Surprising: What looked in the early stages like a race that would solidify Will Power’s grasp on the championship turned out to keep the door open for Helio, Simon Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay. It won’t be easy, but things could have looked a lot worse for them if Power had led pole to finish like it looked like he might.

Sweeeeeeet!: Talk about a turnaround – Simon’s Sad Saturday was followed by a sweet sweet Sunday with a third place finish. He was playing the same fuel game as Mike Conway but managed to finish the race before the fuel ran out. It definitely turned frowns upside down in the #77 pits.

In case you didn’t hear, the race at Iowa Speedway Saturday night got more eyeballs than any NBCSN IndyCar broadcast since early 2012: 444,000, according to the Sports Business Journal. If YOU didn’t see it, you missed a very entertaining race that saw Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden blast out of nowhere in the last 10 laps to beat a very strong Tony Kanaan to the line.

@stevewittich, who tracks IndyCar facts and figures at The Setup Sheet, notes that IndyCar viewership is up 38% this season so far over the last couple of years. The racing product is exceptional, and with a double-header in Toronto coming up this weekend, that trend should continue. The DW12 chassis is strong and capable of withstanding quite a bit of wheel-to-wheel contact, and Toronto’s streets are tight and rough. Highly recommend tuning in.

After losing part of his front wing when he poked his nose past team mate Will Power to take the lead, Juan Montoya won his first race since returning to the Verizon IndyCar series this season. And it was not a surprise to anyone – Montoya started a little slow but has adapted well and contended for the win a few times as the season has progressed.

Other than the restart near the end where Montoya made his move and some other great passing took place, this Pocono 500 was a bit dull. However, the championship implications were huge – Will Power came in leading team mate Helio Castroneves by 39 points, and they left tied. Power racked up another penalty by blocking Castroneves and drawing a drive through, pretty much handing his team mate a raft of points. We’ll definitely remember this if the championship comes down to these two drivers.

As for the dull race – I’m certainly spoiled by the amazing street course racing the series produces. We’ve seen plenty of battles with drivers banging cars two wide through corners and chicanes and continuing their battles on the other side, thanks to the strength of the DW12 chassis. Tight battles and plenty of overtaking make for thrilling viewing, so a strung out affair on a big oval seemed a little uninteresting in comparison. Don’t get me wrong, I love ovals – it’s just that not all races are nail biters. This is also true of twisty races sometimes. We’re just lucky to have more races turn out exciting than not these days. It’s pretty special.

Now…if it weren’t such a big secret. Tune in and tell your friends, folks!

Hello, dear readers -

After a year of health issues and unexpected life events, I think it’s calmed down enough to rev this thing up and start chattering about IndyCar again. Look for some words about the season and this weekend’s Pocono 500, coming up tomorrow.

Yay!

James Hinchcliffe does Derek Daly – Spot. On.

IMS STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF ANDY GRANATELLI

INDIANAPOLIS, Sunday, December 29, 2013 – A statement from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles on the passing of Andy Granatelli, who passed away Sunday, December 29, 2013 in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 90.

“Andy Granatelli – known appropriately as “Mister 500″ – understood better than anyone the spirit and challenge of the Indianapolis 500 and had a remarkable ability to combine innovative technologies with talented race car drivers to make his cars a threat to win at Indianapolis every year,” said J. Douglas Boles, IMS. “Andy leaves a legacy of historic moments that will live forever in Indianapolis 500 lore including his famous turbine that dominated the 1967 Indianapolis 500, the Lotus 56 of 1968, and giving the great Mario Andretti a kiss on the cheek in victory lane after his 1969 win. Our thoughts and prayers are with Andy’s family, friends and legion of fans.”

Things haven’t been very active on this site this season, and there’s a mile-high pile of things I had planned for it sitting on my desk. Good intentions thwarted by life and health.

At this point, the best thing for me is to pause my participation in blogging and focus on putting things right elsewhere. My plan is to resume blogging, commentary and attending races in 2014.

Thanks for your patience, for reading and retweeting the IRP newspaper on paper.li (which runs itself and will continue) and I hope enjoy the rest of the season.

You can still find me on Twitter and Facebook if you want to get in touch. In the meantime, hope you are all happy and healthy and have a great  rest of 2013.

Bash

It’s been quiet here at the IRP blog, and it will be for another race or so. Due to health issues, I’ve not been able to follow closely enough to do any real commentary here. I’m hoping to resume more active posting starting with Toronto. Thanks for hanging with me.

–Bash

Here’s a sampling of the coverage from the opening weekend of Indy 500 practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Indy Star: Curt Cavin and Phillip B. Wilson talk with various participants throughout the day at IMS.

http://www.indystar.com/interactive/article/20130510/SPORTS0107/305100015/

Indy Star: Motor sports coverage

http://www.indystar.com/section/sports01

IMS: Live from IMS shares press conferences on a daily basis from the speedway.

http://new.livestream.com/IMS/events/2089440

IMS: Take a live look at what’s going on the the garage area.

http://www.livestream.com/gasolinealley

WFNI: Hear the weekend edition podcasts of the Talk of Gasoline Alley with IMS Historian Donald Davidson.

http://www.1070thefan.com/podcast/Episodes.aspx?PID=2158

WTHR: Indycar coverage

http://www.wthr.com/category/65303/indycar

RTV6: Indycar coverage.

http://www.theindychannel.com/sports/indycar

RTV6: Oriol Servia interview.

http://www.theindychannel.com/sports/indianapolis-500/indycar-driver-oriol-servia-channels-salvador-dali

WISHTV: Indycar coverage.

http://www.wishtv.com/subindex/sports/auto_racing/indycar

FOX59: Sports coverage.

http://fox59.com/sports/

Blogs, web-based media: See our”You Should Read…”  links on the left to view news from the weekend.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

(Apologies to Edward Pola and George Wyle.)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With opening bombs booming
And IndyCars zooming
As fans stand to cheer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year

It’s the hap-happiest season of all
With Firestones gripping
And racers all slipping
To stay off the wall
It’s the hap-happiest season of all

There’ll be parties for hosting
Last row ‘ers for roasting
And spectators raring to go
There’ll be thrilling old stories
And tales of the glories
Of five hundreds long, long ago

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
There’ll be tearful milk drinking
And princesses winking
As spectators cheer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year

——–

Happy May, IndyCar fans!

Many moons ago, back on April 9, I posted that my Barber thoughts were coming soon. Best laid plans met with a full-on bout of arthritis in my hand – what little typing I could do had to be saved for my 9-5 content strategy job. Still struggling a bit, but I wanted to at least drop by for a few lines as The Month of May arrives.

About Barber – I thought it was very entertaining. Since the DW12 was introduced, the racing has vastly improved at this track and now I look forward to this weekend for more than the scenery. And it was good to see the Penske lock on this race be broken by Ryan Hunter-Reay, especially after his rough start at St. Pete.

And then….Long Beach. It was weird not being there in person, covering the race for one site or another. On the plus side, I was able to find a private spot at home very easily so I could breathe into a paper bag during the race. Thrilling stuff, and I was delighted to see “smaller” teams on the podium and the historic win by Takuma Sato.

Brazil can be so unpredictable, so we could have another edge-of-the-seater this weekend. I need to replenish the paper bag supply…

If my hand permits, there will be more typing here in a couple days. Maybe I should get some speech-to-type software.

Thanks for your patience.

We repainted, swept and cleared out some clutter. Hope ya like our new look!

We highly recommend attending the WIT – it’s an epic way to chase away off season blues and rev up for INDYCAR 2013! Details and a link to sign up for events are here:

http://winterindytweetup.wordpress.com/

Don’t dally around…sign up today before the tickets run out!

All the best to IndyCar fans around the globe – here’s to a great 2013!

We hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday season and wish you a safe and happy 2013!