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| RACING SCENE Column - (INDY 500) by Tim Kennedy |
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LOS ANGELES, CA. -- The month of May means Indianapolis 500 time for open-wheel racing fans. With unification of IRL and Champ Car teams on February 22, 2008 the buzz about the 92nd Indy 500 was back. “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” lived up to that Indy 500 phrase for the first time since the 1996 split of Indy car competition into two competing series. The race day crowd was quoted as 200,00 to 300,000 by various media sources and looked impressive on TV. Grandstand seating appeared to be full and the infield crowd was way up over recent years according to persons present at the track. ESPN2 and its corporate partner ABC Television (for the 44th year) again provided TV coverage all month. More than 50 hours almost satisfied the most rapid fans appetite. Brent Musberger again served as ABC-TV host on race day. On-air talent in the booth this year was an improvement with Marty Reid doing play-by-play and former Indy 500 drivers Scott Goodyear plus 1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever providing expert analysis. Scott and Eddie revealed on air that they were not on speaking terms at one point in their driving careers after an on-track racing incident. They overcame that past feud and worked well together during Eddie's “rookie” year as a 500 analyst. Eddie replaced 1989 NASCAR Cup champion Rusty Wallace who appropriately returned to NASCAR race analysis with his enthusiasm and stock car expertise. Veteran pit reporters Jack Arute, Vince Welch, Brienne Pedigo and Jamie Little hustled in the pits and garage area and provided informative interviews and breaking news reports, especially during the rainy hours of qualification and final practice days. Let's begin our review of the 2008 Indy 500 with notes from TV coverage of the month starting with six-hours of live coverage sponsored by GoDaddy.com on “Pole Day” Saturday, May 10. We will proceed through race day on Sunday May 25. Rain hampered practice time earlier in the week, but pole day was sunny, with blue sky and white clouds that promised a full day of speed to set the first 11 starting positions. Strong wind from different directions made time trials difficult. There were 13 Indy 500 rookies entered and 11 of them made the race. Qualification order numbers were drawn for 32 cars to attempt a shot at the $100,000 pole position. Each car could make three qualification runs per qualification day so re-qualifying was expected to win the pole. Ryan Briscoe pulled from the head of the qualification line at 12:05 Central Time and became the first qualifier. Watching all four qualification laps for each driver on live TV never fails to excite true fans. Each timed run is filled with suspense and dramatic action often occurs. TV coverage gave the age, height and weight of each qualifier, which was interesting. At 6'1” and 175 lbs. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 27, gave a significant weight advantage to 26-year old Danica Patrick at 5'2” and 100 lbs. On screen technology made viewers aware of whether each qualifier was in the green or red as far as a pole run was concerned. On bump day qualifiers speed was compared to the slowest or “bubble” speed with green or red signifying whether a qualifier was fast enough to make the race. A taped guided tour by driver Ryan Briscoe of the Penske Racing 425,000 sq. ft. racing shop on 105 acres was interesting. POLE DAY: Day one of four had opportunities for all cars to qualify plus times of open practice. TV coverage showed practice spins/crashes by Jaime Camara, Graham Rahal and Alex Lloyd. A new taped feature this year was interesting and informative. Various fans showed where they sit for the 500 and the view provided from their long-held seats. Then the selected fans told about their favorite 500 race memory they saw from those seats. Hideki Mutoh's first qualification run was disqualified for not having correct on-board ballast. The 25-year old Andretti-Green rookie from Japan re-qualified even faster (223.887 mph vs. 223.653) and made the fastest 11 qualifiers in ninth position. Helio Castroneves (5'8” - 147) became the 22nd driver to pull out to qualify and the 19th driver to qualify at 3:04 CT. Then three drivers—Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Briscoe--withdrew their already top 11 timed runs to re-qualify and go for the pole. All three drivers were rewarded with the three front row positions for their ambitious, risky drives for the pole. Always comical Wheldon told Arute, “I'm happy Chip (team owner Ganassi) let me go for it (the pole). In the past he's been a girl about it and didn't let me re-qualify.” Pole winner Dixon, 27, told a TV pit reporter, “It was a little scary out there. I nearly spun at turn two on the last lap.”Marco Andretti, 21, (5'6” - 135) withdrew his first run of 224.162 and improved his official speed to 224.417mph for seventh fastest speed in his colorful Dallara with the new Harrison Ford movie, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, as the sponsor. At At 5:44 pm CT 11th quickest qualifier Tomas Scheckter, 27, (5'11” - 160) withdrew his 223.779 earlier speed and re-qualified slower at 223.496 mph, which still held up for 11th best speed and made him a first day qualifier in the No. 12 co-owned by Roger Penske's son Jay. When pit reporter Arute interviewed Scheckter he said, “This is the best and worst of days at Indy.” The top three (front row) qualifiers earned $100,00, $25,000 and $10,000 respectively. Eighth fastest qualifier Vitor Meira, 31, (5'7” - 141) said his single- car Panther Racing entry making the top 11 first day qualifiers, “Feels good.” He credited the new National Guard sponsorship, a new engineer back with the team and wind tunnel time for the improvement of his No. 4 Dallara. He remains the most overdue driver for his first IRL victory. Dixon, from Auckland, New Zealand, enjoyed his first Indy 500 pole presentation on TV. DAY TWO: Rain washed out the entire second day of qualifying on Sunday, May 11. ESPN2 TV coverage by the rain-soaked camera crews, pit reporters and booth announcers was excellent. It gave viewers a chance to get to know the nine former Champ Car team drivers who made the 500 as rookies and the other newcomers in IRL ranks. By my count TV had interviews on air with 31 of the 33 starters, including all three female starters, Danica Patrick, Sarah Fisher and Milka Duno. Fisher said her major sponsor (an energy drink called Res-Q reportedly) did not come through with the check, forcing her to scramble for funds to field her own new No. 67 Sarah Fisher Racing team. One fan said he will be sure to avoid that brand if they don't come through with the agreed upon sponsorship dollars. Milka was an actress in the new movie “Speed Racer” and plugged sher new book on air. TV coverage on the wet Sunday was certainly informative as newcomers got leisurely air time that showed their personalities. Such was the case for Conquest Racing rookie 500 teammates -- Indy Lights vet Jaime Camara and Formula 1 vet Enrique Bernoldi. E. J. Viso, a rookie from Champ Car, said he learned from an airplane window that Indy isn't an oval, but a rectangle with four corners. He said the Indy 500 is a big challenge for him. Down-force and trimming the car out for proper balance is important. Sunday interviews included Graham Rahal (the 12th fastest May 10) and his 1986 500 winner father Bobby, who were interviewed in a dry garage. TV showed clips from the five 2008 IRL races and the five different winners came from four different teams. First time IRL winners were Rahal, Danica Patrick and Will Power (at the LBGP). TV analyst Cheever said it appeared Ganassi's team was atop the big three teams—Penske and Andretti-Green trailing Ganassi at Indy. IRL rookie, Champ Car winner and new dad Justin Wilson, 29, (6'3”, 176 lbs.), was interviewed in his garage in the cockpit getting a comfortable seat fit. Drivers Bruno Junqueira (2005 Indy 500) and Davey Hamilton (Texas Motor Speedway 2001) discussed their recoveries from past racing crashes. Davey had 21 surgeries on his legs and credited Hewlett-Packard sponsorship for his 2007 Indy 500 run to 9th place and for 2008 H/P sponsorship of his No. 22 Vision Racing Dallara. Davey had 13th fastest speed of 19 drivers on day one. Darren Manning showed his steering wheel and explained all computerized and manual buttons, the radio, neutral button, and new paddle shifter at the back of the wheel. A. J. Foyt IV showed his new helmet paint job that had a line of bricks on the side and some A. J. Foyt scenes for his grandfather. He said he still goes to A. J's garage to talk and for advice, but he doesn't get yelled at now that he drives for Vision Racing instead of A.J.s team. Briscoe said he learned from Rick Mears to have patience and make your race car better during the long 500-mile race. Oriol Servia did his interview in his garage getting a new form-fitting seat made and he showed his custom molded steering wheel. Oriol said fellow Spaniard Fermin Velez (a 1997 Indy 500 veteran) is the reason he is racing in the USA. Oriol said IMSA driver Velez, who died four years ago, phoned him to offer career advice. Max Papis was affable as usual. He did not make the 500, but his father-in-law Emerson Fittipaldi drove the 2008 Chevy Corvette pace car. With drivers gone Sunday afternoon after qualifying was canceled, ESPN2 re-aired the 2008 Motegi, Japan victory by Danica. FINAL WEEKEND: Saturday, May 17 ESPN2 4:00-6:30 pm CT live coverage showed taped and live qualifying runs as 22 drivers filled the 33-car starting grid. Four other drivers were poised to make attempts on bump day. Open practice sessions and many interviews made the show pass quickly. In a taped feature about who knows Marco Andretti better, dad Michael won over grandpa Mario. Taped video of Mutoh and Briscoe crashes aired. A. J. Foyt IV and his travails received in depth coverage on TV. Marty Roth filled the field at 5:56 pm CT at 215.917 mph, which figured to be bumped on bubble day May 18. It was. In a more lively bubble day, Roth bumped his way back into the race as 33rd fastest with a 218.965. Foyt IV, 23, made a successful 219.184 qualification run live on ABC-TV early Sunday afternoon. Buddy Lazier (No. 91) and Roger Yasukawa (in Greg Beck's No. 98) provided the late Sunday afternoon fireworks with two attempts each. Treacherous wind in the 15-25 mph range made their runs valiant. Mario Dominguez (No 96) made a successful run at 218.620 and was 33rd until Lazier's trimmed out to the max 5:48 pm run of 219.015 bumped Dominguez. He really earned that Firestone $50,000 bonus as the final qualifier to make the 500.Yasukawa's second attempt produced a 218.496, too slow. With two minutes remaining to qualify, Dominguez pulled out again in No. 96 and ran a first lap of 219.780, which was fast enough to bump Roth's 218.965 four lap average. On his second lap Dominguez spun into the first turn wall without injury and concluded the interesting Indy 500 time trials day. The 33 car field included four prior Indy 500 winners and 11 rookies (a third of the field). CARB DAY—Friday, May 23: ESPN2 live coverage produced only 11-minutes of practice time for the 33 race cars in the 500 as rain again played havoc with the planned one-hour practice session. The competitive 27-car Indy Lights race was postponed to Saturday and ran then with one-week delayed TV coverage replacing the scheduled live Friday coverage. Officials canceled the annual televised pit stop contest for IRL teams. Sarah Fisher announced Text4cars.com as her new sponsor on the side-pod of her Dallara. With a third of the field rookies and some with little oval track experience, loss of track time because of rain was a concern. Wheldon's 223.9 was fastest on “Carb Day” with Dixon 223, Meira 222, Tony Kanaan 222, John Andretti 221, Castroneves 221, Danica 221, Buddy Rice 221, Marco Andretti and Davey Hamilton rounding out the top ten on the speed chart. Rice had a photo of his new daughter Mina on his helmet and pink driving gloves in her honor. Rain again provided TV coverage hours of driver interviews and features that passed time quickly. Arute's interview with four-time Indy 500 winner A. J. Foyt was fun. Jamie Little interviewed Jaime Camara, a protege of Tony Kanaan. Arute also interviewed Marco A. in his motor-home. He promised to wear an Indiana Jones fedora at driver introductions before the 500 Sunday and he did so. Vince Welch interviewed Venezuela native E. J. Viso, 23, a Champ Car team driver and 500 rookie. When told that Danica was not happy with his driving in the Kansas race and Wheldon likes you and wants you to cool down, Viso replied, She talks too much. I don't care what she says. Dan I respect. He is a smart driver.” It seems Danica, who feuded with Wheldon last year, can add Viso to her rivalry list. As a result of their pit lane skirmish in the 500 Briscoe is on that list too. INDY 500 FESTIVAL PARADE: The 51st annual Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis took place Saturday afternoon May 24 and received 90-minutes of same-day, tape delayed coverage by ESPN2. Respected and underutilized racing announcer Bob Jenkins and long-time ESPN pit reporter Marlo Klain provided commentary from a TV booth overlooking the parade route. The sunny, blue sky provided a preview of the 500 race weather the next day. Parade coverage began with Julianne Hough, the 19-year old blond “Dancing With the Stars” pro dancer and partner of Helio Castroneves on the show last year. She sang her new country music album hit song. Julianne joined Jenkins and Klain in the booth for an interview and took a ride next to her dancing partner Helio in a Corvette convertible during the parade. She said Helio is one of her favorite dance partners and they talk on the phone all the time, “but we're just good friends.” An annual feature of the Indy 500 parade is the mandatory appearance of all 33 Indy 500 starters riding atop the back seat of convertibles in 11 rows of three, just as they line up the next day for the 500. Row 11 to row one are interspersed with the usual parade fare—bands, floats, equestrian units and celebrities. Even a marching briefcase drill team participated in business suits. Mari Hulman George, her two daughters and their families and IMS/IRL head man Tony George ride in several antique passenger cars from the IMS Museum collection. Members of the Indianapolis Shriners Club drove their 33 replica Indy 500 cars in 11 rows of three again this year. The Indy 500 queen and eight of her 33 princesses were on one float. The Purdue University Marching Band, with the famous gigantic drum and golden girls majorettes, played as usual. Drivers wives (or husbands in the case of Danica P and Sarah F), children and/or friends ride along in each “driver car”. One driver, Jeff Simmons, was excused from the parade this year because he was racing to eighth place at the 2.5-mile IMS in the Indy Lights 100-mile race at the same time as the downtown parade. Mike King, the voice of the 500 on the IMS radio network, usually handles curbside interviews. King was announcing the Indy Lights race across town so Kevin Lee did the parade interviews with selected drivers this year. The scheduled, post-parade ESPN2 half-hour show, “Before They Go Green”, was not aired this year. The 90-minute parade started 30 minutes late after a college rugby game went long and received full 90-minute coverage. NASCAR Nationwide Series coverage started on time, making the Indy 500 preview show expendable. 500 PRE-RACE: Race day had perfect 72-degree weather under a sunny, blue sky and light wind at 9 mph. A 60-minute pre-500 show on ESPN2 and another 60-minute pre-500 show on ABC brought TV viewers the expected interviews with drivers and others in the garage area and on pit row. TV coverage also focused on Danica-mania and showed her posing in a swimsuit on a beach for the Sports Illustrated magazine swimsuit issue, her IRL Motegi race-winning pass on April 20 and her being on the May 19, 2008 Sports Illustrated magazine cover. The SI cover proclaimed, “Yes She Can – Danica Revs Up For Indy”. The Lars Anderson story on page 28 previewed the 500 and drivers in the first three rows and carried numerous color photos. However, the story primarily covered Danica's rise from go-kart racing to racing in Europe as a teenager, to her present status in Indy car racing. Earlier in May the Indianapolis Star daily newspaper ran a 50-year anniversary story about Pat O'Connor's tragic death on the first lap of the 1958 Indy 500 and how he was on the SI cover in May 1958. He and Danica both started from fifth position in the years they were on the SI cover. Would the infamous SI cover “jinx” affect Danica in 2008? In her three prior Indy 500 runs she finished in the top eight positions each time. This year she started fifth, fell back from the initial green flag and ran sixth or seventh in the laps before her car was eliminated in a pit row crash with Briscoe. TV coverage had a time-line graphic about the split in Indy car racing. The SI estimate was 275,000 for the Indy 500 race. SI reported that 2008 Indy 500 TV ratings “rose from a 4.8 in 2007 to a 5.2”. Analysts Goodyear and Cheever predicted solid choices as the winner—Meira or Scheckter (Goodyear) and Dixon or Kanaan (Cheever). Julianne Hough sang the National Anthem very well. Taps by a solo trumpeter seemed especially poignant this year. Esteemed actor/singer Jim Nabors was back to sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” thankfully. He missed the 500 last year for health reasons and the IMS crowd sang the song that is to the 500 what “My Old Kentucky Home” is to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Kristi Yamaguchi, the 36-year old Olympic Games gold medal winner in figure skating and latest “Dancing With the Stars” celebrity winner, served as honorary race starter in the starting stand with IMS starter Bryan Howard. When driver introductions took place in 11 rows of three, it appeared the loudest cheers from spectators were for Danica and Helio (almost Dale Earnhardt, Jr.-like in volume). Drivers in the 2008 field came from six continents. THE RACE: On board TV cameras, which rotated 360-degrees, were in 12 cars driven by Dixon, Wheldon, Patrick, Kanaan, Andretti, Meira, Carpenter, Bell, Hunter-Reay, Rahal, Junqueira and Foyt. TV analyst Goodyear even conversed on air with Castroneves by radio during the pace lap. Fisher's bad day started on the grid when he car wouldn't start and caused her to be the last driver to get underway. After five laps of green flag racing the yellow waved for debris. ABC-TV fortuitously had an on-board camera view of Junqueira's rear view mirror on the right side shear off, causing the debris caution. As all cars pitted for fuel, Junqueira stayed on the track and led two laps as his crew hustled for a replacement mirror. ABC side-by-side coverage during most commercials was viewer friendly. The A. J. Foyt IV pit fire from external and on-board cameras was dramatic. Foyt replaced his CO2 damaged helmet and visor, rejoined the race and finished 21st (last), 20-laps behind winner Dixon. TV cameras caught all the single and multiple car crashes live or on tape. Rahal's on-board captured his early exit from wall contact. Solo crashes by Roth, Camara, Simmons, Wilson and Alex Lloyd were captured by TV. Amazingly, two crashes occurred under caution. Multiple car crashes (Kanaan and Fisher with no way to avoid Kanaan's spinning car) and the Briscoe-Patrick colllision exiting the pits had external and dramatic on-board TV camera coverage. Poor handling cars hampered Briscoe, Wheldon and Patrick, who was heard via radio complaining to her team engineer Kyle Moyer, “I can't pass. I have under-steer. My car is sloooow.” TV also captured Helio's RF wing broken by contact with bouncing debris from Roth's crashing car and Darren Manning's No. 14 RF wing break in pit contact with Townsend Bell's incoming No. 99. RACE NOTES: Only three times in the last two decades has the leader at lap 100 won the Indy 500. The last time was 2000 when Juan Montoya won. Kanaan, who has led all of his Indy 500 starts, was the halfway leader this year and six laps later he crashed. Interestingly, rookie E. J. Viso raced from his 26th starting position to 11th position at lap 85 (he retired with a mechanical problem after 139 laps). Milka Duno came from 27th to 23rd at lap 85 and both drivers were among 26 drivers still on the lead lap. Milka later spun out about lap 160 entering the first turn low trying to pass lapped Lazier. She returned and finished 19th with 185 laps. You had to feel for Sarah Fisher, who was near tears after her self-owned car crashed into the spinning Kanaan car in the third turn. Her principal sponsor backing out, her problem getting off the grid, her spin while scrubbing her tires under caution that cost her two laps, and then her crash into Kanaan's car ended her bad day. She said her wrecked Dallara and depleted team finances might not allow her to continue racing in three IRL races this year as planned. Another exciting view on TV occurred on lap 147 when the on-board camera of Bell's No. 99 showed him go to the inside leaving turn four and pass Manning's No. 14 and Wheldon's 15th place Target No. 10 three-wide on the front straight. Indy rookie Wilson started 16th and was as low as 25th before he climbed to tenth in a car co-owned by actor Paul Newman.. He spun and made wall contact with the turn two wall, ending his run. The best finishes by Champ Car veterans/Indy 500 rookies were P. 11 by Servia, P.13 by Power, and P. 15 by Bernoldi and all three drivers completed 200 laps. TV also showed 17th place Lloyd make wall contact leaving turn four and spin across the track, just missing another car. His Rahal-Letterman No. 16 spun down the entrance to pit row, brushed the inner wall and nose first took out the pit timing equipment. Replays of the spin showed Lloyd's car was at 114 mph when it wiped out the timing gear and spun to a halt near the wall separating pit stalls from the track. Fortunately no one was injured. Third place Scheckter dropped out under caution with “a broken drive-shaft” on the No. 12 car raced to fifth place by Briscoe in the 2007 Indy 500. The best move of the day had to be Meira's daring passes to go from P. 3 to the lead between the cars of Carpenter and leader Dixon entering the first turn. The lap 160 exciting action took place on the green flag following Lloyd's crash. Meira led 12 laps and relinquished the lead on a pit stop to Dixon, who retained the point to the finish. Meira cut his lead to 0.4 on lap 196, but Dixon won by 1.7498 seconds. He led 115 of 200 laps. Anna, his brunette wife of three months, looks a bit like 2007 Indy winner Dario Franchitti's actress wife Ashley Judd. DISPUTES; Friction between drivers seemed to be the order of the day in the 500. Blocking charges were leveled at three drivers during the race. Castroneves, Patrick and Mutoh were the alleged blockers. The Marco Andretti dive-bomb pass of Kanaan entering turn three on lap 106 produced AGR team verbal conflict after Kanaan went higher than normal to avoid collecting teammate Marco's car. Marco followed Dixon past lap 105 race leader Kanaan into second just before Kanaan spun into Fisher's path. That action from Kanaan's on-board camera was amazing. Told that Marco said he was sorry, Kanaan said “He should be.” The thoroughly chronicled pit exit crash between Briscoe and Patrick almost got as much coverage as victorious Dixon. All full field pit stops this year were made under the yellow flag. The Briscoe-Patrick incident occurred following the Duno spin in turn one. Briscoe entered the pits seventh and Patrick sixth. Briscoe fish-tailed out of his pit stall quickly to gain positions and his right rear made contact with the left rear of Patrick's passing car. Clearly, Briscoe came out wide, but TV replays seemed to show Danica had a bit of room to her right. Former Indy 500 driver/TV commentator Derek Daly reportedly indicated that Kanaan had more room than he thought when Marco passed him to his left. Split second decisions at speed are tough. Clearly Danica is driven to race and has a lot of racing ability. She is now a proven IRL race winner. She is well know by a single name, Danica, just as the names Tiger, Cher, Oprah, and Kobe are unmistakable. What seems to stick in the craw of many racing fans is the temper tantrums shown by drama queen Danica at races. Last year Wheldon was the recipient of her heated words and a shove after a race. This year she criticized rookie Viso at Kansas. Her walk, with her helmet on, through the “hot” open pit stalls at Indy during the 2008 race to confront Briscoe was unfortunate. TV captured her walk. Post-race written and photo coverage in newspapers and magazines seemed to dwell on that aspect of the 500 at the expense of on-track action. Danica should recall her rookie season at the Indy 500 when she got sideways in a turn in traffic and took out two fellow competitors that day All she could say on her radio is “I'm sorry.” Mistakes happen in racing as in life. WRAPUP: The race (the sixth of 19 scheduled IRL races this season) took 3 hours:28+ minutes. It had eight cautions for 69 laps (34.5%), resulting in a relatively slow 143.567 mph average speed for 500 miles. There were 18 lead changes among nine drivers. Winner Dixon received a record $2,988.065 from the record total purse of $14,406,580. The old records were $1,761,740 for winner Buddy Rice in 2004 and the race record was $10,668,815 last year. Runner-up Meira received $1,273,215, the first time anyone other than the Indy 500 winner has exceeded $1,000,000. Third place Marco Andretti received $782,065 for his second top three finish in three years of Indy 500 competition. He flipped on the backstretch last year. Helio and Tony George's stepson, Ed Carpenter, completed the top five. Under the new purse structure in 2008 the lowest award received in the 2008 race was $270,000 by seven teams. Sixth and lower positions received $300,000 whether they completed all 200 laps (P.6) or 36 laps (P. 33). Honda engines proved extremely reliable as usual. Contact was the primary reason for DNFs in 2008. Indy 500 rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2007 IRL season-long rookie of the year, started 20th and ran in the top ten from lap 76 to the end. He made his 2007 Indy 500 rookie of the year award winning pass on lap 195 and placed sixth in the Ethanol-backed Rahal-Letterman No. 17. Ryan passed AG Racing rookie Mutoh for that prestigious honor and the extra $25,000 it carried at the Monday, May 26 Indy 500 awards ceremonies. Ryan raced a NASCAR super late model owned by Speed Wong Racing at California's Irwindale Speedway twice as a stock car rookie last year before he landed the No. 17 IRL ride. Six of the 11 rookies (including four from the Champ car series) finished. Southern California newspaper coverage of the 2008 Indy 500 this year seemed to rely primarily on Associated Press instead of local papers own staff writers. The Los Angeles Times formerly sent its racing reporter, the late Shav Glick, to the Indy 500. This year the Times used the race story by its parent Chicago Tribune reporter. LA Times former sports editor Bill Dwyer did attend the 500 and wrote a Danica-centered column about the race. Other area papers used Paul Newberry's AP race story. It had one eye-opening line. “She (Danica) was banged on pit road by Ryan Briscoe with 29 laps to go, breaking the left rear suspension on a car that had run in the top 10 most of the race but never challenged for the lead.” Hope Danica's husband Paul and Ryan's girlfriend don't take offense. The scheduled 3.5 hour race telecast actually went 29 minutes overtime from 10:00 to 1:59 PDT because of all ;the caution flags. Pit reporters interviewed the top seven finishers in the pits before ABC cut to regular programming. Sixth place Hunter-Reay revealed his crew had a head-sock used by Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher in a past Indy F.1 race in their pit during the race. Seventh place Mutoh showed the TV camera blisters on both of his hands. As winner Dixon and his wife took a slow victory lap in the Corvette pace car (one of his prizes) ABC host Musberger wrapped up the telecast that concluded with some race highlights. Overall, I would rate the Indy 500 2008 telecast a 10 on the scale of 10...Well done ABC. On May 28 USA TODAY reported that the Indy 500 coverage Sunday attracted 4.5% of U.S households, up 5% from the 2007 rain-delayed race. NASCAR Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 race from Concord, N.C drew 4.7% of U.S. households, up from 4% last year. It was the fifth time in the last seven years that NASCAR has attracted more viewers than IRL on the Memorial Day holiday weekend. But reunified Indy car racing is making a strong comeback as 2008 viewer poll numbers indicate. By way of contrast, the NHL pro hockey game Saturday drew 1.2% of U.S households and NBA pro basketball drew had a 4.6% of U.S households Saturday. Prime sponsorships in NASCAR cost firms about $15 million a year these days and solid Indy car sponsorships go for an estimated $3 million per year. Financial considerations might just tilt some sponsors to return to Indy Car sponsorship in coming months and years, especially if the downturn in the U.S economy persists. Racing competition is in full bloom for 2008. Let the racing roll on folks and enjoy it in person or on TV. |
