Sorry I don't have a ton of post race coverage for the 500. I've always felt (and especially this year) that you can find recaps for the 500 just about anywhere, and since I'm not a paid columnist I didn't necessarily need to contribute another bit of repeat out there for the recapping/ but how about some side-notes.
Firstly, mad props for Vitor Meira and Panther Racing; I actually had Scott Dixon in our barbeque's Indy 500 pool but was still rooting for Meira. Ever since meeting the guy, I'll always be rooting for him and unfortunately I think the one note that hasn't been reported on yet is how Meira actually had the race in hand until Buddy Lazier pinched Milka into a spin.
Not may people noticed it but Meira had built up a nice lead on Dixon by that point and since he had clean air in front of him, had the race stayed green through the rest of the race, would have won it.
He basically lost the race on qualifications day and the team has even mentioned it. How you ask? Going into the last pitstop the team knew they were screwed cause Dixon had the final (easiest) pit box, and even with their awesome 7 second final pitstop, they couldn't make up for Dixon's pit stall location leaving Dixon the room to floor it forward without a car in front of him to watch for and less angle.
Had it come to green flag pitstops this kind of positioning wouldn't have mattered and Meira more than likely could have gone to win, but alas we're talking about a huge "if"
so with that said Congrats to Scott Dixon for winning me $55.
the other side note that needs mentioning.
COME ON ESPN/ABC!! The Danica show got seriously annoying, and I know this because of the wives/girlfriends at our barbeque who had never seen a race before were making jokes about it. On top of that, feel free to ever explain why EJ Viso left the race after running in the top 10 anytime.
The way you guys cover a race its a wonder anyone out of the big three even manages to get sponsorship.
I'm not asking them to go 5000 extra miles here.... just do at least one if not two run downs of the field during a race to get these guys some screen time, its common sense for a sport that revolves around sponsorship.
I don't think we saw the bottom half of the field all day and thats pathetic for a race of this importance and length, heck you almost wonder if some of those guys crashed simply because it got their car on the screen. This has more to do with the producers than the 3 guys in the booth who actually did very well and personally would like to see Cheever go full time.
In addition to working fairly well they gave us two very entertaining moments: Marty's freaking out over Oriol Servia's passing near the grass had our entire barbeque in tears laughing and rolling... and then Cheever's yelling at the cars on the final 5 laps was simply entertaining and definitely unexpected... if you gave Cheever a season to wotk out the feel of the booth and he had time to learn to loosen up even more that could be a real great crew.
3 comments:
couldn't agree more on the coverage. At one point I realized I hadn't even heard the names Power, Hamilton or Bell mentioned once. And yes, just what the hell happened to Viso???
The only chance anyone had at a mention or coverage was if they were "blocking" the chosen one, been passed by the chosen one, or tussled with the chosen one. Hell, even after she was out of the race we STILL had coverage of the chosen one. Enough already.
congrats on the $55! LOL!
I'm also in agreement about the production. Something I noticed is with the way they talked about the added depth to the field with unification, it would have been nice to have made more of a deal about it. Maybe have a graphic at the start showing the combined accomplishments of the field.
Also, whatever happened to drivers introducing themselves (name, car number, sponsors) for the starting grid or at least showing the car itself? They don't even do that (I noticed that they did the same last year with Champ Car and Atlantics and still do it with the Nationwide Series). I'm just astounded that they never did a "through the field" segment. I could have sworn they've done that in past seasons. If they did, why did they stop? It doesn't do the series a favor nor does it do the network a favor (favoritism). The lack of sponsorship activation on TV for the series is just astounding.
Meesh, Viso had a gearbox problem. I'm surprised they didn't even mention that when Lloyd was spinning into pit lane, Viso's car was just a few stalls away from where he stopped. It would have been a perfect time to mention the run he had before his subsequent troubles.
I seem to recall just last year (and other years past) they did at least one field run-through per race, so I'm as confused as you guys as to what happened to that segment.
It not only allows all fans to see their driver and get an update on their race, but one thing ESPN/ABC seems to continuously forget is that winners don't always come from the mid/early-race top 5, just look at 3 races this year where the winner was a surprise when considering the first 90% with Dixon in Homestead, Graham/St. Pete and Danica in Motegi; all suddenly leading as a result of happenstance, which by the way is quite common in racing...
Yes Viso had a gearbox problem, and Alex Lloyd was ok, and Lazier totally pinched Milka for no reason considering he was a lapped car; though none of that was reported on either.
And while they might think its great TV I think all 25 people at our BBQ are ready to kill someone should we be subjected to another whine session... listening in on Danica's radio during every single yellow flag (and I'm a fan but she totally whines like a little kid on the radio).
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