Its a shame that it looks like Ganassi's loss is going to be pinned on Justin Wilson; we may never really know what he was feeling in the car, we'll only know what happened as a result of that garage visit.
And as the race festivities start their closing, I just wanted to take this time to thank everyone who joined us for our 2nd Annual 24-1/2 Hour Blogathon. In a way it just seems almost ridiculous to me that one year ago we had "Hey lets try and live-blog the race for all 24 hours" and in one year turned it into a full-on community of people blogging, commenting, chatting, and playing Mario Kart; from learning Cricket and watching tennis with Shane, to having Lindy Thackston and Vision's Pat Caporelli drop in on the roundtable; it was just so much fun.
Most of all... I really just can not believe that for 2 years in a row we actually covered sports, all-encompassing, for 24 and a half straight hours. And as the same way we closed things last year, I can repeat the same in earnest... thanks again everyone for joining us in whatever way you did... hopefully you come back throughout the year for everything else we do... but as for now... I need to get some sleep...Congrats to us all, racing season has begun!
10 comments:
Another great blogathon, congrats to you all. With all the other bloggers involed, I'm sure that this is where it really takes off.
And that neatly conicides with our man Ali Carter, erm, losing. Ah well.
It's been a pleasure to follow on, and I can't wait for the 2010 motorsports season, which I guess has now officially begun.
Thanks to all!
One final thing I've just read: Mike Rockenfeller has now won four 24 hour races. He's won overall Daytona and Nurburgring, and GT2 class LeMans and Spa. Unless he wants to ride a bike, there isn't much more for him to win.
Thanks for being such great hosts, guys. It's been a blast!
Exceedingly well done, you guys. Thanks so much for doing this.
I am very not happy with the attitude of Chip Ganassi (who looked like somebody had knocked over his favorite vase) and Scott Pruett's saying "one little miscue, you know?" on the air. You know what, guys? Finishing 50 seconds out of the lead in a 24 hour race tells me that there were probably ways you could have made up the time lost by your one stop. One of them might have been, you know, driving faster for the last 2 1/2 hours. You can't say that you were perfectly positioned for the win and then something snatched it away from you at the last second. You had longer than your average IndyCar race to make up 3/4ths of a lap.
OK, that complaint out of the way, this was awesome. Great job, guys, thanks for having me along for the ride again, and I am already looking forward to Blogathon 2011.
This was great fun, thanks for being good hosts and allowing all of us to crash your airwaves! I'm only sorry I had to rush off earlier and missed the end.
Sounds like a hard-fought result for the victorious team!
btw.. Avatar was sold out so we saw Daybreakers, which was entertaining..
"I am very not happy with the attitude of Chip Ganassi (who looked like somebody had knocked over his favorite vase)"
Chip should've looked pleased?!
"there were probably ways you could have made up the time lost by your one stop."
They did make up much of the time lost in the slow-down lane, the paddock garage, and the out-lap!
"One of them might have been, you know, driving faster for the last 2 1/2 hours."
Really? You don't think that Scott was driving as fast as he could?! He could've raced faster?!
Look -- if people are pointing fingers of blame at Justin for bringing the car in, they would still be pointing the blame at Justin if he *hadn't* brought the car in and there *had* been a serious problem. In an endurance race with so much at stake, the conservative route was absolutely the correct one. And anyone who fails to see that just isn't thinking very hard.
Chip didn't have to look pleased, but for a guy who has won this race a bunch (sometimes due to other peoples' misfortunes), it'd have been a little nicer if he hadn't have looked like someone had just farted directly in his face. It also would have been nicer if Scott Pruett had said something like "we were so close and Justin did bring the car in and nothing turned out to be wrong, but that was the right call; also he did a hell of a job turning quick laps all day". Instead, it sounded, rightly or wrongly, like he was throwing Justin under the bus for making their one miscue of the day.
It's just that the Ganassi guys have a talent for leaving a bad taste in the mouth when things don't go their way. Last year, GrandAm made some performance adjustments before the season that meant that the Porsche flat-6 was better at high speed. This was probably a good call, as the Porsches had not been very competitive in 2008. After the Ganassi guys couldn't find a way past in the last hour, Rojas and Montoya whined on TV about how they were at a huge disadvantage. This, mind you, after they'd won this race the previous three years in a row. As a result, GrandAm cowtowed to the biggest team in the series and dialed the Porsches back until almost the end of the season. The result? Porsche was shut out of victory lane until Homestead, the race after they were opened back up (and which Brumos really only won because all the dominoes and yellows fell their way, not because they had a dominant car).
Like what Steph said, if Justin hears something, doesn't come in and then the car breaks, he's the goat. Instead, rightly for a 24 hour race, he did the right thing and brought the car in. The team had 2 1/2 hours of green flag racing after the stop to make up a lap and did not get it done. THAT'S on the whole team, drivers, strategists, and engineers. Harsh, yes, but for a team that does its fair share of winning (plus some), they can take that kind of abuse from a guy who pushes electrons around on an obscure website.
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