Wheldon is a dirty driver

[coogmaster]

During the race, Jon Andretti was having a field day, passing guys left and right and moving up to the top five. He goes wheel to wheel with Wheldon, cuts it a little more close that he should have, and Wheldon responds with a NASCAR style sideswipe into Jon Andretti's sidepod. He must have been suprised to see a car with plain white sidepods making a pass for position on his beautiful sponsor-filled racecar, thought 'Get this clown out of my way', and knocked into Andretti. He might have caused some damage to Jon's car, because it seemed like he wasn't that competitive for the rest of the race.

I think Wheldon needs to take a reality check and realize that this isn't NASCAR and you can't just swipe people out of the way if they are running you close...

[F1boat]

I didn't see that, watched the race online. I am happy that Dan won on his birthday, however.

[underpowered]

Johns problem was his pit crew, not Dan!

[NickFalzone]

Dan is a dirty driver, but I didn't see a whole lot of that today besides knocking into J. Andretti. On a different note, I was surprised that Hideki blocked Marco from making a pass. I am not for team orders, but Marco had the car to possibly beat Dan and Hideki did not. Kind of interesting to see AGR not play any team strategy there (unless Hideki just ignored it).

[Chamoo]

Dan is a dirty driver, but I didn't see a whole lot of that today besides knocking into J. Andretti.

I agreed that Wheldon is a dirty driver, but I didn't see any of that today. I didn't see anything wrong with what happened, it seemed as though they drove into eachother actually.

I doubt that did anything to damage Andretti's car. I think he just didn't have the car to catch the leaders.

[icehammer97]

f1boat Scott won not Dan

nick ARG normally doesn't do team orders except when it is to help Marco. Remember his one win and all that was made of team orders there that is what surprised me about it.

[electron]

It was good that they raced it out. The move between Dan and John was very close but I would say no big deal, I do not think it was actually a dirty move by Dan.
There have been some heartbrakers in the Race.... John, Tony, Helio....

and all respect to Hediki, the guy can race and I was waiting for Marco to do an "Andretti" in the last laps.

[F1boat]

f1boat Scott won not Dan

nick ARG normally doesn't do team orders except when it is to help Marco. Remember his one win and all that was made of team orders there that is what surprised me about it.

No, I am not blind.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68588
Wheldon uses pit gamble to win Iowa

[icehammer97]

You aren't blind but it seems my brain isn't working like I thought it was.

[pits4me]

Johns problem was his pit crew, not Dan!

Agree. Wheldon has always been a fighter. May explain why Danica despises him so much. (If she had half his aggressiveness she'd be much more competitive on the track IMO).

[NickFalzone]

Agree. Wheldon has always been a fighter. May explain why Danica despises him so much. (If she had half his aggressiveness she'd be much more competitive on the track IMO).

You know, in the past I would have disagreed with this statement, but watching in-car cam on the 7 and reading about her steering setup, I tend to agree that she is not a very aggressive driver. Of course, you have to be aggressive to be a racer in the first place, but she does not push her car like others in the field, such as Wheldon. She has her steering very loose and keeps her throttle within a safe range. Loose steering means she has much more trouble in traffic, but on her own is less likely to make the kind of sudden move that could put the car in the wall. It's very rare to see her actually move to the front of the field on her own accord - usually it's in the pits, or pit strategy, or others having problems/falling back. She's the worst on restarts. All this being said, besides the blocking, she does tend to run a pretty clean race and stays out of trouble. She consistently finishes in the top-5-15 area, a sign that she's avoiding trouble and keeping the AGR machine at its safe baseline. Marco and particularly TK push the car much closer to the limit, and thus are much more exciting drivers to watch.

[coogmaster]

You know, in the past I would have disagreed with this statement, but watching in-car cam on the 7 and reading about her steering setup, I tend to agree that she is not a very aggressive driver. Of course, you have to be aggressive to be a racer in the first place, but she does not push her car like others in the field, such as Wheldon. She has her steering very loose and keeps her throttle within a safe range. Loose steering means she has much more trouble in traffic, but on her own is less likely to make the kind of sudden move that could put the car in the wall. It's very rare to see her actually move to the front of the field on her own accord - usually it's in the pits, or pit strategy, or others having problems/falling back. She's the worst on restarts. All this being said, besides the blocking, she does tend to run a pretty clean race and stays out of trouble. She consistently finishes in the top-5-15 area, a sign that she's avoiding trouble and keeping the AGR machine at its safe baseline. Marco and particularly TK push the car much closer to the limit, and thus are much more exciting drivers to watch.

IMO, it was another midpack performance by Patrick which was salvaged into a top 10 by her pit strategist.

The best quote of the weekend, in regard to Patrick, by Dixon:
"She's a menace." (Indianapolis Star) FINALLY someone speaks out.

I'm sure Foyt, Carpenter (who said on the air he had a tough time getting by her), and many other drivers agree.