Nashville

[NickFalzone]

What did everyone feel about this race? It mostly ran green, but very little passing up front. Not sure what Kanaan is up to on these short ovals, between here and Iowa. Clearly trying to push his car beyond its limits on these tracks. And what was Simmons up to speeding out of pit lane? Never seen that before. Was he worried about a hard brake like Meira did a few weeks ago killing the suspension?

Overall not the most exciting race, I was pleasantly surprised by Danica running so strong though.

I missed the post-race interviews, but heard Arute had some 'interesting' comments to Dario - what were they discussing?

[Komahawk]

What did everyone feel about this race? It mostly ran green, but very little passing up front. Not sure what Kanaan is up to on these short ovals, between here and Iowa. Clearly trying to push his car beyond its limits on these tracks. And what was Simmons up to speeding out of pit lane? Never seen that before. Was he worried about a hard brake like Meira did a few weeks ago killing the suspension?

Overall not the most exciting race, I was pleasantly surprised by Danica running so strong though.

I missed the post-race interviews, but heard Arute had some 'interesting' comments to Dario - what were they discussing?

Kanaan crashed, boy do I feel bad for him.
Get Simmons out of this series, please.
Penske pale once again.
Dario will win this thing.

[mark123]

I wouldn't be so sure that Dario will win this think - it should be an exciting finish though.

[NickFalzone]

I wouldn't say that Simmons needs to be rushed out of the series, he's actually a fast driver but seems to get distracted and is very inconsistent. He generally qualifies around 10-14 then makes it up to the top-6-8 almost every race, he's always moving up to the front. But then he crashes, or makes a dumb move into the pits, etc. I think another season and he'd be up to speed with Sharp.

[mark123]

what he did on sunday was pretty poor. Mind you, it can happen to anyone. i recall scott dixon hitting the wall on the entry to the pits on on race, and I'm sure that at least 1/2 the field have done it at some point in their career.

[cobre]

I feel bad for kannan, not shure why all the crashing; hasn't been typical of his career. the simmons slip could've been very ugly. and now danica knows the feelings of comming up behind her:normaly laps down and in the way. in all fairness though, great race by her.

[NickFalzone]

Danica just ran a solid race. I'm not really a fan, but even the haters have to give her props for running up front the whole time without any help other than kanaan taking himself out. The simmons and kanaan slips are just reminders of how hard these cars are to drive. These racers have been on the track in one car or another since they were kids and they're still pushing their skillsets to the limit every week - helios messed up coming out of the pits, simmons going on, danica crashed into the pits at homestead, vitor blew his suspension going to pit, etc. You'd think even basic stuff like slowing down or speeding up is easy, but they screw it up all the time.

Ultimately, these cars are most comfortable when they're going fast and don't have any obstacles - add in a few moving chicanes, some marbles, or a very small slip-up by the driver and the car is in the wall or worse. I don't know if there's a sliding scale for driver skill-level, but I would say that IndyCars on fast short ovals with strong frontrunners and slow backmarkers is some of the most difficult and dangerous driving out there.