Chicago Race Thread

[Alexamateo]

Big weekend coming up!

Dario and Scott for the championship with Tony K having an outside shot. Lots of fireworks the past couple of weeks, I'm really looking foward to it.

Also, 22 entries this week :up:

The extra entries are:

Milka
Marty Roth
PJ Chesson
Hideki Mutoh

Milka's with SAMAX of course. Marty's supposedly geared up for a full season next year, don't know if it's one or two cars. It's two this weekend with PJ in the second car. Hideki is in a third Panther car. I expect he will take Koskue's place at Panther next year, so this is just a prelude to that.

[jso1985]

Go Dario :D

argh Roth and Duno AKA The mobile chicanes are back :s

[Komahawk]

Why Chesson? I thought he wanted to give a deserving IPS driver a chance! Lloyd? Cunningham? Wasn't tis Chesson guy terribly bad last year in the ICS?

Mutoh will be a great ICS driver!


And I hope the title won't be decided in an accident. Oh yea, and I now hope Dario wins!

[Alexamateo]

The ride was offered to Lloyd, but being under contract to Ganassi, he turned it down. I don't know about Cunningham.

[ChicagocrewIRL]

This being my hometown race (well it's in Joliet but we'll claim it) I am more than

psyched. What an incredible setup for a season finale. I thought last year's final

race was setup for drama but this year's beats that hands down. So much

animosity and and actual dislike between the championship competitors adds

that much more to this.

Throw in high hopes for Hideki Mutoh on his IndyCar debut and the 2 Roth

cars. Yes that's right, the Roth cars. I for one hope they have a decent

showing. GOOD LUCK BOYS !!!

What a weekend coming up ! The weather is supposed to be perfect. The

Bears game starts at 3:15 so there's a little conflict but hey it's only the first

game.

Only question is now, what am I going to to do to get my IndyCar speed fix

until next March ???

Oh well, see you all at the Speedway !

[jimbo111]

Chicago will be a hell of a race. The excitements in the air right now. I don't know how it can get any better than this. On a high speed oval.

I'll throw this out here.

Dario and TK as wingman. Marco and Danica will be side by side for ten laps if ahead of Dixon and force Dixon to pass three wide. Therefore blocking without really blocking.

It will be interesting how the team thing plays out.

--

[Easy Drifter]

If not black flagged early I have a nasty feeling Milka and Marty will cause major problems.

[mark123]

Chicago will be a hell of a race. The excitements in the air right now. I don't know how it can get any better than this. On a high speed oval.

I'll throw this out here.

Dario and TK as wingman. Marco and Danica will be side by side for ten laps if ahead of Dixon and force Dixon to pass three wide. Therefore blocking without really blocking.

It will be interesting how the team thing plays out.

--

I think that you are right, but lets not forget that Dan will be there putting the fear of god into Danica. Marco will be 1/2 a lap behind the action. Dairo and TK will be very hard to beat. my hart says that Dixon should win, but my head is saying that Dairo (with help from his team mates) will be very hard to beat. Lets hope that Team Penske's drivers help Chip out this weekend, as the owners of AGR are doing a good job at pissing everyone off at the moment.

[mark123]

is there much main stream press coverage of this weekends race in Chicago?

[Komahawk]

Points wise last year was closer, but there was no animosity. It was really more sportsman-like last year.

[ChicagocrewIRL]

is there much main stream press coverage of this weekends race in Chicago?

The Chicago Sun Times devoted 4 columns of a 6 column page to coverage of the race this weeeknd. It was buried pretty deep in the sports section though.

The Chicago Tribune had half a page on the race and CLTV (Chicago's local 24 hour local news channel) had a small blurb about the race during its repeated 30 minute newcast.

USA Today had a nice article today previewing the race.

[Easy Drifter]

After 2 prac. sessions Milka is making Marty Roth look good. Now that is scary--very scary. :eek:

[Alexamateo]

After 2 prac. sessions Milka is making Marty Roth look good. Now that is scary--very scary. :eek:

:confused:

I don't follow you Easy, she was 22nd in both sessions .4 seconds slower than Roth in session 1, .3 seconds slower in session 2.

[Easy Drifter]

My fellow Cdn. is slow and dangerous. She is slower yet. Look at the speed (MPH) difference on a tight track. I am very worried about the slow and rather inexperienced ones causing a NAPCAR type big one.
Sorry for being a little obtuse. :o

[Jonesi]

Grid
1 27 DARIO FRANCHITTI
2 6 SAM HORNISH JR
3 3 HELIO CASTRONEVES
4 11 TONY KANAAN
5 10 DAN WHELDON
6 9 SCOTT DIXON
7 7 DANICA PATRICK
8 14 DARREN MANNING
9 2 TOMAS SCHECKTER
10 26 MARCO ANDRETTI
11 8 SCOTT SHARP
12 17 RYAN HUNTER-REAY
13 60 HIDEKI MUTOH
14 20 ED CARPENTER
15 4 VITOR MEIRA
16 55 KOSUKE MATSUURA
17 5 SARAH FISHER
18 22 A J FOYT IV
19 15 BUDDY RICE
20 76 P J CHESSON
21 25 MARTY ROTH
22 23 MILKA DUNO

[Alexamateo]

My fellow Cdn. is slow and dangerous. She is slower yet. Look at the speed (MPH) difference on a tight track. I am very worried about the slow and rather inexperienced ones causing a NAPCAR type big one.
Sorry for being a little obtuse. :o

I think I must have misread the post the first time too. Maybe if things go well, Marty can become a successful owner, and if not the next Ganassi, maybe the next Dale Coyne! :D

[Komahawk]

Too bad Hornish missed the pole. Mutoh best Panther qualifier, now that's cool.

[71minus2]

Talk about luck!!!!

Nice one Dario!

[xtlm]

Well ... that was a lot of fun!

[gm99]

Finally, a championship for Dario! Greg's smiling down on you today, mate!

[turbo-engine]

Wow, what a finish! I like those Indycar-thrillers!!!! :-)

[nigelred5]

Gotta love Ashley callin out Duno.

Nice finish to a nice season.

[jonny hurlock]

well done dario

[jso1985]

:D :D

well done Dario, a well deserved one.
Cool to have those finishes that you can only see in oval racing

[mark123]

that race literally took my breath away. I am a huge scott dixon fan and am very proud of his driving, and they way he took the loss - that is the real test of a man. Dairo is also a great competitor too so if Scott can't win it, then I'm pretty happy to see Dairo take the win. WOW - that race had me jumping around the living room!!!! Good Stuff - the way they structure the points in the IRL sure does create close championship battles while still rewarding the winning car.

[Skid Marx]

:D :D

well done Dario, a well deserved one.
Cool to have those finishes that you can only see in oval racing

What do you mean by that? If you're talking about someone running dry on the last lap, try CART's 1997 Belle Isle race. Teammates Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell BOTH ran dry on the last lap while leading, first Gugelmin, thus handing the lead to Blundell, then Blundell just a couple hundred yards from the finish line, eventually handing the victory to Greg Moore. That was a real heartbreaker!
If you're talking about close finishes, how about same season (CART 1997), the next race after Detroit, Portland Intl. Raceway. Mark Blundell beat Gil deFerran and Raul Boesel by 0.027 sec. and 0.055 sec., respectrively, for the closest 1-2 and 1-2-3 finish in CART history, up to that time. It was a beautiful photo finish! Here's a link to a photo of the top two just as they crossed the line (Boesel is just out of frame off to the left).

http://www.champcar.com/gallery/gallery97/09portland/portajohn_wins_race_big.html

[45 Below]

Congratulations Dario. A worthy champion and a true gentleman racer!

[xtlm]

Gotta love Ashley callin out Duno.

Nice finish to a nice season.

May have been the only time all season I agreed with her!

and and yes Marx...well....oh never mind...(and yes it was hard to stop myself)

[wedge]

Congratulations to Dario and well done to the Iceman for putting on a heck of a fight!

[ChicagocrewIRL]

Too bad Hornish missed the pole. Mutoh best Panther qualifier, now that's cool.

I was extremely fortunate to watch in person,in his first race in the ICS, the future first asian winner of the Indianapolis 500. Hideki was incredible today. Battling all afternoon, he brought it home top 8. Awesome Hideki !!!! Awesome !

[Komahawk]

Man that was a worthy season finale! Halfway through I thought Dario wasn't going to make it. Great race! Marco ending his season with his 10th DNF, Meira did far worse than expected, Sharp did far better than expected. Scheckter's wheel coming off under yellow, that was scary. Nice drive by Rice. And Penske lost the race, although dominating it early on.

Congrats to Dario. 500-winner and champ, all within one season. Who would've expected that a year ago? IMO we witnessed the best ever Franchitti this year.

[turbo-engine]

we witnessed the best ever Franchitti this year.

Apart from his "after the chequered flag flight" in Kentucky you are right.

[mark123]

and with all the bad press that Dan has been receiving, he ran the perfect race to try to get his team mate home. he even ran his own car out of gas so that he could provide that last lap of drafting. well done Dan, you have gone up a few notches in my reckoning.