Homestead Reflections

Unless I am missing something, I do not see a serious Homestead thread so I will start one up.

All in all, great race for the season opener. Only one on track inncident which I think is fantastic, even though they can become quite spread out on a track like Homestead.

Some of the restarts were very intense to watch, nice job avoiding contact by the entire field. I think it was later in the race when on a restart they got 4 wide going down the backstretch. I love to watch the restarts however I believe the passing on the outside needs to be closely watched. Going green in turns 3 and 4 with cars starting to pass on the outside entering turn 3, I dont quite understand it.

Simmons brought out the one caution, looks like the back end of his car went away very fast. Just happens in Indy cars, need to be 100% concentrated on driving at all times. Even under caution. There is only 20 cars on the track, how ESPN can not grab video of the crash (other than in car shots) is beyond me.

Danica Patrick, not sure where to go here. I am not sure if she was nervous or what but she needs to get her act together fast. There are no excuses for her after this year. We all know how fragile the suspensions of an Indy Car are. She hit the tire exiting her pit, that was her fault. Even though the tire she hit was farther out than it should have been, it is her responsibility to look out for that type of inncident. Her night could of, and she probably wishes it would have ended right there. Entering the pits too fast, wrecked herself. Very embarrassing. Better now than at Indy.

Sarah Fisher, overall a fantastic performance. For her first race of the year I think she did a great job and has a strong platform to build on.

Dan Wheldon, looks to be unstoppable. He seems to be 100% focused on dominating this year.

Tony Kanaan, amazing performance. He went from having a horrible ride, to going a lap down, to somehow getting a lap back (they never showed or said how this happened...). Look out for 11 this weekend.

Not sure what happened with Scott Sharp. Qualified so well then had nothing for anyone during the race. Wing adjustment that Rahal violated must have made a huge difference?

Penske cars will have Ganassi figured out sooner rather than later. Intersting seeing Hornish losing ground after the final pit stop.

Vision Racing Team, do these guys have a little something this year? I am still shocked at their performance.

I think thats all the bases covered for race 1. Off to the Road Course.

Final Thoughts:

Go TK!
Scheckter SUCKS.
Robin Miller shut up.

It's too early to make serious predictions for the rest of the season, but as far as two talked about issues and the race itself:

Honestly it was a pretty tame race--considering some of the talk we've heard regarding the new aero-package--which was nice to see. I guess all that extra downforce won't kill by the dozen after all.

Danica was outracing all of her teammates, and then she went on pit road. You can't help but laugh and rip on that. Sure it has been done at Homestead by better drivers than her, but it is still stupid.

Those were the biggest talking points in the offseason besides the red and white dominance...but that isn't worth talking about after 1 race, IMO.