Angry Race Fan

My relatively random thoughts on this past race weekend 9/18 – 9/20/2009:

The Good

• Mark Martin won another race.  That is always cool.
• Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole and  finished 3rd in the race.

It was a great weekend for JPM and his team.  A win would have been great but you can’t complain about being on the pole, leading some laps, nailing a 3rd, and moving up 7 positions in the points.  JPM is my pick to win the Chase this year. 

• Graham Rahal scored a podium finish @ Motegi and Castroneves was the only Penske car in the top 10.  Good work young Rahal and NHL!  Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m a big Roger Penske fan and his team is in no doubt superior to the remainder of the field save Ganassi, but I’m very bored with his team doing so well.

• The Grand Am race in Utah was exciting and the points race between Gainsco, Suntrust, and Ganassi continues with only 10 points separating all 3 teams.

• Briatore and Symonds leave Renault F1.  In the midst of the “Crashgate” scandal Renault F1’s Managing Director (Briatore) and Director of Engineering (Symonds).  I guess that should open up Briatore’s calendar for scoping super models.  Both have since been banned from FIA sanctioned events Symonds for 5 years and Briatore indefinitely.  Wild to think that people operating at the highest level of motorsport would not think asking a driver to crash deliberately would get out after he was released from his contract.  Seems as likely as Peter Windsor getting brushed off by a driver on the pre-race grid.

Bad News

• JPM got a solid 3rd but didnt’ win @ New Hampshire.  It was his Birthday this weekend so a solid win for the man would have been nice.  I suppose the pole was pretty good though.
• Scott Dixon won @ Motegi and Dario Franchitti finished 2nd.  Now don’t get me wrong, these are two of my favorite IndyCar drivers.  But come on, aren’t we all getting a little tired of the same guys up on the podium.  As I said above about Penske I want to see these guys do well but the dominance currently on display is about as interesting as listening to Robin Miller talk about Spring Cars.

The Ugly

• I didn’t get to watch the IndyCar race @ Motegi because I DirecTV dropped VS.  I have a dog in this fight but I’m not getting involved.  I wouldn’t dare to say that they just need to figure it out and maybe even the IRL should drop by the VS office and put in a good word for DirecTV.  Not that it would probably help but we all know in the battle of DirecTV vs. VS. the loser is IndyCar.  No question.