Matt H

The Panther Racing car being rebuilt. Really cool, these guys were from other teams helping them get it together for the race.

I think it is time to stop for a quick refuel!

Colin Powell in the Pace car, then some random track shots.

Dan Wheldon at the end of his burnout (yes, I have video of it).
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cas951

In NASCAR remote control is probably possible....

Joke aside I managed to watch the whole race. As Spider mentioned with all the mishaps she went through and still came in 4th I have to give it to her... She deserves all the respect a driver can have. Just think if she had enough fuel to go Full throttle all the way. I say she would have won.

Matt H

Needs tires? Look around him in the back, there are a LOAD of race tires.

More Indy tires.

An F-1 set just in case

A 935 in the museum

Me and Brian (Red1) with the 935
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David Ray

Those hips look pretty wide - must be over 100 lbs.

tomrc

Great photo's - wish I was there, I'm drooling.

Tom

Red1

Tom, I WAS there, and I'm still drooling. You can't believe how congenial the crews were when we were in the garages Saturday morning. We couldn't have gotten any closer to the cars, except Thomas Scheckter's crew and Bryan Herta's crew were busy enough we couldn't get too close for risk of being in the way.

I was apologizing to one of the crew for how geeked out Matt and I were about the shocks. He took the time to explain to us the differences between them, totally taking his time giving us the details. It was gearhead nirvana.

Somewhere we've got a great pic of Jeff Bucknam's car with the side open, so you can see the raw carbon fiber work on the radiator duct. I took a good pic of Roger Yasukawa's steering wheel. They had a blanket covering the top of the motor, which we were told would not be removed for our cameras. Otherwise the level of access we had was just unbelievable.

Matt H

Brian, check page two for both pictures you are referring to, I think they are #1 and #3.
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Bart

Amazing. It took to page three of this thread to mention the name of the winner of the race. I watched it on TV and almost shut it off after the first few minutes of listening to Brett (I'm a perv) Mussburger drooling out her name. I swear he was ready to whip it out and start stroken his Johnson right there on tv talking about her. He and the media turned it into the Danica Patrick 500. The winner was practically an after thought.

No one can argue with her abilities though. She drove a good race and had a good finish. And who knows, she might draw some fans back to IRL with the soft core **** they had before the race. After the race, she got plenty of excercise flipping her hair out of the way like some prom queen. But she's like Jeff Gordon is to Nascar; manufactured for t.v., someone right out of central casting who can also race. So now she'll be the focus of the whole race, whether she wins or not. Doesn't seem like the right way to treat the drivers who actually WIN. "Who are you? Oh, the winner? Well, could you move out of the shot, we can't see the girl." I remember when Jill St. John (was that her name?) first started the 500. She got some attention at first, then became an afterthought like, "oh yeah, ole what' her name is trying it again this season. (YAWN.) She just wasn't pretty enough, she talked about racing, didn't fall for the photo spread idea and just wanted to race. BO-RING!

I guess I wouldn't be so cynical if she at least, in the post race interview, gave credit to the guy who actually won. Maybe showed some sportsmanship, a little class. Those are the drivers I'm used to seeing in racing, not the narccisstic type, male or female. I was hoping that would stay in the NBA and other pro sports.

And yeah, Robby Gordon is an *** who knows he'd lose to her, weight advantage or not. She'll simply outdrive him.

Matt H

Bart, in a poll I saw something like 80% of the people who watched the race cared more about where she finished than who won. No one cares about the IRL (Dan who?) so anything that brings attention is good. For the rest of the female drivers, they became a yawn because they werent that good. If Sarah Fisher had led a lap people would have gone nuts for her too (and in the looks dept. she is no Danica) but she never did.

As to the Gordon comparison, if she wins as often as Jeff Gordon has people will certainly take note. Gordon is one of the best drivers on the NASCAR circuit over the past 10 years. It is more like they have amazing driving skill and they also look good. The media will just never let it be that way.
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Matt H

For the record, out tent is the LAST stop a driver makes before going home. Last year, Buddy Rice was in the tent for over an hour, he met and talked with everyone, gave autographs, etc. Dan Wheldon *MIGHT* have been there for 30 seconds, MAYBE. The Stealth flyover lasted easily 5 times as long. It is really hard to endear the fans when you wont make time for them. He was the same with the media (though I am sure he was annoyed with the questions about other drivers).
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Geo

I thought so too. It was shabby to say the least.

As a racer myself I take considerable exception to this. Danica Patrick is NOT some made for TV star. Danica Patrick is a RACER. It showed through and through. Whenever I saw her questioned about being a woman who this and that, I never saw/heard her respond to the part about her being a woman doing this. Danica Patrick is a racer who has EARNED her way to her position. If the press and her sponsors play up her being a woman and a sex symbol of sorts, well, that's not exactly under her control. I respect her as a racer. Her maturity under pressure belied her age.

Something to think about as well.... Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti had a lot more given and offered to them when they were starting out because of their famous names, yet neither of them did anywhere near as well as Danica in their first Indy 500. Sure the IRL talent pool is highly deluted from the old CART days, but Penske, long the yardstick of Indy racing, was there and she beat them. She's a racer. She deserves the accolades.

Lynn St. James was a racer also. And for what it's worth, I always found her attractive. And Lynn St. James wasn't a "she's trying again this year" type of racer. She was successful in other forms of motorsports and like many others before and after her, she couldn't put together the program to make a serious bid for the crown. It's too bad because she had the talent (like so many others). Money makes the race cars to round.

Dude, where were you? Maybe she didn't mention him by name, but I thought she was incredibly gracious by saying "hey the guys who beat me were up front all day and they deserved it." The fact is, those guys weren't up front all day and were not as deserving as her. Perhaps you just can't recognize class.

Are you kidding? ALL professional racing drivers are narccisists. Hell, most successful club racers are too. You have no idea.....

JDeitz951

Right on, George! Especially the part about "ALL professional racing drivers are narccisists."

Kevin Baker

WOW! Talk about awesome, that must have been an incredible experience. Matt, I love those shirts you guys were wearing (hint, hint). Maybe I'll make it far up enough to get passes one day.

Matt H

The shirts came from Nashville, not something we did here. We do take store managers every year so it may not have to be a "high up" kind of thing. I am still feeling the weekend though, I havent been this tired in ages.
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UDPride

I want to also provide a different perspective.

Danica is definitely a good driver. Scott Goodyear talked candidly about Patricks downshifts in the short chute as very tricky work and not for the faint of heart. Its obvious she knows what shes doing.

But in the end, even the best drivers are held hostage to their team owners and cars they drive. Put Patrick in a ****box back row qualifier car and shes probably not doing much. A couple cars were almost black flagged because they were so far off the pace. Same with any other driver. More often than not the faster cars win, not the teams who make up time on pit stops and cautions. What Patrick has that St James and Fisher and Guthrie didnt is a bonafide big time team owner who knows what in the hell they are doing. With the others, it was "Big Bobs Used Cars" as the chief sponsor on the team. St James for years came to the Speedway looking for a sponsor to field a car so she could drive. She didnt have Team Penske or Rahal/Letterman behind her. As someone else said, St. James was a very accomplished driver leading up to her Indy runs. So I dont think she was a token liberation photo opportunity either.

I guess what Im saying is, Patrick is damn good, but shes also damn good driving a damn good car provided for her. So its not JUST that shes good. This is the same for anybody. Mears was the oval king, but jesus he had Penske behind him and the Chevy powerplant for years that ruled the speedway. So in order to compete in races it takes more than just being a great driver. You need a great car too. The car is what it is. If its 221 down the straights and not 225, theres not much you can do. You can hide the cars weaknesses and work it better in traffic and in the chutes than others, but in the 89 years of the Indy 500, my guess is the better cars have won more often then simply the better driver. HOWEVER, in many cases the better car AND better driver won the same race.

How many times has a total ****box found the winners circle because of the driver behind it. Probably not all that often.

Now, when you mate a good car to an already good driver, thats when you are really in business. I think that fits Patrick, and Weldon, and several others who know how to race and have a car to do it in.

Just a point to emphasize you need a fast, capable car too.