The Starting Grid for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 (Race thread)

This is how the Grid currently stands , amendments will be made as the qualifying progresses.


ROW 1
1. Scott Dixon 226.366mph
84th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
6th Indy 500
Best Finsh = 2nd 2007
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/dixon.jpg

2. Dan Wheldon 226.110 mph
85th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
6th Indy 500
Best Finish = Winner 2005
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/wheldon.jpg

3. Ryan Briscoe 226.080 mph
24th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
3rd Indy 500
Best Finish = 5th 2007
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/briscoe.jpg

ROW 2

4. Helio Castroneves 225.733 mph
102nd Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
8th Indy 500
Best Finish = Winner 2001 , 2002
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/castroneves.jpg

5. Danica Patrick 225.197 mph
52nd Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
4th Indy 500
Best Finish = 4th 2005
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/patrick.jpg

6. Tony Kanaan 224.794 mph
86th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
7th Indy 500
Best Finish = 2nd 2004
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/kanaan.jpg

ROW 3

7. Marco Andretti 224.417 mph
36th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
3rd Indy 500
Best Finish = 2nd 2006
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/andretti.jpg

8. Vitor Meira 224.346 mph
81st Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
6th Indy 500
Best Finish = 2nd 2005
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/Meira.jpg

9. Hideki Mutoh 223.887mph
6th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/mutoh.jpg

ROW 4

10. Ed Carpenter 223.835 mph
70th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
5th Indy 500
Best Finish = 11th 2005 , 2006
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/carpenter.jpg

11. Tomas Scheckter 223.496 mph
94th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
7th Indy 500
Best Finish = 4th 2003
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/schekter.jpg

12. Townsend Bell 222.539 mph
15th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
2nd Indy 500
Best Finish = Yet to finish
http://scoring.indycar.com/images/cars/indycar/tbell.jpg

ROW 5

13. Graham Rahal 222.531 mph
4th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/rahal.jpg

14. Darren Manning 222.430 mph
46th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
4th Indy 500
Best Finish = 20th 2007
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/manning.jpg

15. Bruno Junqueira 222.330 mph
9th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
5th Indy 500
Best Finish = 5th 2001 ,2004
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/junquiera.jpg

ROW 6

16. Justin Wilson 222.267 mph
5th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/wilson.jpg

17. Buddy Rice 222.101 mph
85th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
5th Indy 500
Best Finish = Winner 2004
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/rice.jpg

18. Davey Hamilton 222.017 mph
50th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
8th Indy 500
Best Finish = 4th 1998
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/hamilton.jpg

ROW 7

19. Alex Lloyd 221.788 mph
DEBUT INDYCAR RACE
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/LLoyd.jpg

20. Ryan Hunter-Reay 221.579 mph
11th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/HUNTERreay.jpg

21. John Andretti 221.550 mph
2nd Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
9th Indy 500 (7 with CART)
Best Finish = 5th 1991
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/JANDRETTI.jpg

ROW 8

22. Sarah Fisher 221.246 mph
68th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
7th Indy 500
Best Finish = 18th 2007
http://scoring.indycar.com/images/cars/indycar/sfisher.jpg

23. Will Power 221.136 mph
5th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/power.jpg

24. Jeff Simmons 221.103 mph
26th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
4th Indy 500
Best Finish = 11th 2007
http://scoring.indycar.com/images/cars/indycar/jsimmons.jpg

ROW 9

25. Oriol Servia 220.767 mph
5th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/servia.jpg

26. Ernesto Viso 220.356 mph
5th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/viso.jpg

27. Milka Duno 220.305 mph
10th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
2nd Indy 500
Best Finish = Yet to Finish
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/duno.jpg

ROW 10

28. Mario Moraes 219.716 mph
5th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/moreas.jpg

29. Enrique Bernoldi 219.422 mph
5th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/bernoldi.jpg

30. Jaime Camara 219.345 mph
2nd Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
DEBUT INDY 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/camara.jpg

ROW 11

31. AJ Foyt IV 219.184 mph
70th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
5th Indy 500
Best Finish = 14th 2007
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/AJFoytIV.jpg

32. Buddy Lazier 219.015 mph
100th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
16th Indy 500 (3 with CART)
Best Finish = Winner 1996
http://scoring.indycar.com/images/cars/indycar/blazier.jpg

33. Marty Roth 218.965 mph
13th Career Indycar Start
Indy Form
4th Indy 500
Best Finish = Yet to Finish
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/TTFG/roth.jpg

DID NOT QUALIFY

1.Mario Dominguez
2.Roger Yasukawa
3.Max Papis

Thread is now open for discussion :) and I will finalize the field after bump day :)

Marty Roth just made a phenomenal run, I don't think anyone thought he could do that after qualifying at 215.

WOW What a Bump Day , I only managed to catch the last hour of it due to work but that was exciting indeed.

AJ Foyt IV was the only driver who managed to get himself in the field. Roger Yasukawa was sadly the man to be knocked out of the field but there was heartache for Max Papis who has gearbox and clutch problems and was unable to get a qualifying attempt in and Mario Dominguez who had made the field before being bumped again went out for a last ditched attempt and after 1 lap was well within the time needed but it all got away from him exiting turn one on lap 2 when he spun and collected the wall hard.

He thankfully walked away unhurt but that was simply awesome to watch.

You just knew that Dominguez was doomed from the start though. Despite his two wins he has just never really showed me much of anything throughout his career and the talent deficit really was apparent Sunday.

Buddy Lazier, on the other hand, could probably put a Checker Marathon in the field. He drives that track beautifully...I could watch him run laps there all day. When they took the wing out the back of his car I thought: "This is going to be cool!"

When they did the same to MD's car I thought: "Those poor PCM guys are going to have a lot of pieces to put on the trailer."

You just knew that Dominguez was doomed from the start though. Despite his two wins he has just never really showed me much of anything throughout his career and the talent deficit really was apparent Sunday.

Bit unfair I believe. Considering that this was there (both team and driver) first race with the Dallara, Indy, lack of spare car and parts, the odds were stacked very much against them.

That was the real deficiency. I am not saying Mario is going to win the championship or anything but he IS a solid driver with talent.

yeah I disagree with that as well John.
Mario is a very competent driver and I though he looked like having the goods to at least bump Roth , and indeed on his first lap he was on the pace.

It was a tough ask though for both team and driver , but whats done is done and im sure both driver and team learnt something from that.

as for Buddy , you've just gotta love him :)

I've haven't felt as excited about Bump Day than this year. I think that there was something in the air that, since there hasn't been a real Bump Day in a couple of years, that there was a lot of anticipation about it.

I don't know if I am describing what I am thinking, but basically it seemed that there was both relief and tension that a real Bump Day was going on!

P.S. Who's sponsoring Davey Hamilton? From the look of the sidepod writing, it looks like "The Nightmare Before Christmas!" :p :rotate:

A question for real connaisseurs: I noticed that this year the whole grid is filled by Dallara chassis: is this the first "mono-make" Indy ever or has it happened in the past as well?

What about last year?

Three Panoz's last year (Lazier, Moreno, Giebler)

Hamilton is sponsored by by HP. The text on the side is "The Computer is Personal Again"

This is pretty much the first one-chassis Indy 500. In 1959 and 1960 every car had an Offenhauser engine and most of the cars were either Kurtis Krafts or clones of Kurtis Krafts, but there still was some variety as different cars had different front end treatments and since the various Offy engines were actually assembled by the various teams, they could potentially be very different in how they were built (different cams, compression ratios, etc.).

Man, what if this year it was the Champ Car Panozs vs. the IRL Dallaras? Just tune the cars so that they both are technically equal.

Oh well, but what a dream, though!

You just knew that Dominguez was doomed from the start though. Despite his two wins he has just never really showed me much of anything throughout his career and the talent deficit really was apparent Sunday.


Really? I thought he had only one "real" win...
:rofl:

Well I knew that if I had stated it that way (one behind safety car, one "real" win) it would have done more harm than good so I just stuck with the stats as they are!

Either way, I think he is relatively useless (got to watch him up close and personal at Mid-Ohio a few years back) and his inability to achieve a good result on a consistent basis (for me) confirms that.

"useless", throwing out big words here John. All pretty unfair in my book. There are far more "useless" drivers out there that are escaping your wrath.

Dominguez when he has been in a stable situation ride wise has been pretty consistent, ie 04-05. When he jumped around, so did his results.

Just for being objective, how consistent has Mr Lazier been over such the similar time frame ?

OIIII dont pick on Buddy LOL :):):)

we are all entitled to out opinions guys and the end result is Mario didnt make the show so lets move on from that and concentrate on those that did shall we :)

Anybody know what the weather forecast will be for Sunday ?

The Lights race has been moved due to rain and the final practice wasm also messed around , Im hoping we dont get a washout sunday

sunny Sunday, for Yahoo!!

I hope Rahal or Bruno win.

Briscoe looks like a good dark-horse candidate, but I think a Ganassi driver will win. Hopefully the ex-ChampCar guys can add something to the field.

Anyone know if theres a live stream of the 500?

www.indycar.com will have a stream, but it will probably only be the blimp cam. Apparantly with TVUPlayer you can watch it though the Chinese channel CCTV 5. Check it out here:

http://www.live-football.cn/Channel/cctv5-tvu.html

Thanks, I've just had a look on cctv5's schedule and i cant see any mention of the indy 500. I'll try it later anyway

Download TVAnts and click the ESPN China link, working like a charm here!

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=12726&part=sports

http://www.indy500.com

Indy 500 website seems to be offering a live stream

Channel 6003 on sopcast

The race is underway , why not join the Chat mentioned in this thread http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106884

Scott Wins the Indy 500 and become the 1st Kiwi to win the great race. Fantastic.


So happy for him

Awesome effort to Vitor and Marco in the last dash.

Great to see Briscoe coming through the field before the drama



Danica in true form - post crash Drama Queen

Great race.

Security ruined a great hissy fit there :(

Danica in true form - post crash Drama Queen

Talk about playing it up, the TV guys nearly missed the restart because they where focusing in her. Show some emotion, but don't go over the top and milk it like that.

Security ruined a great hissy fit there

Would have been interesting if she had a go at security or one of the officials:)


Well done to Scott for the win, Will for bringing it home in 13th and still running, and shame for Ryan.

Would have been interesting if she had a go at security or one of the officials:)
Would have been even more interesting if they had just let her through ;)
But I suppose you can't blame her for being pretty upset...being taken out by a racing incident on the track is bad, but a part of life. Being punted off on the way out of the pits is just unnecessary.

Tony Kanaan what great guy he is...I am so impressed with this chap...:)

Well I have to say it was a good race and congratulations to Scott Dixon on the win. It was good to see so many on the lead lap and to have 4 cars (or more) at the end within a shout if not a threat to win.

As far as the "drama queen" comments I wasn't sure if it wasn't Marco y'all were talking about. He makes a ridiculous pass on his team mate at a point in the race (lap 102 or whatever) where there was no need to take a chance and then after the race launches into a long diatribe about how the team made the wrong call on trimming out his car with his very best "I was robbed" look on his face.

If I were Kanaan, I would be "adjusting" Marco's "wing" in a very intense and personal way and I am sure Sarah Fisher would be happy to hold TK's coat while he does it. Kanaan may have been the fastest car out there today and Marco jobbed him just like he did Dario last year.

To me, it is becoming more and more clear that everyone exists on that team (Danica included) to ensure that Marco wins: TK does the grunt work on set ups with Danica & Hideki providing the $$$$. Michael's comment about it during the race was weak. If TK had passed Marco the same way he (Michael) would have chewed him a new orifice.

TK deserves better and showed what a class act he was in the interviews by refraining from going off on Marco.

I lost mega-respect for Marco and Michael today.

Oh yeah, great win for Scott Dixon. Historic

Think that Marco should "donate" some of his prize $$ to Sarah Fisher to help her out a little; after his incident with forcing TK high on the track. Course Michael would never agree that his son ever drives poorly

Would set an interesting precedent there, tanalised. Maybe like Ferrari passing on $$$ to Force India.

Last stint was awesome, flat out stuff. Up untill that, the race never really got going.

Great race. Well done to Dixon, drove a solid race.

The incident between Danica and Briscoe was unfortunate. Danica's behaviour after was unacceptable, it proves she isn't professional and has no class. She acts like she has never caused an accident before.

I couldn't believe she walked towards Ryan like that. She actually thinks she is tough. If she had a swing at Ryan, what could Ryan do? If he swung back he would be condemned by everyone. One day she will do it to the wrong person and get her pretty face messed up.

Yep I agree with most of the comments here - TK is a class act and Danica is not...if it was any other driver having the hissy fits...well...and if Briscoe hit anyone else they would be blaming the crew chief...would have loved if she took a shot at the big black dude - wonder who he was...

Mightly impressed by Meira again this weekend...

Great race by the Ganassi guys and Dixon :D

Great race. Well done to Dixon, drove a solid race.

The incident between Danica and Briscoe was unfortunate. Danica's behaviour after was unacceptable, it proves she isn't professional and has no class. She acts like she has never caused an accident before.

I couldn't believe she walked towards Ryan like that. She actually thinks she is tough. If she had a swing at Ryan, what could Ryan do? If he swung back he would be condemned by everyone. One day she will do it to the wrong person and get her pretty face messed up.

What? She popped Jacques Lazier a few years ago and gave "Purdy Teeff" a shove last year.

I saw danica in action a few years ago away from the race track and I'm not impressed.

Ryan's point of view:


“From what I can see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around and there are people pointing fingers, but that's not the way we are,” Briscoe said. “We both have a brake pedal in our cars, and from what I can tell, there was still plenty of room for her to get around me. I was trying to get around (Dan) Wheldon, and I was staying in the middle lane. I got ran up in the back, and it's a shame."

Link (http://www.penskeracing.com/news/index.cfm?series=i&cid=16863)

You could see the "Danica-stampede" coming a mile off, not the first time these two have gotten together either (Sears Point '05)

Can't blame her for being p!ssed, she was minding her own business and got tagged. By the same token Briscoe was infront pulling out and just hung the tail out abit too much,

A racing accident (in the pits under a caution, if that makes sense ;))

What happened to the blend lanes in the pits this year??

It's amazing that there was only one major pitlane collision, considering that virtually every stop took place together under yellow. Danica was right to blame Ryan, who didn't leave enough room - but her violent and petulant reaction wasn't impressive. Add to that Marco's crass block on Kanaan and Michael's sheepish reaction, and AGR will have lost a lot of credibility today.

Pretty decent race. For a casual viewer, the simplified strategy due to the near-identical pitstop timings was helpful. Dixon was the guy who was always up there and always competitive, so he probably deserved the win the most. Real shame Kanaan, Scheckter and Carpenter lost out like that.

I'd be quite happy for Danica to slap me around a bit ...

Perennial "Good Bloke" Tony screwed again by the emerging Brat.

Maybe F1 should start a new American Team with Marco and Kyle Busch just to make sure that everyone in the world hates them. I see some $$$ here

I laughed so hard at the "furious" look on Danica's face as she charged through the swarms of people.

Does she expect us to take her seriously? Honestly, it looked like she was trying so hard to look mad.

She ought to be fined for strutting down a hot pit area!

IRC she wasn't in the far lane like she should have been.

She ought to be fined for strutting down a hot pit area!

IRC she wasn't in the far lane like she should have been.


Replays (on the delayed telecast I saw in Indy last night when I got home from the race) showed differently on where she was, because she was in the outer lane, but his right rear kicked out and got a piece of her as he stepped on it...

just a racing incident, IMO....he was in the slower lane, but the back end just stepped out and she had nowhere to go

There was some good action in the race, but WAY too many yellow flags....69 laps under caution....

Meira jumped on the second to last restart, but didn't get the leg up on the last one or he would have been drinking milk instead of Dixon....when Vitor was in clean air, he was on rails....Dixon beat him in the pits on that final caution and once he was in front, Vitor was too trimmed out to get any grip behind him.

God race, though, and a HUGE crowd....Traffic was the worst I've seen in years. and the big "Coke Lot" northwest of the 4th turn (Gigantic parking lot) was full before 11 a.m. on Sunday!!!

Replays (on the delayed telecast I saw in Indy last night when I got home from the race) showed differently on where she was, because she was in the outer lane, but his right rear kicked out and got a piece of her as he stepped on it...

just a racing incident, IMO....he was in the slower lane, but the back end just stepped out and she had nowhere to go

Darn I wanted to blame it all on her. Well, there's next time.

I laughed so hard at the "furious" look on Danica's face as she charged through the swarms of people.

Does she expect us to take her seriously? Honestly, it looked like she was trying so hard to look mad.

Of course, now that she has won a race, or more technically inherited a race win due to fuel strategy.

She had plenty of room to the right of her in the lane. If that wasn't the case then she would have had damage to the right rear as well, but the wheel cleared the wall watching the replay, not even a mark on the wall.

:rofl: I couldn't believe what I was seeing either, I thought how stupid are you going to look having a go at another driver who is still in his car. Mind you the ESPN commentators (those of us in OZ) sounded like they where going to lay an egg at what she was doing. Maybe if she won a couple more races and even the championship, then I might take her seriously. At the moment, it's looking like her cubic dollar sponsorship is beating out her supposed cubic talent.

great drive by scotty dixon :beer: - great for him that he now adds this race win to his resume...

disappointing effort by briscoe, should have better car control than that :banghead: - badluck for danica. a case of wrong place, wrong time.... would've been good to see her biatch slap him though :laugh:

She had plenty of room to the right of her in the lane. If that wasn't the case then she would have had damage to the right rear as well, but the wheel cleared the wall watching the replay, not even a mark on the wall.
Valid point. She certainly had enough room on her right to spin around in without hitting anything.

Just watched her charging down pit road - how embarassing to be so demonstratively furious, then meekly climb over the wall when she got to the Penske pit area.

Didn't she carry on though!? Like she was the only person to have ever retired from a race.

If she thinks acting like that will get her respect from the boys, I think she's got another thing coming.

Maybe F1 should start a new American Team with Marco and Kyle Busch just to make sure that everyone in the world hates them. I see some $$$ here

To be fair to Kyle, he is delivering the goods in impressive fashion.

he sure is ... don't get me wrong, I think he's the real deal ... but everyone still hates him!

Of course, now that she has won a race, or more technically inherited a race win due to fuel strategy.

Like it not she won the race fair and square.

Many races have been won on fuel strategy including a good number of world championship grand prix.

Yesterday she was amusing but at Motegi she won and deservedly so.

Valid point. She certainly had enough room on her right to spin around in without hitting anything.

Just watched her charging down pit road - how embarassing to be so demonstratively furious, then meekly climb over the wall when she got to the Penske pit area.

Didn't she carry on though!? Like she was the only person to have ever retired from a race.

If she thinks acting like that will get her respect from the boys, I think she's got another thing coming.


Interestingly from TV pictures here in the UK (presumably the same feed as the rest of the world) when she finally arrived back at her own pit and we saw her sulk (sob ?) with her head in her hands – she still managed to have a quick look up – just to make sure people were still watching her ? ;)

Interestingly from TV pictures here in the UK (presumably the same feed as the rest of the world) when she finally arrived back at her own pit and we saw her sulk (sob ?) with her head in her hands – she still managed to have a quick look up – just to make sure people were still watching her ? ;)

Probably... she needs to cool down basically. It's human nature to get angry of course but having that kind of rage boiling away inside a race car cockpit is not a good thing, unless her theatrics were just for the cameras.

Too bad that racing has become such a sissyfied affair.

Back in the hay-days of drivers such as Jones, Foyt, Dickson she could gone storming down to the others pits and got in their face.

When she woke up, she probably would have found a knuckle imprint in her fore-head.

Shirley Muldowney got to the top of auto racing through shear guts and determination, without outside help, unlike todays little miss-priss types who do it through brain dead journalists.
Had Janet Guthrie had the rides Patrick has, little miss Patrick would be a no-body.

See Katherine Legge for an example of an intense sportswoman but with CLASS and PROFESSIONALISM.

I watched the race periodically and it seemed people couldn't keep it on the track. It all seemed a bit farcical.

In regards to attendance, from the overhead shots there was bare aluminum everywhere and still photos from the telecast now available show the same. It's a shame it has come to this.

Has anyone got the official numbers of attendance?? Tim??

Has anyone got the official numbers of attendance?? Tim??

They never release that.

Darn I wanted to blame it all on her. Well, there's next time.

Well you partly can :p

Plus she absolutely should have been punished for walking down a hot pit and then forcing people to come over the wall to stop her... Not sure what your involvement is Mountainstar but if you or a photographer/journo/mechanic, even a driver that wasn't Danica did that could you imagine how massively they would be punished???

And absolutely agree with you there Bob...

Too bad that racing has become such a sissyfied affair.

Back in the hay-days of drivers such as Jones, Foyt, Dickson she could gone storming down to the others pits and got in their face.

When she woke up, she probably would have found a knuckle imprint in her fore-head.

Shirley Muldowney got to the top of auto racing through shear guts and determination, without outside help, unlike todays little miss-priss types who do it through brain dead journalists.
Had Janet Guthrie had the rides Patrick has, little miss Patrick would be a no-body.


While not an Indy Car driver, I would add George Follmer to the list...but a gem of a post there, Bob!

I was impressed by the prize Dixon has won.

Blimey, almost twice as much as the Daytona 500 winner !! :eek:

I was impressed by the prize Dixon has won.

Blimey, almost twice as much as the Daytona 500 winner !! :eek:

Well it was about time. The indy purse had not been keeping up with inflation for some time.

Well it was about time. The indy purse had not been keeping up with inflation for some time.


Hmmm. We agree twice in week...strange, but true!

In my own humble opinion, if we really wanted to raise the interest in winning Indy, the purse is where to start.

What do they get for Pole? $250K? The win was $2.5 Million.

In my Perfect World Pole should get you $1 Million and the win $5 Million. If you want to make this into the premier race once again in the mind of the average fan then you are going to have to say it with dollars. But Big Money will generate lots of interest from fans and competitors alike.

I think they also need to go back to the "old" qualifying routine where you have Pole day and however many other cars set a time, those cars are gridded instead of 11 one day and 12 the next or whatever it is now.

Hmmm. We agree twice in week...strange, but true!

What do they get for Pole? $250K? The win was $2.5 Million.

John the win was just a tad under 3 mill, actually $2,988,065 from a record purse of $14,406,580

see story here (http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=11544)

Actually John even I agree with you, watch out, we don't want to make a habit of it

Well I hope they enjoy it, because that's about the last prize money they'll see for the rest of the year other than token payments for the top few placings at each event. It's back to the TEAM welfare program now. I'm excited.

The Pole at Indy is worth $100,000

Buddy Lazier got a $50,000 check for being the last car to qualify for the race.

Also, the fastest lap of the day in ach session (practice or quals) is worth $5,000

Just an FYI

Thanks Tim. Not sure why the $250K number was in my head!

NAC, no worries! That is what I like about racing: it is a big tent with plenty of room for everyone, even dinosaurs like myself....

Looks like the final tv rating was 4.5, one of the lowest ratings of all time. A clear sign the American public has neither embraced "the vision" nor the "unification"(sell out) and those that turned to the dark side.

I wonder the folly of also embracing danica as the sole face of the irl?

Looks like the final tv rating was 4.5, one of the lowest ratings of all time. A clear sign the American public has neither embraced "the vision" nor the "unification"(sell out) and those that turned to the dark side.

I wonder the folly of also embracing danica as the sole face of the irl?
You're sounding exactly like your old pal indycool used to sound in the Champ Car forum.

What is with the desire of some people to try to find the negative in everything?

To my understanding, and please correct if I am mistaken, but it seems like this year's 500 got a much improved attendance. If this is true, then that must a be a good thing: if a noticeably greater number thought it worthwhile to make the effort of actually going to the race, well, that surely must be a good thing?

I just...well...

We could all, each and every one of us, mercilessly tear apart the current status quo, with its multitude of flaws, weaknesses, inconsistencies, perhaps-too-high-looked-hopes, or whatever.

We have a weak and struggling situation, but it is possibly, just possibly, starting to make the signs of a bit of a fight for survival.

We can either do what we can to say good things, do good things, and spend good money, or. alternately, we can focus our energies on trashing what is in order to see the end of that little we have.

Grumph...this is just so frustating.

What is with the desire of some people to try to find the negative in everything?

To my understanding, and please correct if I am mistaken, but it seems like this year's 500 got a much improved attendance. If this is true, then that must a be a good thing: if a noticeably greater number thought it worthwhile to make the effort of actually going to the race, well, that surely must be a good thing?

I just...well...

We could all, each and every one of us, mercilessly tear apart the current status quo, with its multitude of flaws, weaknesses, inconsistencies, perhaps-too-high-looked-hopes, or whatever.

We have a weak and struggling situation, but it is possibly, just possibly, starting to make the signs of a bit of a fight for survival.

We can either do what we can to say good things, do good things, and spend good money, or. alternately, we can focus our energies on trashing what is in order to see the end of that little we have.

Grumph...this is just so frustating.

Oh I wouldn't take it so seriously.:laugh:

I was almost shouted down to a tee several months ago disagreeing that "unification" was the miracle cure people were proclaiming it to be. Here we are several months down the road with even lower tv ratings and no huge upsurge in attendance. Even the section here on ten-tenths dedicated to American open wheel racing has been quiet.

At least one would hope for an uptick in viewership with the wonders of unification, right? The Daytona 500 now has close to triple the viewership of the Indy 500. That's not a problem? OK.

The irl was struggling for a decent field at the beginning of the season. The buyout solved that problem in one big wallop with runners from the champcar field. Yet the same issues that existed several months ago still exist today.

Just because you wish something to be reality doesn't mean it is. Frankly I don't see anything put in place now or in the near future that is changing anything for the best.

The featurette before the 500 start on "danger" with the interview with Paul Dana's wife was not only in bad taste and bad form, but the fact people in charge let that slide though, tells me something is wrong from the top.

I can't in good faith sit here and lie and be deceptive. If something is wrong or I see something I don't like, like the spec chassis continuation, I'm not about to let it pass. And I'll give credit where credit is due.

Nobody is asking for silence on the problems. I think only the most delusional would consider the current scenario as anything or than flaky, and I don't think anyone really thought this "unification" was anything other than CC folding and the IRL taking its pickings from the pyre.

I guess what I mean is that we all know the weaknesses, well all know the problems...is there anything wrong with trying look at the positive now, given it has been nothing but negativity and direness for over the last decade?

Ach, screw it. Let us all just speak badly of everything in the interest of completely ending all North American open-wheel competition.

That is much better.

As an equal opportunity realist, I can see some truth to what mountainstar is saying and some to what Dutton is saying.

For the most part though, I have to say that very few people here or elsewhere believed that the result of having one series would be Immediate Panacea. Rehashing whatever problems the IRL had before CC folded or for that matter the problems that caused CC to fold really serves no useful purpose unless done as a serious exercise in how to right the ship.

There are things that need improvement, such as (to my mind) the purse for Pole and the Win at Indy. There are issues regarding equipment both current and future. There are issues regarding the fans and how to translate an increase in attendance into an increase in viewership.

However, holding the IRL responsible for the interview with Mrs Dana (which I did not see and therefore won't comment on until I do) is a bit much. Over the years I have suffered through many a mindless ABC "feature" where the talents of Sam Posey or Bobby Unser were typically wasted, so this is nothing new. Looking at TV in general these days is an exercise in selecting the least tasteless of the choices, but that is a rant for another day...

To Dutton's point there are many positives. Not the least of which is that I do not have to try to explain for the umpteenth time what the difference is between the CIRCL Series' or have to watch guys like RHR on the sidelines, helmet in hand. Better still, my thoughts are or can be focused on making forward progress which is where we need to be right now.

Rome was not built in a day. Heck, neither was Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. You have to start somewhere though and as imperfect as things seem to be right now the pieces are there for the building of a new series (not CART II or IRL-redux) that we all can enjoy and most importantly attract new fans to.