The Phoenix 200 Thread

[GP Racer]

Here's how they'll be lining up for the race :

Pos No Driver Name Best Time Best Speed Best Lap Total Laps
1 7 Bryan Herta 20.3837 176.612 2 2
2 26 Dan Wheldon 20.3995 176.475 2 2
3 3 Helio Castroneves 20.4451 176.081 2 2
4 4 Tomas Scheckter 20.4466 176.068 2 2
5 27 Dario Franchitti 20.4777 175.801 2 2
6 6 Sam Hornish Jr. 20.4811 175.772 2 2
7 2 Tomas Enge 20.4964 175.641 1 2
8 9 Scott Dixon 20.5199 175.439 1 2
9 8 Scott Sharp 20.5290 175.362 2 2
10 15 Buddy Rice 20.5579 175.115 2 2
11 10 Darren Manning 20.5874 174.864 1 2
12 17 Vitor Meira 20.6166 174.617 2 2
13 24 Roger Yasukawa 20.6418 174.403 2 2
14 33 Ryan Briscoe 20.6488 174.344 2 2
15 55 Kosuke Matsuura 20.6646 174.211 2 2
16 51 Alex Barron 20.8845 172.377 1 2
17 14 A.J. Foyt IV 21.0996 170.619 1 2
18 16 Danica Patrick 21.2707 169.247 2 2
19 20 Ed Carpenter 21.7156 165.779 2 2
20 83 Patrick Carpentier 0.0000 0.000 0 0
21 11 Tony Kanaan 0.0000 0.000 0 0
22 91 Paul Dana 0.0000 0.000

I'm surprised that Herta got the pole, but then again, it's his sponsors race! Wheldon looks strong again, as does Scheckter, and Enge in their Chevies. Holy cow, Dixon in the top 10! Kannan starts in the back, bit I expect him to move up steadily.

Carpentier was taken to hospital for a check-up after an accident. He should be racing though.

Enjoy the race!

[Hazza]

I hope Bryan goes excellently!

Is he still running the developlement program? He isn't using some superduper new spec motor or suspension package is he?

[marcus]

OMG they have had qualifying already ???

Yikes I missed it alltogether.

Now I gotta work out when the race is actually on LLOL

[BootsOntheSide]

The early-season pace from the Chevvies is really encouraging, and its nice to see some different Honda names at the front - Rahal might be a little concerned at its grid positions, but it's a long race. Any word on whether Pat will start?

[marcus]

STARTING GRID


1. Bryan Herta 176.612 (1st Career Pole)

29th Career start

2. Dan Wheldon 176.475 (3rd time starting 2nd)

34th Career start

3. Helio Castroneves 176.081 (5th time starting 3rd)

49th Career start

4. Tomas Scheckter 176.068 (5th time starting 4th)

46th Career start

5. Dario Franchitti 175.801 (3rd time starting 5th)

22nd Career start

6. Sam Hornish Jr. 175.772 (3rd time starting 6th)

70th Career start

7. Tomas Enge 175.641 (1st time starting 7th)

4th Career start

8. Scott Dixon 175.439 (2nd time starting 8th)

33rd Career start

9. Scott Sharp 175.362 (4th time starting 9th)

100th Career start

10. Buddy Rice 175.115 (3rd time starting 10th)

36th Career start

11. Darren Manning 174.864 (3rd time starting 11th)

16th Career start

12. Vitor Meira 174.617 (1st time starting 12th)

31st Career start

13. Roger Yasukawa 174.403 (2nd time starting 13th)

20th Career start

14. Ryan Briscoe 174.344 (1st time starting 14th)
Career best qualifying
2nd Career start

15. Kosuke Matsuura 174.211 (2nd time starting 15th)

18th Career start

16. Alex Barron 172.377 (6th time starting 16th)

44th Career start

17. A.J. Foyt IV 170.619 (6th time starting 17th)

34th Career start

18. Danica Patrick 169.247 (1st time starting 18th)

2nd Career start

19. Ed Carpenter 165.779 (2nd time starting 19th)

20th Career start

20. Patrick Carpentier No Time (1st time starting 20th)

2nd Career start

21. Tony Kanaan No Time (2nd time starting 21st)

35th Career start

22. Paul Dana No Time (1st time starting 22nd)

2nd Career start


Special Note

Scott Sharp this weekend becomes the first driver in the history of the IRL to reach 100 starts.
Congratulations to him

Last years event thread at Phoenix can be found HERE

Lets go Racing Boys

[marcus]

thought I would throw that in this thread

[Hazza]

Indycar.com
X-rays taken at a local hospital showed nothing broken, and Carpentier was cleared to drive the No. 83T car. He will start 20th.

“I was pushing the car to the limit, trying to make it very neutral so I wouldn't lose too much time mid-corner," he said. "We made it a little bit too neutral and it just snapped. When I corrected it, it bit me and went straight to the wall. It is unfortunate. I am disappointed."

Onya Pat.

[GP Racer]

Congratulations on a great race Sam! What a hard fought and well deserved win on whats always a tough track.

Looks like the Penske boys are back into the game. They really had two great cars, and both were good enough to take the win.

Again, the Ganassi and Red Bull Cheever guys were well off, although Manning showed some racy driving there for awhile.

Did you see Tony Kannan take off at the start? Man, he must have passed ten cars in the first two laps! The speed differential was glaring, to say the least. Those mid-field teams and backmarkers must be asking themselves, "how can we ever hope to compete with these guys?"

Good run by Sharp to hang in for 5th, although I was hoping to see him in the mix for the win. It's coming though!

Great race all around, much more exciting than last years event.

[GP Racer]

By the way, here's how they finished for the Phoenix 200 :

1 Sam Hornish Jr. 6 Marlboro Team Penske
2 Helio Castroneves 3 Marlboro Team Penske
3 Tony Kanaan 11 Team 7-Eleven
4 Dario Franchitti 27 ArcaEx
5 Scott Sharp 8 Delphi
6 Dan Wheldon 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam
7 Bryan Herta 7 XM Satellite Radio
8 Darren Manning 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing 24
9 Patrick Carpentier 83 Red Bull Cheever Racing
10 Kosuke Matsuura 55 Panasonic ARTA
11 Vitor Meira 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Menards Johns Manville
12 Scott Dixon 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
13 Alex Barron 51 Red Bull Cheever Racing
14 A.J. Foyt IV 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises
15 Danica Patrick 16 Rahal Letterman Racing Argent Pioneer
16 Ed Carpenter 20 Vision Racing
17 Tomas Scheckter 4 Pennzoil Panther
18 Roger Yasukawa 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
19 Ryan Briscoe 33 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
20 Tomas Enge 2 ROCKSTAR Panther Racing
21 Paul Dana 91 Ethanol/REMY/LifeFitness
22 Buddy Rice 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Argent Pioneer

[Kicking-back]

Entertaining race that.

Well done to the Penske boys.

[Snrub]

An enjoyable race.

The AGR cars were really dialed in. There were a number of times where they would absolutely smoke a competitor. Kannan passed a line of cars in a corner on restarts twice. It was wild to watch because he passed them like they were standing still. While it was good opportunism, I really think the reason that no one else was doing that was because he could run faster up higher than say some of the backmarkers. I really think the AGR cars lost because of stratagy, but they had the cars otherwise. Dario was having a heck of a time in traffic, I think perhaps they weren't quiet as optimized for traffic navigation.

As for the Penske cars, I think it was stratagy that kept them up to the front. Even then, had there not been that late yellow I think Dario could have gotten past Hornish, minus another big mistake of course. Don't get me wrong, I think Hornish had a little something to do with Dario's mistake, but it was fair given the situation and well executed.

There were a couple of times that the AGR cars blew by toyota powered cars on the straights, Manning being an example I can remember. Toyota didn't seem that far off and HP mattered less than usual because of the downforce package and shorter track. Penske getting 9 extra laps over Dario makes me think it was more than fuel conservation.

It was unbelievable how slow Danica was, anyone know if she had a problem or something? It seemed like every lap the leader passed her. I guess Meira was really slow too. I was surprised to see the disparity between some of the faster cars and some of the slower cars.

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by Snrub

It was unbelievable how slow Danica was, anyone know if she had a problem or something? It seemed like every lap the leader passed her. I guess Meira was really slow too. I was surprised to see the disparity between some of the faster cars and some of the slower cars.

I think Danica's car was fine.

As a matter of fact, she was the only rookie that could manage to keep it on the track and out of everyones way! Briscoe, Dana, and Enge were horrible, and were just slow moving road blocks out there. I mean Briscoe had 3 incidents in that race! He needs to get it together before the superspeedways come on, or he may really cause some problems out there. Same with Helmargen. Dana said he had no communications between himself and the pits or his spotter, and his car was very slow. That's unacceptable at this level.

The Toyota's really weren't that good either Snrub. Only Penske was on his game, and he swears he doesn't get preferential treatment from Toyota. RBC and Ganassi were extremely slow, next to the AGR cars. How Carp pulled off a ninth place finish is beyond me!

[Jordi]

Originally Posted by GP Racer

How Carp pulled off a ninth place finish is beyond me!

Because he's Carpentier!

[Snrub]

I don't know that the Penskes had a more power than the Ganassis, I think most of it had to do with setup. I'll agree that the Toyota's weren't that good, but I am simply saying that they could have been worse.

I'm not sure what the deal was with Pat either, but he probably didn't get screwed on the pit stratagy, advanced through attrition and beat a couple of slow pokes.

I didn't see a lot of Sharp, but it looks like he was reasonably quick. After the race he said he had the fastest car on the track.

[marcus]

Kanaan is the man off the line , that was the most amazing thing i have ever seen , simply superb

and well done Sam on a fine win and hopefully this means Penske are back ready to challenge for the title.

congrats to Sharp on his 100th start and he did a fine job during the race as well (I think he is only going to get better this year)

all in all not a bad race and im sure the rest of the year is going to be a cracker