As it's certainly Not A New Track Record for
finally being able to post this here on No Fenders, Thanks Blooger!
Author’s Note
This is the second part of last year’s Indianapolis
500 tome that never got “Published” due to the aforementioned Hijinx of Blogger’com’s
Bastardized redesign…
It was Funny how much the Hours waiting until
this year's 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 finally commenced was for
Mwah, remember that Y'all? Feeling like Grains 'O Sand Slowly Slipping down thou
Hourglass inexorably S-L-O-W, one infinite grain at a time…
First it was 48hrs to G-O! After Gorging
Thyself upon the entire Carb Day practice, the Dale Junior' Download with Thee
Mayor 'O Hinchtown', aka James Hinchcliffe episode and then sitting thru another
Encore Presentation of the 2019 Indianapolis 500 on NBC Sports - All Day long,
Aye Karumba!
Then it was a somewhat agonizing 24hrs whilst
Ah-Waitin' thru Saturday, albeit I sat 'N listened to a Uber Hilarious Uncle
Bobby roast Hosted by 'Ol r', aka Robin Miller on Racer.com Saturday Nite',
since I think 'Ol Uncle Bobby's a fan of Sir Elton's Saturday Nites' Alright
for Fightin', Righto?
As this was the 2018 Roast of Uncle bobby held
at the legendous’ Stutz building in Indianapolis, and featured El Capitano’,
nee Roger Penske,”Rocket Rick” Mears, Parnelli Jones, Lonestar JR’, (Johnny
Rutherford) with ‘lil Al (Al Unser, Jr.) and Johnny Unser taking part later,
that’s not included on the video.
As thinking I’ll make “Watching,” Err listening to this Hilarious video part
of my Indy Night before the 500 ritual…
https://racer.com/2020/08/22/retro-the-roast-of-bobby-unser/
And then just killing some more time by
watching the last hour-plus Replay of the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar
Championship Saloons' race from Virginia International Raceway (VIR) Sunday
morning, where 'Ol Bimmer Billy', aka Bill Auberlen made History by winning the
GTD (Daytona) Class for his 61st victory. Breaking his tie wit Scotty Scooter'
Pruett for most major IMSA career wins of 60 apiece! Which I thought it was
classy on Auberlen's part to do a Scott Pruett Hi to My Family First moment in
his winner's podium speech…
Then just Ah-Waitin' until 'bout 10mins after Eleven
AM Pacific, until enough of the television Pre-amble with Queen
Dan-Dan-Danicker' and Mike "Sunday Night Football" Tirico had passed!
And I could switch onto Big NBC, which really does stand for Nothing But
commercials! Justin-time' to catch Back Home Again in Indiana being sung by Crooner'
Jim Cornelison, whoose
rendition of this time honoured classic I quite enjoy!
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!
While I've previously mentioned that I'd been
very Happy if Marco won, I totally wasn't expecting that to happen, whilst also
already having eluded to the fact that my Pre-race choice for this year's winner
was Alexander Rossi
And thus even though Vegas was favouring Dixon,
I wanted Rossi to claim his second Indy 500 Borg Warner trophy. Hence imagine
how chagrined I was to hear Danica Patrick say Rossi's my Guy, as He just seems
like He's got unfinished Business, Hmm? where did I hear those words before?
As Yikes! That was part of her answer when Mike
Tirico asked Danica to make a few comments 'bout some of the Drivers on the
first three Rows.
To which she also replied, Takuma Sato's motto
is No Attack, No chance, need I say anymore? As Taku-san was making his career
best start from P3.
On Rinus VeeKay, the youngest driver in the
field at 19, She said Ignorance is Bliss, as he's only been racing for
11-years.
And may be it was just Mwah? But I found myself
overly Amped Up at the beginning of the race, since everybody seemed to be
driving so G-Damn aggressively! Like Dudes, you Can't win it On the First lap!
Like wasn't that 'Ol Rocket Rick Mears motto?
With All of thou Craziness occurring just before
James Davison had the most Bizarre accident, when his front Brake Caliber instantaneously
Exploded after his wheel apparently Failed, before catching on Fire!
And Queue the Benny Hill Theme music for FAST
EDDIE' and Company! As Pick your Poison of which was worst? As I'm really,
really tempted to finely Hone some witty repartee 'bout Ed Carpenter and his
sponsor the U.S. Space Force.
Like shouldn't he have been able to see Zach
Veach's racecar from Far Above and avoid it? Nah, No little Green Men from You
Know Where Jokes Here, Hya!
Or Conor Daly doin' his best Tom Cruise Days 'O
blunder', Err Top gun impersonation of riding his Chuck Yeager inspired No. 47
"Glamours Glennis" USAF sponsored Dallara-Chevy into the wall after
calling Smoke On! Or Rookie Rinus VeeKay's unwanted Hitting of a Crew-member
during a Pit-stop, which obviously ruined his entire race after being given a
penalty.
The Andretti Curse…
For All of the Non-stop mentioning of Ye
Dreaded Andretti Curse at Mother Speedway, for which I believe I heard the
staggering statistic how the Andretti's were 1-for-74 in Wins vs. Starts before
this year's race, Aye Karumba! Which obviously now is 1-for-75.
Yet for Mwah, it appears more that Alexander
Rossi has the Andretti Curse squarely upon his Shoulders instead this year, and
his Indianapolis 500 race did nothing to cure it. As I Don't like All the Blame
the extremely Overworked and Underpaid Crew-members have been getting this
season. As they're under enormous pressure to perform this year in overly
Adverse conditions, i.e.; Travel, Heat, Fatigue, Super long Hours and
uncomfortable Work Clothes, including wearing Masks for 12-hour Shifts!
And I just felt like it was gonna be one of
those days after Rossi's first Botched Pit-stop when his team Didn't call him
in on-time, due to some sort of (Radio) miscommunication…
Yet that said, there was some sort of slight
delay in dispatching Rossi on the Pit-stop in Questione, where he grazed Takuma
Sato on Pitlane driving back onto the track.
As this seems the most likely cause of the whole
minor collision, for which All I can say is that at least IndyCar was Consistent
in its Penalty Punishment for an "Unsafe" release. Since I Don't
recall who the Booth Boys noted having been given the exact same penalty in a
prior race…
And it's funny that Thee Mayor 'O Hinchtown',
aka James Hinchcliffe was the top finisher of Mikey A's' Six, or is it Seven
Car Armada? If we include Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) due to Thar Technical
Alliance with Andretti Autosport, But I Digress…
As Hinch' finished seventh in a veritable
four-car Andretti Freight train. With Colton Herta eighth, MSR's Jack Harvey P9
and Ryan Hunter-Reay 10th.
Marco Andretti quietly soldiered home P13, with
Zach Veach 15th and Rossi's Dejected
finishing position matching his car number, YOUCH!
The Red's are Ah-Comin'
Many Fans, myself included thought the race was
shaping up to be a Mano e Mano Duel between Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi,
which we know didn't happen, since Rossi was sent to the back of the line
following his Pit-stop infraction with Takuma Sato. And then Ye proverbial Red
Mist took over Joe Cool', Err Rossi, who ultimately clouted the wall on Lap-143
when trying to desperately march his way back to the front of the procession.
Yet it was Taku-san', nee Takuma Sato who ultimately
Stole the Show! Although I didn't initially catch the lap number 158 when he
initially passed Dixon for the race's lead for the first time before a final
round of Pit-stops.
But I felt somewhat better hearing Ye Elder
Statesman 'O IndyCar bloggers Geo. Phillips, Hya! Of Oilpressure Fame subsequently
Note how Sato passed Dixon for the lead once again during another of thou
litany 'O Commercials - which he spotted whilst watching the Side-by-Side
action I cannot See…
As I believe George noted this was with 26-laps
remaining? Since All I recall is that I began Chanting Taku-Taku-Taku' with
four sets 'o fingers crossed with twenty laps remaining!
As I've lamented previously here on No Fenders,
it's not that I'm not a Fan of Scott Dixon's racing Brilliance, especially
since it's simply Amazing to think he'll soon rank second Overall in virtually
every Career IndyCar category, trailing only 'Ol SuperTex', nee A.j. Foyt,
CRIKEYS MATES!
It's just that I tire quite easily of Team
Penske winning every Freakin' year! Or the Big-3 in general, i.e.; Penske,
Ganassi and Andretti, excluding Rossi…
Since I really want Alexander to finally win
his first IndyCar Championship! Not to mention I feel like he's far more poised
to join the prestigious group of Four-times Indy 500 winners than HULIO' is.
Since if I'm doing this correctly, then Sato's
victory became only the fourth Non Big-3 winner in the past 20 years!
Ironically beginning with Buddy Rice's win for
then just Rahal letterman Racing in 2004. Followed by the upset victory by the
late Dan Wheldon for Bryan Herta Autosport in 2011. Then TK'
Follow-your-Schnoz! Kanaan's W for KV Racing Technology in 2013, and lastly
Sato's second Indianapolis 500 victory this year.
Was it as good as last year's race at Mother
Speedway? Probably not, albeit we'll never know if we'd have had a different
winner if Spencer Pigot hadn't crashed. Although I Hugely Doubt Pigot wanted to
crash! Even if he was in the third Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Car…
While Sato surprisingly seemed to have the
"legs" on Dixon, so who knows? As it was a very enjoyable race
overall.
But Congrats to Takuma for putting himself out front when it mattered, and ultimately winning this year's Indy 500! For which I'll let Ye Others in thou Blogosphere do thoust Heavy lifting of recapping the entire field, and whatever other details I’ve missed in this elongated No Fenders prose, especially now since we’ve just completed the 105th running…
