The last (?) Firestone Indy 200,
(Click to enlarge pictures)
No, it was never the most competitive
race, but we sure did like our IndyCar show at Nashville SuperSpeedway.
It’s looking more and more like this year’s was the last, so here’s what I got
from a couple of days there. First, I parked over off turn 3, near Uncle Bob
Harmon Blvd. Uncle Bob would never have let this race get away…then I walked
down through the tunnel into the infield. It was unbelievably hot and the
tunnel was nice and cool!
There was, as ever, lots going on, though
this shot doesn’t show much activity. Pretty much everyone was either in the
pits or on the track at the time except Mario Moraes,
who is riding his scooter in the distant center…
This is the engine cover/airbox off one of the Conquest cars. They’re painted a
really gorgeous metal-flake orange that shows up nicely at left. I like the “Bidaroo” sponsorship…they’re an auction site somewhat
like eBay, except they donate a goodly percentage of their profits to charity.
Bruno Junqueira’s
Z-Line Designs #18 in the garage. It was not to be a good weekend for Bruno.
More bits and pieces.
At left is a driver’s head restraint, at right, the bare tub of one of
Conquest’s spare cars. Everything from the fuel tank backward has been removed.
By contrast, here is Marty Roth’s car with
all the good stuff attached but the bodywork mostly removed. At left: a place
for everything and everything in its place. There’s not a lot of space under
the skin. I think this is the oil cooler you can see aft of the right front
tire, and you can see the exhaust manifold swooping up and back toward the rear
suspension, leaving room for the curved undertray
that produces the “ground effect” suction beneath the car that keeps it stuck to
the track. At right, crewman make a change to the rear wing. This was a pretty
darned good race for Marty, he finished 13th (his career best) just
one lap down to winner Scott Dixon.
Our heroes: Panther Racing’s
Delphi/National Guard #4 in the garage getting some work done. It sure looked
like it was going to be a good day to the 2008 Indy 500 runner-up, but an ill-timed
pit stop (just before the rain) cost him dearly. They still ended up sixth.
That might make a nice souvenir…the nose
of Mario Moraes’ Dale Coyne Racing car sits just
outside the garage while the crew works on the car in the shade. Did I mention
that it was really hot this day?
Our heroes Part Deux:
a crewman de-skins Anthony Foyt’s #2. Anthony never
really got a handle on this track, but he has shown mucho improvement, even on the road courses, and I’m betting he’s
got a win in the cards for 2009.
The Sangari-sponsored
Conquest Racing #36 of former Formula One driver Enrique Bernoldi
rolls out of the garage. Brazilian Bernoldi seemed to
lose his enthusiasm as the season went along and despite a couple of top five
finishes he was replaced by Canadian Alex Tagliani,
who promptly was on the pace and brought home a fourth at the season finale at
Surfers Paradise. Incidentally, the cars generally roll about on rain tires (as
this one is) to and from the garages but race on slicks, of course…though in
the case of this year’s show, rain tires might’ve been preferable…
Like laundry out to dry, the bodywork for
the Dreyer and Reinbold cars of Buddy Rice and Milka Duno waits outside their
garage. Milka chugged along to finish 17th,
but Buddy had a pretty stout outing and was running 7th when the
rains came and washed out the show.
The best of everything: Penske Racing.
That’s Ryan Briscoe’s #6 at right, and the Helio
Castroneves #3 just visible on the left.
Before and after: the line out on the main
concourse to meet personable Panther driver Vitor Meira was pretty long…even after it started to pour, and I
mean in buckets! Vitor was a trooper though, and
stuck around longer than he probably should’ve, through lightning, even! That’s
him signing autographs at right, and if the picture looks a bit foggy, it’s
only because it is! I don’t think I
fully dried out till around lap 150 of the race, not long before the monsoon
that ended the race prematurely. A pity; this one was probably Vitor’s to win had it stayed dry.
Finally, this is Terry Angstadt,
IndyCar rep and probably a very nice person, trying to explain to us all at the
pre-race fan gathering exactly why IndyCar would not be coming back to
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