Wednesday, May 31, 2006

We Have a Winner/ Indy Beats NASCAR in the Ratings/ Time Lapse Indy/ Iowa Rocks/ Busch Gets Wacked/ Watkins Glen Coverage

We Have a Winner

Erin Crocker has won the 2006 Race Babe poll on Open Wheeler. Crocker won with 31 percent of the vote. Connie (she likes bubble baths) LeGrand and

Jamie (tat) Little. Tied with 10 percent of the vote. Awesome Aussie,

Veronica McCann made a late push for votes but ended up tying with DaLana Harvick and

Michelle Beisner for third with 8 percent.

It is a shame that Rachel Nichols doesn’t cover racing,

she would have given the others a run for the title. Thanks for voting. Let me know what you think the next subject of the poll should be. Email me at johnsonbjv@aol.com.

Indy Beats NASCAR in the Ratings

The ratings were down slightly for the 2006 Indy 500 but more people tuned in to see Sam Hornish edge out Marco Andretti than watched Kasey Kahne win the Coke 600, this according to a story on the SceneDaily.com. Sunday's Indianapolis 500 earned a 5.2 overnight rating and 13 share, the second-highest overnight rating since 2001, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Fox's broadcast of Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 earned an overnight 4.7 rating and a 10 share, down 7.8% from 5.1/10 last year.

The Indy 500 was the highest-rated motorsports event of the weekend. It is about time. Congratulations to IMS, the IRL and ABC.

Now lets get CCWS and the IRL remarried and return Open Wheel racing to it’s rightful throne.

Time Lapse Indy
The Indianapolis Star has a beautiful time lapse of the Indy 500 on their website. Here is the link to the front page. From there scroll down to the times lapse. It is worth your wile. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Iowa Rocks
Open Wheel fans planning on attending the USAC midget, sprint and Silver Crown races in Newton, just received a bonus from Iowa Speedway. The new facility will see two concerts that weekend. Neal McCoy is scheduled to perform on Friday, September 15 before the Hooters Pro Cup Series and Josh Turner will take to the stage before the USAC features begin on Sunday, September 17. The track has also scheduled Tracy Lawrence and the group Trick Pony for the ASA and ARCA Re/Max Series weekend.

Busch Gets Wacked
At some point Kyle Busch has to grow up. Yes he is young but the good folks at Kellogs and Lowe’s have invested millions of dollars and he needs to respect his sponsors even if he cannot respect his competitors and his sport. Yes Robby Gordon did about the same thing last year but Robby was smart enough to tone it down. From leaving the track in a huff if things aren’t perfect to chirping his tires to throwing his HANS device at other cars on the track, it is time for him to follow in his brother’s footsteps and learn to take the high road.

His downfall this time was disobeying a directive from a NASCAR official, entered the racing surface without authorization and threw an object at another competitor's car during the event. He has been fined $50,000, penalized 25 driver points and placed on probation until Dec. 31. Grow up Kyle. There are others out there just waiting to take your place.

Watkins Glen Coverage

Beginning Thursday, coverage of the IRL from Watkins Glen. We will be on site in New York state with the latest from the track so please check back often this weekend for updates.

Images appearing in this blog courtesy of ABC, IMS Productions, ESPN, FOX, FX, NASCAR Digital Entertainment, the Denver Broncos, Maximum Talent Agency, SPEED, Jamie Little's website and Veronica McCann’s website.

Monday, May 29, 2006

After Further Review: Breaking Down the Greatest Spectacle in Racing

After Further Review: Breaking Down the Greatest Spectacle in Racing
No one will argue that Sunday’s Indy 500 was one of the most exciting finishes in recent Indy 500 history. All in all it was a success. Normally here in the south, the Coke 600 highlights would play before the Indy 500 in the local sports cast. Not so today as NASCAR got shuffled to the backseat. On some local newscasts the Coke 600 highlights didn’t even make the cast because of time. So Sunday was Indy’s day to shine and shine it did. But how did the broadcast fare?

After Further Review: The Indy 500


Local affiliate switches to network and we hear the great voice of Jim McKay. Today is going to be great. Kiefer Sutherland narrates a well produced segment on the legends of the Brickyard.

(They won a Sports Emmy for their opening video last year.) First Danica reference in Legend’s video. Cars being pulled out to the grid and Brent Musberger and Rusty on a stage on the grid. Throw to Danica Patrick pkg. Hey you gotta show your most popular driver.

Jerry Punch needs to ask her where is the cow bell. Throw to Team Penske and Jack Arute. Sam says he wants to be there at the end. Helio preaches patience. Throw to Jamie Little and playboy Danny Weldon.

Weldon looks like a kid in those glasses. Throw back to Musberger.

Coming up, another package on Danica. Commercial break. How big is Indy? I think I saw this feature on the rained out qualifying weekend. Look, its pace car driver Lance Armstrong. Nice shades. Now we pause for a moment to pimp the ESPYS. Your brothers at ESPN thank you ABC. To Vince Welch with Marco and Michael Andretti.

Time to go to NASCARLand and pimp the movie “Cars.” Commercial break. Back with race. Look there is Minnie Mouse.

Disney being pimped by ABC, nooo. Throw to Danica Patrick package.

Nice piece. Dr. Punch interviews Danica’s husband. Commercial. “I am (M)Indy” montage.

Dam, he looks familiar but I just can’t place this guy’s name. 300,000 folks here? IMS rolls out past winners to recognize them. Watch out for AJ, Arie. Lets bring out the drivers. He everyone, its Danica Patrick. Dude, its Stained performing a song I am not familiar with. I guess that is what I get for listening to too much sports talk. Ok.. hit FF button.

Commercial, love the Honda ad with the IndyCar sounds. Were back with a Rusty Wallace pkg on Little Al fighting his demons. This was run also during the rain delayed qualifying.

Network takes note of Paul Dana stickers on cars. An odd pause where Musberger seems a little lost then quickly throws to commercial break. Commercial. Time for the national anthem and flyover.

Nice! Commercial Break. Former Join Chiefs of Staff and Indy 500 pace car driver Colin Powel honor the troops. Taps is played. Now time for Jim Nabors to perform Back Home in Indiana for the 29th time in his career.

Nice! Now this show is flying. Release the balloons! Mari Hulman George gives the command for engines. Gas em up folks. (Ok technically is it 90% methanol/ 10% ethanol em up.) Throw to boot for Marty Reed, Scott Goodyear and Rusty Wallace. Rusty Wallace says this is the most exciting thing he has seen in his life. It’s hot out there. There are 19 Americans in this race. That is over 50%. Lance Armstrong is pumped. Let’s go.

The most exciting time is Motorsports is here. “Green flag starter!”

Hornish leads. Lap 2 Jeff Buckman and PJ Chesson get together

Marty Reed says the national anthem lasted longer than Bucknum's and PJ's race. Ouch. Nice echo with Rusty Wallace on the radio and an annoying feedback. Audio.. work on that will ya. To Jack who talks about excitement. To Jerry with Weldon pit. Weldon wants the lead now. Backmarkers pit. Green flag. PJ says ax was a shame. Carmello was there to watch. Thanks Ron Hemelgarn and team for the hard work this month.

I love this low shot. Dan Weldon now in the lead. First “Hot Rod” refference from Rusty. Commercial.

Lap 27, Marco Andretti gives Tiago Medeiros a “what the heck” jesture after Medeiros cut down on him. Commercial, the pillagers go to camp.

Helio was dropping back through the field, time for a pit stop. Danica makes a clean pitstop. Jamie is in Marco’s pit, clean pit stop. Kanaan leads, then he and Hornish pit. Dan Weldon is back in the lead after pitstops. Tiago is done for the day. Commercial. Brent Musberger calls Dan Weldon, Dan Eldon. Michael Andretti’s lights on his steering wheel are all lit up. Not good. Marco follows Michael around the track. Marco gets squirreley while coming up to a pack of cars. Commercial. Thomas Scheckter wrecks and

hits antinuator at the end of pit road right in front of the ABC camera. Thomas will suffer a knee injury. Jacques Lazier hits part of Scheckter’s wing and it flies into the stands. Five people will be treated and released. Commercial. Danica was about to get lapped and will remain on the lead lap with the help of the caution. Commercial. Commercial again. Back to green. Scheckter blames accident on backmarkers. Debris on Castroneves’ car. The wind blows it off. Lap 84 and we have a Danica lovefest. Dr. Punch says he car is getting better and better. The boys remid us it is hot as they throw to break. Commercial. Jerry says that Danica’s car is coming to her and she could be faster than Weldon too. ABC is getting giddy. Danica is now slowing and will pit. Clean stop. Dan Weldon makes a clean pit stop. Helio and Buddy Rice get together. This accident will profoundly impact the race. A. it takes out two potential winners. B. it focuses all of Team Penske’s attention on Sam Hornish Jr. This is the first DNF at Indy in Helio’s career. Commercial. Brent Musberger is over hyping Danica again. Musberger is chastized for using the term “crashing into the top ten” by Marty Reed. Ok, now to Commercial. Dr. Jerry Punch asks David Letterman about what a win by Danica Patrick would mean.

“The history of her career is that she has transcended and to win this event would be much bigger circumstances in sports than just winning the Indianapolis 500. It would mean so much to every young person in sports for who she has become a role model. It would just turn everything upside down.Talk about the girl to pull it off man. She is aparently is very happy with things right now.” Commercial. Finally back to green. Lap 130, Sam Hornish regains the lead. Commercial. (I don’t get the Ford commercial and the “bold” exgirlfriend.) Pit reporters give updates on the leaders. Danica pits and yellow coves out when Al Unser Jr. crashes while running in 15th.

He is ok. Jeff Simmons pit crew member hurt. Meanwhile Townsend Bell pulls away before fuel guy could get the fuel probe fully out. To Jack where he tells us the Honda engines will run on corn (ethanol) in 2007.

The pits get really busy as most everyone comes in. Big mistake. Roger Penske gives the signal for Sam Hornish to go.

He signals to early and Sam pulls away rupturing the fuel line and potentially killing his chances of winning. Commercial. Hey look, it’s the Van-O-Babes chasing after Kasey Kahne.

(Kahne said in victory lane at Charlotte Sunday night that he wants to run in the 500 some day.) Ok back to live TV. Jeff Simmons hits the wall. Chip Ganassi wines that Hornish sould have a penalty. Waaaaa. Desire music video and then Commercial. Commercial. Lap 163 Green flag and Hornish must serve a penalty for leaving his pits with the fuel buckeye. Townsend Bell and Hornish make contact. Bell’s car is damaged by Hornish is ok. Hornish asked to dial back on the fuel in order to go the rest of the race without pitting. For the most part, Andretti Green Racing is up top. Lap 170, Scott Dixon given a warning for blocking and Danic Patrick is not far out of the lead (6th) so chimes the ABC crew. Got to get the Danica Mainia fans happy. Where is the cowbell? Commercial.

Welcome back to the IRL laying down the law and a black flag for Scott Dixon for blocking Tony Kannan. ABC is giddy now about Marco Andretti running third. Danica Patrick’s team makes an 8.2 second pit stop. Dude, she has a chance of winning this race. Tony Kannan is now the race leader. Dan Weldon gets back on the lead lap. Marco pits and Felipe hits the wall. Tony Kannan pits under caution and Michael Andretti inherits the lead setting up a storybook ending. Mario is obviously nervious.

He doesn’t want ot talk to Jamie Little for fear of jinxing Michael and Marco. Green, green, green with four to go! 3 to go,

Marco passes his dad for the lead. Hornish passes Michael. Turn three with two to go, Hornish tries to pass Marco but has to back out.

Does that dash Sam’s hopes of winning? Nope. Rusty is so excited he screams, “this is the most exciting Daytona five.. Indy 500 ever!” Final lap. Sam Hornish closes in and passed Marco Andretti just feet from the yard of bricks.

To Jamie Little and Mario. He says he is relieved and proud of Marco. Marco says that he can’t wait until next year. He could have blocked but that might have taken them both out. (It is nice to see every Indy TV station joins in on the interview action. To Jack and Sam. Hornish takes a sip and pours the rest over his head.

Complementry of Marco. Hornish is emotional over the loss of loved ones reciently and what the race means. His wife and parents are there in victory lane. Commercial. Musberger blabs while the results are on the screen. Down to Michael Andretti and Vince Welch. Michael said he didn’t have the car to get it done. Complemented Marco. Said he didn’t block but could have. Wants to wait before he decides if he will run the 500 in 2007. Over to Jamie and Danica. Danica Patrick says she had an 8th place car which wasn’t as fast as the winner’s car.

Patrick says Marco is a fast and good driver. She sounded frustrated. Commercial. Vince Welch and Chip Ganassi, Chip didn’t like th black flag call. Jack is with the Captain. Who are the chicks in the background?

“Hey put me on TV.” What is Penske saying, oh yea Sam did a good job. I would like to thank TG, the speedway, and everyone. Andretti Green and Marco ran a great race today. So did Chip Ganassi Racing.

Now the gal has a phone to call her friends to tell them she is on TV. Commercial. Sam goes to kiss the bricks and security steps in front of Hornish and blocks ABC’s shot.

We are going downhill now. Commercial break again. The boys are wrapping up the broadcast now. They relive the exciting finish. Commercial again. Down to Dr. Punch and Dan Weldon. “We had a good karr and our Honder engine was good.” Lets wrap up boys. Brent Musburger pimps the NBA Playoffs then concludes the broadcast. “Who will ever forget the finish and Sam Hornish drinking the milk?”

Overall better broadcast than 2005.

No garbage trucks or

camera folks on screen.

No crazy person climbing the fence to be in the shot with Letterman. There were a few bumps in the road but ABC and the IRL allong with IMS Productions produced a great product. Definitely worth watching again.

Blake’s Grades:
Pit Reporters: A, Informative, didn’t walk on each other and didn’t say anything too stupid.
Marty Reid: B, Other than the wack he took at the Hemelgarn teams, he was pretty civil and on the money.
Scott Goodyear: A, next to Wallace, Goodyear is clearly the expert. He did his homework and it shows.
Rusty Wallace: C, His “I tell you what” and “Hot Rod” sayings are down this race from previous events. He missed the boat on some issues but was rescued by Reid and Goodyear. The Daytona 500, er Indy 500 line was pretty funny too. I tell you what, Rusty Wallace has really improved and coming from a NASCAR background is adapting to the IRL broadcast boot pretty well. He also brings in NASCAR fans to the IRL TV broadcasts. He is doing pretty well for one that is new to the sport.

The Indy 500 Broadcast by the Numbers:

Rusty Wallaceisms Count:
“I tell you what.” – 6
“Hot Rod” – 5

ABC Danica Moments – 20
I Am Indy Music – 1
“It’s Hot” references - 8

I hope you enjoied my summery of the Indy 500 broadcast on ABC. Did you like it, what is your take on the broadcast? Drop me a line at johnsonbjv@aol.com and let me know your thoughts.

Coming up tomorrow, we crown a winner in the Race Babe contest plus we will have the latest news after a long weekend of racing.

Images appearing in this blog courtesy of ABC and IMS Productions.
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  • In this blog, I will feature what is going on with Open Wheeler's. Race results and news that normaly you would have to search for, you should now be able to find it here. I will also comment from time to time on my two other loves, Hockey and Memphis Tiger Football. Thanks for stopping by. You stay classy racing world.
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