Comments on: Random Thoughts On Barber

By: E.M.H.

E.M.H. — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:38:13 +0000

Wow. Thanks, George, for that little detail re: Helio and Cindric. I had no idea that Helio was showing a little bit of emotion over that.

It’s tidbits like *that* that are needed in after-race reports.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:20:44 +0000

Thanks for the reports from Barber George. My expectations coming into this one were wrong! It was a very good race. Can’t wait til INDY!

By: rj

rj — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:50:34 +0000

“This is the eleventh season since Team Penske came over from CART, and they only have one championship to show for it (2006).”

That is a shocking stat. Looking back:

2002 – Hornish (Panther)
2003 – Dixon (Ganassi)
2004 – Kanaan (Andretti Green)
2005 – Wheldon (Andretti Green)
2006 – Hornish (Penske)
2007 – Franchitti (Andretti Green)
2008 – Dixon (Ganassi)
2009 – Franchitti (Ganassi)
2010 – Franchitti (Ganassi)
2011 – Franchitti (Ganassi)

That said, I think they’ll get it this year, especially if Dario can’t get on his game.

By: Savage Henry

Savage Henry — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:55:18 +0000

I hope that this quality of racing keeps up and that we haven’t already seen the best twisty race of the season. I hope it even gets better as the teams learn to dial in their cars. I’m optimistic that this is going to be a fun year.

I have my fingers crossed for Road America next year – if they can put on this kind of show on a motorcycle track, think of what they’ll do on a legit open wheel track. Hopefully aero kits next year will add to the action.

By: Steve K

Steve K — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:12:55 +0000

Oh, and how soon till Roger dumps Briscoe and steals Bourdais from is son?

By: Steve K

Steve K — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:09:01 +0000

I thought the qualifying show was awful. They give you no timing while we were watching the cars so we had no idea how the car was doing other than a different color by their name if they are on a “good” lap. Whatever that means. Watch a F1 qualifying telecast on SPEED and you know how qualifying should be broadcast.

That said, the race telecast was excellent. I still didn’t get my times but pulled up timing and scoring on my laptop for the race (can’t do this for qualifying since it’s tape delayed). T & S is dead on race pace and I could follow 12 & 9 cars as the were on the last stint and saw how Power slowly pulled away. As a well known blogger would say, “Viewing enhanced.”

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:39:28 +0000

I have to say how pleasantly surprised I am at how well Conway is running in the Foyt car, bad pitwork and all. In any of the last few seasons, a 7th place for this team would have been cause for celebration. It’s a good thing that we’re now asking, “How much better could it have been?”

By: billytheskink

billytheskink — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:14:01 +0000

An excellent race with excellent television coverage. Kudos to all involved.

If they gave wins to the driver who drove the most entertaining race, Marco would have a lot more wins… though I might give this one to Bourdais.

While I noticed Conway’s pit stops cost him some time, on television it seemed that he lost spots mostly on restarts and in the stints where he was running black tires while most of the leaders were running reds. Slow pit stops cost darn near everybody yesterday, except Will Power. That’s one reason, I’m sure, that Dixon and Helio weren’t in the best of moods after the race, because they both may well have been a good pit stop away from winning it.
Helio ought to be happy that Barfield let him push the envelope defending 3rd from Rahal…

While NBC Sports did a much better job catching the passing that happened, where they really shine over ABC, I think, is in the booth. Little things like Bob Jenkins raising his voice when passing is happening, the occasional Sam Posey-esque exclamation from Wally, Jan being aware of and explaining pit intervals, the whole booth noticing when cars dropped out of the race and why drivers were having slow pit stops, etc. make the race more interesting.

By: JohnMc

JohnMc — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:58:55 +0000

I think that everyone pretty much did what I expected, so not surprising except for TK and his KV car. With TK I expected better results. However, I think this will get all ironed out and he will become competitive very soon. Also, I am surprised that Daio isn’t running better.

By: Ron Ford

Ron Ford — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:34:24 +0000

We all have a passing interest in this sport and I think most would have to be pleased by the amount of passing that took place Sunday. Oriol, Marco, and Simon were remarkable in that regard, but I was most impressed by Bourdais. WOW! In some respects he reminds me of A.J. by how he is able to wring 110% out of whatever equipment he is given.

Not to overlooked in my opinion is Justin Wilson who managed to somehow finish with the worst handling car I have seen in a while. He sometimes looked like he was riding one of those bulls that Randy used to promote.