Indy 500 Reflections

I gave it a few days, and I'm still recovering from this year's centennial Indianapolis 500.

Props first to the brethren of the "full-time blogger roll" who make a far greater commitment to their sites. The peeps/tweeps in the IndyCar realm such as Paul Dalbey/Steph Walcraft of MoreFrontWing, George Phillips of OilPressure, Tony Johns/Dale Nixon of PopOffValve, and Bill Zahren, Iowa's own Pressdog, have done a great job of bringing both the fan and reporting aspects to the fore in looking back and recapping the race.

I haven't met George, TJ or Bill other than via Twitter, but all of them bring a healthy and fresh perspective to the table - especially because they have been IndyCar-focused whereas I've had college and ALMS to look at primarily ahead of IndyCar for coverage.

There's so many thoughts, some which involve the pageantry, some the atmosphere, some the sentiment in the media center and some about the future. The thrill was there in full, in all aspects, for my third Indy 500 in total (and in the last four years; only missed 2009).

But they all pale in comparison to the race itself. Billed as "The Most Important Race In History," this year's 500 entered the lore of legendary without that being hyperbole.

A word first about J.R. Hildebrand. He is one of the brightest, most mature individuals I've met in racing - wise beyond his years and well worthy of his chance to drive the National Guard car for Panther Racing. Having known him for a few years as he was coming through the ranks to get his opportunity, it meant a lot to see the rookie in the position to win the 500.

Honestly, I've never felt so sick as when he ran too high through turn four and smacked the wall. He made a mistake, which everyone has done thousands of times over - it just happened in the worst possible place and stage.

This has been called one of, if not the biggest, choke in sports history. Sorry, but I call BS. If it happens at any other point in the race, we aren't talking about it.

If, as rumored, his spotter said the competitors were breathing down his neck and told him not to lift, then he needs to be reprimanded if not axed. JR had at least four or five seconds and could have easily backed off.

One could say Charlie Kimball got in the way when JR was trying to pass, and perhaps he could have moved down to the warm-up lane entering turn three, but finding fault there is an excuse. They're both rookies and they just happened to be going through the final corner on the final lap at the same time. Call it circumstantial more than anything else.

The last bit is that the caution light didn't come on until several seconds after Hildebrand crashed - seconds in racing are an eternity. I don't think you can make the case eventual winner Dan Wheldon should have slowed because JR was three-wheeling his wrecked car to the finish line if the yellow came out and the field was frozen. Any potential controversy was nixed when Panther Racing decided not to protest.

Anyway, JR has shown incredible maturity, class and ownership of his mistake, and garnered a new batch of followers and fans through how he's handled everything. He will come back stronger.

***

As far as my picks went, Dixon could have been in Wheldon's position to win had his team not woefully miscalculated his short-fuel run from his last pit stop on 179. Dixon led often in the early stages but it looked like teammate Dario Franchitti was the one in the Ganassi camp who had the prime position if he had enough fuel to make it as well.

JR gets the moral victory card and rookie-of-the-year honors. Also correct was the pick of Danica as top finishing female.

Kimball dropped to 32nd early but stayed out of trouble the rest of the way - save when JR was trying to pass - and completed a clean run to 13th and out of the wall.

"It was exactly what we needed," a relieved Kimball said post-race.

That marks the second straight year my first pick to wall it not only didn't, but finished 13th. Go figure.

Bell walled it in the only multi-car accident of the day. Oops. Until that point he was looking at another top five or 10 finish, but his results have now trended downward ... unfortunate.

And for the departure time? I can only imagine how late we would have been from our initial ETD. The combo of rowdy fans, temporary closures and the ultimate pairing of ineptitude (yellow shirts and Indiana State Police) made for a near-hour delay in getting into the track once we hit 30th Street coming from Moller, then Georgetown. Still, getting in by 7:30 wasn't that bad, all things considered.

***

I briefly went to the Milwaukee Mile today to check in on some IndyCar teams testing there in advance of their race on June 19, and on Friday, it's crazy to think I will be departing for Le Mans.

More thoughts later. Parting gift is a recap of the articles I worked on while at Indy. Out for now, cheers.

-Lap-by-lap recap with my colleague Allan Brewer

-Rookie preview

-Part-timers seek triumph

-Chevy's 2012 program on schedule

-The Junqueira/Hunter-Reay ride swap

Predictions guaranteed to go wrong, 2011 Indy 500

Oh hey. Since the last time I blogged, I joined the ranks of the officially unemployed (cue the running joke this week at Indy after graduating on Sunday), moved out of my apartment and have arrived in this town where the meteorologists get to have a field day because it rains. A lot.

It's taken this week to realize a few things in a world where I now have left college, but more on that next week. For now, there's the matter of forecasting the Indy 500 for the centennial edition.

A few predictions, then, guaranteed to go wrong. The reason I know this - look no further than what I attempted to call last year. A solid golden horseshoe, 0-for-5 last year.

***

Win: Scott Dixon. I've been to this race twice and both times a Ganassi car has won - Scott in '08 and Dario last year. Has the perfect combination of optimal starting position, speed in race trim, experience, pit crew and race strategist in Mike Hull. He only loses it if he beats himself at some stage, which, given his "Ice man" moniker is unlikely.

Rookie-of-the-year: JR Hildebrand. A tough call between he and James Hinchcliffe, the Mayor of Hinchtown. Both are with upper-tier midfield teams and while their respective veteran teammates figure to play into the overall equation (Buddy Rice and Oriol Servia, respectively), Panther has shown better at Indy since 2008, when Newman/Haas returned from their time in Champ Car. JR has been smooth and relaxed and is on board the same car which has finished second here three years running. Keep it smooth, get a solid top 10 if not top five.

Top finishing female: Danica. She goes out with a bang, in some capacity. Poor word choice? Oh, well. This is likely the last we see of her in a full-time IndyCar ride and invariably Mikey's team will seek redemption from its piss-poor qualifying run and promote Danica to an off-sequence pit strategy that will move her to the front. Hey, when Briscoe hasn't taken her out, she's still pretty damn good at this track with five top 10s from six starts. If she could come from 24th to sixth last year, she can do it again, easily.

Dark horse: Townsend Bell. Hard to pick just one of the one-offers and part-timers, but two reasons why I'll take Bell. Maturity and patience are vital to success here, and given he's improved a tantamount level from his early years in CART/Champ Car, Bell is the most likely to hang with the leaders all day. Also, he's mastered the one-off role the last two years with part-time pit crews running in the top five most of 2009 and '10 with a fourth place result in '09. He would have equaled it but was called for a questionable blocking call. Bell's got the Sam Schmidt mojo of the month working for him (Schmidt's teams are a perfect 3-for-3 so far with both the Indy 500 pole, Tagliani, and an Indy Lights sweep of the pole, Bryan Clauson and win, Josef Newgarden) and enough experience to bring it home.

First crash: Charlie Kimball. You were expecting EJ Viso, right? He has to make it to at least lap 139 (his finishing total in each of his previous three 500s) before he wads up one of the KVRT-Lotus cars. And actually, to be fair to Viso and that entire team, they've had a wreck-free two weeks of May. Props. This is not a slight at Kimball whatsoever - but something will happen around that area of the grid (PT, Danica, Marco, Graham and RHR are sandwiching the rookie) that might send the Californian into the wall. You hope it isn't him - or anyone for that matter -but that's an odd hunch.

Time of departure: 6:30 a.m. My colleague Allan Brewer, who has so graciously hosted my stay in Indy, and I have gone back and forth about when we are actually leaving tomorrow morning. Conventional wisdom says go as early as possible, say 5 a.m. or so, but with backups for when the track opens to fans we might get stuck and not be able to get into where we need to go. Leaving later might be taking a chance, but we're going for it ... at least until we don't.

***

When these are all wrong on Monday, I'll be writing about how tough the crow tastes. Sorry in advance for four of these five - but I'm guessing Kimball will feel vindicated if he can mirror my first crash pick last year, Mario Romancini. Romancini finished ahead of Simona as the top rookie finisher, although Simona received ROTY honors.

With that, a rare pre-11 p.m. bed time is on tap given the early start. What a great, if long day, tomorrow promises to be.

Out for now, cheers.