Sunday, June 1, 2014

First Impressions: Belle Isle 2014 Race Two

1. Hélio Castroneves made it a Belle Isle sweep for Roger Penske at Roger Penske and GM's home race. Will Power made it a Penske 1-2 (more on him in a moment). Castroneves had a great car all weekend. He was always at the top of the time sheets and after fuel strategy didn't fall into his lap yesterday, it worked into his favor today.

2. I am so tired of Will Power's bitching and attitude. First he is complaining about hurting his wrist after he got into Simon Pagenaud yesterday but blames Pagenaud for the contact that he caused. Then he takes out Josef Newgarden and Graham Rahal on lap one, turn three today. He gets a drive-through penalty and that worked so well punishing him that he finish second. Don't get me wrong, he made some impressive passes on his way to the front but I knew the drive through wasn't going to be enough. Had he been held for two laps he would have finished eighteenth with Newgarden in 17th and Rahal in 21st. That seems more fair than a stroll down the pit lane and back out to racing. Penalties need to be more severe when other cars lose multiple laps due to an incident. I hope race control takes a look into it.

3. Charlie Kimball and Scott Dixon come from twentieth and twenty-second to third and fourth respectively. Don't get me wrong though, Kimball put a pretty nice block on James Hinchcliffe when he made a move on the final lap for that final podium spot. Hinchcliffe was fortunate enough to come home in fifth. Not a bad weekend for the Canadian with his homeland in sight from the banks of Belle Isle.

4. Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports had a great day with Simon Pagenaud and Mikhail Aleshin in sixth and seventh. Aleshin gave Pagenaud a hard run for sixth. He's had a really good year and was the top finishing rookie with Carlos Muñoz trailing him in eighth.

5. Ganassi closed out the top ten with Tony Kanaan and Ryan Briscoe in ninth and tenth. Neither had a thrilling day. Briscoe tapped Sato into a spin and that was about it.

6. Mike Conway finished eleventh. At the start it appeared tire strategy would fall into his favor but he abused his alternative tires on his second stint and lost a lot of ground. He really could have been a contender for the victory and definitely a top five finish.

7. The poor results of the day: Takuma Sato made no use of his pole position, put it in the tires and finished eighteenth. Ryan Hunter-Reay was a non-factor and had a mechanical failure be the mercy blow to end what was a weekend from hell for the Indianapolis 500 winner. Not to mention he lost his point lead to Will Power, more proof of the lack of severity of his drive through penalty but I digress.

8. Chevrolet picked up two wins at Belle Isle, the first two for the manufacture on their home soil since returning to IndyCar. I still suggest having a race at Michigan International Speedway and 500 miles please.

9. I am so glad the ABC portion of the IndyCar schedule is over. Allen Bestwick was fantastic. Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear make me want to put my head in the oven. ABC, please, put save us and get new color commentators.

10. On to Texas and 600 kilometers. This could be the final time IndyCar goes to Texas Motor Speedway.