Barber 2013: First Impressions

1. Great race all around. You had Ryan Hunter-Reay pull away in the beginning. Then Helio Castroneves run him down and open up a massive lead. Hunter-Reay gets by Will Power and reels in Castroneves before taking the lead and having a nice back-and-forth with Scott Dixon, holding him off for the final 10 laps.

2. Great weekend for Charlie Kimball by finishing 4th.

3. Charlie Kimball has led more laps this season than Dixon and Franchitti combined.

4. Congratulations to Josef Newgarden and Tristan Vautier on their first career top tens.

5. James Hinchcliffe was waiting a long time to get back to the pit lane. Tough break for the Canadian coming off his first career win.

6. Nice to see Simon Pagenaud bounce back with a 6th place.

7. Not a bad race for Marco Andretti in 7th.

8. Chevrolet may have won but Honda had six of the top ten.

9. AJ Allmendinger may have finished 19th but he ran much better than that. Great to hear he will be at Long Beach, a track he has been to before. Wouldn't be surprised if he gets a top ten if he continues the pace he had all weekend at Barber.

10. Another bad break for Dario Franchitti with an electrical problem. Two 25th place finishes is not the way anyone saw his season beginning.

11. Good news for JR Hildebrand is no one mentioned him today which means he didn't pass anyone under yellow or run anyone over. However he didn't do anything that impressive finishing in 17th.

12. Simona de Silvestro had a quiet race despite her pace all weekend, finishing 18th.

13. Mixed day for Dale Coyne. Justin Wilson in 8th. Ana Beatriz in 24th.

14. Terrible race for Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing. Graham Rahal finished 21st and got caught in an early accident with Oriol Serviá. James Jakes had a mechanical issue and finished 23rd.

15. Another disappointing race for Sebastián Saavedra. Starts ninth for the second consecutive race but finishes 20th.

16. Can't wait for Long Beach in two weeks. I was going to pick Ryan Hunter-Reay for that race before today. He has always been fast there and it's one of his favorite race tracks.

17. Great start of the season for Andretti Autosport. Two wins, their three drivers are 3rd, 4th and 6th in the points. If I am Michael Andretti, I am satisfied but not going to lay back and settle for what I got. I am going for the jugular this season.