Sunday, April 21, 2013

Long Beach 2013: First Impressions

1. Great day for Takuma Sato and AJ Foyt. First win for Foyt since Kansas 2002. First win for Foyt on a road/street course since Silverstone 1978. First win for Sato since the 2001 Macau Grand Prix.

2. AJ Foyt Racing is going to be a scary threat at Indianapolis. Conor Daly has got himself one heck of ride.

3. Anybody wonder what is going through Ryan Briscoe's mind?

4. Honda had a heck of a weekend.

5. I think Chevrolet has to take a look at the drawing board.

6. It was a really good weekend for Mike Conway. Sadly the result doesn't match it.

7. Great turn around for Dario Franchitti. Justin Wilson has been very consistent this season. Nice to see Graham Rahal get back on the podium.

8. Marco Andretti turned around a bad day to finish sixth. Same for Helio Castroneves to finish ninth and Scott Dixon to finish tenth.

9. The restart where James Hinchcliffe was taken out should have been waved off. Too jumbled.

10. Race control should do more to tell the rear of the field bunch up. Seems like some just lay back.

11. Not the day Andretti Autosport was looking for. Ryan Hunter-Reay had a good day before he got caught in the back after wing damage.

12. AJ Allmendinger's day could have gone better. Hopefully it can turn around for Indianapolis.

13. A top-five for JR Hildebrand and to think just a month ago he was running over guys under yellow.

14. I hate that there is a week off until São Paulo but after all the damage in this race it may be needed.

15. Sad to see Tony Kanaan get caught up in an accident on the final lap. He had a great day going.

16. Two first time winners in the first three races of 2013 and neither have been Simon Pagenaud. Who would have saw that coming? This is going to be a good season.