(Editor’s Note: Andrew Chernoff has joined Vigilant Sports as our racing expert. Expect quality and thorough analysis for everything IndyCar, NASCAR, F1 and more).
The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series campaign began with a bang on Sunday…or was that the sound of carbon fiber being ripped from almost every car on track?
The first 14 laps of the race featured four cautions and ended many of the favorites’ chances to win, including that of Marco Andretti who actually flipped upside-down on the first corner of the race. Also involved with contact of some kind early were four drivers on either Target Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske: Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves.
And many of these cautions came out right after restarts that were results of previous yellows. That’s right…the first couple restarts ever in INDYCAR that were double-file. In a sense, these restarts were crazy (as the league hoped it would be), but it lived up to the idea that cautions breed cautions. Many drivers became frustrated, including Ryan Hunter-Reay who had to restrain himself from saying something else before calling out “other drivers” in an ABC interview.
But once the green flag stayed out for longer than a lap at a time, no one could compete with the 2-time defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti, who led all but six laps on the day. Of course, right behind him was road/street course specialist Will Power.
The biggest surprise of the day came with the next two cars. Tony Kanaan finished in third place in his first race with KV Racing—Lotus, a deal which was struck only a couple weeks ago. (Okay…that truly isn’t a surprise because of TK’s talent.) But, what was a shocker to a lot of people was Simona de Silvestro’s strong finish of fourth. She showed some signs of this last year, especially at Mid-Ohio, but she showed some guts out there going toe-to-toe with TK until the finish. It is clearly time to designate her as a better road/street course racer than Danica Patrick.
The good part about today though is that it has people talking, which is what the Series needs.
It’s off to Barber Motorsports Park in two weeks for what will hopefully feature more racing and less crashing though.