Mid Summer Day's Nap

There was so much on the line at Mid Ohio that the plot lines were at the ready. Could Scott Dixon continue his streak and track down Dario Franchitti? Could Helio Castroneves turn his luck around and get back in Victory Lane? Could Danica Patrick make a run at her first victory? Could Darren Manning shock us all with a win? Could Ryan Hunter-Reay succeed in his first IndyCar race?


Could the audience remain conscious watching a race at a track with no passing lanes?

Once it was said and done and Scott Dixon had locked up his third straight win, most folks probably left with a very clear indication that there are no team orders from AGR. Depending on your point a view, either Tony Kanaan was too close to his raven-haired teammate, or Danica Patrick just lost it on the first lap and started the whole mess.

As a consequence poor Marco Andretti got flipped again, and adding insult to injury (well, thankfully no injury) he got to watch his three teammates all score Top 5 finishes. Bet that next team meeting at Andretti Green should be a barrel of laughs, eh?

The Good

Scott Dixon has won three straight races and is doing everything under the sun to track down Dario Franchitti for the series championship. He's en fuego, and might I add so is his lovely bride to be.

Tony Kanaan may or may not have been at fault for sending Danica into the grass and Marco into another episode of The Upside-Down Show, but after going to the back of the field early on he drove an incredible race to get back to Fourth. This just in: he's pretty freaking good.

After sitting in third for much of the day Darren Manning finished in sixth, again showing he can get the lone Foyt Racing entry up to the front on these road racing deals. We are already looking forward to you shock the world in Sonoma, Danger Mouse.

Although early on someone suggested to me he should be nicknamed Ryan Hunter-Intheway, the new guy in the #17 finished in seventh. Nothing to sneeze at there, but let's see how he does in the high-speed madness in Michigan.

The Bad

While his teammate has been running away with everything lately, Dan Wheldon recorded a very modest 10th. Ugh. The road course are making Lord Wheldon look awfully mortal.

Vitor Meira's bad luck continued with part failure that ended his day and relegated him to 17th. I didn't catch what Jack Arute said went wrong, but when he held up some small item to the camera I swear I could hear Chris Economaki chirping about a 98-cent part.

What are the odds that two flips in the season are by the same driver? Can we be done seeing Marco Andretti skidding around on his lid? I don't need to see this anymore. Really. Please stop.

Repeat after me, Marty Reid. "Dah-Ree-Oh". M-kay? How about this exercise: "Mar-co", "Dar-ee-oh". Sounds the same with the "ar" part. Whatever it takes.

The Ugly

I know Honda was excited to host this race and there were a ton of people all over the track, but for pretty much the whole race there was NO passing. And no, I don't count lapped traffic letting drivers by as "passing".

I don't want to get carried away, but the only drama at the end of the race was who could have the most efficient pit stop. Folks, that's not racing - it's a Carb Day contest. Racing involves passing, and without passing there is only a high-speed parade.

Making matters worse is that the broadcast (which was bouncing around networks to accommodate golf and some outdoor bowling(!) thing) did a fantastic job of breaking away from any actual passing. Tony Kanaan was passing actually other drivers - no small feat on this circuit - but we didn't see any of them. No sir, we got to see Helio and Dixon go round and round and round just like in St Pete for however many laps.