Come fly with me

Meet the new race, same as the last race. Tony Kanaan wins, Dario Franchitti flips, Dan Wheldon wrecks, Scott Dixon closes in on Franchitti, Scott Sharp and Tomas Scheckter hover near the front, and Penske cars fall apart.

Oh, and Danica Patrick has another "nightmare of my life" event while millions of men turn their attention to her sister.

Just another week at the office for these ICS folks.

The Good

Tony Kanaan has won two races in a row and now finds himself only 52 points back of Dario for the championship. Nariz pretty much has to win at least once and hope Franchitti and Dixon have at least one major catastrophe, but this season that's actually very possible.

After a career best 8th place at Michigan AJ Foyt IV finished third. Heck, he was leading with 10 laps to go! With both of his Vision teammates joining him in the Top 10 you can't help but note the irony: Tony George the team owner is getting his cars very good on ovals just as Tony George the IRL owner is trading them in for street courses.

Andretti 3.0 finished fourth, his second Top 5 on an oval in a row. The improvement, the name, the youth - and he's now the least famous member of his driving team. Let's hope he doesn't get jealous and start flipping over again for attention.

Scott Sharp keeps on keeping on when the ovals are on the schedule. Sixth place with a snappy Patron machine makes me wonder when we're going to ask when this guy will sneak another win. Maybe Chicagoland? Eh.

Last year this race looked like it was about to die, but from the looks of the crowd the Saturday Night start seemed to do wonders. Look ma - there's people! I don't care if they were there to see Jonas Brothers, there still were definitely more than last year.

The Bad

There once was a phrase that captured the pinnacle of IndyCar racing. Two words: "Penske perfect". But after seeing Sam's car get loose in the dreaded dirty air and Helio's sidepod start to disintegrate mid-race it's clear some kind of gremlin is plaguing this team in 2007.

Literally within minutes of MoneyCJ messaging me about how he thinks Danica has shown herself to be a top-tier driver (I respectfully disagreed) she goes and loses control of her car leaving the pits. If Mrs Hospenthal is so tired of answering the "when are you going to win" question then she should simply start responding with "next time I race". Not only does it utilize the power of positive thinking, but if by chance she doesn't win the questioners will stop asking since they know the answer.

I sure hope Buddy and Sarah had fun racing themselves back there. My head hurts just thinking about that poor team.

Has the "lockstep" term turned into a joke? Marty Reid seems to be dropping it right at the green flag anymore, and this week I heard Jack Arute fire one off. Come on, Jack! Let's go back to confusing us with "gurney flaps" instead of parroting Marty's trademark head-slappers. I'm holding station on this opinion.

The Ugly

Earlier this week Mr Judd was on Larry King (with the graphic reading "Ashley Judd's Husband") saying he's never been upside-down in 25 years of racing. Well, now he's done it twice in a week.

Plus, both times his aerial antics have overshadowed a solid victory by his teammate, Mr Tony Kanaan. A few weeks ago Nariz was just another tragic victim of the craziness this season, but now he's back in contention (barely) with three races remaining.

You think a superstitious guy like Kanaan is going to tell Dario to keep flipping so he can keep winning? This thought has to at least pass through Tony's his mind, right?

Seriously though, four times a car has been launched and all four times it's been an AGR car. That's just way too coincidental. Is there a ICS C.S.I. squad that can look into this? Maybe they could look into those Penske problems as well.