Sunday Morning at Long Beach

Posted by Iannucci | 4/19/2009 | 3 comments »
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Race day has finally arrived, and irony of ironies I'll probably be sitting down and watching it on a TV, just like back at the MNII World Headquarters. Probably the most comprehensive viewing are for a street course, so I'm not complaining. It would be nice if they'd let us all w\have an adult beverage down here, because the writing would certainly be more colorful.


Before you do anything, it seems a few people are talking about this New York Times article today. I don't know how likely it is that Danicker would jump to stock cars, but the quotes from Janet Guthrie are priceless. Guess she won't be partying at Chez Hospenthal anytime soon.


At any rate, I had a chance to walk around and see some more sights today. Most notably, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves walking arm-in-arm to the drivers meeting. I spoke briefly with Tony (listen to me sound all reporter-y) and he assured readers that he will be returning to the Silent Pagoda "soon!" Be still my heart.


Speaking of Silent Pagoda I caught up with I Am Lindy Thackston, who told me she was a big fan of the glorious abomination infamous blog at IndyCar.com, saying "Use me anytime!" She seems very nice so I'm just gonna leave it at that.

Later, I accidentally ran into news when Karina at Conquest Racing told me Tags and the team were NOT going to race at Kansas and were focusing on Indy. She must have mistaken me for a reporter since this thing around my neck says "Press".


Oh, and one last note: don't feel too bad for Will Power just yet. It sounds like any team with an available car is jumping at the chance to help him in his exodus from Team Penske. Heck, if sponsorship money appears we may even see him racing in Milwaukee.

And on a note relating to sponsorship: Last night at In-N-Out Burger me and the TrackSide Online crew ran into some hungry Dreyer & Reinbold employees. It turns out that despite rolling out with an EMU sponsorship on the car they had to change it back to Dad's Root Beer since Townsend Bell is saying he still owns the rights to that sponsor. While it's getting sorted out by lawyers the D&R bunch has to wear blue tape on their shirts to cover up the logo.

Speaking of TSO (sign up today!) - from their morning update:

Helio was definitely noticed as he walked in, but not one person stopped him for a picture. Funnily enough, Tony Kanaan was stopped for more pictures - for whatever reason, Tony was already in his firesuit, while most of the other drivers were still in street clothes. We think that was enough to tip off the fans who are here already off that, hey, that's a driver! One of the fans had Al Unser Jr. take the picture of himself and Kanaan - talk about a time when you wish someone else was there to take the shot instead!
And with that your humble host is off to yet another press conference. Stay tuned for the LiveBlog from the bowels of the LB media center in just a bit.

3 comments

  1. atomik99 // April 19, 2009 12:44 PM  

    Your photos commentary are super! It makes me feel like I am in Long Beach. Thanks and keep it up! :)

  2. llilly // April 19, 2009 1:19 PM  

    On Race Control, we have a picture, but no telemetry. Baby steps.

  3. Chuck // April 19, 2009 1:22 PM  

    What in the world is up with that NYT article? Is the copy desk completely unmanned?

    (Pardon my French...) NAS--R is an acronym, not a proper noun, so it's spelled in all caps, not just capitalized on the first letter as the NYT would have you believe

    And who writes IRL 'I.R.L.' -- besides the NYT? My Name Is I.R.L. Yes, that's easy on the eyes, isn't it? I'd go on and belabor the point but it's about green flag time for the I.R.L. race.

    (And seriously, great coverage on Versus. Great stuff.)