THE RACE: Too many yellows, but that's racing. When they got down to racing, it was very exciting, especially that last duel even if it ended too early.

PENSKE: If someone walked up to Roger after the dominating 1994 season and told him that after this he would win his last race in 1995 and wouldn't even qualify for the Indy 500, he would have had you committed. Nice to see The Captain back.

TRACY: Am I the only one who wonders how many drivers are now going to stand up and beg to be fined? First it was Andretti last year, and then he goes on a tear winning 5 races and nearly the championship. Now it's Tracy, and he immediately turns around and wins Nazareth.

ANDRETTTI: Could he have passed Tracy? Did he catch Paul getting balked by Pruett, or did Tracy see the yellow first and back off? We'll never know, but Andretti "stole" a race from Al, Jr. last year at Milwaukee, and they all tend to even out. Give credit where credit is due, no matter how fast Andretti ran at the end, he could not pass Tracy.

UNSER: Now that's more like the Unser we all know.

ZANARDI: Well, I guess if you are going to blow your 11-race front row starting streak, you may as well really mess it up. 21st starting position?! An uninspired 11th finishing position? With his teammate running way faster in 5th? Even the best have an off day.

BLUNDELL: A prime example of why not every Formula One driver does well in the transition to Indy car racing. How much can his psychic take crashing on ovals? And now they head to Rio, the site of the near horrifying crash he had last year.

JOHNSTONE: Well, well, well.

HEARN: This guy can't buy himself a break.

VARIETY: The last four races have been won by four different engine/chassis combinations (Swift/Ford, Reynard/Ford, Reynard/Honda, Penske/Mercedes). Now, what was it that the IRL was suppose to fix?

OFFICIATING: What's this? No bizarre restart shuffling? Only one white flag? Finally, I don't have to mention that other racing organization in the same sentence as CART.

QUOTE OF THE RACE: To Michael Andretti as he lined up behind Tracy for the next to last restart, "All right. This is going to be fun!"

QUOTE OF THE RACE RUNNERUP: To Michael Andretti just after the final yellow came out thus spoiling any chance of a race victory, "Son of a bitch!"

PREDICTIONS: Time to pat myself on my back. In the SpeedCenter website's Pick-12 contest, I predicted Tracy to win the pole, with Andretti to win the race and Tracy in second. Pretty close.

SCHEDULE: Off to Rio the same weekend of Indy Pole Day. Hmmm. Anyway, this track is certainly the poorest excuse for an oval you'll ever see. Like the drivers call it, a "roval." They have made changes to it including putting up a tire wall exiting Turn 4. Tire wall on an oval?! Strange indeed. I'll have to go with a Brazilian to win. Any one of them.

Deep Throttle

Copyright © 1997 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.