TRACK: I never realized that without rain, there is very few passing opportunities at Portland. It almost seemed like a street race. Even had the pavement breaking up, though it's tough to deal with 140 degree track temperatures.

RACE: Not one of the best, but it always had hanging over it the tension of the possible drama of a Herta/Zanardi showdown. But then that fizzled out.

ZANARDI: Isn't there any sort of rule in CART to prevent the leader from getting such a massive jump on the field during restarts? He's now won 12 races in his first 41 starts. Only Rick Mears has ever won a dozen races faster.

HERTA: No question, Bryan had the quickest car in the entire field during that race. In the beginning, during the middle, and at the end. He could pull away with ease. Nobody could touch him. This was no doubt his race to finally win. So, just who was the moron on that team that pulled their strategy out of a Cracker Jack's box?!

HEARN: Thanks Richie, for ruining a potentially great finish.

PRUETT: A long overdue solid performance.

MOORE: Greg must have watched the Montreal Grand Prix, and is now all set to move into the Formula bonehead-move-at-the-start-of-the-race Series. He is a quick study...

FRANCHITTI: When Tracy went out, Dario must have picked up his teammate's bad luck. It all came to a climax with that wickedly scary crash.

JONES: With all the venom lobbied on backmarkers such as Matsushita and Vitolo, have you ever noticed that PJ is perhaps the toughest backmarker to pass? And the most dangerous.

TRACY: This just may well be the last season that Paul has to prove, rather redeem, himself in his career. He's got ten races left to do it...

UNSER: Just when you are ready to once again write off the Penske chassis, they come through with another decent run. Sometimes this is worse than simply stinking up the joint. At least then, you know where you stand.

MEIER: Don't look now, but Arnd scored a point.

VITOLO: Let me get this straight. Michael Andretti falls four laps down due to various shunts and spins, and he is still able to beat Vitolo?

ARUTE: Will someone pleeeeease stuff a sock in Jack's mouth!!

ESPN: The race ran over the allotted timeslot, but instead of immediately switching over to SportsCenter, one of ESPN's highest rated shows, they stuck with some post race activities. So, what did the many folks who tuned in to watch SportsCenter get to see? They saw Zanardi urge the crowd on with his signal to do donuts. Then they saw the humor in Alex stalling the engine. But wait, CART officials come to the rescue and push start him. Alex then proceeds to turn the best donuts he ever has performed. CART got one of their greatest advertisements to date. They couldn't have planned a better PR piece.

SCHEDULE: Wow, three weeks till the next race. A bearable wait being Cleveland is next up. I didn't realize they still had breaks this long. Who says they can't run a 22-race season? Of course, we're not the ones doing the wrenching...

Deep Throttle

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