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photo: Dana Garrett

What a month it has been for 2 , make that 3 time winner Helio Castroneves.  This Sunday he joined an elite club of Indy 500 drivers such as Bobby Unser and Johnny Ruthorford that have won the greatest spectacle in racing 3 times. 

Helio’s off-season was a rough one as he was still dealing with his trial in Miami.  He missed the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and almost did not make the Grand Prix of Long Beach due to his trial and the jurors deliberating.  

Helio started off his season with a crash during the qualifying session at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.  He went on and started to build momentum for that race finishing in 8th position.  He then went on to Kansas and finished 2nd and carried that momentum into the month of May by getting the pole, winning the pit stop competition, and winning the race, a feat that has not been accomplished since Buddy Rice and Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004.   Helio became emotional as he was being brought to victory circle.  He could not thank the fans enough as he tried not to completely break down.

Danica Patrick drove a strong consistant race bringing her Andretti Green car home in P3.  Danica’s crew did a phenominal job getting her in and out of the pits quickly.  Just about everytime that she pit she came out at least one position ahead. She pushed really hard during the closing laps of the race but Wheldon was able to hold her off as Helio extended his lead to more than 2 seconds by the finish. Danica stated:

I was happy to put the Boost car up there in the front of the pack. At the end of the day, I could see the fans getting excited under that second to last yellow, so it was a good day.”

The day proved to be a rough one for Danica’s Andretti Green team mates Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan.  Marco was involved in an on track incident in the short chute between turn one and two on the first lap of the race with Mario Moraes.  Moraes thinking it was Marco’s fault and wanted to confront him after leaving the infield care center.  Moraes was told it was his fault and upon reviewing the replay returned to his pit box where he appeared to become somewhat emotional.  I would’ve too.  It’s a long month of practicing and setting up to end on the first lap.  Marco later returned to to the track after his crew repaired his car.  He was able to turn in a few laps before the end of the race. 

Tony Kanaan has had nothing but bad luck at Indy.  During the race, something broke on the rear of Kanaan’s car nose diving him into the wall in the back stretch.  It was a very hard hit followed by another hard secondary hit in the turn 3 wall.  If you remember, last year he was involved in an on track incident with Sarah Fisher. 

Vitor Meira is going to be ok but will be out of the car for at least 4-6 months according to Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star.  Vitor got tangled up with Raphael Matos and went into the wall hard.  The car actually rode the wall on its side before coming to a stop.  Vitor also had a small fire in pit lane prior to this but was able to get right back on track after it was extinguished.  It is unclear at this time who will be in the #14 ABC Supply car.  My guess would be Foyt’s grandson AJ Foyt IV, or Will Power.  We still have a rather large list of drivers that are searching for a ride that had one last season.

Townsend Bell had a great drive as well for KV Racing.  Townsend worked his way up to finish  4th after starting 20th. He did have two race strategists working together on his strategy after Moraes was out.

This Sunday we are off to the Milwaukee Mile where Ryan Briscoe recorded his first IndyCar Series victory last year.  You can watch it Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.

photo: Bret Kelley

The weather could not have been better for Carb day.  The sun was shining.  Light clouds rolled in here and there but most important of all, NO RAIN!  If you remember last year, Carb day was a wash.  The IndyCar Series were on the track for about 15 minutes before the rain came ending practice, canceling the pit stop competition, and postponing the Firestone Indy Lights race to Saturday.  This was not the case this year.

The Firestone Freedom 100 proved to be an eventful one.  Martin Plowman of Panther Racing lost control of his car in turn one causing team mate Pippa Mann to head up into the wall.  Their appeared to be no damage to her car other than the the two right side tires being flat.  She limped the car to the pits and the crew found other probems with the car.  This was definitely an upset for Panther Racing and Mann’s and Plowman’s first Firestone Freedom 100. 

Ana Beatriz went into the wall hard missing the safer barrier on lap 16.  She sustained minor injuries and was later released.

Wade Cunningham went on to win the race after passing JR Hildebrand with a lap and a half left.  Wade Cunningham did start from pole position and despite the many lead changes stayed up front.  

The whole race was to and fro. I got to the front early and knew I couldn’t lead all 40 laps, so I fell back because I didn’t want to be leading at the end. I knew I had a fast car, and it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time.  The last lap I was yelling at my car to keep going like a jockey on his horse

JR Hildebrand’s P2 finish placed him first in the points standings.  Andretti Green has shown that they have a good oval and road/street course setup this year.

It was great that we were able to have the pit stop competition this year.  Helio Castroneves and Team Penske won this year showing that they are having and excellent month of May.  I believe he was also the fastest at the final practice.  If they win the race, they will be the first since Buddy Rice driving for Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004 to get the pole win the pit stop competition and the race.  A task that does not happen often.

But wait… It gets better for Helio.  News reports also stated that the IRS has dropped the last charge pending against him. 

Coverage of the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 begins tomorrow at noon on ABC.

photo: Chris Jones

Today was a beautiful day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  I hope that this weather stretches on into race day Sunday.  I had the pleasure of meeting a few IRLblog.com readers as well as Jeff from MyNameIsIRL.  Jeff is a great individual and if you don’t already read his site you should head over there and check it out.

Today was a day dedicated to the Firestone Indy Lights.  They were given a morning practice session and then went out on the track one by one for their qualifying session at 3 p.m.  22 drivers took to the track to qualify for the Firestone Freedom 100.

You know what they say, records were meant to be broken.  Sebastian Saavedra broke the track qualifying record with a two lap average speed of 190.023.  His record holding run proved to be short lived when Wade Cunningham of Sam Schmidt Motorsports qualified with an average two lap speed of 190.177 mph. Cunningham stated:

(The pole) is a byproduct of the track conditions and the new engine package.  I’ll take the track record, but the pole is what I’m interested in.”

Wade Cunningham was the Firestone Indy Lights champion in 2005 and won the Firestone Freedom 100 in 2006 where he won from pole.  He is going to be a tough one to get by tomorrow.  He needs to hold off 21 other drivers for 40 laps.  With a field of drivers that we have this season that will be no easy task.

Junior Strous who won both races on the Streets of St. Petersburg will be starting 14th (186.942 mph). 

The Firestone Freedom 100 is tomorrow with Versus network broadcasting live at 11 a.m. followed by the pit stop challenge

Ok, so everyone is on twitter.  Twitter is free service that allows you to let everyone know through tweets what you are doing, thinking, or how you are feeling.  Twitter is a recent phenomenon that is now used by news companies, athletes, sports teams, and even fortune 500 companies to give a live update of what is happening. 

Twitter can be used by anyone.  I even have a Twitter account to let my readers in the blogosphere know what’s going on when I am at various racing venues as well as when I update IRLblog.com.

Danica Patrick recently joined the Twitter world.  What makes this so different than anyone else that has joined is that Danica is one  of the first , if not the first athlete to join Twitter and have sponsor backing in doing so.  Tissot (watches) has signed as her sponsor.  

Tissot watches views social media as a new way of advertising in a less-invasive way.  They want to connect with social media using one of their company’s faces.  Tissot along with Danica are entering into this new venture cautiously knowing that they are treading through new territory as far as sponsorship on Twitter.  Prior to her first tweet on May 17, she already had roughly 2700 followers.

Social media is proving to be the wave of the future.  I expect to see more companies backing atheletes in the social media world.  After all, services like Twitter are free to use and for anyone that is following, it can be used as a form of direct advertising.

You can follow Danica on twitter by going to http://twitter.com/danicapatrick