Indy 500, Coca Cola 600

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Memorial Day brings two great races in one day - the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600. Past races have been a bit of a let down. This year promised to bring some excitement, at least to the Indy 500, with Danica Patrick (R) running her first race.

Danica ran one of the fastest times in qualifying and/or time trials...I can’t remember which. She’s been receiving a ton of press, and rightly so, being the first woman to have a shot at winning the race. And she almost got it. After making a few rookie mistakes during the first 3/4 of the race, Danica took the lead, and maintained it for around 15 laps. However, her fuel situation was not good, as she was running low, and eventually began to fall back, finishing 4th.

This was one of the best Indy 500 races in years, and I was on the edge of my seat during the last laps of the race. I had my pretend money on Danica, and she almost won. But she’s only a rookie, and this race proved that she’s legit, and able to run with the best of them. If she maintains this level of excellence through the rest of the season, she’ll definitely win some races, and i’m sure she’ll win the Indy 500 at some point in her career.

Next up: Coca Cola 600...the longest NASCAR race of the season, and it couldn’t have been any better.

Crazy wrecks, my boy Jeff Gordon leading a ton of laps, only to be wrecked by teammate Brian Vickers (eventually finishing 30th), and my second favorite driver Jimmy Johnson winning the race, after an insane last 3-4 laps in a nose-to-nose battle with Bobby Labonte.

I was on the edge of my seat, again, the whole time. Jimmy was fast, but as the laps went by, it seemed like he didn’t have enough time to make his pass, but somehow he did, passing Labonte seconds before the finish line in a spectacular photo finish.

Good race weekend overall.