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Kanaan tries an outside pass around Hornish; can't stick the pass....223 laps now done; 5 laps left!

Top-3 still unchanged; Hornish leads, .16 sec. ahead of Kanaan

And Hornish wins.............Hornish wins; what a great finish!

7 laps in a row.........Kanaan kept trying to pass on the outside but couldn't make the passes stick; Patrick finishes 3rd, her first podium finish in IndyCar competition.............Franchitti 4th and Meira 5th

And the fireworks are going off in Texas; Hornish gets the win, but AGR had the next 3 spots.........is it just me, or are we looking at a three-team fight to the championship?

Bombardier LearJet 550k top-10..............

1st} #6 Sam Hornish, Jr....................................228 laps
2nd} #11 Tony Kanaan.....................................-.079 sec
3rd} #7 Danica Patrick.....................................-.384 sec
4th} #27 Dario Franchitti..................................-3.977 sec
5th} #4 Vitor Meira..........................................-4.002 sec
6th} #17 Jeff Simmons....................................-4.634 sec
7th} #8 Scott Sharp........................................-1 lap
8th} #15 Buddy Rice.......................................-3 laps
9th} #55 Kosuke Matsuura...............................-3 laps
10th} #5 Sarah Fisher.....................................-7 laps

Post-race notes.............
--tonight's win was Sam Hornish, Jr.'s 1st of the 2007 season and his 19th win in IndyCar Series competition
--for Team Penske, it was their 26th IndyCar Series win, tying them with Andretti-Green Racing for most wins
--for AGR driver Tony Kanaan, his 2nd-place finish was the 5th top-5 of the year
--for AGR driver Danica Patrick, her 3rd-place finish is a career high; she also led her first laps of the 2007 campaign
--for drivers Jeff Simmons and Milka Duno, tonight saw career-high finishes for them; Simmons' finished in 6th, while Duno finished 11th

Thoughts on the race...........................

~~ There were several instances were race control...well, couldn't control the race.........
--Example 1..........after several calls by Dreyer & Reinbold to the stewards to black-flag the #19 of Jon Herb for multiple blocking/chop-down moves on the #5 of Sarah Fisher, the Iron Hand of Justice(Barnhart) said that if Herb does it again, he's getting pulled to pitlane, whereupon on the next lap..........wait for it, Herb chops Fisher again. Thankfully, it was a short evening for Herb, who lost it entering pitlane and crashed out of the race

--Example 2............prior to the restart following Herb's adventure, the IHJ was reportedly livid at several drivers for not getting into line for the restart.....whereupon, Kosuke Matsuura decides to fly past the pace car, prompting many of us to wonder, What the h---'s he doing? For doing so, Matsuura cops a 30-second stop-n'hold penalty on the restart(which, BTW, he took several laps AND a warning from race control to, in Barnhart's words, "Tell him(Matsuura) to get his --- onto pitlane!" to do so........ )

--Example 3..............it was bad enough to see Tomas Scheckter get chopped and spin courtesy of a Marco Andretti hip-check; it was worse then to see Scheckter throw his gloves at Marco(in the end, there was a bit of karmic justice.......Scheckter got to finish the race, while little ole' Marco didn't......... )

It's funny in a sense.......I wonder if the IRL has its' own version of NASCAR's 'Big Yellow Trailer" cause' if they do, I'm betting that a couple of drivers were called to the woodshed for their on-track........."issues"

~~Finally, a week off............At least the schedulemeisters did something right; in between this 3-consecutive week jaunt(Indy, Milwaukee and Texas) and the upcoming 5-race stretch(Iowa, Richmond, the Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio) there is, wait for it..........a whole week off! Hopefully the drivers will get a little bit of downtime before Iowa........

~~Remember in the Commentaries from the Paddock thread my commentary about Milka Duno not being qualified IMO to race IndyCars.......tonight proved my point. She was a)very slow at times(the leaders were running 213-214; Duno.......205-207 ............ ); b)not heeding the flagstand's blue flags for yielding to the frontrunners......... , and c)inconsistant driving lines that nearly sent several drivers(Franchitti and Patrick especially) through the proverbial roof......Why the IHJ didn't black-flag Duno for any OR all three is a mystery to me.......

~~Okay, geniuses.........who won the "Rumble at the Speedway"? Considering everything that transpired............if this were a UFC-sanctioned contest, I'd say that Danica Patrick won by TKO over Dan Wheldon. Enough said.

mlittle wrote:--tonight's win was Sam Hornish, Jr.'s 1st of the 2007 season and his 19th win in IndyCar Series competition

Way to go Hornish! That fella is good. I wish I watched the race...

mlittle wrote:--for Team Penske, it was their 26th IndyCar Series win, tying them with Andretti-Green Racing for most wins

IMO, AGR has the edge over Penske. They may have won equal number of races but AGR drivers seem slightly more consistent.

mlittle wrote:--for AGR driver Tony Kanaan, his 2nd-place finish was the 5th top-5 of the year
--for AGR driver Danica Patrick, her 3rd-place finish is a career high; she also led her first laps of the 2007 campaign

Way to go Danica! Wish there were a few female F1 drivers in the mix.

Kanaan is a quality fella too. He wants to win and goes for it no matter what. Yeah, he does fail at times but the fighting spirit in him is respectable.

mlittle wrote:--for drivers Jeff Simmons and Milka Duno, tonight saw career-high finishes for them; Simmons' finished in 6th, while Duno finished 11th

Simmons may yet become better as the season wears down. Don't have much hope for Duno though.