AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

The Dan & Danica Show

Yesterday's Indianapolis 500 was the most exciting in years. Englishman Dan Wheldon won the race, continuing an almost Schumacher-like dominance of the IRL this season (4 wins out of 5 races), but Danica Patrick stole the show.

Patrick killed the engine in the pits, she touched wheels with one racer, and on another case was involved in a three-car accident, and lost part of her front wing. Despite all this, she came within eight laps of winning the race.

She was fast throughout the race, handling slower traffic like a seasoned veteran. Despite all of her mishaps, she stayed on the lead lap, and at about lap 180, she found herself in the lead due to pit timing. As is often the case in Indianapolis, good luck in timing your pitstops plus yellow lights at fortuitous times can often bring victory, or at least the chance at victory.

After taking the lead, Patrick had to battle a hard-charging Wheldon and at the same time, manage her fuel consumption to avoid running out of fuel. As it turned out, that was an impossible task, and Danica ended up a respectable fourth. In the process, she had the crowd on its feet most of the race, and television ratings improved 40 percent.

This was the first time that I listened to the Indianapolis 500 on XM radio. I was expecting something special, like 5.1 surroundsound, or even a commercial free race. The XM feed was the ordinary Indianapolis 500 Radio Network feed, commercials and all. While nothing special, the announcers did a very good job of communicating what was going on in the race, and the commercials were spaced well so you didn't miss any of the important events.


USATODAY.com - Wheldon overtakes Patrick to win Indy 500