Indy Japan 300 (updated) – DANICA PATRICK WINS!

The Indy Japan 300, which was supposed to be last night at 11, is instead tonight at 9 because the track was too wet. Better time to watch live—I probably wouldn’t have made it last night and would have had to record the end of it—but the scheduling snafu apparently means I don’t get it in HD. They’ve bumped it to ESPN Classic.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. What problems I have.

I’m pleased to have fallen into my IndyCar Series fanhood after deciding to watch my first Indianapolis 500 in 20 or so years last year. It’s a minor time commitment, and it’s nice to have something to follow during the huge college football hiatus. The quality of the racing is generally excellent. To me, it’s a bit startling how boring NASCAR is compared to this—particularly the restrictor plate races.

Danica has historically run well here, and she appears to have a good car today, though she’s complaining of a bit of understeer. They’ll tweak her tire pressure at her first stop to compensate. I certainly would like to see her win one soon.

(edited 2303 CDT) Danica won it! As late as 20 laps to go she looked as if she was going to be lucky to get even a Top 5 finish (there are 200 laps in the race, and the first one she led was #198), but her fuel strategy did it for her. She grabbed a couple of spots charging hard, and seemed to be topped out—but then one by one, everybody blinked in front of her. She (and her team) executed perfectly the whole race, nursing the minor handling problem and conserving fuel in a bend-don’t-break strategy, particularly on the final leg.

And in the end she was the only one with the juice to get there. Congratulations, Danica! Many more!

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