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05/27/2008: "Octane Overload"
When you think of Memorial Day, you probably think of barbecues, burgers and beer. Hopefully, you also take a moment and think of all the people whose sacrifice let you drink that beer. But for many of us, Memorial Day means the biggest racing weekend of the year. Many of the racing series take advantage of the first holiday weekend of the summer season to schedule some of their marquee events, and it makes for a long, loud weekend.
First up was the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. It's the mother of all street course events, and one that will test the nerve of the bravest driver. It started before daylight SoCal time, but fortunately SpeedTV carries it live - after way too many years without it. Last year's rookie phenom, Brit Lewis Hamilton, overcame a poor qualifying attempt to take the victory in front of his entire family. So small is the track that there is no Winner's Podium - the cars stop in front of one of the buildings along the circuit and its lobby becomes a makeshift Victory Circle. It'd been a few years since I'd seen this race, and for the first time was able to take it all in via the onboard cameras - man, that's scary. Nothing but a narrow ribbon of asphault and Armco barriers. Amazing that anyone finishes.
Next up was the big one - the Indianapolis 500. For the first time in a long time, it truly was the big one - a full field with all of the best drivers for the first time in over a decade, thanks to the reunification of the two fractured open wheel series. Good to see, but sad at the same time, since it showed how far Indy - and open wheel racing - have fallen in America compared to the taxis of NASCAR. For once, having the pole actually paid off as Scott Dixon took the victory. In spite of a large number of former ChampCar drivers who'd never been on such a track before, the event was relatively clean. Perhaps the biggest crash of the event actually took part in the pits, where Penske's Ryan Briscoe clipped the car of racing sweetheart Danica Patrick, ending her day. The fans - many of whom saw this as her year to make history - were none too happy. Nor was Ms. Patrick, who had to be intercepted by three burly security agents to keep her from confronting Briscoe in his pits afterward. Gotta love her fire ...
Wrapping up the long day was the longest event of the three, the NASCAR CocaCola 600 from Lowe's Motor Speedway. Purists will remember this as the World 600 from Charlotte, at least before the France family began to whore out the circuit like it was their 16yr-old-daughter. I appreciate that racing is expensive and sponsors are a necessary evil, but you really need to draw the line somewhere. Oh, the race? The Bud car beat the M&M's car. The drivers? Some bland white guys ... 
OK, it was Kasey Kahne over Kyle Busch. Actually, no one who watches him race will ever refer to Kyle as "bland" - dude can flat out drive, but is such a cocky SOB that most of the time you just want him to eat cement. Of course, that's probably just what NASCAR wants us to think, since it keeps us coming back ... 
Assuming I have anything else left in the tank, there's even more racing, as the Grand-Am folks will be out at Lime Rock Park later today. It's a shame that the sports car guys can't get their act together and unify their series as well, since they bring the exciting racing of open wheel cars and the surface area for advertisements of NASCAR ... just a though, guys, but you might want to follow up on that ...
