Milwaukee 225 Race Recap - Live from the Mile

Milwaukee 225 post race recap
INDYCAR had a weekend full of racing at the Milwaukee Mile and Tyler Carmichael of www.IndyCarGarage.com was there to cover all the action.

1. INDYCAR racing at Milwaukee should be a mainstay

After a year off from racing, INDYCAR was the first form of racing to return to the Milwaukee Mile since its financial problems with the promoters. The racing featured over 250 race cars and lots of side by side action. Sunday’s crowd didn’t represent the true Milwaukee race community, as previous racing has shown that The Mile can be a jammed packed place to be for INDYCAR racing. Give some of the blame to the promotions company, give some more to INDYCAR who took on the promotion task, but don’t blame the racing one bit. The racing was outstanding in the IZOD IndyCar Series and Milwaukee should be a mainstay on the schedule for years to come.

2. Dario wins and pulls even with the championship

Dario Franchitti had a dominating race car on Sunday and it showed. Dario led the most laps, and clearly was hooked up throughout the race. Dario captured the two bonus points for leading the most laps and pulled even with Will Power for the IZOD IndyCar Championship. Sunday’s victory for Dario was his third of the 2011 season, moving him into a tie for 9th all-time in the IndyCar record books with IndyCar legend Rick Mears. The win was Dario’s 29th win of IndyCar style racing.

3. Big finishes by different drivers

Graham Rahal 2nd, Oriol Servia 3rd, Danica Patrick 5th, James Hinchcliff 6th, and Justin Wilson at 10th. Those five drivers made up a diverse top ten, and created drama throughout the final laps. Although Dario , Tony Kanaan, and Helio Castroneves led laps, finishes by the drivers listed above gave their teams something to ride home about. Graham continues to move up in the Championship , and media darling Danica Patrick had a good showing on a network TV race.

4. The Indy Lights controversial race

Firestone Indy Lights contested their second oval of the 2011 season, but under a cloud of controversy. On Friday, appartleny Sam Schmidt Motorsports cars #7 & #11 failed tech after qualifying. 15 minutes later, they didn’t fail tech and were allowed to retain their starting positions of 1st and 2nd. Esteban Guerrieri went on to lead every lap of the Indy Lights race, but not before Peter Dempsey pulled into road right before the green flag in protest. According to sources, both Schmidt Lights cars failed tech after the Freedom 100. The word around the Lights paddock this weekend was frustration and confusing as Schmidt cars have failed tech in the past but received no penalties. Look for this story to develop as the word starts to circulate.
5. Predication follow up

In the race preview , I had Helio as the race winner, Tony Kanaan in second and Dario finishing third. As of lap 195 I was in great shape as Helio led, TK was 2nd and Dario was third. TK spun in turn four and my predications were shot. Dario went on to win, Graham Rahal 2nd and Oriol Servia 3rd. Better luck next time.
Coming tomorrow and throughout the week: Driver post race interviews, Andretti Autosport Road To Indy driver interviews and more Randy Bernard interviews from Texas. Check out www.IndyCarGarage.com for all your INDYCAR news and notes.