A Day At The Races

I will get to blasting Rutgers for its complete ineptitude in my next post. For now, I'm going to stick with this past weekend in racing.

Like Father, Like Son

The Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. is the greatest day on the racing calendar. You have the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the Coca-Cola 600 (I didn't watch this one) all on that day. I'll start with the Monaco GP. It was quite a day to remember for Nico Rosberg. Starting on the pole is always important, but on the tight streets of Monte Carlo, it's paramount to have a good qualifying run. There are few places to pass on the circuit, unless of course you are Sergio Perez or Adrian Sutil.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Although they didn't win the race, the surely made it very interesting. Perez was fighting with his McLaren-Mercedes teammate, Jenson Button for a majority of the race, which by F1 standards is taboo (something I completely disagree with, but I digress). Sutil was making passes in places where you shouldn't be able to, which made for some great racing. However, the day belonged to Nico Rosberg and his Mercedes-AMG team. Rosberg went wire-to-wire to win the Monaco GP 30 years after his father, Keke Rosberg. His win was also the first EVER win for Mercedes at Monaco. For a manufacturer so steeped in racing tradition like Mercedes, it blew my mind that they have NEVER won at Monaco until last Sunday. That race was also NBC's first network broadcast of F1, and they did a fantastic job. I'm looking forward to their future broadcasts.

TK Finally Has His Day At Indy

I'm a big Helio Castroneves and Team Penske fan. Ever since I've been watching IndyCar racing, I've always rooted for Penske, and at Indy, that's always a safe bet. Roger Penske's cars have won fifteen Indy 500s. However, there are so many great personalities in IndyCar these days that it's hard to root against anyone. I heard of the stories of how Tony Kanaan was such a huge fan favorite at Indy, but it wasn't until I went to the 2011 Indy 500 that I actually understood how much he's loved. This is what made this race so special for everyone involved. This year's race was some of the best racing I've ever seen at Indy, and I've been watching this race for twenty years. Sixty-eight lead changes - that DOUBLED the record set last year! It was also the fastest Indy 500 ever with an average speed of 187+ miles per hour. You really couldn't ask a more exciting race.

Photo Credit: Google Images

With three laps to go, Tony Kanaan passed Ryan Hunter-Reay going into turn one to take the lead of the race. Almost immediately after that, Dario Franchitti hit the wall to bring out the caution. That ended the race and Tony Kanaan FINALLY gets an Indy 500 victory. In the twelve 500s he's raced in, he had led in nine of them. He was long overdue. The comparison that can be made is to when Dale Earnhardt Sr. finally won the Daytona 500. Literally every crew member and race official congratulated him before he got to victory lane. Tony Kanaan said himself that he never had so many people congratulate him on a win before. Normally, you can't hear the crowd over the cars on TV, but when Tony Kanaan took the lead in before the last caution, the crowd drowned out the cars. The support Kanaan has at Indy in amazing. After so much hard luck at the Brickyard, the man they call "TK" can finally call himself an Indianapolis 500 Champion.