MVN - Most Valuable Network

Danica-Duno drama overshadows Penske power

The Team Penske duo of Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe may have won the front row  for today’s Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but a public spat between Danica Patrick and Milka Duno made sure that they was the center of attention when Saturday was done.

Patrick(who will start 20th today) got a towel thrown at her by Duno when she went to Duno’s Dreyer and Reinbold Racing pits to complain about being unable to pass the slower Venezuelan driver.

According to a video that The Indianapolis Star got hold of, Duno (who starts 26th) told Patrick to go away before launching the towel at her when she wouldn’t. This set off the American, who then threw some expletives at Duno according to the Star’s Curt Cavin.

Since I was in Cape Cod yesterday and thus was unable to watch the qualifying show on IndyCar.com, I don’t really have an opinion on this yet save for the fact that somebody needs to give Patrick a giant box of stress balls.

I don’t know if the Star’s actually put the video up somewhere on its site (from the looks of things, no). Hopefully, ESPN was able to get their claws on it and will show it during their telecast on ABC this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Castroneves and Briscoe — plus Marco Andretti, Justin Wilson, Tony Kanaan and points leader Scott Dixon — were able to make the final 10-minute qualifying round yesterday. When the dust cleared, Castroneves was on top with a lap of 120.878 m.p.h. in the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara.

From a quick glance at the grid, this was a very competitive session as this group of six were separated by just three-tenths of a second from Castroneves to sixth-place Dixon. These two may bear the biggest glances of all today as the Brazilian holds two Champ Car victories at M-O and Dixon won last year’s inaugural IndyCar race on the natural terrain road course.

It’s 10 a.m. and the race starts at 1:30 p.m. ET, so considering that I’m late in this post, let’s just get to the picks and be done with it.

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Chris’ picks

Favorites — See above

Castroneves has GOT to snap this winless streak now and start stringing together a hot streak. Dixon’s pit crew will be able to shoot him up the pylon at this track, which is known for being a much narrower road course than most of its kind.

Contenders — Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan, and Buddy Rice

If Andretti can keep himself from getting tossed on his head by his teammates, he can perform pretty darn well at this facility. He and Kanaan should feel at home, which often thinks like a street course in terms of its aforementioned narrow width of asphalt. If you’re looking for a repeat of Ryan Hunter-Reay at the Glen, your best bet is Rice, who has really done solid over the summer.

Dark horses — Every former Champ Car driver in the first seven rows

I want to get rid of Graham Rahal from this list, but this is his home track. He’ll be ready to roll. There are several solid transition drivers in the front half of the field, but the one that I’m worried about if I’m in front of him at the start is Oriol Servia in eighth. Servia has a solid team that’s in their element this weekend and he has the experience necessary to deal with what M-O dishes out. I’m also expecting good work from Bruno Junqueira, who’s starting ninth.

What to watch for

Squeeze play — Expect a few accidents to occur when there’s no more asphalt to work with as people try to make moves. Rookies will have to be on alert at this tight track.

The pits — Once again, the crews will be earning their paychecks today. Track position is always vital at a road course and here at M-O, that mantra is heightened even more.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 9:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.