Mr. Ashley Judd Wins Indy 500
Indianapolis Motor Speedway has many traditions one of them being the early spring rains common in the mid-west that often determine the outcome of the 500.
Such was the case Sunday as the predicted showers interrupted the race just past the crossed flags for three hours then caused a premature checker flag to fly at the 415 mile marker.
Crossing under the checkers was Mr. Ashley Judd, more commonly known to the racing fraternity as Dario Franchitti. Dario survived a gamble on both the rain and by not pitting when the leaders did for fuel for a final dash to the finish.
Franchitti won it under a caution light brought out when teammate Marco Andretti crashed three laps from the abbreviated end.
In a not-so fitting bookend to May that saw the media once again make the month Danica-time, all the time (not to mention a sidebar stories about “Milkalicous” Duno), Dario shared the limelight of the traditional Bottle of Milk reserved for the winner with wife Ashley Judd in a rain-soaked and clingy summer dress. (soon to come, wire service slideshows peppered with images of Ashley’s Winner’s Circle attire)
More to come…. there’s another race on doncha know.
well?….pictures please.don’t tease.
Here’s your picture Peter.
How can anyone be so lucky?
“Mr. Ashley Judd”? That’s not funny, just plain mean. When she can drive half as well as he does your name may stick.
Franchitti and his team managed a just-about-perfect tactical race, and of course he has the talent to execute the plans they made.
This year’s race was one of the most exciting 500s in a long time. With the weather and the the pit sequences all out of order, it made for a race that was a real pleasure to listen to. I say “listen” because in all the world, the only place you can’t watch the race live on television is Indianapolis, and the IMS radio team is one of the worst ever. They can’t go five minutes without wasting air time with some corporate shill, and even when they are actually covering the race, they tend to try and create excitement by YELLING INTO THE MICROPHONE!! even when the cars are actually just driving around in formation.
But this was a race too good for even them to mess up. Castroneves, Kanaan, Franchitti and even Danica all delivered stellar performances. Even perennial field-filler Jacques Lazier led a couple laps in the jumble of final pitstops. And while I listened to the race on the radio, I had local radar on my laptop and was irritating my wife with constant updates on the approaching storm cell. When Marco did his Nadia routine on the backstretch, I knew there was no way they’d clean it up before the deluge.
Great race. Much better than the NASCAR event later in the evening whose “thrilling highlight” was speculation about whether or not the lead cars would run out of gas. A few more races like this and people might actually start paying attention to the 500 again.
Damn Paul, they still blackout the 500 in Indiana?
Sorry you’re still living in the dark (pun intended) ages Paul.
Yep. The hosts of the race finally get to see it at 8:00 that night. The one good side of it was that the version we saw didn’t have any of the rain delay dead time.
Huh? Why can’t you watch it Live in Indy? confused.
Because Tony George wants it blacked out. Having been to many, many races in my time, I can tell you that people don’t go to the track just to watch the race. If that was all you wanted, you’d be better off watching on tv. You go for the spectacle and the atmosphere, and blacking it out has done nothing to increase the crowds, just more irritation for the local fans.