Tortoise vs. Hares

October 11, 2009





Tortoise vs. Hares



The Indy car season finale was an amazing example of the old fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, except in this case there were two hares, but as in the classic tale, it was the Tortoise (if you can call someone averaging over 200 mph a tortoise) that claimed the victory as Dario Franchitti used patience, luck and an excellent fuel strategy to capture the race win and with it the 2009 Indy Racing League Championship.

Dan Wheldon



Ryan Briscoe

Race day at Homestead was another blistering record hot for October day with temperatures at the track in the 90s and the track temperature well over 100. Kathy came with me to the track to attend the Indy Downforce Party at noon before heading off for an afternoon of shopping at the outlet mall before returning in the early evening for the Indy Car race.

Ed Carpenter & Lauren George

Pippa Mann

Marco Andretti

The Downforce prerace party featured drivers taking questions from attendees and included appearances by the likes of Tony Kanaan, Pippa Mann, Ed Carpenter & Lauren George. It was a nice, though hot event where I remained until the start of the Rolex Grand Am Grand Prix of Miami sports car race which utilized the road course at Homestead.





Victory Lane

I watched the early portion from the stands before heading down to the pits to see the action close up. The race was won by the Brumos Porsche team with drivers Joao Barbosa and Hurley Haywood with the Gainsco Team winning the season championship. With my passes, I was able to be in Victory Lane for the trophy presentation which was cool and was also able to get close to one of my wife’s favorite actors, Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey stars on the hit show “Grey’s Anatomy”, but is also the owner and driver for his own race team in the GT division of Grand Am.

Patrick Dempsey

Patrick Dempsey



After the race, I hung around in the pits as the Indy Cars were prepped for their race, before heading over to watch some of the prerace concert featuring the band Better Than Ezra. The band was really good and the crowd seemed appreciative as they played many of their songs from the 90s including their big hit “Good”.

Better Than Ezra







Then it was up to our seats, where Kathy was waiting, watching the driver intros, fighter jet flyovers and other festivities. The race itself got off to a great start as all three of the drivers fighting for the title jumped to the front. Scott Dixon led early, with Ryan Briscoe and Dario behind and by lap 100 only those three were left on the lead lap. Briscoe took his turn dominating as he and Dixon pulled away and were clearly the class of the field.

Dario celebrates victory



Ashley Judd



Dario and his team made the decision to play a fuel saving strategy and dropped well off the pace as Briscoe and Dixon rocketed around the track. In what can only be described as sheer luck, the race turned out to be the first time in history that there were no yellow flags (which would have destroyed Dario’s plans and delivered the race to Briscoe). Instead, it stayed green and both Briscoe and Dixon had to make an extra fuel stop with less than ten laps to go and Dario drove to victory, winning both the race and the championship.