Indy infield and buses v. walls

Deadspin's AJ Daulerio gave a much needed, fresh voice to the coverage of our fair sport. The Editor for the most notable sporting blog on the interweb was strolling the Indy infield on race day and filed this report. Here's an excerpt of his dispatch:

By around lap 46 I was ignoring the cars all together and instead focused on an 45ish-year-old man with a white muscle shirt and an "I Am Indy" hat try to convince a 19-year-old girl to flash for him. "Come on. Just one tit?" Lovely.

Love it. Just outstanding.

On an unrelated/related note Deadspin (and other national outlets) is running the story of the school bus racing accident that took place over the weekend at Columbus Motor Speedway. Now, obviously there is an inherent comedic value to this story. Racing school buses is silly, I get it. I like jokes. But, something like this can literally close a short track. Like, for good. Like, out of business. Forever. And that fucking blows. Once lawyers get involved, things like this get ugly (or uglier). Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Columbus Motor Speedway is my local short track. I like the place. I'll go when sprints or midgets are in town. The USAC National Midget Series started their midwest season at CMS a few weeks back. I was there. It was a good show at a hell of a good price. Tracks like CMS are the backbone of motor racing and, shamefully, becoming few and far between.

Hopefully, my local short track can overcome this bus debacle and continue to provide inexpensive entertainment that churns out droves of new racing fans. Time will tell for CMS. We shall see. In the meantime, everyone should head out and enjoy your local short track ASAP. Buy a ticket, get some food, enjoy giving the track your money.

OK, I'm off the old soapbox. Here's a video of the wreck. Watching that cement fly is pretty nasty. As crazy as it looks, no one was killed.

Indy link dump

It's been called the "laziest post in blogging," and if I'm one thing, it's lazy. Really lazy. So, here you go, what other people are saying about The Indy 500 across the interwebs.

There are at least 10 interesting things that might happen come Sunday's open-wheel 500. So says Fox, anyway.

10 storylines to follow at Indy 500 (FoxSports.com)

The one called Pressdog is on location at Indy and filing trackside dispatches. Apparently he is sharing a Indy hotel room love-bungalow with a dude. Well done, sir.

Live from IMS 5/23/09 Part 1--Bloggers at the Gate. (Pressdog.com)

From Indy 500 champ, to Dancing stud, to Wesley Snipes, and back to IndyCar glory. It's been quite trip for Heilo Castroneves.

Cleared for takeoff (Indystar.com)

Deadspin editor AJ Daulerio will also be on locale at Indy. He'll be in the infield looking at drunks and searching for the ever elusive set of IUPUI sophomore boobs. His update will be posted Tuesday. Oh, AJ, the "Italian guy married to Ashley Judd" is not Italian.

Of Screeching Tires And Lost Control (Deadspin.com)

Enjoy the race. My Speed fantasy picks are Castroneves, Briscoe, Dixon. They will win. All of the them.

Also, fyi, Shane Hollingsworth won the Hoosier Hundred. Cheers buddy.

A few weeks ago Dale Coyne called to offer Paul his other car beside Justin Wilson in place of Bruno Junqueira. But Tracy refused Coyne's offer. "I told Dale that Bruno is a friend of mine and a good driver who deserves a ride," Tracy said. "I told him I couldn't take Bruno's seat. That wouldn't be right."

- Gordon Kirby

As it turns out PT is a stand-up guy. Good for him. He remains sans ride, but way to take the high road, Paul.

The Way It Is/ North American talent at a record low

Stolen from the interwebs

-Rolex 24 edition.

Official entry list.

Event schedule.

TV schedule:

Jan 24, 3:00 PM ET, FOX
Jan 24, 4:30 PM ET, SPEED
Jan 25, 7:00 AM ET, SPEED

Completely extraneous montage of 80's IMSA machinery at Daytona:

Damn it, we're getting fired up.