By Andy RosenbergÂ
It was considered the “perfect storm†for New Zealand born driver Scott Dixon. He pulled through with a victory at the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, but the treacherous plight of the drivers around him made the day of rest extremely restless. The variety of drivers, leader switches, team betrayals and disheartening crashes gave the day more plot twists than an M. Night Shyamalan thriller. The race was very diverse, with 33 racers (including 3 women) hailing from 6 different continents. The personalities of these drivers could be seen in the way they raced and the sheer disappointment or happiness that resulted. Both the diversity and the results at Indy contributed to the extreme excitement of the day.
Two factors provided this excitement: the crashes and the final laps. Ten drivers totaled their cars during the race, including two projected frontrunners, contributing to some unexpected finishes. In the last 50 laps of the race, Brazilian driver Vitor Miera and American Marco Andretti quietly slipped by many frontrunners to achieve the 2nd and 3rd place spot. Both drivers gave Dixon some heavy competition in the last 20 laps, when the full-out sprint for 1st place reached its peak.
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But it was the events leading up to this final sprint that might have left viewers glued to their TV set. The first major twist of events came about halfway through the race, when Brazilian speed freak Tony Kanaan suddenly accelerated into first place, only to be cut off by his own teammate, Marco Andretti, soon afterward. Kanaan then spun off into a violent crash that took out Sarah Fisher’s car as well. Kanaan was not the only frontrunner to face their fate in a crash. Female favorite Danica Patrick had faced turmoil throughout the race, with car troubles that made it difficult to advance on her opponents, but it was a pit stop visit that ended her day of disappointment. As Patrick was leaving the pit, her car was clipped by Ryan Briscoe, wrecking her rear left suspension, and summoning the wrath of a female driver with a wrecked car. As she was supposed to leave the track, she stomped toward Briscoe and his crew, only to be led away by stadium security.
The entertaining scenes offered up by the Indy 500 made the race seem like the next summer blockbuster. Also, with gas prices constantly increasing, it was promising to see 300,000 fans on their toes watching 33 drivers use newly installed ethanol fuel. Maybe this gives hope for the environment, or it may scare those who realize how 1/3 of the ethanol-burning drivers crashed…but either way this race gave one hell of a start to summer ’08.
 
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