Filed under: Motorsports
92nd Indy 500 ends with pole-sitter Dixon taking checkered flag
by John Neff on May 27th 2008 at 12:58PM 
Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Indy 500
New Zealand's Scott Dixon led the field at this year's 92nd Indianapolis 500 going into turn 1 of Lap 1 and, after surviving 200 laps of open wheel mayhem at the Brickyard, crossed the finish line first, 1.75 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Vitor Meira. Unfortunately, no one on the Autoblog team witnessed the win, the allure of barbecues and time spent with family this past Memorial Day weekend being too strong to resist. Perhaps that says something about the popularity of open-wheel racing in the U.S., though we suspect the 250,000 in attendance and larger television audience of the Indy 500 this year would disagree.
While Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing took the win, all eyes were still on Danica Patrick to see if she could pull out the first win for a woman at the Brickyard coming off her victory in Japan last month. Unfortunately, a win for Danica was not meant to be, as her left-rear tire was tagged by Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe coming out of the pits. The contact spun out Patrick and did mortal damage to her rear axle. She was more than a bit miffed (wouldn't you?) and began a determined walk down pit row towards Briscoe's pit box, but a track security officer stopped her and prevented what could've been the race's biggest spectacle. So the IndyCar Series' most famous race is in the bag, and it was the first since the IRL and Champ Car series reunited. Things are looking up for open-wheel racing in the U.S. despite our own disinterest, and the 92nd running of this year's Indianapolis 500 sounds like it was enjoyable to watch. Maybe we'll sit down for it next year.
If like us you didn't catch the race on TV, check out SpeedTV's recap video after the jump.
Gallery: 2008 Indianapolis 500
[Source: IndyStar.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mghertzfeld 1:16PM (5/27/2008)
Is anyone else as tired of the media fascination with Danica as I am?
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imoore 1:23PM (5/27/2008)
I sure am, but it was fun to see Danica march down pit row to have a "nice little chat." I really wanted to see her knock a knot on somebody's ass. A lot of people have complained that Danica was out of line, but she does have a right to defend and speak for herself.
tankd0g 1:29PM (5/27/2008)
I admit I only went back and watched this bore fest because I heard Danica took a hissy fit, and I was not disapointed. I wanted to reach into the tv and smack her up side the head. She really is the Britney Spears of open wheel racing now, and I don't mean the young hot Britney Spears. I only wish Miko or Sarah had finished better than her, that would have made my day. I wonder if either of them were off crying somewhere after their crashes?
Talisman 1:43PM (5/27/2008)
@tankdog
I think thats a little unfair comparison of her.The media does glorify her too much but thats not her fault. Shes in this to make money. If a ton of different companies wanted interviews and sponsorships from you, would you turn down the money just because fans who dont pay your bills might look at you differently? None of the racers really know how long they have in the game. They could have a career ending injury the next day. make the money while you can.
And secondly, she is by far not the first person to get angry and attempt to go talk to another race car driver. If it was a man that did it, would you care? I guess shes not allowed to act like the other racers(on a legitimate B.S. accident) just because shes a woman? She didnt make the media overblow her incident and she wasnt "crying" in her interview.
sanimalp 1:45PM (5/27/2008)
oh my god.. even mentioning sarah fisher makes me laugh out loud. For those of you that actually watched the race, you might remember Sarah spinning out while attempting to warm up her tires during a CAUTION LAP!!! Then she left the race by torpedo'ing Tony Kanaan in turn 3, who was LEADING the race at the time, after marco andretti went low on Tony and caused him to perform evasive maneuvers. While the last situation wasn't entirely her fault, the first one was particularly shocking. I am not a licensed race driver, but I strongly believe I could have made a better showing than Sarah..
Shawn 1:49PM (5/27/2008)
I'm not a fan of Danica, but I give her respect for chasing her dreams. In all accounts she works hard at what she does and beats a lot of other guys in open wheel.
It is stupid and low to compare her to Britieny Spears. What person in competitive sports isn't passionate about what he/she is doing? If you don't have the fire burning inside of you to fight, you might as well sit in front of the computer and post on AOL about how you want to smack someone else who's out there doing it.
dougjp 5:25PM (5/27/2008)
Yes I'm even more upset with the lame media coverage than I am with her prima donna attitude. The people running in positions 3 through 7 got virtually no coverage and that's simply not right. She did basically nothing while she was racing, given that she has a top 3 team ride.
Yes she can drive OK but has no clue, even now after accumulating a decent amount of experience in these cars, how to take the car to the final level of performance. Her own in car comments proved that (along the lines of - I dunno what I need to go fast, you guys have been at this longer than I have - WHAT? Somebody ELSE'S fault? TYPICAL!). A top racer will TELL the crew what he/she needs.
montoym 6:18PM (5/27/2008)
From Tankd0g: "I only wish Miko or Sarah had finished better than her, that would have made my day. I wonder if either of them were off crying somewhere after their crashes?"
Actually, I do recall seeing an interview with Sarah Fisher during the race where she did begin to cry. I didn't see her crash, I only started watching about half way through, but I distinctly recall a crying Sarah Fisher.
I did not see Danica do the same. She seemed to react to it more like a man would IMO.
MajorGeek 1:21PM (5/27/2008)
Not me, but then again this is the first I read of anything Indy, I usually ignore it due to lack of interest.
OMG, a woman that can drive but was knocked out of the race by an evil man. Seems a bit 1970's and Shirly Muldoney (spelling?) for me. Feels setup. Then again, not a big sports or pro racing guy anyhow so its not making me interested.
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Luis 2:06PM (5/27/2008)
I'll buy a ticket for that...
Todd 1:52PM (5/27/2008)
Yes, 89 pound hot-chick Danica, walk down the pit lane a threaten me with physical violence, please do. :)
But seriously, the lame media sensationalism around Danica is a perfect example of Andy Kaufman's satire when he wrestled women.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ezPotNSNqg
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Nicko 1:59PM (5/27/2008)
This race is, in some ways even more stupid and pointless than the Nascar equivalent. Instead of using boring, heavy stock cars to drive in circles all day, they take extremely trick open-wheelers and confine them to an oval. Nice.
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ASEVENCFOUR 1:59PM (5/27/2008)
How dare that stupid rent-a-cop stop her from getting all crazy on his ass! OMG I would have loved to see her with vanes popping out of her neck and getting all ghetto.
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tankd0g 2:38PM (5/27/2008)
She looks like a bobble head with a regular sized person's helmet on. It would have been pretty funny to see that start swinging away.
GP Racer X 2:14PM (5/27/2008)
I dont understand how all of the Autoblog bloggers and all of you people commenting trash Indy racing so much. Other than f1 it is the highest tier of motorsports and is the highest tier in North America. How was this years 500 a bore fest!? did you watch it? There was a ton of passing and action. Dixon had the pole and won but Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan both almost took it leading laps. TK was knocked out due to lapping traffic and Marco due to a wing adjustment at the last pit that shouldnt have been made
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Lee Gibson 2:21PM (5/27/2008)
Did they do anything other than go in circles? No? Then it's boring.
I'm glad you liked it, but I want road courses.
Kayne001 4:59PM (5/27/2008)
I thought that was a legit argument, but now that i look at it, it's not.
After watching Fifth Gear's segment on Nascar (the full one), and playing Daytona on Gran Turismo, I see both in a different life. It's actually quite fun.
I'd rather have some racing action and passing instead of a bunch of high performance cars going around a course but with no changes.
Monaco was nice though.
Philthy 4:19AM (5/28/2008)
"Did they do anything other than go in circles? No? Then it's boring.
I'm glad you liked it, but I want road courses."
Well good thing you went to the effort to join a conversation obviously about the biggest oval race of the year, to voice your preference for oval racing. I think I'll go join a gold forum so I can talk about how boring I think it is.
Philthy 4:20AM (5/28/2008)
"Did they do anything other than go in circles? No? Then it's boring.
I'm glad you liked it, but I want road courses."
Well good thing you went to the effort to join a conversation obviously about the biggest oval race of the year, to voice your preference for road racing. I think I'll go join a golf forum so I can talk about how boring I think it is.
tankd0g 2:36PM (5/27/2008)
sanimalp: He was careening across the track on his way to being in numerous peices at the time, he was no longer leading anything. Sarah simply got collected. I don't think she went after him for it nor did she go after Andretti who caused the incident in the first place.
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