Well, there’s no point in beating around the bush, the Denver GP wasn’t the most exciting Champ Car race in recent memories. Its somewhat surprising that it lacked any real drama, though the results may not be indicative of what happened on the track. If you talk to AJ, he’ll tell you it was probably his most stressful race of the season. Dominguez spun at turn four, giving up a bunch of places before charging back. Tracy “handing the championship” to Bourdais with an uncharacteristic mistake and of course, that first turn melee where a Champ Car safety team member told me after the race he saw Da Matta’s wheel bounce twice off Justin Wilson’s head. If you think that may be an exaggeration, consider the fact that Justin is 6’4 and has no where to duck. The good news is that Justin was fine, they weren’t going that fast at that point. And its always good to reaffirm that you have a solid noggin’!

By no means did Paul Tracy hand the championship to Bourdais as there are 5 races left and 53 points separate the two. 31 points for a win, you do the math. What worries me more is the psychological effect this day may have on Tracy as he contemplates his future in open-wheel. I hope that his Denver results won’t deject him too much. He’s had many set backs in his days, many crashes. But to concede the championship to your arch-rival with plenty of racing left struck me as a potential sign. Hopefully it was said in the heat of the moment. I hope it was. But I fear that what happened in Denver yesterday may have been enough for Tracy to decide that his time in open-wheel cars was over. Hopefully though, he’ll talk to the right people, obviously he’s calmer by now, and of course, he wouldn’t make any rash decisions. Not with a career changing assessment like this. But he wasn’t kidding when he said that Bourdais had a horseshoe stuck somewhere. I mean, Bourdais has proven to be extremely fast, so he’s earned it. but talk about being at the right place at the right time all season long.

I asked Greg Creamer, the announcer for the Atlantic guys on Speed, what he thought about Kasamets’ bonzai move at turn 8 which resulted in him crashing and falling way back instead of coming home with a 2nd place. He thought that it was the right move to do. With 2 races left, Greg thought that finishing slightly ahead of Charles Swolzman wouldn’t have been enough (if Kasamets wouldn’t have crashed, he would have finished 2nd and Charles 4th). But winning the race would have put a significant dent in Charles’ overall lead. Greg is probably right. At that point, go for the gusto. It was a daring and most entertaining move. It didn’t pan out for the Estonian driver. I didn’t hear him say he ‘handed the championship to Charles’ in any post-race interview, though he may have, I didn’t hear all of them. Nonetheless, the Atlantics continue to put on a great show. I wish them the best at Road America next week. Hello?? If anybody from Champ Car reads this, I need to be at Road America!! Imagine a whole weekend of Atlantic events without their track announcer!! I know, it’s unfathomable!

I worked with Paul Page this weekend. That was quite an experience. I know that a lot of people lost their affection for Paul when he went to the IRL. But Paul was the voice of CART for so many years that he must be respected at the very least. I was intimidated at first, but that quickly went away. Paul sat me down on Sunday and gave me some advice and suggestions on my career with Champ Car. He told me he thought long and hard the night before whether we should even have this conversation or not and that he decided we should. It wasn’t advice like ‘punctuate this, be silent there’. It was more philosophical advice, big picture advice. I was honored that Paul Page, a man of faith, a man of strong conviction and a man synonymous with American motorsports would take the time to talk to me about this whole circus we’re involved in. Later I heard that he told one of my employers that he thought I was a real asset to Champ Car, which again, is something he didn’t have to do and I was humbled by that. Maybe that means that Champ Car will take me overseas or at least Mexico City???? Yo habla un poco espanol. Poco.

How many races have I been too now, dating back to my days with Players?? And I still pack too few underwear to last me the entire trip??? Looks like I will be going commando for the flight home today. I better remember to at least wear a belt.