after Houston

whoa! What a crazy race! I didn't think it was going to be that exciting to be honest with you, as for a while (after Bourdais took the lead from Justin) I figured we'd have a parade. But it didn't turn out that way at all. Sure, up front it was Bourdais' to lose, but I have a feeling this is something we are going to have to look forward too all year: battles for 2 to 17, because Bourdais is locked in. In my humble opinion, he's better than he's ever been. He shouldn't be, logically he should be complacent, but its as if he's more focused than ever. Is it to prove a point to the F1 crowd? To the Champ Car crowd that figured with the DP01 things would be more even? To impress his newborn? Whatever it is, the man is on a mission. And I think he's going to be even quicker on the natural road courses. The street courses are often the great equalizer, the races where the smaller teams can hope that incidents and attrition leads to their success. Its a whole different ballgame on a permanent road course. This kid is good.

Graham Rahal, who skipped his prom for the Houston Grand Prix (he evidently flew in his girlfriend) drove like a veteran, there is no other way to put it. He waited for others to make mistakes while making some nice passes along the way. He kind of flew under the radar which is always a good thing and crept up to his 2nd place finish. The kid has to be ecstatic about his result. He didn't have anything for Bourdais, but nobody did. Either way, Newman/Haas/Lanigan goes into Portland with a lot of momentum, and Graham is going to be more confident then ever and knows he can steal a race here and there. Although, amazingly enough, Pagenaud finished 5th. If you watched Pagenaud today you would have thought he'd finished 15th. But somehow (and I don't claim to know how), he finished 5th. Although right now, Doornbos is the rookie we have to talk about. he's the man of the hour.

Robert Doornbos is fun. there's no other way around it. He's a fun guy who's having a great time on the track. His is a special story so far and who knows what will happen when he hits the types of circuit he's used too.

It was unfortunate for Servia, as he looked like his pit strategy might pay off, thanks to the late yellows. Unfortunately, that bizarre incident with Mario occurred. Now, being the eternal optimist, I look at the incident and say "that could have been much worse". Was it the end of Mario Dominguez? I don't think that was his fault nor should it be the defining factor. But did you catch Forsythe's reaction as the incident happen? It was a split second on the corner of the screen. But he did not look happy, understandably.

I'll leave it at that for now. Thanks for listening to our podcast. We're going to try and put one together before Portland.