Sunday, September 7, 2008

Racing News: ABC Almost Blows the Call on IRL Race

What a day for some motor car racing!
Just finished watching my second race of the day, gotta love rainy Sunday's! I got to hand to to the IRL, last race of the season and it comes down to Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon in points and for once, that's where the focus is, instead of the always non-factor side show that is Danica Patrick. Helio has to win the race and lead the most laps to stand any chance of winning the championship. Scott has to finish 8th or better to put it to bed. Well Helio does it. He starts from 28th, gets to the front and ends up leading the most laps, then goes on to win the race by 1/100th of a second over Scott Dixon. The race is that close. But the announcers get it wrong and call Scott Dixion the race winner and series champion. Viewers at home have all seen the replay of the two cars crossing the line and know Dixon did not win the race. Congratulations are given and then they review the tape ... oops!
The tape clearly shows Helio in the lead by the slimmest of margins at the finish line. Helio is given the win seconds before show ends and ABC/ESPN look bad. Nice save, but next time check the tape before you call a winner when its that close!
Scott Dixon won the IndyCar Series championship Sunday in dramatic fashion, finishing second to his chief challenger, Helio Castroneves, in the closest race in series history.Castroneves’ No. 3 Team Penske Dallara-Honda hit the finish line 0.001 second ahead of Dixon’s No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Dallara-Honda, but Dixon finished 17 points ahead of Castroneves in the final standings. Scoring monitors initially showed Dixon as the winner, but video replays showed Castroneves hitting the stripe first.Castroneves’ teammate, Ryan Briscoe, finished third, followed by Tony Kanaan, Will Power and Dan Wheldon.
info courtesy of http://auto-racing.speedtv.com, picture courtesy of http://www.indycar.com/

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