Memorial Day Weekend 2017 Part 2

Continued from Part 1

5-28-17, Sunday

I’m going to start this by quoting an exchange between Daryl Waltrip and Larry McReynolds from later in the day.

DW: “I was up at 6:00 in the morning to watch that F1 race from Monaco.” 

Larry Mac: “Knowing you as I do Daryl.  I doubt you were even aware that God made two different 6:00’s in a day.  I think you watched it on TiVo.”

It was a beautiful late spring afternoon in the principality of Monaco, 1:30 pm local time.  Meanwhile, here in Las Cruces, New Mexico, it was 5:30 am and pitch black.  Like a car crash, it wasn’t the impact, it was the sudden stop that hurt worse.  Not only was I having work-related insomnia, my alarm went off and woke me up from a dream, where I was dreaming that I had already woken up.  With that context, I was barely conscious for the race and, as you might imagine, for the rest of the day.

The Monaco Grand Prix is a high-speed parade.  You wouldn’t mistake freeway traffic for a race, but at least you’d see cars passing each other.  No, as hard as the drivers are working out on track, this is just for show, and they know it.  The show here is the glamour of the setting.  Nowhere else is a race held in such an incredible setting with high-priced apartments and hotels overlooking a harbor filled with huge, luxury yachts.  No matter how little racing action you get for the race, you will get what you came for in the view.

The pre-race for this race is always worthwhile.  Reporter, Will Buxton, had a frenetic grid walk that showcased the unlikely nature of the city hosting this event in such cramped quarters.  He chatted with Lindsey Vonn briefly on track.  What’s Monaco without some celebrity sightings?  (Actually, it’d still be pretty impressive.)  I also learned a bit.  While you can pay over $1,000 for standing room only in a VIP suite overlooking the track, but the best view of the race is actually a public park hill that gave one views of the best corners of the race.

I knew that Fernando Alonso wasn’t going to be at the race, since he was going to be at Indy, but I didn’t know that Jenson Button would be taking his place.  I didn’t know what had become of my favorite F1 driver this season, since I hadn’t kept up with the series at all this year.  Jenson was starting the race from pit lane because of a 15-place grid penalty.  I never found out what the penalty was for.  Changing drivers?  Right before the race (literally right before), Fernando called Jenson in the car as he sat in the car at the end of pit lane, waiting for the start.  “Is it okay if I pee in your seat?” said Jenson.  I think I heard that right, but it was funny either way.  It was a pleasant exchange and kind of cool.

Kimi Raikkonen started the race on pole for Ferrari.  His teammate and points leader, Sebastian Vettel was beside him, locking out the front row.  The Tifosi were ecstatic and Prancing Horse flags and gear were everywhere.  Ahem, as opposed to every other Formula 1 race, really?  Okay, Ferrari fans are omnipresent at any given race, but they were happier today. 

Here’s everything I got out of the race.  I was reminded that Kimi had actually raced NASCAR trucks for Kyle Busch a couple of years ago.  Ferrari wasn’t happy with his previous performances, so this pole was good for his career with them.  There’s a new TV aerial hoop on the back of the cars, perhaps to improve reception.  Vettel got ahead Kimi about halfway through the race after a pit stop and would win the race.  (There might have been some team orders involved.)  Jenson made what was probably an unwise move and put another car on its side into a barrier near the end of the race.  It was especially unwise given that he was in last place, the car in front of him was going to be penalized at the end of the race anyway, and it was likely his last F1 race. 

Not the greatest two hours I’ve spent before watching a race.  Jenson’s wreck was definitely disappointing given that the F1 feed was clearly giving him some extra time based on his status, more than his performance.  Then I discovered that the race was being carried on delay on Uni-Mas, so I could have slept in for another hour and a half and still seen the race.  Sigh.

A couple of hours later, it was Indy-time.  The best part of the pre-race coverage was an interview with a guy who'd been injured at the Boston Marathon bombing, Jeff Bauman, and an actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, who would be playing him in a movie about to be released.  They were going to be waving the green flags to start the race.  The young man was described as a "victim" and "survivor," but he seemed just like a totally regular Bostonian, who happened to have two metal legs.  Really, that Northeastern attitude came right through, regardless of his personal circumstances, seemingly unaffected.  "Boston Strong," indeed.

Dennis Leary introduced the drivers for the Indy 500 over a pre-recorded video.  This was a definite change from the usual live introductions to the crowd.  “No one was happier to see Tony Kanaan win the Indy 500 than Vin Diesel, who finally got his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy.”  There was a side-by-side picture of the two that did indeed show that they were likely “separated at birth.”  In spite of the loss of the spectacle of the live, public introduction to the crowd, I have to admit, this was an upgrade.  Not an upgrade per se, but a necessary change (given Jim Nabors’ retirement), the Chicago Blackhawks’ anthem singer sang Back Home in Indiana to the roar of the crowd as he held the last note for over 10 seconds.                                  

Fernando Alonso had been the biggest story for race fans leading up to the 500.  It’s not every day that an F1 champion skips the biggest race on the F1 calendar to come to your race instead.  For everyone else, the biggest story was Scott Dixon.  A couple of hours after he’d won the pole last week, he was robbed at gunpoint at a Taco Bell.  My main comment on that was, “What’s a guy who’s a tri-athlete like Scott Dixon doing at a fast food restaurant?”    

Memorial Day Weekend Sunday, as far as motorsports go, is essentially one great race bookended by two bad races.  The Indy 500 isn’t so much a race as an ongoing tragedy with a happy ending for only one of the participants.  The commentators will remind the viewers constantly of the drivers’ history at the racetrack.  It’s the backstory that makes success, or more likely failure, much more poignant.

Fernando hung back at the start of the race, but by lap 30 he was leading.  Our first tragedy happened about lap 50.  Dixon got caught up in another driver’s wreck and got the worst of it.  His car flipped in the air, hit the top of the fence, tore the back end of his car off and exploded, and then his cockpit skipped down the track.  He got out and limped away to the ambulance, unhurt except for a twisted ankle.  After he was released from the care center, Dixon was remarkably non-pulsed by the incident.  Even though he won the pole position, this clearly wasn’t his week.

During the red flag cleanup, the Rangers and Blue Jays game started on the radio.  Actually, I turned on the radio about five minutes early and had to listen to a couple of Foxsports Radio idiots debating how great LeBron was.  Was he simply great, or was he super-duper great, or was he the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time).  The NBA finals don’t start till Thursday.  There’s going to be four more days of this without any actual game analysis.  Little wonder I stopped listening to sports talk radio.  When the game came on (15 minutes late into the game thanks to the local affiliates’ incomprehensible scheduling), Eric Nadel was clearly getting tired of the Toronto crowd.  It was another sell-out (partly thanks to a cowboy hat giveaway), and their boo’ing and cheering was becoming obnoxious.   

Here’s where I started drifting off, and the race faded in and out of my awareness.  Winner from a couple of years ago, Ryan Hunter-Ray, got knocked out, but that’s all I registered.  I made sure I was awake for the end.  With 21 laps to go, Alonso’s engine gave way.  He stopped near the front straight and received a standing ovation.  Alonso waved to the crowd and even slapped a few fans’ hands on his way back to the pits.  I don’t know if he’ll be back, but he’d had a good time.  There was a five car wreck soon after.  With 10 to go, Helio Castroneves passed unlikely leader Max Chilton to the roar of the crowd.  He was going for his fourth trophy. 

But with five laps to go, Takuma Sato passed Helio , and he won the 101-st Indianapolis 500.  Michael Andretti, winless at the big race as a driver, had won another Indy as an owner.  Sato was, of course, happy as heck in Victory Lane, as he’d been denied in 2012 with an overly optimistic move at the end of that race.  Taku would now be a national hero in Japan, I’m guessing.  I saw Dario Franchitti give him congratulations there.  Sato was an F1 teammate of Jenson’s several years ago.  Maybe this will inspire him to give racing in the US a shot.  In an interview, Jenson did express interest in NASCAR.            

As the race wound down, the Rangers won their game 3-1.  Same score as yesterday, but a different result.  Joey Gallo hit an opposite field, lasershot home run in the game.  I joined a Chihuahuas’ game in progress.  It was the sixth, and they were down 0-2.  Steven Matz, on rehab from the Mets, had pitched five perfect innings for the Las Vegas 51’s. 

With him out of the game, the Chihuahuas started hitting.  Tim Hagerty called the 51’s catcher attempting to throw his mask at a batted ball.  As Tim pointed out, if he’d succeeded, it would have been a two-base error.  The dogs managed to load the bases and hit a grand slam to take the lead, 5-2.  Unfortunately, the 51’s tied it the next inning.  I was reading my Baseball America from yesterday in the meantime, and caught an amusing correction: “The Jim Marshall mentioned in the last issue’s obituaries is actually alive and well.  It was different Jim Marshall who had died.”  The 51’s went up by two in the eighth.  The pups loaded the bases in the ninth, but 5-7 in favor of the 51’s would be the final score.

The Coca-Cola 600 pre-race started just before the game ended.  The most interesting news I got from it was that next year, Charlotte’s “playoff” race would be held on the track’s “roval” configuration.  All of the racing pundits who want more road races will be thrilled.  I’m not convinced it’s the way to go (cf. Champ Car and Indy Car). 

During the first green flag commercial break (which didn’t take long, thanks Fox), I went to the kitchen to make a sandwich for dinner.  (I’d meant to go out for lunch or dinner, but never actually made it out of my apartment for the entire day.  I was too knackered.)  When I returned there was some sort of multi-car wreck, including Chase Elliot catching on fire.  My viewing never recovered.  There was one aspect of Fox’s broadcast that I approved of; they were doing “fan-cam” shots of happy kids and families taking in the race at the stadium.  About damn time.

Heavy clouds were clearly in the background.  Part-time weatherman, Michael Waltrip, said there was a small shower on the way as the race was stopped.  I flipped around stations.  I returned to witness a deluge in the background as Chris Meyers interviewed Noah, who assured him that it was just a small shower, comparatively.  While the rain delay played out, I tuned into the Pirates versus the Mets on ESPN Radio.  After several problems on KROD’s behalf (interrupting commercials, station going completely off the air), I gave up on the game late.  It was 7-1 Mets in the eighth.  It wasn’t much of the game, but hosts’ conversation was fairly interesting.

I watched the final laps of the 600 intently.  Jimmie Johnson’s car ran out of gas with two laps left.  Austin Dillon, on the same strategy, took over the lead and won.  He ran dry as he crossed the finish line.  Austin didn’t have enough fuel for a burnout and him and the crew had to push the car to Victory Lane.  Kyle Busch finished in second and Martin Truex, who’d dominated much of the race, finished third.  This was Dillon’s first Cup win and a return to victory for the famous #3 car, Earnhardt Sr.’s number.  In the interview, his fiancé had told him that, “If you put God first, good things happen.”  Seeing her hot self afterward, I’d say good things had already happened to him.  “We are partying tonight!” Austin Dillon told to his crew, almost out of microphone’s range.  “We are going to bed!” said an exhausted JDH417.

Continued in Part 3