A Great Running Of The Indianapolis 500

Scott Dixon started the running of the 2008 Indianapolis 500 on the pole and finished on top for his Chip Ganassi Racing team. It was a close ending, but Vitor Meira and Marco Andretti fell behind Dixon in that order. Helio Castroneves finished fourth, and Ed Carpenter finished fifth. Danica Patrick ran in the top 10 most of the day until she was taken out by Ryan Briscoe, who clipped her car in the pits, causing enough damage to her car to end her run late in the race. Patrick stormed down the pit lane to make her way to Brisco's pit when she was headed off by track security. You may recall an incident at one of last year's races when Patrick grabbed Dan Wheldon by the arm to show her displeasure with him after run-in with him on the track. Her departure left a lot of fans disappointed as did Tony Kanaan's wreck late in the race, helped along by team mate Marco Andretti. Sarah Fisher's day ended when she was unable to avoid Kanaan's car after he got into the wall. The only other female driver in the race, Milka Duno, met a similar fate when she lost control of her car late in the race. This, of course, is the first running of the 500 with a unified IRL. The crowd appeared larger than any I've seen in recent years. Maybe the IRL has finally got its act together and will begin to rebuild its waning fan base and improve its sagging television ratings. The video clips are of the start of the race and the ending of the race taken from where I sit at the race in Turn 1.