2019 Indy 500

今年好像過得超快，上星期眨下眼就見電視打Indy 500的廣告，也見到兩屆F1總冠軍艾朗素對車隊表現表示不滿的新聞，星期日錄了來看，發現不見艾朗素的踪影，還記得上次他首度出戰成績不俗，只是被壞車拖累無法完成賽事，但今年竟然排位賽也未能出線！實在令我大跌眼鏡，此報導說了Indy Car賽事對F1（分站或總）冠軍車手也不是那麼容易（雖然從F1過江耀武揚威的車手也大有人在，立時想到的就有Nigel Mansell, Juan Pablo Montoya）而今年Indy 500的冠軍車手Simon Pagenaud其實也是來自歐洲（法國），曾在那邊的初級方程式賽事打拼過，我估他也曾有未能一㘣的F1夢吧。如今他擁有一屆IndyCar總冠軍及一次Indy 500冠軍的榮譽，總算名留賽車史。

2017 Indycar championship

It was a busy weekend for auto-racing fans! All 3 of the NASCAR series, F1 as well as IndyCar raced during the weekend. To be honest, IndyCar normally doesn't get the highest priority but it's different this weekend because IndyCar will crown its champion at this final race of the season with 6 drivers still mathematically eligible! Based on the history of the past few seasons, Penske drivers came to the race leading in points were totally capable of screwing up their chances. I still remember how Will Power squandered his lead years after years until he finally won one. And just 2 years ago, Juan Pablo Montoya was leading the championship entering the last race but crashed with Will Power and losing the championship to Scott Dixon from Chip Ganasse Racing. In fact, I think Dixon has a good chances to do it again this year even though he was behind Josef Newgarden of Penske racing in the standings. The point gap would have been bigger if Newgarden didn't crash chasing teammate Will Power exiting the pit during the penultimate race. (I seriously questioned why the team decided to pit both drivers on the same lap!) Team Penske drivers were again fighting for the lead during this race. The defending champ Simon Pagenaud got ahead of polesitter Newgarden with a different pit strategy. Luckily no crash this time and Newgarden finished second safely and become the first American IndyCar champion in 5 years (the last one was Ryan Hunter-Reay) Glad to see that. (Newgarden's sponsor Verizon, which was also the series title sponsor, should be happy too. Their CEO Lowell McAdam flew all the way to California to present the trophy to their own driver!) These two and fellow American Alexander Rossi (2016 Indy 500 Winner who also won at Watkins-Glen last month) should increase the interest in the sports among Americans in the coming years. (Forbes agreed too)

Sports highlights: Triple Crown of Motorsports

For the recent years that I have been following auto racing, F1's Monaco GP, IndyCar's Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca Cola 600 (at Charlotte) always happen on the same Sunday. I guess you can't have a bigger day than this for US motorsports fan (even though only the first 2 is really part of the "Triple Crown" with the third one being 24hr of Le Man) I knew I won't be home the whole day so I recorded all of them and started watching the first one in the morning. It has been a long time that I saw Kimi Raikkonen leading a F1 race. Too bad his Ferrari team decided to pit him too early and have him lost time in traffic so the 2nd place (aka Ferrari's #1 man) Vettel could build a big lead and remain in the 1st place even after he pitted. That's basically the gist of the race. Then it was time to watch Indy 500: the polesitter Scott Dixon was involved in a freak accident in which his car became airborne and smashed at the wall but fortunately he walked away unharmed. The beloved "newcomer", 2 time F1 champ Fernando Alonso did very well and led quite a few laps but his engine blew and ended his day prematurely. Finally it came down to 3 time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and the driver who "almost won it" a few years ago, Takuma Sato. Both had fast cars this Sunday. Castroneves passed Sato but was overtaken again late and Sato never looked back. The race wasn't decided by fuel saving strategy like last year when Alexander Rossi won it. However, fuel-saving was the race-winning strategy for Coca Cola 600 later that night (really late!) 2 of the stage winners, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr really dominated most of the race but they pitted at lap 368 while Austin Dillon stayed out and gambled with the fuel, along with Jimmie Johnson. Dillon was the "last car standing" (Johnson ran out of fuel) and didn't caught by Busch and Truex (who finished 2nd and 3rd) Finally able to made his very supportive grandpa and car owner Richard Childress proud. (You need both luck and the silver spoon to win a race at this level!) My recording actually ended before these "thrilling" last lap because there was a lengthy rain delay :(

Sports highlights: Euro 2016, NASCAR at Kentucky, IndyCar at Iowa, Home run derby

I think it's blessed to be a soccer fan these days, even if you live in USA. This year we witnessed the amazing rise of Leicester City, the Cinderella who went from surviving to contending and eventually winning the most competitive league in professional soccer: The English Premier league. They clinched the championship in May. Soon followed by the UEFA Champions League final, which was won by Real Madrid but Athletico Madrid fought hard too. Then we had Copa America started in USA (in fact, right here in Santa Clara) in early June. And 1 week later Euro 2016 started in France. To be honest I didn't quite follow the qualification that much and only found out (1) France was the host and (2) Holland was NOT in it. My prediction was France winning it all (well, they did make it to the final) I also knew Argentina won't have any trouble making it to the final of Copa. I had to miss quite a few games because of traveling. I did manage to watch the penalty shootout between Argentina and Chile via my Slingbox. I guess the curse of Maradona's hand ball is still in full force. Don't feel sorry for Messi though. He has his fair share of glorious moments. And my vacation ended before the semifinals and final of Euro 2016 so I was able to watch the full games. (Still wish I could witness the triumph of Iceland and Wales in the earlier stages. Both teams feature mythical character lookalikes: Thor and the Monkey king :P ) As a supporter of Germany since forever, it's sad to see them losing to France on self-inflicting wounds (Schweinsteiger's hand ball resulted in a penalty) There's even more drama at the final between France and Portugal. When Cristiano Ronaldo was hurt and got replaced at the 25 minute mark, I thought it's over: just like the Brazillian Ronaldo becoming a non-factor last time in France. Well, for some reason the French couldn't take advantage. And Portugal played like they'd rather keep the tie and wait for penalty shootout, and was successful at that. And just like Leicester City, it was the unlikely hero Eder who scored and won the game for Portugal (and Ronaldo "the acting coach") Eder received a ton of criticism during the tournament. He was an underachiever who started his career promisingly in the Portuguese league. He almost played for the Hot Spur but ended up with Swansea instead where he didn't get to play much and was moved to the French club Lille, where his hard work was appreciated by the coaches and was a good fit to their system. I guess his experience scoring against opponents in the French league helped! Overall speaking, it was an OK tournament, which would have been better if there was more offense. It would be another 4 years until the next time they play the highest level of soccer in the world. Well, it will be a short break until we have the Olympic soccer tournament. And the European leagues will resume too.

The one sport that get little coverage while I was in Asia was NASCAR (I did accidentally find out Tony Stewart won our "home" race at Sonoma) Glad to be back and the first Sprint Cup race I watch featured a nail-biting finish: the leaders were all in fuel saving mode and Brad K was able to last 'til the end to beat out Carl Edwards for another victory this season. There was no fuel saving at the IndyCar race in Iowa. Josef Newgarden's No.21 car was simply good. No one was able to catch him, not the current points leader Simon Pagenaud, multi-time champion Scott Dixon nor the recently-got-hot Will Power, who ended up finishing 2nd. Well, this result made the overall championship a bit more competitive and interesting.

It was also worthy to write about the MLB Home Run Derby: my favorite teams combined have one participant: the defending champ Todd Frazier, who did make it to the final but lost to Giancarlo Stanton, who was predicted to win by someone from my son's baseball camp. You would probably agree with him if you have witnessed his beautiful and consistent swing. Stanton hitting those 61 HRs in one night was special for us baseball fans.

My weekend

It's that time of the year (free cake, free cake) again. We had a night-out the weekend before at the Mission Street in SF (foreigncinema for drink and Lolinda for Argentinian steak) already. So this weekend was to be with friends and family. The Saturday started with EPL as usual: very happy to see Chelsea fell to Crystal Place. Then it's time for the San Francisco International Pen Show. I arrived ~10:15 and immediately headed to Susan Wirth's seminar. Very educational and entertaining (checking out other people's pen testing samples) After playing with many pens and ink, we left for K&L Wines. The excuse was to pick up my 3 bottles ordered last year. And of course we didn't miss the Sat afternoon tasting there. The theme was Chilean and Argentinian wine. Some were surprisingly good. Dinner time was all to myself. I originally wanted to try the Habit burger and picked the one in Daly City (Serramonte) The line was way long (not expected) so I had Boston Market instead (also had a line! But not as long) Next, it's party at my friends place (thanks to the Tangs!) Awesome ribs :) And we all had fun trying out new bottles of ink (with the cheap plastic pen branded "Dollar", rightfully so)

The Sunday started with EPL as well: very pissed to see Man U fell to Swansea. Also watched the pre-recorded Arena bowl victory of the mighty San Jose Sabercats (which was 17-1 in regular season. We went to one of those 17!) I finally got to try the Habit burger at lunch time. It's indeed pretty good (and not pricey) Glad that we beat the line by arriving before 11:45. The next activity was people (and new products) watching at the Valley Fair mall (when it's so hot, no one wanna play outdoors with me) I often told my son that as much as we don't enjoy shopping, we don't wanna be ignorant about what's out there either. Then it's preparation for cooking the celebration dinner ("So steak" and "So shrimp", named after my cooking instructor!) And watched more sports of course: Juan Pablo Montoya let the IndyCar title slipped away by crashing with teammate (and defending champ) Will Power. "Mr. Consistent" Scott Dixon ended up winning his 4th title. The MotoGP race at Silverstone was also won by an veteran driver and former champ, Valentino Rossi. It was close between him and Marc Marquez for many laps but the latter fell. This season of MotoGP has been good so far with lots of competitions, lead changes, and polesitter being overtaken at the start! What a happy ending to the relaxing weekend.

Sports highlights: MLB opening week, IndyCar at NOLA, F1 at Shanghai, the Masters

I took my son to his first A's game at Oakland last Fri (got a decent deal from Groupon) It's also the first game he saw after he really learned the rules and played in little league so he enjoyed it a lot. I did too as it was a 12-0 beating of the division rival Seattle Mariners (featuring superstars like Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz. And Oakland lost the next 2 games by 1 run each!) A's offense reminded me of some of the little league games in which batters keep getting on bases!

The next one I want to write about was not a very-enjoyable event: the IndyCar Grand Prix of Louisiana. The track condition caused by the rain was so bad that basically most of the race in under caution. The early race leaders: Montoya and Power got shuffled back for their pit strategy (or I should say bad luck) The sad thing is: it's actually the 2nd race of the season and I had no idea the season has started already even though I work for the title sponsor! Can't believe I miss all those commercials for the season opener as I watch so much sports on almost every channel every day!

The F1 race at Shanghai was also something I should have missed as nothing really happened during the race. The 2 Mercedes (Hamilton, Rosberg), and the 2 Ferraris (Vettel and Raikkonen) went P1,2,3,4 respectively. The only surprise was how well the rookie Verstappen drove (Saw him in Macau GP last year). Too bad his engine broke near the end of the race.

After a disappointing NCAA title game (my Wisconsin Badgers lost) earlier in the week, finally came some good news. It's regarding my other school: fellow Texas Longhorn Jordan Spieth won his first major, the Masters, in record-breaking fashion. The UT Tower went orange to honor his victory! Coincidentally, I also witnessed another Longhorn and former Masters champ, Ben Crenshaw, playing in his last Masters. Very emotional moments! It almost feels like Crenshaw has found a successor in Spieth. Check out this article comparing Spieth to other well-decorated Longhorn athletes!

2014 deja vu moments?

I wrote this in 2010 about certain teams and athletes. Then I wrote this in 2012 about the same group. Here is the 2014 version:
1) The University of Texas football team lost to Oklahoma in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Well, this is a rebuilding year under 1st year coach Charlie Strong. In fact, it's unlikely the team will have a .500 season :(
2) The University of Wisconsin lost to Michigan State in 2010 and 2012. They won't play against each other in 2014.
3) Will Power couldn't win the IndyCar championship in spite of a good chance entering the final race in 2010 and 2012 but he finally overcome his last-race-jitter and won it in 2014.
4) US lost to Europe in Ryder Cup in all 3 years. US had a huge lead before the final day and blew it in 2012 but we are not even close in 2014. Looking forward to a new generation of young players picking up the slack.
5) Tiequan Zhang lost his UFC fight in Macau in 2012 and that was the last time he fought. Li Jingliang was another Chinese fighter signed by the UFC and appeared in FOX Fight Night 54 but lost.
6) Last but not least, SF Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014!

Sports highlights: IndyCar championship

It has been 5 years in a row that a Team Penske driver has a chance winning the championship going into the final race. Well, it turns out a Team Penske driver got runner-up in the championship 5 years in a row, after the final race concluded at Fontana last Saturday. However, this time "another" Team Penske driver became the champion. And it's finally the time for Will Power to be crowned the champ. I wrote about Will Power's struggle in the 2010/2011/2012 seasons before: every season he built a big lead on road courses which evaporated near the end of the season due to miscues and misfortune (and oval courses.) Again, he had an early lead this season. However, one could sense how comfortable he was with oval courses this season, unlike in the past. The confidence was probably built from his oval course victory from the final race (Fontana) of the 2013 season, in which he started so poorly that he was not even in the hunt for the championship. And he won again on oval this season (Milwaukee) However, there were still doubts whether he could close the deal. After all, he still had a few pit road speeding penalties and an unexpected spin in the previous race at Sonoma, a road course he is usually good at. 2014 proved to be a different year though: he started near the back of the pack at Fontana hoping to stay out of trouble, which he did. Calmly drove back to the Top 10 and maintained his points' lead even though for a few laps his closest competitor, Penske teammate Helio Castroneves took over the lead. After getting to the front row on a restart, he briefly turned on his "crazy mode" and raced with leader (and eventual winner) Tony Kanaan fiercely but then quickly settled down. And late in the race Castroneves got a penalty for improper entry to pit lane. That pretty much sealed the deal for Power. Congratulations to the 2014 Verizon IndyCar champion Will Power of #12 Team Penske sponsored by Verizon. (BTW, the other Verizon driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, finished 4th in the championship standing in his first year back to IndyCar. He actually won the A.J Foyt Trophy for most points on oval in 2014. Looks like Verizon made a good investment in their drivers, and the series too! Verizon got some good exposure in the home country of Power, Australia)

Sports highlights: Supercross, F1, IndyCar, NASCAR

I have followed a few seasons of Supercross (motorcycle racing) but I think I have just watched the most enjoyable race so far: the Toronto race in which 2-time champ James Stewart came from behind to earn his 49th victory of his long career. And he was not the only highlight! Defending champ Ryan Villopoto was injured earlier in the day but he hang on to qualify for the main event and had a good finish. It showed how much heart and will to win he had.

The 2nd race of the F1 season was held in Malaysia last Sunday. The folks were quite heavy hearted there because of the MH370 disaster. I read the attendance number was rather low. The entertainment value was just so-so: Lewis Hamilton was on the pole and won the race. Vettel did that many times last few season and made the races BORING! He was actually on the front row but slipped to the third. That's the surprise of the race and I guess it was worthwhile to stay up 'til 3am.

And it was the first Verizon IndyCar race of the season later in the day. That's a street-course race in which the polesitter couldn't lead 'til the end of the race. The winner was a familiar name though: #12 Will Power, the Verizon sponsored driver. The other Verizon driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, did just so-so on his first race back to IndyCar after a long time away.

Also, it's the MLB opening night (in US) on Sunday. I knew it's inevitable that I caught the name of the winner of the NASCAR race at Martinsville before watching it taped, as much as I tried to avoid reading the scrolling news ticker on the bottom of the screen. I was glad I saw it though 'coz it was a surprise: Kurt Busch, who has not won a race in years (which was understandable as he spent his last 2 seasons with 2nd or 3rd-tier teams after he ruined his relationship with Team Penske) I would have turned off the TV if I didn't knew the eventual winner because Jimmie Johnson did so well: no matter where he started after a re-start, he was able to get to the front during the green flag run, well, except the last one. And it's a strange feeling: I bet there were a lot of fans who dislike both Busch brothers. Being ousted from Team Penske was basically all Kurt's fault (bad temper and arrogance.) However, he got quite a bit of respects after bringing those 2nd/3rd-tier teams up a level or two. Seems like he got mature a bit, evident in this race: he got tangled with Brad Keselowski, who was so mad and kept retaliating but Kurt kinda kept his cool and avoided further damages.

It was a great weekend for racing fan :)

IndyCar has got a new title sponsor

Can't believe I missed this piece of big news all weekend and only learned about it on the intranet on Monday! This is very exciting: IndyCar is now Verizon IndyCar. (Some news reports keep mentioning Verizon Wireless. Hey, Verizon still has wireline business! It's the "mothership" who got the title!) Among all title sponsors in recent years, Verizon has the biggest marketing muscle and IndyCar has got a much needed lift. To be honest, at this point IndyCar has nowhere to go but up (not my opinion. I read from a comment on this piece of news) I believe it's a win-win for both parties: it's reported that Verizon will be contributing 10 millions (half in cash) Most major sports sponsorships cost more than that! In fact, Nationwide insurance pays double that to sponsor the 2nd tier series of NASCAR! And of course, the top tier of NASCAR's title sponsor is none other than Verizon's competitor: Sprint. I think that motivates Verizon to step up its game. After all, Sprint forced Verizon out of NASCAR completely with its exclusive deal (Verizon used to sponsor #12 team of Penske at Nationwide. When Verizon was forced out, the victim was Justin Allgaier who lost his Penske ride and ended up with a team with less resources) Another thing interesting about this deal is that team Penske has been sponsored by Verizon for the last few years. The #12 car driven by Will Power was so close to winning the championship a few times but fell short. For the 2014 season Verizon will also be sponsoring the #2 Team Penske car driven by former F1 and Indy 500 Winner Juan Pablo Montoya. I expect him to be very competitive and a favorite to win the championship as he's still one of the best driver in the world. Oh well, no matter who wins, Verizon will get the spotlight being the title sponsor. I'm looking forward to a successful IndyCar season, which would benefit motorsports in US in general! (The third important motorsports series in US is already sponsored by Tudor so I don't think AT&T could join the party soon :P)

IndyCar championship

As I predicted, Helio Castroneves was unable to overcome the point deficit during the last race of the season at Fontana and Scott Dixon won the championship for the 3rd time in his career. He definitely deserved it. It was a bit unfair that the league penalized him for that pit road incident earlier in the season anyway. And I was glad to see the "King of the road" Will Power had his second victory on an oval track! What an irony. If he did well in any of the final race of the season in the past few years, he would have won a championship or two.

Sports lowlights: Dallas Cowboys, Helio Castroneves

Hate to mention "lowlights" two weeks in a row but it was disappointing to see Da' boys lost by 3 late in the game. They showed signs of brilliance from time to time but just not have the consistency for the whole 60 minutes :( And I was rooting for Team Penske to win the IndyCar championship this year but Castroneves' car had issue on both races in Houston during the weekend and lost his big point lead in the standing. I'm afraid it's another 2nd place finish at the end of the season for a Team Penske driver. That's Will Power for the past few years. Ironically, Power won the 2nd race at Houston. The "King of the road" seem to get back on track after a disastrous season. So that belongs to the "highlight" department. Another one is Manchester United's victory with new kid Adnan Januzaj scoring 2 goals (he was the difference between a W and a L.) We also have a new star this side of the Atlantic: San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl. I was happy watching him scoring 4 goals against the New York Rangers, even though I also like the latter team and hoping for a less lopsided game. It's awesome watching the opening games of the new NHL season on TV in HD! Anytime of the year in the world of sports some leagues start while others end. One just finished this weekend was Champion League Twenty 20 (Cricket) The semis and the final were all exciting. Lots of fire powers from the final 4! Mumbai Indians deserved to win it all. Last but not least, the late late game on Sunday night, Raiders vs Chargers, was an entertaining one. Glad to see Raiders winning another one. The Ws are hard to come by these days. Maybe Pryor could make it in NFL after all (not expecting MVP/Aaron Rodgers-type of numbers) 

It's deja vu all over again!

Sports fan would know the title was one of the famous quotes by 金句大師 former Yankee great Yogi Berra. I read some of my old posts and found this from 2010:
1) University of Texas football team lost to Oklahoma that year. Same thing happened in 2012.
2) University of Wisconsin lost to Michigan State. Same in 2012.
3) Will Power couldn't win the IndyCar championship in spite of a good chance entering the final race. Same in 2012.
4) US lost to Europe in Ryder Cup. The 2012 version was worse: US had a huge lead before the final day and blew it.
5) Tiequan Zhang will fight again next week, this time with UFC in Macau. Hope he will win again!
6) Last but not least, SF Giants won NL West (and went on to win the World Series)

[Update:  Turned out Tiequan Zhang didn't win in Macau. Too bad, but at least he was competitive in that fight.]

Sports highlights: IndyCar championship, NFL

This was what I wrote about IndyCar last year around the same time: Will Power had the point lead with hopes to win the championship. We all knew the final race of last season was the sad one in which Dan Wheldon lost his life. Will Power was also involved in the same accident and the title went to Dario Franchitti. In the same article I also wrote about 5-time champ Jimmie Johnson not winning that NASCAR race and ended up failing to defend his title. Similarly, this year 4-time champ Dario Franchitti has a down year, who was the major rival of Power. Looks like it's finally the year that Will Power could win it all. On the other hand, his track record on oval, especially for the last race of the season, didn't look good. He crashed 2 years in a row. So, with a point lead going to the final race of the season at Fontana California on 9/15, I was still quite unsure about his chance. Unfortunately, what all Will Power fan worried about, namely, another crash, indeed happened, while he and the eventual champion Ryan Hunter-Reay raced for position. Will Power's car lost control during the turn. Fortunately he didn't get hurt and no other car was involved so basically he lost the championship on his own. The only "saving grace" for IndyCar fan like me was that Hunter-Reay is an American (I also wrote about American not doing well in the sport.) He was the first American winning the championship since Sam Hornish Jr did it in 2006! (Apparently IndyCar was too comfortable for Hornish and he had to moved to NASCAR and endured some hard times there.) Ryan Hunter-Reay really deserved to win. He fought hard after the 2 poor performances late in the season. Even with Will Power crashed, Hunter-Reay still had to move up positions to gain enough points over Power and he did just that. Congratulations to the new champ.

It's September and it also means another new NFL season has started. I have not been a happy NFL fan for a while. However, I still enjoy watching the highlights as most games were still exciting (close games, spectacular plays, etc) It has been a good weekend because:
1) All those talks about 49ers going 16-0 has stopped after they got beaten up by the Vikings.
2) The Cowboys barely defeated the Bucs.
3) On the day former Raider Marcus Allen lighted the ceremonial flame that honored legendary (and controversial) owner Al Davis, the team won one for Al again, beating the mighty Steelers with a last minute field goal. Most people disagree with Davis picking kicker Sebastian Janikowski in the first round but Janikowski has indeed helped the team winning quite a few games. So Al may be right after all.
4) A few other games were also decided by last minute FG, including the Ravens beating the Patriots, the Jets beating the Dolphins (Reggie Bush is not going to be the RB with most yards this season, BTW), the Titans beating the Lions, the Chiefs beating the Saints (I was laughing so hard when the Saint's players cried "Justice! Fairness!" after the suspension of those involved in the bounty-gate was overturned. Going 0-3 is real justice and real karma, man!)

Last but not least, so happy to see the Giants winning another NL West title. They did it with chemistry and without ego.

認真失威

IndyCar因為天雨遲左開場，到NASCAR Nationwide開場都未完，ABC電視台決定將前者掟去ESPNEWS台，轉為播後者。
IndyCar堂堂北美頂級open wheel賽事，竟然要讓路予只是次級房車賽的NASCAR Nationwide，認真失威。
其實IndyCar都幾好睇，不過太多非美國人當道，難怪美國人不支持。更不幸的是，Indycar似乎前路頗為坎坷：原本安排在青島舉行的賽事被取消（無端端學人想打入强國市場作甚？真的活該）少了該場，就低於贊助商所要求的場數；另一方面，贊助商合約還有三年才完成，有消息指IndyCar已在找下一手頂上的贊助商，實在有點耐人尋味。

Sports lowlights: Goodbye Dan Wheldon

I have been following the IndyCar season all year long. It was an up-and-down season for me because I hoped to see Will Power successfully challenged the 2-time defending (3-time overall) champ Dario Franchitti. Will Power had a good lead during the 1st half. Then he had a bad stretch until Franchitti suffered the same fate. Power regained his lead after the last few road courses and lost it again on oval. The race at Las Vegas on Sunday was supposed to bring the whole series to a new height by having yet another title decided on the very last race of the season. Unfortunately, 2-time Indy 500 winner and former series champ Dan Wheldon died from a 15-car crash during this race. He was a well-liked fellow on and off the track. It was a great loss of the motorsport community. For a skillful driver like him, it's strange that he didn't get to compete the full schedule of IndyCar. While he wasn't racing, he worked as an announcer for IndyCar broadcast and also helped testing the next generation chasis. Ironically, this new chasis tested by him and will be used next year is supposed to be safer in the sense that it is harder for a car hitting the end of another car and got airborned (which cause Wheldon's death) The chasis will be named after Wheldon. And he will surely be remembered by motorsports fans. RIP.

Sports highlights: Football, NASCAR Championship Chase #1, last IndyCar race in Japan

My Texas Longhorns had a down year last year. Losing to UCLA at home was a low-light. Fortunately we won the rematch this year convincingly. Coupled with a few upsets at the top, Texas has finally returned to Top 20. I know it's a long road for us to climb all the way back up but this is good progress. Our new QB is Colt McCoy's brother. I hope he's the real deal. There were actually quite a few Texas-California matchup this weekend. Another big game was of course Dallas Cowboys visiting 49ers in SF. I didn't have too much faith in Da Boys based on the poor performance last season as well as this season's opener. On the other hand, 49ers were supposed to be improving. And the new coach Jim Harbaugh, who had success in college, certainly brought the team some positive vibes. I was so glad to see Cowboys overcoming adversity to beat the Niners.
I didn't watch either game though. My only available time was spent on the 2 races. First, IndyCar in Japan was expected to be the race where Will Power could finally overtaken the point lead from Dario Franchitti and this was indeed the case. And this was actually indirectly affected by the earthquake earlier this year! When IndyCar races at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, it usually races at the oval track rather than the road course (Yes, Motegi has a special design that features 2 tracks). However, the oval track was damaged by the earthquake so the race was held on the road course instead, where Will Power usually performed well. In fact, he won the (Mario Andretti) trophy for being the best IndyCar road course driver 2 years in a row! Now there are only 2 more races left this season. I still think Franchitti has a better chance to win the overall championship because he outperforms Power on oval more than Power outperforms him on road courses. And both races left are on oval :(
There are nine more races left this season for NASCAR, after the 1st race of the chase completed on Monday (it was postponed from Sunday because of the rain) Just when it looked like Jimmie Johnson was gonna win and had a good headstart for his sixth consecutive championship (BORING!), there was a caution (It almost seemed like all cautions benefitted JJ but this one didn't) Tony Stewart got to the front and won this race that was decided by fuel mileage. JJ actually ran out of gas and got a bad finish. I was also glad to see that Dale Earnhardt Jr. got on the podium and improved his position in the championship chase from last to 6th. Can't wait to watch the next race!

Sports highlights: IndyCar at Sonoma

I watched the NASCAR race at the same track (Infineon) earlier this year and I thought I watched enough live racing this year. I hate to admit this but I enjoyed watching races on TV more than live because TV has better coverage of the race and has different angles. It was a pleasant surprise when Infineon raceway sent me a free ticket to the IndyCar race as a gift (maybe because of me attending the NASCAR race?) When I arrived, I actually got to choose my seat and I just told the ticket lady to give me a good one. My seat was at Turn 9, which was indeed about as good as you could get at Infineon (even better than the grandstand where you can't see the uphill battle at the first turns.) There were a few things notable about this race: (1) it's the last IndyCar race for Danica at Infineon before she jumps to NASCAR next year (and I don't expect her to be racing on a road course that she's not good at next year for NASCAR too)

Danica didn't do well during the race and got lapped. (2) it's the first IndyCar race featuring a Chinese driver, Ho-Pin Tung. His day was not bad until he crashed near the end of the race.

It was actually a kinda boring race. The Top 5 starting cars ended the race in the same order (in fact, the order almost remained the same throughout the race other than during pit cycles) The race was similar to the one last year which #12 Will Power also led from the beginning to the end. I was glad that the winner was the driver I rooted for.

Sports highlights: Aussies ruled

I'm not talking about Aussie Rule Football but the 3 winners of 3 races during the past weekend, all Australians! First we saw Cadel Evans edged out Andy Schleck during the time trial stage to win the Tour De France. He was in the third place behind both Schleck brothers but erased the deficit by his exceptional performance during this stage. Then I saw Casey Stoner winning the MotoGP US Grand Prix live at Laguna Seca raceway (near Monterey)! The track was long and it was hard to watch live. I basically hiked back and forth the hilltop to follow the frontrunners but it was great seeing Stoner making two passes to claim victory. Finally, another Aussie, Will Power, won the IndyCar race at Edmonton. Power has always been good on IndyCar's road races but it is still tough for him to bounce back from his poor result at the previous race (also on road course. His rival Dario Franchitti ran into him and ruined his race)

Sports highlights: "green" auto racing!

4 of the races I watched during the past 2 weekends all came down to the drivers who were able to save fuel! First, at Indy 500 we saw all those pre-race favourites ran out of fuel and had to pit. Too bad the rookie JR Hildebrand, who was leading and still had fuel left, was not able to pull off a victory because he crashed on the last corner of the very last lap. Unfortunately, his name will be in the history book forever for one of the biggest choke job ever (Another one was French golfer Jean Van de Velde squandering his 3 shot lead on the last hole at the British Open in 1999.) The race actually started out seeming to be yet another boring race in which Dario Franchitti wins again by taking advantage of Will Power's mistake (who drove off the pit road when one wheel was still not completely on yet.) Power ended up finished higher than Franchitti at Indy and actually improved his lead in the overall season standing. Later on that day we had the NASCAR race, the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte, also decided by fuel strategy. The late race caution never came (everybody was planning to refuel then) Dale Earnhardt Jr almost won it except he ran out of fuel on the last lap and finished 7th. Who could have predicted the next NASCAR race at Kansas also has to do with Dale Jr and fuel? Again, the leaders had to pit and refuel which allowed Brad Keselowski and Dale Jr to come to the front and they finished 1-2. The Nationwide race on the same weekend at Chicagoland was ended similarly except the front runner Carl Edwards ran out of fuel on the last lap and was thus caught up by Justin Allgaier, who also ran out of the fuel later but coasted across the finish line with a victory. I have been rooting for Allgaier this season. He went through some tough times when he lost his ride because his sponsor Verizon was forced out of NASCAR. Of course, the media's focus was Danica Patrick's brief return to NASCAR (this is just one race in between her IndyCar "breaks") BTW, even though I am a fan of hers, the coverage of her leading Indy 500 for a few laps because her team decided to pit last in the cycle was a bit too much.