AgWired

Finally, the race is over and ethanol wins again. Actually the winner of the Indy 500 is Dario Franchitti seen waving at me as he passes the media center. At the post-race press conference, he seemed like the most amazed guy in the world for having run and we certainly congratulate him.

During the press conference I asked him how he felt about winning by burning a renewable fuel in his car and how it performed. He has no problem with ethanol. In fact, he said it helped him get better gas mileage and that was beneficial in the end.

Listen to Dario talk about ethanol here: indy-07-dario.mp3

The race was shortened by rain and called after 166 laps. I heard several drivers saying they just couldn’t get into a normal race flow and that’s too bad but I guess it’s just the way it is. They’ll be racing again in another week. I’ll be attending two more races this season so count on some more IRL action on AgWired.

Don’t forget to check out my online photo album which Laura McNamara and I have contributed to during this past week and have a great holiday.

The big story here in Indianapolis this morning has been the weather. It’s lightly raining now and the trucks are running the track to try to keep as much water off it as possible. You can’t race on a wet track.

We’re hoping for some clearing today and will stay here as long as we can to cover the 91st running of the “greatest spectacle in racing.” Some of the regular morning activities have at least been postponed temporarily so I guess we’ll sit tight with everyone else and see what happens.

In the meantime here’s some audio for you from last night’s reception when Jeff Simmons, IndyCar driver of the Team Ethanol Car spoke.

Jeff says that the story is how far ethanol has come and where things are at with the industry. He got involved right after Paul Dana’s untimely death last year and has had the opportunity to learn a lot about the fuel and especially how it performs in an engine. Like other drivers have been saying in the IRL and other leagues that are now experimenting with ethanol, he says they get better gas mileage and no loss of performance. I’m not an engineer but it appears that an engine that’s tuned to run properly on ethanol will not perform worse when it comes to mileage than regular gas. I’m sure that this would be the case in consumer model cars as well. In fact, I’m betting we’ll see this happen as the fuel and industry continues to develop and works with the auto manufacturers on this issue.

You can listen to Jeff’s remarks here: indy-07-jeff-reception.mp3 Jeff is introduced by EPIC executive director Tom Slunecka and answers a few questions at the end of his remarks which are about 7 minutes long.

You may remember the tragedy that occurred last year at the first IndyCar race when Paul Dana was killed in a pre-race crash. I had conducted his last media interview prior to that. I finally had a chance to do a short interview with his wife, Tonya here in Indy. Paul is the man who worked so hard to bring the ethanol and racing industries together. He was the driver of the #17 Ethanol Car prior to Jeff Simmons. This year’s running of the Indy 500 with all the cars fueled with ethanol is the fulfillment of his dream.

Tonya is pictured here outside the Rahal-Letterman Racing hospitality suite. I was impressed with how strong she seems to be. It has to take courage to come out here in light of what happened to Paul. Tonya says that the support she’s received from friends in the ethanol industry and the IRL has been tremendous. She does see this year’s race as the fulfillment of Paul’s dream and she says she’s ready to help the ethanol industry in any way she can.

You can listen to my interview with Tonya Dana here: indy-07-tonya.mp3