Dinger!

[nrc]

Great qualifying result for AJ. He took the pole until Seabass's last lap. This kid is the real deal. It will be interesting to see if he has anything for Seabass on race day.

Good to see SuperMario showing some speed. He's my bet to create turn one havoc. :)

[KLang]

Good to see SuperMario showing some speed. He's my bet to create turn one havoc. :)

I thing Bruno will get those honors.

AJ :thumbup:

[GOFAST1]

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[RaceGrrl]

Great job, AJ! Even though I'm a Kermit fan, I'd love to see him get the jump on Bourdais and take the race.

[SteveH]

Considering that AJ is on a start up team and Sea Bass is on one of the strongest teams in the series, speaks a ton for his results today. :thumbup:

Could Champ Car be developing the next big name in American open wheel? :laugh:

[Cam]

Could Champ Car be developing the next big name in American open wheel? :laugh:

AJ has said hs goal is F1..... Maybe this is a heads up....

[Fenster]

It was a great effort from AJ, especially taking into account the newness of the team. And, although they have been getting decent results, this came out of the blue! (Let's face it, Vancouver was pitstops) Leading a dry qualy. until the very last minute is quite impressive. Wonder how much is due to team evolution or if they found something in setup. Jourdain is pretty far back though, so that makes me curious. Very interesting. Great to see him up there at the top.

[FCYTravis]

Dinger's starting to show exactly why he blitzed the field in Atlantics last year :thumbup:

[Spicoli]

Dinger is the real deal. :thumbup:

[Cmndr Keen]

Man oh man I hope he makes it through the start ok.

[Hink]

I guess he didin't.

.

He drove a very good race today. That penalty was a close call.

[RTKar]

The penalty sucked.

[mueber]

The penalty sucked.

Kirmit had every reason to be upset, but the penalty was too harsh. It should have been one of those, "We are keeping an eye on you." warnings.

[Cmndr Keen]

The Champ Car site still has Dinger in 5th. Looks like Russo was able to make his case regarding the pitstop penalty.

[spinner26]

Dinger got donged for a bold move not many rookies would attempt. Penalty was to much for a racing incident but hey when the circus clown is in charge why should we expect less? Russo showed Daly after the pit stop he was correct and there had better not be another penalty. He showed the bulliten issued by Chief Clown.

[Forza Lancia]

I agree that AJ's penalty was excessive, and I hope it doesn't discourage him, but his passing attempt really was pretty optimistic. As far as I could tell, he braked impossibly late, had all four wheels locked up, and never would have made it around the corner if Sebastien hadn't been there for him to bounce off.

[rabbit]

From Robin Miller: http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/12697/

.....He wasn't being careless on Lap 42, he was going for FIRST PLACE in the hairpin, the essence of this exercise, and got penalized for something that was clearly one of those many racing incidents that happens every Sunday.

To have his race ruined by such a poor judgment call isn't right and is why the drivers in this series have ZERO respect for the stewards of the races.

Especially considering he got speared in the first turn of the first lap, fell back to last place, and nobody was penalized.

Maybe he got nailed because he's just a rookie and the point leader of the most visible team in the paddock was involved. Hopefully not. Hopefully it was just a horse**** call......

[JLMannin]

Carl Haas and his drivers have always been the most effective whiners in CART.

[RHR_Fan]

According to that RM article, there's no RA. But it's still only (almost) September.

And AJ got royally screwed.

~Nicole