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A wonderful, whacky weekend of racing

Rosberg, Kanaan and Harvick. Red flags and spilled milk. What a weekend of auto racing.

Race winner Tony Kanaan celebrates

Race winner Tony Kanaan celebrates

Jay Alley

The month of May is coming to a close. All three crown jewel events around the world went off without a hitch…well, almost.

The day kicked off with what could be considered another classic Monaco Grand Prix. Young German pilot Nico Rosberg took home a win 30 years to the day his father, Keke, won in Monte Carlo.

The race was not exactly easy for the pole sitter, and eventual winner, as a number of accidents on track caused both a red flag period and safety cars.

Race winner Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 celebrates on the podium
Race winner Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 celebrates on the podium

Photo by: XPB Images

Pastor Maldonado took a shunt in his Williams Formula One ride when he, and Max Chilton made contact on the 46th circuit heading into Tabac, sending the Williams into the barrier and pulling safety materials onto the track.

This caused a red-flag and restart on track.

In addition, Felipe Massa had a carbon copy accident to his practice accident heading into St. Devote, which sent him to the hospital for precautionary measures.

With today’s news of Kamui Kobayashi taking to the wheel of an old Ferrari F1 car in preparation for an exhibition race, one can only assume that the Scuderia are always in search of a replacement for the hot-and-cold Brazilian.

Marshals tend to the crash of Pastor Maldonado, Williams FW35 which stopped the race
Marshals tend to the crash of Pastor Maldonado, Williams FW35 which stopped the race

Photo by: XPB Images

The race win was only Rosberg’s second of his career, and a popular win to kick off the day of racing.

One can only call this year’s Indianapolis 500 an instant classic. Maybe it was the record breaking number of lead changes, or maybe it was the competitiveness of the whole field?

I might take a lot of flack for saying this, but I liken this year’s 500 to the 1998 Daytona 500, which saw Dale Earnhardt finally conquer that race in 20 years of trying.

Why?

Because Tony Kanaan driving his KV Racing machine was finally able to drink the milk, and kiss the century old yard of bricks by winning the biggest Indy Car race of the year.

The 2004 Indy Car Champ took the lead on the final restart, as five drivers jockeyed for position heading into turn one, but it was Kanaan who took command before Dario Franchitti got off line and hit the barrier. Sure it was anticlimactic, but if we all recall Earnhardt won under caution as well…

Tears flowed down Kanaan’s face as he climbed from his car, and almost every team member saluted the winning driver as he made his way to victory lane. That is pretty special if you ask me.

The day ended with NASCAR’s marathon race, the Coke 600. One-hundred miles longer than any other race on the NASCAR schedule, this one was not without controversy.

Only 130 laps into the event, one of FOX Sport’s gimmick cameras had a wire failure, which caused the drive wire of the overhanging camera to land on the track.

Race winner Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

As the field tore past the dangling wire, many cars made contact with it, and caused a fair amount of damage. Kyle Busch had his right front fender torn apart while Marcos Ambrose severed a brake line.

FOX released that four fans were injured by the falling wire, but no serious injuries were reported.

NASCAR gave teams a chance to work on their cars, and fix any damage caused by the incident during a 27-munte red flag period, but this only added to what is already considered a marathon event.

In the end, Kevin Harvick took the win as Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch chased him down.

All in all, it was a whacky and weird day, with popular winners and odd occurrences. But that is why we all love racing.

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