Just got back from the media availability at The Mile. Danica Patrick and Scott Dixon met with the media and they both come across as quality people. Danica said she has put last week's incident behind her. Anytime a race ends poorly there is frustration and it takes 2-3 hours to dissapate. Said her reaction last week had nothing to do with with prior incidents with the same driver - she deals with any incident individually and there is no built up hostility against him or any other driver - unless there would continue to be a trend. Said it is a tough sport, and if you don't have that type of fight in you - you won't go very far. She said she loves racing in Milwaukee as she likes the track and it is always good to be close so she can go home for a few days.
Ok, that being said - from a guy's non-work related point of view? Hubba-Hubba. She is beautiful. I knew going into it that she was small, but when she walked in I was a bit surprised - she is tiny! I saw her and thought sure, she looks ok, but she is one of those women that the more you look at her the more you just think - WOW! I could sit through one of her press conferences any day!
Next up was Scott Dixon. We had a chance to interview him the last time he was in town and it was good to see that my impressions from the first time around were accurate. He seems like a genuinely good guy. Very easy going, friendly, happy go lucky type of guy. Likes to have fun with the media as opposed to just sitting there asking the questions. He said things have been great since winning Indy, and has fielded calls from all over including one from the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Said things aren't different since winning, but acknowledges that more people back home in New Zealand will recognize him when he goes home so it will be much different.
Both drivers spoke about how the shorter, wider track will lend itself to a lot more passing, more movements and lead changes. Admitted that those combinations along with some very young drivers will lead to more incidents. Also, as mentioned above, there will be 27 cars on the track this year as opposed to 18 from last year.
I have covered quite a few games over the years and it is always amusing when you have a major event because it isn't just the local media, the national and even worldwide media comes in as well. Not having much experience with racing I thought it would be best to just sit back and observe how the racing media handles things. It didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dave Kallmann is one of the best. I thought his questions were far better and brought out better answers from the drivers.
We will have video of teh press conference up before long - should be an interesting and exciting weekend at The Mile!