Kaenon Polarized

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Jetty Seaweed G12) had another top finish, taking fifth in the very physical Edmonton Honda 300 road race. He currently sits at fifth in the overall season point standings.

Danica Patrick (Pino Black G12) used well-earned momentum from her Indy 500 finish a week earlier, to take her best finish of the season — 2nd place at the Texas Motor Speedway under the lights.

According to Racer.com; “In one of the most competitive performances of her career so far, Andretti Autosport driver Patrick emerged as polesitter Briscoe’s main rival in the second half of the race, but the Penske driver was able to fend her off and clinch his first win of 2010. Briscoe said his duel with Patrick for the win at the beginning of the final stint was a key part of that fun: “Danica got by us and I didn’t want to make any aggressive moves and block. I gained some momentum on the next lap, used the push-to-pass and was able to pass her out of Turn 4 and into Turn 1. She gave us a real run for our money tonight. It was fun racing side-by-side with her.

“Patrick made her final stop a lap earlier than Briscoe and momentarily swept into the lead as her rival got back up to speed, but she could not hang on for long before Briscoe inched past to reclaim first place. As they hit traffic, Briscoe started to build an advantage again, eventually winning by 1.4 seconds.

“It was a good weekend last weekend in Indy and it was a good weekend here in Texas,” mused Patrick. “Sometimes the little victories that I have throughout the season are not necessarily obvious on the track. Maybe they’re in other aspects of what I’m doing––winning little victories here and there to get everything in line to perform from top to bottom on race day. I’ve been working hard all season. It’s just really nice to have a result to show how hard I’ve been working and how hard the team has been working as well.”

Fellow Kaenon driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, (Klay Black G12) finished well at a respectable 7th, wearing a customized carbon fiber cast on his right wrist to protect his surgically repaired thumb after tearing ligaments in last Sunday’s Indy 500.

Danica Patrick, wearing Pino, Black, G12 lens, has endured a rough year so far and rolled into qualifying and testing at her favorite race, the Indy 500, after a miserable month of scrutiny both from the media and fans. However, she stuck to her guns and converted the energy into a strong and respectable finish at the “Grand Daddy of Them All,” with a well-driven 6th place finish. After qualifying poorly at 23rd on the grid, she drove a smart, steady and often brave 500 miles for her second top-10 finish of the season.

Driving for a crowd of over 350,000 fans in attendance for the 94th running of this speed classic, Patrick was one of a record four women in this year’s Indy 500, along with Sarah Fisher and rookies Simona De Silvestro of Switzerland and Ana Beatriz of Brazil.

“I’m very happy with the result, and the reasons we got it were that our pit stops rocked and we had a perfect strategy,” she said. “We did struggle a little bit in the early going” and “almost went a lap down” to the leaders, Patrick said. But she gradually climbed through the field. “I’m really glad that yellow [flag] came out at the end, because we were cutting it real close on fuel,” she said.

Danica also narrowly missed a spectacular last-lap crash which involved teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay, wearing Klay, Black, G12 lens, struggled this month for speed, but found it on Race Day driving most of the race at or near fifth. Then saw his good race nearly turn into horrible nightmare as just before the finish when he ran out of gas and was subsequently clipped from behind by Mike Conway. Already driving with torn ligaments in his thumb suffered in an earlier Pit Lane incident, Hunter-Reay was nearly beheaded as Conway’s car was sent airborne.

In what is being described as one of the most spectacular crashes in Indy racing’s history, Conway’s #24 car rolled over the back tire of back wheel of Hunter-Reay’s #37 car, which served as a catapult and flung the Indy car into the air, causing a back-flip, and a slam into the high barrier, eventually landing back on the track in a heap.

Contributing to the Mike Conway crash is that his speed was at least 20 miles per hour faster than everyone else at the time. Most of the leaders were running on fumes and slowing down to conserve fuel in the final laps. Conway was gassed up and making passes left and right, once of which caught the tire of Hunter-Reay.

Both Conway and Hunter-Reay suffered injuries, but the fact that anyone walked away from the horrific crash is a miracle. Best wishes and a speedy recovery to all involved.