Talk:2007 Indianapolis 500

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Page Looking Good[edit]

I have a few thoughts about the work so far, it's looking good.
- I moved the quals chrono chart to its own header down below the individual days, right before the starting grid section. That way we can have all four days included in one chart, and have it flow top-to-bottom relevant with info, without skipping back up and back down to look at the days. I think it's best if we only include the day's quals results (1-11, 12-22, 23-33) for each of the day's results, since that's the only cars that matter on that day.
- Also, the quals chrono chart is great (thanks by the way), but it looks a lot better when it matches the format of the rest of the tables on the page. It kind of didn't match the rest of the page until now, so it looked better when it was rewritten (thanks by the way). And then I further tweaked the script slightly to make the color match.

Thanks; it looks very nice now. One quick comment: should we label the two "time" columns (one time of day, one duration of the qualifying attempt) differently to distinguish them somehow? If so, how? Chuck 00:18, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

- Going to need some help the weekend of the race to fill in the information. I won't be around to work on this page at all after next weekend, so someone will have to take over. There wasn't a lot of help out there during the first week of practice, and I had to do most of the work (which is fine), but hopeflly during race weekend, there'll be more help to go around.
- One last note, that during the race weekend, a little bit of vandalism watch should be in order. The open-wheel feud is alive and well on the internet still, just need to take some precautions. Doctorindy 19:08, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Qualification Chronology[edit]

I'll be updating the qualification chronology here as it becomes available. Feel free to use it as a starter for updating the article. --Mycroft.Holmes 22:22, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. I see you've got them going back to 1996 too, so I'll try to add the older ones as I have time. Chuck 01:12, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

With the exception of 1994 and 1995, I have the chronologies all the way back to 1967.--Mycroft.Holmes 01:15, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is just my own personal preference, but I'd rather see the "Result" column left-justfied.--Mycroft.Holmes 02:05, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree - I think it looks better that way. Done. Chuck 02:50, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Flags and car number colors - I think it might be nice if we left justified the names, and added the flags/car # colors to the table, just as we have for the rest of the charts. Just a thought. Doctorindy 17:33, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Be bold! :) Chuck 22:47, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dario Franchitti flag[edit]

It's getting rather tiresome the way people have been changing Dario's (and others') flags it seems everyday. There doesn't seem to be any consensus of which one to use. But...According to this official picture...of Dario himself, his driving uniform has a flag of Scotland. http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/photo/build_photo_ims.php?photo_id=52375&size=med If Dario thinks of himself as being "from Scotland," then people should quit saying he's from "Great Britian." My 2¢ Doctorindy 18:26, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's a discussion going on at Wikipedia Talk:WikiProject Motorsport#British vs English/Scottish/Welsh/etc. Chuck 18:47, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is not just the US media which has Franchitti down as a Scot. So does the BBC website. His nationality is extremely well-known, and many wonderful references can be given, per official policy: WP:VERIFY. --Mais oui! 04:46, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

HDTV[edit]

I added a short piece about the race being broadcast in HD for the first time. Normally, a race in HD is not a big deal, but with all of the complaints from people about the 500 not being in HD, I felt it was something that needed to be put in. Thunderstix33 03:25, 22 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

~~I don't understand; I'm watching it right now on an HD channel, and it's not in HD.~~ Never mind, it switched itself into HD. How odd. --Brandon Dilbeck 22:49, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Time & speed for incomplete qualifying attempts[edit]

The qualification results [1] lists times & speeds of completed laps for incomplete qualification attempts. Why shouldn't we include these in the qualifying chronology? Chuck 15:31, 22 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that cumulative time for incomplete runs should be reported. Traditionally, they aren't. Take a look at the official daily trackside reports for 1967 as an example. However, lap times for incomplete runs generally reported. Although I don't currently have a report which dumps the lap times, my site does store it. If you can give me a day, I'll give you a link which will report lap times. --Mycroft.Holmes 12:46, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Narrative[edit]

I noticed that there is a lot of good tabular data about the race, but not much detail about what happened during the race. The practice and qualification days have more narrative than the race itself. --rogerd 02:19, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If it's not done soon, I'll put something together this week. Doctorindy 15:18, 30 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Race Speeds[edit]

Traditionally, race speeds are reported for all drivers finishing on the lead lap. Here are the race speeds for 2007:

1 Dario Franchitti 0.0000 9843.5608 151.774 2 Scott Dixon 0.3610 9843.9218 151.769 3 Helio Castroneves 1.8485 9845.4093 151.746 4 Sam Hornish Jr. 4.6324 9848.1932 151.703 5 Ryan Briscoe 5.2109 9848.7717 151.694 6 Scott Sharp 9.3470 9852.9078 151.630 7 Tomas Scheckter 11.3823 9854.9431 151.599 8 Danica Patrick 12.1789 9855.7397 151.587 9 Davey Hamilton 15.4116 9858.9724 151.537 10 Vitor Meira 17.6991 9861.2599 151.502 11 Jeff Simmons 19.7119 9863.2727 151.471 12 Tony Kanaan 21.4339 9864.9947 151.445 13 Michael Andretti 35.1235 9878.6843 151.235

I'd add it myself, but I hate editing wikitables.--Mycroft.Holmes 12:38, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Time Diffs[edit]

Traditionally, time differences are not reported for drivers not on the lead lap. I guess if we're gonna report that, we should put "n laps + " in front of the time diff for drivers not on the lead lap. However, I'm not really sure exactly what that means. Personally, if I can't derive a race time from the number reported, I'd rather not see it. --Mycroft.Holmes 12:42, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think, as we did in other charts, is only show times for cars on the lead lap. The rest are "+1 lap" etc. Also, I think some of those laps down indications are wrong....someone needs to do a proof-read of the standings. Doctorindy 15:19, 30 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unique Cars[edit]

This year featured a car partially sponsored by donations made directly from people active in the Linux open source operating system community. It featured a picture of Tux, the Linux penguin, on the nose cone. The car was the first to crash out of the race.

National flags[edit]

I noticed there is somewhat of an edit war going on about what flag icon to use next to Dario Franchitti (Scotland vs. UK) there was a similar problem when Dan Wheldon (England vs. UK) won it in 2005. Even though Franchitti associates with Scotland, his nationality and passport is British. If you are going to put the flag of Scotland next to Franchitti, then you should put the flag of Ohio next to Sam Hornish. --rogerd 23:30, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Grid[edit]

Quarterfinals			Semifinals			Final

			1	Helio Castroneves (Penske)	7.6770
4	Scott Sharp (RLR)	8.466		Scott Sharp (RLR)	stalled
5	Scott Dixon (Ganassi)	11.650					Helio Castroneves (Penske)	8.335
							Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske)	8.888
			2	Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske)	8.4471
3	Vitor Meira (Panther)	10.095		Vitor Meira (Panther)	11.7395
6	Dario Franchitti (AGR)	11.773

Friday May 25, 2007 - Checkers/Rally's Pit Stop Challenge[edit]

Team Penske won the 31st annual pit stop contest, their record tenth overall victory in the event. The teams of Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. (both Penske entries) met in the finals with Castroneves and his chief mechanic Rick Rinaman winning the $100,000 first prize after an 8.335-second pit stop.

Quarterfinals

Scott Sharp (Rahal Letterman Racing) defeated Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing)
Vitor Meira (Panther Racing) defeated Dario Franchitti (Andretti Green Racing)
Bye - Helio Castroneves (Team Penske)
Bye - Sam Hornish Jr. (Team Penske)

Semifinals

Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) defeated Scott Sharp (Rahal Letterman Racing)
Sam Hornish Jr. (Team Penske) defeated Vitor Meira (Panther Racing)

Finals

Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) defeated Sam Hornish Jr. (Team Penske)

Split practice/qualifications into separate page?[edit]

Given the length of this page (and likely final length of the 2008 Indianapolis 500 page), I'm inclined to think the information about practice and qualifications (sections 3 through 8 of the current page) should be split out into a separate page (2007 Indianapolis 500 practice and qualifications)--see WP:SIZE--and replaced here with a brief prose summary of the highlights of practice and qualifications (with a "Main article" link to the page with the full details). I think most readers will be interested in the details of the race itself, and right now you have to scroll down quite a bit (or click on the subsection in the table of contents) to get to that. Thoughts? Chuck (talk) 00:13, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just realized there's a template to draw attention to this discussion from the main pages. Chuck (talk) 22:42, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reply: I think having everything on one page (similar to Formula One race pages) is a better idea. GeoffEighinger (talk) 03:38, 17 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. SInce we didn't do it last year, we shouldn't start this year.209.20.219.145 (talk) 19:33, 26 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Don't Split One page is perfectly fine. Tavix (talk) 04:21, 29 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]