Triple Crown Motorsports Recap

I had to take a few days to digest the 3 big races past Sunday, which included celebrations of my favorite IndyCar driver winning the Indy 500, as well as just enjoying the nice weather on the Jersey Shore.  Well, here's the recap of each race.

MONACO GRAND PRIX (F1)
Nobody had a better weekend than Nico Rosberg, who led every practice, won the pole, led every lap of the Monaco GP and win the historical event.  The only thing Rosberg didn't accomplish was having the fastest lap, which was achieved by 3-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.  In a race that had 3 safety-car periods including a big wreck involving Felipe Massa, Rosberg held every challenge and won the event.  This also gives Vettel a bigger lead in the point standings as competitors Fernando Alonso finished 7th and Kimi Raikkonen placed 10th.  The Formula One series heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix on June 9th.

INDIANAPOLIS 500
The race I was waiting for all month of May had come and gone, and it proved to be one of the best Indy 500s in history!  And this was not because Tony Kanaan won the race, but it was for everything else as well.  Tony Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar Champion, led 8 out of 11 races at Indy, but never won, due to late cautions or wrecks, but this year, he has a very fast car and was able to compete with Andretti Autosport drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay, Carlos Munoz & Marco Andretti all event for the lead.  This race set records for most lead changes (68, doubled from 2012), leaders (14) and average speed (over 187 mph).  By the halfway point, there was no favorite because with the new cars, it's difficult to get away from the field like in the past.  This was follow the leader, but draft the right way and find a way to win.  That's what TK did with 3 laps to go before 3-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti crashed into the outside wall of turn 2.  Rookie Carlos Munoz impressed everyone by starting 2nd and finishing 2nd in the event, which also was his first IndyCar series event.  The IndyCar series sees a first this weekend, a doubleheader weekend in Detroit, 2 races in a weekend, 1 each day, gonna be exciting for sure.

COCA-COLA 600 (NASCAR)
The nightcap featured another race to remember and that is NASCAR's longest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600.  The race started off clean in which was dominated by Matt Kenseth & Kasey Kahne, but on Lap 126, the camera cable above the racetrack fell, damaging 3 cars and injuring 10 fans.  This prompted NASCAR to red-flag the race for over a half-hour.  When race resumed, the racing was clean until the last 100 laps in which we saw 6 caution flags including a big wreck which took out Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin & Aric Almirola.  Kevin Harvick used a pitstop strategy with 11 laps to go and was able to hold off Kahne for the win at Charlotte.  This race did damage to 10 of the top-15 drivers in point standings as some drivers had engine woes (Kyle Busch & Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) and accidents (Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle), but other drivers like Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart & Carl Edwards came out fine.  This weekend, NASCAR heads to the Monster Mile for some beating-and-banging at Dover.