Morning Update From Mid-Ohio

Practice 3 for the Izod IndyCar Series just concluded. There was very little on track action as the session was marred by three red flag periods. See AR1 reporter and global icon Tim Wohlford's practice wrap in Hot News for more.

Speaking of Tim, he had the pleasure of camping out here at Mid-Ohio last evening and confirm for you that it rained much of the night. The track is still drying in places and many of the drivers complained during the session that the track had zero grip. Depending on how the track changes before 2 p.m., this should make for an interesting qualifying session this afternoon. One thing I noticed driving into Mid-Ohio (yes, I resisted the temptation to camp) was that banners advertising the race, displayed a generic picture of a prototype sports car. However, it should be noted: there are no prototype sports cars racing here this weekend.

Also, IndyCar is the headline event, as the weekend is the Honda Indy 200. Wouldn't it not be wise to showcase say, last year's race winning Indy car, Scott Dixon's #9 Target Honda? Sure, one might say that such an oversight is small. However, I imagine the omission is not an oversight to Target.

Plus, the excuse that it couldn't be done or costs too much money is lame. Recall, Eddie Gossage showed everyone a promotional banner could be made in very short order. And IndyCar should look to correct such oversights to provide maximum exposure to the sport and its sponsors.

U.S. F2000 race one ended early this morning with Neil Alberico taking his fourth win of the season. The top two in the championship Scott Hargrove and Danilo Estrela were running second and third before making contact with one another to bring out the caution that ended the race. RC Emerson and Jason Wolfe both got their first career podiums after the contact with Florian Latrorre finishing fourth after starting fourteenth.

Michael Epps got a top five with Dalton Kellett finishing sixth. Henrik Furuseth was seventh with Luca Forgeois eighth ahead of Wyatt Gooden and Jesse Lazare. Hargrove finished seventeenth with Estrela falling to twenty-fifth. Pole-sitter for race one Garett Grist retired after six laps finishing twenty-seventh. Race two for U.S. F2000 will be at 3:25 p.m. ET today with race three at 9:10 a.m. ET. Sunday.

The Pirelli World Challenge race starts in about 15 minutes. Check in to AR1 for updates throughout the day.

Brian C. reporting from Mid-Ohio