Detroit Sunday Notebook

– Thumb, my a**? Rumor in the garage area has it that Alex Tagliani replaced Enrique Bernoldi for reasons other than a "sore thumb." Bernoldi has no splint on the thumb, and sources indicate that this switch has been in the works for a while. Bernoldi is currently 20th in points. Tagliani finished 22nd when he retired on lap 54 with mechanical woes, but not before posting the sixth-fastest lap of the race. "After evaluating the whole thing, Conquest Racing deserves to be in the top five in the IndyCar Series right now."

– The ALMS series is to be commended. Not only did they have a great race yesterday, but the fan-friendly teams left their cars out for the fans to look at / drool on / fondle. In some cases, the fans were even able to crawl into the cars.

– The "whispered" attendance figure for today's race is 40,000, perhaps lower than last year. No one would go on record with a more definite figure.

– ESPN finally got the memo that the current IRL is a merged series, and the old CART/CCWS records are now part of the IRL. Its graphics noted that this was Wilson's fifth win, which includes four previous wins in CART.

– "It's a driver problem." That was the terse comment when Tomas Scheckter dropped out after snapping both halfshafts early in the race. Belle Isle's road course transitions between cement and asphalt, and throttle control over those transitions is very important. Scheckter also snapped his halfshafts at Indy, too.

– According to reports, Al Unser Jr. is doing well. He's been sober for over a year and a half, and his life is going well. He was at Belle Isle this weekend, working as a track consultant.

– Office pool results: Milka dropped out of the race on lap 46 with "handling" issues (uh, yeah). Marco didn't crash, but dropped out on lap 81 with mechanical difficulties, and was never a factor all day. Tim Wohlford reporting from Detroit