The Paddock Pulse: Feb. 11 Edition

It's been an eventful day here at Pop Off Valve. I started the morning with my reappraisal of the DeltaWing car and finished it up by accidentally insulting Nate Ryan of USA Today, who took exception to a tweet I wrote saying that the racing media should be appalled at the rush to place Danica Patrick on a stock car pedestal (Nate, of course, is one of the rapidly-shrinking number of classically-trained professionals left in racing media centers these days, so I don't blame him for taking it personally... also, I apologized to him later).

My misunderstanding with Mr. Ryan almost made me forget about the DeltaWing unveiling yesterday, an event that by now has reduced IndyCar fans to either panicked seizures or uncontrollable weeping. My thoughts, of course, are right here for you to read. The sheer avalanche of response from other blogs, of course, would probably take up several pages of links, so I'll just list a sampling of them for your perusal:

• Four Chassis Enter, One Chassis Leaves [Drive Hard, Turn Left]
• The Delta Wing thing arrives [My Name Is IRL]
• Ode to the Penis car… [So… here’s what I’m thinking…]
• Bill and Jeff get Monster Air, Owners Line Up at Kool-Aid Barrel [pressdog.com]
• My Delta Wing Opinion: 24 hours later [Planet-IRL]
• Delta Wing: The Ambiguously Gay Indy Car (Not That There Is Anything Wrong With That) [Defender of the IRL Weblog]
• Ask the Expert: On ... what else? DeltaWing [The Indianapolis Star]

Of course, the most epic of these blog posts by a long shot was posted by Roy Hobbson over at The Silent Pagoda. I may have coined the phrase "DeltaWang" in a fit of Twitter snark, but Roy's magnum opus, "How The Delta Wing Came To Be: A Nearly Verbatim Recounting," takes it all to a totally different, hilariously on-point new level. Sadly, soon after he posted it, IndyCar's official website removed all links to the Pagoda from their pages - reminding us that even good-natured snark can get you in hot water when you're connected to an official media arm.

Final Thoughts

For those who are sick of the DeltaWing already, you will want to head over to George Phillips' Oilpressure blog to read a guest-contributed article called "The Junk Formula" by Tom Gahr. Well worth your while.