HAIKU TUESDAY: The Rising Sun sets over IndyCar

Usually I get snarky in these intros to Haiku Tuesday, but considering the response of the Japanese fans at Motegi for the IZOD IndyCar Series, I have to be serious and give them all the credit in the world.

Sure, they were head over heels for Takuma Sato and Hideki Mutoh. After all, they were the hometown heroes. But the fans' response went much further than nationalism. Japanese fans LOVE IndyCar racing. In fact, as a group they love IndyCar more than America or Brazil does. Their passion was not dampened a whit by the national disasters that struck their country over the summer months.

Maybe INDYCAR doesn't come back to Motegi, but I hope they DO go back to Japan. Maybe they will race at Okuyama or Suzuka, or maybe they might try a street race in Tokyo (can you imagine how cool that would be if they could pull that off?). But it's too strong a market, too passionate a fan base, too fascinating a culture to abandon forever.

In honor of the great Japanese fans, here are this week's links. 私は日本人の友人を尊重

Tail end of the field
Because nobody DNF'ed.
A lucky dive-bomb.

Scott Dixon beat Will
And did it on a road course.
Miracle worker.

SeaBass punts Ryan
And gets zero penalties.
Discretion? Mais oui!

Helio's late pass
And TK's pit road speeding
Deserved penalties.

Danica's concerns
About the food she could eat
Included her foot?

Say sayonara
To the fans at the Twin Ring.
Unmatched devotion.

Randy is tweeting!
For how long? Boneheads abound.
His own block party.

Ovals from now on.
Or as the die-hards call them,
"Our prayer circles."

If Barnhart does go,
With whom do they replace him?
PLEASE, NOT CHARLIE SHEEN.