Jeff had an awesome practice session today.
At one point he made it a 3 car wide practice lap as he was passing other cars. That got everyone excited.
Jeff ended up with the 7th fastest practice lap this morning at 214.152 MPH.
I never get tired of hearing these engines whine on a 10 percent ethanol blend. If you haven’t heard them, here’s a sound clip that starts while Jeff is still in the pit and for about a minute after he peals out: 
Practice Laps (1 min MP3)
Here’s a very confident looking race car driver.
This is Jeff Simmons about to get in his car for some practice laps this morning.
I talked to Jeff at yesterday’s 7-11 ethanol pump promotion. He says he’s had a lot of luck here at this track and can’t wait to get out on it. Well he’s about to. You can listen to my interview with Jeff here: Jeff Simmons Interview (3 min MP3)
Here’s the Rahal-Letterman Team Ethanol car being moved out to the pits for this morning’s practice session.
These guys have been working very hard on the car and now it’s time to see how it’s running.
This track has been good for driver Jeff Simmons and we hope that luck will continue this weekend.
As you hopefully know by now, the Indy Racing League is in it’s conversion year of moving to ethanol as its fuel. This year all the vehicles are running on a 10 percent blend and next year it’ll be 100 percent.
There’s a lot of ethanol branding taking place at all the fueling facilities at all the tracks that host Indy races like this one here in Chicago.
Here’s home today and tomorrow here at the Chicagoland Speedway media center. The place is full today.
Of course we’ve got 2 races today after our practice sessions which are going on right now. First up will be the SK Hand Tool 200 and then the Chicagoland 100.
We’ve also got some special activities taking place this evening which I’ll be attending and writing about. I went out and took some photos as Jeff Simmons and the #17 Ethanol car went out for practice. I’ll post several of them now and then see what else I can find.
At yesterday’s 7-11 ethanol pump promotion I got to talk with a couple of the people who were at the head of the line that was waiting to fill up.
Joe Davis (in the red truck) says that ethanol is good for the environment and he’s glad to see it. You can listen to my interview with Joe here: Joe Davis Interview (1 min MP3)
Besides Joe, I spoke to Eleanor, who was in one of these first cars in line. Eleanor is happy to be supporting Illinois corn growers and is especially happy that ethanol-blended fuel is cleaner for the air. She says that’s important to her and her grand children. You can listen to my interview with Eleanor here: Interview with Eleanor (1 min MP3)
Both Joe and Eleanor were also happy to buy their gas for $2.20/gallon today too!
Local Iowa corn growers, Bob Fitzer (l) and Jim Robbins (r) were on hand for the ethanol pump promotion yesterday.
I interviewed them together. They made a point of saying how important it is to them to find a new market for their commodity and get the price up since there’s been little change in price for many, many years. They’re very happy to have a new use for corn which will help make use of the huge surpluses American corn growers have produced each year, including last year and they can grow a lot more if demand outpaces supply. This should alleviate concerns people have over turning corn into fuel.
You can listen to my interview with Bob & Jim here: Bob Fitzer/Jim Robbins Interview (4 min MP3)
Kids of all kinds love the IRL cars.
This little guy is no exception. He was at the wheel and happy to be there.
Today’s 7-11 ethanol pump promotion was a good one. I’ve got more interviews and pictures to share later. Right now I’ve got to head out to the Chicagoland Speedway and get checked in.
One of several Indy Racing League drivers at today’s ethanol pump promotion in Romeoville, IL was Tony Kanaan, Team 7-11. He had to be there since we were at a 7-11.
Tony was certainly in demand for autographs and interviews. I was able to get a couple minutes with him. He’s from Brazil and is proud of how significant a role ethanol plays in the fuel industry there and says it’s about time we got on board with it here in the United States too.
Tony believes that the environmental benefits of using ethanol are huge and when it comes to performance in your car, he just shrugs and says to look at how well the Indy cars are running this year on only a 10 percent blend.
We had a lot of young IRL fans out here today too like this little guy getting a high five from Tony.
You can listen to my interview with Tony here: Tony Kanaan Interview (2 min MP3)
Getting things moving this morning at the 7-11 pump promotion was Rahal-Letterman driver Jeff Simmons (front) and 7-11 Manager for Gasoline and Environmental Compliance, Scott Johnson.
They drove in to the pumps in an Indy Car 2-seater.
Before they got in the car I interviewed Scott about 7-11’s involvement with ethanol. He handles the Great Lakes division as well as the northeast and says that they’re thrilled to be using and promoting ethanol. He would love to do promotions like this at many more stores around the country. Scott also says that the company is looking at E85 and studying how or when to start installing E85 pumps.
You can listen to my interview with Scott here: Scott Johnson Interview (4 min MP3)
