Well, the Indy Car season is finally underway following Ryan Briscoe’s win at St. Petersburg earlier this month. This weekend, Formula One and Indy Car will both take to the track again.

Formula One is in China where Brawn GP looks to make it three for three.

Indy Cars head to Long Beach to take Shoreline Drive in anger.

As for me, I am swamped with final projects and preparations for final exams. The next significant update will probably not come until after I have moved to Indianapolis in early May. Hopefully then I can provide a little better insight, too.

Graham Rahal won the 2008 GP of St. Petersburg. The race was his very first indy car start.

Rahal looks to defend his 2008 win as he put the No. 02 McDonald’s car on the pole for Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Rahal will start next to his teammate of last year, Justin Wilson, who is driving for Dale Coyne Racing in ‘09. 

The Honda GP of St. Petersburg gets underway tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. (ET).

Starting Line-Up:

1. (02) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.4110, 103.828, Firestone Fast Six

2. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.4604, 103.746, Firestone Fast Six

3. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.5307, 103.629, Firestone Fast Six

4. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.5699, 103.564, Firestone Fast Six

5. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.6927, 103.361, Firestone Fast Six

6. (3) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.7368, 103.289, Firestone Fast Six

7. (34) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.6952, 103.357, Segment 2

8. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.9891, 102.875, Segment 2

9. (2) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.1344, 102.638, Segment 2

10. (23) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.3038, 102.364, Segment 2

11. (4) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.4733, 102.090, Segment 2

12. (24) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, no time, no speed, Segment 2

13. (06) Robert Doornbos, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.7934, 103.196, Segment 1

14. (21) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.0223 (102.821), Segment 1

15. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.8268 (103.141), Segment 1

16. (13) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.0601 (102.759), Segment 1

17. (14) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 1:02.9132 (102.999), Segment 1

18. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.3652 (102.264), Segment 1

19. (27) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.3300 (102.321), Segment 1

20. (5) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 1:03.4520 (102.124), Segment 1

21. (98) Stanton Barrett, Dallara-Honda, 1:06.5934 (97.307), Segment 1

22. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 1:04.2416 (100.869), Segment 1

This weekend brings an end to this long, dreary time known as the off-season. 

Tomorrow morning, the Indy Car Series will take to the streets of St. Petersburg to mark the official start to the 2009 season. And what an off-season it has been.

Franchitti’s back. Rahal-Letterman is gone, with the exception of perhaps the Indy 500. Will Power moves to Penske. Castroneves moves to the penitentiary, potentially. In other words, things have changed quite a bit since Australia. Not to mention Chicagoland.

Castroneves will be sitting out at least the first round of ‘09 as he presents his case before a Miami courtroom to plead his innocence in tax evasion charges. In his stead is Will Power. Power came on strongly in his rookie season in the IRL last year. The captain took note, and gave him the seat. Power, until hearing word from Penske Racing, was without a ride for the ‘09 season after his seat at KV Racing lost its funding.

Oriol Servia is out of KV Racing this year, leaving him rideless. Mario Moraes will fill the seat at KV. (Credit: Zach Wenzel Stock Photo)

Also suffering from KV’s loss of funding, Oriol Servia is forced to sit on the outside looking in. Mario Moraes, who drove for Dale Coyne Racing in 2008, will step into Servia’s seat. A second car fielded by KV is possible later in the season, but looking unlikely.

Loss of funding seems to be the common theme across the series with the given state of the economy. Rahal-Letterman Racing also suffered a major loss of sponsorship and, consequently, is not planning on fielding a car in 2009. With RLR’s loss of Ethanol sponsorship,  ’08 Watkin’s Glen winner, Ryan Hunter-Reay, lost his seat. Up until last week, the American was without a ride even after signing a marketing deal with IZOD to showcase their clothing. Luckily for indy car, Hunter-Reay and IZOD, Tony George intervened and offered the second seat at Vision Racing to the rising star.

This weekend’s race will also be the first time Dario Franchitti has stepped into an indy car with points on the line since he won the championship in 2007.  Franchitti switches to Target Chip Ganassi’s indy car program following a rough 2008 in NASCAR. Franchitti’s arrival at TCGR started a musical chairs in the indy car paddock. Franchitti replaced Wheldon at Ganassi. Wheldon shuffled over to Panther Racing, booting Vitor Meira out of a seat. Meira ended up at AJ Foyt Racing, forcing Briton Darren Manning out. Manning has since been signed with Dreyer & Reinbold to team with Mike Conway. Manning’s seat at D&R may result in Indy 500 winner, Buddy Rice,  or Townsend Bell being without rides this season.

Also changing teams is Justin Wilson. Wilson lost his seat at Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and made the switch to Dale Coyne Racing. NHL has since picked up Dutchman Robert Doornbos. “Bobby D” is expected to have brought with him a large amount in sponsorship dollars. At the Homestead test in February, NHL brought three cars. Graham Rahal, Robert Doornbos, and (surprisingly) Milka Duno. Duno was thought to have brought millions in CITGO and Arctic Ice Energy Drink money. Since the test, it is thought her funding may have fallen through as no new announcements from the team, or Duno for that matter, have come.

The good news this year? An expanded schedule as the series will head to Toronto and Long Beach for the first time in 2009. A new team, Team 3G, will be on the grid with Stanton Barrett as its driver. Luczo-Dragon Racing will field a car with Indy Lights champion, Raphael Matos, as their driver for the entire season. The Indy Lights Series is strong and growing with a full-time field of 28 cars this year. Not to mention, the Indy 500 will begin its centenial era this year and will go through 2011. 

All in all, things could be better. But, given the global financial crisis, things could be a lot worse. Optimism is key in these hard times. Don’t lose it, especially when it comes to the passion of racing. Hell, imagine how bad it could be if there were still two series.

As you know, the closest finish in Indy Car Series history came up with Helio Castroneves taking the win, and Scott Dixon in second. The opposite being the case for the championship.

Dixon’s championship caps a stellar season that saw him capture seven victories, including the Indy 500.

Meanwhile, Team Penske’s Castroneves was the epitome of consistency with his eight 2nd place finishes.

Team Penske's Helio Castronever took the win over Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon in the closest finish in IRL history at Chicagoland. Dixon, however, would go on to claim the championship. (Photo: Zach Wenzel Stock Photo)

Other News and Notes:

HVM Racing to Field Indy Lights Entry: It was announced Tuesday that HVM Racing will be fielding at least two cars in the ‘09 Indy Lights season. The move comes following HVM’s owner, Keith Wiggins, recently announced the acquisition of the assets of Michael Crawford Motorsports.

The Michael Crawford Motorsports Indy Lights cars will be no more following HVM Racing's purchase of MCM's assets. (Photo: Zach Wenzel Stock Photo)

Michael Crawford will still play an instrumental role in the management and operations of HVM’s new Indy Lights program. Crawford will come on board as the team’s general manager.

The addition of an Indy Lights entry does not come as a surprise to most. HVM is in the midst of a planned expansion within the team that will most likely see the addition of an extra Indy Car in ‘09, as well.

Corvette Racing Saying Goodbye to GT1: Also announced Tuesday was that of Corvette Racing’s ‘09 plans. The team will be returning to ALMS competition next year, but in a slightly different light.

Corvette Racing will be running their GT1 Corvette C6R in just the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring and the Long Beach Grand Prix before heading to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. When they head to Le Mans, however, they will no longer be competing in the GT1 class. Instead the cars will be competing in the GT2 class. This is not just exclusive to Le Mans. Following their return to the states, Corvette Racing will become a full-time GT2 competitor for the remainder of the season. The team will also continue as a GT2 team into 2010, as well.

Corvette Racing will be leaving GT1 next year in hopes of dominating the GT2 class. (Photo: Zach Wenzel Stock Photo)

That’s all for now. Now that Indy Car is done for the year (with the exception of Australia), look for more news and notes on F-1 and ALMS.

Thanks for reading.

Zach

Indy Lights winner, Franck Perera, will partner Darren Manning to make his third Indy Car start at this weekend’s season finale in Chicago, it was announced today. Perera had started off the season driving for Conquest Racing at the Homestead and St. Petersburg rounds. The team dropped the Frenchman due to sponsorship issues.

Franck Perera (seen here in his Guthrie Racing Indy Lights ride) will partner Darren Manning at Foyt Racing in the Indy Car season finale at Chicago. (Photo: Zach Wenzel stock photo)

Perera’s test could give him the priority for a potential second seat at Foyt Racing for the entire 2009 schedule.

Indy Lights Sidenote: This weekend is also the season finale for the Indy Lights championship. The close points race between AFS-AGR driver, Raphael Matos, and Sam Schmidt Motorsports’s Richard Antinucci will come down to this weekend’s final race. Matos leads Antinucci by just three points.

I was originally planning on heading to this weekend’s race, but, due to a conflict in my academic schedule, cannot make the 12 hour drive to Joliet.

Dan Wheldon will be replaced at Target Chip Ganassi Racing by Dario Franchitti in 2009. (Photo: Zach Wenzel stock photo)

Last month, just before the Kentucky round of the Indy Car Series’ schedule, Robin Miller reported Dan Wheldon would be replaced at TCGR  by Andretti-Green’s Tony Kanaan. Kanaan reportedly saw something in Ganassi’s contract and backed out at the last minute to re-sign with AGR. Unfortunately, for Dan Wheldon, Kanaan’s backing out did not save his seat.

It was announced today that Dario Franchitti will take over Wheldon’s seat for the entire ‘09 Indy Car campaign to partner Scott Dixon.

Wheldon will then make the jump to Panther Racing to takeover for Vitor Meira effective in Surfer’s Paradise.

Meira’s outlooks for ‘09 are, at this time, unkown. One can only hope Meira’s pursuit of that elusive first win does not end this weekend in Chicago against his will.

With Dan Wheldon taking over Vitor Meira's Panther Racing seat, will Meira's Indy Car career end win-less? (Photo: Zach Wenzel stock photo)

Sorry again for my absence.  I have moved back to college, so I’ve been getting settled in and starting to fall back into a routine outside of the racetrack (unfortunately).  With all the chaos surrounding the move back, I haven’t found much time to blog. So, following today’s race, I’m trying to get back on it.

Without further adue, my thoughts and notes on today’s race at Belle Isle.

Broadcast Errors: ESPN/ABC’s broadcast team is simply terrible. The most obvious indication of this from today’s race was their information on injured Enrique Bernoldi’s replacement at Conquest, Alex Tagliani.  Scott Goodyear noted that Tagliani, during his tenure in CART/Champ Car, had scored a win at Mid-Ohio. That was the first piece of wrong information. Tagliani scored his only win at Road America in 2004 driving for Paul Gentilozzi’s Rocketsports program. The second piece was saying that Tagliani, after his win at Mid-Ohio, ran around the course naked with only a checkered flag to cover up the areas where the sun don’t shine. Anyone that has been following racing longer than the past five years knows immediately that was actually Patrick Carpentier when he drove for Gerry Forsythe.

Wilson’s Win: Justin Wilson put in a stellar drive today to win the last points-paying street race of the year. Newman/Haas/Lanigan needed a good finish from both cars to gain back some of the confidence that had been lost through the course of the year, and they came through. Unfortunately for NHL, the ABC broadcast team failed to give them as much credit as they deserved when they said it was NHL’s first trip to victory lane this year. What happened in St. Pete, then?

Justin Wilson finessed his way to his first win of his Indy Car career today in Detroit. (Photo: Zach Wenzel stock photo.)

On to Chicago: After last weekend’s dismal performance at Infineon and today’s 5th place finish, Scott Dixon finds his once commanding lead in the points championship down to just 30 points. Granted, that is still a long way to go for Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves, the amount is not insurmountable coming into the finale in Chicago.  Probably safe to say, Dixon will not finish in Chicago the same way he finished there a year ago. (Recall him running out of fuel exiting turn 4 with Dario Franchitti going high to take the win and the championship?)

Conspiracy Theorists, This is for You: Personally, I think the race was run cleanly and honestly by both championship contenders and IRL officials. But, we all know there are those out there who won’t buy it. So, for them, let’s add a little fuel to their fire. First of all; Wheldon’s spin. We all know Scott was trying to make fuel. Did teammate Dan Wheldon make an “error” to bring out a yellow to stretch the Kiwi’s mileage a bit? You can decide on that one for yourself.

Then, the IRL’s call for Castroneves to give up the lead to Wilson following Castroneves’s supreme block job. Usually, a warning is handed down before a judgement of that sort. This left Team Penske asking, “what gives?” Did it lose Castroneves the race? Absolutely not. Wilson was significantly quicker lap-to-lap than Castroneves. The only thing the IRL’s call did was make it so Castroneves could not delay the inevitable any longer.

Again, sorry about my absence as of late. Hopefully I can start to get back at this on a regular basis. Make sure to check back often, and thanks for reading.

Zach

Kentucky Speedway announced today the addition of 2,000 Standing-Room-Only tickets for tomorrow’s race.

“Why,” you ask. Well, the Indy Car race is a sell out. Every available seat requiring a ticket has been sold.

When was the last time an Indy Car event was completely sold out? Even Indy lately has had empty seats.

Yes, all 66,o89 seats will have a butt in them.

Sorry for the repetition, but I am impressed.

Good for Indy Car. Keep it up.

On a side note, chances are the Ganassi cars will dominate this race like they have so many times before this year. Dixon was fast all day (as his pole showed), and Wheldon was close behind. Vitor, however, is starting second and is most deserving of a win.

And another side note. Unsure whether it was intentional or not, but Graham Rahal’s livery closely resembles that of Nigel Mansell’s Newman/Haas colors back in the day. It brings back memories. Get some more sponsors on the car, and it will be looking nice.

Graham Rahal's retro paint scheme (intentional or not) brings back memories of the peak of CART. (Photo: Zach Wenzel)

Notes will continue.

Zach

Scott Dixon held is seat at the top of the charts through qualifying as he took the pole position for Saturday's Meijer 300. (Photo: Zach Wenzel)

Ganassi Racing, and more particularly Scott Dixon’s, domination of the Indy Car Series continued today as this year’s Indy 500 winner took the pole for Saturday’s Meijer 300.

Panther Racing’s Vitor Meira put in a solid qualifying run and will start second.

Dixon’s teammate, Dan Wheldon, will start third. Look for the Ganassi boys to team up for this race.

Ganassi 1-2 would not be unfathomable. As to who would be first: Dixon is looking to lock up his championship ASAP. Meanwhile, Wheldon has to think his seat is in jeopardy following Ganassi’s pursuit of Kanaan and he’ll be out to prove something. Then there is the whole issue of team orders, which will just get way too messy to try and sort out through a blog so we’ll leave that issue alone.

More notes to come.

Zach

Scott Dixon set the pace in today's opening practice session at Kentucky Speedway. (Photo: Zach Wenzel)

Scott Dixon put himself a step closer to matching Greg Ray’s 13 ICS poles as he led the field in today’s opening practice session at Kentucky Speedway.

The Kiwi was the only driver to crack 220mph this morning.

The Indy Car Series drivers take to the track again at 2:45p.m. local time for their final practice session of the weekend.

Qualifying begins at 6:30p.m. local time.

Check back for more updates.

Zach