Silly Season? In April?!

Sadly, that's the way it works when you're dealing with an underfunded league full of underfunded teams desperate to add cars to the field.

Luckily, Conquest Racing's car for St. Petersburg, which was slated to be driven by an unknown named TBA, will now be piloted by the more well-known and more experienced Alex Tagliani. It's not quite Paul Tracy, and he might be from that crazy, French-speaking province in the east, but Canadians will surely be happy to see someone flying the red maple leaf in the IRL.

Meanwhile, the guy I consider to be the best driver in the series until he invariably runs into a wall, Tomas Scheckter, has been inked to ride along Stanton Barrett at Team 3G. The trick here is that Scheckter won't be in a car until Long Beach. However, he provides much-needed IndyCar experience to a team whose current driver's claims to fame are Hollywood stunt driving and bringing up the rear at NASCAR races.

Also of note, Vision Racing finally officially confirmed Ryan Hunter-Reay to team up with Ed Carpenter.

So, we've got 22 cars with butts in their seats for St. Pete, and 22 cars at Long Beach and possibly a 23rd if D&R likes Darren Manning.