And Now, More Complete Silliness

Apparently, A.J. Foyt can't decide who he actually wants driving his car since Vitor went all Joie-Chitwood-stunt-driver on him at Indianapolis. First there was Paul Tracy, who left a shamed A.J. behind after A.J. provided a dog of a car. Then there was Anthony Number Four, who couldn't point the car straight coming out of Turn 2 at Texas and busted the car.

Now, A.J. hooks up with who was once crowned by the great font of valuable knowledge known as Robin Miller "America's next big open-wheel star", Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay had been signed by Vision in April when Tony George realized Izod would not be happy if their driver wasn't in a car. It looked like a good move at first, as Ryan was right in the mix for the win at St. Pete.

The results started dropping for both Ryan and teammate Ed Carpenter, and now it seems like Vision worked out a deal where they can focus on their main driver (Ed) and keep Ryan and his Izod shirts in a car. Vision immediately gets more money-per-race to throw at the #20 (though the six races run with the #21 are now a big money pit). A.J. Foyt Enterprises gets the Izod and (this is unconfirmed, but I'm assuming) William Rast money, plus a very competent driver.

A.J.'s team has always been behind the 8-ball on car development since all of CART's big boys switched sides back in 2002-2003, but there have been some spurts of excellence. Remember that last year's Watkins Glen (insert sponsor here) Grand Prix was where Darren Manning, in A.J.'s car, was beat to the line by...Ryan Hunter-Reay. There's a pretty big spate of road/street races coming in July and August and, if Team A.J. can put a solid vehicle together, Ryan could bring some serious results. Also, we've got some "handling" ovals coming up, which is something at which Ryan used to be pretty darn good.

Also of great concern: Alex Lloyd is officially cutting ties with Chip Ganassi next week and opening up his options for either the end of this season or all of next season. This is a fine move on Alex's part, as it has been pretty obvious that Chip was never going to move him into one of the Target cars. When Dan Wheldon ran off to Panther, Dario Franchitti was moved over to the #10, and the current scuttlebutt is still focused on Danica getting a third car/replacing Scott Dixon at Ganassi. Lloyd has been running just the Daytona 24 and the 500 for two years now and, as all race drivers do, he just wants to race. There is no word as of yet whether HER energy drink will stick with "Pink" Lloyd or a new Ganassi/Danica team, but that is something that is sure to have an effect on where Alex ends up.

Finally, the Danica situation is still very fluid. My personal opinion on it: if I were driving for a second-tier team with a teammate who spends all of his time shouting at his teammates and happens to have the favor of his father/team owner, I would probably want out. A lot of Danica's sponsor money is tied in no way to AGR, so her options are pretty much unlimited here. She'll sit back and watch the contract offers flow in, then probably make a decision in July or August.