Would You Like Silly Seasoning On That?

Lots of crazy stuff happening in the world of driver contracts on the way into the Texas race this weekend:

-Stanton Barrett out, Jacques Lazier in. Very impressive move by Mr. Barrett, considering he is a part-owner in Team 3G. Jacques hasn't raced in a while, but he's got plenty of experience in cars like these -- including a victory at Chicagoland when he drove for John Menard. Good move here, for sure.

-Tomas Scheckter out, Milka Duno in. I suppose Dreyer & Reinbold wanted Scheckter's far superior car control at Milwaukee. Scheckter is far better-suited to Texas than is Señorita Duno, but D&R seem to be behind her and her Citgo money, so what can you do. More on this in a sec...

-Paul Tracy out, A.J. Foyt IV in. This is a simple one: A.J. IV and his granddad are both from Texas and the team is based in Texas, so why not get a little home cookin' going? Plus, much embarrassment ensued from the awful condition of Paul Tracy's car at Milwaukee, so I think A.J. is using this as time to tune the thing up a bit.

-Conquest w/ Alex Tagliani in. After a one-race layoff following a rather successful Indianapolis 500, Conquest will field a car at Texas with Tagliani once more. It is notable that Tagliani has not seen Texas Motor Speedway since practice and qualifying for the botched 600-kilometer CART race there in 2001.

-Thomas Sceckter, upon further review, in. Turns out Dreyer & Reinbold weren't canning Scheckter for the weekend, but simply moving Duno back to her #23 car. Scheckter's personal sponsor, Mona-Vie acai juice, put up the money for D&R to put up the #43 car. Scheckter's ridiculous driving style has always been well-suited to the high-speed, high-bank tracks and he has been close to victory many times at places like Texas, Michigan, and the like.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that the IRL family recently welcomed two new members: Bethany Lloyd (daughter of Alex "Pink" Lloyd and Samantha), and Ryder Carpenter (son of Ed Carpenter and Heather). Mazel tov!

Debate still goes on over Cleveland's status on the IRL calendar next year. Pretty much everyone is starting to agree that the two-race system might work, assuming they find the money to pay purses and track operating costs and the like. It's being floated around that race #1, on a temporary 1-mile oval, could be a sort of all-star race with pageantry and fireworks and all that good stuff, while race #2 would be a points-paying road race on the traditional Burke Lakefront road course. More on this and any other tweaks to the schedule sure to come as the summer rolls along.

Cars are at Texas Motor Speedway already, and the first practice is tonight at 7:45. It's also notable that, for the first time in a long time, the IRL is running with the NASCAR truck series this weekend. Since the truck series is the only NASCAR that's fun to watch in full, I always liked it in the old days when ESPN would have them run together in the interest of having its Speed World crew in one spot. Beatin' and bangin' Friday night, drafting and two-wide Saturday night...always a fun time.