Review: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Well, now that I've finished hyperventilating over yet another exciting street race and compared notes with my coworker Mike, it's time to share some thoughts on the race between the (temporary, thunderstorm-caused) lakes that was St. Pete.

First off -- and this is special, because it's not something I say a lot -- all credit to Brian Barnhart for getting something right TWO races in a row. In spite of all of his shortcomings, he does a good job dealing with rainstorms.

I think back to Indianapolis in 2007, which was honestly one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had. Not long after the halfway point, there was an absolutely awful storm that turned the track into a swimming pool. Some of the older fans who had seen this situation play out in the past decided it wasn't worth it to stick around and went home. Barnhart, on the other hand, decided to wait it out; he was rewarded by some fortuitous sunshine and the fact that the pavement that was put down in '05 dries like no road I've ever seen. Seeing the cars come back out of the garage and hearing Dave Calabro make the call to restart the engines was just as exciting as the start of the race. About 60 more laps were run before it clouded over again and the skies opened around 7PM, leaving the remaining fans drenched, but fairly satisfied.

Two weeks ago in Sao Paulo, Barnhart saw a massive storm hit the track, tried to keep the race going, but decided to throw the red when it became unreasonable and make the track safe again. In St. Pete, though it may not have been the popular decision, he again made the right decision to send everyone home for the day on Sunday when the weather and track condition became unreasonable with little end in sight.

Instead of a festival of rain-induced spinning (like we occasionally have in Formula 1) we had a pretty exciting race on a drying track that emphasized car control and rewarded some of the best twisty drivers in the series...which brings me to my predictions.

What can you say about Will Power's ability on street courses? I feel as though there aren't any suitable superlatives to apply to the man -- he simply wins these races. The final, IRL-sanctioned Champ Car race from Long Beach in 2008 was won by Will, last year's race on the Edmonton airport circuit was flat dominated by Will, and he's taken the first two street races of 2010. It stands to reason that he'll be the runaway favorite for Long Beach, Toronto, Edmonton, and perhaps some of the natural-terrain races. At one point in the St. Pete race, it seemed like Justin Wilson might reel Power in, but Will suddenly found his accelerator pedal and shot off into the distance -- game, set, match.

My Dark Horse (simply because of where he started the race; nothing to do with a lack of ability or team strength) may have had the fastest car on the racetrack. When Dario Franchitti had his car pointed in the right direction and with all four tires pumped up, he was, true to his Italian ancestry, a Forza Azzuri. The blue Cottonelle/Target car, after stopping to replace a flat tire in the second half of the race, shot from tenth to fifth within about twelve laps. If the Grand Prix of St. Pete were 110 laps or 115 laps, who's to say where Dario might have ended up.

Ninja Dark Horse Graham Rahal did not disappoint either, especially given the fact that his temporary team, Sarah Fisher Racing, is lucky to even be in the series at this point. Sarah has a fighting spirit, and she loves driving a race car, but she also wants that team to succeed; Sarah Fisher can only turn a wheel to the right when holding a slide on a dirt oval, so she rightfully decided to throw the most talented person who didn't have a ride behind the wheel. If Sarah had driven, she would've been lucky to be the last car running; with Graham at the wheel, they picked up a well-deserved and much-needed top ten. Who knows what this team will be able to do in Alabama, but it will only be beneficial for Sarah and her small, scrappy, barely-meeting-budget team.

Danica Patrick...the girl always finds ways to surprise me. However, I may have to retire the Danica Watch because the only way she's gotten ahead of Simona de Silvestro these first two races was when Simona's car broke (either internally or from...er...outside influences). Even Marty Reid, noted lover of all things Danica (figuratively, of course), acknowledged the talent that is Simona and even showed signs of thinking the Swiss Miss might be *hushed whisper* better than Danica. The next few races shall tell the truth of the matter.

Thankfully, the IZOD IndyCar Series will skip Easter/Final Four weekend, because I will be far too distracted by Butler University's awesomeness to devote time to racing. IndyCar returns to the track the following weekend for its inaugural event at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama. See you then, folks!

Yellow Shirt Preview/Live Blog: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Well, unlike last year, the above picture will not be an accurate representation of how the weather will be in St. Pete today. If you click the "Is It May Yet?" link over there, you'll see resident weatherman Will's assessment of how things are going to look.

While I can't give you an accurate judgment on the chances of rain, I can give you an accurate judgment of the chances of a first-turn incident as the field comes off the runway in the wet: 110%. The runway at Albert Whitted Airport is approximately 30 miles wide (give or take a few) and there's plenty of runoff on the inside of the turn. Therefore, nearly every year, cars go about 4-wide into the funnel that is turn 1, then the carbon fiber starts flying.

The rest of the course is fairly typical street circuit fare: narrow, 90-degree turns with very little room for error. There is one nice blast along the harbor that can create some passing opportunities, but the turn at the end of the blast is fairly quick and preceded by a couple of kinks, making the setup for the following car difficult. Some drivers will try to pass in other spots, but as Rafa Matos and Danica Patrick found out last year, the results can be disastrous.

As far as the outcome of the race is concerned, the rain will make things quite interesting. If the weather dies off, the track will start drying and the dry-versus-wet tire strategies will start affecting things. One of the smaller teams with nothing to lose could pull a crazy strategy out of their pocket and benefit big time.

Also, any incident at the first corner, depending on where it occurs within the field, could put a driver who qualified low back towards the front.

Winner: Will Power The kid is good, as we saw down the stretch at Sao Paulo. He's on the pole at St. Pete, putting him clear of most first-lap incidents, and out ahead of the spray from the rain tires. Driving a Penske car doesn't hurt him either.

Dark Horse: Dario Franchitti Odd to see Mr. Dario as a dark horse, but I attribute it to his difficult qualifying that placed him 13th on the starting grid. As his wife will tell you, though, he's one of the best and one of the classiest on the grid, and he is well capable of keeping the car pointed in the right direction in the rain. If he avoids other people's problems, the light-blue-for-this-week Target car could be at the front at the finish.

Ninja Dark Horse: Graham Rahal He won in his first ever IndyCar start at St. Pete with a team that had just joined the League. Now he's paired with everyone's favorite underdog team in Sarah Fisher Racing and coming back to one of his better tracks for his first race of 2010. Some pit strategy calls and a bit of luck could get Graham up near the head of the field.

Danica Watch! Street course, rain, so on and so forth. She's starting really low in the field too, so the possibility of being hit by another car is high. Danica will be a non-factor today.

I'm watching a little basketball right now, but the TV flips over at 3:30 for IndyCar action. I'll be back on here to do some live coverage then.

*UPDATE*
St. Pete is being freight trained by thunderstorms, which means there's lighting in the air and they can't have spectators or participants out in that kind of weather. The race will be at 10 in the morning Monday on ESPN2. No live blog from me, since I'll be at work, but I'll have the DVR fired up and ready to go. Cheers.

Well, Not Much Is Going On, Really...

Of course, I say these words before I have had a chance to sit down with my DVR and throw down on some of Sunday's Wind Tunnel With Dave Despain Robin Miller.

See, It's always a momentous event, in my opinion, when Dave Despain -- who really is one of the best racing commentators out there when reporting track-side at a USAC or AMA event -- vacates his chair for whatever reason and is replaced by someone whose knowledge of NASCAR is akin to my knowledge of why the Large Hadron Collider keeps breaking. For once, we can get a break from, "Brad Keselowski this," and, "Carl Edwards that," and comments on the sexual orientation of Kyle Busch or Jeff Gordon and we can bring fans of those other race series into the discussion.

It was so momentous, in fact, that I went to sleep right before the show started last night. What are you gonna do -- my boss wanted me in at 6 AM today.

Anyway, since the media didn't explode this morning, I'm assuming there were no announcements that the IndyCar Series was going to use a twin-turbo V16 Silver Crown car for 2012 or that Randy Bernard has already balanced the budget or whatever. I suppose it IS notable that Bernard announced a new committee to debate over the merits of new chassis and engines...which is slightly better than what we had before (Barnhart sitting around, not doing anything, while fans tried to storm his castle).

As far as IndyCar was concerned this past week, one thing of any importance that happened was this: Graham Rahal has plopped himself in an IndyCar for the first time in 2010, testing the #67 Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing Dallara at Barber Motorsports Park. Apparently, we are not privy to his test times or anything, but the fact that he is at least in a car is uplifting.

Oh, and there was something about 25% of households that used to have access to the VERSUS network, who lost it due to a petty dispute over money during an economic recession, once again being given access to VERSUS once more. Good work, lawyers. Hopefully we see a bump from that in the ratings when the Barber race rolls around.

Oh, and Jack Arute apparently has a blog. I believe the proper response is this (just replace the lyric "white man" with "artfully bronzed gentleman-extraordinaire").

Cheers.

Pseudo-Live Blog: Sao Paulo Indy 300

The fans are in place, the Sambadrome has been ground down for grip, and...nothing's happening. The sprinkles have started falling in central Sao Paulo which, this being a road course race, it's not really a problem. The league officials need to figure out how wet the track is and whether or not they need to mandate use of rain tires, then we'll light up the Honda's and get rolling. At least the Brazilian fans are having fun...

12:02, pre-race
Pace car has done its rounds, some Brazilian fellow gave a very dull engine start command, and we're ready to roll!

12:05, pre-race
The grinding and the quick shower seem to have made a bit of a dusty situation on the Sambadrome section...we'll see how that affects things.

Lap 1
Pace car off, we are...GREEN! Tons of dust on the concrete....and...we are YELLOW! Lots of cars falling apart and running into each other. Mario Moraes parked on Marco Andretti's head, one of the KV cars (Sato?) and Scott Dixon spun. Castroneves involved as well. Sato appeared to lose control under braking to nail Dixon, similar thing happened to Moraes. Let's hope everyone's okay...

Lap 2
Andretti calls his crew, says he's a-okay. To celebrate, we get our first GoDaddy commercial of the day!

Lap 3
Ryan Briscoe also appeared to lose bits of his nose as cars came around after the wreck...we're not seeing much about that. Marco Andretti finally able to get out of his car to a chorus of cat-calls from the Brazilians.

Lap 5
Alex Lloyd in the pits with an apparent engine issue. We're still yellow, trying to get Marco's car out of the way.

Lap 6
The pace car is moving impossibly slowly, and yet we've still taken five laps of caution without Andretti's car being cleared...The safety team is clearly out of practice.

Lap 7
Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous. Now we're checking for bits of carbon fiber around the rest of the track. I would dearly like to see some racing here, guys.

Lap 8
FINALLY, we're given the one-to-go signal. I've nearly gone back into nap mode watching this.

Lap 9
And we are...GREEN! Most drivers staying single file...and we're still green! Franchitti leads, Tagliani follows, Hunter-Reay holding on behind those two. Interview with Marco, and Marco being himself finds a way to blame Moraes for the wreck...what a joke.

Lap 12
Justin Wilson apparently having some issues with all of the bumps and banging his tall frame around inside the cockpit.

Lap 14
Franchitti still leads, but Alex Tagliani's simply not going away.

Lap 15
Replays showing that Castroneves has a problem with his front wing. He was still able to get past Simona de Silvestro, though.

Lap 16
Tags must've made a mistake because he has lost contact with Franchitti and is being hounded by RHR...pass for second! We got Tony Kanaan's view of the proceedings on the in-car.

Lap 18
We've settled into parade mode a bit here. (flips TV to check Caps vs. Blackhawks...no score there)

Lap 19
Totally gonna watch Junior Seau be a tire changer with Scott Dixon...oughta be fun. Pass for second! RHR takes Tagliani and sets his sights on Dario.

Lap 20
Kanaan trying to take third from Tagliani. Replay shows a banner has come off the wall and into Justin Wilson's face.

Lap 22
In the most surprising development of the day, Milka Duno spins unassisted in turn 3...*facepalm*

Lap 24
Pit stops? Yes I do believe so...these guys really zing down the entrance to pit lane. Franchitti out first, RHR out second, Kanaan third, Tagliani fourth. Simona de Silvestro stayed out and will lead a few laps.

Lap 25
Hellish thunderstorm looming to the west of the track. We're told that Simona had pitted just before Milka brought out the yellow...therefore, she is on the lead lap and on the same pit cycle as everyone else. Simona, ftw!

Lap 26
The longer we stay yellow, the better chance we have of being caught out by the rain. Lights finally out on the pace car.

Lap 27
We are...GREEN! Simona got the jump on Dario as Dario skidded a bit out of the final corner. Clean start through the first couple corners. Hunter-Reay looks for second into turn 11 and has it.

Lap 28
Hunter-Reay takes the lead supercross-style into turn 5, and he is...RUNNING AWAAAYYY!

Lap 29
Crash crash crash! Tony Kanaan and...Tagliani perhaps? Haven't seen a shot of the other car yet. Ryan Briscoe, using his awesome ESP powers, ducked into the pits for wet tires. Looks like the wreck was caused by Wheldon shoving Tagliani into Kanaan...fallout to come. Still green.

Lap 30
Rain clearly beginning to fall...We're still green, but expect to see some cars in the pits here in a moment...

Lap 31
Pit stops for rain tires. De Silvestro clearly against the concept of pit lane as she stays out again, as does Hunter-Reay. Ana Beatriz goes ass-around before getting to pit lane.

Lap 32
It starts getting really insane on the course as many cars start going ass-around in turn 1. we FINALLY have a full-course yellow.

Lap something-or-other
The thunderstorm has knocked out some of the communications between race control and the rest of the world. No rundown at the top of the screen. Still under full-course yellow.

Lap whatever
The drivers are taking a break so the standing water can get cleaned up. Therefore, I'm taking a lunch break. BRB!

I have no idea what lap this is...
I'm back from cooking just as the drivers are back on the track. We're now in a timed race situation, so there's no more lap counter apparently. Right now, the drivers are movin' around behind the pace car.

37 mins to go
We are...GREEN! Dario jumps away Dixon follows, Conway behind them. Everyone clean through the first few corners.

Lap 40
Simona de Silvestro has an issue on the course...pity for her. The Ganassi cars have flown away. Cars on slick tires have been driving well so far.

Lap 42
Many many pit sstops for slick tires as the grip levels change on the course.

Lap 43
Near disaster as cars battle in the top 5...well played by everyone in the line there to keep from bashing each other to pieces. Craziness continues as the drivers try to lap Danica.

Lap 44
Danica clearly holding everone back in this crew...everyone finally through as they go down the long straight.

Lap 47
Mario Romancini clearly having an issue. Judging by the direction the wheels are pointing, I'm going to say there was some contact somewhere.

Lap 48
Looks like Romancini overcooked it coming out of turn 10. Classic understeer, hits the wall, breaks the left-rear. Still under green as Mario gets back to pit lane.

Lap 50
Much speculation on how the fuel game is going to play out over the last 20 minutes of this race. Hunter-Reay and Briscoe in lock-step...er, no Briscoe takes the lead in Turn 11. Oughta be interesting.

Lap 51
RHR goes for the lead back, but looks to have cut the second corner...iiiiiinteresting scenario coming here....

Lap 52
In the meantime, Will Power has caught up to this battle for the lead. Might be VEEERRRRY interesting.

Lap 53
Briscoe clearly trying to push the pace, locking up the breaks. Remember the fuel situation here...

Lap 54
Jack Arute busts out the computer and...Briscoe crashes!!! RHR takes the lead! Full-course yellow!

Lap 55
As I was saying, Arute breaks out the computer and shows us what looks like Satan's hemorrhoid on the radar screen. Interesting to see how the weather situation plays out now...Ten minutes on the clock as we get ready to shoot for the finish.

Lap 57
We are...GREEN!!! Shootout for the finish! RHR and Power get the jump on the rest of the field. Everyone clean through the opening complex. Meira gives the wall a slap coming onto the pit stretch, everyone keeps rolling. Vitor unaffected as he goes to third in the final turn!

Lap 58
RHR, Will Power, Vitor is the top three. Matos warned for blocking by Barnhart. Battle for the lead heating up! Power has it in turn 11!

Lap 59
Three minutes on the clock. Power in the lead, RHR in second, Vitor in third. Wheldon working Matos for fourth.

Lap 60
Under two minutes on the clock. No white flag in the air, so we have to assume two to go. Order remains unchanged so far, but the Target guys nearly got together. No shots of the leaders at the moment, but they are faaaaaar away from third place.

Lap 61
White flag! Power really gapping RHR here. Barring a disaster, he should take the win.

(Green) Checkered Flag!
Power wins it! Hunter-Reay, Vitor, Matos, Wheldon, Dixon, Franchitti, Conway, Castroneves, Kanaan round out your top 10. Great race for guys who got injured last year, as Power had the back injury at Sonoma and Meira had the scary back injury at Indianapolis.

The three podium drivers taking their ceremonial lap of awesomeness as they head for the podium at the Sambadrome.

Jack Arute attempting to conduct the interview through a kazoo...VERSUS shuts that off and says let's sort this noise out before we let you speak again.

In other news, I decided to check on how my Capitals are doing against Chicago....AND WE CAME BACK TO TIE IT AT THREE! That's AFTER the officials decided that they didn't want Ovechkin in the game after an admittedly rough hit...but not enough to warrant an ejection.

Back to Sao Paulo, and Jack Arute is in full interruption mode with our winner. "Yeah it's really great to have a full season and --" "WHAT ABOUT YOUR HANDS!? WHAT ABOUT MY SUPPLE BRONZED HANDS?!?!"

Hunter-Reay looks decidedly happy and sounds decidedly happy. The car was apparently slow on the straights compared to everyone else. Feeling the pressure of having IZOD ride the side of his car and it would've been nice to get them in victory lane. Comments that it's good to see A.J. celebrating on the podium with his team...couldn't agree more with that.

Vitor Meira: happy man. The last time I saw him in a car, I was looking at the underside of his car as it slid along the wall at Indianapolis. Says he tried his damndest not to cry because A.J. would give him crap for it! Bwahahahaa, I love it!

Okay, so let's recap: The beginning of the weekend was awful, with the ridiculously slippery start/finish straight. The middle was bad with a ridiculous wreck and a torrential rainstorm. The finish turned out pretty well, with Hunter-Reay forcing Briscoe into a key error to take the lead, then Power simply dominating the restart to ride off with victory. Meira also did a fantastic job on Rafa Matos in order to pick up a podium finish in his first race back from injury.

Checking my predictions, I'm looking pretty smart right now, eh? Will Power won, Ryan Hunter-Reay came second, and Alex Tagliani was in the hunt until being punted by Dan Wheldon. Danica was never a factor, especially once the rain came out.

Again, I interrupt regularly scheduled programming for this: THE CAPITALS BEAT THE BLACKHAWKS!!! Four unanswered goals, capped by Nick Backstrom's unassisted OT score to be the first team this year to triple digit points! Here's to my boys on the ice!

As for IndyCars, they'll be in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida, in two weeks' time. See ya later, race fans!

Yellow Shirt Preview: Sao Paulo Indy 300

No word yet on whether or not Randy Bernard is pursuing sponsorship from this particular product, but it would seem to fit with Saturday's on-track product.

Everyone was ready to go, the cars were fired, the fans were fired up, the drivers were zoned in. Cars came out of the pits, wound through the back parking lots of the Anhembi convention hall, took their first blast down Chateaubriand Avenue, made the sharp right turn into the Sambadrome, and found themselves on what may as well have been a curling sheet. Grip was not to be found anywhere on the smooth concrete of Sao Paulo's Carnival ground and all of the drivers had to short shift and keep their revs down -- anything to keep from pitching the cars into the surrounding walls.

Given the situation, Brian Barnhart rightly postponed qualifying, as drivers trying to put down a fast lap would surely overdo it and crash. The track is being ground down with diamond grinders (which sounds like a tool Blofeld might invent) as I type and should give the drivers much better grip as they round Turn 11 on Sunday.

Because we will have what amounts to a different track tomorrow morning, it's difficult to make predictions on how things will turn out when the checkered flag falls around 2PM Sunday afternoon, but I will try my best given the times that were set in practice.

Winner: Will Power Power's best time in practice was a half-second clear of Tony Kanaan's which, in spite of barely being able to drive on a crucial stretch of the track, is still fairly indicative of how things might look on Sunday. Power is a very controlled and mature driver and to throw down the top time with things as they were shows a fine level of car control on his part. Kanaan is interesting to see up there as well, but I don't think he'll have the car to match Power's.

Dark Horse: Ryan Hunter-Reay Remember when Ryan, IZOD's poster boy, was plugged into a last-second ride with Vision Racing and nearly pulled off a shock victory in St. Petersburg last year? He now has a much better ride underneath him than Vision's entry from last year and he threw down the third-fastest time in practice, ahead of two Penske Cars, two Ganassi cars, and two of his three teammates (as well as some other established twisty track drivers). RHR is a very competent road racer and I could easily see him knocking on the door as the laps wind down.

Ninja Dark Horse: Alex Tagliani I'm having a hard time explaining this one to myself, but I just liked seeing Tags' name in the top ten of the practice times. He's a good driver, to be sure, but in spite of his team's name (FAZZT), I'm not so sure how quick the car will actually be. Still, if a few cards fall the right way, Tags could crack the top five.

Danica Watch! Danica on a street course with no grip? Yeah, I don't see much good happening for her this time around. Sure, driving stock cars will teach you how to control an out-of-control race car, but she won't have the room for error that NASCAR tracks allow.

Qualifying at 7:30 AM Eastern *Daylight* Time tomorrow (don't forget your clocks!), with the green scheduled to drop around noon. Hopefully the overnight improvements to the start/finish straight will be resolved and the season will kick off smoothly.

Yellow Shirt Preview: 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

And so it begins...The cars are in the paddock, the drivers are going over their final offseason notes, and the fans is Sao Paulo are ready to head to the parade grounds to get the 2010 season rolling.

Say what you will about the financial state of the series or the current IRL formula or the lack of American drivers (and then feel free to go over to Robin Miller's mailbag to read a lot of opinions that agree with yours); I feel as though there is a marked improvement in this offseason over last year, and I am genuinely excited to see the first race this weekend.

There are new teams and drivers that weren't there before, some of whom are fully deserving of the rides they now have (Simona de Silvestro, anyone?). The ride-buyers are still out there, but there's not much that can really be done about that until the sponsorship dollars begin flooding in again.

There is a new face at the top of the leadership ladder in the IndyCar Series with the installment of new CEO Randy Bernard who, by all accounts, hit the ground running a week and a half ago and has impressed members of the media (including Miller, which is tough) and did damn-all to get Graham Rahal a two-race ride with Sarah Fisher Racing -- a partnership that could end up being good for Rahal, but spectacular for SFR, who is always in desperate need of a good result. Bernard took a niche sport in rodeo/bull-riding and, while not exactly making it mainstream, made its niche a good bit bigger and brought money into the sport. Let's see if he can do the same with the IndyCars.

Finally, the media, blogosphere and the participants are abuzz over what the field will look like two years from now. Five different companies have put designs forth for the new generation of car, from the familiar look of the Lola and Dallara designs to the wild and futuristic DeltaWing. For a series that, if you believe some of the louder voices out there, is dying, it seems like there are quite a few people who are interested in keeping it alive. Hopefully the buzz can remain alive for the next two years.

As for the on-track product in 2010, I see it being similar to 2009, but slightly more interesting. Yes, the red cars will dominate -- er, the red cars and the black cars now. Yes, that's not necessarily a good thing, even though having Dixon, Franchitti, Castroneves, Briscoe and Power are pretty good people to have battling it out for the title. I do think we'll see some fresh faces in victory lane on a couple of occasions, though. I'm not sure exactly who, but I feel as though the Andretti Autosport cars, in spite of how weak they look in testing and how disorganized they sometimes look; Tony Kanaan should find his way back into victory lane at least once this season. I also expect to see a yellow car carrying #67 find its way towards the sharp end of the field at St. Petersburg and Barber -- again, Rahal being in the car will only be good for Sarah Fisher Racing.

My picks for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series:

Champion: Will Power Power showed us what he is capable of last year at Edmonton: flat out domination. He's a very good driver in a very good car, and I see no reason that he will not come out of the gate swinging. If he isn't involved in a wreck or slowed by bad fortune, Will Power should be a top five finisher at just about every race. Consistency like that wins championships.

Championship Dark Horse: Helio Castroneves Always a little strange to put Helio's name in a "dark horse" category, but he certainly did not have a very strong season in 2009 (apart from Indianapolis, of course). Teammate Briscoe slid past Helio last year in every measurable aspect and became top dog on that team. Helio is starting to get up there in age and has to be looking at his job security with Team Penske. He'll want to get the results in his home country this weekend, in his home state races at St. Petersburg and Homestead, and in a quest to join the open-wheel elite with a fourth Indianapolis win.

Ninja Dark Horse (so dark, you can't even see him/her): Tony Kanaan To see Tony Kanaan have no victories last season was very tough and very disheartening. Sometimes he was on fire (like...literally on fire), sometimes the car simply wasn't good, and sometimes the rear suspension would break halfway down the back straight at Indy and pitch him into the wall. Tony should be a man on a mission this year with a hopefully re-focused team and a little help from his teammates -- especially new teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Danica Watch! Oh, she's that stock car driver, isn't she? Kidding aside, I must do my obligation as an unofficial member of the media and keep track of the series' golden egg. Mrs. Hospenthal will be as fast and aggressive as she always was, but it's hard to know where her team will end up. She was quite slow at the Barber Motorsports Park test. However, there is one place that Danica is always fast: Indianapolis. Here's Danica's Indianapolis record: fourth, eighth, eighth, DNF (crash that wasn't her fault), third. Give her two weeks at a track and she can knock it dead. She'll be fast on some other roundy-round tracks too. Will she repeat her Motegi triumph of 2008? Probably not, but that bright green and black car may see quite a bit of the sharper end of the field this year. Remember, she was the first driver behind the red cars in the points last year.

Practice and qualifying from Sao Paulo begin in just about 24 hours! Quite frankly...I'm pretty stoked for the drop of the green flag on Sunday and I hope you are as well.

This Just In...

Sarah Fisher is officially the coolest person in the history of auto racing. Period.

Robin Miller reports here

Other coverage on the blog list along the side there -->

Looking forward to Sao Paulo that much more now.

It's That Time Again!

The one and only IZOD IndyCar Series begins blowing your mind via cathode ray tubes (or LCD's, LED's, or plasma cells) from Sao Paulo, Brazil, starting at 1 PM Saturday with the "fast six" qualifying shootout and finishing on Sunday with a Noon green flag.

What that means is that it's time for the CG types at VERSUS to drop some beautifully-rendered knowledge on us:



There are many predictions and observations that can be made about this brand new course, but I will make just one: there will be an extremely important accident at Turn 11, and it may very well decide who wins the race. Expect to see Honda's magic button light up on the mile-long blast to the final turn.