Big Week For IICS

This upcoming week is going to be filled with a lot of suspense, news, and excitement for the Izod Indycar Series and it's IRL family.

It is safe to say that the future landscape of Indycar will be determined on Wednesday, July 14th when the ICONIC committee releases it's chassis plans for 2012 and beyond. However, no one is quite sure exactly what is going to be announced, and Randy Bernard has done a good job of keeping this as hush hush as possible to create a big splash in the marketplace.

I think it is hard not to be excited by the upcoming announcement as it will possibly mean the end to the current Dallara (Curt Cavin believes the current machine will be grand-fathered in somehow while some others believe it will move to the FIL series). No matter what is announced, we can all take pride in knowing there will be something different than the current Dallara on track sometime after 2012.

To be honest, I think it's safe to say we will see multiple chassis manufacturer's involved with this announcement. Whether company names are dropped on Wednesday or not, Randy Bernard and his entire ICONIC committee understand the importance of multiple chassis' as well as multiple engines. The main question is how will they police the various options, and that is something we'll have to wait for as I don't think anyone outside of that group of 7 have any clue.

Then a couple of days after the announcement, the Izod Indycar Series hits the streets of Toronto for my home race, and boy, am I excited. What I considered one of the most exciting races last season on television is a race that this year it finally looks like my schedule will allow me to get to the event for race day (providing we sweep our second round playoff series in 3 games).

There looks to be a good car count, and PT is back in the fold again for this event with KVRT, the team that gave him a potentially winning setup last year until he was punted into the wall by an unnamed driver in these parts.

Promotion for the event has been upped this year which can mean only good things. More butts in the seats and means more attention for Izod and the series.

Add in the fact we have a pretty good title chase brewing in the overall standings (you can just hand Will Power the Mario Andretti Trophy right now for the road courses), and you get a pretty good vibe heading into the Honda Indy Toronto weekend which is shaping up to be a blast.

It's a good week to be a fan of Izod and the Izod Indycar Series, time to embrace it.