Texas Firestone 550K Thoughts

There is something about Indycar at Texas Motor Speedway that just spells out excitement. Between the promotional skills of Eddie Gossage, the skill of the Izod Indycar Drivers, racing under the lights, and the wheel to wheel action, Texas is a must see each year, and very rarely does it dissapoint (2009 is the exception).

The race Saturday night saw 11 lead changes, multiple challenges for the lead, and slicin' and dicin' from 6th through 20th for most of the race. Anyone who complained about Texas last year (everyone) and Kansas this year (me) could not complain about the 550K this year. This race had drama, suspense, danger, and excitement all bundled up into one.

But can someone explain why Ryan Briscoe decided to ruin the Izod Indycars potential big night? Texas is one of the highest rated races asides from Indy the entire year, and is about as red, white, and blue as you can get in the USA. What a night for an American (specifically named Ryan, Marco, or Danica) to pull out a big "W" in Texas. With Danica and Marco in the running, as much as it pains me to say this, having a Danica/Marco 1-2 finish would had been a huge night for the series and Versus.

On a side note, did anyone else notice the roar from the crowd when Danica flew past Briscoe on his out lap? I guess they still like her in Texas.

However, it was good to see Briscoe bounce back from his Indy mistake and show the Captain he should no be replaced by a certain Graham Rahal. Briscoe was in contention all night and pulled away at the end, proving the Penske clan (along with Target Chip Ganassi) still has the best equipment, no matter how close Andretti Autosport gets.

I don't really want to get into the safety team screw up as it has been covered everywhere else already, instead, I'll simply link you to 16th and Georgetown's article on the matter. He did a great job explaining the situation, much better than I can do.

Back to racing matters, how about Alex Lloyd?! 3rd or 4th at Indy (depending on who you ask) and now an 8th place finish at TMS! Can I just remind everyone that Alex is no longer running for Chip Ganassi, but is instead running for Dale Coyne Racing. No offense to Dale, but his chances of putting in good performances occur on the twisty road courses where driver skills take precedence over aero. For Alex and Dale to be running in the top ten on ovals is a big step up for them, and I'm very happy to see it happen. Now, imagine if they were running a competent driver in the second car?

Next up on the radar for the Izod Indycar Series is the Iowa Corn Indy 250. That track has taken some time to get racey since they started going there, but it is by no means a boring race track. The 7/8 mile super-speedway as some drivers call it makes for a different view on short track racing, and usually provides tight finishes, and Hideki Mutoh sightings near the front.

As for the Texas Firestone 550K, I will give it 8.5 Robbie Knievel jumps out of 10.

Bag It

For those of you complaining about the recent announcement that Bertrand Baguette will be running full time beginning at Barber in Alabama, time to stop. The European horse that traveled across the ocean you keep beating is now dead.

We get it already, you don't like that Bertrand Baguette from Belgium will be running the Izod Indycar Series when others like Paul Tracy, Buddy Rice, Graham Rahal, J.R. Hildebrand, Jonathan Summerton, and many other North Americans don't have full time rides confirmed at the moment.

However, given the option of adding a car to the field through Conquest Racing for Bertrand Baguette (champion of the 3.5-Litre Formula Renault 3.5 series, the same series Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Franck Montagny twice, Ricardo Zonta, and Fernando Alonso won) while all these North Americans sit on the sidelines, or would you rather not have Bertrand Baguette adding a car to the series while all the North Americans sit on the sidelines.

I'd choose to add Baguette if I had the choice. Luckily some of you don't get to choose.

I'll tell you a secret though, if you really want to hear it.

Are you ready?

Can you handle it?

Alright, here it comes!

Bertrand Baguette is not taking a seat from an American driver. If he did not bring that cash from the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium to get a seat at Conquest, Eric Bachelart would had simply continued running 1 car for Mario Romancini, and the car count would had remained the same.

In fact, adding Baguette may in fact help the teams find sponsors in the long run that might help find permanent seats for Americans. The more cars you add, the more excitement you will see at the race tracks. That could hopefully mean slightly higher ratings. That could help teams land sponsors. That could put J.R. Hildebrand in a seat.

Point is, stop the moaning about adding a car. A few months ago a bunch of you were freaking about how we would be lucky to see 20 cars regularly. Now we add a car to the grid full time, and you complain about it? Figure it out.

Here Come The Announcements

With the Barber test starting tomorrow, driver announcements are in abundance when it comes to the 2010 Izod Indycar Season.

Let's see what has happened recently. KVRT announced that they signed Takuma Sato to drive one of their Dallara's in 2010. Today, KVRT announced one of the worst kept secrets in the IRL, that they would be running E.J. Viso in 2010 with PDVSA, Herbalife, CANTV and SBA Airlines supporting him.

Today, NHL Racing (and Honda) confirmed that Hideki Mutoh would be running for NHL Racing in 2010 with Formula Dream/Panasonic on the car.

On the Dale Coyne front, I've got some ideas in my head. Milka Duno is getting fitted for a seat for the test at Barber in one of Dale's Dallara's. Try to follow my logic here. Of course, this is all hearsay and hope on my part.

Dale Coyne Racing #19 Boy Scouts America Car will be run by J.R. Hildebrand.
Dale Coyne Racing #18 will be run by Milka Duno on all ovals and a couple of road courses while Jonathan Summerton will fill in on the road courses Milka doesn't run.

How does that sounds? We know J.R. has tested at Coyne, and we know that Jonathan Summerton says he will probably be going to Barber this week to test. Anyone like the sounds of that? Sure, part time for Jonathan wouldn't be as great as full time, but it would be better then no Jonathan!

Alright, back to facts.

Conquest has yet to announce that they signed Mario Romancini for 2010 out of Firestone Indy Lights. He will drive along side another Brazilian who is familiar with the team from 2008, Jaime Camara. Neither of the two drivers have been announced, but Mario should be for the full season, while I'm not sure about Jaime.

As far as I'm concerned, this is two more cars then I previously thought we'd see in 2010 on the grid.

As I was typing, I realized that the entry list for the Barber test this week was posted.

There are 21 cars on the entry list with 3 TBA's (1 from KVRT, Conquest, and HVM each). If you want my opinion, we should assume James Rossiter will be in the KVRT TBA (#32), Mario Romancini in Conquest's machine (#34) and Simona de Silvestro in HVM's only entry (#78). Sarah Fisher and Jay Howard will be sharing the #67 SFR entry.

Absent from the list of entries is Dale Coyne's proposed two cars. I'm not sure if that means they won't attend the test, or if Dale just didn't file the paperwork in time.

I know some teams were considering not attending the tests due to the low ambient and track temperatures predicted at Barber. Supposedly they will be lucky if they hit the 50's in Alabama, which is just about where the Firestone rubber needs to be to function as planned.

So right now, if you assume that each of the cars that attend the Barber test race full or part seasons (SFR is planning two part time efforts), we should see somewhere between 20 to 26 cars at various tracks outside of Indy. You take the 21 cars at Barber, add in two Dale Coyne cars, 1 Conquest, and hopefully one more HVM, and you've got yourself a pretty good lineup.

Oh, and don't forget that Graham Rahal will most likely end up racing somewhere in 2010 in a Dallara.

Tomas Scheckter has some money kickin' around, and Mario Moraes still might have some money kickin' around.

It doesn't look as bad as some are predicting now does it?

EDIT: It was pointed out in a few places that Dan Wheldon and Panther Racing were left off the Barber test entry list. Not sure if they will be attending or not, but please do not start fear mongering that they will not be participating in 2010!

Danica Patrick, Danica Patrick, Danica Patrick!

Well, whether you like her or not, you are going to be seeing alot of Danica Patrick over the next few weeks.

If you follow CSI:NY, you'll be seeing Danica playing the role of along side Antonia Sabato Jr. making his first TV appearance since appearing on his own reality TV show My Antonio.

Satabo Jr. will be playing Davi Santos alongside Danica Patrick who will be playing Liza Gray. I guess they will be "Formula car drivers" and will get into a fiery crash while driving an "expedition race" through New York City.

That episode will air February 10th on CBS.

On top of that, some sexy photos of the princess have been leaked ahead of her GoDaddy.com commercial that will air during the Super Bowl on February 7th. Apparently she'll be spoofing various "classics" like Flashdance and Wierd Science.

I haven't seen any of these movies, well I've seen part of Flashdance, but I was watching TV with my mom, and once they started talking about strippers and the language got bad, it got a slightly awkward.

As much as I could live with or without Danica, I realize her value to the IRL and the Izod Indycar Series. Her sex appeal and her uniqueness appeals to the masses. Even though she hasn't been shown on television in 2009 as the face of the IRL, she still is the face of the Izod Indycar Series in the public eye. Seeing her on television, especially networks that don't show IICS races, can only be a good thing. It has the possibility of getting a couple new faces following Danica and following the IICS.

Now, with the Izod sponsorship, I hope they have some pull with NBC and ABC and CBS and FOX to get some Indycar talent onto some of their shows.

Why not have Danica Patrick guest star on Two and a Half Men? She could catch the eye of Charlie Sheens on screen brother, simply for him to find that he can't keep up with the speed at which she lives?

How about getting Tony Kanaan and Hideki Mutoh into an episode of Desperate Housewives? He might not be able to get a girlfriend, but TK can set Hideki up with some one night stands.

What about getting Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Justin Wilson, Dario Franchitti, Will Power, and Ed Carpenter to join Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in demolishing a house. Then the IRL can donate a few thousand bucks to the family and the new house.

Milka Duno could play a depressed Indycar Driver who needs to be treated by Dr. House.

What about having Graham Rahal making an appearance on the Young & The Restless or having him host SNL? Hell, if Wayne Gretzky could do it, why can't a handsome, articulate Graham Rahal do it?

Point is that seeing these drivers on various network TV shows would help grow the Indycar brand, as well as getting the drivers known to the public. Instead of solely doing it on air, let other people take advantage of the drivers in a way that helps the series grow.

Positive growth of the drivers means a positive growth for the Izod Indycar Series.

Let Danica Go To Nascab

I know, I ripped into Danica earlier this summer on the blog, and I got a good amount of heat for doing it. People couldn't believe I was ripping a strip off of the IRL's princess, oh well, these things happen. And if I ever feel the need to do it again, I probably will.

However, I will admit one thing, she has done rather well since then, staying in 5th place, even after a bunch of road courses which are her weak point. Even I have to give her credit. Being the best of the rest, atleast in terms of points, is a great accomplishment. Who knows, if she was in a Ganassi or Penske car, she could be near the top of the points standings and battling for a championship with two races to go.

So yes, I just gave her some props for her good runs. Bookmark this posting because it won't happen all that often.

Being an IRL blogger, I'm well aware that she is our biggest ticket in 2009, and probably will be for about 2 or 3 years along as she sticks around for a while. She brings in big ratings, is our biggest known driver, and her car consistently has the highest ROI in the end of season ratings.

If she happened to dissapear from the IRL and Indycar Series, it would hurt. But the latest rumors going around, specificially, Danica sticking with the IRL while doing a few ARCA, Trucker Series, and Busch League races for Tony Stewart's team could turn into a positive overall for the IRL.

Obviously, if she does run a few races in tin tops (which in my opinion, is a terrible career move for her, because she will most likely fail miserably), it most likely points towards her departure for Nascab in 2011 or 2012.

However, any fans she gains over there could follow her over to the Indycar Series race on ABC and Versus. Hell, if she is able to battle for the points title in 2010 in the ICS, as well as run competitively in some tin tops, she might even get some rednecks to tune in for the points race simply to follow her, and to see how Nascab's princess is doing. If these people happen to tune into Chicagoland and see the fabulous 3 wide racing these heroes put on in a few weeks ago, then maybe these Nascrap fans stick around to watch a little more often.

These additional fans might help turn Graham Rahal, Alex Lloyd, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tomas Scheckter and Ed Carpenter into more mainstream guys. Nascab fans know how to get behind a driver, and maybe they can do the same and teach some ICS fans to do the same.

Overall, Danica going to race in the various Nascrap series basically gives the IRL free advertising with potential for very high return on investment.

Thus, let her race tin tops. Whether she decides to leave full time for the taxi's or not, she will be doing the IRL a favor while trying them out.

Come Back Time

Well, I'm finally back on the scene. Took some time off from the blog simply because I didn't have the time for it unfortunately. I was in Edmonton for the Founders Cup (Jr. B National Championship), and prior to that, we were going 110% to get ready for the tournament. Hopefully you guys can forgive me and I can get whatever followers I had on the blog back for the last couple races and into the off-season. I'm planning on doing a silly season page for the site to keep everyone up to date on the multiple situations regarding empty race seats and new teams.

Anyways, I missed the Sonoma race as I was flying back from Edmonton, saw the intro show on the plane, and got home to see the winner interview. I had heard about the Will Power/Nelson Philippe crash and am very happy Nelson was not hurt further then he was. Happy both men will be alright. If Will is ready for 2010 hopefully we'll see him in a Penske Dallara. As for Nelson, if he is ready to go, expect him back at Conquest for a lot more races, if not the full season under the i drive green banner.

Luckily, I planned timed into schedule last saturday to watch the Chicago race, and got to watch another race from start to finish. And what a race I got to watch. Close action lap after lap, passing, side by side racing, and a top four that didnt involve Red-Red-Red-Red (or in Dario's case, the yellow Lifelock livery).

Mario Moraes managed his best finish in his still short ICS career in a race dedicated to his father. Graham Rahal also made a strong push for first with a couple of laps to go. I know I was on the edge of my seat to see if Graham could make it stick around the outside and take the lead, but he just didn't have the help he wanted.

As for those who are complaining about the Indycar Series at Chicagoland being dangerous and contrived, I say to you, Chicagoland has always been a very tight track competition wise. Look back at the 2008 race and you'll see that the cars were just as tight, yet there were simply less cars able to hang with the Penske/Ganassi bunch last year. And if I recall correctly, I didn't hear anyone complaining last year about the pack racing. As for the danger involved in the close, sidepod to sidepod action, perhaps the danger involved will help teach the drivers on track to respect eachother a bit more. It seemed like drivers had learned to be fearless with all the new safety innovations, and can be attributed to some stupid accidents where drivers didn't mind putting someone in the wall at 220 mph. Hey, by the way, unfortunately, danger gets the viewers attention.



Now we have this Versus/Comcast/DirecTV issue coming up. Obviously, people aren't happy about this, especially those subscribed to DirecTV. As far as I'm concerned, give it time. They've got about two more weeks before you really need to worry about not being able to see Motegi.

By the way, big thumbs up to Alex Tagliani who managed to put something together to run full time in 2010 (atleast that's the plan) with entrepreneur Andre Azzi. This current and future unofficial Team Canada seems to have the makings of something good right off the bat. They bought the remnants of Marty Roth's ICS team, which includes 4 top of the line (yet heavily crash damaged) Dallara's. Those cars, according to Robin Miller, are all top of the line Dallara's, and Roth spent top dollar to buy all the little extra's for his cars. If Tag's can bring up James Hinchcliffe and Andrew Ranger once he retires, then his team will be a success.

Grand-Am Rolex Series at IMS? Screw that. If you want a sports car race there, run a 12 Hour ALMS race there. An Indy ALMS 12 or 24 hour race would bring in the same major entrants from across the pond as Petit Le Mans brings across for Road Atlanta. Grand-Am is slow, boring, and very low car counts, and it's Nascabish.

Alright, well, I will drop by the Gryphon and see if our favorite bartender still has his job, hopefully he will be working and can give the dish on some silly season stuff. Stay tuned folks.

Doornbos to HVM?

Well, Autoracing1.com has posted alot of rumors, but this one is pretty good and it's getting alot of play from ICS types.

AR1.com is running a rumor that HVM is preparing a car for Robert Doornbos of NHL Racing. Obviously, things have been rocky over at NHL Racing with reports that the relationship between Graham Rahal and Bobby D was frosty at best. Graham could be heard on TV during the Watkins Glen telecast complaining about his teammate blocking him.

We've heard all year long that Doornbos was tight on having the money to run the full season for NHL, and it makes sense that if he is low on money, HVM would be able to make it work for a little bit less dough. Let's not forget that Doornbos has history with Keith Wiggins. Doornbos ran for Minardi - Team USA in the Champ Car World Series which was partially owned by Wiggins.

Hell, if I were Doornbos, I'd be fed up playing second fiddle to Graham. It's quite obvious that Graham is getting the better equipment, and it must be tough for an older driver to see a younger budding star out shine him in what the public must think is equal cars.

If this is true, it would be the meeting of two financially strapped items. Both Doornbos and Mr. Wiggins are hurting for money, so hopefully this works out for them.

Obviously, this increases speculation that Sebastien Bourdais will be returning to NHL Racing, possibly in time for Mid-Ohio. If so, awesome. If not, there is no big loss here since we aren't losing any cars in the field.

Seeing Sebastien Bourdais running at Mid-Ohio would be amazing. That is the type of course he excels on, and it would be awesome to see him dicing it up with the Penske's and Ganassi's. Add to that, +1 car on the grid and it's a good situation for the depth of the field and the fans sitting at home.

I'm going to make a stop at the Gryphon tonight, and hopefully our good bartender can shed some light on this situation for us.

I Don't Like Danica Patrick

I went on Twitter today and asked for some advice about what to write. I was told that there is always something new with Danica Patrick, which spurred my creative juices. So I figured, "Hell, I can write a rant about Danica Patrick, and enjoy myself while doing so".

I don't like the fact that Danica gets paraded around as the IRL show girl. Luckily, it has declined a bit this year, but, I still find it terribly annoying that a driver who won 1 race in 5 years (74 starts) is the face of the IRL. Unfortunately, we seem to be stuck with this situation as she is the biggest name we have, since we can't seem to produce stars to carry the series. I guess we need multiple American Women to get even more popularity for our drivers.

The fact that she is creating headlines simply by showing up in Nascab shops is annoying as hell, and the fact she is eating it up in the media by waiting it out until the end of the season to announce her future plans.

I have nothing against women in racing, in fact I think it's a positive to see both men and women competing together, but it bothers me when I see Danica being treated differently then the rest of the boys. She keeps saying she just wants to be one of the boys, and just be another driver, but then she throws herself on the cover of Sports Illustrated in less clothes then Pamela Anderson usually wears.

Problem is, if she leaves, the IRL is relatively screwed. If ratings drop, which they most likely will unfortunately, if she leaves, it will be twice as hard to grow and develop new faces for American fans to grab a hold of as their own. To grow stars, we need people watching when Ryan Hunter-Reay beats the big dogs again and steps on top of the podium, or when Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson battle it out in the late laps in a historic Indycar race. If no one is watching, then no one cares how great these battles and drivers are.

Unfortunately, as much as I dislike Danica, I realize the need we have for her in the league. I guess if people hate Paul Tracy while agreeing he would be an asset, Danica could be put in the same boat unfortunately. Maybe Danica pushes some of the same buttons PT pushes with fans, some people love them, some people don't, but either way, they are both huge news makers when they are driving, or talking about driving, or pushing someone on TV in pitlane.

If Danica leaves, it's a huge blow, but that won't stop me from hating seeing her do well. I guess I know how all these PT hater's feel.

Rahal On Track For Success

Well, unfortunately I missed qualifying to do some work for my lacrosse team helping a young players clinic. What I come back to shocks me.

1. Graham Rahal on Pole
2. Scott Dixon not in the Fast 6
3. Justin Wilson/DCR in second?
4. Tags and Manning 7th and 10th respectibly
5. 3 AGR in the top... I mean bottom 7?

Graham Rahal seems like he is ready to break out this year I think. Last years rain soaked St. Petes GP was more luck then anything. But now it seems like, on the road and street courses, Graham Rahal has shown he is ready to roll this season and I like it. I'm impressed with his ability to put the NHL car on pole ahead of IRL Vets like Franchitti and Kanaan and Briscoe. This is a shot across the bow of the Big-3 and I hope NHL and Graham sink them this weekend.

As for Dixon, I expected him in the top 6 for sure. I know most of his wins came on the ovals but I still expected Dixon to compete for the pole here based on the team he is with and how his teammate did. But maybe it was just a rough session for them, but I think the competition will be gunning for him and will make it tough for him to do well as often as last season.

Anyone else notice that Justin Wilson picked up second place? Is it a typo or did DCR really step it up over the off-season? I know Robin Miller made it seem like Dale Coyne was ready to spend some of his coin to step up the ladder a bit, but this seems a bit far fetched to be competing with the Big 3 at St. Pete's. I doubt they will find this success on the ovals, but it is nice to see them start up front. Hopefully this means Paul Tracy will change his mind on turning down the offer for the second car at DCR.

The 2 last minute replacements did very well considering they finished ahead of most of AGR while Manning also finished in front of his teammate in the qualifying session. Tags best time was actually faster then Will Power's time in the Fast 6. Hopefully this will encourage some sponsors considering taking the plunge to hop on board the Conquest train.

Is it personnel or is it drivers? We all know AGR has all the parts and pieces for their Dallara's available so you have to wonder why they are so far back in the field for qualifying. I don't actually remember the last time an AGR driver aside from TK qualified for the Fast 6 session. Personally, I actually enjoy seeing Danica and Marco in the bottom half of the field because I don't like either of them while I'm null on Mutoh. Atleast Kanaan is near the top as I do enjoy him even though he is driving for AGR. The problem with Danica and Marco in the bottom of the qualifying order is that they are the drivers that the IRL needs to have near the top of the time charts to get the Americans who cheer for Americans back watching the series. It's a good thing one famous racers son has the ability to do that.

Anyways, with the field so spread out talent-wise (the top 19 are less then a second apart), it should make for an interested race. There will be some good battles for position and I'm hoping Versus covers it well. This is their first big test so we'll get to see how it goes.

Bwak Bwak Bwhat?

Well, if all goes according to plan, seems its basically official for Newman/Haas/Lanigan. After racking up two wins in 2008, they will return with cars for Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos. Seems like a formidable duo for 2009 and it will add to the IRL rookie race too as I am sure they will classify Doornbos as a rookie due to his lack of oval experience.

For those of you IRL fans that don't really know who Robert Doornbos is, he was a multiple race winner in '07 with Minardi USA in Champ Car (basically now HVM). Earlier rumors had him going to HVM to run a second car, but obviously if this holds true (which I feel confident in saying now) he will not be running beside the ICS resident bad boy Ernesto Viso. He had some memorable runs in 2007 and was definately one of the top 5 drivers. He infused the field with some much needed charisma which made the few viewers of the races love him. He even managed to upset Seabass at Mont-Tremblant, look for video below.

Anyways, as a CCWS crossover fan, I'm quite happy to get another one of our drivers into the series even though it could mean losing Justin Wilson. But I'd rather see NHL run 2 cars. Either way it seemed like J-Dub was on the outside looking in, atleast for the NHL seat.

But, listen to this, I was in class today, and some joker in the crowd looked over and saw me surfing on the IRL site and said to me...

"Did you hear Milka Duno was going to be running with NHL in 2009? They are
going to run three cars, Boobies kid, Robert Doorknobs, and Ms. Grand-Am
winner."

I just laughed at him and told him to smoke the hippy hay after class and I continued on with my studies...............

what?

really?

your not serious are you? are you shitting me?

Duno really is running with NHL? She has another sponsor willing to pay out big bucks?

Wow... well, I feel stupid...

Well, I guess we can take it as a positive that NHL will be running 3 cars this year. I wonder if she will be running 08 (02 + 06)? But I mean, it's Newman-Haas-Lanigan, that team is quite possibly one of the more storied teams in AOWR. Driving a NH(L) car is an honour and the list of drivers who drove their cars is splendid.

• Alan Jones
• Mario Andretti
• Teo Fabi
• Paul Tracy
• Nigel Mansell
• Roberto Moreno
• Micheal Andretti
• Christian Fittipaldi
• Christiano da Matta
• Oriol Servia
• Bruno Junqueira
• Sebastien Bourdais
• Graham Rahal
• Justin Wilson

• Robert Doornbos
• uh... Milka Duno?

Well, I guess she can be the first women to lay claim to driving for NHL. And hell, she led more laps last year then Quattro, Power, Carpenter, Bernoldi, Moraes, and Ms. GoDaddy.com. And any feuds between Danica and Milka will have a little more emphasis if Milka is in a competitive ride I guess. Uhm, and maybe D&R can fill her seat with someone more talented? I heard Marty Roth is available.

But in all seriousness, I guess there must be some positives. Maybe Milka was in the same situation Katherine Legge was in with Dale Coyne in CCWS. Legge was always plagued with the sub-par equipment while Bruno would get the top car leaving Legge to run laps down and encounter many mechanical failures. Maybe getting out of a sub-par team like D&R and into a top tier team like NHL will get force her to put up results, as she doesn't have that crutch to lean on when she does poorly.

And you can only assume that if she is still a backmarker with NHL that she will atleast be a little bit more competitive on ovals atleast. Instead of being 7 laps down in a D&R car, she might simply be on the tail end of the lead lap or simply one lap down in an NHL car.

We are also guarenteed 2 more cars with Duno and Doornbos all but confirmed at NHL. And depending on how much moolah Duno is bringing, it might had made the Doornbos deal possible using some carry over cash from Duno to fund part of RD's ride. Let's face it, it seems that either with this new sponsor she is supposed to have lined up to pump money into her system, or with CITGO, Milka Duno was going to be on the 2009 IRL grid whether you like it or not. If Duno at NHL means adding 2 cars instead of Duno at D&R adding 1 car, I'm all for it.

Now, Robert Doornbos and Graham Rahal will still both be very competitive with NHL, but with Milka Duno as the team leader (due to age of course, and perhaps IRL experience), will they be able to hold everything together. There will be towels flying all over the shop in Lincolnshire, and the engineers will know the wrath of a womens scorn. Perhaps it will be a benefit as GR and RD are probably too easy on those engineers anyways.

Now the question shifts to D&R, and whether they manage to wrangle together another car as it seems they were counting on Duno for one of their cars.

"I don't know what we'll end up as, one or two cars, and we're also working on
some single-race deals like Indy and a couple other tracks." Dennis
Reinbold.

Hopefully they can pull together something for Townsend Bell, as I'd love to see him as a full time guy, and it would bump the car count up. Atleast this ride buyer has talent.