OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 1 of 5 – Intro

Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race An Introduction A few weeks back, I posted the article, The Role of a Series, arguing that most successful series throughout the history of motorsports, including American open-wheel racing, were successful because they had one marquee race that everyone in the racing world wanted to win. Sportscar racing has the 24-Hours of Le Mans, stockcar racing has the Daytona 500, Formula 1 has Monaco, off-road racing has the Baja 1000, and rally has the Dakar (Da Argentina now?). American open-wheel racing has always had…

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IndyCar – Mutoh to Stay, NHL to Field Three Cars

In one brief sentence, Curt Cavin just made my off-season! Ok, to be honest, the confirmation of the title sponsorship deal between IZOD and the IndyCar Series really made my off-season. This recent tidbit is just yummy gravy for me. It had been rumored, and still is, that Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has a personal services agreement with the new title sponsor IZOD, is close to a deal to drive for Andretti Green Racing. Its obvious that TK, Danica, and Marco aren’t going anywhere, which leaves my man Hideki Mutoh on…

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IndyCar – Danica Goes Tintoppin’

An ESPN article posted today stated that Danica was close to a two-year deal with JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhart Jr’s Nationwide team. While I don’t think this is a good move for Danica, especially not committing to a two-year deal, at least she’s with a quality team. …as quality as you can get in a car that still uses a carburetor. The only thing that I own that still uses a carburetor is my lawnmower! hmmm…. Danica to Lawn Mower Racing? That could be highly entertaining. I digress, though. She…

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IndyCar – IZOD Becomes Title Sponsor

For at least a couple of years running, Terry Angstad has told us after each season that the IndyCar Series was close to inking a deal with a title sponsor. The problem is that deal never materialized. The rumor recently was that IZOD was being sought after to be the title sponsor for 2010 and beyond, and that they were close to inking a deal. Call me a skeptic, but I wasn’t buying it. Sure, I believed that the league was working towards a deal, but I wasn’t going to…

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OP-Ed – Rumors Rumors Everywhere!

…but where’s the actual announcements? As that cranky old lady from the Wendy’s commercials asked, “Where’s the beef?” For the past month, we’ve been bombarded with various rumors of things that might be happening in the IndyCar Series, but so far there’s been nothing of substance released on any front. Here are some of the outstanding issues: Danica – Andretti contract? NASCAR tests? Penske – Third car for Power? KVRT – Resign Moraes? 2nd Car? deFerran – Will he answer the bell? FAZZT – Hinch for some races? Tracy –…

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IndyCar – Penske to Field Three

Autoweek just ran an article quoting Team Penske President, Tim Cindric, as saying that he plans on running three cars in the IndyCar Series and not running Grand Am. “It’s not done yet, but we’re closer,” Cindric said. “I’m planning on running three cars full-time, but I don’t have the deal done yet.” This bodes well for Will Power who signed with Team Penske as a replacement driver while Helio Castroneves fought off charges of tax evasion and fraud. When Helio was exonerated, Will had to relinquish the seat to…

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IndyCar – Newman Wachs Coming in 2010?

Newman Wachs Racing is set to take Altantics champion John Edwards to either GP2 or IndyCar. As of now, they’re leaning strongly towards IndyCar, and it would seem to be a good fit since all of their work and efforts thus far, and all of the experience of Edwards, has been in domestic open-wheel series. John Edwards has won consecutive championships in Star Mazda (2008) and the Atlantic Championship (2009). The latter was thanks to a fantastic drive on his part in the season finale at Laguna Seca enabling him…

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IndyCar – Homestead Review

The last race of the season was did not offer too much in the way of surprises. Like all of the 1.5 mile ovals this season, it was the Ganassi and Penske show. Right at the beginning of the race, Dario and Dixon provided some great side-by-side action as each of the TCGR drivers fought for lead. There wasn’t much change until Dario had to lift just a bit on Lap 10 which allowed Briscoe to take the position. Dario’s strategy then was one of fuel conservation. Dixon and Briscoe…

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OP-Ed – The Role of a Series

The Indianapolis 500 made good gains this year in both attendance and viewership, but the rest of the season hasn’t been as rosey. This got me thinking, what makes for a successful series? What standards should we use? When I think of various series throughout motorsports that are perceived to be successful, Le Mans and ALMS come to mind, as does Formula 1, SCORE, IndyCar (in its various forms AAA/USAC/CART/IRL), and NASCAR. However, what makes those series memorable isn’t the whole sequence of races that make up the series, but…

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IndyCar – Danica Back for Three More Years

Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star reported this evening that Danica Patrick has signed a three-year contract extension with Andretti-Green Racing (soon to be simply Andretti Racing). Much speculation has been thrown about the interwebs regarding her departure from open-wheel racing to seek even more fortune in NASCAR. Even we at Openpaddock.net has dabbled in such speculation. Although she may yet run a race or two (or several) with Tony Stewart’s team, she’s now committed to three more full-time seasons in the IndyCar series. Love her or loathe her, this…

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