Ok, so everyone is on twitter.  Twitter is free service that allows you to let everyone know through tweets what you are doing, thinking, or how you are feeling.  Twitter is a recent phenomenon that is now used by news companies, athletes, sports teams, and even fortune 500 companies to give a live update of what is happening. 

Twitter can be used by anyone.  I even have a Twitter account to let my readers in the blogosphere know what’s going on when I am at various racing venues as well as when I update IRLblog.com.

Danica Patrick recently joined the Twitter world.  What makes this so different than anyone else that has joined is that Danica is one  of the first , if not the first athlete to join Twitter and have sponsor backing in doing so.  Tissot (watches) has signed as her sponsor.  

Tissot watches views social media as a new way of advertising in a less-invasive way.  They want to connect with social media using one of their company’s faces.  Tissot along with Danica are entering into this new venture cautiously knowing that they are treading through new territory as far as sponsorship on Twitter.  Prior to her first tweet on May 17, she already had roughly 2700 followers.

Social media is proving to be the wave of the future.  I expect to see more companies backing atheletes in the social media world.  After all, services like Twitter are free to use and for anyone that is following, it can be used as a form of direct advertising.

You can follow Danica on twitter by going to http://twitter.com/danicapatrick

…jurors acquitted him on all charges except for a single charge of conspiracy. The judge declared a mistrial on the count of conspiracy after jurors were unable to return a verdict… CBS4

Helio Castroneves has been acquitted after five days of deliberations.  Helio’s sister, Katiucia was also acquitted on all charges except the conspiracy charge.  His lawyer, Alan Miller, was acquitted on all charges since he had not been charged with conspiracy.  The government has not declared if it would re-file a new trial for the count of conspiracy.

“I love this country, and I love racing. I’m glad I’ll be able to do it,” he said.

“Instead of going to Disneyland, I want to go to Long Beach and race,” he said after thanking his racing sponsors for continuing to support him.

“Let’s go race,”

According to  16th and Georgetown , Curt Cavin has reported that Team Penske would have the #12 car ready for Will Power to ride in if Helio was cleared today.

Here’s a sneak peek at the upcoming Danica Patrick / IndyCar Series promo to be aired on the Versus Network.  I think they’ve made the folks at Andretti Green Racing proud with this one.  Check it out online in case you miss its debut during the Versus Network’s coverage of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend. Don’t get the Versus Network? Call your cable/satellite provider and request that they add it to your current programming. Those of you who would like to spread some IRL joy to those who are specifically on Dish Network, click HERE.

photo: Steve Snoddy

Paul Tracy might have landed  a part time ride this year for the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 with KV Racing technology.  This team which is owned by ex Champ Car owner Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser could field Tracy in a few other races as well.  I would think that they would be the Edmonton and Toronto races.

The last time that Paul Tracy ran in Indy was at the 86th running of the Indy 500 in 2002 where he finished second behind Helio Castroneves after a  controversial call was made stating that Paul Tracy made the pass after the yellow flag had flew in turn 3 of lap 199.

Paul Tracy showed that he still has what it takes last year when he ran at the Rexall Edmonton Indy for Vision Racing with Subway sponsoring him.  He just missed the podium finishing in P4.  This was Vision Racing’s best finish up until this years Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg where Ryan Hunter-Reay finished in P2.

Graham Rahal, while doing Versus promotions, took some time out to answer some questions on how he felt going into the first race of the season.  Graham is very optimistic and feels good going into St. Petersburg.  I don’t see why he wouldn’t be being that he won there last year in his IndyCar Series debut.  Let’s not forget that he ran really well at the off-season testing at Barber Motorsports Park.  

Graham also answered questions for fellow open wheel bloggers: Pressdog, is it May yet?, 16th and Georgetown

photo: AP

Although Helio Castroneves is in major trouble, he is getting help from all different sources.

Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson was the first defense witness to testify in the trial that could have Castroneves facing jail time. Johnson testified on behalf of Alan Miller’s character. Miller is Castroneves’s lawyer who is also being charged in the case.

Johnson said,  ”Alan’s reputation is about honesty. His character is second to none. He’s given me great advice.”(ESPN.com)

Miller who is a former National League Football player and a former member of the NFL players association is being charged for conspiracy and tax evasion. The main dilemma of the case is that Miller who is well known in Motorsports industry gave advice to Castroneves regarding payments to his father who promoted him for period of time in Brazil. The prosecutors claim the location of the money was switched after Castroneves signed his deal with Penske racing in 1999 . Supposedly, five million dollars ended up in a compensation account after being designated for a Panamanian shell account and that made it tax free.

Castroneves’s defense team says that the money was never taken out of the account. Therefore, he can cannot be charged tax evasion.   However, prosecutors claim that there still needs to be a tax on the money because there was nothing barring him from taking it. He also cannot be exempt from the tax because there was nothing preventing Penske Racing from paying him either. 

The defense team feels strongly that proper documentation will show that tax deductions were in fact taken out. 

Prosecutors rested their case on March 30th.

With the prosecutors presenting evidence for over four weeks. I hope  for Helio’s sake and the others being charged along with him that they have a strong argument to present to jurors.

Vision Racing is now fielding two American drivers in 2009 with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ed Carpenter.  

If Ryan remained without a ride for this season, he along with the IndyCar Series would be placed in a bad situation. IZOD had already filmed their commercials for the 2009 season and had already made billboard and magazine advertisment featuring Ryan Hunter-Reay.  Their investment and marketing plans for this year would have been lost. Ryan not finding a ride could have pushed away potential sponsors that were looking into getting involved with the IndyCar Series. Mike Kelly, executive vice president of marketing for Philips-Van Heusen Corporation stated:

It was very important to get him a full-time ride.  I can’t underscore that enough.  Personally, I like Ryan a lot.  He is a winner and he is good for the sport and the brand.  From a business point of view we made him the center of our 2009 campaign.  We wanted to bring the drivers to the forefront and celebrate the drivers and what they represent.  He represented all the right stuff and we connected the brand to him and he is our representative in the campaign, the commercial, print and other areas.

The addition of Ryan Hunter-Reay to Vision Racing brings the car count for the opening race on the Streets of St. Petersburg up to 20 cars.

You can watch the season opener on the streets of St Petersburg Sunday April 5th on Versus Network starting at 2 p.m. ET.

Update:

Ryan Hunter-Reay’s St Petersburg car,

Michael Andretti is taking a new role as strategist for Danica Patrick’s team.

This new role comes after the spot was left vacant by Kyle Moyer who will now call races for for Marco Andretti.

I think this new role will be able to teach Danica Patrick new things and techniques rather than take things away from her which could lead to trouble for the team. With more than 40 victories I believe Andretti has good ideas on how to come up with new schemes and ideas to attack Patrick’s weaknesses such as racing on road/street courses which she has failed to do well on pretty much her whole IRL career. Adding some more wins would help also.

“As a strategist, you just have to try to anticipate what is going to happen and be a little bit smarter than everybody you’re racing against,” Andretti said.  “This will be a new challenge for sure, but I’m looking forward to working more closely with Danica.” (Indycar.com)

I believe this will be a good move for the AGR team, but we know last year there was some turmoil within the team due mostly, at least to my knowledge, for some of Patricks actions during races. Andretti’s new position will enable him to work closer like he said but also keep her more level-headed as well and even more focused.

photo: www.Grand-am.com

Well, by this time I am sure everyone knows that Buddy Rice will not be returning to Dreyer and Reinbold Racing.  D&R signed Mike Conway of Britain last week.  Curt Cavin of the Indy Star stated here that Robbie Buhl made it clear that Buddy Rice will not be returning to D&R.  This was a surprise to all since Dad’s Root Beer had announced last year that they would be sponsoring D&R in the 2009 season.  However, not all is lost.  Buddy Rice had a fantastic drive this past weekend at the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona, driving for Brumos Porsche.  He lead all through the late night early morning hours.  Buddy Rice has joined an elite group that have won both the Indianapolis 500 and the Rolex 24. After a strong drive this previous weekend, hopefully sponsors out there will step forward and help put Buddy in a car for the 2009 IndyCar season.   

There is no doubt that racing teams have come across financial problems due to the many financial blows this country has taken recently. However if a spot opens up Hunter-Reay should be a shoe in.

Yes Roger Penske is the Boss and has made good decisions in the past but I think he blew it here by having Will Power come in to start testing due to the likely hood of Helio Catroneves’s future absence due to his trial and how much trouble he is in.

Hunter-Reay won his first race last year and seemed to appear in the front of the pack at the start and finish of almost every race.

Granted Will Power is a good road course driver but his driving was not as consistent as Hunter-Reay’s last year. Driving consistently well in the IRL is what wins races for teams. Power might have shown glimpses of that and I hope those Glimpses showed some pretty outstanding things because the pressure of filling in for Castroneves could be dreadful especially if your boss expects his cars to finish in a three way tie for first place every race.