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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 says it’s a done deal even though the paperwork has not yet been signed to have Ryan Hunter-Reay drive a second Vision car for the 2009 season.   Ryan took The Indy 500 rookie of the year honors last season as well as winning the race at Watkins Glen.  He spent the past few months talking to teams such as Vision Racing, KV Racing Technologies, HVM, and Dale Coyne Racing for a potential ride.  HVM seemed like the team that he would run with after his private test at Sebring with them.  

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.   

As we know Ryan Hunter-Reay is looking for a ride for this upcoming season.I really have no idea why no one has picked him up.

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.