photo: Dana Garrett

What a month it has been for 2 , make that 3 time winner Helio Castroneves.  This Sunday he joined an elite club of Indy 500 drivers such as Bobby Unser and Johnny Ruthorford that have won the greatest spectacle in racing 3 times. 

Helio’s off-season was a rough one as he was still dealing with his trial in Miami.  He missed the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and almost did not make the Grand Prix of Long Beach due to his trial and the jurors deliberating.  

Helio started off his season with a crash during the qualifying session at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.  He went on and started to build momentum for that race finishing in 8th position.  He then went on to Kansas and finished 2nd and carried that momentum into the month of May by getting the pole, winning the pit stop competition, and winning the race, a feat that has not been accomplished since Buddy Rice and Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004.   Helio became emotional as he was being brought to victory circle.  He could not thank the fans enough as he tried not to completely break down.

Danica Patrick drove a strong consistant race bringing her Andretti Green car home in P3.  Danica’s crew did a phenominal job getting her in and out of the pits quickly.  Just about everytime that she pit she came out at least one position ahead. She pushed really hard during the closing laps of the race but Wheldon was able to hold her off as Helio extended his lead to more than 2 seconds by the finish. Danica stated:

I was happy to put the Boost car up there in the front of the pack. At the end of the day, I could see the fans getting excited under that second to last yellow, so it was a good day.”

The day proved to be a rough one for Danica’s Andretti Green team mates Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan.  Marco was involved in an on track incident in the short chute between turn one and two on the first lap of the race with Mario Moraes.  Moraes thinking it was Marco’s fault and wanted to confront him after leaving the infield care center.  Moraes was told it was his fault and upon reviewing the replay returned to his pit box where he appeared to become somewhat emotional.  I would’ve too.  It’s a long month of practicing and setting up to end on the first lap.  Marco later returned to to the track after his crew repaired his car.  He was able to turn in a few laps before the end of the race. 

Tony Kanaan has had nothing but bad luck at Indy.  During the race, something broke on the rear of Kanaan’s car nose diving him into the wall in the back stretch.  It was a very hard hit followed by another hard secondary hit in the turn 3 wall.  If you remember, last year he was involved in an on track incident with Sarah Fisher. 

Vitor Meira is going to be ok but will be out of the car for at least 4-6 months according to Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star.  Vitor got tangled up with Raphael Matos and went into the wall hard.  The car actually rode the wall on its side before coming to a stop.  Vitor also had a small fire in pit lane prior to this but was able to get right back on track after it was extinguished.  It is unclear at this time who will be in the #14 ABC Supply car.  My guess would be Foyt’s grandson AJ Foyt IV, or Will Power.  We still have a rather large list of drivers that are searching for a ride that had one last season.

Townsend Bell had a great drive as well for KV Racing.  Townsend worked his way up to finish  4th after starting 20th. He did have two race strategists working together on his strategy after Moraes was out.

This Sunday we are off to the Milwaukee Mile where Ryan Briscoe recorded his first IndyCar Series victory last year.  You can watch it Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.

photo: Bret Kelley

The weather could not have been better for Carb day.  The sun was shining.  Light clouds rolled in here and there but most important of all, NO RAIN!  If you remember last year, Carb day was a wash.  The IndyCar Series were on the track for about 15 minutes before the rain came ending practice, canceling the pit stop competition, and postponing the Firestone Indy Lights race to Saturday.  This was not the case this year.

The Firestone Freedom 100 proved to be an eventful one.  Martin Plowman of Panther Racing lost control of his car in turn one causing team mate Pippa Mann to head up into the wall.  Their appeared to be no damage to her car other than the the two right side tires being flat.  She limped the car to the pits and the crew found other probems with the car.  This was definitely an upset for Panther Racing and Mann’s and Plowman’s first Firestone Freedom 100. 

Ana Beatriz went into the wall hard missing the safer barrier on lap 16.  She sustained minor injuries and was later released.

Wade Cunningham went on to win the race after passing JR Hildebrand with a lap and a half left.  Wade Cunningham did start from pole position and despite the many lead changes stayed up front.  

The whole race was to and fro. I got to the front early and knew I couldn’t lead all 40 laps, so I fell back because I didn’t want to be leading at the end. I knew I had a fast car, and it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time.  The last lap I was yelling at my car to keep going like a jockey on his horse

JR Hildebrand’s P2 finish placed him first in the points standings.  Andretti Green has shown that they have a good oval and road/street course setup this year.

It was great that we were able to have the pit stop competition this year.  Helio Castroneves and Team Penske won this year showing that they are having and excellent month of May.  I believe he was also the fastest at the final practice.  If they win the race, they will be the first since Buddy Rice driving for Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004 to get the pole win the pit stop competition and the race.  A task that does not happen often.

But wait… It gets better for Helio.  News reports also stated that the IRS has dropped the last charge pending against him. 

Coverage of the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 begins tomorrow at noon on ABC.

photo: Shawn Payne

This was definitely a crazy weekend at Kansas Speedway.  The Camping World Truck Series, Firestone Indy Lights and the IndyCar Series all took to the track over the past three days.  Saturday night the track fell victim to  tornadoes.  Nobody was said to be injured but some small structures were damaged. 

The IndyCar Series Kansas Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 went the distance today despite the threat of rain all afternoon.  At first race control was concerned about the race making it to at least lap 101 where it would have been official.  With the threat of rain immenent, different strategies were tossed around in pit lane. 

Strategies did pay off for the big 3.  Andretti Green Racing, Target Chip Ganassi racing, and Penske Racing all had at least one car that finished in the top 5.  Dario Franchitti was one of a few drivers that had on track incidents that ended their race day early.  Dario locked up the brakes behind Graham Rahal on lap 153 as they were both dropping to the low side of the track to enter pit lane.  Dario went up the banking into the wall to avoid Rahal.  Raphael Matos had a rear end wiggle from dirty air that was significant enough to take him into the safer barrier towards the exit of turn 4 on lap 97. 

All of the Andretti Green cars ran well finishing in the top 10.  Kanaan finished in P3, Danica in P5, Marco in P6 and Mutoh in P8.  AGR looks to carry this momentum into the month of May. Danica qualified well in P3as well.  The team has turned it around at Long Beach and Kansas after a rough start to the season on the Streets of St. Petersburg.  Tony Kanaan is now leading the IndyCar Series championship point standings.

Helio worked his way up the field to to finish 2nd after starting in the back of the field with Franchitti due to being dis-qualified during the qualifying session on Saturday.  Helio has proved to be one of the best when it comes to improving positions.  Last year he went from last to first at Chicagoland winning the last points race of the 2008 season.

We are off to Indy!  Month of May coverage starts on Saturday May 9th at noon on Versus and Versus HD

photo: Shawn Payne

Conditions are currently notlooking good.  The IndyCar Series was able to fit qualifying.  Kansas is currently being pounded by rain and heavy winds.  The truck race has been canceled until Monday morning at 10 a.m.  I as well as everyone else hopes that the weather will clear over night so the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights can run tomorrow. 

The big story of the day has to be Newman Haas Lanigan Racing taking the front row.  Graham Rahal had the fastest qualifying speed at 211.311.  Doornbos had the 4th fastest but was bumped up to row 1 after Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves qualifying times were disqualified due to them dipping below the white line.  Danica who was 5th fastest at 210.470 will now start in P3. 

Wade Cunningham will start on pole tomorrow for the Firestone Indy Lights.  He had a best speed of 187.458.  Roudning out the top 5 are Sebastian Saavedra, Ana Beatriz, J.R. Hildebrand, and Pippa Mann.  Junior Strous who is the current points leader will start P17.

You an watch the IndyCar Series in the Kansas Speedway Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 tomorrow at 4 p.m. on VERSUS and VERSUS HD

photo: Chris Jones

The IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights were on the streets of Long Beach this previous weekend.  The Long Beach race was not the most eventful one, being that there is not much passing room on the course.  The streets of Long Beach are very narrow yet very quick.  This was evident with the on track incidents that took place over the course of the weekend.

Will Power took the pole on Saturday after being pushed into a third Penske car after Helio Castroneves was aquitted of charges of tax evasion.  Roger Penske was more than prepared for Helio’s aquittal having brought the #12 car to Long Beach.  Verizon Wireless who wasn’t a main sponsor for Penske Racing stepped up to sponsor Will Power for the Grand Prix of Long Beach.  Will, along with the rest of his crew already had firesuits that were stitched with the Verizon branding.  This was definitely a plan B that Roger Penske had thought completely through.  The only mistake that Power’s crew (Penske’s ALMS crew) seemed to have made was forgetting to reattach a wire under the sidepod for the radio.  Power ran without a radio the whole race and was able to place second.

We had no radio and no telemetry, so I was doing it off the steering wheel and off the pit board.  I’m very happy; second is very good. I feel happy for all the guys. They put a lot of effort in. I really want to thank Roger Penske and Tim Cindric for bringing this car here for me. They’ve given me a fantastic ride and I can’t thank them enough.”

Danica Patrick turned the weekend around after starting from P22 Sunday due to an on track incident during the IndyCar qualifying session.  She finished 4th right behind teammate Tony Kanaan.

It was a much better result, obviously, for us and I’m real proud of how we all kept our heads down and made a result out of it instead of getting down.  The Motorola guys did a great job and got me out quickly.”

The talk of the weekend however had to be Helio Castroneves.  Helio was aquitted Friday and arrived in Long Beach early Saturday morning.  He was very happy to be there and almost broke down in the press conference that was held by Penske racing that day.  After going into the wall attenuator first on Saturday, there was a possibility that Helio might have had a concussion and might not be cleared to drive on Sunday.  Helio was cleared Sunday morning and started 8th He finished 7th.

Team 3G had to be happy with their performance.  Stanton Barrett started 21st and stayed out of trouble the whole race to finish P17.  This is Team 3G’s first year in the IndyCar Series and Stanton Barrett’s 2nd IndyCar Series race start.  His first time ever in an IndyCar was at the Homestead Miami Speedway test this previous February and his first time on a road course was in late March at Palm Beach International Raceway where his team elected to have a private test instead of testing with the rest of the series at Barber Motorsports Park. 

Next Sunday the IndyCar Series is off to Kansas Speedway for the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300.  You can watch the qualifying show Saturday at 6 p.m. ET and the race Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on VERSUS and VERSUS HD

photo: Dan Helrigel

The Firestone Indy Lights double header and IndyCar Series opener were less than uneventful this weekend in St. Petersburg.  With the exception of Friday morning the weather was stellar and the race conditions were optimal.  Versus did a great job of showcasing downtown St. Petersburg during the race coverage and showing off the location of the course.  They really sold the town to the viewers.

The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was full of surprises.  Graham Rahal, who seemed to be one of the favorites amongst the locals won the pole.  Unfortunately when the IndyCar Series took the green flag Sunday afternoon, Rahal was involved in a turn one incident as the field of cars, 3 and 4 wide in some places, had to bottle neck to make it from the runway onto the city streets.  That incident ended the day for rookie Mike Conway of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.  That is a tough start to the 09 season with Dad’s Root Beer on board as a sponsor.

Danica and Raphael Matos got into each other headed into turn 12 on lap 31.  Everyone in the stands waited for the drama to unfold.  A what appeared to be calm and collective Danica Patrick emerged from the car.  As Matos and Danica waited for the safety vehicle to give them a ride back to pit lane.  They CALMLY voiced their point of views of what had just taken place.  The fans were waiting to see Danica catch a tantrum or throw a fit, but to everyones surprise it was just the opposite.  

One of the big stories of the race had to have been Ryan Hunter-Reay.  Here we have a driver who lost his ride last season and was out of the seat up until about a week ago.  He recorded Vision Racing’s best finish ever finishing 2nd.  That is great for someone who had to jump in and set up a street course car in 3 days.  I am for one anxious to see how he does at Vision this season.  

Who is Junior Strous?  That’s what everyone was asking over the course of the weekend.  That was of course until he won both races of the Firestone Indy Lights double-header.  Strous is a rookie from the Netherlands that used to run in the Champ car Atlantic Series.  He ran a strong and consistant two races.  He is proved that himself along with The Winners Circle Group should be a force to be reckoned with on the road and street courses.  I would not count him out on the ovals either.  Strous was 6th fastest at the Homestead-Miami open test in February.  I am excited to see how this Firestone Indy Lights rookie does this season.

You can watch the Firestone Indy Lights highlights tonight on Versus at  6p.m. and a re-air of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at 10 p.m.

After utilizing the media center at Homestead Miami Speedway for 3 days.  I finally took time to notice what a great well built facility it is.  I overhead members of HMS stating that the facility cost roughly $8 million to build.  It is definitely money well spent since everyone from the media, to the drivers, and PR reps seemed to be pretty comfortable.  The final testing sessions proved to be productive ones for Ryan Briscoe and Team Penske.  They were the first and only team to break the 212 mph mark.  At the backend of the field is Stanton Barrett once again.  You have to keep in mind that Team 3G with Stanton in the cockpit had only turned 150 laps in an IndyCar on an oval prior to tonights testing. Team 3G managed to raise there best lap from 201 mph on Monday night to 206 mph tonight.  This is a pretty drastic improvement despite the fact that they remained the slowest overall.  After spoke with team owner Steve Sudler and he was pleased with improvement and is confident that Team 3G will continue to pick up the pace into the 2009 season.  I managed to speak with Ryan Hunter-Reay and he is currently trying to work on a putting something together with HVM.  He spent yesterday evening watching the test session from HVM’s pit box.  Hopefully the two can bring some sort of sponsorship deal together.

And we are green.  The final oval test session of the 2009 IndyCar pre-season is underway.   21 cars are on track on this pleasant south Florida evening.  The afternoon was a busy one with the teams scrambling to set the cars up for Versus on track video shoot.  With the video shoot wrapping up around 3 p.m., the teams only had one hour to get the cars ready for the start of the session.  All the teams want to turn as many laps as possible to improve there oval setups.  Usually the pre-season test at Homestead Miami Speedway is just a few weeks before the season opener at HMS.  This year they will have to wait 6 months before returning to the Speedway for the season finale under the lights.  You can follow all of the timing and scoring by clicking the link

IndyCar Series live timing and scoring

Good morning from Homestead Miami Speedway.  Everyone was able to sleep in this morning since the cars do not need to be on track until 2:30 for another Versus network promotional shoot.  It’s another sunny and warm day at the track and is expected to stay that way for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.  Drivers are scurrying around attending photo shoots for various media outlets while teams are fast at work in the garages prepping the cars for the on track video shoot for Versus.  The video shoot is scheduled to wrap up around 3 giving the teams 1 hour to get everything ready before the start of the test session at 4 p.m.  Dan Wheldon arrived today after doing some promos for the National Guard yesterday.  This should bring our car count to 22 for this evenings open test session.  Keep checking back during the course of the day for updates from Homestead Miami Speedway.<-->

Today was another interesting day at Homestead Miami Speedway.  Panther Racing’s rookie driver Pippa Mann remained the fastest Firestone Indy Lights driver in today’s final practice session with her teammate Martin Plowman who is also a rookie finishing in P4.  Today the media was present for the Versus network photoshoots as well as private sessions with various IndyCar Series drivers.   Milka Duno drove for Newman Haas Lanigan Racing but it has been reported by IndyCar.com that her deal has not yet been finalized for the season.  Her car is sporting the Citgo logo with a new paint scheme.  Don’t get too excited, its not totally different. Justin Wilson also tested with Dale Coyne Racing and does not yet have a finalized deal with them.  As I was strolling through the garage area I spotted Ryan Hunter-Reay talking to various teams and crew members.  Sarah Fisher made an appearance as well strolling around and speaking with old crew members and owners.  Robert Doornbos surpised everyone with his push to P4 with a speed of 209.584 mph.  The biggest issue of the evening seemed to be all the yellows that were drawn out due to tires suffering punctures on the track.  The test session ended with Scott Dixon at the top of the charts with a speed of 211.372.  He was then followed by Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti, Mario Moraes, and Will Power.  The night wrapped up with video shoot of the Versus livery car driving around the 1.5 mile oval with other IndyCar Series cars for the new Versus network promotions.  IndyCar Series testing resumes tomorrow at 4 p.m.  and you can catch all the timing and scoring by checking out IndyCar.com