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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.

While at the movies with my significant other this previous weekend, I noticed that Honda played an advertisement that was quite long.  It seemed more like a preview.  It is titled “Failure, the Key to Success”.  The video featured but was not centered around Danica Patrick and her rought start in the IndyCar Series.  It also touches on Honda’s debut year in open wheel racing.  I found it interesting so I thought I would post it here so everyone can check it out.  You can watch all of the videos at dreams.honda.com.

 Versus network continues to promote the IndyCar Series prior to the opening race on the Streets of St Petersburg scheduled for April 5, 2009.  At first I was a bit skeptical about the IndyCar Series moving to Vs.  I must admit, they have definitely caught my attention with all the promotions and effort that they have put in prior to the start of the season.  Versus has already surpassed ESPN in my book in coverage.  Funny thing is they haven’t even covered anything yet.  However, they are going to have a special this Saturday on driver Danica Patrick that is scheduled to air from 2-3 p.m. The promo video above will debut this during this hour long special.  Below is a schedule of IndyCar programs that are going to run every Saturday during the month of March.  These should tie us over and get us worked up for the opener April 5th.

Saturday, March 07, 2009 2:00PM – 3:00PM	DANICA – FIVE YEARS RUNNING  () Danica- Five Years Running  TBD
Saturday, March 14, 2009 2:00PM – 3:00PM	INDY CAR: CLOSEST FINISHES  () Indy Car Series: Top 10 Closest Finishes  TBD
Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:00PM – 3:00PM	INDY CAR: CRASHES AND CONFLICTS  () Indy Car Series: Crashes and Conflicts  TBD
Saturday, March 28, 2009 2:00PM – 3:00PM	INDY CAR: WORLD TOUR 2009  () IndyCar Series World Tour 2009  TBD

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.

Wow! Who would have thought that the 2008 IndyCar season would be as eventful as memorable as it turned out to be. It will definitely go down in history as one to remember. From the last minute Champ Car merger weeks before the season opener at Homestead Miami Speedway all the way through Helio Castroneves drive from last place to first place at the season finale at Chicagoland Speedway. This year has also been a year of firsts. Graham Rahal went on to become the youngest winner in open wheel history with his first IndyCar Series start on the Streets of St. Petersburg. Danica Patrick went on to be the first female in open wheel history to win an event, doing so at Twin Ring Motegi when she passed Helio Castroneves with just a few laps left in her 50th IndyCar Series start and Ana Beatriz became the first woman in the Firestone Indy Lights to win an event at Nashville Superspeedway. It is going to be tough to top the eventful history making 2008 season.