IndyCar Silly Season Thread

[DanicaFan]

Here is the confirmed list of drivers and teams for next week's testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Feb. 24-25.

Car # & Driver / Team

#3 Will Power / Team Penske
#4 Dan Wheldon / Panther Racing
#5 Mario Moraes / KV Racing Technology
#6 Ryan Briscoe / Team Penske
#7 Danica Patrick / Andretti Green Racing
#9 Scott Dixon / Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#10 Dario Franchitti / Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#11 Tony Kanaan / Andretti Green Racing
#12 Raphael Matos / Luczo Dragon Racing
#13 EJ Viso / HVM Racing ( Picked up new car number, was #33 car last year)
#14 Vitor Meira / AJ Foyt Enterprises
#15 Mike Conway / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#18 TBA / Dale Coyne Racing
#19 TBA / Dale Coyne Racing
#20 Ed Carpenter / Vision Racing
#26 Marco Andretti / Andretti Green Racing
#27 Hideki Mutoh / Andretti Green Racing
#34 Jaime Camara / Conquest Racing
#98 Stanton Barrett / Curb-Agajanian Team 3G
#02 Graham Rahal / Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing
#06 Robert Doornbos / Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing
#TBA / Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing

[ger80]

Hard days for TBA - has to test 3 cars

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by ger80

Hard days for TBA - has to test 3 cars

I think TBA is going to be very busy this year.

[DanicaFan]

The best news on that list was no Milka on there!!

[Canada ALMS fan]

Robin Miller is reporting that Justin Wilson is set to sign for Coyne! Great news! Coyne may also run Junqueira in a second car.

[gomick]

wish nhl would lose those #'s...

[Speedblood]

Originally Posted by Canada ALMS fan

Robin Miller is reporting that Justin Wilson is set to sign for Coyne! Great news! Coyne may also run Junqueira in a second car.

Thats one team who saw sense in signing Justin! (or close to) Great news!

[Alwaysfirst]

How its looking at the moment...

Penske

Ryan Briscoe
Will Power
Possibility of 3rd car for Helio Castroneves at select races, dependant on his trial

Ganassi

Scott Dixon
Dario Franchitti

Newman/Haas

Graham Rahal
Robert Doornbos
Milka Duno

Andretti/Green

Tony Kanaan
Danica Patrick
Marco Andretti
Hideki Mutoh
Possibly Indy & part time for Franck Montagny

Vision

Ed Carpenter
2nd entry looking less likely. If it happens it may be AJ Foyt IV...but not likely.

KV Racing

Mario Moraes
Paul Tracy or Oriol Servia or Lucas di Grassi or Nelson Philippe or ?
Possibility of 3rd car for Jimmy Vasser at Indy.

Panther

Dan Wheldon
2nd car looking unlikely. If it happens possibilities are Giorgio Pantano, Tomas Scheckter or ?

Luczo Dragon

Rafael Matos

Foyt

Vitor Meira
Possibility of 2nd car at least part time for AJ Foyt IV if he leaves Vision.

Coyne

Bruno Junqueira
Justin Wilson

HVM

EJ Viso
Ryan Hunter-Reay

Conquest

Jaime Camara and/or Nelson Philippe or ?
Alex Tagliani

Dreyer & Reinbold

Mike Conway
Tomas Scheckter or Townsend Bell or Oriol Servia or Nelson Philippe or ?

Rubicon

Buddy Rice (almost confirmed)
Possible part time entry for John Andretti

Team 3G

Stanton Barrett

Fisher

Sarah Fisher (4 races. possibility of more)
Possible extra funding for road courses might bring in a driver like Darren Manning part time. Would need to bring extra funding though...

Rahal/Letterman

Tomas Scheckter or Ryan Hunter-Reay or Alex Lloyd or Oriol Servia or Neson Philippe or ?


Possible extra entries (especially for Indy) include...

A Vision colabiration with either Apex Racing (Davey Hamilton), Kingdom Racing (Davey Hamilton?) or Herta Racing (Bryan Herta or Daniel Herrington).
Walker Racing (Paul Tracy or Nelson Philippe?)
1 extra Luczo Dragon car (Nelson Philippe?)
An entry from Curb/Agajanian in Colabiration with Team 3G
Hemelgarn (Buddy Lazier or ?)
1 or even 2 Sam Schmidt entries (Richard Antinucci or Anna Beatriz or ?)
Team Leader?
Guthrie/Meyer Racing?

Roger Yasukawa is also set to announce plans for at least an Indy & Motegi programme in the near future.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by climb

Or just no open wheel series at all; given the circumstances it would be the most likely situation.

Miller thinks that this could be a real possibility within the next few years.

[Down F0rce]

Justin Wilson to get a ride with Dale Coyne? The article is here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73386

[Alex K]

May! But I wouldn't understand that move if he's got abcking for one car, I'd run Junky again, proven driver.

[DanicaFan]

Always first, there will be no 3rd car for Penske if Helio comes back if he is cleared from the trial. Will Power will be out and Helio in. Penske made that clear back when they announced him replacing Helio temporarily.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by DanicaFan

Always first, there will be no 3rd car for Penske if Helio comes back if he is cleared from the trial. Will Power will be out and Helio in. Penske made that clear back when they announced him replacing Helio temporarily.

It's going to take some pretty swift lawyering to get Helio out from the mess he is in, facing 35 years in jail and all. Even if he cuts a deal it's likely he'll get tossed out of the USA.

I say the chances are minimal you'll see him back. I think the "temporary replacement" thing is PR to keep from slamming the guy as guilty.

[nic.v814]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

It's going to take some pretty swift lawyering to get Helio out from the mess he is in, facing 35 years in jail and all. Even if he cuts a deal it's likely he'll get tossed out of the USA.

I say the chances are minimal you'll see him back. I think the "temporary replacement" thing is PR to keep from slamming the guy as guilty.

I agree i dont think he will be back even though he seems pretty confident he will be found not guilty ,he will really be missed in the series he is a great guy.

[Alwaysfirst]

I agree that it is unlikely that Helio will return. The only reason I included that 3rd entry was that there have been loads of rumours about Helio being allowed one-off races at St Petersburg & Indy in a 3rd car. Unlikely but it has still been talked about a lot. Thats the only reason its included here.

[climb]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Miller thinks that this could be a real possibility within the next few years.

It doesn't surprise me that much, honestly.
BTW Everything could be a real possibility within the next few years, even flying horses: it is not now, but il could be..

[climb]

Originally Posted by nic.v814

I agree i dont think he will be back even though he seems pretty confident he will be found not guilty ,he will really be missed in the series he is a great guy.

a double 500 winner is bound to be missed when leaving

[Alwaysfirst]

Roger Yasukawa signed with Dreyer & Reinbold for Motegi as per Autosport as predicted. Still working on a deal for Indy though.

[Leighton Irwin]

I am surprised that world famous driver 'A. N. Other' is not listed anywhere.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Dominguez on his way to FIA GT...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73583

[DanicaFan]

I wish him the best there. He is really no loss to the IRL. Buddy Rice will be in that seat especially now after the merger with Rubicon. Now if we can only get Milka out of here.

[Taprobane]

And that other woman, whats her name? You know, the one who has only ever won one race in cars??

[Aloysius]

Originally Posted by DanicaFan

I wish him the best there. He is really no loss to the IRL. Buddy Rice will be in that seat especially now after the merger with Rubicon. Now if we can only get Milka out of here.

Dominguez was a very talented driver in good equipment, but he really never stood much of a chance in the thrown together ride from last year. Still, It probably is time for him to move on to road racing.

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by Taprobane

And that other woman, whats her name? You know, the one who has only ever won one race in cars??

What you mean the race in which she was given a fuel strategy and won with that? She'll be around as long as sponsors are interested (i.e. as long as she gets into the SI Swimsuit edition)

[2112]

Absolutely..she has nothing to do with driving talent.

$$$$$...who ever is making a quick quid, time is running out.