IndyCar Silly Season Thread

[Jonerz]

Well, we have come to the time of the year where drivers are lobbying for new sponsors, improved rides, new environments, essentially the best place to challenge for a championship. By the same token, teams and sponsors get to look over the crop of drivers and decide on their plans. This time of year is silly season. In the honor of silly season let's open up the forum to speculation and rumor regarding the 2009 IndyCar Series team and driver lineups.

I'll start with speculation I'm familiar with:

Marlboro Team Penske
#3 Marlboro Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Helio Castroneves
#6 Marlboro Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Ryan Briscoe

Andretti-Green Racing (AS Racing?)
#7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Danica Patrick
#11 7-11/Frank's Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Tony Kanaan
#26 Blockbuster/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Marco Andretti
#27 Formula Dream Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Hideki Mutoh

Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#9 Target/Energizer Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Dan Wheldon (Oriol Servia, Bruno Junquiera?)
#10 Target/Energizer Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Scott Dixon
#? Target/Wii Fit Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Alex Lloyd (Bruno Junquiera?)

KV Racing Technology
#5 KV/iRise/Plantronics/Angies List/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Oriol Servia (will Oriol be moving to a bigger team?)
#8 Aussie Vineyards/Smart & Final/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Will Power

HVM Racing
#33 PDVSA/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: E.J. Viso (though his hard driving is inspirational to some, he isn't liked by all... "Teams don't like two new drivers.")
#?? ???/???/??? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: (Dan Clarke, can they afford two Kamikaze pilots? Robert Doornbos, was Bobby D a ChampCar only stud? Michel Jordain? PT... more than likely not, "former HVM drivers" are being talked to, check out Wiki for that long list. Nelson Philippe, perpetually improving driver, hugely popular amongst fans, but photos at Long Beach show he may be a "crappy" choice.)

Panther Racing
#4 Delphi/National Guard "Delphi National Guard Special" Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Vitor Meira
#?? No news, but with proper funding a second car is very advantageous.

Dale Coyne Racing
#18 Z-Line Designs/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Bruno Junquiera (Will we see Bruno in a bigger team?)
#19 Sunny's Real BBQ Pit/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Mario Moraes

Conquest Racing
#34 Sangari/Bidaroo Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Jaime Camara
#36 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Enrique Bernoldi

Sarah Fisher Racing
#67 Dollar General Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Sarah Fisher(full-time a real possibility. If she can't get up to speed on perhaps a road course ringer in the works?)
#?? Possible second car for Indy, less likely full year.

Pacific Coast Motorsports
#96 VisitMexico.com/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Mario Dominguez
#?? Few rumblings about a second car, but the possibility is there.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#15 ?/? (Red Bull will be associate or Driver sponsor) Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Buddy Rice
#23 CITGO Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Milka Duno (certainly no full-season effort. Townsend Bell again? WilliamRast may want him full time.)
#99 WilliamRast Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Townsend Bell (full-season? I'd like the 99 retired in Greg Moore's honor.)

Rahal-Letterman Racing
#16 Ethanol/Izod Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Ryan Hunter-Reay
#?? second car very possible - if Wheldon is gone from TCGR this might be his seat. PT? A.J. Allmendinger?

Vision Racing
#2 Lilly/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: A.J. Foyt IV
#20 Menards/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Ed Carpenter
#22 Subway?/?/Monster Energy Drink Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Paul Tracy (just one place PT could end up, if all else fails, Indy + Canada at least.)
#22? ??/??/?? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Bryan Herta (he is not over the hill and they NEED a road course setup guru. If PT isn't in the team...?)
#?? HP Computer/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Davey Hamilton (one team we could see Davey with at Indy, maybe more - he wants more races to get ready for Indy. Funding is the issue.)
#?? See this as a couple of possible cars, Vision typically enter around 4 cars at Indy. Reward for hard-charging Indy Lights guys (gal)?

A.J. Foyt Enterprises
#14 ABC Supply Company/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Darren Manning (is A.J. happy with Darren?)
#41 ABC Supply Company/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: (Jeff Simmons or another Indy Lights shoe for Indy only. Outside chance Allmendinger drives for his namesake.)

Roth Racing
#24 ?/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: (Jay Howard? He'd jump at the chance to go full-time IndyCar racing but Roth isn't the right place for him. John Andretti, Indy and/or parttime?)
#25 ?/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Marty Roth (If he get's black flagged one more time!!! He'll be back anyway.)

Luczo-Dragon Racing
#12 Symantec/Kodak?/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Tomas Scheckter (the aggressive South African will be back in the series full time reportedly.)
#?? (Could PT end up here? Stranger things have happened...)

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
#02 McDonalds (From Le MacDawnal-ds cah to Thuh MacDonawds cah.) Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Justin Wilson
#06 Hole in the Wall Gang Camps/McDonalds/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Graham Rahal (I foresee one more year for Graham here, and if things don't improve, he is the second or third Penske driver.)

Forsythe/Petit (Championship) Racing
#?? ?/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: ??? (The deal is ALMOST done. Tags? Ranger?)
#?? ?/? Dallara/Honda/Firestone: ??? (2nd car should come if the team appears. Allmendinger? Hinchcliffe? Martinez?)

Hemelgarn, American Dream, Beck Motorsports and the usual cast of Indy Lights and old school IRL teams are floating around looking for Indianapolis 500 entries.

Realistically what does this mess above mean? At least 26 full-season entrants, and a very real chance of 30. Needless to say bumping will happen at Indy. Robin Miller, has said that although we can dream all day about having over 30 cars unloading at various tracks throughout the season to qualify, let's hope that all the teams we know exist today can make it to tomorrow, let alone have second cars or new teams arriving.

Drivers sniffing around for drivers seats:

Alex Tagliani (wasn't mentioned above but open-wheel is that guy's home and Canada loves Alex.)
PT, a major coup for the IRL could be Paul Tracy in a full time team. He is a lightning rod for attention good and bad. And a far better driver than most lightning rods.
Alex Lloyd, 500 possible... TCGR ride long-shot.
Rafa Matos, potentially a back-to-back Atlantic-IndyCar champion won't be in IndyCar, Acura or Mazda ALMS driver? 500 possible.
Richard Antinucci, potentially another Indy Lights champion to be soon forgotten. 500 - more likely.
Dan Clarke, still living in America as far as I know. Former HVM driver.
Dillon Battistini, name Lights driver. 2009: 500 most likely for him.
J.R. Hildebrand, big-name Indy Lights driver, what does that mean to IndyCar owners?
Arie Luyendyk Jr., with the right funding he wants to be in IndyCar. 500 possible.
Ana Beatriz, will perfect her craft in Lights one more year, 500 appearance possible. A talented driver with lady bits is too appealing to pass up. Get while the gettin's good, they'll be old news soon.
Robbie Pecorari, we'll sooner see in ALMS or Grand-Am if owners keep running the path they typically do.
Al Unser III, needs funding to appear... even at the 500.
Bobby D, running in that European soccer-meets-racing series, would an IndyCar offer tempt this super-talented driver?
A.J. Allmendinger, how much does RB-Toyota love him? Whether or not he is an IndyCar driver in 2009 is the tell-tale sign.
Nelson Philippe, this crappy choice will be a great competitor if given the chance, but has he burned bridges? Like Dan Clarke, he is still in the States AFAIK. (No funding?)
Richard Philippe (F3 Euroseries), apparently better than his brother, all bridges he has crossed appear to be untouched. IRL team-owners that have been in the IRL since at least 2003 don't know he exists. Not an oval guy, brother of a crappy choice.
Andrew Ranger, possible he could be in the series, but he's indicated a return only if American open-wheel "recovers". Define that for yourself. He is a good ol' boy now.
Dario Franchitti, won't be back in an IndyCar. If he is not a Ganassi driver next year (NASCAR, and GARRA) he is a de Ferran ALMS driver (YES!!!).

This was supposed to be posted Friday, unfortunately Internet slowed as I posted and my Dad shut off the power (we were leaving for the weekend) so this is sort of the bare bones of the intended post. I'll post more as I hear it. I want to hear what you guys think, what you've heard and all questions and comments are invited.

Chris