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Old 25 Aug 2008, 17:07 (Ref:2275084)   #1
Jonerz
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Jonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
IndyCar Silly Season Thread

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
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Old 25 Aug 2008, 22:23 (Ref:2275277)   #2
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cos should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
AGR likely to retain current lineup: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...808250361/1217

Doornbos, Clarke, Gommendy and Philippe are likely to turn up in Superleague; but that's not going to clash with IndyCar.

PCM's website says they're done for this year, but looking to return in '09.
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Old 29 Aug 2008, 05:01 (Ref:2277256)   #3
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drdisque should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I think it's highly unlikely that enrique bernoldi will return to IndyCar in 2009, leaving at least one of the Conquest seats open. I also imagine that Camara will have to bring a bigger check than this year since the team will have to pay for its engines next year, but he's done well enough and gotten along with the team well enough to be welcomed back if he supplies said check. I think that team will revert to its Champ Car ways of various drivers signing partial season deals next year.
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Old 31 Aug 2008, 03:40 (Ref:2278479)   #4
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Alwaysfirst should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I see it looking something like this:

Penske
Helio Castroneves
Ryan Briscoe

Ganassi
Scott Dixon
Dan Wheldon

Andretti Green
Danica Partick
Tony Kanaan
Marco Andretti
Hideki Mutoh

Vision
Ed Carpenter
AJ Foyt IV
Bryan Herta (Road courses + Indy only?)

Newman/Haas
Justin Wilson
Graham Rahal

Rahal/Letterman
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Alex Lloyd

Dreyer & Reinbold
Buddy Rice
Townsend Bell (Road courses + Indy only?)
Milka Duno (ovals only?)

KVR
Oriol Servia
Will Power

HVM
EJ Viso
Nelson Philippe

Panther
Vitor Meira
Dillon Battistini

Coyne
Bruno Junqueira
Mario Moraes

Conquest
Alex Tagliani
Rafael Matos

Foyt
Darren Manning
Jeff Simmons

Fisher
Sarah Fisher (ovals only?)

Luczo Dragon
Tomas Scheckter

Walker
Paul Tracy
Franck Perera

Forsythe
James Hinchcliffe
David Martinez

PCM
Mario Dominguez

Roth
Marty Roth (ovals only)

I can also see these as Indy extras/One offs:

Andretti/Green
Franck Montagny
James Rossiter
Arye Luyendyk Jr (I'd be surprised if all 3 of these turned up, but 1 or 2 wouldn't shock me much)

Conquest
Andrew Ranger

HVM
Robert Doornbos

Fisher
Davey Hamilton

Luczo Dragon
Richard Antinucci

Foyt
Pablo Donoso

Roth
John Andretti (Road courses + Indy)

Hemelgarn
Buddy Lazier

Sam Schmidt
Max Papis

Beck
Roger Yasukawa

I can imagine a few more Indy only entries & I'm quite prepared for a few surprises in the silly season.
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Old 31 Aug 2008, 06:48 (Ref:2278516)   #5
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mountainstar should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridmountainstar should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridmountainstar should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
I wonder if the irl being viewed on channel 607 on Versus is going to have an impact on sponsors for the future? An article in the indystar newspaper would seem to indicate so.
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Old 31 Aug 2008, 08:15 (Ref:2278542)   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alwaysfirst
Panther
Vitor Meira
Dillon Battistini
Anthony Davidson is at Detroit this weekend having been invited by Panther...
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Old 31 Aug 2008, 09:43 (Ref:2278584)   #7
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Mr Pink should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I think Anthony Davidson would be a nice addition to the series.
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Old 31 Aug 2008, 17:52 (Ref:2278856)   #8
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Alwaysfirst should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I'd love to see that. I was only basing Battistini going there on the basis that he'd already had tests with Panther...but so has Mike Conway. First time in the car he topped the timesheets ahead of the Penskes. Wouldn't mind seeing him there also.

Robert Doornbos has already said that he has his 2009 IRL seat sorted apparently & rumours are that it isn't with one of the ex-CCWS teams so Rahal & Panther (again!) are the 2 most obvious options. While I can't wait for him to get back in a seat it would leave me concerned as to where Alex Lloyd will end up. I'd hate to see him without a seat & a one off entry at Indy really isn't enough for a driver of this amount of talent. I hope he finds a good seat somewhere.
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Old 2 Sep 2008, 02:30 (Ref:2279849)   #9
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Jonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
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
#?? UPDATE: Anthony Davidson at Detroit as a guest of Panther.

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 (Alex Tagliani)

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 Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer/? (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?)

Some updates.

Chris
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Old 2 Sep 2008, 03:14 (Ref:2279861)   #10
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Peter Ford should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I believe that chip Ganassi and dario francetti are talking about dario replacing wheldon for next year.
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Old 2 Sep 2008, 17:49 (Ref:2280218)   #11
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Daisy should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Doornbos announced in the Dutch press a few days ago that I will be Indycar next season with a team with Indycar experience. Although rumours say it could be TCG, I'm more likely to say a second car at Rahal/Letterman.
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Old 2 Sep 2008, 19:52 (Ref:2280328)   #12
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Tim Northcutt should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridTim Northcutt should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridTim Northcutt should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridTim Northcutt should be qualifying in the top 3 on the grid
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ford
I believe that chip Ganassi and dario francetti are talking about dario replacing wheldon for next year.

This exact scenario was confirmed late this afternoon via separate news releases from Ganassi Racing.

Dario will return to IndyCar with Ganassi in 2009 and Ganassi and Wheldon are parting ways.
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Old 2 Sep 2008, 23:03 (Ref:2280494)   #13
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Jonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
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: Dario Franchitti
#10 Target/Energizer Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Scott Dixon
#? Target/Wii Fit Dallara/Honda/Firestone: Alex Lloyd (Oriol Servia, 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: Dan Wheldon
#?? UPDATE: Anthony Davidson at Detroit as a guest of Panther. Meira Axed? Oriol Servia, Bruno Junquiera?

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 (Alex Tagliani)

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. Vitor Meira?

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 Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer/? (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? Vitor has to go to number one if this car exists.

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. Vitor?)

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? Will this car exist?)
#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... Vitor?)

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? Vitor a dark horse if this team exists.)

More updates.

Chris
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Old 3 Sep 2008, 08:32 (Ref:2280649)   #14
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Mystery should be qualifying in the top 10 on the gridMystery should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Panther seems to have a wealth of talent at their disposal and most of it is British too

Whilst I appreciate Vitor I think he's had his chances. I guess next year we'll see just how good he is. If Wheldon quickly adds to his 15 victories Vitor's career will be looked back on as a series of missed opportunities.

Do I remember reading in Cavin's blog about a possible 5th AGR car?
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Old 3 Sep 2008, 13:52 (Ref:2280842)   #15
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BootsOntheSide should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridBootsOntheSide should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridBootsOntheSide should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridBootsOntheSide should be qualifying in the top 3 on the grid
When Doornbos says 'a team with IRL experience' does he just mean 2008 experience?

A second Panther car would be superb news, especially if Davidson gets a chance.

The point about Vision needing a decent road course veteran is a good one, that's been their big achilles heel this year. Maybe they should give up on Ed for those races and hire Tracy or Herta or someone for them all?
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Old 3 Sep 2008, 15:27 (Ref:2280903)   #16
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Here's how I see it. Confirmed entries are in bold

Probable Entries

Andretti/Green (4) Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Hideki Mutoh
Penske (2) Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe
Ganassi (2) Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti
Newman/Haas (2) Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal
Panther (2) Dan Wheldon, Vitor Meira or Anthony Davidson or Mike Conway
Rahal/Letterman (2) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Robert Doornbos or Alex Lloyd or Vitor Meira
Vision (2) Ed Carpenter, AJ Foyt IV
KVR (2) Oriol Servia, Will Power
HVM (2) EJ Viso, Nelson Philippe or Robert Doornbos or Mike Conway or Dan Clarke
Dreyer & Reinbold (2) Buddy Rice, Townsend Bell/Milka Duno (alternating)
Foyt (1) Darren Manning or Jeff Simmons
Conquest (2) Alex Tagliani or Franck Perera, Jaime Camara or ?
Coyne (2) Bruno Junqueira, Mario Moraes or ?
PCM (1) Mario Dominguez
Luczo Dragon (1) Tomas Scheckter or Vitor Meira
Roth (1) Marty Roth-well he says he'll be back anyway lol!
Fisher (1) Sarah Fisher-ovals only?

Possible Entries

Andretti Green (+1) Rafael Matos or Franck Montagny or James Rossiter
Ganassi (+1) Alex Lloyd
Foyt (+1) Jeff Simmons or Pablo Donoso or Franck Perera
Walker (1) Paul Tracy or Alex Tagliani
Forsythe (2) James Hinchcliffe or Robert Doornbos, David Martinez or Robert Wickens or ?

Unlikely Entries

Penske (+1) Sam Hornish Jr
Newman/Haas (+1) Sebastien Bourdais
Vision (+1) Bryan Herta or Paul Tracy or Davey Hamilton
KVR (+1) Jimmy Vasser (Indy only) or Jay Howard or Richard Antinucci or ?
Dreyer & Reinbold (+1) Milka Duno (full time extra car added) or Vitor Meira or ?
PCM (+1) Alex Figge or ?
Luczo Dragon (+1) Vitor Meira or ?
Roth (+1) John Andretti or Jay Howard or ?
Fisher (+1) Davey Hamilton or ?
Walker (+1) Alex Tagliani or Kevin Lacroix or ?
Beck (1) Roger Yasukawa or Jacques Lazier or Alex Barron or ?
Fernandez (1) Adrien Fernandez or Luis Diaz or Richard Antinucci or ?
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Old 3 Sep 2008, 15:35 (Ref:2280910)   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonerz
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. Vitor?)
The team are running Perera for this weekend's race alongside Manning, so that's another obvious possibility for Foyt.
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Old 3 Sep 2008, 18:23 (Ref:2281037)   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide
When Doornbos says 'a team with IRL experience' does he just mean 2008 experience?
It's a team that is been around for a while, so that excludes the former Champcar teams. But I have no clue when a final announcment about Doornbos' future will be made.
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Old 4 Sep 2008, 20:42 (Ref:2281865)   #19
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Jonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
So can we all conclude Tags is probably one of the two drivers in at Conquest in 2009?

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Old 4 Sep 2008, 21:40 (Ref:2281945)   #20
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I would have thought Montagny would be after a full time drive for next year, i am sure he still sees single seaters as unfinished business, i was under the impression he was getting an indycar test off Michael as part of his ALMS deal anyway.
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Old 13 Sep 2008, 18:17 (Ref:2289130)   #21
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Jonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Just another thing to update. One very popular rumor is that Vitor will be in Jay Penske's Luczo Dragon car next year in favor of T. Scheckter... but where does that leave Tomas?

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Old 13 Sep 2008, 18:26 (Ref:2289135)   #22
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drewdawg727 should be qualifying in the top 10 on the griddrewdawg727 should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Marty Roth has been told to park it by ICS. He will not be racing next year.
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Old 13 Sep 2008, 20:36 (Ref:2289242)   #23
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Alwaysfirst should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Question is now whether he enjoys being a team manager enough to but some young gun in the car & just run the team. I have my doubts, especially as Howard & Andretti can't be mighty pleased at the on-off way that they were treated this year.
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Old 14 Sep 2008, 07:15 (Ref:2289486)   #24
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Amar7605 should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
There are some huge lists on this thread. How many of these rides are actually going to race a full season? If you look at it that way, then the lists are cut in half.
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Old 15 Sep 2008, 00:29 (Ref:2290448)   #25
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Jonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJonerz should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
I don't know about cut in half. But I bet we will see some 26 full time cars, assuming there are cars and parts to fill the order.

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