FanHouse IRL

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Danica Patrick climbed out of her race car Friday afternoon, all smiles about a solid seventh-place qualifying effort for Saturday's IndyCar season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and liking her chances about a career-best ranking (fifth) in the standings.

She joked with reporters about missing her public relations spokeswoman and spoke earnestly of her Andretti Green Racing team's pressing need to find more speed.

Just don't ask her about the big elephant on pit road -- her contract status and whether she plans to give NASCAR a go.

When asked simply if she had hoped to be able to announce something by now, Patrick pointed her finger and said, "Why do you gotta end it like that?'' abruptly turned her back on the group of a half-dozen reporters and stormed away.

The interviews were over. The speculation will continue.

Penske Racing's Ryan Briscoe needed every inch of the Kentucky Speedway top groove Saturday night to pull out a win over winless Ed Carpenter in the Meijer Indy 300, though that's not what people will remember.

The biggest story won't be Briscoe's triumphant return to victory lane in 2009 or how narrowly close the Tony George-owned Vision Racing team with Carpenter came to winning his first career race in some 94 tries.

Instead, the racing that the IRL IndyCar Series had become known for seemed to return with a bang in the hills of Sparta, Ky., thanks to a few rule changes for the series.

The Miami jury deciding the fate of two-time Indy 500 champ Helio Castroneves has reached a partial verdict in the racer's federal tax evasion trial -- deciding unanimously on two of the seven charges against Castroneves on Thursday but remaining deadlocked on the others, which include the primary conspiracy charge.

The verdicts were not disclosed before court adjourned for the day. The jury will reconvene Friday for a sixth day of deliberation in the six-week old trial.

Castroneves, 33, is accused of failing to pay approximately $2.3 million in taxes on income from endorsement and licensing deals with a Brazilian sponsor and with Team Penske, which he's driven for since 2000.

Goodbye IndyCar ... Hello NASCAR.

You don't test and run an ARCA race unless you're seriously thinking about crossing over into stock cars.

Still no word one way or another from IRL Champion Dario Franchitti, but Chip Ganassi is getting him some track time this fall in preparation for Daytona in February.

"There's an open test [at Talladega] on Sept. 27th so we'll run that and then come back for the race."

Robin Miller suggests that CGR will announce the signing of Franchitti to a five-year deal to replace David Stremme in the #40 [Canadian Club?] Dodge as early as this week.

Previously in the Fanhouse
Robin Hood Strikes the IRL
IndyCar Champ to NASCAR Chump?
NASCAR Gains IRL Driver and Celebrity WAG

Dario Franchitti won a pretty thrilling race Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway to wrap up not only the season points title, but potentially his IndyCar career.

Passing Scott Dixon in the final corner after Dixon ran out of gas to take title is a pretty nice way to end up a season for all involved -- including the sanctioning body.

Except for the fact that yet another face from the series is taking off for bigger and better things. Someone turn the lights out over there.

Franchitti, a native of Scotland, has been under the microscope though since Friday when rumors blew up about his potential migration to the ranks of NASCAR. He apparently is headed to the seat soon to be vacated by David Stremme at Chip Ganassi Racing -- making two international NASCAR drivers (Juan Pablo Montoya being the other) from open-wheel ranks racing from the same stable.

Ganassi never has been one to go with the flow in anything he's done, so seeing his desire to convert another open-wheel standout into a stock car driver isn't that surprising.

What is surprising, though, is his choice of driver. (Even though he does bring a sponsor.)

Add Forbes magazine to the list of those who don't count NASCAR drivers as athletes. Or celebrities.

On Friday, the business magazine released The World's Most Powerful Celebrities, its annual list of the world's most powerful--and best-paid--celebrities.

While former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher and his successor Kimi Raikkonen made the list, there's not a single NASCAR driver on the list. Granted, they have higher incomes, but ...

To generate the list, Forbes "analyzes celebrity earnings, plus media metrics like Google hits, press mentions as compiled by Lexis/Nexis, TV/radio mentions from Factiva and the number of times an A-lister appears on the cover of 32 major consumer magazines."

I find it extremely difficult to believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was not among the celebrities topping the media metrics.

He made one of the biggest announcements in the sport's history this year and was reported in more mainstream news outlets than probably any NASCAR story since his father's death in 2001. There has been no shortage of media coverage.

There was also the little matter of him announcing that he had this girl he was seeing back in January, which I can personally attest led to thousands of searches for "dale earnahrdt jr. girlfriend" that led inquirers to the Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Girlfriend category on Answer this...

Not to mention Junior's estimated $20M annual income, which dwarfs several celeb on the list, including IRL driver Danica Patrick, whose annual income Forbes reports as $4M. Is it even comprehensible that she's on the list and Junior is not?

And the Food Network's "queen of southern cuisine and home-cooking" is on the list at #99. Cooking with Paua Deen. Hmmmph. How about Hallucinating with Forbes? I want some of what they're on.

What up, Forbes?

Elsewhere in The Fanhouse
Tiger Woods: I'm Number 2

Unlike Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race, the IRL race at Texas Motor Speedway was nothing to snooze at.

The Bombardier Learjet 550 was complete with on track drama, "the big one," the first win of the season for the reigning champion and a career-high finish for the series' star female driver.

I'll admit I tuned in to see the follow up on the Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon incident that occurred last week in Milwaukee which had the feisty female wanting to duke it out with her competitor following an on-track incident. Boringly, that story seems to have ended with Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage adding another piece of memorabilia to his office: boxing gloves signed by both drivers.

Things ended up getting exciting anyway, though, on lap 87 when Marco Andretti chopped Tomas Scheckter and sent him sailing across the infield. A very angry Scheckter stormed the track and threw his gloves at Andretti (video link when I find it). And here I thought that kind of stuff only happened in NASCAR.

On lap 197, Scheckter's Vision Racing teammate Anthony Foyt IV lost a tire and caused a multi-car pileup, which took out Wheldon and his Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon, who had previously battled for the lead, as well as Helio Castroneves, Darren Manning, Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher.

Watch Tony Kanaan glide through the slowing cars and flying parts unscathed:

"I'm not going to brag about it," Kanaan said. "I have no idea how I made it through. It was like 'Days of Thunder.' I kind of closed my eyes and went full throttle and made it through. Sometimes you've got to be lucky."

At the end of the day, Sam Hornish Jr. brought home the win for Penske and Andretti Green Racing finished 2-3-4 with Kanaan, Patrick (career high) and 2007 Indy 500 winder Dario Franchitti.

I was already planning to watch IRL's debut in my home state at Iowa Speedway later this month. Now I'm thinking I might have to consider a trip home to attend the Iowa Corn Indy 250 in person.

When Ferrari told Rubens Barichello to dump the 2002 Austrian Gran Prix to allow teammate Michael Schumacher to take the win, the Formula One team was fined $1 million.

Is McLaren Motorsports next?

The team is being investigated by the governing body for possible rule breach of the International Sporting Code, which states it will "never be enforced so as to prevent or impede a competition or the participation of a competitor, save where the FIA concludes that this is necessary for the safe, fair or orderly conduct of motor sport.''

Monaco Gran Prix winner Fernando Alonso's McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton told the press after Sunday's race that he was told to "take it easy."

"He was obviously close to me, and I was told to take it easy. At the end of the day, I am a rookie. I am in my first season in Formula One and I have finished second in only my first Monaco Grand Prix, so I really can't complain. I've got No. 2 on my car. I am the No. 2 driver."

Can't complain? You just said your team gave you an "order" to let your teammate win. Is there a better time to complain? Or ... maybe you just should have IGNORED it, fool. Wouldn't you rather be the rookie who won his first Monaco Gran Prix than the one who gave it away?

Apparently, this is standard practice in Formula One.

What about NASCAR? Is this addressed in its illustrious rulebook? Is it even needed? I can't even ... Can you even imagine Rick Hendrick or Richard Childress or Jack Roush pulling this kind of crap? Or Joe Gibbs? Or any driver putting up with it? What about Penske or Ganassi--in NASCAR or IRL? I can't even ... Why is this tolerated in F1?

On Sunday, actress and activist Ashley Judd added a new role to her long list of credits: wife of Indianapolis 500 winner.

Judd's husband, Dario Franchitti, became the 66th winner of the Indianapolis 500 in a rain-soaked event that boiled down to pit strategy, giving him an advantage over Penske, Target Ghip Ganassi and other drivers in the field.

The Scot's spousal cheerleader, who credits him for helping her overcome depression, was overwhelmed with pride and joy following the win:

"I'd like to point out that my husband went from 14th to first like a gentleman and that's exactly what he is - a gentleman ... He raced like a gentleman, picked 'em off one by one, and won in style."

Indeed he did. And she totally "gets" it.

A.J. Foyt's grandson, Anthony Foyt IV, will be the next member of the legendary racing family to have his name in the record books under the Indianapolis 500.

Sadly, it won't be anywhere near his grandfather's four wins and numerous other records.

Foyt IV, who began his IRL career with Foyt Racing but returned this season with Tony George's Vision Racing, made history Saturday by becoming the first driver ever to be bumped on pole day under the new qualifying format.

AJIV:

"That's not the speed we wanted. We really haven't found any speed this week ... I'm comfortable with the car. The car's not bad. It's exciting for the fans, I think. The top 11 makes it a really exciting day ... Unfortunately, I won't be a part of it."

Now that's gotta suck.

All is not lost, however. With 22 spots remaining on the starting gridand two more games of musical chairs ahead with 26 drivers, AJIV's still got a shot to do the family name justice.