Opinion: Captain America a "Charging Star" for IndyCar

2010 was a bleak year for the American open-wheel driver. The only two full-timers confirmed at the beginning of the season were Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti, although Ryan Hunter-Reay pieced together a full season on a race by race basis. Meanwhile, 2009 full-timers Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter had to be content with limited schedules, and the development driver pipeline sprung a leak somewhere between Indy Lights and the Indianapolis 500.

Today, we learned that 2010 was merely an aberration.

Panther Racing will unite an American driver with their National Guard sponsorship for the first time in 2011 as J.R. Hildebrand, the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights champion, will move up to the IZOD IndyCar Series and compete for rookie of the year honors. Dan Wheldon's replacement parlayed a two-race audition with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing last season and a successful test with Panther at Phoenix earlier this month into multi-year job security.

The goal for any IndyCar team is to hire the fastest and most skilled driver possible. Hildebrand, with his successful Lights experiences and Formula One test at the end of 2009, fits the bill. He's had success thus far in just about every formula he's competed in, and leads an impressive class of young American drivers moving up the ranks - one that also includes Jonathan Summerton, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, and Conor Daly, among others.

But Hildebrand offers something else to the series, something that had previously been taken for granted: a distinctly American superstar.

The IRL used to have Sam Hornish, who won titles for Panther in 2001 and 2002 with the stars and stripes running down the side of his car. But as the CART contingent began to move in, the series moved more and more away from its original modus operandi, the employment of American-born oval specialists. No American has won the title since Hornish did in 2006. This year, Ryan Hunter-Reay finished seventh in points to represent the best finish for an American-born driver; that represents an all-time low.

Hunter-Reay, Patrick, and Andretti have all done their part for American open-wheel racing, of course. Hunter-Reay's wins on the road courses at Surfers Paradise, Watkins Glen, and Long Beach over the course of his career help dispel the notion that only foreign-born drivers excel on the road courses; Patrick has become a household name, perhaps IndyCar's best link to the general public until her NASCAR forays this year; no name better defines American open-wheel racing than Andretti.

But none of those drivers have earned the nickname "Captain America." None of them carry the flag on their car (and while some American drivers do on their helmets, the helmet isn't as distinctive or identifying for the driver as it was in the past). None drive a red, white, and blue car. Hildebrand will do all three in 2011.

Hildebrand's got two other qualities that make him unique. First, he's a racer, pure and simple. You name it, Hildebrand's done demonstration runs in it, from old Formula 1 cars to high-powered street cars. Before signing the National Guard deal, his Twitter background featured a picture of the great Steve McQueen.

Second, he's almost universally liked and respected in the IndyCar community. Patrick and Andretti are occasionally lambasted for their celebrity. Not Hildebrand, who is one of the friendliest faces in the garage. Who else would take to Twitter to personally thank every single person who sent him a congratulatory message? Not many drivers.

For too long, the personable, all-American IndyCar driver has been missing from a series that desperately needs something distinctly American in its identity. It's part of the reason why the series has dropped off so much in the eyes of the American motorsports fan. In fact, any true IndyCar fan should be rooting for Hildebrand to succeed - there's no driver better equipped to solve that problem than he is. He might even replace Hornish as the series' next American champion someday.

For now, Captain America will keep charging to the front - but it won't be long until he's the sport's next star.

IndyCar Season Review: Dan Wheldon

Dan Wheldon's 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season may have been his most up-and-down campaign to date.

Wheldon's road course results lagged in comparison to his championship competitors, and a lawsuit against his employer, Panther Racing owner John Barnes, to collect back taxes made life difficult for the Englishman. But some world-class oval performances, the suit's resolution, and the chance that he may return to the team next season helped level the good and the bad for the former series champion.

When all was said and done, Wheldon finished ninth in points, one spot better than he had in his first full season with Panther last year.

Wheldon, like a handful of other drivers ahead of him, surprised in the season-opening Sao Paulo Indy 300 with a fifth place finish, but a spectacular wreck at St. Petersburg sucked the momentum out of the team for a time. Wheldon ran mid-pack for the next few races as the old-school IRL driver, with only one career road course win to his name, bided his time in wait for the ovals.

Kansas only yielded a 15th-place finish, two laps down, after a disappointing 25th-place qualifying run. But at Indianapolis, Wheldon and Panther worked their way up from the 18th starting spot to claim second place in the race's closing laps. Wheldon, like leader Dario Franchitti, was on a fuel-saving strategy, and perhaps could have caught him for the win, as the car still had fuel in the tank post-race. Regardless, the second place finish in the sport's biggest race was Wheldon's second in a row, Panther's third in a row, and yielded over $1 million to both.

The team, however, could not quite sustain the momentum for the next few events. Wheldon led a single lap at Texas on the way to a ninth place finish, but could not do much at Iowa (the site of his last victory, in 2008). He was spun at Watkins Glen by Alex Lloyd, but managed to work his way back through the pack for a respectable sixth place finish. Toronto yielded a 10th place run, four spots better than the previous year's finish.

But then came the struggles - a 20th place result at Edmonton, a so-so 14th place at Mid-Ohio, and the icing on the cake, an aborted Sonoma start that saw Wheldon's car upside down before even taking the green flag. Wheldon had been 146 points out of the lead after Toronto, but by the end of the Sonoma race he had lost another 99 points.

At this point, Wheldon and Panther began to turn on the heat. Perhaps it was the addition of Ed Carpenter in a second team car that got Panther rolling. Perhaps it was the knowledge that Wheldon's contract was up after this year and unlikely to be renewed that got him back in the zone. Perhaps it was a mutual dissatisfaction between the two parties over the past two seasons, culminating in a $2.5 million lawsuit for back wages by the driver's management, that had them both motivated to show off for potential new partners. Whatever it was, it worked.

Wheldon, who had won the Chicago race in 2005 and 2006, kicked it into high gear at that event, challenging Franchitti for victory once again and losing the fight by .042 seconds at the line. At Kentucky, Wheldon led 93 laps, most of all drivers, and almost nobody was more deserving of the win; however, Helio Castroneves' unorthodox fuel-saving strategy allowed him to take the victory, with Carpenter second and Wheldon third. By this point it was common knowledge that Wheldon was on the way out at Panther, but any team looking for oval prowess certainly had him in their eyes as a candidate for employment.

Motegi and Homestead also yielded top-10 finishes, but the big news before the season's final race was the settlement of Wheldon's suit against Panther and discussion of Wheldon's potential return for 2011. Whel all was said and done, Wheldon offset a disappointing 12th in the road course standings with a solid sixth in the oval championship, and scored the best points finish of any driver not employed by Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, or Michael Andretti.

Wheldon's 2010 finishes, relative to 2009's results on the same tracks, were actually worse in most early-season instances. But solid finishes in new events, combined with vast improvements toward the end of the season, helped make Wheldon and Panther a potent late-season combination that actually scored 36 more points this year.

Though few may view the Englishman as a title contender these days, Wheldon's prospects for 2011 may be stronger than they were when he left Ganassi at the end of 2008. If he stays with Panther, the team clearly has their oval program worked out, and the potential addition of a second car will only strengthen the team's results - considering that Wheldon's best three finishes came when Panther was also campaigning a car for Carpenter. A third season with the team may finally see both vault back up the standings into once-familiar territory.

IndyCar Race Review: Kentucky Indy 300

Once again, the Kentucky Indy 300 gave thousands of fans hope at an upset victory. And once again, a Roger Penske-employed driver thwarted any designs that a little guy had at victory.

Panther Racing - former IZOD IndyCar Series champions, but now restricted to an underdog role in the series as ex-CART powers have taken over - qualified first and third for the race with Ed Carpenter and Dan Wheldon, respectively. They combined to lead 104 laps of the race, including 49 of the final 53 circuits.

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, Carpenter had the victory stolen from him by Team Penske. This year, Helio Castroneves did the honors, conserving enough fuel in an extended green flag run to coast to the win, and even turn a couple victory laps afterwards.

Last year, Carpenter was beaten to the line by Penske driver Ryan Briscoe in a memorable finish. This year, Briscoe wasn't around to challenge for the win, having crashed out in a three-car wreck before the halfway point, but Carpenter was a contender for much of the night. He even worked his way back through the pack after getting shuffled back early.

But late race, splash-and-go pit stops for all of the leaders shuffled the order, and the victory went to the driver who used the underdog strategy: hang out towards the back and run slow laps to ensure the ability to make it to the end.

It was the second consecutive strong run for Carpenter, whose team is actually a collaboration between Panther and Vision Racing, as well as Wheldon, Panther's lead driver. Last week at Chicagoland, fuel issues knocked Carpenter out of contention, while Wheldon finished second in that event. This weekend, Wheldon led more laps than anybody (93) and made a strong case to remain in the series next year, even as he and Panther will part ways at the end of the season.

In the end, Carpenter finished second at Kentucky for the second year in a row, and Wheldon placed third.

Meanwhile, Castroneves took his second race victory of the season (though, referring to an incident at Edmonton, jokingly called it his third) by running laps almost 10 miles per hour slower than the leaders in the very late stages of the event. As such, when Tony Kanaan pit with less than 10 to go to begin the cycle of splash-and-go fuel stops, Castroneves had conserved enough to stay out on track.

Kanaan, who had qualified miserably off the pace to start in 26th, passed 10 cars on the first lap of the event and eventually wound up fourth, in front of Dario Franchitti. Franchitti further closed the gap on point leader Will Power, who wound up eighth. Power led 83 laps of the 200-lap event, nearly garnering him an important two-point bonus for leading the most laps, until Wheldon topped him late in the event. Power's shrinking points lead is now down to 17 with only two races to go.

Bertrand Baguette had a career-best 10th place finish, which also propelled him past the perpetually unlucky Takuma Sato in the points. After taking out teammate E.J. Viso last week at Chicagoland, Sato failed to even complete one lap at Kentucky, as his car broke loose from him in turns three and four and he slammed into the wall. It was the latest in a long line of incidents for KV Racing Technology this season, where the crash count now tops two dozen.

Vision Racing Finds Sponsorship For Indianapolis 500

Vision Racing will finally return to the IZOD IndyCar Series at this month's Indianapolis 500 after a five-race hiatus, carrying the primary sponsorship of Fuzzy Zoeller's Premium Vodka on their No. 20 Dallara-Honda.

Ed Carpenter will return to the driver's seat, making his 100th career IndyCar start in the process. The car will be run in conjunction with Panther Racing.

Fuzzy Zoeller's Premium Vodka was launched last year by professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, an Indiana native, and the winner of the 1979 Masters and 1984 U.S. Open. Zoeller's vodka distinguishes itself by a filtering process distinct from that of other vodkas, going through crushed volcanic rock and charcoal ten times, according to the product's website. Buoyed by a gold medal awarded by Chicago's International Beverage Testing Institute last year, it is currently available in the midwest, with the intent of national and worldwide launches in the near future.

While the car's livery has not yet been unveiled, preview photos on Facebook show that the car will be midnight black, deviating from last year's day-glo yellow. The team plans on unveiling the paint scheme within the week.

Pennzoil and Penske to Reunite

Longtime NASCAR team sponsor Shell/Pennzoil will leave Richard Childress Racing for Team Penske in 2011, where it will adorn the hood of the No. 22 Dodge of 2004 Sprint Cup Series champion Kurt Busch. Pennzoil will thus enter a direct business relationship with Roger Penske and his many companies.

This deal has an effect on Penske's IZOD IndyCar Series team as well. It will spell the end of Penske's relationship with Mobil 1, a partnership that is currently in its 20th year. However, it will also reunite Penske with a brand that backed his cars for eight years in the 1980s.

It will also mark the return of the Pennzoil brand to the Indy Racing League. Pennzoil was one of the first big primary sponsors in the original IRL, maintaining a presence from 1996 to 2005 before focusing their sponsorship dollars on NASCAR. They sponsored Panther Racing from 1998 until their exit, and among the drivers to pilot the yellow No. 4 was Sam Hornish Jr., who won championships with the team in 2001 and 2002. Ironically, Hornish now drives for Penske in NASCAR.

The return of the Pennzoil brand to open-wheel racing is not without significance. A Pennzoil-sponsored car competed in every Indianapolis 500 from 1979 to 2005, with a total of four teams taking the yellow colors to the track. Chaparral Cars, the sports car constructor founded by Texas oil magnate Jim Hall, carried the sponsorship from 1979 to 1982, winning the 1980 race and CART championship with Johnny Rutherford.

In 1983, the brand aligned itself with Penske and Rick Mears, and the results were phenomenal - between 1983 and 1990, Mears won 10 races in Pennzoil colors, including the 1984 and 1988 Indianapolis 500s. Pennzoil-lubricated Penskes also won the 1985 and 1987 races with Danny Sullivan and Al Unser, respectively.

From 1991 to 1995, the sponsorship returned to Hall and his VDS Racing. The team scored four top-10s at Indianapolis in those five years, with their best finish John Andretti's fifth place in 1991. When CART and the IRL split in 1996, the sponsorship went to Pagan Racing and Roberto Guerrero for two years, before finding a home with Panther.

There is no word on whether Pennzoil will re-assume a primary role with one of Penske's IndyCars, or just a secondary role, as Mobil 1 currently holds.

Carpenter, Vision Return At Indianapolis

After shuttering operations earlier this year due to lack of sponsorship, Tony George's Vision Racing team will make a triumphant return to the track at the Indianapolis 500, again with driver Ed Carpenter at the wheel of its No. 20 Dallara-Honda.

Carpenter and Vision will work with Panther Racing as a teammate to Dan Wheldon. According to the Vision Racing Twitter account, the cars will be provided by Vision, while the crew and engineering will be handled by Panther. So far, no sponsors have been announced for the effort.

This means that 34 cars have submitted entry blanks for the race, and we're not even halfway through April. Seeing as plenty of last-minute deals usually come together over the course of the month, this year's may be the largest Indianapolis 500 field in years.

As for Carpenter and Vision, it will be their latest and greatest chance to finally make it to Victory Lane. Carpenter will, if he qualifies, make his 100th career IZOD IndyCar Series start. His best career finish is second, at Kentucky last year, which helped propel him to a career-best 12th place finish in points. Ovals have always been his forte, especially Indianapolis, where he finished 5th in 2008 and has four finishes of 11th or better in the last five years.

Joining forces with Panther was about the best move that Vision could make, as Panther's cars have finished second in the prestigious event in each of the past two years. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team has expanded for the month of May, although the second car did not appear on track in 2008. Last year, the second car was driven by Scott Sharp, the 1996 IndyCar co-champion, who finished 14th.

It will also return George to the track that he ran throughout most of the past two decades. George's contributions to the speedway were immense; while the race lost prestige for a few years as top open-wheel teams preferred to stay in CART, he did raise the American open-wheel driver count exponentially, and brought NASCAR, Formula 1, and IROC to the fabled course. While only NASCAR remains, the Brickyard 400 is considered one of the sport's crown jewels.

Indianapolis 500 practice opens May 15 with rookie orientation. The field will be set on the weekend of May 22-23, and the race itself taked place on May 30.

IndyCar Season Preview: Panther Racing

Panther Racing returns its 2009 lineup to the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series, bringing back former series champion Dan Wheldon and sponsor National Guard to its No. 4 Dallara-Honda.

Wheldon finished 10th in points in 2009, his worst effort since his 2003 rookie year, which was affected by his missing the first two races of the season. Everything took a major step back from his numbers at Chip Ganassi Racing: he only scored 352 points, he failed to win a race, and he had three DNFs. All of those were his worst numbers since 2003.

However, Panther has not been a dominant team since former CART teams began to shift to IndyCar, and for that team, his numbers were pretty stellar. After a DNF in the season opener at St. Petersburg, Wheldon scored eight consecutive top-10 finishes, buoyed by a second-place at the Indianapolis 500, a race he won in 2005.

The season went downhill from there, however, as Wheldon only scored one more top-10. It has now been 27 races since Wheldon's last win, at Iowa in 2008, which is his longest career winless streak.

One positive aspect that came out of 2009 is the team's marketing efforts with partner National Guard, which became some of the strongest in the league. The National Guard brings servicemen to most races on the schedule, with such draws for the fans as a racing simulator and a miniature shooting range, as well as lots of free gear. Despite his British nationality, Wheldon makes an effective pitchman for the brand, having appeared in one IndyCar commercial as a drill sergeant.

Returning the same team that ran last year should help their cause, as driver and crew now have a year's worth of chemistry to build upon. Skipping the season-opening test in Alabama in lieu of a single-car session at Sebring, however, means that we'll have to wait until the season begins to see how fast Panther is compared to the rest of the field.

If they can return to their early-season form from 2009, Panther should contend for a couple of race wins and return Wheldon to the top five in points. Otherwise, Wheldon may be in for another long year of seeing victory just out of his reach.

IndyCar.com Undergoes Overhaul

IndyCar.com, the official website of the Indy Racing League, is currently offline for a major redesign and overhaul.

When users visit the site, they are greeted by a splash page for the IZOD IndyCar Series that says "Coming Soon: The new IndyCar.com website will be rolling out of the paddock shortly."

The new website is being built by RacerSites.com, which specializes in designing websites for race drivers and teams. Their homepage features a revolving portfolio of their work, showcasing some of the best websites in the motorsports world. Among the drivers and teams with IndyCar connections featured on their front page are Vision Racing, three-time IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr., and Graham Rahal.

Other IndyCar-related sites in their portfolio belong to Chip Ganassi Racing, Panther Racing, Team Penske, new Firestone Indy Lights team Wayne Taylor Racing, and Al Unser Jr., a two-time open wheel champion with 34 career wins to his name.

The redesign of the website coincides with the implementation of a new IndyCar Race Control engine, which underwent bug testing this past week as the IndyCar Series had its season-opening test session. The timing and scoring tracker should be fully functional and error-free in time for the start of the season in two weeks' time.

Teams Prepare For More Barber Testing

The drivers and teams of the IZOD IndyCar Series will test at Barber Motorsports Park again today, in the second and final day of preseason testing. They will again battle cold temperatures at the Alabama track as they attempt to improve on yesterday's times.

Yesterday's top lap time (in either of yesterday's sessions) was posted by Ryan Briscoe. He went around the 2.3-mile track in 01:10.51, making him one of only six drivers to break the 1 minute, 11 second barrier and one of only four to post a lap of 117 miles per hour or better.

Firestone Indy Lights drivers and teams are also arriving at Barber today, as their test sessions will take place tomorrow. Only 14 cars are currently on the test entry list, with such notables as Sam Schmidt Motorsports, Andersen Racing, and Panther Racing either fielding fewer cars than last year or missing entirely. None of the driver or team combinations entered in the test have raced together before, although a handful of the drivers entered have raced in the series before.

Day One of Testing at Barber Commences

The IZOD IndyCar Series opens its 2010 season with two days of testing at Barber Motorsports Park, today and tomorrow. Twenty cars have taken to the track, with perhaps more competing tomorrow.

Early in the session the Roger Penske-owned cars of Will Power and Ryan Briscoe were fastest, posting the quickest and second-quickest laps of the session before breaking for lunch. Power is thus far the only driver to break 1 minute 11 seconds on the track, a good omen for the Aussie competing in his first full season for Team Penske.

A handful of teams are not at Barber, including Panther Racing (No. 4, Dan Wheldon) and FAZZT Race Team (No. 77, Alex Tagliani), having withdrawn due to inclement weather. Dale Coyne Racing is not present due to the impending finalization of driver contracts.