The View From The Hairpin - 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

[thehairpin]

FULL-TIME
Andretti Autosport - 4 (Kanaan, M. Andretti, Patrick, Hunter-Reay)
Penske - 3 (Castroneves, Briscoe, Power)
KVRT - 3 (Sato, Viso, Moraes)
Ganassi - 2 (Dixon, Franchitti)
D&R - 2 (Wilson, Conway/Beatriz/Tracy/Hildebrand/Scheckter/Rahal*)
DCR - 2 (Duno, Lloyd)
Conquest - 2 (Scheckter/Dracone/Romancini**, Baguette) Baguette starting at Alabama GP
HVM - 1 (de Silvestro)
Panther - 1 (Wheldon)
De Ferran Dragon - 1 (Matos)
Foyt - 1 (Meira)
FAZZT - 1 (Tagliani)
Newman/Haas - 1 (Mutoh)

*D&R #24 (no word on Homestead yet)
Conway - through Indy, Homestead possible
Hildebrand - Mid-Ohio, Sears Point
Scheckter - Texas, Toronto, Edmonton
Tracy - Watkins Glen, Kentucky, Motegi
Rahal - Iowa
Beatriz - Chicagoland

**Conquest #34 (no word on Kentucky onward yet)
Romancini - Through Edmonton
Dracone - Mid-Ohio, Sears Point
Scheckter - Chicagoland

PART-TIME
Fisher - 1 (Fisher/Rahal) St. Pete, Barber, Long Beach, Kansas, Indy, Texas, Iowa, Chicagoland, Kentucky, Homestead
Fisher - 1 (Rahal/Howard) Kansas, Indy, Texas, Mid-Ohio, Chicagoland, Kentucky
AA - 1 extra (Carroll/J. Andretti) Andretti - Kansas, Indy, Carroll - Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio
Newman/Haas - 1 extra (Rahal) Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Sears Point, Chicagoland, Motegi, Homestead
KVRT - 1 extra (Tracy) Indy, Toronto, Edmonton
D&R - 1 extra (Beatriz) Brazil, Indy
De Ferran Dragon - 1 extra (Hamilton) Indy, Chicagoland
Vision - 1 (Carpenter) Indy (w/Panther), Chicagoland, Kentucky, Homestead

INDY 500 ONE-OFFS
Foyt - 1 extra (J. Lazier/Foyt IV) Foyt IV replaced during Indy qualifying
SSM/Ganassi - 1 (Bell)
BHA - 1 (Saavedra)
D&R - 1 extra (Scheckter)
RLR - 1 (Rahal)
FAZZT - 1 extra (Junqueira)

Car Counts
Sao Paulo - 24
St. Petersburg - 24
Barber - 25
Long Beach - 25
Kansas - 27
INDIANAPOLIS 500 - 33 (37)
Texas - 26
Iowa - 25
Watkins Glen - 25
Toronto - 26
Edmonton - 25
Mid-Ohio - 27
Sears Point - 25
Chicagoland - 29

Car Count Projections
Kentucky - 27
Motegi - 25
Homestead - 27

[MarkDonohueFan]

ALMS did something to turn off Honda over the winter. It seems like Honda is just going through the motions until they can make a move to the Indy Car Series with Fernandez, Highcroft, and DeFerran. That could come down to contracts and commitments.

A Grand Am/ALMS merger is not the answer. Atherton has his hands full with a lot of problems and losing Honda/Acura would be a death blow that could lead to their demise. One will go away and the other will remain a floundering institution.

Sports car racing will always be doomed in North America because they tend to be full of people who had a touch of success in business, then went into sports car racing. When it becomes a sports business, all of them think they can run it better than the people hired to do so.

[DDS]

While that's great for ICS, it does suck for ALMS. I wish they could afford to have Audi and Peugoet (spelling?) and Porsche there every week in the LMP classes. last year was a blast and this year is kinda a downer.

[lotuspoweredbyford]

Really 2010 when the 2009 season hasn't started?

[iocat]

By 2010, Audi and Peugot may be back in the ALMS, along with Porche. That would give Acura a reason to stay.

[colognecapri]

Ok, now this is just a little too early!

[Fro]

Bumping this now that we have some action

So far we've got

2-3 Penske (Castroneves, Briscoe?, Power?)
2-3 Ganassi (Dixon, Franchitti?, Patrick?)
4 AGR (Kanaan, Patrick?, Marco?, Mutoh?, Hildebrand?, Montagny?)
2 Vision (Carpenter, Hunter-Reay)
1 Luczo-Dragon (Matos)
1 Panther (Wheldon)

Could be others in the mix (i.e. Rahal at Penske, Sato taking the Panasonic seat at AGR) potentially, and a team like Luczo or Panther could decide to run 2 cars, but let's keep it simple for now.

Castroneves, Kanaan, Wheldon, and Matos signed multi-year deals with their teams before the 2009 season. We know from Miller's story that Dixon is signed through 2011.

We can safely assume Carpenter will be back with Vision until he announces he's retiring. Hunter-Reay has a very well-funded car for 2010 thanks to IZOD and IRL B2B deals coming online, although I'm not sure if they might move that somewhere else if he's real unhappy at Vision.

Pretty much everyone else on the grid is a free agent after this season.

Presumably Lloyd has some sponsorship from her energy for 2010.
We've heard enough from De Ferran that it sounds like he'll probably be coming over no matter what happens with ALMS.

I would presume that Sharp wouldn't be bringing Highcroft along quite yet (they want to wait for the new rules package), so he'd likely bring Patron and slide in at an AGR/Panther/KV/NHLR type team. They may not have a choice if Acura pulls the plug. Haven't heard anything lately from Fernandez except that they're looking into IndyCar.

Fisher will probably look to expand to a fuller program. Can't rule out Forsythe showing up or Walker finally finding some money and showing up, but they're much longer shots than the ALMS teams.

Lots of teams could run 2 or even 3 cars (KV, NHLR, D&R) in some cases if they got the right situation. Should be very interesting and there might be a very full field (better than 2008) if the economy starts to look better in the fall.

[markinsand]

you guys are nuts

enjoy the 2009 season, bad racing and all, first!

[thehairpin]

To be honest, the more I think about it the more that I see Highcroft sticking around sports cars (LMP privateer, DP, GT) with other sponsorship. They were a sportscar team before the Acura program and will likely be afterward. They should be able to find the funding, even if its a ridebuyer. I think Sharp would take the Patron sponsorship to another team long term.

[RoadRaceS197]

A Grand Am/ALMS merger is not the answer. Atherton has his hands full with a lot of problems and losing Honda/Acura would be a death blow that could lead to their demise. One will go away and the other will remain a floundering institution.

Sound familiar anyone....?


"History doesn't repeat itself - but it ryhmes." - Mark Twain

[Max Revs]

"History doesn't repeat itself - but it ryhmes." - Mark Twain

History ... schmishstory.

[Fro]

Curt Cavin tweeted today that he is hearing Mutoh is likely out at AGR in 2010 as the Formula Dream sponsorship will go to Sato who will drive for either Panther or De Ferran.

[fastmaster26]

Good. I'd love to see another face at AGR, someone who can work with Tony to return that team to form. Can anyone say RHR?

[Downforce1]

I couldn't imagine Rahal at Penske. He already has 3 drivers, and Rahal hasn't really done anything too impressive yet on the track.

[thehairpin]

Curt Cavin tweeted today that he is hearing Mutoh is likely out at AGR in 2010 as the Formula Dream sponsorship will go to Sato who will drive for either Panther or De Ferran.

If that occurs and Danica goes to Ganassi, then I could see AGR as a 2-car team.

btw, right now isn't all that premature. The NASCAR silly season is beginning to churn and early silly season talk is actually a sign that a series has some rides other than last-minute ridebuys (remember how late in the spring the last couple of CCWS silly seasons began?).

[thehairpin]

Penske - 2 (Castroneves, Briscoe)
AGR - 2 (Kanaan, M. Andretti)
Ganassi - 2 (Patrick, Franchitti)
D&R - 2 (Conway, Scheckter)
Vision - 2 (Carpenter, Hunter-Reay)
Panther - 2 (Wheldon, Sharp)
De Ferran - 2 (Dixon, Sato)
KVRT - 2 (Tracy, Moraes)
Luczo Dragon - 2 (Matos. Power)
DCR - 1 (Wilson)
HVM - 1 (Viso)
NHL - 1 (G. Rahal)
Foyt - 1 (Meira)
Fernandez - 1 (Diaz)
Fisher - 1 (Fisher/ridebuyer for RCs)

PART-TIME
Conquest - 1 (Tagliani)
D&R - 1 extra (Duno)
Beck - 1 (Lloyd)

INDY 500 ONE-OFFS
Foyt - 1 extra (Foyt IV)
Window World-sponsored, team indetrminate - 1 (J. Andretti)
Kingdom - 1 (Hamilton)
Hemelgarn/Johnson - 1 (B. Lazier)
Rahal-Letterman - 1 (?)

[thehairpin]

above is my best guess as to the 2010 grid, I believe that the following will occur:

Danica signs at TCGR, Dixon gets his release and goes to de Ferran

NHL drops to one car after Doornbos is signed by one of the new teams in FIA Formula 1

more Indy 500 one-offs than the ones listed show up (the ones I listed only being the field to 32), but the listed ones are those I feel comfortable predicting this early.

first projections (not an official silly season list)

FT - 24
max non-Indy grid - 27

[drdisque]

Looking at what's going on in Venezuela right now, I seriously doubt that Viso or Milka will be back next year. Apparently, with Oil revenues down, the country is seriously short on USD and Euros to import the massive amount of foreign goods they need to keep their people complacent. They can ill-afford to be spending $10M of very scarce US currency on IndyCars.

If Viso were to stay, I also think he needs a change of scenery.

[Indy499]

Hairpin, I love your posts, and look forward to your updates, but I think you are jumping the gun on a few rides (but I guess that's the fun in this)


So here is my breakdown

*SOLID*
Penske 2 (Castroneves, Briscoe)
Ganassi 2 (Franchitti, ?Dixon?)
AGR 2 ( Kannan, Andretti)
NHL 2 ( Rahal, Doornbos)
D & R 1 (?)
Vision 1 (Carpenter)
Panther 1 (Wheldon)
Foyt 1 (Meira)
KV 1 (?)
LDR 1 ( Matos)
Coyne 1 ( Wilson)

*Probable*
D&R 1 (?)
AGR 1 (?)
De Ferran 1 (Sato)
3G 1 (?)
HVM 1 (?)


*Possible*
Fernandez 1 (?)
De Ferrean 1 (?)
AGR 1 (?)
Vision 1 (?)
KV 1 (?)
Highcroft 1 ( Sharp)----I put this under possible because this spot could merge into a spot higher up
RLR 1 (?)
Conquest 1 (?)
LDR 1 (?)

*PART TIME*
Fisher 1 ( Fisher)
D&R 1 (Duno)


The way I see it 15 for sure cars (obviously we will have more)
5 more that are probable
9 more possible, along with a couple part-timers

if we get 4/5 of the probable, and 4/9 of the possible we'll have 23 cars taking the grid for the 2010 opener.

[thehairpin]

if we get 4/5 of the probable, and 4/9 of the possible we'll have 23 cars taking the grid for the 2010 opener.

That would be awesome, especially with some part-timers to get some races up to 24 or 25. Hopefully it comes to pass.