This year’s Super Bowl commercial is no exception, as NASCAR (and former Indy car) driver Danica Patrick is back, this time with fitness expert and fellow Go Daddy spokeswoman Jillian Michaels, and this time they’re painting on a nude woman.

Here is the video:

So, I guess seeing this woman with nothing on but paint is supposed to make me want to purchase my own website domain name.  Got it.

What I will never understand about Go Daddy’s commercials is that, if someone were so inclined, they could find nudity on the internet a whole lot easier than this.  I’m not suggesting you all go out and look for salacious web content, but I am saying that if you want to do so there are more efficient ways than buying a domain from Go Daddy.

Never mind the fact that I don’t find Patrick or Michaels attractive in the least (Doritos Girl from their Super Bowl ad is better than both of them, in my opinion); I just don’t understand the fascination with these ads.  There is nothing really funny about them, they simply try to peddle sex to the lowest common denominator.  Are there really that many perverted web masters out there?

Commercial Grade: D

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Follow me on Twitter @keithmullett

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Wheldon had a sense of humor about the media coverage of the 2005 Indy 500.

Wheldon’s first victory at the Brickyard came in 2005, when he was 26 and beginning his third season as a full-time driver on the IRL IndyCar Series. That race made a star of one IndyCar racer, but it wasn’t Wheldon. Danica Patrick led 19 laps, becoming the first woman to lead at Indianapolis. Patrick was leading at lap 193 and finished fourth. Her performance was noteworthy not only because she was a woman but also because she was a 23-year-old rookie. Much of the attention the media gave Patrick was well deserved, but “Danica Mania” (which was an actual thing) kept Wheldon from getting the recognition that should have come to him.

Wheldon won his second Indy 500 this year, capitalizing on the misfortune of rookie J.R. Hildebrand, who slid into the retaining wall on the fourth turn of the final lap. Hildebrand, who could have cruised uncontested to the finish line, became the story of the 2011 race.

Hildebrand, who coasted (literally) to a second-place finish and claimed rookie-of-the-year honors, drove for Panther Racing, Wheldon’s former team. Wheldon drove for Panther in 2009 and 2010. Though he turned in two second-place finishes at the Indy 500, he failed to win a race in his two years with Panther, and the team decided to release him and replace him with the younger Hildebrand. Wheldon entered this season without a team, but found a ride for Indy. And he won, edging out the driver who had taken his job.

It was an incredible story, but it didn’t translate to Twitter and YouTube. To the average sports fan, the story of the 2011 Indianapolis 500 was reduced to “This Hildebrand kid had the race wrapped up and blew it.”

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Once upon a time, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner would have been a household name, regardless of the circumstances surrounding his victories. But Indy racing doesn’t command the attention it once did. IndyCar’s woes go back to 1996 when the Indy Racing League (IRL) broke away from CART, separating many of the sport’s best-known drivers from the sport’s premier race. The IRL merged with Champ Car (formerly CART) in 2008, but not before the split had done considerable damage to the sport’s popularity and ability to attract sponsors.

While ABC continues to air the Indianapolis 500, the rest of the IndyCar Series races are consigned to Versus. IndyCar ratings are consistently lower than those for NASCAR Nationwide races on ESPN2 and NASCAR truck series races on Speed. Indy’s ratings are even poor when compared to other niche sports on Versus.

But that happens. Sports go in and out of fashion. What doesn’t change is the devotion of the athletes. Regardless of a sport’s popularity, there will be athletes who are so dedicated to their craft that they are willing to risk their bodies and even their lives. While sports in general and auto races in particular are safer than they have ever been, there remain those rare occasions when a sport claims the life of one of its most devoted competitors.

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Dan Wheldon won 16 IRL/IndyCar Series races in his short career, including his two wins at Indianapolis. He won the series championship in 2005 and finished in the top 5 for 5 consecutive seasons, from 2004 to 2008. By any standard he was a great driver, even if the series he raced in struggled to attract viewers and sponsors. Unlike some of his peers, Wheldon didn’t reach a wider audience by winning Dancing With the Stars or marrying an A-list actress or starring in a Super Bowl commercial. Many American sports fans didn’t know the name “Dan Wheldon” until news of his death broke on Sunday afternoon. And that’s too bad.

Wheldon at the National Guard Youth Foundation 2010 ChalleNGe Champions Gala (Wikipedia)

Wheldon leaves behind his wife, Susie, and two young sons. And that sucks.

This week, Chantal Sutherland became the first female jockey to win the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap, riding Game On Dude, and Danica Patrick finished fourth in the Nationwide Series race in Las Vegas, the best ever finish for a woman in a national NASCAR race.

As a general rule, sports are an institution where the sexes don’t mix, but recent events have shown us that situations are now arising where men and women, girls and boys are competing with and against each other – and in many cases the girls are holding their own.

The question is, when are coed sports OK?

When I played Pee Wee baseball, all of the teams were co-ed. That lasted until age 8, at which point I kept playing baseball while my former female teammates switched to softball. Never again, outside of pick-up basketball games, would I compete with or against girls.

As a general rule, segregation by sex in sports makes sense. There are physiological differences between men and women and boys and girls—differences in size, strength, speed, and flexibility.

To my knowledge, the only sports that were designed to be coed are mixed doubles tennis, mixed doubles badminton, and korfball. In korfball, teams of four men and four women try to put a ball through a basket atop a 3.5-meter pole. (Because a korfball team must have equal numbers of men and women, every college in the country could establish a korfball program without worrying about running afoul of Title IX.)

Auto racing and horse racing, though they weren’t designed to be coed, are the two major sports in the United States where men and women don’t compete in separate leagues and likely never will. Physical differences between the sexes are muted in these sports, as they are less significant than the differences between the cars the athletes drive or the horses they ride. (In 2005 driver Robbie Gordon actually suggested that Patrick had a physical advantage over her male competitors because she is so much lighter than most of them. That’s probably true, but Dirk Nowitzki’s 7-foot frame gives him an advantage over other small forwards, and no one ever complains. Size and body type are factors in almost every sport.)

In 1976 Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for a NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) race. In 1977, she became the first woman to qualify for the Indy 500. The following year, she finished ninth at the Brickyard. But in the decades that followed, women remained a rarity in major American motorsports.

Now, a new generation of women has taken strides toward making auto racing a true co-ed sport.

A record four female drivers qualified for last year’s Indy 500. Later that season four women qualified for a NASCAR Truck Series race. While Patrick’s 2008 win in Japan remains the only win by a woman at the highest levels of racing—providing fodder for those who feel that female drivers, particularly Patrick, get a disproportionate amount of media attention and endorsements—women have won the Indy Racing League’s Most Popular Driver award in nine of the last ten years. (Patrick won six times; Sarah Fisher won three.) Patrick has twice finished in the top five in Indianapolis and have finished in the top ten of the IRL points standings in five of her six seasons. Fisher has one second-place finish and one pole to her credit.

Chantal Sutherland is one of several active female jockeys, but no woman since Julie Krone in the 1980s and 1990s has been nearly as successful. Neither thoroughbred horse racing or the equestrian events at the Summer Olympics segregate by the gender of the jockey.

When it comes to mixing the sexes, contact sports obviously are more complicated than horse or auto racing. The wrestler who forfeited his match against Cassy Herkelman cited religious and moral teachings about using physical force against girls as his reason for bowing out. Jasmine Plummer, who as an 11-year-old quarterback led her team to the Pop Warner Super Bowl (and was the subject of The Longshots, starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer), eventually gave up football because the “boys got too big”. Katie Hnida, the first woman to score points in a Division I-A/FBS football game, reported being molested and verbally abused by teammates when she was a placekicker for the University of Colorado.

Herkelman has three girls’ state titles and four girls’ national titles to her credit. She wrestles against girls when she has the opportunity, but when she wrestles for her school, she must wrestle against boys. Many girls find themselves in similar situations. While three states—Texas, California, and Hawaii—hold girls state wrestling tournaments, other states (including Iowa, where wrestling is a religion) do not. After the forfeit, Herkelman lost her next two matches and was eliminated from the tournament. Maegan Black, another girl who qualified for the Iowa state tournament, also lost her first two matches. But Herkelman is only a freshman—a freshman who won 20 matches and qualified for state—so she’ll probably have other chances. And she and Black are by no means the only girls to have success wrestling boys. In 2006 Alaska’s Michaela Hutchison won the state title at the 103-pound weight class.

Girls aren’t alone in challenging gender norms in sports. Several boys in New England, for instance, play for girls’ field hockey teams because boys’ teams aren’t available.

In an ideal world, schools would field girls’ wrestling teams and boys’ volleyball teams whenever enough students showed interest. But we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a world where many school districts are cutting athletic budgets and struggling to hold on to the teams that they have. There aren’t many school boards right now that would approve money for a boys’ field hockey or girls’ football team. Perhaps if high schools continue to trim their athletic budgets, AAU sports and club sports will become more prominent and will give athletes of both sexes a wider variety of options.

Coed sports raise difficult questions and make a lot of people uncomfortable; but they aren’t going away. When those difficult, uncomfortable questions arise, I feel that we should err on the side of opportunity. Parents, coaches, leagues, and athletic departments should give young athletes as many opportunities as possible to exercise their physical gifts and talents and to play the sports they’re passionate about. But we also can’t forsake safety. We need to be mindful of differences in size or strength that could put an athlete at greater risk of injury; and we need to protect athletes from sexual assault and harrassment.

So, anyone interested in putting together a korfball team?

And she’s the most sought after person at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week, constantly being moved from one location to another.

Since breaking into IndyCar as a rookie in 2005, she has become the face of the IndyCar series. Her merchandise is more popular than the merchandise of three-time winner Helio Castroneves. She gets mainstream media attention and “Average Joes” talking about a racing series that could use the exposure.

With a third-place finish in last year’s 500, Danica has proven she can drive, but she is still considered by some as a part-time driver, full-time marketer.

Image source: Marlena Bielinska via SI.com

There are some believe that she is being disloyal to the series that made her by racing in NASCAR’s Nationwide series on a limited schedule. Doing so at a time when IndyCar needs her full focus on their business.

NASCAR will go on without her, and no one really believes she’s really competing in Nationwide races with the goal of going full-time. Most believe it’s more about extending the Danica brand.

Never was it more clear that some are tired of what they claim is her ‘act’, than last Saturday at qualifications. Danica was almost in tears when the fans booed her lousy qualifying time. She retorted over the public address, “It’s not my fault, the car is bad.”

ESPN analyst Eddie Cheever said Danica’s double-dip is futile, and it’s time she realizes it.

“From the arch of her career what she accomplished has been phenomenal, and she has focused incredibly well on building a brand,” Cheever said.

“This year, she was making steady progress, you could never discount and you still can’t discount Danica Patrick at the Indy 500. But she has taken her career on a path where she is trying to compete in NASCAR and in IndyCar. The last people to do that successfully are Foyt and Andretti.”

“That will add a lot of weight on her shoulders, and she’s accustomed to success here, so when she came here and to not be successful was probably an emotion she had not endured in the past. I’ve been in race cars for 30 years, and as a I’ve got a message to send to her ‘this will happen to you many times in your career.’

“She might try to take a step back and realize she’s try to do something impossible.”

Listen to Cheever’s comments: ESPN analyst Eddie Cheever comments about Danica Patrick

(Vitor Meira is uninjured by a pit lane BBQ during the Indy 500 – photo from Gawker.com)

Dateline: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

By now, if you have interest in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, you already know the highlights of the event. On the World’s biggest stage, Helio Castroneves becomes part of an elite group of race car drivers who can say they have won the Indy 500 three times. Only three men: Rick Mears, Al Unser and AJ Foyt have won it more with 4 victories.

It’s not much of a story that the fastest guy all month, the pole sitter, the pit stop champion, and a two time winner gets to drink the milk in victory lane. That’s the way it should go down, especially on one of the sports wealthiest teams in Team Penske. What makes this 500 one that will go down as a legendary race? The fact that just 7 weeks ago, Helio Castroneves was submersed into a Tax Evasion trial with the Internal Revenue Service, helps a bit. On the day those verdicts were read, if Helio would have been found guilty, he could very well have been in a Federal Prison on Memorial Day. Instead, he ran a brilliant race and stayed near the front all day. With about 50 laps to go, he made a pass for the lead and was off to the races. No one would be able to catch the fiery Brazilian, but it didn’t even matter that he won by nearly 2 seconds over Dan Wheldon, it was the victory itself that was so mesmerizing.

Also of note is that Danica Patrick, who finished third behind Wheldon, became the highest finishing female driver in Indianapolis 500 history. If she could have gotten around Wheldon, who knows what she would have had for Helio…but she didn’t and wound up in third. Major MSF props go to Danica and the Boost Mobile #7 of Andretti Green Racing. You guys were fun to watch all day long.

Alex Tagliani, who was inserted in the 33th position when he replaced Bruno Junquiera in the Conquest Racing car, finished 11th and walked away with Rookie of The Year honors. Way to go TAGS!

The race was slowed by over 60 laps of yellow flags from accidents and debris, but fortunately most of them were single car accidents. One of the not so lucky ones was Vitor Meira (pictured above). Vitor Meira and Rapha Matos tangled going into turn one and Meira took a hard impact into the SAFER barrier, sliding alongside the wall on two wheels. He stopped skidding in front of where we were seated in the entrance to turn two. Vitor is out for the year, he suffered a broken back which is not going to require surgery, but will have him in a back brace and therapy until the 2010 season. Matos escaped with little injuries. Tony Kanaan was involved in a very heave single car accident when something in the right rear of the car broke, throwing his 7/11 Andretti Green car into the retaining wall. He suffered a few broken ribs and some pretty rough bruising from the accident.

The weather, almost always a factor on race day, was perfect. Sun shined on turn two for the majority of the event and I have the sunburn to prove it. The forecast had called for as high as a 60% chance of rain throughout the day, yet in reality we didn’t get a drop of rain until Monday morning. This year’s weather is just another thing that made the race so special. When the forecasters, just the day before, are concerned about the race getting in…or being delayed because of weather, you can always feel a bit of apprehension in the crowd. From the moment we arrived in the “Coke Lot”, the weather would not be an issue…and was just perfect.

In the theater of drama, known commonly as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there are so many things I take away when we leave the famous intersection of 16th and Georgetown behind, and head for home on the north side of Indy. This year, I will remember sitting by my sister the most. Though she has been to the 500 before, we had not sat together until Sunday. I think, that’s the thing about Indy. It’s a race…it’s a party…and it’s a family. My family has three generations that have now been to that wonderful place during the month of May, and it really is a special place to us. As Taps began to play, just minutes before the command to start engines, I got teary eyed. I looked over at my sister, sitting to my right, and saw she too had teared up. We smiled, wiping our eyes dry, thinking quietly that I couldn’t believe we were crying because of a race…but I know it’s much more than that. In many ways, it’s who we are.

Here are the full results of the 93rd Running of the Indianapolis 500.

93rd Indianapolis 500 – Race Results
Rank	Car No.	Driver	Car Name	Laps/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points
1	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	200	1	66	51
2	4	Dan Wheldon	National Guard Panther Racing	200	18	0	40
3	7	Danica Patrick	Boost Mobile/Motorola (Andretti Green Racing)	200	10	0	35
4	8	Townsend Bell	Herbalife–KV Racing Technology	200	24	0	32
5	12	Will Power	Verizon Wireless (Team Penske)	200	9	0	30
6	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200	5	73	30
7	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200	3	50	26
8	20	Ed Carpenter	Menards/Vision Racing	200	17	0	24
9	15	Paul Tracy	GEICO/KV Racing Technology	200	13	0	22
10	27	Hideki Mutoh	Formula Dream (Andretti Green Racing)	200	16	0	20
11	36	Alex Tagliani (R)	(All Sport) Conquest Racing	200	33	0	19
12	19	Tomas Scheckter	Mona Vie (Dale Coyne Racing)	200	26	0	18
13	99	Alex Lloyd	HER CGR/SSM Racing	200	11	0	17
14	16	Scott Sharp	Tequila Patrón Panther Racing	200	20	0	16
15	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	200	2	11	15
16	41	A.J. Foyt IV	ABC Supply/Foyt-Greer Racing	200	19	0	14
17	67	Sarah Fisher	Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing	200	21	0	13
18	24	Mike Conway (R)	(Purex) Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	200	27	0	12
19	43	John Andretti	Window World (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Richard Petty Motorsports)	200	28	0	12
20	23	Milka Duno	CITGO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	199	30	0	12
21	14	Vitor Meira	ABC Supply Co. A.J. Foyt Racing	173 (Contact)	14	0	12
22	2	Raphael Matos (R)	US Air Force Luczo Dragon	173 (Contact)	12	0	12
23	18	Justin Wilson	Z-Line Designs (Dale Coyne Racing)	160 (Contact)	15	0	12
24	13	E.J. Viso	PDVSA HVM Racing	139 (Steering)[39]	29	0	12
25	00	Nelson Philippe (R)	i drive green HVM Racing	130 (Contact)	31	0	10
26	17	Oriol Servia	The Rahal Letterman DAFCA Special	98 (Fuel Pump)[40]	25	0	10
27	11	Tony Kanaan	Team 7-Eleven (Andretti Green Racing)	97 (Contact)	6	0	10
28	06	Robert Doornbos (R)	(Hole in the Wall Camps) Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	85 (Contact)	23	0	10
29	44	Davey Hamilton	Hewlett Packard (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Kingdom Racing)	79 (Contact)	22	0	10
30	26	Marco Andretti	Team Venom Energy (Andretti Green Racing)	56 (Handling)	8	0	10
31	02	Graham Rahal	McDonald’s Racing Team (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing)	55 (Contact)	4	0	10
32	21	Ryan Hunter-Reay	IZOD/William Rast/Vision Racing	19 (Contact)	32	0	10
33	5	Mario Moraes	Azul Tequila–Votorantim–KV Racing Technology	0 (Contact)	7	0	10
Race average speed: 150.318 mph (241.913 km/h)

Next Up:

The ABC Supply Co. AJ FOYT 225 at Milwaukee

Qualifying: Saturday May 30 (6pm on VERSUS)

Race: Sunday May 31 (3:30pm on ABC)

We will have a pre-race update right here on Midwest Sports Fans!

After you make your UFC 98 odds picks for Saturday night, you can get in on the Indy 500 betting action Sunday afternoon for the “Greatest Spectacle In Racing,” which will begin at 1:00 PM ET. Scott Dixon is the defending race winner and favorite in your online sports book, but another former winner will take the checkered flag.

Dixon has Indy 500 odds of +350, and the defending series champion will roll off fifth, in the middle of the second row. Dixon hasn’t finished lower than sixth in his last three 500s. He also won the last IndyCar race at Kansas after two disappointing results at St. Petersburg and Long Beach, and another win would give him a lot of momentum heading into the summer months.

Ryan Briscoe isn’t the most well-known IndyCar driver, and he’s probably most recognized for tangling with Danica Patrick on pit road in last year’s 500, taking them both out of the race. Briscoe has Indy 500 odds of +600 after winning at St. Petersburg and coming in fourth at Kansas, and he ran fifth at the Brickyard in 2007. He starts in the middle on the front row.

Points leader Tony Kanaan, who starts on the outside of the middle row, and 2007 500 winner Dario Franchitti are rated at +700. Kanaan has a series title from 2004 and he’d love to add an Indy win to his resume with four top-10s in seven trips to the Brickyard. Franchitti returns after sponsorship problems ended his NASCAR stint, and he’ll be looking for a good run after an 18th-place result at Kansas. Franchitti also won Long Beach, and starts on the outside of the front row.

Of course, you have to mention Danica Patrick Indy 500 odds, which are set at +1000. She’s followed up a 19th-place run at St. Petersburg with two straight top-fives, and she’s good at Indy as well, racking up a pair of top-fives and an eighth-place result in three visits to the Brickyard. IndyCar’s most popular driver rolls off 10th, on the outside of the fourth row.

However, this year’s winner is accustomed to the tradition of drinking milk in Victory Lane at Indy, as Helio Castroneves is the last driver to win back-to-back 500s in 2001 and 2002. Castroneves thought he’d be watching this race from a jail cell, but he beat his tax-evasion case, and came back with a seventh-place and runner-up finish since then. No one is happier to be back in the driver’s seat than Castroneves, who is starting from the pole and rated at +400, and he gives you a solid chance to win. Take Helio Castroneves’ Indy 500 odds on Sunday.

(Pictured: Milka Duno, Sarah Fisher, Danica Patrick)

Dateline: Indianpolis Motor Speedway

The Women:

Once again there will be three women starting the Indianapolis 500. In this edition of our Indy 500 preview we will take a look at those women as well as their starting positions and my opinions on there chances of winning the Indianapolis 500.

Pos. 21

Sarah Fisher

Car # 67
D/H/F
Speed/Time: 222.082/2:42.1022

Sarah Fisher is back for her 8th Indianapolis 500, and her second as team owner. She carries a solid sponsorship program this year as Dollar General has signed on for a series of races in the 2009 season. One of my standout memories of Sarah Fisher unfortunately came from the 2000 race when she collided with the other woman racer (Lyn St. James) taking them both out on lap 74. It was probably the worst case scenario for both drivers, as their were jokes all along the front straight after the accident. But this year she is back and ready to compete. Her qualifying speed of 222.082 puts her just 1/2 a second behind the pace for the Pole sitter, Helio Castroneves. If things go right for her, and her pit crew is able to adequately and quickly service her car and get her back out to the speedway, I would look to see Sarah with a solid top 15 finish.

Pos. 10

Danica Patrick

Car # 7
D/H/F
Speed/Time: 222.882/2:41.5205

Darling Danica gears up for her 6th Indy 500. Her previous best finish was 4th in 2005, where she became the first woman to ever lead the Indianapolis 500. She also became the first woman to win a major league open wheel racing event in 2008 where she won at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. Back again with the Andretti Green team and with rumors abound of a jump to NASCAR at seasons end, I expect to see Danica finish in the top 5. She has done well here, and when she controls her outcome she has an average finishing position of 6. Last year due to contact and the infamous pit lane stroll down to Ryan Briscoes pit stall after some contact, she finished 22nd. If there were ever to be a woman to win the Indianapolis 500, I think it could be Danica. So if you’re looking for a longshot, look no further than the #7 car sponsored by Boost Mobile.

Indy 500 coverage continues right here as we take a look at the other notables in this years race. Stay tuned to MidwestSportsFans.com for up to date Indy 500 coverage.

The Winners:

Here, we continue our look into the starting field of the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500. In this edition we look at the four previous winners who will be fighting for another shot at immortality on the Borg Warner Trophy (pictured above) and a nice cool drink of milk in victory lane. The Indianapolis 500 is at 1pm this Sunday, May 24th. It’s on ABC and the pre-race starts at Noon Eastern, with the scheduled start of 1pm.

Pos. 5

Scott Dixon

Car # 9
D/H/F
Speed/Time: 223.867/2:40.8098

The 2008 Indy 500 winner and IndyCar series champion will find himself in a familiar place come race day. Rolling off from the 5th spot in the grid, this New Zealander will be a contender on race day and should definitely be one to watch. Scott Dixon has NEVER raced in a series where hasn’t wont the championship. When the pressure is on, this guy is the one you want behind the wheel. Starting from the middle of Row 2 he should have a clear view of Turn 1 on Lap 1. Barring any first turn disasters, keep your eye on the #9 Target entry piloted by Scott Dixon. He will more than likely be among the leaders all day.

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Pos. 3

Dario Franchitti

Car # 10
D/H/F
Speed/Time: 224.010/2:40.7068

Dario Franchitti comes to his 6th Indy 500, back from his single season running in NASCAR. His previous 500 starts have been with the Andretti Green organization, but it didn’t take the former Champion long to get comfortable to his new seat. He rolls off the grid on Sunday from the front row on the outside in P3. When he won the race in 2007, it was called by rain and was less than the 500 miles. Would he have been there at the end of those 500 miles? We will never know. Will he be there at the end of this years 500 miles? I don’t think so. Look for a strong start from the former champion but a pit issue or contact to keep him from taking his second 500 crown. Why? Because, Ashley Judd annoys me to death and I don’t want to see her talking on the monitors anymore than we have to.

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Pos. 1

Helio Castroneves

Car # 3
D/H/F
Speed/Time: 224.864/2:40.0967

The past six months have been absolute hell for the two-time Indy 500 winner. He spent months agonizing over a squabble with the IRS regarding a tax issue. It was resolved with a not guilty verdict, and he now finds himself back where he belongs. Helio won the 500 in 2001 and 2002 and has been in the top 5 for 5 of his 8 previous starts. He has been among the quickest all month long and was certainly the fastest on Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With the drama behind him of the courtroom, and no one in front of him as he starts this years 500, look for a strong showing from the two time winner. How strong? Look for a three time champion come Sunday afternoon. Helio Castroneves is my pick for the 2009 race. Helio, go get ‘em!

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Stay tuned to MidwestSportsFans.com as we continue our in depth look into the starting field for the 93rd Indianapolis 500. Next we will take a look at the women in the 500. Danica Patrick, Sarah Fisher, and Milka Duno will be carrying the banner for female motor sports fans everywhere come race day. Check back soon for what to watch for from the three women who are the female faces of the 500.

The 35th edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach started this afternoon with two practice sessions for the IndyCar drivers. One noticeable difference between today’s activities and tomorrows will be the activity surrounding the pit stall of Team Penske, which has reloaded with some additional firepower. Helio Castroneves will be taking back the helm of the #3 machine with Will Power moving to the #12. Will Power had been hired to fill in for HCN while he dealt with his tax evasion case that wrapped up earlier today. Ryan Briscoe maintains the #6 machine and Team Penske beefs up to three drivers for the weekend.

Under beautiful track conditions today the top five drivers overall were:

Will Power at100.424mph / Scott Dixon at 100.255 mph / Raphael Matos(R) at 100.033 mph / Dan Wheldon at 99.922 mph and Mike Conway(R) at 99.789 mph.

For Power, being at the front in Long Beach should come as no surprise. He won the event last year which was the last race ran under the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) banner before the merger of the Indy Racing League and CART. In the IndyCar Series (the flagship of the IRL), it was this weekend one year ago where Danica Patrick made history in Japan to become the first woman to win a major open wheel auto race. The race in Japan was at Twin Ring Motegi, an oval, and because of the time it took for drivers to make the trip to the far east, there was no way anyone could compete in both races.

For most of the legacy IndyCar Series drivers this is likely there first time to the famed circuit in Long Beach.

TV times are as follows:

ONLY ON

Qualifying show: Saturday April 18th @ 6pm EDT

LIVE Race: Sunday April 19th @ 3:30pm EDT

Check back Monday for a race recap and a special posting about the 2009 Indy 500.

During the race you can set your twitter radars here for live updates throughout Sundays race.

Dateline: Indianapolis, IN

The IndyCar Series fires up the 2009 racing season at St. Petersburg this weekend. The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the first race of the 2009 campaign, is scheduled for 2pm Eastern on Versus this Sunday. In advance of the chaos, here are a few things to keep in mind for the coming season.

Same Bat Time: Different Bat Channel:

This year marks the start of what ICS officials hope to be a beautiful relationship. The VERSUS network has picked up exclusive rights to most of the IndyCar Series events this year. There are still a handful of events that will be carried on ABC (including the Indianapolis 500), but for the majority of the season the change in scenery could be a wonderful thing for IndyCar fans. In the past, the races had been covered on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic as well as ABC. If an event that was scheduled before the ICS races ran long…the ICS would get bumped to another channel and race fans everywhere would lunge for the remote to catch up to the action. Now, with a dedicated channel and an impressive broadcast team, the coverage could finally be what the series’ intense racing action deserves.

The broadcast team includes; Bob Jenkins, Jon Beekhuis and Robbie Buhl in the booth. They are joined by Jack Arute, Robbie Floyd and Lindy Thackston in pit lane. This talented and experienced team will provide an out-of-the-box enthusiasm and love for the sport that should translate well to it’s viewers.

Top 5 Drivers to Watch for 2009

With the vacancy of Helio Castroneves who is still out due to tax issues, the window for the next star of the IndyCar Series is wide open. For 2009, here is my list of drivers to watch:

1) Scott Dixon- The 2008 Indy 500 and IndyCar champion. He can never be overlooked as a possible contender for the season championship, and this year is no different.

2) Dario Franchitti- The 2007 Indy 500 and IndyCar champion is back from his year in NASCAR. Dario found the tin-tops to be a bit tougher than he envisioned. Dario belongs in open wheel racing, and he has done well there. I see no reason for that not to continue.

3) Robert Doornbos- The IndyCar “rookie” has a large amount of open wheel experience and is quite good on road courses. Watch for Robert to make an impact early. He carries experience from Formula 1, CART, Formula Ford and A1GP.

4) Dan Wheldon- With a jump to Panther Racing and the focus of a one car effort behind him, look for old Danny boy to be impressive and competitive. He re-joins Panther Racing for the first time since 2002, where he raced the final two races of the season as a teammate of one Sam Hornish Jr.? (Remember Sam? Look at the bottom 10 in NASCAR each week as he is regularly seen there)

5) Will Power- Will joins the mighty Team Penske and fills the vacant seat left by Helio’s off track issues. Will is solid on road courses and has proven he is a winner in each series he has been a part of. Put big time talent in a big time car and watch out. Will Power will be more than just a clever name by the end of the 2009 Campaign.

Even though I won’t put her in here, Danica Patrick is in a contract season and should have a solid year. Will she win any races in 2009? No. Will she be a player? Yes.

Stay tuned to MSF for more on the IndyCar series and my updates on the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

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