Team Penske will announce today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that it has signed Australian driver Will Power to fill in for the troubled brazillian star. Whether Power will actually drive a car for Penske in an IndyCar Series race is left up to the Federal Court system. If Helio isn’t able to answer the bell due to his court case, then the reigns of the #3 will be handed over to the Aussie.

Will Power has a successful record on road courses, and was a rising star in the now defunct Champ Car World Series. He was with PKV racing last year and found himself with no seat heading into 2009. This is a bit of gamble for Will Power, considering he may not even get to race in a Team Penske car, but I think it sets clear the state of the economy. Why would he take a gamble on being used as a test driver, while Helio fights his battles? Because there is nothing else out there.

It does make the mind wonder what the end game will be. Will Penske bring over enough sponsorship to adopt a third car in the 2009 season? Is Will Power going to be used for a few weeks in testing the 2009 car, then thrown off the team when HCN comes back?

Or is this maybe the clearest sign yet, that Helio Castroneves is in a world of trouble, and there is very little chance of him escaping the wrath of our Government.

Stay tuned, its gonna be an incredible year in the IndyCar Series… Bring on the warm weather…and lets go racing!

2008 Firestone Indy Lights Champion Raphael Matos will take over in the cockpit of Luczo Dragon Racing. Matos, who won the Championship with Andretti Green Racing in the Indy Light series this year, feels he is ready to make the jump to the “big league”. When Tony Kanaan signed a 5 year extension with AGR towards the end of the IndyCar season, Matos had little choice but to switch teams if he were to run with the big dogs in the ICS. Andretti Green has focused hard on maintaining a winning balance on four cars. The team would have trouble finding that balance if they were to go to five entries, and that fifth entry is where Matos would have landed. Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan, and Hideki Mutoh will be with AGR for the foreseeable future.

As a long time fan of the IndyCar series and all the wonderful personalities that have risked their life for our entertainment, I am once again feeling sorry for Tomas Scheckter. Scheckter can be as quick as anyone on the track. I have seen him race the wheels off of his car on more than one occassion. The problem with Scheckter is that eventually, his wheels really do fall off and it is usually when he slams into the outside wall at 220mph. For IndyCar fans, I hope Tomas gets another shot as few would argue he is amazingly entertaining and very aggressive. But from an owners perspective, I will understand if he is left out in the cold. In this economy, the thought of buying new race cars every week isn’t an attractive one.

One final note of interest: Luczo Dragon is co-owned by Jay Penske. Yes, that Penske. Jay is youngest son of Roger Penske.

[tags]indycar series, auto racing, luczo dragon[/tags]