Open Wheel Wednesday

In just under two weeks the Indy Car Series will roll into the Kansas Speedway full of momentum. So far this year we’ve seen Graham Rahal become the youngest driver to win in the Series and last week saw Danica Patrick become the first woman to win at Motegi.

All eyes will be upon Kansas instead of Talledega?? That’s right, the bigger story right now is open wheel racing and I’m all for it. The only problem is that there couldn’t be a more boring place to have a follow up race than the Kansas track. I’ve seen one IRL event there in the past and I have to say it was a snooze-fest. These 1.5 mile tracks just don’t cut it for me; I’d rather see them turning right as well as left. But all eyes will be on Danica now that she has captured her elusive first win.

The rumor mill is starting to heat up. Reported on Autoracing1.com is a story out of a German publication that F1 driver Rubens Barichello has been approached about a possible swap from the F1 Honda team to the AGR ride while Marco Andretti, who has tested in F1, would take the Honda seat. We’ll have to see if this rumor gains any legs.

And I guess Hans-Joachim Stuck is quoted as saying that Danica Patrick would be a good fit in F1 in order for the sometimes elitist series to gain market share in the United States. I definitely see this as a marketing possibility but don’t see her ever making it into an F1 ride based on talent.