INDIANAPOLIS — For many years, the Indy Racing League coveted the annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Now that there is a unified IndyCar Series, the IRL announced a five-year contract that will have the IndyCar Series competing in that event, beginning next season and running through 2013.
“Long Beach is a historic, world-class venue, and our entire organization is excited to have the race as an integral part of our schedule,” said Terry Angstadt, president, commercial division, Indy Racing League. “We can promise the racing fans of Southern California a highly competitive, fan-friendly experience for many years to come.”
Jim Michaelian is the president and CEO of the Grand Prix Ass’n of Long Beach and looks forward to the first “unified” Long Beach Grand Prix since 1995.
“In 2009, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will celebrate our 35th year with a new era,” Michaelian said. “Needless to say, we’re extremely happy that the IndyCar Series will continue our tradition of being America’s greatest street race. And we’re delighted that many great drivers will be returning to our streets, like Helio Castroneves, who won our race in 2001, and Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon, both of whom competed here often.
“They’ll line up with rising stars like Danica Patrick, Graham Rahal, Will Power and Marco Andretti and offer our fans the best racing weekend in California.”

• After roundly criticizing the qualification format for the Indianapolis 500, where only 11 cars were locked into the field on Pole Day, Davey Hamilton is making news again, only this time it’s positive for the IndyCar Series.
The American short-track driver from Boise, Idaho, has even bigger plans on the horizon. He wants to bring his Hewlett-Packard sponsor to the IndyCar Series and be part of a full-time team.
“I want to be involved with a team fulltime,” Hamilton said. “With Hewlett-Packard right now they have been a great sponsor. I want to be involved fulltime. I don’t have to have the name as team owner, but I want to be involved with the team whether it is as a sponsor, team manager, owner or any of the above. I’m definitely interested.”

• After having a sponsor go back on its word and never send the money, Sarah Fisher finally got some good news on Thursday.
Text4Cars.com, an automobile resale site that provides information on various cars to prospective customers, agreed to sponsor Fisher’s car in Sunday’s 92nd Indianapolis 500.
“I was so happy I was skipping across the race shop today,” Fisher said on Thursday. “The guys at the shop got on me because they had just finished cleaning the floor for a sponsor event tonight.
“I’m still reading the brief on it. I’m trying to get the contract done first. I don’t have the check yet, but the group that put it together I’ve done business with before, and I know they are good enough people that when they say everything is good, it’s good.”

• With Tony Kanaan in the lead, he was being pursued by Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti on lap 106. Andretti dove to the inside of Kanaan’s car down the backstretch and Kanaan had to make a decision. If he turned in, he would take out both AGR cars.
So instead, he tried to get into the next lane, got into the “marbles” in turn three, hit the wall and then slid across the race track where he was T-boned by Sarah Fisher’s car.
“It was a stupid move,” Kanaan said. “I think teammates shouldn’t do that to teammates. I’m sure he will have a good explanation for what he did. Halfway through the race with a bunch of traffic, why are you going to dive into me like that? I will have to wait and see what he has to say.”
Andretti said afterwards that he had a huge run on Kanaan and kept his car as far to the bottom of the race track as possible.
“You hate to see this stuff happening with teammates, but I had a run, I went for it,” Andretti said. “If I wouldn’t have gone for it, I would have been overtaken and then I would have been in that position.
“I had a run, so I went for it. Maybe it was a bit last minute, but I don’t know about stupid move. You know, maybe he didn’t expect it to be coming; I’ll put it that way. But, you know, we didn’t touch, I didn’t really take his air away, it was just a last-minute thing. You know, he was going in at speed and not able, he must have just got in the marbles. I didn’t see a replay yet, but I was as low as I possibly could have been.”
n Two-time winner Helio Castroneves was in the battle to the very end, but settled for a fourth-place finish.
“Well, fourth place, definitely not what we expected,” Castroneves said. “We tried everything we could. We had a little issue with the debris. I was trying to avoid a slow car; I slammed on the brakes instead of hitting him. I pulled away and a piece of the debris hit my front wing so we had to stop to change that.
“Now, let’s think about the championship. Scott Dixon did an excellent job. Ganassi seems to be the favorite team right now, but, hey, the championship is still a long way off and we’re going to continue working hard.”

• Ed Carpenter had his best-ever Indy 500 finish of fifth. The son of Laura George, who is married to Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George, continues to show signs that he is a serious contender for victory in the IndyCar Series.
“To be in the top five at Indianapolis is a great feeling,” Carpenter said. “I’m happy for all the people that make it happen for us, my mom and Tony for giving me the opportunity to go show everyone that I do belong at this stage, and really think we are going to get Vision Racing our first win this year. We’ve got good cars, and I think it’s just a matter of time.
“I have been a top-five car all season, especially on the ovals. I just need to get a little bit better on the road courses. Then we will be a threat all the way around. I think that is just around the corner.”

• For the second time in eight years, a spectator in a recreational vehicle parked near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Speedway, Ind., police Lt. Trent Theobald said a 43-year-old Ruma, Ill., man was unresponsive when police and medics arrived before Sunday’s Indy 500. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
The RV was parked in a vacant lot on Georgetown Road and apparently had an exhaust leak.