HOMESTEAD, Fla. — With the increased car count giving the IndyCar Series a bigger field, Tony George stressed there is still room for more teams to join the series.
“I kind of assumed 14 or so was a very real possibility,” George said of Champ Car teams joining IndyCar. “I don’t know where we would be today if that many had actually come. Where it settled out at eight, to 10 that seems to be a manageable number to get the season going, but we would have really been hard-pressed to come up and do a reasonable job.
“To that extent, I wish everybody that wanted to be here could be here. Derrick Walker comes to mind. I certainly wish the economy around this sport was booming from the very announcement so that guys like Gerry Forsythe would find a sponsor and be here. I’ve still got a car available. We could tighten our belt and try to get by running two. Dallara can still build four a month beginning in May. We’ll slowly catch up, but it’s getting there.”

• Dallara has stepped up production of new chassis and can deliver four new chassis per month, according to Brian Barnhart, president of competition for the Indy Racing League.
Newman/Haas/Lanigan has two cars and will take possession of its third chassis this week. Conquest has two cars and will get a third this week as well, while Dale Coyne Racing and KV Racing both have three cars. HV Racing has one car and will get its second car this week.
All of the two-car teams mentioned will get a fourth chassis the last week of April, before the series heads to Kansas. That means all nine of the transitioning teams will have 18 cars delivered by the end of April.
Also, Luczo Dragon Racing has a new chassis being prepared for Tomas Scheckter at Kansas with the team then moving on to the Indianapolis 500 and Infineon in August with the potential for a few more races this season. Rubicon Racing with Jim Freudenberg and Sam Schmidt also has a car for an Indy 500 effort.

• With two races on the same weekend, April 19-20 where the IndyCar regulars will be in Japan and the Champ Car Series will hold its finale in the Long Beach Grand Prix, George and Barnhart will be among 15 series officials that will attend both events.
Tony Cotman, IndyCar Series vice president of competition, will be the race director at Long Beach. John Lewis, vice president of marketing, will return to race control with Barnhart at Japan.
“Those of us on the operational side are mainly going to Long Beach to get familiar with the facility, get a little heads up and observe the finale as well,” Barnhart said.

• Terry Angstadt, president, commercial division of the IndyCar Series, confirmed that Edmonton will be held on the day before the Brickyard 400 on July 26 pending approval from the FIA. Surfers Paradise, Australia is scheduled for Oct. 26 but will not determine the 2008 championship.
It will either be part of a separate international championship that would include Motegi, Long Beach, Indianapolis, Edmonton and Surfers Paradise with a cash bonus and significant trophy. The other option is for that race to be the first points-paying race for 2009.

• KV Racing Technology continues to find more sponsorship for its two-car operation. Plantronics joined the team as Oriol Servia’s sponsor on the No. 5 entry for the first three races this season, including the Champ Car finale at the Long Beach Grand Prix. After that, Plantronics will be an associate sponsor for the remainder of the season.

• Dale Coyne Racing announced Z-Line Designs will be the primary sponsor on the No. 18 car driven by Bruno Junqueira. Z-Line Designs is one of the world’s leaders in the manufacture of office and home entertainment furniture. The company is looking to expand its market base through aggressive motorsports involvement.

• One year ago in this race, Marco Andretti’s car scared him so bad he decided to park it rather than risk it, and finished last in the race.
What a difference a year makes.
Andretti was fearless in his drive Saturday night and finished second.
“Right after Chicago last year, I was ready to go into this race, so it was a little bit redeeming, which all year I have had to do,” Andretti said. “I still have a little bit to prove still yet. Coming off last year, our first goal was to finish this race.
“We really focused on the race car’s balance, starting in the off-season when we were testing. I think my engineer and I did a very good job to come up with a setup that works at a place like this — the race car, rather than the qualifying car. The guys were awesome in the pits. The tires were unbelievable. Honda was awesome. It was a good day.”
 
• Helio Castroneves gained tremendous fame in the off-season by winning ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Saturday night, he was able to return to what he does best and that is driving a race car.
Castroneves finished fourth for Team Penske.
“The Team Penske car handled really well tonight, but we just didn’t have the speed that the top few guys had,” Castroneves said. “Thankfully, we were able to stay out of trouble and bring home a solid fourth-place finish. The championship is our ultimate goal this year, and we were able to score some valuable points today. We’ll look to build on that next week in St. Petersburg when we try for three in a row there.”