NASCAR: Danica succeeds even when she doesn’t

I find myself looking at the results.

It may not be Saturday night after the NASCAR Nationwide Series race. It might be Sunday, or Monday, or maybe even later in the week depending on how busy I am with my day job.

But I look at the results. Usually start in the lower half the top 10 and scroll down until I see the name.

“Danica Patrick.”

I never jumped on the Danica bandwagon. Always thought the attention she received was far greater than her talent commanded. Felt bad for better drivers who were lesser personalities.

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IRL: Sarah Fisher makes the right call

Sarah Fisher laughed. “I had my big-girl pants on that day,” she said.

“That day” was the one when owner/driver Fisher decided to give up her seat and put a more competitive driver in it for the first two American road/street courses of the Izod IndyCar Series season.

Fisher called on one of the series’ rising stars, American Graham Rahal, who finished 10th in his debut for Sarah Fisher Racing in St. Petersburg and gave the young program its best finish in 11 races.

“Big time, big-time decision,” perennial contender Helio Castroneves said this past weekend in Long Beach,

If you would like to read racescribe author Martin Henderson’s story for ESPNLosAngeles.com on Fisher’s defining moment as a team owner, click here.

IRL: RHR gets a special win at Long Beach

Fans of open-wheel racing have been clamoring for American drivers, and an American star who could back it up on track. Ryan Hunter-Reay may have answered the call.

The former Dana Point resident won the 36th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, the marquee event in the IZOD IndyCar Series that isn’t the Indianapolis 500. He is guaranteed only another three races in the series, but he’s going to make it difficult for team owner Michael Andretti to park him should funding run dry.

If you would like to read racescribe author Martin Henderson’s story for ESPNLosAngeles.com on Hunter-Reay’s victory at the 2010 Grand Prix of Los Angeles, click here.

IRL: Sweet opportunity for diabetic Kimball

He bypassed Stanford so that he could race cars, only to discover he had diabetes. That’s when Charlie Kimball’s education really began.

Taking a small page from the Magic Johnson playbook, Kimball has shown that a chronic disease doesn’t have to be a death sentence to one’s dream.

Kimball will race this weekend in Long Beach for AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, a step down from the Indy cars that will highlight race action Sunday. But after two races, including second place last week, he is second in the championship and hopeful that he will one day be racing in the marquee event at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

If you would like to read racescribe author Martin Henderson’s story for ESPNLosAngeles.com on Kimball and his drive to beat the competition and diabetes, click here.

IRL: Ryan Hunter-Reay’s time is now

He has model good looks, a model good-looking fiancée and the kind of talent Danica Patrick wishes she had. Now with Andretti Autosport, Ryan Hunter-Reay will finally get the opportunity to define himself as America’s best red, white and blue open-wheel race car driver.

He is not driving for a shoestring budget team that took stock in moral victories against the big boys.

Hunter-Reay has, in the first three races of the IZOD IndyCar Series, outscored all three of his higher-profile teammates, former champion Tony Kanaan, Andretti racing heir Marco Andretti and media darling Patrick.

If you would like to read racescribe author Martin Henderson’s story for ESPNLosAngeles.com on Hunter-Reay and the opportunity to prove himself, click here.

IRL preview: Dario an investment in the future

What’s so special about the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season?

Will Power.

The third driver in the Penske stable should help the Captain, Roger Penske, win a championship.

The key word is should.

Extra technical information should be an advantage to Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe, and there are times when Power will wedge himself between a Penske car and one owned by Chip Ganassi.

But if you’re projecting to early October, the championship comes down to Castroneves, Briscoe and Power vs. Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

Franchitti won the title last season. He also won in 2007 while driving for Michael Andretti’s team. In between was his foray into NASCAR, which didn’t go very well. In fact, it went pretty badly, and reflected more poorly on open wheel racers than it should have.

NASCAR: Patrick’s performance is reality show

They desperately want her to succeed. Hard as it may seem, they may want it more than she does. But make no mistake, Danica Patrick wants her NASCAR experiment to cure cancer, generate free energy and correct global warming.

Yet after she finished 31st at Auto Club Speedway in  Fontana in her non-restrictor plate debut — on a track where a driver can make a difference — you were left with a few thoughts and NASCAR suits must have been wondering, at least for a split second, “My god, what have we created?”

Was this much ado about nothing? Yes.

Is she as good as advertised? No.

Nothing fabricated about IndyCar’s championship

In a racing world where playoffs were created to ensure a close championship battle and maintain consumer interest, isn’t it ironic that the IndyCar Series may have the best championship of all?

Going into today’s final race of 2009 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Scott Dixon has the championship lead, teammate Dario Franchitti is five points off the pace, and Ryan Briscoe is eight points back. The series has averaged a new championship leader every other race this season.

There is nothing contrived about this battle for open wheel supremecy, nothing fabricated by artificial means or points. It will be decided in a 200-lap shootout on a 1.5-mile oval under the lights. One of those three men is going to win it, and he will earn it in the process.

Based on the whole season, not just a portion of it.

IRL: Tracy/Foyt pairing could be heaven and hell

This is what we’ve been waiting for.

Paul Tracy is driving for A.J. Foyt. Two men with take-no-prisoners attitudes.

This fusion of personalities may be what A.J. Foyt Enterprises has been waiting for. Darren Manning was surprisingly good on road courses last season for Foyt’s team. Vitor Meira may not match Manning on the road, but is a step up on ovals even if the team is a step behind everyone else.

Manning and Meira are extremely nice men.

Tracy is not.

IRL: A special memory suitable for ever

There are moments you should remember the rest of your life. This was one of them.

Fewer than six weeks after being acquitted of tax evasion charges, Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

For the third time.

Winning once is historic. Winning twice is monumental.

Three times?

IRL: Sex sells, but with luck, Fisher sails

Most Americans with a rooting interest in the Indianapolis 500 later today will be pulling for the wrong girl.

Instead of hoping that Danica Patrick wins the 500, folks should be pulling for Sarah Fisher. Not that she has any chance of winning. She doesn’t, unlike Patrick, who drives for one of the best teams in the IRL IndyCar Series and does a pretty good job of getting around the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Yet Fisher is starting her eighth Indy race, more than any other woman. She has never driven for a team as good as the Andretti Green Racing squad that squeezes Patrick into and out of a firesuit, nor the Rahal-Letterman outfit that helped Patrick to a fourth-place finish in 2005 that catapulted her to stardom. For those of you who may have forgotten, Patrick finished fourth in spite of herself; she caused a couple of accidents that took out a handful of competitors.

But Fisher — who was the league’s perennial most popular driver until Patrick arrived on the scene — may be the sentimental choice among other drivers. Helio Castroneves said that if he or teammate Ryan Briscoe didn’t win the race, he was hopeful it would be Fisher. Don’t bet that he is alone.

IRL: As weekends go, Rahal stole the show

Alex Lloyd was money. Scott Sharp was off the hook. And Helio  Castroneves was, well, Castronevesque.

But clearly the most impressive performer over the first weekend of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 was America’s best hope for a superstar.

Graham Rahal.

His first coup came on Saturday, when he pulled a sixth-place qualifying run off the board and,  in a new car, qualified fourth. In other words, he out-qualified Scott Dixon, the defending race champion as well as the defending IndyCar  Series champion for Team Target.

IRL: A step behind, but Americans stepping up

St. Louis may be the gateway to the west, but Kansas Speedway is the gateway to the Indianapolis 500. It might also have been the first step toward a legitimate resurgence among American open wheel drivers.

Two weeks ago, Scott Dixon finally got off the schneid, Helio Castroneves showed he’s in midseason form, and Tony Kanaan proved once again he is as reliable as ever. But perhaps the most notable thing to emerge from the heavy skies outside Kansas City in the IndyCar Series Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 is what took place behind them.

Danica Patrick, 27, Marco Andretti, 22, and Graham Rahal, 20 — three Americans — finished 5-6-7 in the running order. That’s about as good as can be expected as they catch up to the aforementioned, as well as Dario Franchitti. That Franchitti was the only sure thing to not finish the race, it turned out to be a banner day for the red, white and blue.

That’s right, Americans.

IRL: Dixon currently trails, ahem, Stanton Barrett

So this is what they mean when they say it’s tougher to repeat as a champion than win it in the first place.

Scott Dixon? The defending IndyCar Series champion is 55 points behind Dario Franchitti and in 17th place after two races. Two races, two sub-par finishes. It happens.

But Dixon’s misery has happened on two street circuits, and there’s only one thing that needs to be said to put a little perspective on how bad his season has gone thus far.

He trails Stanton Barrett.

IRL: Franchitti lays down the gauntlet

Get used to it.

Dario Franchitti won the 35th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and given that  it’s only his second race with owner Chip Ganassi,  you have to believe that this won’t be the last time the Scot wheels his Indycar into the winner’s circle.

Franchitti’s dominant and fortuitous victory —  he led 51 of 85 laps — was his first on an IRL street or road course, which is quite amazing given his proclivity for victory while in Champ Car. We already know he’s not going to roll over on ovals where he has eight victories in the series.

Chemistry is usually the key element in developing great teams. Chemistry takes time. If the chemistry on Franchitti’s team is already there, look out.

And look out often.