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: 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.

NASCAR: Colombian Comet is bleepin’ brilliant

If you’ve ever heard Juan Pablo Montoya unleash a barrage of expletives after missing a shot on the golf course — a shot on the miniature golf course somewhere between the castle and windmill with his young children in tow — you’d realize just how intensely competitive he is.

There are those who live for winning, but Gordon Gekko has nothing on Montoya, NASCAR’s best story of the season for the last two months.

No one except the foolish would have expected Montoya to ace stock car racing in his third season, especially with an outfit like Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Imagine, two irrelevent programs combining forces to give Teresa Earnhardt, Chip Ganassi and Sabates the opportunity to play for a championship. Not even Dale Earnhardt would have spotted that one coming. Not this soon.

NASCAR: Time for Junior’s defining moment

He’s the most popular driver in America, and right now, Dale Earnhardt Jr., is the most overrated.

He is in the worst slump of his career. He moved to the best team in NASCAR and has won once — the same number of victories as David Reutimann running for a team that isn’t one of the super teams, or Brad Keselowski running for an independent, for gosh sakes.

In other words, Dale Jr. is just a guy. Because of his extraordinary popularity, he might as well be Anna Kournikova. Or Danica Patrick.

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: 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: No lack of drama with Tracy at Indy

Paul Tracy is back, and apparently, with a vengeance. It’s good to see PT spitting fire. The unofficial winner of the 2002 Indianapolis 500 — also known as the official loser — announced that he will be driving for KV Racing when that one-car team fields a second car at the Brickyard.

Short of Richard Petty driving in the 600-mile race at Charlotte, or Michael Schumacher making an appearance at Monaco, it is the most welcome sight of the Memorial Day Race Weekend.

With all due respect to Jimmy Spencer, Tracy is Mr. Excitement. Few drivers of any generation have created as much drama, whether it’s fighting with Alex Tagliani, drawing the ire of Sebastien Bourdais or choking his team owner — yep, it really happened — Tracy is passionate and doesn’t pull any punches.

Right or wrong, jackass or not, the 35-time winner and 2003 CART champion calls it the way he sees it.

“We’re not going to take the rookie orientation program,” he said at the IRL press conference in Long Beach.  “I don’t think they let past winners do that there.”

Ouch! He is the one guy Danica Patrick does not want to mess with.

IRL preview: Castroneves is right on target

The Indy Racing League may have opened two weeks ago in St. Petersburg, but the series’ arrival in Long Beach makes the season official. Not to dismiss Ryan Briscoe’s victory, but Spring Brake has been around three times longer than the IRL. If there is one marquee event on the schedule that’s not named the Indianapolis 500, this is it.

And so it’s with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach that we find a few moments to offer up a preview of the 2009 season, completely dismissing what transpired two weeks ago.

Ganassi vs. Penske.

Is that simple enough?

IRL: Taxing, Not Dancing, is Castroneves’ Situation

Any time the federal government decides to press charges against a celebrity, it ain’t for kicks and grins. That’s what makes the Helio Castroneves situation so distressing. It’s reasonable to assume the Feds dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s before trying to make an example of one the sport’s most marketable stars.

Indicted for tax evasion and free on a $10 million bond, Castroneves was at the press conference in which Team Penske announced Will Power will handle preseason testing in Castroneves’ No. 3 prior to the start of the IRL’s Indycar Series.

Team owner Roger Penske had previously indicated that Castroneves didn’t need racing to get in the way of proving his innocence. If he can’t contest the entire season, which begins on April 5, the ride is Power’s. The trial is scheduled to begin March 2.

At the press conference, Castroneves almost apologetically reiterated his innocence, that he was “very confident.”

“I can’t wait for this thing to be over, for me to be back in the race car, do what I love most, which is racing,” Castroneves said.

If those words stand up, Castroneves will almost certainly have an opportunity to win the Indianapolis 500 for the third time.

Yet, it’s not the 500 that needs Castroneves. It’s the 2009 season.

NASCAR: Where is Carl Edwards’ head?

He is affable and handsome, although some might argue his teeth are too big and his smile Osmondesque.

He has a physique made for a fitness magazine, although that ESPN cover photo was kind of creepy.

He also has a lead foot that could give him a NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

But this dark side of Carl Edwards seems to be emerging.

Enormously talented and a man who appeared to be a PR flak’s dream, Edwards has found himself in the midst of controversy recently, and it’s largely his own doing. Like Danica Patrick in the Indy Racing League, Edwards seems to feel — or is at least acting — like the world owes him something.

Some might ask who made him king. Worse, they might ask who made him a prima donna.