Sarah Fisher can relate to the Rodney Dangerfield. Extended fan applause, but ...
Right about now, once again, Sarah Fisher has to be wondering what she has to do to get some respect from anybody outide her legions of fans, including me.
Sarah Fisher posted this on Twitter Friday:
"Making some headway. Still have full season funding available to start at St Pete and continue beyond. However, our appearance there is not looking promising. Still digging deep, please keep up the prayers. We need this kid in a racecar"
The irrepressible Shannon McIntosh fills her Twitter stream (@Shannon_Mac) with everything from references to #babytiny, grateuitous use of hashtags (#rude!) and photos of junker Cars of the Day.
The dimunative USF2000 driver is an Ohio girl transplanted to Florida who jets here and there for magazine shoots, clandestine sponsor meetings and race car driving. Shannon wakes up "gregarious."
Now she's got a new sponsor (TrueCar.com), a new team (Pabst Racing) and a new level of schwerve as she enters her second season of USF2000 racing. Read what she had to say Thursday ..
Woman of pressdog® Shannon McIntosh has signed with Pabst Racing, which is indeed part of THAT Pabst family. News release ...
SHANNON MCINTOSH, TRUECAR JOIN PABST RACING SERVICES FOR 2012
TrueCar Sponsored Driver McIntosh Will Drive For Pabst in USF2000 National Championship
OCONOMOWOC, WI. (Feb. 16, 2012) - Pabst Racing Services announced today it has signed Shannon McIntosh to compete in the 2012 Cooper Tires presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda. McIntosh will pilot the No. 18 TrueCar Mazda.
Even grandma Barb would have to be impressed with the universality of Bev and TJ's race-car-driving daughter.
If Barb's (Danica Patrick's father's mother) life hadn't been cut short at age 61 by COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), she'd likely be fielding a stream of questions from friends and relatives about what her famous granddaughter has been up to. Essentially, what Danica Patrick has been up to is becoming a household name in America.
Festival of Breathing into a Bag here this morning. Woman of pressdog® and Associated Press motorsports reporter Jenna Fryer started the hyperventilating this morning by tweeting that IndyCar will use HEAT RACES to determine starting order at Iowa Speedway this summer. That was later confirmed during presentations at the State of IndyCar meetings today.
This is awesome for about nine reasons. Primarily it's MORE RACING for the dollar for fans. Each heat race will feature a third of the field and go for 30 races. A version of this format has long been a staple at dirt tracks around country and provides a nice opening act for the big show.
Also, even though it doesn't mean nearly as much, three heat races means three winners, which is fun for fans. AND it replaces the stupefyingly dull one-car-at-a-time qualifying format with something far more interesting.
In a shocking turn of events, Woman of pressdog® Lindy Thackston has been replaced as pit reporter on NBC Sports (formerly Versus). Word came out Monday during the NBC Sports presentation at the State of IndyCar events.
Initially, the NBC Sports rep said "everyone would return" and they were adding Townsend Bell as a pit reporter, according to tweets from the event. Lindy (@LindyThackston), however, soon tweeted that she would not return.
"That's the TV business, folks ... been an honor to have spent 3 years in @IndyCar pits," Lindy tweeted.
A day-long series of meetings is kicking off soon in Indianapolis wherein interested parties will talk about "The State of IndyCar." Much of the day is double-secret (I think) business meetings wherein the drivers, team officials and series honchos talk about this and that, like car development, engines, safety, etc. etc.
All fine, dandy and needed. IndyCar officials have opened the last session of the day at Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown Indianapolis to the public and invited fans to flock. Starts at 5:30 Eastern. Get details here.
It's tempting to be snarky about these meetings (for example, drink every time someone says any form of "excited" and you'd be hammered 10 minutes into it). Snark could also roll in memory of the infamous holograms-and-pretend-DROID-voting that went on at the big 2012 Car Selection announcement.
Kudos and shout outs to IndyCar driver Graham Rahal for springing into action to help make the newly announced IndyCar race at Milwaukee a success.
On Friday IndyCar announced it will return to the Milwaukee Mile on the weekend of June 15 and 16 this year. Story and links to ticket info HERE.
Last night Rahal busted off a series of tweets aimed at gauging interest in a FAN bus trip from Indy to Milwaukee for the race. Here are the Tweets in chronological order ...
#BAM. Again, enormous props to Graham for reacing to his 21,831 followers to stir up interest in the Milwaukee Mile race. If you are interested, as Graham instructed tweet to @LakenKurtz or email Laken@GrahamRahalFoundation.org.
Received at 1 p.m. Feb. 10, press release posted for public consumption ...
IZOD INDYCAR SERIES CONFIRMS 2012 LEADERS CIRCLE ENTRIES
INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, Feb. 10, 2012) - Seeking to further increase the competitive balance throughout the IZOD IndyCar Series field, INDYCAR has modified its Leaders Circle program for the 2012 season.
The program has been capped at 20 entrants for the season, with additional funds utilized to enhance race payouts for non-Leaders Circle entries.
The confirmed 18 returning members that finished in the top 22 in 2011 entrant points have each been awarded Leaders Circle designations. INDYCAR used its option to award the remaining two spots to reach the 20-car cap.
IndyCar declared some winners and losers yesterday, kids, based on some PowerPoint presentations.
NO, that's not fair, there may or may not have been PowerPoint presentations involved, but IndyCar did decide who won (got $1.2 million) and who lost (did not get $1.2 million).
And, on the whole, based on what I know, I think it was a good thing.
