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Chicagoland and Kansas Single-Race Tickets on Sale NOW

Two of my fav tracks, Chicagoland Speedway and Kansas Speedway, now have single-race IndyCar tickets on sale.

Chicagoland Speedway --  Famous for making Robin Miller pee his pants and declare the racing TOO DAMN INSANE in 2009, is offering $10 off per ticket if you buy before Feb. 19.

Chicagoland has packaged the NASCAR Truck, ARCA and IndyCar races on the weekend of Aug. 27. A ticket pack good for all three races ranges from $68 to $94. You can also buy a single-day ticket that gets you admission to both the Firestone Indy Lights and Izod IndyCar series races for $49 to $62. (I'm not sure if those prices are after $10 discount or before.)

For info or to purchase, go to www.chicagolandspeedway.com or call 888-629-RACE.

Kansas Speedway -- The race there in 2009 was marred by 25 mph winds (I was there, and it was a windy, cold bitch, officially). Kansas Speedway is very very similar to Chicagoland Speedway. The 2010 race is on Sat., May 1.

Kansas is offering single-race IndyCar tickets for $49 to $79 each. For more info or to purchase, go to www.kansasspeedway.com or call 866-460-RACE.

This is part a new approach to ticket selling at Kansas and Chicagoland. In the past, you could only buy a season ticket good for all races at the speedway. Fans who just wanted tickets to the IndyCar weekend had to hit secondary markets like eBay, Stub Hub and pressdog sponsor Ticket City.

This year the season tickets are still for sale, but both tracks are offering several other weekend packages or single-race tickets.

Lindy Thackston Battles for Miss Twitter December

The friends of Lindy Thackston (@lindythackston) are locked in a bitter battle to get her into the top 10 of Ms. Twitter December.

Clearly the women in front of Lindy are cheaters and/or NASCAR fans. Lindy wants to add another tiara and sash to those she won as a Indy 500 Festival Princess back in the day. She's promised to do some fancy pageant walking if she wins.

So you should rush HERE right now to vote for LindyCar. You can vote for her every 20 minutes (it's a Chicago-style election) and you DO NOT have to be a Twitterer to vote.

Lindy has even received the prestigious endorsement of R. Hobbson at the Silent Pagoda. Read his testimony HERE.

The Women of pressdog®

Women of pressdog® are women associated with open-wheel racing who demonstrate independence, intelligence and that special schwerve of personality, humor, playfulness and edge. Click below to read the latest interview with each Woman of pressdog.

Sarah Fisher	Leilani Münter	Pippa Mann
Lauren George	Lindy Thackston	Simona De Silvestro
Shannon McIntosh	Alison Macleod	Danica Patrick
Maryeve Dufault	Lauren Bohlander	Ana Beatriz
Erin Crocker	Cameron Haven	Katherine Legge
Jamie Little	Nicole Briscoe	Jenna Fryer
Ashley Freiberg	Shea Holbrook

The Fastest Woman at the ARCA Test Represents

It's very interesting to see how the NINE other women at last weekend's ARCA test are reacting to the media's Danica Freak Out.

It has eerie parallels to how IndyCar drivers of both genders reacted to Danica's arrival in their league. Insert versions of "She brings attention that's good for everyone" here.

Alli Owens (right), who was the fastest woman at the ARCA test, talks about her run HERE. Her fans aren't wildly enthused that Danistar got all the attention while Alli was consistently P3 or better. Let's just say they'd find lots of company in IndyCar.

On the other hand, if Danica is in the race at Daytona in February and Alli wins it or does very well, she'll probably get far more notice than she would have without Danica being there, so it's one of them two-edged racin' deals.

Here's a Daytona Beach News-Journal online story about the other women.

All Leilani Wants for Christmas is a 20-Race Deal

pressdog fav Leilani Münter has slapped up a news release about her ARCA testing at Daytona, complete with the stirring photo above. Edgy. Leilani has schwerve, that's for sure.

She's working with sponsor NextEra Energy and Mark Gibson Racing to slap together a multi-race ARCA schedule for 2010. Hope Santa delivers on that one. Fingers crossed, breath held.

Maybe if we told Leilani that Danica collects poached ivory, uses nothing but polystyrene plates and is the spokesmodel for the "bring back leaded gasoline" movement she'll focus the rage. (All of those things I just made up, by the way. Chill. I kid Danica. I'm a kidder. She can take it.)

Read the Münter news release HERE.

Merry Christmas Mike Schmacher Fans: 7-Time Champion to Return to F1

Many reports this morning including confirmation from the team that Michael Schumacher will return to F1 with Mercedes in 2010.

Mike will partner Nico Rosberg and once again joins Ross Brawn to extend his career. The move undoubtedly met with wetted pants by Mike fans, track operators and F1 cash harvester, Bernie Eccelstone. 

Schumacher was set to fill in for the injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari at the end of 2009, but a neck injury he sustained in a motorcycle race months earlier prohibited his return. Just the possibility of Schumacher's return then set off a festival of ticket buying and many tracks.

Some claim Shumacher is the greatest GP driver ever with seven Drivers’ World Championships, 248 Grand Prix starts, 91 victories, 154 podium finishes and 68 pole positions.

Read all about it here, here and here.

pressdog Loves the Ladies, Holiday Edition: Shannon McIntosh

We're pleased to bring you the Women of pressdog.com, the multi-part holiday gift from the ladies connected to racing who are friends of the p-dog.

Today we're dippin' into the USAC pool where Shannon McIntosh of Miamisburg, Ohio, has been working the Ford Focus Midgets since 2005.

The diminutive, 20-year-old racer with "“NinTai” tattooed on her right foot (see below) has been racing since age 5 when she started in quarter midgets. Since then Shannon has racked up 100 career wins in various levels since then.

pressdog Loves the Ladies, Holiday Edition: Simona De Silvestro

We're pleased to bring you the Women of pressdog.com, the multi-part holiday gift from the ladies connected to racing who are friends of the p-dog.

Today's participant has caused much frothing with her FIVE wins in Atlantics and third-place points finish in 2009. For a while there it looked like Simona De Silvestro might actually take the title. The 21-year-old Swiss driver came up through the Formula BMW USA series and Formula Renault 2000 Championship in Italy. She's also raced in the French Formula A Championship and various karting events.

The Empire Strikes Back: Danica Patrick P5 in Sunday ARCA Test

Danica Patrick and JR Motorsports finished fifth fastest in the ARCA test at Daytona Sunday with a top speed of 182.028 mph. Danica turned 92 laps Sunday, by far the most of any competitor. 

Leilani Münter and Mark Gibson Racing stormed back from a P28 performance on Saturday to be seventh quick on Sunday with a top speed of 181.774 mph.

Münter turned 35 laps and said the team discovered her "truck arm was dragging" on Saturday.

IndyCar driver Milka Duno, who raised eyebrows Saturday by running some six spots in front of Danica with her Braun Racing entry, experienced engine trouble that cut her Sunday session short.

Milka Duno Bests Danica Patrick at ARCA Test

In a stunning display of WTF, the much maligned Milka Duno finished P13 in the Saturday afternoon session of the ARCA test at Daytona.

Milka's top speed was 181.91 mph. She only turned 17 laps on the test. Danica Patrick did 84 total laps and finished P19 with a top speed of 181.554. Leilani Munter was 28th fastest with a top speed of 180.108 and 40 total laps.

As a fan of the underdog, and someone who loves to see long-suffering drivers overcome, I'm happy to give Milka a huge and extended shout out for her performance. We'll see if the racing press will notice on their stampeded to Danica's press conference.

Alli Owens, entering her second year in ARCA, was fastest female on the day , finishing P3 in a Venturini Motorsports sweep of the top three spots.