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Iowa Speedway Weekend Packages on Sale TODAY

Weekend packages for all races at Iowa Speedway -- including the USAC/Indy Lights/IZOD IndyCar race weekend June 22 & 23 -- went on sale today, Jan. 23. Get your tickets HERE. I'm already in for two at the top o' the stands.  Single-race tickets go on sale Feb. 6.

Given the endangered species nature of ovals in IndyCar ... and the fact that the last four IndyCar races at Iowa Speedway were stunning ... I hope (and pray) that IndyCar fans will sell out all 35,000 (ish) permanent seats at least.

Check below for my advice on remarkably cheap hotels in the area ...

Sarah Fisher Fans can Help Her Land a Big One

(Updated 1/23/11) Sarah Fisher is asking fans of her race team and driver Josef Newgarden to do a few things to help them impress Walgreens, which is interested in sponsorship.

About 400 people responded to tweets from Sarah and others to turn out in support of Sarah during her involvement in a Walgreens promotion on 1/19 in Indianapolis. HUGE. Absolutely the best way to show your support is show up. Manly tears for all those who made that effort. 

Now we all (inside and outside Indy) can continue to help Sarah by doing some or all of these things:

1. If you are on Twitter tweet to @Walgreens and ask them to sponsor Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (@SFHRIndy). Promising to buy stuff at their stores if they do is a great touch.
2. If you are on Facebook, pop over to the Walgreen's page and leave a message encouraging their sponsorship. Go HERE.
3. If you have Internet access (which you do or you wouldn't be reading this), go HERE and send the Walgreens marketing department a note declaring love for Sarah and her team and promising to buy stuff at their stores if they sponsor.
4. Drop the nuclear bomb on them. Go to your local Walgreens. Buy stuff. Make a copy of the sales receipt. Send it along with a paper letter telling Walgreens you spent this money at their store specifically because they are contemplating supporting Sarah and promise to bring a Festival of Buying to their stores if they do support her. I did this on Jan. 21 and mailed my receipt on Jan. 23. The whole clerical process took me maybe 15 minutes. Here's the address:

Walgreens
Marking Department
20 Wilmont Road
Deerfield, IL 60015

Taking the time to send an actual paper letter has tremendous impact. Trust me, if Walgeens gets even 100 paper letters from fans, all containing receipts proving actual spending, it will have a bit impact.

Simple stuff you can do to help Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing land a big sponsor.

Root for the Underdragon

Ah Lotus and Dragon Racing. Arriving just in time to perk up my sagging interest in the road-and-street dominated IndyCar schedule.

Dragon Racing announced recently that their team will feature Katherine Legge and Sebastien Bourdais, both of whom I dig for different reasons.

Katherine, of course, is a Woman of pressdog, which means she's female (duh), connected to racing (preferably open-wheel) and has brains and schwerve (that combination of attitude, confidence and humor). Katherine has all that going on. She rode out a trip into the catch fence at Road America without making a big thing about it. She stalked Kevin Kalkhoven to get a ride in Champ Car initially. She won in Atlantics, went to female-driver-hostile Europe and drove in DTM. Came back to America. Got a ride. (Read more about her here.) So I'm on board with Katherine.

Iowa Corn to Power IndyCar Race at Iowa

Corn is king in Iowa, and mighty corn is also bringing you the Iowa Corn 250 June 23 at Iowa Speedway.

The 6th annual event has the Corn People in a big froth, because the new car runs on E85 (a blend of 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol) which the Corn People super love. (WARNING: you have to have a Flex Fuel engine to burn E85 in your vehicle. Be advised.) I once filled up a Flex Fuel Ford Escape with E85 and found it to be quite zippy, at the low end, especially.

Iowa produced 2.4 billion bushels of corn in 2011, easily the most of any state, and about 1/6th of the entire U.S. crop.

Weekend packages for all Iowa Speedway dates go on sale Jan. 23. Go HERE. Single-race tickets for the IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway go on sale on Feb. 6 HERE. For Iowa Speedway area hotel info, check my Guide to Iowa HERE.

News release below.

Trackside Busts out Tonight with Bernard, Carpenter, Legge and Servia

"Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee" airs tonight from 7-9 eastern on 1070 The Fan (WFNI-AM) in Indianapolis and via the internet at www.1070TheFan.com. 

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard will be in studio.  Plus - Ed Carpenter, Katherine Legge, and Oriol Servia.  Questions are welcome at Kevin@1070theFan.com or via Twitter @KevinLee23.  The earlier sent, the better.

A podcast will be available somewhere at some time.  But, unfortunately issues beyond Trackside's control with 1070TheFan.com prevented last week's show from getting posted.  It is available here http://www.tracksideonline.com/interactive/TRACKSIDE_JANUARY10_2012.mp3 courtesy of TracksideOnline.com.

TSO will once again step up tomorrow morning to post the podcast of tonight's show if it fails to appear at 1070TheFan.com.

Katherine Legge Returns to Open-Wheel with Sebastien Bourdais and Dragon

TrueCar is empowering Woman of pressdog® Katherine Legge to return to American open-wheel racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series. She will team with four-time Champ Car World Series Champion Sebastien Bourdais and Dagon Racing for 2012.

Marshall Pruett on Speed.com initially reported that Legge, a Woman of pressdog®, will join Bourdais at Dragon Racing, an on-again, off-again team headed by Jay Penske. Read it here. The IndyStar's Curt Cavin tweeted soon after that Lotus had confirmed the Legge/Bourdais/Dragon deal. The story was further confirmed by Racer.com here.

Legge is backed by TrueCar, whose website TrueCar.com offers car buying advice, including insights into fair pricing. Legge's sponsorship is part of  multi-million-dollar "Women Empowered" racing initiative that will sponsor six women in 2012, including Legge's fellow Women of pressdog Shea Holbrook (Pirelli World Challenge), Ashley Freiberg (Star Mazda) and Shannon McIntosh (USF2000) along with Verena Mei (Rally America) and Emilee Tominovich (MX-5 Cup). TrueCar will support an all-female Baja 1000 team in 2012. (Read more.)

For Legge the sponsorship is the culmination of a year of effort. Legge returned to the U.S. last January after three years driving for Audi in the sportscar DTM, (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters), a German sports car series that races primarily in Europe. Read what Legge said about her career last January here.

News release below ...

Knoxville Makes Changes to Friday Night of Nationals

Knoxville Raceway is making some good changes to the Friday night of their multi-day Knoxville Nationals program. With qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday and the finals on Saturday, Friday had been kind of a let-down day with non qualifiers racing and the "World Challenge" that always struck me as a little ersatz, to be honest.

They're changing it up for 2012 and for the better, in my opinion. Read the news release below.

Danica Patrick & Tony Stewart -- The Transcript

Danica and Tony met the media at Daytona today. Danica confessed her Honey Badger approach to the season. Manly tears. Transcript provided by NASCAR.com.

An Interview With: TONY STEWART and DANICA PATRICK

KERRY THARP: Joining us now is Danica Patrick. She drives the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing. Danica, it's great to see you back here at Daytona. You're going to be making your Sprint Cup Series debut in the biggest race of the season. Talk about that, being able to come to the biggest platform and the biggest venue that we race, and it's a place where you actually got your NASCAR start a while back. Talk about being here racing at Daytona.

Hinch is Ready to G-G-G-G Go Daddy -- The Transcript

Mike Andretti and James Hinchcliffe, new GoDaddy Boy, possed up with The Media Wednesday afternoon. Transcript provided by IndyCar PR ...

INDYCAR Conference Call Transcript - Michael Andretti and James Hinchcliffe

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everybody, to today's call. We've been joined today by Andretti Autosport owner, president and CEO Michael Andretti, and the newest member of the Andretti family James Hinchcliffe who will be the driver of the No. 27 Go Daddy Chevrolet in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Shannon McIntosh's USF2000 Schedule

Woman of pressdog® Shannon McIntosh will be back for her second year of US F2000 mayhem this year. Below is her schedule. Mark your calendars ...

2012 Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda schedule

• March 15-16, Sebring International Raceway with ALMS

• March 24-25, Streets of St. Petersburg, with IndyCar

• May 26, Lucas Oil Raceway, with USAC

• August 4-5, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with IndyCar & ALMS

• August 17-18, Road America, with ALMS

• Sept. 1-2, Streets of Baltimore, with IndyCar

• Sept. TBA, Final two races, TBA