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Danica Patrick on COPD, Haters, Daytona and Breakfast

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.

Empowered Freiberg, Holbrook Ready to Rock and Roll

Ashley Freiberg

Shea Holbrook

The two newest Women of pressdog®, Ashley Freiberg and Shea Holbrook, actually go way back to Skip Barber days. Now they are teammates and beneficiaries of TrueCar.com’s multi-million-dollar “Women Empowered” racing initiative.

Last week Shea announced her team for Pirelli World Challenge and on Monday Ashley followed suit with her team announcement. Here are the two talking about their teams, hopes and dreams for 2012.

Pork Chop -- the Car Behind the Woman -- Speaks

It's a car ... with its own Twitter account (@78_porkchop). A car that gets called by name by fans of its driver, Simona De Silvestro. An older, heavier, backup car that was pressed into duty when Simona's primary car, "Janet," got totaled at Indy. 

Pork Chop -- so named by De Silvestro due to its heavier, older -- let's be honest -- slower nature. Despite his shortcomings (or maybe because of them), Pork Chop has become a bit of a fan favorite, getting called by name both on TV and in print, with nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter.

Firestone Firehawk ... the Interview

Enigmatic. Helmeted. Red. Large-beaked. Deadly with a t-shirt air cannon. It's Firestone FIREHAWK, and he's going on record with pressdog about tweeting, t-shirt gunning, Cameron the IZOD Trophy Girl and and concerning anger issues toward geckos.

WORD to the Firehawks PR operative Darla and the festival of management who most likely had to approve this 100% real Q&A. BAM.

pressdog: How does someone get to be The Officail Firehawk? Is it like beauty pageants where there are local, regional, state, national Mr. Firehawk contests?

Shannon McIntosh Lands First Full-Time Ride since 2006, Looks Forward to the Left-and-Right of USF2000

Shannon McIntosh today formally announced a full-season deal with Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing in the Road to Indy feeder series USF2000. News release below. We shot Shannon a series of burning questions about her road back to full-time racing ...

pressdog: Give us a little overview of how it came together. Long process? Short process? Did you have to work at it slow and steady or was it wait-wait-wait then a flurry of activity?

Shannon: Haha…It was a roller coaster. We talked with a few teams and I ended up getting the rest of my budget sealed up and signing with the team VERY QUICKLY. A lot of stuff was crammed into a short period of time and it was a whirlwind! It happened all so quickly, I don’t think I’ve had time to realize it’s happening!

Ed Carpenter Heads to Kentucky Looking Forward, Not Back

Ed Carpenter delivered arguably the most David vs. Goliath moment in IndyCar over the last five years when he almost beat Ryan Briscoe to the line to win at Kentucky in 2009.

Driving for one-car Vision Racing -- a relative funding minnow in the IRL ocean -- Carpenter went wheel-to-wheel with big-fish Penske and almost won.

Cameron Haven: Trophy Girl with a Trophy Brain is Hot Literally and Figuratively

Don't try to stick the "dumb model" label on Cameron Haven, the IZOD Trophy Girl who appears relentlessly in the background of IndyCar winner's circle interviews. It's one of the few things that doesn't look good on the magna-cum-laude graduate of Florida State University.

Danica Patrick Talks to the NASCAR Masses

Haters, START. YOUR. ENGINES.

pressdog is beloved by NASCAR, apparently, because they gave me the keys to the online media center, thus ensuring I will publicize all things Danistar when it comes to NASCAR. CAGEY devils.

Behold, below is a transcript of a June 22 teleconference with Danica Patrick.

Graham Rahal, the Twitterview

Graham Rahal. Do the hopes of a nation rest on him? What does he think of his three-team-tour of 2010 so far? Can he consistently beat the old man on the golf course? (Yes.)

These are the burning questions put to Graham Friday, several of which were tweeted to me by actual fans. It's Graham Rahal, the pressdog™ Twitterview.

Marco Andretti, the Twitterview

What do you ask Marco Andretti (@andretti26) in a 15-minute interview in a coffee shop in Des Moines' trendy East Village?

Since @pressdog is all about the fans, I though, hey, let's see what they want to hear from Marco. So 10 minutes before the interview, I tweeted "Who has a question for Marco Andretti?"

Below is the first-ever pressdog™ Twiterview based on the tweeted responses. Ups to Marco who was really quite personable and seemed happy to answer my questions while drinking some kind of smoothy in a plastic cup that proudly said "Made from corn" on the side (I assume it referred to the cup, not the drink). Holy Iowa moment! (See photographic evidence at the end.)