Shawn Payne / IRL

Get ready for Danica Mania 2.0… or as Emeril Lagasse might say, “Let’s kick it up a notch!”

Danica Patrick made her mark on history with her win in the Indy Japan 300 at Twin-Ring Motegi, becoming the first female driver ever to win a major open-wheel racing event. The victory in her 50th IndyCar Series start banished forever the questions about when or even if she’d win, as well as the comparisons to other female athletes that had failed to produce wins during their careers. And her timing couldn’t have been much better, providing a huge boost to the IndyCar Series in what has already been a major momentum-building year with reunification and Graham Rahal’s exciting victory in the previous event.   read more »

One of the stops on the 2008 Indy 500 Media Tour was the top secret warehouse that stores Firestone Racing’s “Magic Rings”. In fact, so top secret is the location of this warehouse that tour attendees were blindfolded, transported via passenger bus, and subjected to rigorous background checks by armed guards prior to entering the facility.   read more »

Jim Haines / IRL

Graham Rahal, the 19 year-old IndyCar rookie and son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, became the youngest driver ever to win a major open-wheel race, the first driver from the former Champ Car World Series to win in the unified IndyCar Series, and just the fourth driver ever to win in his first IndyCar Series event. Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top three in an event-filled race that began under heavy rain showers.   read more »

Jim Haines / IRL

The road to this year’s Indy 500 began at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a fashion very similar to that of years past, with a driver from Target Chip Ganassi Racing pulling into Victory Lane. But this year was different—despite a strong charge from Ganassi driver and three-time Homestead winner Dan Wheldon, it was teammate Scott Dixon who finished first in this year’s race, the Gainsco Insurance 300. Andretti Green Racing driver Marco Andretti, the victim of some horrendous luck at Homestead in previous years finished second, and Wheldon finished third after starting the race from last place. Andretti teammate Tony Kanaan led the race with just seven laps to go, but was forced out after making contact with the spinning car of Ernesto Viso.   read more »

If you’ve never driven a sprint car, this will either remind you why or make you want to drive one even more. Rob Botts of Indianapolis posted this video from his in-car camera taken during a heat race at the Terre Haute Action Track in April of 2006. As Rob describes it, “It went pretty good for 2 and 3/4 laps… then…”.   read more »