Following the Indy Car Series Driver Roulette...

Look for “FAST EDDIE” to be up-front in his yellow & black “Buzzin’ Hornets” livery SFR racecar this weekend... (Source: f1fanatic.co.uk)

I for ‘Juan think I smell another R-A-T! As in wasn’t the World Chum-PEE-On  Sweepstakes at Los Wages to be specifically for NON Indy Car ‘Regulerz? OOH! ‘Dat’s right, I forgot that they couldn’t get any takers and thus Randy “The CandyMann” Bernard inserted Plan B to save his Season Finale Extraordinaire... HURRY- HURRY- HURRY! Step right up Ladies ‘N Germs; The Show’s almost about to begin... BUTT WAIT! First our Hero DannyBoy ‘SPIKE Wheldon who’ll start DEAD LAST (at Los Vegas) kneads to take a refresher course... Tuh Duh! Insert this weekend’s KY race in Sparta, Kentucky...

And I thought I smelled ‘Somme-thun Fishy way back when I gleamed the tiny scrap of info from Kurty Cavin (I believe) proclaiming originally wheldon’s BHA ride would be sponsored by Bowers & Wilkens; Huh? As I told an overzealous Indiana Bureau Chief “That’s Alex Tagliani’s primary sponsor,” so what gives? As in perhaps this was planned all along, eh?

Thus, as Cavin explained Thursday night on Trackside, basically Wheldon and ‘TAG are effectively swapping seats for the Season Finale in Los Wages - while Wheldon will replace Tagliani this weekend at Kentucky. And all I can say is pretty clever on Sam Schmidt’s behalf!

Meanwhile, in another of Sam Schmidt’s burgeoning dossier of race team affiliations, ex-Indy Lights champion Wade Cunningham will return to the cockpit for AFS/SSM’s No. 17 racecar for the remaining two Oval races. And Ditto for Townsend Bell, Buddy Rice and Pippa Mann.

Bell will substitute for the injured Justin Wilson at Dreyer & Reinbold in the No. 22 while Rice will campaign a second Panther entry, the No. 44, as both drivers will run the remainder of the schedule. And it was somewhat amusing to hear Townsend admit he’d asked the DRR crew to fill-up his cockpit with additional padding - saying he doesn’t know how Wilson fits inside these Dallara’s and doesn’t have any sorta padding in his cockpit in order to enable his large frame to squeeze into it!

And I listened to Pippa Mann recently on Autosport Radio saying she’d made a 3hr drive up to Columbus, Ohio to have a long chat with her racecar which had let her down at Loudon where she crashed heavily into a non-Safer barrier portion of the wall. As I believe Mann will be running the No. 30 the next two events for Bobby Rahal & Co. (Who is apparently trying to emulate their earlier success with DannaStar?)

Alex Lloyd returns to Dale Coyne Racing as he’s running all of the Ovaltrack’s this season in the No. 19 while Fast Eddie, aka Ed Carpenter who’s running a limited program returns to arguably his second favourite track - Kentucky for Sarah Fisher Racing. “Edwardo” has had amazing success at this track, having finished runner-up the past two years along with being the defending Pole Sitter, so hopefully Carpenter will be able to perform the same majik on the SFR No. 67 that he’s used upon his past Vision/Panther Racing mounts the previous seasons...

As I never thought I’d be getting semi ‘Geeked over an upcoming Ovaltrack race; CRIKEYS! As I’d really enjoy seeing Ed Carpenter finally find his way into Victory lane...

OOPS! I forgot Dillon ‘BAD ARSE Battistini who passed the audition, Err rookie test last Friday at Kentucky and is expected to be in Eric Bachelart’s semi-revolving door No. 34 as chauffer. Battistini started 19 Indy Lights races and won four times - including the ’08 Freedom 100 from Pole.

And Oh Yeah; DON’T forget there’s some ‘lil scrum goin’ on for that Naked Man on a Trophy thingy... Better known as the IZOD Indy Car Series (Overall) Championship crown being battled out between Will Power and Dario Franchitti...

Entry list changes

Car Driver Hometown Car Name Entrant

17 Wade Cunningham (R) Auckland, New Zealand Air Ride Pallet AFS/SSM Racing AFS/Sam Schmidt Motorsports

19 Alex Lloyd Manchester, England Boy Scouts of America Dale Coyne Racing

22 Townsend Bell San Luis Obispo, Calif. Valspar/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

30 Pippa Mann (R) Ipswich, England Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

34 TBA Conquest Racing Conquest Racing

44 Buddy Rice Phoenix Fuzzy’s Vodka/Panther Racing Panther Racing

67 Ed Carpenter Indianapolis Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing Sarah Fisher Racing

77 Dan Wheldon Emberton, England Bowers & Wilkins/Sam Schmidt Motorsports Sam Schmidt Motorsports