Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Preview and Rumour update.

The Indycar funny farm is off to Kentucky this weekend for another race on a 1.5 mile speedway. This is a race where the big three of the old IRL will probably dominate so surprise winners are unlikely. There are 26 cars entered in the race this weekend, the oncl changes to the line-up from Edmonton are the addition of Sarah Fisher driving her own car to be sponsored by Dollar General and the lack of mario DOminguez and Pacific Coast motorsports. PCM are going to run the two remaining road course races this year as Accidents there tend to be less expensive than accidents on Ovals (Mario is good at doing both) and the team is just barely staying afloat as it is. The other change is the return of the much maligned Milka Duno at Dreyer and Reinbold racing to replace Townsend Bell who raced at Edmonton. The old Oval specialist teams like Vision and Panther will be ebtter while Newman/Haas/Lanigan and KV racing will be poorer, although the ex champcar teams are getting closer, leaving only Marty Roth to be an uber-backmarker. Speaking of Mad Dog Marty, the Torontonian will still be driving his onw sponsorless car this weekend, let's just hope he stays out of the way and doesn't cause too many accidents. In looking at the front of the grid this will probably be another Ganassi-Penske duel with the Dixon-Castroneves-Wheldon axis probably going to be at the front of the field. Ryan Briscoe has not been as strong on ovals as he has been on road courses so he may end up battling with Andrett-Greens band of not-so-merry men (and women) for the top five. Tony Kanaan will probably run well here and potentially could steal a victory, but witht the current turmoil surrounding his team it seems a tad unlikely. Marco Andretti will probably run failry strong before he crashes, which at his current rate is more of a when than if situation. Marco got quite the tongue lashing from his father/boss after his foul-ups at Edmonton and will be looking to stay out of trouble this weekend so we may see a more cautious Marco this weekend, but then again we may not and the accident will ensue. Danica Patrick will probably loudly slip into the top ten as usual. Normally one would say she was going quietly into seventh or eighth, but with Patrick nothing ever happens quietly. The only other notable entry that may have a shot at a good finish is Ryan-Hunter reay for Rahal-Letterman. Ryan has been effective all year and had a real shot a t a podium in texas before being in the wrong place (close to Marco Andretti) at the wrong time (anytime during the race really) and ended up in the wall. He and Vitor Meira may be the frontrunners for best of the rest. After these there are the usual gang of idiots in the midfield who will be squabbling over 15th place or so, thse include the Dale Coyne and Conquest cars, both Vision cars, both Dreyer and Reinbold cars (although Milka will probably be battling for 25th), The HVM and AJ Foyt cars and Sarah Fisher, who although she will try with all her heart she is driving an underfunded car with very little practice time and a skeleton crew. I sincerely hope she can avoid some of the menaces posing as race car drivers in the midfield to finish the race solidly so she can at least race again at Chicago in September. Sarah is a smart driver who is good at staying out of trouble and she was so unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time at the Indy 500 and with larger fields this year there are a lot more wrong places and wrong times this year. Fisher is a class act and deserves a good break or two.

The Rumour update surrounds Tony kannan. Yesterday Robin Miller reported that TK was set to sign for Chip Ganassi and I posted that here, but then late last night it was announced that he was NOT going to Ganassi but will stay at Andretti-Green for another five years. This is great news for AGR because TK is the only real veteran they have and his input is invaluable for their continued success. It appears that TK may have wily used ganssi's interest and Robin Miller to increase his bargaining position and get himself more money, if this is the case then kudos to TK fotr that. He is one of the best drivers in the field and deserves to be paid accordingly.