2012 Indycar Silly Season Thread

wilson89

wilson89

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Ok I have decide to do the Silly Season thread for the Indycar series this year. I know the season ended tragicly in 2011 but I am confident 2012 indycar can return to a safer car with many advancements

Officialy Confirmed as of 10/29 (13 fully sponsored cars, 11 drivers named to teams)

Chip Ganassi - (4) (Honda) Franchitti, Dixon, Rahal, Kimball
Team Penske - (2) (Chevrolet) Power, Castroneves
Andretti - (2) (Chevrolet) M. Andretti, Hunter-Reay
KV Racing - (1) (Chevrolet) Kanaan
Newman-Haas - (?)(?)
Dale Coyne - (1)(?) (1 Fully sponsored car with boy scouts of america)
Dreyer & Reinbold - (?)(?)
Panther - 1 (Chevrolet) Hildebrand
A.J. Foyt - 1 (Honda) (1 Fully sponsored car no driver named yet)
HVM - 1 (Lotus) De Silvestro (Signed through 2013)
Bryan Herta - (?)(?) (Looks to have purchased Sam Schmidt's team)
J. Penske Dragon - (?)(?)
Conquest - (?) (Lotus)
Sarah Fisher - (?)(?) (Lost Dollar General as a sponsor)
Michael Shank - (?)(Lotus) (New team confirmed to Lotus)
Bobby Rahal - (?)(?)
Sam Schmidt - (?)(?) (Could still be back next year he was to confirm Simon Pagenaud as a driver for one of his cars following vegas but to the tragic accident all plans are put on hold)

Rumors and Speculation:

Justin Wilson is the most sought after free agent. Andretti, Foyt, Herta, Newman Haas and Michael Shank are all trying to get him to drive for them.

Go Daddy as of right now will sponsor the #7 car for Andretti. Dan Wheldon was to drive in 2012.

Davey hamilton is looking to purchase a car to run the Indy 500.

Tagliani has been in talks with Herta, Dreyer and Reinbold, and Foyt

Penske is still looking for sponsorhsip for a third car and would like Briscoe to drive it again.

Bryan Herta has talked with several drivers about driving for him in 2012 list includes Wilson, Tagliani, Sebastain Bourdais, Wade Cunningham, and former Nascar driver Bryan Clausen.

Newman Haas is supposed to have an announcement this coming week
 
sam schmidt will be back (imo). tragedy is nothing new to him. he'll do his grieving then go racing again.
 
Wow the ball seems to be rolling quite fast this off season.

- Newman Haas Racing is now confirmed to drive Honda

- Penske has found sponsorship to run Briscoe full time in 2012

- Sam Schmidt has apparantly decided to return as he has signed a deal with Honda as well.

- Bobby Rahal has said he has purchased two cars in an attempt to field both of them full time next season

- And out of left field Ed Carpenter has signed a 3 year contract with Fuzzy's Vodka and is in the procession of purchasing his own race team


(Was going to update the original post I didnt notice I cant edit my post)
 
Joseph Newgarden last years Indylights champion has signed a 3 year contract with Sarah Fisher Racing.

Also since the last time I posted in here Penske announced all 3 of his drivers from last season will return even Briscoe
 
Here is how the season is breaking down now...

Target Chip Ganassi Racing - (Honda Engines) Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, G2(satellite team) - Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball

Team Penske -(Chevrolet Engines) Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Will Power

Andretti Autosport - (Chevrolet Engines) Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay

Panther Racing -(Chevrolet Engines) JR Hildebrand

Sam Schmidt Racing -(Honda Engines) Simon Pagenaud

HVM Racing -(Lotus Engines) Simona De Silvestro

Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing - Josef Newgarden

AJ Foyt Racing -(Honda Engines) Mike Conway

KV Racing Technology -(Chevrolet Engines) Tony Kanaan

Ed Carpenter Racing - Ed Carpenter

Bryan Herta Autosport -(Lotus Engines) Alex Tagliani


Teams with unconfirmed drivers at this time are..

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing -(Lotus Engines) Rumor has Katerine Legge driving for them with Truecar.com as the sponsor.

Dale Coyne Racing - Hopes to return with 2 full-time cars. James Jakes & Sebastien Bourdais highly probable.

Michael Shank Racing -(Lotus Engines) Plans unknown.

Conquest Racing -(Lotus Engines) Plans unknown.

Dragon Racing -(Chevrolet Engines) Plans unknown.
 
List of free agent drivers and teams they are rumored to race for

Sebastian Bourdais (Coyne Racing fair chance)
Justin Wilson (Andretti fair chance, Coyne, Dreyer and Reinbold, Michael Shank, Rahal Letterman, Panther outside chances)
Buddy Rice (?)
Pippa Mann (Injured Wrist in Vegas crash may not return to the series)
Vitor Meira (Rahal Letterman outside chance)
Bruno Junqueira (?)
James Hinchcliffe (Andretti there is a good chance he could drive the Go Daddy car next season)
Paul Tracy (Dreyer & Reinbold, Rahal-Letterman, Foyt, Herta, and Michael Shank Racing all are just an outside chance)
Townsend Bell (Dreyer & Reinbold at Indy outside chance)
Ana Beatriz (Dreyer & Reinbold fair chance)
Wade Cunningham (Sam Schmidt or AFS fair chance)
Ho Pin-Tung (Jay Penske-Dragon fair chance, possibly high likely for just Indy)
Tomas Scheckter (Dreyer and Reinbold outside chance)
EJ Viso (KV racing Highly probable)
Takuma Sato (Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing highly likely, Ganassi tried to get money for a ride there extreamly unlikely)
James Jakes (Coyne Racing Highly probable)
Alex Lloyd (Coyne Racing or Sam Schmidt fair chance)
Sebastien Savaadra (Dreyer and Reinbold outside chance, could go back to Conquest racing)
Rafa Matos (?)
Bertrand Baguette (Foyt outside chance for Indy)
Martin Plowmann (Sam Schmidt or AFS outside chance)
Oriol Servia (Andretti and Panther Racing outside chance)
Esteban Guerrieri (KV racing fair chance)
Katherine Legge (Dreyer & Reinbold fair chance)
Gustavo Yacaman (Tested with Andretti could bring money unclear how likely he is there but he could bring his money to Conquest)
James Davison (Ed Carpenter racing part time schuedual highly probable)
Giorgio Pantano (Dreyer & Reinbold outside chance on road course)
Nelson Phillipe (Look to return after suffering a series leg injury at Infineon in 2009)
Jean Alesi (French European Lotus test driver will run Indy with a Lotus team)
Bryan Clauson (Will use money he won in USAC for an Indy 500 ride)

Jay Howard has been announced as a driver for one of the Rahal Letterman cars with service central as the sponsor. Team did not state if it was full time or part time.
 
Here is Dario Franchitti's 2012 livery on an oval setup. Im not impressed with it. It's plain.

dario2012.jpg
 
DanicaFan said:
Here is Dario Franchitti's 2012 livery on an oval setup. Im not impressed with it. It's plain.
Click to expand...

Plain? Maybe. But it's iconic (in modern day IZOD) and will stand out on every track!

Happy to hear that James Hinchcliffe has a decent ride for 2012 - and that GoDaddy is staying after Miss Thang's departure!.
 
Here is the updated chart..

Target Chip Ganassi Racing - (Honda Engines) Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, G2(satellite team) - Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball

Team Penske -(Chevrolet Engines) Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Will Power

Andretti Autosport - (Chevrolet Engines) Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe

Panther Racing -(Chevrolet Engines) JR Hildebrand

Sam Schmidt Racing -(Honda Engines) Simon Pagenaud

HVM Racing -(Lotus Engines) Simona De Silvestro

Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing - Josef Newgarden

AJ Foyt Racing -(Honda Engines) Mike Conway

KV Racing Technology -(Chevrolet Engines) Tony Kanaan, EJ Viso

Ed Carpenter Racing - Ed Carpenter

Bryan Herta Autosport -(Lotus Engines) Alex Tagliani

Dale Coyne Racing (Honda Engines) - Justin Wilson. Highly probable for James Jakes to return to the team.

Dragon Racing (Lotus Engines) - Sebastien Bourdais, Katherine Legge

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Lotus Engines) - Oriol Servia


Teams with unconfirmed drivers at this time are..

Michael Shank Racing -(Lotus Engines) Plans unknown.

Conquest Racing -(Lotus Engines) Plans unknown
 
Rubens Barrichello will be testing for KV Racing next week at Sebring International Raceway. Could be a possibility of him being TK's teammate next year. No signing confirmation yet.
 
Takuma Sato has signed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He will be driving the #15 car.
 
It's pretty sad but Sarah Fisher Racing still has not got an engine deal set yet.
 
More good news from Indycar...

Rubens Barrichello will be racing full-time at KV Racing in this year's Indycar season. He is getting sponsorship from Brasil Maquinas, which is a heavy construction equipment company.
 
Oh, and an update on Sarah Fisher Racing. She does have an engine deal with Honda now. Bobby Rahal had rights to two Honda engines but signed one over to Sarah. Bobby hopes to have his second indycar team up and running at the Indy 500.

That's great sportsmanship by Rahal.
 
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has signed Luca Filippi. He will start racing at the Indianapolis 500 and for the remaining of the season from there. A total of 12 races. He will be in the #30 car.
 
Andretti Autosport will field Sebastian Saavedra in the AFS Racing #27 car in the IndyLights Series. He will also drive for Andretti Autosport in the #25 AFS car for the 2012 Indy 500 and possibly 2-3 other Indycar races.
 
Wade Cunningham has signed on with AJ Foyt Racing to be the 2nd entry for this year's Indy 500. He will be driving the #41 car. Alfe Heat Treating will be an associate sponsor for the car.
 
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