Aug. 23 newsstand

Looking ahead to Infineon today ...
USA Today: High finishes turn around Andretti's "disaster" of a second season
Marco went from parking his car and being "scared" to having a pretty good second half. The defending Infineon champ's victory last year might have validated him -- and his team -- says AGR's Kyle Moyer. "It was a tall order for a 19-year-old kid. It showed that he belonged. A lot of people really knocked us for putting him in an IndyCar too soon. It showed everybody we knew what we were doing."

Contra Costa Times: IRL's Castroneves is complete package
Helio on his season so far: "We actually don't know what's going on, because if we did, we could fix it."

Vallejo Times Herald: Castroneves: 'This place is enjoyable'
Apparently, Helio likes Sonoma's track.
In this Q&A, he's asked about the driving (a recent hot topic). "I see a lot of guys that are trying too hard, and when you try too hard, it makes them make ... I don't want to say, mistakes, but maybe not very solid decisions. When those solid decisions are very wrong, that's when you're going to have an accident happen. It's just a matter of frustration."

Even IndyCar.com gets in on the Castroneves love
Helio is fine with the poles, but he'd like to finish first, too.

Napa Valley Reigster: From young go-karters to IndyCar go-getters
Helio & TK's friendship is an old one. They talk about it in advance of this weekend's race.

San Francisco Examiner: Get ready for IRL
A basic, and short, race preview.

And, even a story about traffic from the Marin Independent Journal.

IPS stuff
Lloyd can clinch title this weekend (from AP)

A similar Lloyd story from IndyCar.com.

Staying in the IPS, the Cincinnati Enquirer has a piece on driver Brad Jaeger.

Driver/team news
STR F1 driver Vittoriano Liuzzi is looking to the States, although he says "more Champ Car than Indy."

Eurosport: Roth expands to two-car assault.
More on Marty Roth's reentry into the ICS with P.J. Chesson.

IndyCar.com: Vitor is getting some speed in the air
Vitor Meira takes a ride with the Blue Angels.

IndyCar.com: Four questions with Sarah Fisher
Apparently, Andy "hasn't done squat" as far as wedding plans. Then again, Andy is in charge of making Sarah's car go fast, so he has been busy.

Series-related stuff
Brian Barnhart and Terry Angstadt will be at AutoWeek next week. Send them a question.

IRL news & notes press release
Top story: Teleconference from Alex Lloyd & Darren Manning. Lloyd says he thinks he'll be in the ICS next year, but also says, "I'm just waiting to see what's around the corner ... the great thing is, I've had a lot of people call me up, asking me what my plans are."

Also, the anatomy of a pit stop (with quotes), notes on Andrew Prendeville & Lloyd testing ICS machines (for RLR and TCGR, respectively), and J.R. Hildebrand's IPS ride this weekend with RLR.

And, for your amusement
... or not, read Robin Miller's latest chat on SpeedTV.com. Of interest, he says Marco tells him he isn't going anywhere, and doesn't think Dario is headed south, CC's Tony Cotman has apparently met with Tony George and some teams might consider buying IndyCars and running the 500 next year, and there are about 37 questions about his hard card being pulled by Champ Car. This is usually interesting to read the questions from the delusional faction of the CCF crowd.