Big news on 2 fronts today ... first, the driver news
Hideki Mutoh to AGR
This has been a very poorly-kept secret over the last few weeks, but it will be official Wednesday that Hideki Mutoh will fill the open seat in the AGR stable, the seat vacated when Dario Franchitti turned into a taxi driver. The official announcement is expected Wednesday. A Silly Season update will soon follow.
Expect to see more on this over the next couple of days.
My personal take: Mutoh has a TON of talent, and he (like Alex Lloyd) is very deserving of a top ride in the series. I was very, very impressed with his run at Chicago. Obviously, it is very important to Aguri Suzuki and Honda that a Japanese driver fare well in the IRL (and I'm glad success in the IRL is important to them), but from a big picture perspective, I'd have liked to have seen the Super Aguri ride stay with Panther Racing rather than go to AGR, and therefore at least boost the car count by one. Hopefully, Panther still has enough resources to field two cars this season, for Vitor and possibly a talented young American driver (Phil Giebler needs a ride). If not, Alex Barron needs to be *somewhere* next year.
Cavin also notes in his blog entry today that he doesn't expect to see much more movement until around Christmas. He also notes the talk around the Penske camp that Kurt Busch's owner points might be transferred to Sam's stock car so he can get the 35/8 provisional for at least the first five races and guarantee himself a spot in the field.
PEAK the official motor oil of the IndyCar Series
Last week, we were foretold that there would be several category sponsors in the IRL. The first is set for Halloween, and it's official now -- the official motor oil of the IndyCar Series is Peak Lubricants. Affiliated with already-IRL sponsor Peak Antifreeze (which sponsors Danica & the Chicago race), bottles of Peak oil will have the ICS logo on the side. Note the official website already has the IndyCar logo and a link to the website.
Getting to know ...
... Ed Carpenter, the "Average Joe" of the IndyCar Series who just happens to be such an ordinary average guy, that he's in line to possibly inherit leadership of IMS and the ICS someday.
Speaking of Dario
On the day Hideki Mutoh is announced to fill his seat, the AP catches up with the defector.
IRL news & notes
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' Halloween costume will have an IndyCar theme, while TK keeps racing and the IRL's SEMA schedule is announced in the IRL News & Notes.
And finally
Who says IndyCar and NASCAR people can't work together?
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