Feb. 25 newsstand: Looking forward

The transition begins
AP: IndyCars begin transition with Champ Car
Says Derrick Walker: "It'll be long and tedious and expensive and a lot of work to put it all together."
Says Brian Barnhart: "We've assigned an existing IndyCar team as the point relation to a potential Champ Car team that is joining, and they're going to be the liaison with regards to chassis builds, to cornering loads, gear ratios, baseline setups, to try and help facilitate the transition of equipment as easily as possible."

Drivers expected to move:
*-NHL with Rahal & Wilson
*-PKV with Servia
*-Paul Tracy (Forsythe), Bruno Junqueira, Alex Tagliani, Robert Dornboos, Will Power (Walker), Simon Pagenaud.

Indy Star: IRL gets orientation process moving
A meeting today was held in Indy to orient CC teams to the IRL.
Expected teams: NHL (2), PKV (2), Forsythe (2), Conquest (2). Walker & Minardi (1 each). PCM has expressed interest, but wasn't at the meeting.
*-Tests for CC teams will be March 19-20 at Sebring and March 24-25 at Homestead.

USA Today: Merger likely to feel bumps
Says Tony George: "Really, everything may not come together until Indy. Once we start the season, I think we will be able to answer some questions. But it may not be until May before things start to feel right."

Indy Star: Merger is only 1st step forward
Curt Cavin also gives an update in AutoWeek
Honda welcomes unification

Cars & drivers
Today was a big day for car/driver combos to be confirmed
Conquest Racing plans to run Franck Perera and a TBA driver.
RHR is back at RLR. No mention made of a second RLR car to replace Sharp.
Derrick Walker: Costs could be a concern
Milka Duno will run a limited schedule for D&R. No word on who will be in the primary car.
Meanwhile, the returning IRL teams are running at Homestead this week. The entry list is here
The big news ... A.J. Foyt IV is in with Vision (he was dropped from the driver list on the team website) as Ed Carpenter's teammate.
15 cars will be there: AGR-4, Ganassi-2, Penske-2, Roth-2, Vision-2, Foyt-1, Panther-1, RLR-1. 2008 teams missing are Dreyer & Reinbold (which has at least one car competing in 2008) and Samax (who we haven't heard anything from).

A lot of this is also rounded up in the official IRL news & notes, as well as a course change at Infineon.

Local markets & races
Australia leaders headed to U.S.
We'll find out more about the Surfer's Paradise race.

Long Beach: Still some wrinkles in plan

Miller Motorsports Park in the future?
The Utah track was apparently talking to both the IRL & CC before the unification. It's at the end of a long story about potential NASCAR future dates (but it's a pretty good update on ISC's plans).

Commentaries
AutoWeek: Eleven things to watch for
Curt Cavin & Steven Cole Smith give a primer on the season.

Detroit Free Press: IRL must promote drivers to succeed
Mike Brundell is one of the top open-wheel writers in the country. Says Mike: "Drivers will be the key, however, and the new series must promote personalities and rivalries.With young Graham Rahal, son of Bobby, coming across from Champ Car, we will have another Rahal-Andretti showdown, with Marco Andretti. Helio Castroneves is now hotter than ever after his "Dancing with the Stars" victory, and Danica Patrick spiced things up with her Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue appearance. She will go up against another female driver, Katherine Legge of England, this season. (OK, maybe not). Champ Car's Paul Tracy, who lost a controversial finish to Castroneves in the 2002 Indy 500, will get another crack at the race and Helio. Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe are great talents."

ESPN: Celebrate, then get to work
John Oreovicz looks ahead at the long road to fixing this: "First, try to put aside any resentment that might still be lingering from the split and its aftermath. This is a time to celebrate. For the good of the sport, unification is something that needed to happen a long time ago. Then we roll up our sleeves. As difficult and protracted as the process to merge the sport was, the hard work is just beginning."

Autosport: A long road to success

Yahoo!: Open-wheel merger to rival NASCAR?
Says writer Bob Margolis: "As for whether anyone will care about the newly amalgamated series, I bet American race fans will be more interested at present about how Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart rebound from their disappointments in Sunday's Daytona 500."

Circle Track: Open wheel thoughts
Says the writer from America's favorite short-track magazine: "Funny, it took these guys almost a decade to wake up and smell the coffee. Hopefully they understand that it will take another decade to repair the damage they have done to Indy Car racing."

Dutch Mandel: Reunited
The AutoWeek writer is begging us to beg him back into the IndyCar fold, after a scathing column last week.

Edmonton: Race schedule one of many details
This race is likely to be on the schedule, but its planned date is already taken. This looks at the schedule that may come out, and what tracks might be dropped (from a Canadian perspective, of course)

Galveston County Daily News: Open-wheel racing gets back its heart & soul
One minor error that must be pointed out: "The other concession was, apparently, the furnishing of a free car to each team in Champ Car to move to the IRL, which will be called, the IRL-Champ Car series." Uh, no, it will be called the IRL IndyCar Series, like it always has.


This is laughable ... but Champ Car Fanatics lives at the Long Beach Press-Telegram
Says writer Bob Keisser: "The Terminator of Indy Cars found and disposed of Sarah and John Connor. The Milosevic of the ovals won the Balkans War. The Lord Moldevort of a once-thriving sport killed Harry Potter."