Silly Season update: Feb. 27

The short version
Confirmed IRL FULL-TIME returnees (16 full-time cars)
AGR (4): 7-Danica Patrick, 11-Tony Kanaan, 26-Marco Andretti, 27-Hideki Mutoh
D&R (1): 15-Buddy Rice
Foyt (1): 14-Darren Manning
Ganassi (2): 9-Scott Dixon, 10-Dan Wheldon.
Panther (1): 4-Vitor Meira
Penske (2): 3-Helio Castroneves, 6-Ryan Briscoe
RLR (1): 17-Ryan Hunter-Reay
Roth (2): 24-Jay Howard, 25-Marty Roth
Vision (2): 2-A.J. Foyt IV, 20-Ed Carpenter
Champ Car teams (up to 14 full-time cars)
*-Confirmed team (currently 7 cars)
*Conquest (2): Franck Perera, TBA (Simon Pagenaud?)
*KV (2): Alex Tagliani?, Oriol Servia
*Newman/Haas/Lanigan (2): 06-Justin Wilson, 02-Graham Rahal (We'll see if the numbers change)
*Walker (1): Will Power?
Forsythe (2): Paul Tracy, TBA (Franck Montagny?)Pacific Coast (2): Alex Figge, David Martinez?
Coyne (2): Bruno Junqueira?
Minardi USA (1): Robert Doornboos?
Rumored/possible/potential entries (up to 7)
Ganassi (1): Alex Lloyd (may be farmed out to another team, Vision perhaps? Could be full-season)
RLR (1): Second car (#8 car vacated by Scott Sharp)
Samax (1): Mario Dominguez?
Part-time/Indy-only (listed in order of likelihood of happening)
*-Confirmed team
*-Fisher (1): 67-Sarah Fisher (Indy/Texas/Kentucky/Chicagoland)
*-Luczo Dragon (1): 12-Tomas Scheckter (Indy/Kansas/Sonoma)
*-Rubicon (1): Max Papis? (Indy-only)
Playa Del Racing (1-2): Al Unser III?
PDM (1): Usually fields a car for Jimmy Kite at the 500. Plans to field an Indy entry this year. Is attempting to secure sponsorship.
Racing Professionals (1): Jon Herb
Greg Beck (1)
Additional cars from major teams for Indy: AGR (1); Vision (1)-possibly Davey Hamilton or John Andretti; Panther (1)-possibly John Andretti if no NASCAR conflicts.
Kingdom (1) (haven't heard anything from them)
D.B. Mann (1) (ditto)

Future teams
Cheever Racing ... the Aug. 28 IRL press release quotes Eddie's nephew Richard Antinucci as looking to get into the ICS (and get the team back into the ICS) long-term, if, of course, the $$ comes together.

Future races
The schedule will expand to 20+ races in 2009 most likely. Here are some candidates to be added to the docket.
Michigan International Speedway has mentioned they'd be interested in a return for 2009. We've had speculation on New Hampshire Motor Speedway returning to the IRL for 2009 if it loses a Cup date, coming from NHMS themselves. However, TG said in the unification press conference that the IRL had exhausted all potential ovals, and insinuated that it would likely not be looking to add any more.
Several reports out of Toronto have stated the city's street race at Exhibition Place is a potential go for 2009.
The Mexico City race has been mentioned as a possible addition for either 2008 or 2009
NHL co-owner Mike Lanigan promotes street/airport events in Houston and Cleveland. Lanigan is hoping to get one or both races on the 2009 schedule.
Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama hosted an IRL test in the fall and its owner expressed hope of hosting an IRL race someday. With unification, it's unlikely to happen.
Other North American CC races that are not in the proposed 2008 schedule, but were on the CC docket: Mont-Tremblant (a 50/50 shot for '09, perhaps), Portland (goner, almost didn't make it in '08), Road America (track rental, but they seem to be interested in having another event), Laguna Seca (track rental, could make a merged schedule if Infineon ever drops off the list).

Since we have a lot of teams coming over, here's a list of car numbers that are currently in use
1-Reserved for last year's series champion (AGR, could be used on 5th car at Indy)
2-Vision (A.J. Foyt IV)
3-Penske (Helio Castroneves)
4-Panther (Vitor Meira)
6-Penske (Ryan Briscoe)
7-AGR (Danica Patrick)
8-RLR (currently not in use, unless RLR expands team, which is unlikely)
9-Ganassi (Scott Dixon)
10-Ganassi (Dan Wheldon)
11-AGR (Tony Kanaan)
12-Luczo Dragon (Tomas Scheckter)
14-A.J. Foyt (Darren Manning)
15-D&R (Buddy Rice)
17-RLR (RHR)
18-PDM (Indy-only)
19-Racing Professionals (Jon Herb, Indy-only)
20-Vision (Ed Carpenter)
21-Playa del Racing (Indy-only)
22-Vision (Indy-only 3rd entry?)
23-D&R (Milka Duno)
24-Roth (Jay Howard)
25-Roth (Marty Roth)
26-AGR (Marco Andretti)
27-AGR (Hideki Mutoh)
31-Playa del Racing (Indy-only)
39-AGR (5th Indy entry)
41-A.J. Foyt (for additional Indy entries)
55-Panther (could be used for 2nd Indy entry?)
67-Fisher (Sarah Fisher)
77-Chastain Motorsports (Indy-only, used in 2007)
91-Hemelgarn (Indy-only, if they run)
98-Greg Beck (Indy-only, if they run)
99-Sam Schmidt (Indy-only, if they run)
Known vacant numbers: 5, 13, 16, 28, 29, 30, 32-38, 40, 42-54, 56-66, 68-76, 78-90, 92-97

An NHL statement listed Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson's car numbers as 02 and 06. We'll see if those hold.