Kanaan to Chip Ganassi Racing

According to Robin Miller, Tony Kanaan will soon a sign a contract to race for Chip Ganassi for the 2009 indycar season.  This move would leave the 2005 Indy 500 champion out of a ride.  The only teams that currently pay the salary in which Wheldon is used to are Penske, AGR, and TCG all of which are doubt full landing spots for Wheldon, leaving only a few options.  One of which would be the up and coming Vision racing who could certanly aford the nearly 3 million dollars a year in which Wheldon is used to.  Other possibale teams could be Rahal Letterman, Newman/Haas/Lanigan, KV or HVM.  You may be asking yourself who might replace Kannan, well AGR has recently signed former F-1 test driver Frank Montagny to its ALMS team, but it could of been just a backup plan in case the Kanaan deal fell through, which it seems might have happend.

ESPN Is Out, Versus Is In

According to the Indianapolis Star, the 2009 schedule will be split between ABC and the Versus network.  5 races including the Indy 500 will be shown on ABC however the other 4 races have yet to be decided.  Versus will show the remaining 13 races on its network which reaches 73 million homes about 24% less than the current ESPN/ESPN2 deal.  I believe this to be the first MAJOR set back since unification.

Say CHEESE!!!!!

The October 26th inaugural running of the Indycar race in Australia has found a new sponsor.  Nikon, the camera company, has jumped on board to replace Lexmark as the tittle sponsor of the now to be known as Nikon Indy 300.  According to Crash, it is just a one year deal but has the option of a two year deal.  Yea, you read it right, a TWO year deals, which means to me that the Australia race will be on the 2009 schedule.  I don’t know what effect if any this deal would have on Kodak becoming tittle sponsor of the series.

Leavin’ For Kentucky

For the first time ever 16th And Georgetown will be reporting live from the Kentucky Motor Speedway this weekend.  I will be leaving out thursday, so check back for updates and pictures on the Friday practice/qualifications, and the Saturday race.