By Curt Cavin
For all the talk of a strained economic climate and challenging television package, the Izod IndyCar Series will start its season next week with one of its largest fields of the past 10 years.Thursday's confirmation that Milka Duno will drive one of Dale Coyne Racing's two cars means the series has 22 confirmed entries for the street course race in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with two more likely forthcoming: Dale Coyne's second car, driven either by Alex Lloyd or Firestone Indy Lights champion J.R. Hildebrand, and a car at KV Racing Technology for newcomer James Rossiter.
IndyCar opened 2009 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with 22 cars, and the series has had more than 24 at the season's first race only once (25 in 2008) since changing equipment in 2003. The average size of the season-opening field over the past seven years is 21.3.
Brazilian rookie Ana Beatriz's deal with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is for only the race in her hometown, but various part-time deals are in place to strengthen the field at other events.
Sarah Fisher Racing has Sarah Fisher scheduled for nine races, the first March 28 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Fisher has former Indy Lights champion Jay Howard signed for five more races.
Davey Hamilton has a three-race arrangement with the reconfigured Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Motorsports team that has Raphael Matos set for all 17 races. Paul Tracy figures to have at least three events -- Indianapolis, Toronto and Edmonton -- as the fourth driver at KV.
Ryan Hunter-Reay's ride at Andretti Autosport hasn't been confirmed for a full season, but it is expected to be. Team 3G plans to start in St. Pete with Richard Antinucci. Mario Moraes figures to land somewhere.
League chief steward Brian Barnhart likes the lineup, although he knows Graham Rahal and Tomas Scheckter are among those currently rideless drivers who need to be part of it.
At issue is a lack of U.S. drivers. Only Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti have full-time rides.At the first race will be six drivers from Brazil (Helio Castroneves, Vitor Meira, Beatriz, Tony Kanaan, Matos and Mario Romancini), four from England (Dan Wheldon, Justin Wilson, Mike Conway and Rossiter), two from Australia (Will Power and Ryan Briscoe), two from Japan (Takuma Sato and Hideki Mutoh), two from Venezuela (Duno and E.J. Viso), and one each from New Zealand (Scott Dixon), Scotland (Dario Franchitti), Canada (Alex Tagliani) and Switzerland (Simona de Silvestro).
The Atlantics series that once was the steppingstone to the Champ Car World Series has ceased operations. De Silvestro won a series-high four races last season. . . . The Lotus association with IndyCar this season is expected to be announced as part of Rossiter's deal with KV. . . . Townsend Bell's Indianapolis 500 ride with Sam Schmidt Motorsports will be sponsored by Herbalife. . . . South Bend native Ryan Newman is scheduled to make his 300th NASCAR Sprint Cup start in Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. . . . Seven racing luminaries have been tabbed for induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on Aug. 25 in Detroit: Dale Armstrong (NHRA driver and crew chief), Joie Chitwood (stuntman and seven-time Indy 500 starter), Alan Kulwicki (1992 NASCAR champion), Jeremy McGrath (eight-time AMA Supercross champion), Ken Squier (TV and radio announcer), Jerry Titus (magazine writer and Trans Am champion) and Rich Vogler (USAC champion and five-time Indy 500 starter). . . . Sage Karam, 15, Nazareth, Pa., was hired by Michael Andretti to drive an Andretti Autosport car in the USF2000 driver development program.
