Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Let me preface this piece by asserting a few facts: I am 19 years old. I go to one of the top communication schools in the United States with the end goal of becoming a professional motorsports journalist.

My location may be somewhat far away from the IndyCar hub of Indianapolis, but I follow the sport religiously and have for years.  I feel like I'm pretty knowledgeable, both about the sport and my craft.

Of course, all the schooling in the world can't prepare you for situations in which things start to go wrong.

On Tuesday, I posted an opinion piece entitled "The Plight of the American Open-Wheel Racer," which was intended to be about Ryan Hunter-Reay's inability to secure a full-time IZOD IndyCar Series ride despite having done all the right things. In that column, I mentioned the possibility of him taking over the No. 24 car for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, as lead driver Mike Conway is injured.

Those of you who read the original piece can probably figure out the mistake I made—I chalked up the wreck to "Conway being Conway."

What I had meant to say was that Mike Conway is one of the more aggressive drivers in the sport, and one of the most willing to make daring on-track maneuvers, something that most will probably concede.

And although I did not phrase it in a convincing way, I enjoy aggressive drivers like Conway who make the races more entertaining. "So-and-so being so-and-so" is a remark familiar to most in my area, as Boston baseball fans had to put up with the antics of Manny Ramirez for almost a decade.

Unfortunately, I meant what I meant, and I said what I said, and they turned out to be two different things.

In this situation, the remark was factually inaccurate—Hunter-Reay was running out of gas, and although Conway looked to be creating a new lane at the bottom of the track if one looks at the instant replay without the context, it was not in all actuality the case.

Now, this mistake might have gone unnoticed on my part if not for an interesting email that I received as I was walking out of my house on Wednesday. It appears that, for all of the times that I wonder whether or not anybody reads what I write at all, somebody did... and the reader just so happened to be Mike Conway's manager, Mark Blundell.

1990s Formula 1 and CART fans alike probably remember Blundell as a talented driver in both disciplines. He scored three podium finishes and 32 points in his brief F1 career, scoring a point in every season in which he competed.

In a five-year CART career, he won three races, all in 1997, and won Autosport Magazine's British Driver of the Year award that year. More recently, he has been involved in driver management, with Conway and Formula 1 test driver/DTM racer Gary Paffett his top two clients.

On a more personal note, Blundell was almost always my driver of choice in CART Fury , Midway's attempt to combine the excitement of CART racing and the physical impossibility of the NFL Blitz videogames into one.

I would compare receiving his email to first meeting somebody you looked up to as a child by spilling a boiling pot of spaghetti sauce onto their new white suit. In other words, it's not quite the best way to introduce yourself.

Clearly I didn't pick the right time to bring up Conway's aggressive driving tendencies anyway, in effect kicking a man while he's down. Believe me, I do feel bad.

It clearly was not the time to form an opinion, much less voice it.  And unlike big names like Robin Miller, who get to interact with the big names on a weekly basis, I'm a kid who's just trying to get his foot in the door without pissing too many people off.

This time, things didn't exactly go to plan. You live and you learn.

But the most embarrassing part about this whole mess for me is that I clearly have no idea how many people read what I have to say, or who my readers are. My IndyCar stuff primarily comes from OpenWheelAmerica.com, but I also post my writing to BleacherReport.com, OnPitRow.com, PitRoadScene.com, and my own personal blog.

It gets hard to keep track of where everything is going, who hears things where, and so on.

So from here, I regroup—I make my apologies, I lick my wounds, I move on. We all make mistakes. And in the end, things could have been a whole lot worse all the way around. Next time, I'll try to say what I mean.

Read more on the IZOD IndyCar Series from Christopher Leone at OpenWheelAmerica.com .

James Black, at 16th and Georgetown is reporting that Graham Rahal has been added to the Dreyer and Reinbold stable for the Iowa Corn Indy 250.  This will be the third team Rahal has run for, after several road course races with Sarah Fisher racing, and an Indianapolis 500 with Rahal Letterman Racing.

Full details of the deal are not yet known, but it is believed Rahal will only have a one race ride confirmed at the moment.  If all goes well, Rahal could be the full season replacement for the injured Mike Conway.  Conway could be out the rest of the season following severe injuries suffered from his crash at Indianapolis.

The 21 year old Ohio native will team with Justin Wilson, who was his former teammate at Newman, Haas, Lanigan when the pair converted from Champ Car to the current series.

Rahal had hinted on the social networking site twitter that an announcing was forthcoming, saying, "Got some exciting news that should be announced soon! Can't wait!" and "I promise everyone will find out the news soon. I'm just excited to get back in the swing of things."

Rahal found himself without a ride after McDonald's pulled their funding from Newman Haas just before the start of the 2010 season.  Since then the young driver could have hung a sign similar to 'have gun, will travel'. 

If all goes well in two weeks in the cornfield of Iowa, Rahal may have found a home for the rest of the year.

Tomas Scheckter filled in for Conway at Texas Motor Speedway.  This was not only because of Scheckter record on the track, but also the 6 day turnaround from Indianapolis.  The team already had a seat fitted for Scheckter and actually used his Dallara from the 500 mile race.

This leaves both Scheckter and Ana Beatrix in the dark as to their future during the 2010 season.  Both drivers have races multiple times for Dreyer and Reinbold during the season, but without additional funding appear to be on the outside looking in.

Rahal finally appears to have a home.  As more details are released, we'll keep you updated with the freshest information.

Andretti and Petty fans have a reason to smile this Memorial Day weekend, when the two racing dynasties unite once more to compete in the 98th Indianapolis 500.

Richard Petty, who is arguably the face of NASCAR with his seven Cup titles and 200 race wins, will be fielding the No. 43 Dallara/Honda/Firestone Window World entry for John Andretti.

Per PR report from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway site, Petty states the following of his inaugural venture as a car-owner in the Greatest Spectacle of Racing:

"Never did I think I would have the opportunity to be part of the Indianapolis 500. I know how much this means to John Andretti and the Andretti family, and I'm looking forward to seeing John on the track in May."

Andretti is no stranger to Petty as his boss, as he formerly drove the No. 43 STP/Cheerios-sponsored efforts from 1998 to 2002, with a part-time audition for Petty Enterprises in 1994.

Though the 46-year-old Indianapolis native did not light up the field with his career numbers, he managed to keep the familiar Petty Blue colors as a steady runner, finishing as high as 11th in the championship series in 1998 and a remarkable victory at Martinsville Speedway in April of 1999.

Andretti, whose uncle Mario scored a memorable victory in the 1969 Indy 500, would like to duplicate his famous relative's feat in a race that has seemingly cursed his racing family for the past 40 years.

The enticing opportunity for Petty's foray into the open-wheel circuit was spearheaded and influenced by Andretti, who invited his former car owner to watch the race last year.

While both racing dynasties have struggled to reclaim their consistent, winning ways of past, the dynamic pairing adds a bit of luster to the IndyCar Series' most prestigious race of the season.

The two icons are synonymous with the NASCAR circuit, which allows the event to have some "stock car flavor" back into the fold.

In past years, the double-duty efforts of racing in the 500 and NASCAR's Memorial Day weekend tradition in the Coca-Cola 600 have become impossible to accomplish thanks to an early afternoon start at Indy.

Realistically, the chances of the Andretti/Petty pairing winning the 500 are not as likely as the superteams of the IndyCar circuit.

However, the No. 43 effort, which will have its equipment supplied by Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, will appeal the stock car enthusiasts to at least keep their eye at the famed Speedway, Indiana circuit's month-long festivities from Pole Day to race day itself on May 24 (1 PM/ET on ABC).

Racing fan or not, you have to admit that an Andretti winning the 2009 Indianapolis 500 would make a lot of noise in the sporting world.

If John or Marco Andretti capture this year's prestigious open-wheel event, it may affirm the "death" of the Andretti Curse, the dark cloud which has haunted this famous racing family for 40 years.

(Source: Indy500.com)