INDYCAR: Power's Deal Almost Done

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Power’s Deal Almost Done

SPEEDtv.com's Robin Miller reports Penske is close to finalizing a full-time ride for Will Power, Brazil's venue is almost set, and a title sponsor is ready to be announced.

Robin Miller | Posted October 29, 2009 Indianapolis, IN

With Penske Racing planning on three cars for 2010, Will Power could provide the answer The Captain needs to fight back Ganassi's Dixon and Franchitti. (LAT)

There hasn't been a lot of good news in IndyCar racing since the season finale at Homestead earlier this month, as Tony George had to lay off a dozen crew members of Vision Racing a few days ago and Gil de Ferran still doesn't have anything confirmed for 2010.

But there are some positive things on the horizon.

It's looking like Will Power will be in a third car for Team Penske for all of 2010, IZOD is finalizing plans to be the series sponsor and, after months and miles of exploring and negotiations, it appears the 2010 season will, indeed, open in Brazil.

Power, whose season ended with a broken back in an accident at Sonoma a month after scoring his initial win for Roger Penske at Edmonton, hasn't heard anything definitive on joining Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves full-time.

"But I know Roger and Tim (Cindric) are working hard to make it happen," said the 28-year-old Aussie, who is progressing nicely from his injuries. "I said last year that driving part-time for Team Penske is better than anything else but I really want to run the full season because I think we can win the championship."

Cindric, president of Penske Performance, said on Wednesday that: "nothing was concrete yet but we're planning for three cars."

In seven starts this past season, Power earned a pair of poles, finished second at Long Beach and third at Toronto in addition to his first IRL victory.

It's been speculated for several months that IZOD would become the third title sponsor for the Indy Racing League its inception in 1996 and IRL officials were in New York City this week trying to finalize the details.

Originally the clothing outfitter of IndyCar, IZOD was a major advertiser of the series in 2009 and spent a reported $6 million. It also had a personal services contract with driver Ryan Hunter-Reay..

The new deal is supposedly worth $10 million a year and is rumored to include $100,000 per car plus some help for Hunter-Reay in landing a full-time ride for 2010. It's not known whether the series will be called the IZOD IndyCar series or the IndyCar series presented by IZOD and the length of the contract is believed to be three or five years.

Terry Angstadt, the president of the IndyCar commercial division, has been working on getting the clothing company owned by Phillip VanHusen to be the title sponsor for the past three years. It would be IndyCar's first title sponsor since 2002, as Northern Lights and Pep Boys were the previous title sponsors but both deals ended prematurely and ugly.

The 2010 opener had a date (March 14) and a country (Brazil) but no venue until recently. Now it appears that Rio de Janeiro is going to be the host, with a street race by the ocean and that announcement could be any day now.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

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Robin Miller

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