“As with most owners, I would say you can never have enough sponsors, but we just confirmed Bowers & Wilkins will be back next year, so that’s a step in the right direction and hope to confirm a couple of more partners in the next few weeks that will help complete [funding for] the first car and then go from there,” he said.

Although Tagliani is expected to be announced as Herta’s full-time driver next year, there was also an expectation that he would carry the full financial support of B&W with him. Based on Schmidt’s retention of some level of B&W support, the ongoing drama between SSM and Tagliani, at least through the shared use of French-Canadian’s personal sponsor, could continue in 2012.

Despite the prickly situation between SSM, B&W and Tagliani, SPEED.com understands that Herta’s plans remain unaffected.

Schmidt confirmed he will announce SSM’s primary IndyCar driver at the IMIS show which starts on Thursday, with France’s Simon Pagenaud a mortal lock for the seat. In addition to bolstering its engineering staff to complement its new driver, SSM has also been working on adding a second full-time entry next year, and Schmidt says the funding is improving on both fronts.

“I think we’re relatively close on the first car and, big picture, we should be a two-car team to do the development necessary to move the program forward in parallel,” he said.

Asked to place odds on the second car making the grid at the St. Petersburg season opener, Schmidt said “I’d put it at 60/40 as of this moment.”

With Pagenaud, Honda and some of the rumored engineering upgrades in mind, Schmidt has a formidable combination on his hands, provided the correct budget can be secured. And with his second car drawing interest—from high value veterans to younger drivers with portions of a budget wanting to contest a select number of events—it’s entirely possible for Schmidt to increase that 60 percent likelihood higher.

In a perfect world, Schmidt would pair Pagenaud with a Sebastien Bourdais or Oriol Servia, but the more likely scenario could see a similar situation to 2011, where a variety of drivers hired the second SSM/AFS entry.

It would be false to portray SSM’s financial situation as fully resolved, but with a bit of positive momentum starting to build after what took place at Las Vegas, Schmidt’s 2012 IndyCar program is on the cusp of making an impressive turnaround if the right pieces continue to fall into place.

MISC

• Sarah Fisher Racing has an announcement scheduled for Wednesday at IMS to announce its plans for 2012. Fisher told SPEED.com she could not confirm or deny that 2011 Firestone Indy Lights champion Josef Newgarden would be SFR's new driver...

• The recent demise of the Newman/Haas Racing IndyCar team has put a lot of talented team members on the market, with championship-winning engineer Craig Hampson at the top of the list. Hampson confirmed to SPEED.com that he will indeed be staying with NHR as the team maps out its future plans.

• INDYCAR will test lighter gearbox components designed to improve the Dallara DW12's weight distribution problems this week in testing at the 1.5-mile Homestead oval with help from Chevrolet and Honda.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.