In the years after World War II, the newly-minted United States Air Force set up shop on the edge of Rogers Lake on the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties to wring out their hottest new aircraft.

Muroc Field - later to become Edwards Air Force Base - was the name of the facility, and a more godforsaken out-of-the-way spot in the middle of nowhere was hard to imagine. The Air Force chose it because the dry lake was the perfect testing ground for new equipment, with miles of absolutely flat, hard earth serving as generous runways for the best test pilots in the world to use.

Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida, shares several elements with Muroc Field. It was once an Air Force base, and it shares about the same connection with civilization, which is to say it might as well be set up in the Egyptian desert with the pyramids. And while it is not absolutely flat - actually, it is so bumpy that you can lose fillings just driving around the racing surface, and that's probably the best case scenario given the rather firm nature of the track's walls - it is the location where many different categories of American motorsport descend to test their newest and hottest equipment.

Muroc and Sebring share another quality, in that except in rare instances the testing that goes on there goes unheralded and is mostly workmanlike in nature. But there are instances when these gritty, remote locations become the flashpoint of an explosion of interest. In Muroc's case, it became a pop culture landmark during the space race, when the Air Force tested its staggering array of X-planes and destroyed speed and altitude records in the process.

For Sebring, the flashpoint happened over the past two days, when Formula 1 star Rubens Barrichello joined his "brother from another mother" Tony Kanaan to test the new Dallara DW12 IndyCar for KV Racing.

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It's February, everyone! And did you know it's Leap Year this year? That means that everyone who was ever born on February 29th gets to have their sadly all-too-rare birthday parties!

I've been invited to a few of those parties over the years, but I usually don't go because the skeeve factor is pretty high. I mean, the last one I got an invite to was for a Sweet Sixteen party, which normally would be pretty sweet except that it was held at an assisted-living facility (just wait a second, it'll hit you).

A better reason to be happy it's February is that it means pre-season testing is underway and the beginning of the 2012 season is closer than ever. Yes, spring is on its way, and it's time for the training to start! Someday, they'll come up with a catchy title for that.

Hit the jump for this week's linkage.

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ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG IT'S RUBINHO IN AN INDYCAR ZOMG!!!!

Look, we're all excited, right? It's because Rubens Barrichello has been racing in Formula 1 for almost twenty years and has an international following that makes IndyCar's look like a tiny, sad group of Battle Beyond the Stars fans at a Star Trek convention.

Anyway, Rubinho took some laps in the #5 IndyCar for KV Racing at Sebring today and the AP's Jenna Fryer obligingly summarized the whole thing for us. Look for Brant James to kick out some more up-close-and-personal mojo tomorrow at Sports Illustrated. For now, hit the jump for some sweet video from KV and IndyCar from today's hijinks.

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Ten years ago, a young driver in the Champ Car World Series ladder system was having a conversation with then-CEO Christopher Pook in the paddock at St. Petersburg, Florida.

Pook had made headlines for all the wrong reasons by publicly alleging that American race car drivers were inadequate against European-trained competition for Champ Car seats, and this young driver - an American - was incensed by Pook's casual dismissal.

Incredibly, Pook - the latest in a long line of "saviors" of Champ Car who would eventually almost single-handedly bankrupt the series - reiterated his comments to the driver's face.

"You're testing the wrong people," the driver retorted. "You give me ten laps, and I'll show you that you are absolutely wrong."

The driver never got that test, though, his bravado notwithstanding. Pook and the Champ Car powers-that-be passed him by, along with several other promising young American drivers in the ladder system.

In the present day, Joey Hand - the young driver told to his face that he was not good enough - is an established and successful sports car driver and factory driver for BMW. His career is thriving... but his dream of racing in the Indianapolis 500 and competing at the top level of open-wheel racing is long dead. And he is not alone.

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If ever there was a time for perennial minnow Dale Coyne to become a serious player in the IZOD IndyCar Series, 2012 may be that time.

The well-liked team owner got his first IndyCar victory at Watkins Glen International in 2009 with driver Justin Wilson and engineer Bill Pappas. It was a terrific moment for Coyne and for IndyCar, but to say that anyone saw it coming would be stretching the truth quite a bit.

As if that were not enough, the combination almost won two other races that year, and for people used to seeing the Coyne cars struggling gamely midpack or tailing the rest of the field, it was a revelation.

Now, with a new engine and chassis formula coming online in 2012, Coyne is "Putting the Band Back Together" (no, really, that's precisely how the team's public relations arm termed it) by rehiring Wilson and Pappas and casting their lot with Honda's powerful new twin-turbo V6 engine.

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So last week I got razed for going light on the snark because of the SOPA/PIPA crap that was going on outside of our little racing world. Some folks got it in their heads that I redacted the snarky comments that usually accompany Paddock Pulse links to get out of doing work.

Well, I'm here to tell you right now that those people were totally, unequivocally correct.

In the interests of doing a total retcon on my behavior (which was inspired by me being distracted by someone microwaving some savory popcorn nearby... mmmm, popcorn), I will say that my laziness was actually an extended metaphor for how censorship and restriction of free speech and putting the power and control in the hands of giant media conglomerates and the RIAA and all those other assholes encourages a lower standard of creativity in media and entertainment.

I will of course be totally bullshitting you by saying this, but you will already know this, being intelligent and not at all prone to skipping these introductory paragraphs to get straight to the Pulse links like you are.

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I'm going to make an admission that will probably get me in hot water with the Indy-rati out there.

I was born in Indianapolis on race weekend. I spent most of my early life only blocks away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But until I finished college, the only IndyCar race I ever watched was the Indianapolis 500.

That's right. Although philosophically methanol ran through my veins like platelets, I had no background or appreciation for USAC racing, CART, roadsters and Road America, midgets and Milwaukee, or any of the trappings of Indy car racing that everyone tells me is the absolute lifeblood of the sport.

If that's not embarrassing enough, I only learned that there were more IndyCar races than THE BIG ONE after playing video games in my college dorm room.

I learned everything I know about IndyCar history by researching it, not by experiencing it. I like to think I have a good basic foundation for IndyCar's past by now, but for most of my life I experienced IndyCar in the same way that the enormous majority of people around the world do today - by watching it once a year in late May at the Brickyard.

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