Pop Off Valve, for IndyCar fans

INDYCAR officially announced today that Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon and his Bryan Herta Autosport team will begin testing of the 2012 Dallara IndyCar starting in August. IZOD IndyCar Series teams are scheduled to receive their first new chassis Dec. 15 and the second by Jan. 15.

In early September, Sebastian Saavedra drew the ire of a lot of IndyCar fans by leaving his Indy Lights team, Bryan Herta Autosport, in the middle of the Kentucky race weekend. It could have been career suicide. Would future owners be put off by his willingness to depart if things were going poorly? Would fans respect his decision, or the way he handled things? But Saavedra came out smelling like a rose, signing the well-respected Derrick Walker as a manager and landing with Conquest Racing for the IndyCar season finale at Homestead. And you know what? The bum rap that he got for his decision to depart BHA isn't deserved. Saavedra's confident, yes, but he's got the driving chops to back it up. He's an excellent race car driver, and a great guy to talk to. Maybe we don't like the way he handled his decision to leave the team, but he was only doing what was best for his career. And it takes some huge cojones to, at 20 years old, go up to the owner who put you in the Indianapolis 500 and say "you're not putting a good enough car on track." I don't think I would have handled the situation any better - actually, being Saavedra's age myself, I KNOW for certain that I wouldn't have. Anyways, Seb was gracious enough to grant me an interview, and I'm more than grateful for it. I don't care what anybody else thinks, I'm a fan for life.