Trucks: Piquet, Meira test went well

Monday's Craftsman Truck Series test for Nelson Piquet Jr. and Vitor Meira was delayed until Tuesday, but once on track both drivers performed well, according to team owner Tom DeLoach (at the Official Fan Club Nelson Piquet Web site).

Our View "I was really impressed with both drivers," DeLoach said. I anticipated that it would take a lot longer for them to get accustomed to the trucks once they started."

"We made some changes to the trucks in hopes to give each driver certain feelings in the truck, and they both explained exactly what feedback we were expecting. Both drivers have very impressive skill sets, and they really exceeded my expectations for the first time in a Camping World Truck Series Tundra."

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Trulli NASCAR?

Add Jarno Trulli to the list of potential Formula 1/NASCAR crossovers. He will reportedly test a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota at Lakeland this winter along side Mika Salo.

Our View Trulli could potentially join Nelson Piquet Jr. and IndyCar stars Vitor Meira and Danica Patrick in part= or full-time schedules in 2010. If these stars are capable of bringing any kind of sponsorship to the table, the field is wide open for them with up to 14 percent of the field being taken by "start and park" teams this year.

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IRL: Tracy to drive for Foyt

According to IndyCar PR, Paul Tracy will drive AJ Foyt's No. 14 at the Milwaukee Mile. Last week, Vitor Meira took a hard hit to the wall in the Indy 500.

Our View: The combination of these two fiery personalities could either be explosive on the track, or one of the biggest train wrecks in auto racing history, but one way or another—something exciting is going to happen.

IRL: 11 more in the Indy 500 field

The second day of qualification is in the books at Indy and two-thirds of the field is now set.

Raphael Matos posted the fastest time of the day and rounds out row four.

Row five will be made up of Paul Tracy, Vitor Meira and Justin Wilson.

Row six will be made up of Hideki Mutoh, Ed Carpenter and Dan Wheldon.

Row seven will be made up of A.J. Foyt IV, Scott Sharp and Sarah Fisher.

And finally, Davey Hamilton qualified 22nd to take the final spot on the roster.

Our View: The pressure is off these drivers, but the remaining hopefuls have to sweat all week until next Saturday's session.

IRL: Indianapolis Avg. Finishes

Want to dominate your IndyCar league? It never hurts to plan ahead and here is a list of the average finishes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the IRL during the last five years. Dario Franchitti, with an average of 7.0 and Scott Dixon at 8.2, but Vitor Meira cannot be counted out of posting his first top-five of the season. He tops this list with an average finish of 6.0 in his last five starts and he came up one position short last year behind Dixon.

Indianapolis Average Finish
Last Five Years

Driver	Avg. Fin	Avg Start	Attempts
Vitor Meira	6.00	9.40	5
Dario Franchitti	7.00	7.25	4
Michael Andretti	8.00	12.00	2
Scott Dixon	8.20	7.00	5
Dan Wheldon	8.40	5.80	5
Scott Sharp	8.75	10.75	4
Bryan Herta	9.00	19.00	3
Marco Andretti	9.67	14.00	3
Helio Castroneves	10.00	4.00	5
Danica Patrick	10.50	6.75	4
Adrian Fernandez	10.50	10.00	2
Tony Kanaan	11.20	3.80	5
Davey Hamilton	11.50	19.00	2
Ryan Briscoe	12.67	11.33	3
Alex Barron	13.33	24.00	3
Sam Hornish Jr	13.50	4.75	4
Kosuke Matsuura	14.75	10.25	4
Buddy Rice	15.00	12.00	4
Ed Carpenter	15.00	15.60	5
Buddy Lazier	15.20	23.20	5
Townsend Bell	16.00	13.50	2
Roger Yasukawa	16.25	20.00	4
Felipe Giaffone	17.00	26.33	3
Anthony Foyt IV	17.50	24.50	2
Bruno Junqueira	18.33	10.33	3
Tomas Scheckter	19.20	10.60	5
Jeff Simmons	19.50	23.00	4
Jaques Lazier	20.00	26.33	3
Darren Manning	20.75	15.75	4
Al Unser Jr	22.33	23.00	3
Richie Hearn	22.67	27.33	3
Sarah Fisher	23.00	20.67	3
John Andretti	23.00	22.50	2
P J Jones	23.50	31.50	2
Milka Duno	25.00	28.00	2
Jeff Bucknam	27.00	21.50	2
Marty Roth	28.75	31.00	4
A J Foyt IV	30.50	24.50	2
Larry Foyt	31.67	25.00	3