Mid-Week Wrap up

Many things happened this week in the IndyCar Series, and even the Indy Lights Series. Let's explore what happened so far.

IndyCar Series News
Sam Schmidt Motorsports is partnering up with AFS Racing to run a second car for the last 7 races of the 2011 IndyCar season starting with Mid-Ohio on August 7th. The No. 17 car will be sponsored by Automatic Fire Sprinklers. AFS Racing is owned by Gary Peterson. The driver for the team has not been named yet. More than likely the driver's seat will belong to Rafael Matos who drove with the team during the Indianapolis 500.

Dario Franchitti in the old No. 27 Andretti Green car leading at Fontana in 2005. (Photo by Gavin Lawrence/Getty Images)

 IndyCar announced their return to Fontana. This comes after a lot of talk about possible ISC owned tracks that may come back onto the schedule for the 2012 IndyCar Season. However Auto Club Speedway is the first, and only new track that has been officially announced for the 2012 schedule. This will be IndyCar's first visit since 2005, when the IRL raced there with very limited crowds. Sides the smaller crowds Auto Club Speedway's President Gillian Zucker has expressed complete interest in IndyCar coming back to the Super-Speedway. Zucker said, she has called Randy Bernard multiple times, she even went as far as to have the Governor of California call him to get that race back. The race will be a night race and it will be held sometime in September or October, when the California temperatures aren't too hot for the IndyCar's to race there.

Simona de Silvestro was cleared to drive this weekend last Wednesday by the IndyCar Series medical staff.

Also in the news Simona de Silvestro and HVM Racing have announced that HOLTEC International signed on as an Associate Sponsor for the No. 78 car. HOLTEC makes nuclear waste containers to store them with the proper safety for the environment.

Iowa Speedway has a new owner with Featherlite Inc. founder Conrad Clement buying the track from Rusty Wallace. Track officials say that the new ownership won't affect any of the current daily operations.

Martin Plowman has signed with Sam Schmidt Motorsports to race at Mid-Ohio, Sonoma, and Baltimore for the 2011 IndyCar Season. Martin Plowman has partnered with Tire Kingdom for all three races.

Penske Racing has placed team President Tim Cindric as the new strategists for Will Power. John Erickson will be moved to Helio Castroneves. Clive Howell will continue his role as team Manager at Team Penske.

Indy Lights Series News
Bryan Herta Autosport has announced that they will add Brazilian Bruno Andrade to their roster this weekend for the Toronto 100 in the No. 29 William Rast car.

Former O2 Racing driver Peter Dempsey is now racing at Toronto this weekend with Andretti Autosport alongside Stefan Wilson.