CHARLOTTE, N.C. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Danica Patrick plans to give NASCAR a try. After all, why would she use her summer vacation to tour North Carolina race shops if she had no intention of trying out stock cars? She’s twice been to Tony Stewart’s place and visited shops owned by Joe Gibbs, Richard Childress, Jack Roush and Michael Waltrip.

JOLIET, Ill.—When drivers talk about the ups and downs of life in racing, they don’t use phrases such as “lowest low” lightly—not with real danger lurking around every turn. So when viewed in the proper context, spending last year spinning his wheels in NASCAR isn’t a big deal to Dario Franchitti. “I’ve had, certainly, worse times in racing, losing friends and things like that,“ Franchitti said. “Compared to that, last year was a walk in the park.“

Dario Franchitti (bottom) leads Ryan Briscoe through a turn in the Sonoma Grand Prix. Franchitti claimed his first win in Sonoma. SONOMA, Calif.—Dario Franchitti finally won at Infineon Raceway as he never trailed in capturing his first Sonoma Grand Prix yesterday in the final road course race of the year. Franchitti took the pole and led all 75 laps of the IRL event, topping runner-up and new points leader Ryan Briscoe on the way to his fourth victory of the year.

BUDAPEST, Hungary—McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won a Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday that was overshadowed by the absence of Felipe Massa. The Ferrari driver remained sedated in a hospital with multiple skull fractures after a crash in his Ferrari during qualifying Saturday. Hamilton, Formula One’s defending champion, picked up his first victory of the season to snap a streak of 11 races without a top-three finish, dating to his win at China last year.

Before Saturday night’s SunTrust Indy Challenge began, the track announcer proclaimed that it would be “anybody’s race.“ And while that may have been literally true, 16 of the 20 drivers knew that it probably wasn’t going to be their night—after all, they hadn’t had one all year. Each of the eight races so far in the IRL schedule has been won by a driver for Team Penske or its top-tier rival, Target Chip Ganassi. They make their presence known on race week—at RIR, they took the top four qualifying spots, then Ganassi took the 1 and 2 spots with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

Two big-time racing circuits, IRL and NASCAR, would benefit greatly from Danica Patrick’s presence in 2010. Patrick seems intrigued by the challenge presented by NASCAR. Danica Patrick is not just a driver on the Indy Racing League circuit. She is “a brand.“ And that brand is . . . “Determined. It’s feminine and, hopefully—I feel awkward talking about myself like this,“ Patrick said recently, “it’s something beautiful, something fast and exciting and inspiring and something iconic that’s never been done before.“

Helio Castroneves, with a dark cloud about his future lifted, nearly wept throughout a news conference soon after he was acquitted of tax evasion charges earlier this year. For the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, the jurors’ faith in his insistence of innocence left him humbled. He, too, discovered a greater appreciation of the rare talents that have endeared him with admirers from the storied Brickyard to the stage of “Dancing With the Stars.“

After a month of driving into walls, Tony Kanaan couldn’t be happier to see Richmond. The IndyCar veteran has suffered from horrible luck recently, and things didn’t improve last week, as he crashed in Iowa for the third consecutive year, causing him to wonder whether he was Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day.“ If he is, that won’t be a problem this weekend—Kanaan is the defending champion in the SunTrust Indy Challenge, and his last tour victory came last year at RIR.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will fill the seat of a second Dallara at Vision Racing in the IndyCar Series. Hunter-Reay, who won his first IndyCar Series race at Watkins Glen, N.Y., road course this past season, will join Ed Carpenter at Vision and will drive the No. 21 entry, the team announced this week. The season’s first race—the Honda Indy Grand Prix—is Sunday at St. Petersburg, Fla.

ANOTHER EARNHARDT: Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson of seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt and cousin of current Sprint Cup star Dale Earnhardt Jr., will make his Nationwide Series debut May 30 at Dover International Speedway. The 19-year-old driver, who has raced late model stock cars the past two years in the NASCAR Camping World Series East, has joined Rick Ware Racing, along with his father, Kerry Earnhardt.

MIAMI—To this day, race car driver and “Dancing with The Stars” winner Helio Castroneves hasn’t seen a single dime of $5 million in licensing money he was promised under a 1999 contract with Penske Racing. The money has either been parked at Penske or is still idling in a Dutch investment account. But the Internal Revenue Service says Castroneves owes U.S. income taxes on the money anyway, contending the 33-year-old driver can’t avoid tax by simply refusing cash to which he’s entitled. A complex concept known as “constructive receipt” is at the heart of the prosecution’s case against the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

MIAMI—Race car driver and “Dancing with the Stars” winner Helio Castroneves never sought to evade U.S. income taxes and planned to pay the Internal Revenue Service when he received $5 million from a deal made a decade ago, his attorney told a federal jury Tuesday. Defense attorney Roy Black said in an opening statement that the Brazilian driver, a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, knows nothing about U.S. tax laws and relied on experts to handle his finances. Black said there was no scheme to hide money from the IRS.

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Dario Franchitti was walking from his car to the team’s transporter Tuesday night when a trio of crewman from a rival team strode past. “Welcome back, Dario,“ they shouted. Franchitti smiled and returned the greeting. It’s good to be back home. The Scot has returned to open-wheel racing after taking a shot at NASCAR following the 2007 season, when he won the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series championship.

INDIANAPOLIS—The Indy Racing League is shifting gears as Series officials acknowledged Tuesday that economics has made cost-cutting a top priority. “We’ve got to create a sound business model in this competitive environment, or we won’t be in a competitive environment very long,“ IRL president of competition Brian Barnhart said. A planned engine change, scheduled for 2011, could be delayed one year, and the traditional three-year engine cycle may be extended to five years.

Rahal Letterman Racing, which won the 2004 Indianapolis 500 and brought Danica Patrick to the IndyCar Series, needs a primary sponsor to compete in the 2009 IndyCar Series. “Everybody knows about what’s going on in this economy, and things look pretty grim,“ team co-owner Bobby Rahal said today. “But we do have some sponsorship on board and what we’re still looking for is a primary sponsor.