MOTEGI, Japan—Target Chip Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti head into the final IndyCar race of the season in a go-for-broke showdown. Things are a little more complicated for Ryan Briscoe after a mishap in the Indy Japan 300 dropped the Team Penske driver to third place in the standings. Dixon, the 2008 champion, won the next-to-last race of the season in Japan to move into first place in the standings ahead of Franchitti and Briscoe.

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Walking around Homestead-Miami Speedway yesterday, Helio Castroneves stopped to notice some new construction near the track. New to him, anyway. “They said it was there since the spring,“ Castroneves said. “You know, I had a little trial going on back then.“ He can laugh about it now—at times. It’s been almost four months since Castroneves was acquitted on charges that he evaded paying $2.3 million in federal income taxes, charges that could have put the IndyCar driver in prison for six years.

While the traditional IndyCar Series at Richmond International Raceway date remains open on the 2010 IRL schedule, it won’t be filled by any last-minute agreement between the two parties. However, both entities are open to discussions about 2011 for what would be a 10th visit here from the series. “We love that place. We love the market,“ said Indy Racing League commercial division President Terry Angstadt by phone late last week. “We have a lot of great fans. . . . it’s a hotbed of motorsports there.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - IndyCar racing is bringing another event to NASCAR country. The Indy Racing League, which makes a June stop in Richmond, and promoters announced a deal yesterday that will bring the open-wheel cars to the Barber Motorsports Park track starting in April 2010. The Indy Racing League has 18 dates on its schedule each year, and the Alabama track is getting a spot that opened when Detroit lost its race. The rest of the 2010 IndyCar Series schedule will be announced Friday.

TORONTO—Dario Franchitti won the Honda Indy on the street course in Toronto yesterday, easily holding off Penske drivers Ryan Briscoe and Will Power on a late restart for his third win of the season. It was the first race in Toronto for the IndyCar Series, and Franchitti, the pole-sitter, was lucky and good in regaining the series points lead over Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon.

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.

Spinning through the corners at RIR, an IndyCar driver feels a force on his body equal to five times his body weight—more than any other stop on tour, and more than NASCAR drivers feel on the track. “Think about the tallest, fastest roller coaster you’ve ever been on, and multiply that by two,“ Tony Kanaan said. “That’s what it feels like in Richmond.“

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.“

Dario Franchitti was determined to prove he could challenge NASCAR’s elite after winning both the 2007 Indianapolis 500 and the Indy Racing League championship. Instead, he struggled mightily during an awkward transition from open-wheel to stock-car racing. He wasn’t exactly a fish out of water, but the Scotsman swam upstream most every weekend.

Dire economic news coming out of the NASCAR camp doesn’t much affect the Indy Racing League—it’s already been through a period of belt-tightening. While stock car racing was flying high in the middle of the decade, the IRL still was suffering from the effects of a split in 1996 that resulted in two open-wheel series, dividing fans’ allegiances and making the teams cut their finances.

IRL at RIR schedule TOMORROW 10:30 a.m.: Grandstands and ticket window open 10:45-11:45: USAC Sprint Car practice 11:45-12:45 p.m.: USAC Silver Crown practice 1-1:30: IndyCar practice (rookies and outside top 10 in points) 1:30-2:30: IndyCar practice (all) 2: Suites open 2:40: USAC Silver Crown qualifying 3:40: USAC Sprint Car qualifying 4:45: USAC Silver Crown last chance 5:30-7: IndyCar qualifying 7:30-8:30: IndyCar autograph session 9-9:30: IndyCar practice 9:45: USAC Sprint Car race (60 laps) SATURDAY 10 a.m.-7 p.m.: Fan Fest open 11 a.m.: Ticket windows open 2 p.m.: Grandstands and suites open 3:30-3:45: USAC Silver Crown practice 5:45: USAC Silver Crown prerace 6:15: USAC Silver Crown race (100 laps) 8: IndyCar prerace 8:30: IndyCar SunTrust Indy Challenge (300 laps, 225 miles)

Dan Wheldon is a “been there, done that” kind of race car driver. Indianapolis 500 winner? Been there. IndyCar Series champion? Done that. Which makes his appearance Saturday in Richmond at least a little peculiar.

Helio Castroneves has won two of the past three IndyCar Series races—including a third triumph in the Indianapolis 500. Still, the Brazilian came to Richmond International Raceway yesterday hoping to catalog engine and tire data that could give him an advantage during the ninth running of the SunTrust Indy Challenge on June 27. Castroneves, along with Penske Racing teammate Ryan Briscoe, spent much of the afternoon testing their Honda-powered cars amid the scorching heat on the three-quarter mile racetrack that is among the most challenging venues on the Indy Racing League schedule.

Everything seems to favor Scott Dixon in his bid to win a second straight IRL IndyCar Series championship. Helio Castroneves, the 2008 runner-up who pushed Dixon to last season’s final checkered flag, will miss at least the first few races of 2009 while defending himself against federal tax-evasion charges. And 2007 series champion Dario Franchitti, Dixon’s new teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing and considered by many his major challenger, may take a while to shake off the rust after a failed bid to transition to NASCAR last year.

MIAMI—Race car driver and TV dance celebrity Helio Castroneves never sought to break the law in his financial affairs but could have avoided all U.S. tax on about $5 million if he had relocated from south Florida to Monaco as envisioned, an accountant testified today at Castroneves’ tax evasion trial. Kevin Savoree, now an executive at Andretti Green Racing, said when he handled accounting work for Castroneves in 1999 and 2000, the plan was to set up a legitimate deal in which much of the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s income would be deferred. That meant his taxes owed to the IRS also would be deferred until he actually got the money.