Yeah, the big news of the offseason probably hit today.  Helio Castroneves was indicted today, along with his sister and lawyer, on charges of tax evasion.  Cavin got quotes from Penske, stating that they knew ahead of time. Jeff at My Name is IRL has a good rundown of the reports coming out, and I’ll give props to AR1 for being the first to alert me of the story.

I’m from Cincinnati, OH originally.  If you told me one of my favorite sports icons would be charged with tax evasion, I’d probably chuckle and assume it was one of the Bengals, maybe Pete Rose.  For Helio, though, I’m kind of disgusted.  Now, I know he’s innocent until proven guilty, but this guy is supposed to be one of the main faces for the Series. What the crap is he doing…

On the Cincinnati note and a quick aside, all of my fellow ‘nattians will be getting Versus starting tomorrow.  I like to think I had something to do with this, but probably not.  Either way, good job Cincinnati!  I’m proud of you and now I don’t have to avoid visiting on race weekends.

Back to Helio.  I’ll go ahead and speculate.  These speculations are based on no fact. Let’s say Helio is out at Penske.  Who takes one of the most coveted seats in the Series? 

• Oriol Servia - TSO reported that Rafa Matos is testing this weekend for KVRT.  Well, Helio may not be able to leave the country for Surfers.  I don’t see KVRT expanding to three cars since they’re panicked that Craig Gore’s Aussie money might be gone.  Thus, I’m concluding that Servia is the most likely to take Helio’s slot, and he’s probably also the most qualified
• Will Power - Opposite of Servia at KVRT, maybe he’s the one who will be out, particularly if the Craig Gore money drives up.  Personally, I think he’s too like Briscoe to be at Penske, but it’s a thought.
• Marco Andretti - It has been rumored that Marco has yet to sign with AGR.  He’s shown flashes of brilliance.  Could he jump from the nest?
• Alex Lloyd - Rideless, but I’d have to imagine that this is a pretty low chance signing.
• Patrick Long - One of Penske’s ALMS drivers, he was rumored to be to be the Luczo-Dragon driver before Tomas was the Luczo-Dragon driver.
• Tomas Scheckter - Not really a Penske-type driver, prototypically, but he’s fast on ovals.
• Darren Manning - I’d be shocked.

OK, so maybe the photoshop is a little tacky (trust me, I could have gone a LOT tackier and held myself back a bit). But as fans and investors of the Series, be it in dollars or time, we should feel a little better that this happened now and not a year ago. To be honest, the Dancing with the Stars buzz has pretty much worn off. Was Helio a great ambassador? Certainly. Danica getting pegged would have been far more damaging, though.

Best of luck, Helio, but if you broke the rules, you broke my sister’s and my mom’s heart. You deserve a punch for that.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under ICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.