Kurt Busch Passes Rookie Orientation

The first driver to pass rookie orientation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2013 was Kurt Busch, though Busch has no plans to make an attempt to run the 97th Indianapolis 500. Busch completed the three phases of rookie orientation with a fastest lap at 218.210 MPH. He was testing Ryan Hunter-Reay's #1 DHL/Sun Drop Chevrolet from 9:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. yesterday, an hour and forty-five minutes longer than previously scheduled. 

Busch said afterwards in a press conference he would not have enough stamina for not attempting the Indianapolis 500-Coca Cola 600 double this year but did not rule out the possibility of running the double in 2014. 

With Busch passing rookie orientation he is now licensed to compete IndyCar oval races and there is a possibility Busch could run one of the remaining Triple Crown races at Pocono or Fontana. The other two jewels of the Triple Crown are not head-to-head with NASCAR races. Pocono is July 7th, a day after NASCAR returns to Daytona for the second time in 2013 and Fontana is October 19th, the night before the Talladega's Chase race. Busch's NASCAR team, Furniture Row Racing attended the test as they were on their way to Darlington for tomorrow night's Southern 500.

Other News

AJ Allmendinger will compete in the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans. This will be Allmendinger's fourth and fifth starts of the 2013 season. Allmendinger will be attempting to make his first Indianapolis 500 start this month.

Another driver who could be a Indianapolis 500 rookie in 2013, Conor Daly will be making his first start of the 2013 GP3 Season in Barcelona. Daly won the GP3 sprint race at Barcelona last season and finished 6th in the final 2012 GP3 Driver's Championship.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves is celebrating his 38th birthday today. The other active three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Dario Franchitti will be turning 40th on May 19th.

Indianapolis 500 Entry List Set, Still Holes to Fill

The entry list for the 96th Indianapolis 500 was released last night with 33 cars and 32 drivers. Today, that number reached 34 cars and 33 drivers.

Yesterday, 17 Chevrolets and 16 Hondas were on the initial entry list, including one-offs AJ Allmendinger, Carlos Muñoz, Ryan Briscoe, Conor Daly, Townsend Bell, Michel Jourdain, Jr. and Pippa Mann. A 33rd, driver-less entry, the #40 Ed Carpenter Racing entry was a surprise. The only owner-driver in the Izod IndyCar Series, Ed Carpenter made it known the entry was meant to be removed. The #40 Ed Carpenter Racing entry has remained on the entry list.

Today, a 33rd driver and team pair was announced with 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier and a family run operation, Lazier Partners Racing, Inc. Buddy's father Bob Lazier is the owner of the team. Buddy Lazier will drive the #91 Chevrolet, the same chassis driven by Jean Alesi last year as a Lotus. The last time Buddy Lazier drove a Chevrolet at Indianapolis was in 2005 for Panther Racing. He qualified 9th and finished 5th, the highest starting and finishing Chevrolet. This will be Lazier's first attempt at Indianapolis since failing to qualify in 2009.

A 17th Honda could still be in the works, however reports of a third Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entry for 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice appears to have hit a snag.

Bryan Clauson and Jay Howard are both reportedly trying to scrape together deals for the Indianapolis 500 and rumors are swirling that Kurt Busch, who is due to test tomorrow for Andretti Autosport, may try to do the Indianapolis 500-Coca Cola 600 double this year, a year earlier than originally stated.

As of now, 11 Americans, 4 Brits, 3 Frenchmen, 3 Brazilians, 2 Australians, 2 Canadians, 2 Colombians, one New Zealander, Japanese, Swiss, Mexican, Spaniard and a Venezuelan officially make up the entry list.

Weekend Wrap-Up

The first weekend in May featured a lot of racing across the globe. NASCAR had a surprise 1-2 at Talladega, Sébastien Loeb continued his retirement from full-time rallying in style, BMW had a stellar opening DTM race and lots of others series took to the track.

Front Row Takes The Front Row at Talladega

Eight years ago, a Bob Jenkins-owned car made it's first race at Bristol with Stanton Barrett. He finished 41st. Front Row Motorsports hadn't had much to brag about before last Sunday but David Ragan and David Gilliland changed that as the little team that could went 1-2, defeating the big boys of Roush, Hendrick and Gibbs. Ragan won his second career race, his first since Daytona in July 2011. The 1-2 was the 5th and 6th top ten finish for Front Row Motorsports, 3rd and 4th top five and of course the first win for the team. All six top tens for Front Row Motorsports has come on restrictor plate races, five coming at Talladega.

NASCAR races next Saturday at Darlington Speedway.

Retired Loeb Wins Again

He maybe retired from full-time rallying but Sébastien Loeb continues to win. He won his second rally of the 2013 World Rally Championship at Argentina, his eighth win in the last nine Rally Argentinas. He beat teammate, points leader and fellow Frenchman Sébastien Ogier by 55 seconds. Ogier leads the points by 54 points over Loeb, who has only competed in three of five rallies. Ogier is 65 points ahead of the next full-time competitor Mikko Hirvonen.

World Rally's next stop is Greece for the Acropolis Rally May 31st-June 2nd.

Farfus and BMW win at Hockenheim

Augusto Farfus won his second career DTM race this past Sunday at Hockenheim and leads the points for the first time in the Brazilian's DTM career. He held off fellow BMW driver Dirk Werner and Mercedes driver Christian Vietoris for the victory. This were the first career DTM podiums for both Werner and Vietoris. 2005 DTM champion Gary Paffett finished 4th while defending DTM champion Canadian Bruno Spengler finished 5th. Pole sitter and two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider finished 6th, American Joey Hand finished a career-best 7th, the Audis of Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Wittmann were 8th and 9th and Roberto Merhi rounded out the top ten. Wittmann scored points on debut and Merhi also picked up his first career point in DTM. 

The German-based series makes it's first stop international stop in a fortnight at Brands Hatch.

Spaniards dominate the Spanish Grand Prix

Dani Pedrosa won his first race of the 2013 MotoGP season at Jerez while fellow Spaniards Marc Márquez and Jorge Lorenzo took the final two steps on the podium. Márquez out muscled the defending champion Lorenzo for the second in the final corner and in doing so the rookie took the points lead. Márquez leads Honda-teammate Pedrosa by three and Lorenzo by four points. Valentino Rossi finished fourth and is fourth in the standings, 18 markers back. Cal Crutchlow was fifth ahead of Álvaro Bautistia, Nicky Hayden, Andrea Dovizioso, Alex Espargaró and Bradley Smith.

MotoGP heads to Le Mans in a fortnight.

Audi Sweeps Spa

Audi went 1-2-3 at Spa, all a lap ahead of top finishing Toyota. André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Trêluyer took the win ahead of the senior line-up of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval. Marc Gené, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis finished third. The #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi finished 4th with the #7 Toyota retiring after 99 of 168 laps. 

LMP2 was won by Pecom Racing's team of Luiz Pérez Companc, Pierre Kaffer and Nicolas Minassian. GTE Pro was won by the AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella. GTE Am was won the Ferrari of the American 8Star Motorsports of Enzo Potolicchio, Rui Águas and Philipp Peter.

Next race for the FIA World Endurance Championship is the 81st 24 Hours of Le Mans June 22nd-23rd.

Other Results

Jaime Whincup won two of three races at the V8 SuperCars weekend at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth, Australia and leads the points by 45 markers over Will Davison. V8 SuperCars will make it's first stop every stop to the United States and Circuit of the Americas in a fortnight.

Yvan Muller and Robert Huff won the World Touring Car Championship races at the Hungaroring. Muller leads the points at the WTCC heads to Salzburgring in Austria in a fortnight. 

São Paulo 2013: First Impressions

1. São Paulo is the BEST STREET CIRCUIT IN THE WORLD!

2. That was POSSIBLY THE BEST STREET RACE  EVER!

3. If that can't get people hooked on IndyCar racing than I don't know what will.

4. James Hinchcliffe deserved the win.

5. Takuma Sato should have been penalized, twice for blocking. But at least race control is being consistent with their calls.

6. Great race by Marco Andretti.

7. Please, somebody, anybody, fund Dreyer & Reinbold and Oriol Serviá.

8. All the credit in the world to Josef Newgarden. 25th to 5th. Remember when Penske said he was interested? How about now?

9. Tough day for the Brazilians. My heart breaks for Tony Kanaan. Helio Castroneves salvaged a 13th and Ana Beatriz can't catch a break.

10. Graham Rahal needs a senior teammate. Nothing against Jakes but if Serviá is without a ride, RLLR should consider the Catalan.

11. Another terrible day for Will Power and Scott Dixon didn't do much better.

12. Now we head to Indianapolis. Fantastic.

13. I think there are 29 drivers who could win at Indianapolis.

14. Was there a NASCAR race today?

15. NBC Sports has done a phenomenal job this season. Leigh Diffey is great in the booth. Jon Beekhuis did a great job in place of Wally Dallenbach.

16. It's been 12 minutes since the checkers and I still can't catch my breathe.

17. Less than a week until opening day at Indianapolis. We've waited 11 months for this.

Morning Warm-Up: São Paulo 2013

For the second time this season, Ryan Hunter-Reay will lead the field to the green flag after winning the pole position Saturday afternoon. The American broke the track record at São Paulo by setting a time of 1:20.4312. Next to the defending champion is his teammate EJ Viso. This is EJ Viso's best starting position in his Izod IndyCar Series career. Dario Franchitti starts third with Brazil's favorite Tony Kanaan starting next to the Scot in fourth position. Kanaan is making his 200 consecutive start in an American open-wheel series race. He is twelve away from breaking the record held by his car owner Jimmy Vasser. James Hinchcliffe and Scott Dixon rounded out the Firestone Fast Six.

Will Power got caught out by a red flag in his round 1 group and missed the Fast Twelve. The only winner for IndyCar on the streets of São Paulo finds himself starting 22nd. Sébastien Bourdais starts seventh with Simona de Silvestro in eighth. Justin Wilson starts ninth and Marco Andretti bookended the top ten for Andretti Autosport. JR Hildebrand made it two consecutive races making it to the Fast Twelve and starts eleventh ahead of the most recent winner Takuma Sato.

Oriol Serviá starts thirteenth in what could be the penultimate round of the 2013 season for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing should funding not be found for the rest of the season after Indianapolis.

Other notable starting positions: Ed Carpenter 14th, Charlie Kimball 17th, Helio Castroneves 18th, Graham Rahal 19th, Simon Pagenaud 23rd and Josef Newgarden will start 25th after an engine change.

Graham Rahal was the fastest in the morning warm-up from São Paulo. EJ Viso was second with Scott Dixon, JR Hildebrand, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Simona de Silvestro, Sébastien Bourdais, Marco Andretti and Ana Beatriz rounding out the top ten.

Just a few quick facts: This is the first race on May 5th since 2003. Sébastien Bourdais won that day in the CART race at Brands Hatch. On two other occasions have a race been held on May 5th. In 1910, a little over a year before winning the first Indianapolis 500, Ray Harroun won at a 200-miler at Atlanta and in 1946 Joie Chitwood won the first race ever held at Trenton.

Coverage of the 75 lap Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 begins at 11 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Net with green flag around 11:30 a.m. ET.

What Happens When There Is No IndyCar Practice on a Friday?

News breaks. A lot of news breaks. And news comes from out left field.

Let's start with the bombshell of Kurt Busch testing for Andretti Autosport at Indianapolis on Thursday May 9th. Only two days before the opening day for the 97th Indianapolis 500, Kurt Busch will getting behind the wheel of an open-wheel car for the first time since a test with Team Rahal in 2003 at Sebring. This test comes only a little under two weeks after Kurt Busch tested a V8 SuperCar at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Busch has stated interest in running the Indianapolis 500/Coco-Cola 600 double but as of now the test is only a test.

Late last night, more good news concerning the Indianapolis 500 was revealed by Robin Miller and Marshall Pruett. The 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice is reportedly set to drive for Sam Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, teaming with the Frenchmen Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier and Townsend Bell is also set for Indianapolis with Panther Racing and sponsorship from the DreamWork's movie Turbo, set to be released July 13.

Miller and Pruett also reported 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier and Bryan Clauson were nearing deals for Indianapolis. Jay Howard is also working to find a seat at Indianapolis. Lazier last raced in 2008 at Indianapolis where he finished 17th from a 32nd starting position. In 2009, Lazier failed to qualify for Indianapolis. Clauson made his Indianapolis 500 debut last year and had a good month going until an accident in qualifying ended his chances of qualifying on day one. Clauson would qualify 31st on bump day and finished 30th after a spin in the race. Jay Howard finished 30th in his one and only Indianapolis 500 start back in 2011 and has not raced since Texas 2011. Howard was in the abandoned Las Vegas race.

The Rice and Bell deals would fill the starting grid of thirty-three. Any additional would ensure bumping come May 19th.

Talladega, Hockenheim and Spa

While IndyCar is in São Paulo, NASCAR, DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship all are racing at legendary circuits.

The second restrictor plate race of the NASCAR season takes place at Talladega Superspeedway and Denny Hamlin has been cleared to race, six weeks after breaking a vertebra at Fontana. Hamlin missed four races including his home race at Richmond last week. Brian Vickers will be on stand-by should Hamlin need a substitute. Hamlin has dropped to 28th in the points standings, 71 markers back of Kurt Busch in 20th and 126 points back of Paul Menard in 10th. The Chase is not out of reach as long as Hamlin can win a race or two and gets into the top twenty to have a shot at a wild card position.

Chevrolet has a firm grasp on Talladega, winning 34 of the 50 races since restrictor plates were mandated in the 1988 season but have only won five of the last ten. Chevrolet and Toyota each have four victories this season with Ford's lone win coming at Phoenix with Carl Edwards. Hendrick Motorsports occupies three of the top four positions in the points. Jimmie Johnson is first, 43 points ahead of Edwards in second and 46 ahead of Hendrick teammates Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who are tied for third. Clint Bowyer is fifth, the highest Toyota and defending champion Brad Keselowski is sixth after his worst finish of the season, a 33rd at Richmond. Kyle Busch has won two races in 2013 but is down in seventh after four finishes of 20th or worse. Greg Biffle is eighth, ahead of Richmond winner Kevin Harvick and his Childress teammate Menard in tenth. Aric Almirola is eleventh and would be one of the two wild cards, along with Matt Kenseth, a two-time winner this season, in thirteenth. Kenseth's win at Kansas may not count towards the wild card should Joe Gibbs Racing lose their appeal of penalties handed down after the Kansas race.

Coverage of the Aaron's 499 will be Sunday 1:00 p.m. ET.

The 2013 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters begins this weekend from the Hockheimring in Baden-Württemberg. Eight BMWs, eight Audis and six Mercedes-Benzs will take part in the German based championship in 2013. Defending champion Bruno Spengler returns to BMW, along with all the 2012 BMW drivers, Dirk Werner, Martin Tomczyk, Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus and American Joey Hand. BMW added two German drivers. Marco Wittmann makes his DTM debut this weekend after running three seasons in Formula 3 EuroSeries where he finished runner up in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Wittmann was a BMW test driver in 2012. Timo Glock will also be making his DTM debut at Hockenheim. Glock was slated to return to Marussia F1 at the beginning of the year before he parted with the team in mid-January. Glock raced at Hockenheim three times over his Formula One career but his best finish at the track was a disappointing 18th.

Mercedes enters 2013 with two less cars than 2012. Four drivers return including Gary Paffett, last year's runner up to Spengler, Roberto Merhi, Christian Vietoris and Canadian Robert Wickens. Rookies Daniel Juncadella and Pascal Wehrlein join Mercedes in 2013. Juncadella won the 2012 Formula 3 Euro Series championship. Wehrlein finished runner up to Juncadella in 2012. After 2012, Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard retired from racing. Susie Wolff left to become test driver at Williams F1 and Jaime Green has gone to the Audi camp.

Jaime Green is the only new driver at Audi, taking the vacant seat left by Rahel Frey. The other seven drivers include past DTM champions Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström, past DTM race winners Mike Rockenfeller and Edoardo Mortara and three drivers who have scored a podium in DTM, Felipe Albuquerque, Miguel Molina and Adrien Tambay.

Green flag for the Hockenheim will be at 7:33 a.m. ET on Sunday May 5.

The second round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship season takes place at Spa-Francorchamps. Audi is coming off a one-two at Silverstone three weeks ago. Audi is entering a third car this weekend with drivers Oliver Jarvis, Marc Gené and Lucas di Grassi. In first practice earlier this morning, Audi was 1-2-3, led by the team of André Lotterer, Benoit Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler. The Toyota TS030s were in fourth and sixth, split by the Rebellion Racing of Nicolas Prost, Neel Jani and Nick Heidfeld.

The fastest LMP2 car was the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla, Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier Hansson. The Silverstone class winners Antonio Pizzonia, Tor Graves and James Walker were fourth fastest in class.

The Ferrari of Kamui Kobayashi and Toni Vilander were the fastest GTE Pro car, ahead of their AF Corse teammates Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella. An AF Corse Ferrari also held the top spot in GTE Am with drivers Jack Gerber, Matt Griffin and Marco Cioci.

Other notable names to Americans: Mike Conway was second quickest in the LMP2 class, Bertrand Baguette and Martin Plowman were fifth quick in LMP2. Chris Dyson and Michael Marsal were eighth quick. In GTE Am, the Krohn Ferrari of Tracy Krohn, Nic Jönsson and Maurizio Mediani were eight fastest in class. Green flag at Spa will be Saturday 8:30 a.m. ET.