Overheard at Infineon

We hear that Oriol Servia had a fuel pump failure in his Honda engine Friday morning and the team has tried to fix it rather than change the engine, which takes longer…….One IndyCar team owner told AR1.com that the TV situation (horrible ratings) is making it very difficult to find new sponsors and he hopes NASCAR buys the series so they can roll IndyCar into their excellent TV deal. That would help all the teams land news sponsors. He hears no new engine manufacturers are coming into the series. Another source tells us one issue is cost containment, that they fear Honda will outspend them to win………..Word is that the Brazil race could be in a third Brazilian city (rather than Rio or Helio Castroneves' home town) and that officials are here at Infineon this weekend talking to the IRL…….We hear that all the Atlantic teams have spoken to the IRL in the last two weeks since Tony Cotman was quoted by AR1.com as saying that the Atlantic Series needed to go away so that everyone could consolidate into Indy Lights and make it better for everyone and solidify the Open Wheel ladder system in the USA…….We hear that Richard Philippe, younger brother of Nelson Philippe, plans to do another year of Indy Lights before moving up to IndyCar……Word is that Graham Rahal has spoken to the USF1 team, but no word on how much interest there really is. Mark C. reporting from Infineon