Overheard at Barber

UPDATE #3 Word is that tomorrow Josef Newgarden will pick up a deal with Century 21 Realty for the Indianapolis 500. The deal will be a one-off for the Indianapolis 500, and is expected to be announced at Century 21's big national convention at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

03/12/13 We hear that the Ganassi 2nd team is final. So that likely means no Karthikeyan in IndyCar this year.

03/12/13 Track was resurfaced, combined with today being perfect weather for tires and turbos, 22 cars have bettered last year’s pole…several under the lap record……..Allmendinger just spun in turn 14…almost put it in the wall. Scott Morris reporting

03/12/13 The track is cool and sunny and slightly breezy. Very fast according to the pit lane driver buzz……..We saw a sponsor on Dario's car, Banana Boat sun lotion, and wondered if it should say "Banana Boot" since it's Dario's car…………No sign of any tribute to Hugo Chavez on the E.J. Viso car…probably a very good idea to avoid that while in Alabama……………………The 2nd Coyne car is not set as yet. Justin says his brothers season is not set. So nothing concrete right now. But he seemed pretty optimistic. So right now, it looks like Beatriz in the car, but nobody’s saying how many races. Right now, we are assuming her home race in Brazil, plus Indy……………….AJ Allmendinger is bumping into the top 5 now in mid afternoon. But to us, he looks visibly slower in the turn 8-9 combination than the top few cars. It looks like he will come up to speed with the other Penske drivers though……………..Takuma Sato is looking quick. Recall that Takuma has shown top 5 speed here at Barber in recent years………………..Tony Kanaan has a really cool paint job on his car, that is almost as snazzy as his shoes. But no sponsors showing on anything……..We don’t see any drivers sniffing around in their street clothes or standing by with a helmet bag in hand. We spotted a tall Indian fellow with a hard card, but he had facial hair and we didn’t recognize him as Karthikeyan…………………..It looks to us like Tristan Vautier has a steep learning curve ahead of him in IndyCars……………….Dario seems very focused, despite his off track Hollywood divorce. We are hearing that Judd might have asked him to quit racing after Dan Wheldon's death, as it really hit them both hard. But as anyone in this sport will tell you, asking a racer to quit racing is like asking a fish to stop swimming……………..We spotted Marco Andretti smiling this morning, but it happened too quickly for us to catch a picture of it, so you will all have to take our word for it…………………Simona is showing some speed and we are expecting her to have a good year. Scott Morris reporting from Barber Motorsports Park