While only two races into the IRL season, the current points standings provide a bit of enlightenment in the early season. The top four drivers belong to Teams Penske and Ganassi, who are no doubt thrilled to be powered by Honda.

You probably knew that. But did you notice who is #5 in the points standings? If given three guesses would you have picked this guy?

While Rahal Letterman has had to deal with the tragedy of Paul Dana, it is no surprise to find their drivers in the back half of the standings. But Andretti Green, who was so dominating the last few seasons they had four of the top eight drivers last year, find themselves - all of them - chasing a guy who has one top 5 in 35 starts? In fact, only Mr. Judd has led any laps of the four AGR drivers.

But it is only two races into a 14 race season, so don't break out the sake just yet.

Now that the series is in the proverbial can, "Malcom in the Middle" star Frankie Muniz has decided he wants to be a professional race car driver. Seriously, he has. The 20-year-old actor who played the title character for seven years will be driving a full season of Formula BMWs in the hopes of securing a ride in next season in the Toyota Atlantic series.

Here's hoping open-wheel racing is a lot kinder to Mr. Muniz than it was to Jason Priestly.

For those of you who have not been watching the 85th season of Donald Trump's ode to himself known as "The Apprentice," this week's episode on Monday April 10th will feature the Nariz himself, 2004 series champion Tony Kanaan. No word on whether or not he gets to fire his teammate Marco Andretti for displaying a proclivity for dismantling drive shafts.

Also finding TV time without a helmet will be 2005 series champion Dan Wheldon. Boulder Dan (that nickname comes from Link, not me, who is is refering to the contents of Dan's BVDs) will be joining Pamela Anderson to present the Car of the Year award on SpikeTV's AutoRox awards show to be televised April 18th. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either.

Throught the brief history of auto racing there have been distinct rewards for being the best. For a championship driver, the treasure chest of victory included a shiny trophy, a substantial check, the adoration of the fans and possibly a product endorsement or two. There was also something else in the chest, something that would serve as a constant reminder to all competitors who was the reigning kind of racing. That something was the right to bear the “1” on the racecar.

These days NASCAR has shown the power of other numbers, making “3” and “24” more meaningful than whoever drives the “1”. And so, in other racing series the same thing is being applied, and the IRL is no exception. While this season’s champion Dan Wheldon switched teams, 2004 series champion Tony Kannan kept driving “11” due to his continued sponsorship with 7-Eleven.

Another evolution in the numbers of racing is granting the number right to the owner. So it is that the 2005 IndyCar Series champion may in fact not be Dan Wheldon, but Andretti Green Racing owner Michael Andretti. Following this logic all the way through you can now see how a driver who hasn’t raced in three years will be driving with the big “1” come Memorial Day weekend.

Also of note, should Michael’s son Marco qualify he will become the fifth Andretti family member to participate in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

For those of you not in the know, the CART season kicks off this Sunday with a race in Long Beach. Actually, the series is no longer branded as CART but rather Champ Car World Series, which goes to show how much I follow the thing. I only mention this because, well…what would happen if you merged Dan Weldon and Danica Patrick? Perhaps you might end up with photogenic Brit Katherine Legge, who will try to ignite the racing passions of whatever testosterone-fueled race fans remain among the following in Champ Car. Legge now has a full season ride in a car owned by former Champ Car Champ Jimmy Vasser and current series owner Kevin Kalkhoven.

Legge’s credentials seem solid, but I’m sure her hiring has just as much to do with her marketability as her racing acumen. I wish her the best, although given Danica!’s unparalleled popularity I can’t help but wonder if racing teams in different series are looking for attractive ladies who just happen to drive cars well. As much as a victory on any track by Danica! would help the popularity of the IRL, drivers need to be drivers first and marketers second. I’ll stop there before I turn into a Paul Dana hater.

In truth, if Legge is a primarily a marketing hire then the gimmick is working since I probably wouldn’t be watching the Champ Cars this weekend were she not racing. So for now, the only sexist comment I will muster is “Gentlemen, start your engines.”

Rahal Letterman officially announced that Jeff Simmons will take over the No. 17 Ethanol ride for the remainder of the season. That would be the car Paul Dana drove. Simmons appeared at a press conference with new teammates Buddy Rice and Danica!, whom Simmons reportedly met 5 minutes beforehand for the first time. Sadly, it was not reported if he is any relation to “I Am Mindy” composer Gene Simmons.

Speaking of Dana, two notable IRL journalists – and really, there aren’t that many – have taken the opportunity of Dana’s death to trash him as a driver. Robin Miller of SpeedTV says Dana was “over the moon to be running an Indy Car,” while John Oreovicz of ESPN.com writes Dana was not “skilled enough to compete in the IndyCar Series.” Oh, how hindsight is 20/20, where an author can write about how obvious something was to everyone even though no one had previously mentioned it. I realize these guys have a vested interest in looking smart, but the fact is neither of them published a piece about Dana’s inability to drive BEFORE his fatal accident.

And really, that’s what happened on March 26th; Dana had an accident. A lapse in judgment, a brain cloud. And as Brian Barnhart pointed out similar lapses have occurred in the heads of Indy 500 champions like Jacques Villeneuve and Mario Andretti. Also, no one seems to mention that Dana hit some debris 30 yards before striking ECGs car, which may have turned an otherwise close call into a fatal mistake.

I don’t know whether or not Dana was “skilled enough” to drive in the IRL, but I do know before March 26th enough people had decided he was. So for now let’s just stick to facts. Did he fail to slow down when other cars did? Yes, that was clearly his mistake. Did it cost him his life? Sadly, it did. Did a single mistake make a him an unqualified driver? No. Did he get his ride in the No. 17 because the sponsor wanted him? Of course, and you can be quite sure that Jeff Simmons was given the nod by Ethanol before the press announcement.

Miller and Oreovicz are otherwise fine writers, but with these pieces they are no more than vultures picking over Paul Dana's remains…and for what it's worth, I haven’t yet seen any articles from either of them about how unqualified Simmons is to be racing in the IRL.

In case you did not know, Danica! is releasing a biography, which is slightly troubling since she should be out making history instead of recollecting it. She’s not the only person to conform to the excersice known as “cashing in,” and it’s a perfectly sound financial decision with the Indianapolis 500 approaching. It’s not as bad as back in 1996, when a 13-year-old gymnast wrote a biography that no one was particularly clamoring to read.

Nonetheless, you would think since Danica! was taking up a serious endeavor such as writing that she would attempt to portray herself as a serious figure.

Instead, she has elected to portray herself as having a serious figure. I repeat, this is supposed to be 200+ pages of a biography, although in judging a book by its cover “Crossing the Line” looks more like a pictorial calendar. Maybe, deep down she really wants to be a Bond girl.

We ARE all writers now, but some of us look better in evening gowns. Then again, I don’t think that outfit is fire retardant.

I assume by now everyone has heard the “I Am Indy” song(?) more than a few times while watching the racing. If not, you can go over to the IRL web site and watch the video if you feel so inclined. Now, I appreciate the league is trying to increase it’s visibility, but this is just way wrong in so many ways.

1. In all truth, it sounds like “I am Mindy,” which unless you are Pam Dawber makes no sense to chant repeatedly.

2. There are apparently no words other than “I am Mindy,” which renders the song boring even during a 30 second clip.

3. If you are going to pay Gene Simmons – who no one will ever confuse with Cole Porter – an unknown gob of cash to write a song, you should make sure you get an entire song. If there were 3+ minutes of material here you might be able to get some radio airplay, but as it is you just get spot material.

4. Does anyone know the name of this band that, uh, sings this? Dirtbag? Feedbag? Who are these guys?

5. A few years ago John Mellencamp had a little tune they featured in their spots, but that didn’t exactly boost the popularity of the series. Explain to me how Gene Simmons – who hasn’t had a hit in 20 years – would work instead.

I’m not in charge of IRL Marketing, but how about this for an idea. Have you seen those American Express commercials where Robert Deniro, Ellen DeGeneres and M. Night Shyamalan make their own spots? Well, those work really well. How about you get Simmons, Mellencamp, 3 Doors Down (who were inexplicably performing “Kryptonite” during driver introductions last year at Mindy, er, Indy) and any other band to do their own songs and videos with IRL clips? Surely that would be a lot more interesting than the Mindy song.

I know we’re only a few races in, but can we lose the tune before May? The passive, Indy 500-only fans are going to laugh at this Mindy nonsense…except, of course, Pam Dawber.

Road courses are always odd to watch in the America since the cars are seriously under-powered compared to the insanely supercharged Formula One racers. Sure, it’s a better test of driving skill to have to brake and make right turns, but it’s like having the NFL incorporate a few Soccer games in the schedule. Something just doesn’t seem right.

For anyone who has ever asked me my opinion on the subject of a CART/IRL merger – all 3 of you – I have suggested having parallel series with a defined Oval and Road course schedule. Drivers could participate in one or both, and you would award best driver award in each category as well as an overall award. It’s not perfect, but it beats what NASCAR does by having a couple races to make most of their regular drivers look silly while guys like Boris Said run rings around them.

Anyhow, race is on ESPN today at 3:30pm EST. Mr. Judd has the pole.

Good news for Ed Carpenter-George, who has been released from the hospital. Bad news for ECG is he will not be racing this Sunday in St Petersburg. It’s probably for the best since ECG should avoid the race this weekend and should attend his religious institution of choice to thank the Almighty he was not killed by an errant Paul Dana last week.

Also, in case you did not know the immortal Roberto Moreno will be piloting ECG’s ride this weekend. Longtime race fans will remember Moreno as being very old. In fact, having both Moreno and Eddie Cheever Jr running laps this week begs the question: Is Danny Ongais not available to drive?

Regardless of how ECG spends his weekend, I have to wonder if he won’t appear at a booth selling these. If I were to ask the casual IRL fan – for example, my six-year-old daughter – to name some drivers I’m sure I would hear Danica!, Spiderman, Sam, and maybe That Guy With The Accent Who Won Indy Last Year. Which would explain why all four of those racers have merchandise sales at the IRL Store. But ECG shirts? Come on, his sponsor is his stepdad.

I still can’t tell whether or not he’s a good driver since he seems to have inferior equipment, but if the good folks at the IRL are going to be hawking ECG shirts then they should do Scott Sharp or Dario Franchitti the honor of offering their merchandise as well. You know, they have actually been to victory lane a time or two.