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Danica Mania is trans-continental; Will Power dominates Champ Car swan song

The record books will show that Danica Patrick (above) and Will Power are both IndyCar series winners on April 20. Patrick's historic victory will revive "Danica Mania" at least this weekend at Kansas and of course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Power's dominating drive (anytime you jump from 4th to first on a standing start and lead 81 of 83 laps, that is certainly domination) will be a footnote to racing history. Don't sell Will short--once he figures out the Dallara chassis, he'll be a force to reckon with in the IndyCars. The top three (lower photo) were Power, rookie Franck Montagny (left) and Mario Dominguez (right)

If you were a racing fan, you would not have been disappointed with the weekend. The American LeMans Series event and the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach had moments for everyone. Perhaps we've discovered another celebrity to make the move to a driver's seat...Jamie Little's win in the Pro Celebrity race was almost as popular as Danica's Japan victory. Jim Michaelian, Long Beach GP boss, just told me the weekend crowd was in the 170-175-thousand ballpark.

If you have ever been part of a reconciliation of a particularly nasty argument, you will know what the atmosphere was here. Yes, the stalwarts for each side had their moments, but the backbiting and caustic comments were mercifully not evident. Everyone involved seems to have moved forward. While there's a lot of ground to make up on NASCAR, the IndyCars have fallen into a cosmic conjunction of events that even 1801 International Speedway Boulevard cannot duplicate. For the sake of open wheel racing fans, the IndyCar community needs to take fair advantage of that set of circumstances.

We're taking a race break this weekend, so please stay tuned for our Race-Talk and Radio-Road-Test programs. We finished road test number 750 last week; it's a third generation model of the mini-van that kept the Big Three the Big Three...and it got an honest 25 miles per gallon on I-15 back from Las Vegas at or above the posted speed limits, with big time room.