By BRANT JAMES, St. Petersburg Times

NASCAR Numerology: What's in a car number?

Danica Patrick made a brief media junket to Tampa Bay last week, humoring a morning radio show's queries about her suddenly famous tattoo (as evidenced in the recent Sports Illustrated) and wielding her charisma hammer to promote the April 5 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opener of the Indy Racing League season.

An accelerator pedal will not be floored on the track in NASCAR or the Indy Racing League for more than a month, but what portends to be another historic season has already begun, in race shops and garage bays, and in board rooms, attorneys' offices and courtrooms.
Racing will look different by the time 2009 is through, and it won't be dull:

It was an auto-racing season of seemingly inevitable conclusions. Some conjured ambivalence, some dread. Some made history. Some may change it forever.

Mark Martin admits he's unfamiliar with this Brett Favre guy. Favre had had a long, fruitful career or something, then he'd sort-of retired or something. And now he wants to come back.

Ryan Newman says he didn't really understand why NASCAR's summer rite was called "Silly Season" until he became embroiled in one. But the 30-year-old Sprint Cup driver became just more fodder for the annual speculation festival about drivers' futures when he first complained about his lot at Penske Racing then said last week that he will not return for a 10th season.

TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- Ryan Newman never dreamed of being an astronaut. A racecar driver, that was always the thing.There's a bit of irony in that he became a NASCAR driver nicknamed "Rocketman."