Indy Racing League (IRL) Tickets – Going Out With a Bang By Jenna Jay At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The several twists and turns of this year’s IndyCar Series have provided entertainment and thrills of all kinds for IRL fans nationwide, and despite the 2008 season coming to a close the parties are just getting started for IndyCar drivers, teams and crew members alike. The conclusion of this year’s IRL season ended with the Nikon Indy 300 at the All Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Queensland, Australia, and even though Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe beat out Target Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon to win the race, it is Dixon who is being honored tonight in Las Vegas as the 2008 IndyCar Series champion.

A blowout awards ceremony will take place at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas tonight celebrating Dixon’s victory in the IndyCar Series, while Andretti Green Racing and AFS Racing’s number 27 driver Raphael Matos will also be honored at the celebration as the champion of the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights series. The Championship Celebration will take place at the Palms, and the after-party will commence at the resort’s Rain Nightclub following the presentation of checks and hardware to both Dixon and Matos.

Anyone who had Indy Racing League (IRL) tickets to one of the races this season knows it’s an understatement to say that the 2008 IndyCar Series was full of ups, downs and surprises of all kinds. The first surprise came in the unification of the IRL, as both the IRL and Champ Car finally settled and let the sport become whole again, tacking on six teams, two races and floods of fans to next year’s IndyCar series. Another gratifying shock in the 2008 season occurred with a handful of first-time winners in the league, most notably Danica Patrick winning her first race (other first-time winners included Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Justin Wilson and Will Power.) Another drastic change to the league? The domino effect of drivers and teams that started with news of Tony Kanaan negotiating for Dan Wheldon’s ride at Target Chip Ganassi Racing and resulted in Wheldon’s switch to Panther Racing and Vitor Meira’s consequential switch to A.J. Foyt Racing, further resulting in Darren Manning’s contract not being renewed and, because Kanaan ended up with Andretti Green instead of Ganassi, Dario Franchitti rounded out the shake-up by signing with Ganassi Racing in the end. As if this wasn’t enough to digest, IRL heavyweight Helio Castroneves topped off the 2008 IndyCar season with a shocking scandal, ending in an indictment by the U.S. government on one count of conspiracy to defraud and six counts of tax evasion, facing 35 years in prison while potentially losing his coveted spot with Penske Racing.

It’s undisputable that the 2008 IRL season has been one wild ride, and it was Ganassi’s Scott Dixon who held on the longest, crossing the finish line the most and coming out on top of the IndyCar Series with a total of 646 points, beating out Penske’s Helio Castroneves (629), Andretti Green’s Tony Kanaan (513), Ganassi’s Dan Wheldon (492), Penske’s Ryan Briscoe (447), Andretti Green’s Danica Patrick (379) and Marco Andretti (363), Rahal Letterman’s Ryan Hunter-Reay (360), KV Racing’s Oriol Servia (358) and Andretti Green’s Hideki Mutoh (346), who round out the top ten in the IndyCar standings for the year.

Although this year’s IndyCar season is officially over, it won’t be long until these gentlemen (and ladies) start their engines once again. The 2009 IndyCar Series will commence on April 5, 2009, so dust off that checkered flag and head over to http://www.stubhub.com/irl-tickets-indy-car-series/ to get tickets for next year’s IRL season, as seats to these big shows sell out early!

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