~~copious amounts of iced tea at the Idiots Bar!
~~poring over dozens of stats during the off-season
~~sending out info requests to every PR flack I could think of
~~of course, it doesn't hurt to gaze into crystal balls every so often(that reminds me......where is that magic 8-ball, anyhow?
)Without further ado, here are your humble moderators intitial rankings for 2008..........................................
Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing(4 wins, 2 poles, led 13 of 17 races in 2007).....there's a line in a poem, For Want of a Nail that starts out........For want of a nail, the shoe is lost...... and it goes on until it ends with the side who's horse lost that nail having lost the war.......sounds like how the Kiwi's season went; for want of a half-gallon of ethanol, Scott Dixon would be a 2-time IndyCar champion. Unless the Chipster's team has the kind of season they had back in 2005, expect the Iceman to be fighting for a title at season's end.
Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing(5 wins, 2 poles in 2007). Now that the Scotsman, Dario Franchitti, has left AGR for the land of the stockers, the able Brazilian now takes the reins of the team that has 3 of the past 4 IndyCar titles(Kanaan-2004, Wheldon-2005 and Franchitti-2007). Like Dixon, barring a few bad breaks and the vagaries of racing, Kanaan could've been a 2-time champ himself. If 2008 is like 2007, expect Kanaan to be at the point of the spear this year. 
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske(1 win[St. Pete] and 7 poles). In NASCAR, Penske Racing's Ryan Newman has an affinity for winning pole-after-pole, year after year. Spiderman has the same knack; 2007 was the second consecutive year he led the IndyCar Series in poles won. The series' resident "King of the Streets" should be right up there with Dixon and Kanaan for the 2008 title. Could this be the year he shakes that final loose end of not having won a series title?4th} Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing(2 wins, 2nd in laps led[605] in 2007). 2007 was a Tale of Two Cities for Dapper Dan. Prior to Indy, he was the best driver on the circuit; following the Brickyard, he couldn't seem to stop tripping over himself. 2008 seems IMO to be a make-or-break year for Wheldon; question is.....which of those seasons will we see from him in 2008?
5th} Danica Patrick, Andretti-Green Racing(7th in points, 3 podiums[3rd-Nashville, 3rd--Texas, runner-up at Belle Isle], 4th in laps completed). If incremental successes were what counted, they'd given her the title last year. But don't kid yourself, 2007 was a red-letter year for her, as many in the paddock(myself included) were quite surprised to see her run consistently at the front for most of the year(including her runs at Texas and Belle Isle). Make no mistake about it; she has arrived at the sharp end of the spear and it will not surprise anyone if she wins in 2008. And should any of the first four slip up in the championship fight..........
6th} Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske. For someone many of us in the paddock once referred to as "the IRL's crash test dummy"(......
..........), Briscoe has become one of the top drivers in NA motorsports, as witnessed by his performance w/Penske Racing's ALMS team in 2007. Now he returns to the IndyCar Series, taking the seat once held by 2-time CART champion/2003 Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran and 2006 Indy 500/indyCar Series champion Sam Hornish, Jr. 2008 should be an interesting year for him; don't be surprised if he wins a race or two this year. Unlike 2006 and 2007, because of the fact that the series is missing three of its' top drivers in Scott Sharp, Sam Hornish, Jr. and Dario Franchitti, it resulted in a mad scramble to figure up the remainder of the top-10, which proved harder than I had imagined.......so, rather than go 7 through 10, here instead are the best of the rest..................
~~Tomas Scheckter, Luczo/Dragon Racing
~~Marco Andretti, Andretti-Green Racing
~~Vitor Meira, Panther Racing
~~Buddy Rice, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
~~Darren Manning, A.J. Foyt Racing
So, who are my picks for 2008........................
~~2008 IndyCar Series champion...............................Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing
~~2008 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year...................Hideki Mutoh, Andretti-Green Racing
~~2008 Dark Horse...................................................Darren Manning, A.J. Foyt Racing
