Indy

Saturday is a big day for Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell, and it has nothing to do with the AFC divisional playoff game. Saturday is Flacco's 25th birthday and Caldwell's 55th. Caldwell said Wednesday that there is nothing planned for his birthday. "These years come around awfully fast nowadays, as some of us in this room might recognize," he said. "I'm just glad to have another one in line. It's when they cease when you certainly have a bit of a change.

Racing champion Michael Andretti is working on a last-minute effort to organize the Baltimore Grand Prix, teaming with two local businessmen to put together the Labor Day street racing festival, the mayor's office announced Thursday. The new racing group, Race On LLC, will be headed by J.P. Grant , a Columbia-based financier with close ties to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and Curtis Bay concrete contractor Greg O'Neill. They will provide the financial muscle behind the group, which must speed through preparations in 31/2 months.

I f you're one of these people who still goes on and on about how much you hate the Indianapolis Colts, you might as well skip this column. If your mind still runs a continuous loop of old resentments that involve Bob Irsay and Mayflower moving vans and horseshoes in the Hoosier Dome, go read about the Terps or check out the tire ads. I say this because with Indy set to face the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl on Sunday, I'm...

"Better Living Through Chemistry," an independent movie about a pharmacist's life unraveling after he starts an affair with a trophy-wife customer, will film for five weeks in Maryland starting this month, Governor Martin O'Malley announced Thursday. The cast includes Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan and Sam Rockwell — TV and independent-film stars with wide mainstream-movie credits including blockbusters like "Tron: Legacy" (Wilde), "Mission: Impossible 3" (Monaghan), and "Iron Man 2" (Rockwell)

DETROIT -- Driver Lyn St. James and J.C. Penney Co. announced yesterday that St. James will be the first woman to try to enter the Indianapolis 500 since the early 1980s.If she makes in into the 33-car field, St. James, 45, would be the first female driver to compete in the world's most-watched car race since Janet Guthrie finished 34th in 1979.St. James will drive for the team owned by Dick and Diane Simon in a car sponsored by J.C. Penney.Qualifying starts May 9. It isn't until May 17 that the last drivers know they've made the field.

The score in the Kentucky Derby was Lil E. Tee 1, A.P. Indy 0.Some say there is no substitute for winning the Derby, but what happened yesterday, as the voting for the 1992 Eclipse Awards was announced, came close. A.P. Indy, who was scratched from the Derby because of a hoof injury, was voted champion 3-year-old male by a 276-1 margin, with Lil E. Tee getting the only other vote.A.P. Indy's landslide in the divisional voting indicates that he will be a big a winner when the horse-of-the-year announcement is made at the Eclipse dinner Friday night in Los Angeles.

INDIANAPOLIS - Almost everyone's eyes will be on the front of the field when the green flag falls on the Indianapolis 500 today, but keep an eye open for car No. 55, starting on the outside of the eighth row. Starting 24th, much farther back than he likes, much farther back than he's used to, will be two-time Indy winner Arie Luyendyk. Once a young driver searching for rides and begging for sponsors, Luyendyk is now the oldest driver in the field. But at 48, he is also still one of the most taken with where he will be today.

I want Al Unser Jr. to win the Indianapolis 500, just so I can hear him try to thank his sponsors in Victory Lane. Unser drives the Galles ECR RacingTickets.com-Starz Encore Superpak G Force/Oldsmobile/Firestone car. Whew! Seriously, it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Unser, 38, won. It has been five years since he has raced in the Indianapolis 500, and a lot of has happened in his life since then. In 1995, as the defending champ, he failed to qualify for the race. And, as it turned out, that was the least of it. Then came a five-year losing streak.

Thoughts on the Indianapolis "505," the distance Jacques Villeneuve covered to win the classic over the long holiday weekend.Like most big-event sports fans in America, I've been checking out happenings at the Brickyard since the days of Mauri Rose and Bill Vukovich on radio and A. J. Foyt, Rick Mears, and the Family Unser on television (live and on tape). And over all those years, one thing has always bothered me about the competition:If the guys in the cockpits of the Indy cars are such hotshot drivers, how come more of them don't put that expertise in practice and work the expensive machines to the end of the race course?

The joy was there to be heard in Michael Andretti's voice. The veteran CART driver is coming back to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since Championship Auto Racing Teams and the Indy Racing League went their separate ways in 1995. "I'm tickled to death to be back at Indy," Andretti said. Say what you will about the Indianapolis 500 and its perceived loss of prestige since the split - it is still a Siren. All by itself, the race is putting an end to the boycott that has kept CART teams and drivers away from Indianapolis.

Just four months before high-speed cars are scheduled to race through downtown streets, the IndyCar Series is seeking a new team to take over the Baltimore Grand Prix. IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said Monday that leaders of the racing series "are currently visiting with some potential partners or promoters" who could put on the Labor Day weekend racing event. If necesssary, IndyCar would take over the management of the race directly, he said. "The city and IndyCar continue to work together to ensure this event takes place," Bernard said in an email.

We're more than a month from the Kentucky Derby, but the jostling has begun. A horse named Take Charge Indy won the $1 million, Grade 1 Florida Derby with a wire-to-wire dash under the ever-daring Calvin Borel Saturday. Reveron gave him a run coming around the final turn but could not sustain it. The race many had expected to be watching -- and learning from -- happened within a tight pack of horses just off the lead. There, heavy favorite Union Rags seemed agitated by his lack of room to run. Trained by Michael Matz -- of Barbaro fame -- the colt did get open space for a final, promising push.

Former Ravens safety Tom Zbikowski officially joined the Indianapolis Colts today. Zbikowksi's agent, Ralph Cindrich tweeted today that his client has agreed to terms on a three-year deal with the Colts, who are coached by former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano. Former Ravens defensive end Cory Redding signed with Indianapolis on Wednesday. There was some confusion Friday evening about Zbikowski's situation. After The Chicago Tribune reported that Zbikowski had agreed to terms and the safety Tweeted about how he was headed to Indianapolis, Cindrich said on Twitter that there was no official agreement with the Colts.

You knew it would come up as soon as you heard that the Indianapolis Colts would be releasing star quarterback Peyton Manning and a sportscaster there was calling him the "best player to ever play for the Colts. " More than a few Baltimore Colts fans will beg to differ with him. So the Johnny Unitas vs. Peyton Manning debate is likely to be re-ignited by today's release of Manning . And you're sure to hear that Manning is the greatest Colt who ever lived.

Simona de Silvestro walked through the lobby of an Inner Harbor hotel Thursday looking comfortable in her white shirt and black jeans. "I feel like I'm back home," the IndyCar driver said. "It was one of the best races we had last year, and I'm really looking forward to getting back on the race track here. " De Silvestro was one of the first drivers to come here to promote last year's inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. Thursday, one day after officials confirmed the race will return Labor Day weekend, she was back with her newly designed HVM Nuclear Clean Entergy race car with a new Lotus engine that has proven powerful in practice.

The head of IndyCar, the car racing league, came to Baltimore on Thursday and assured the city's taxpayers and business owners that this September's Grand Prix would not end up in financial ruin as last year's race did. "There's no room for errors. We have to be successful and the promoter has to be successful," IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said at the Intercontinental Harbor Court Hotel before showing off the cars and new technologies that would be used in the Labor Day race. "They feel the pressure," Bernard said of the new Grand Prix management team.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A year ago, Willy T. Ribbs was on his way to making history at the Indianapolis 500.Today, he is on his way to a fund-raising drive there. For himself.When practice begins at Indy this weekend, Ribbs will not be in a cockpit. He will be in the garages and hospitality areas, trying to find sponsorship money."I will be kissing babies and little old ladies," Ribbs said last week before leaving his San Jose home for Indiana. "I will be the consummate politician. I'm looking for a deal."

Los Angeles -- The Force needs to be with George Lucas this time.The creator of "Star Wars" is producing and writing the most ambitious series of the television season. The title for the one-hour show: "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles."Don't let the blockbuster movie reference fool you: It's no sure hit, and Mr. Lucas knows it.When the young Indy arrives on ABC in late February or early March, he will bear little resemblance to the action hero played by Harrison Ford. Two actors are portraying Indy as a boy and a teen-ager; a third is playing him as a 93-year-old who reminisces about the earlier times.

As expected, former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano is taking a few coaches with him to Indianapolis. Pagano, who was hired as the Colts' head coach just four days after the Ravens' season-ending loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game, has hired Marwan Maalouf as his special teams coach and Roy Anderson as his safeties coach. Maalouf spent the past four seasons as the Ravens' assistant special teams coach while Anderson officially joined the team's coaching staff as a defensive assistant in April 2009.

Is there any question NASCAR's "It Girl" is serious about hanging with the big boys? News flash: Danica Patrick is skipping the Indianapolis 500 to race in the Coca-Cola 600 in May. That shows a serious level of engagement for Patrick, who has dabbled in NASCAR before making a full-time commitment to race a full Nationwide Series schedule and 10 Sprint Cup races this season. "It was her decision," said Tony Stewart , her team owner at Stewart-Hass Racing. "We didn't tell her she couldn't run the Indy race.