Among the ex-CCWS drivers, there is almost no experience racing on ovals; CCWS ran exclusively on road courses.

The race could be dicey for a while, particularly since open-wheel cars are far more delicate than stock cars. But the new drivers should be able to acclimate quickly enough.

There will be four more oval races before the new drivers get their toughest test at Richmond. However, each of those tracks will provide its own challenge: the nearly flat surface at the Milwaukee Mile, the potentially treacherous Texas and the pressure of Indianapolis.

Beyond the former CCWS teams, two of IRL’s point leaders from 2007 have defected to NASCAR. But both Dario Franchitti (last year’s IRL champion) and Sam Hornish Jr. (fifth in the points in 2007) have found the transition difficult so far; both are out of the top 35 in the Sprint Cup standings, meaning they must race their way into each event.

And then there’s the transitional schedule, which has the unique situation of running two races on the same weekend on different continents. The regular IRL contingent will make their annual trek to Japan and the Twin Ring Motegi track; the next day, the former Champ Car teams run their annual race in Long Beach, Calif.

Both races will count points toward the IRL standings.

Sunday will likely make for some interesting viewing.

• A PRETTY INTERESTING blog post from our friend, Jill Erwin down in Richmond: turns out one of the women in the ongoing Allstate ads with Kasey Kahne is from Richmond.

Those ads have been pretty creative, particularly with the chain of events that lead to something getting smashed.

And it’s cool that Allstate keeps it going. It’s not to the level of UPS and Dale Jarrett, but at least it’s good for a chuckle. And that’s considerably better than a lot of the other stuff — commercial or otherwise — that’s on television.

• AS ALWAYS, I’d love to hear what you think about anything in the racing world. Leave a comment on here — they have to go through a validation process, but I’ll get them up as soon as I can — or simply The inbox is always open.

(Photo by Lynne Sladky/Associated Press)