The 24 year-old American driver will partner with Paul Tracy as the Forsythe duo continues the hunt for the 2006 Vanderbilt Cup. This will not be the first time that Tracy and Allmendinger join forces at the race track, Allmendinger kicked off his career when Tracy selected him to drive for his Go-Kart team in the year 2000, the team’s performance in the inaugural Champ Car Stars of Tomorrow program in Las Vegas awarded Allmendinger his first opportunity to test a Champ Car. He continued to climb up the Champ Car ladder by securing the Barber Dodge Pro Series Championship in his rookie year in 2002 with six victories, four pole positions, and nine podium finishes. In 2003 he moved up to Champ Car Atlantic where he won the Championship and Rookie of the Year honors in dominating fashion by capturing nine poles and seven victories, becoming the second-youngest driver ever to capture the coveted title, behind Michael Andretti.

Allmendinger made the leap up to the Champ Car World Series in 2004 with the first-year RuSPORT team and quickly went on to capture eleven top-ten starts and nine top-ten finishes that included two visits to the podium and his first laps led in the series. His aggressive debut earned him the 2004 Roshfrans Rookie of the Year title, as well as the AUTOSPORT Rookie of the Year Award, becoming the first American to do so. Allmendinger finished the season sixth overall, marking the highest finish for an American-born Champ Car rookie since Bobbie Rahal in 1982. He continued with his impressive development in 2005 when he earned his first pole and collected four second-place finishes and finished fifth in the Championship.

“A.J. has been with us since we created RuSPORT late in 2002,” said team owner Carl Russo. “During that time, we won the 2003 Formula Atlantic Championship and the 2004 Champ Car Rookie of the Year together. However, as RuSPORT and A.J. have progressed, we believe a different environment will help A.J. to grow even faster, and so we have made this very difficult decision. We expect that A.J. will be a winner in any category he competes in. We thank him for all his efforts and we wish him well in the future.”

RuSPORT has also announced that 2002 Champ Car World Series Champion Cristiano da Matta has joined the team and will become the new driver of the #10 RuSPORT Lola / Ford-Cosworth / Bridgestone. Da Matta’s first race with RuSPORT will be the upcoming G.I. Joe’s Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland, which takes place June 16-18 at Portland International Raceway, in Portland, Ore.

Da Matta returns to Portland as the event’s defending champion, and brings an impressive racing resume to RuSPORT. During his championship season in 2002, he won seven poles and seven races, including a record four consecutive wins at Laguna Seca, Portland, Chicago and Toronto. Da Matta then spent two seasons racing in Formula 1, where he competed with Toyota F1 and scored a total of 13 championship points. He was named the 2003 Formula 1 Rookie of the Year, as well as the 2002 SPEED Channel Driver of the Year.

As a member of Dale Coyne Racing, da Matta has competed in all four races during the 2006 Champ Car season, and currently sits in ninth place in the championship standings. He joins RuSPORT as a teammate to driver Justin Wilson, who is in second place in the championship, just 31 points behind the leader, Sebastien Bourdais.

Dominguez and the Forsythe team have enjoyed a fair share of success together; their most recent accomplishment was securing the Bridgestone Pole Position at the Houston Grand Prix, which was a career first for Dominguez. Unfortunately, changes in the engineering structure of the team no longer suit both parties and it was mutually agreed that the best direction forward would be to part ways.

CBS Sports broadcast four consecutive Champ Car events live in 2005 and showed steady improvement in the Nielsen ratings throughout, with more than 1,000,000 households tuning in for races in Cleveland and Toronto. Fans can tune in to the June 18 Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland, which begins live at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. That race will be followed the next week by the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland which begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The Molson Grand Prix of Toronto is next on July 9 with a 12:30 p.m. Eastern start time, while the final CBS Sports race of the season comes live from Edmonton with the broadcast beginning at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Carnegie was hired to serve as Public Address announcer for the 30th Indianapolis 500 in 1946, the first "500" under late Speedway owner Tony Hulman's stewardship. Carnegie has called every race since then at the Speedway for millions of fans - 61 Indianapolis 500's, 12 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard races and six United States Grands Prix. The 90th Indianapolis 500, won May 28 in thrilling fashion by Sam Hornish Jr. with a pass of Marco Andretti on the final straightaway, was Carnegie's last IMS event officially behind the microphone.

"It was time," Carnegie said. "(Wife) D.J. and I have always admired the way A.J. Foyt quit driving. When he made up his mind, he came forward and told the fans and the Public Address system, and that was it. He didn't prolong it and drag it out. "Foyt has been one of my idols over the years, and that's what I did here."
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