Music: {allcanada} Tracy Vows To Continue In 2012

Prior to the events that took place at the Las Vegas IZOD IndyCar Series finale, 2003 Champ Car title winner Paul Tracy had no doubts about his plans for next season, but in the days that followed, Tracy, along with a few other drivers who were involved in the accident, were left wondering if retirement was the better option.

"Everybody, in the moment, was reeling," Tracy told SPEED.com. "There were a lot of conflicting emotions after what happened at Las Vegas and I think a lot of us were questioning things. None of our families wanted to see us get caught up in anything like that again. But the days go by and you feel that fire to keep racing is still there. I think we realized that you need to keep going and I definitely have some unfinished business in IndyCar."

The Las Vegas race aside, Tracy's season was already one to forget. Hopes were high after casting his lot—including an impressive amount of personal sponsorships—with Dragon Racing, but the Jay Penske-owned team struggled almost everywhere it raced. A finish of 12th at the first Texas race marked Tracy's best result of the year, and a finish of 25th at the Indy 500 in a one-off with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing left Tracy rather unsatisfied.

Tracy's ability to secure decent levels of personal sponsorship has allowed the Canadian star to maintain a part-time presence in the IndyCar Series since 2008, but at 42 years old, and with the clock ticking on an Indy car career that started 20 years ago, he says he's aiming higher for 2012.

"I'm not willing to do what I did last year—running part-time, no testing, no development and just show up and hope the team has its [act] together," said Tracy. "You can't compete that way. If that was my only option, I'll stop. Anyone who knows me knows I wasn't going to give less than 100 percent and in some of those situations last year, you probably saw me driving beyond 100 percent to try and haul the thing as far up as I could. You don't want to have to work miracles every time you get in the car, so we're working really hard to partner with the right team where we can go into each race expecting to have good results."

Playing the role of driver/sponsor suited Tracy as long as it kept him in the game, but now that he's four years removed from his last Indy car win, he's looking for a team that can provide some of the budget to help solidify a fulltime return.

"Where I am now, I'd like to align myself a team that has some sponsorship of its own; I have sponsorship to bring to the table too. I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen. We're shaking out what teams want what for 2012. I want to run a full season, to do all of the testing to develop the new chassis for the team, to do the tests with the engine manufacturer and to have a fighting chance to be competitive and get wins. We've raised a couple million dollars but it has to be placed with the right team. That's the hard part."

With continued sponsorship from Honda Canada awaiting Tracy, his first choice amongst teams would naturally fall within the Honda camp. Looking at the Honda-related landscape for 2012, Tracy's options appear to be limited, but he's reportedly spoken with a number of owners, regardless of engine affiliation.

"Honda's chosen four teams so far, and other than that, they haven't made final announcements on anyone else; Chevy has their teams and who knows what's up with Lotus. My preference is a Honda team because I have sponsorship with Honda of Canada, so that's my top priority, but until everyone knows exactly what engine they'll have, it makes it hard to let negotiations get too far down the road."

On a slightly humorous note, Tracy says he's gotten a few laughs from the mixed information some teams have delivered.

"Of the teams I'm talking to, many of them can't say definitively which engine they'll have," he explained. "Walking the paddock in Las Vegas, I had six teams—SIX—tell me they were going to be the factory Lotus team…the last one who told me that, I said, 'Great…I hope you and the other five teams figure who's in charge…'"

Of the remaining teams with driver openings, Tracy's best chance to vie for a top 10 finish in the championship would likely come in a tie-up with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and he's believed to have another meeting scheduled with team owner Bobby Rahal next week. Until a contract is signed, look for Tracy to keep the phone lines open.

"We've talked to Foyt, we've talked to D&R, Foyt, Herta, Shank, Rahal and a half-dozen teams so far," he said. "We're doing like everyone else and talking to all of the teams with openings to see what might be a good fit on the competitive side and the commercial side. I wish it was easy like before when most people knew what they had for cars and engines and were already out testing by now. We just need to be patient, but we'll get there."

News & Notes

• Derrick Walker is ramping up to run the newly announced Ed Carpenter Racing effort from his Walker Racing base in Indianapolis. Walker will continue to run the Team Falken tire program in the ALMS, but the Scot is now on the lookout for an all-new open-wheel crew to run the Ed Carpenter- and Tony George-owned outfit

• Panther Racing picked up JR Hildebrand's option for 2012

• With at least one vacancy to fill in its IndyCar program, Andretti Autosport will test Indy Lights graduates James Davison and Gustavo Yacaman next week in Florida