Duno to make NHLR a 3-car team

UPDATE #3 This rumor is downgraded to 'speculation' today. SPEEDTV.com reports that "testing resumes Monday but it appears Milka Duno is looking for a ride. She had practiced with Newman/Haas/Lanigan at Homestead last month and the team had cleared space in its shop to run three cars but evidently her funding fell short of what had been promised."

02/23/09 The team says Venezuelan driver Milka Duno will join the team in a testing capacity for the two days of Homestead testing this week.

02/23/09 A No. 23 CITGO car was being unloaded from one of three NHLR transporters this afternoon in Homestead and Milka Duno was at the track. CITGO was her backer last year so it looks like the rumors are true of Duno as the 3rd driver at NHLR with backing from CITGO. No formal announcement yet, however. The NHLR cars are number 02, 06 and 23. We have updated our 2009 IndyCar Silly Season page.

Milka Duno

02/03/09 According to SPEEDtv.com, IndyCar backmarker Milka Duno is close to signing with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing as a teammate to Robert Doornbos and Graham Rahal. According to SPEEDTV.com sources, Brian Lisles, the team manager at NHLR, called the Indy Racing League office on Tuesday afternoon to reveal that young Rahal will have two teammates for the upcoming season. "I can't tell you anything right now because we have no signatures or contracts signed but we're working on doing the best we can," said Lisles. "We do hope to have some good news for ourselves and the IndyCar series by the end of the week."

It is believed that NHLR is in need of more sponsorship money and Duno is rumored to have in the neighborhood of $5 million but it leaves the Dreyer & Reinbold team without their biggest cash cow.