Former open-wheel star A.J. Allmendinger may be coming home.

Allmendinger was suspended and subsequently released from his NASCAR drive at Penske Racing last season after failing a drug test. The California native has since passed NASCAR's Road to Recovery program and has been re-instated by the series, but it appears that he may be considering a return to open-wheel.

This morning, FOX Sports' Holly Cain broke the news that 'Dinger will be testing a Team Penske IndyCar on Feb. 18 and 19 at Sebring, Florida. As of now, that's the only thing that's concrete, but Cain writes that if all goes well, he's slated to race April 7 for Penske in the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.

Added funding could also put Allmendinger in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Indianapolis 500 according to Cain's report.

While stressing that it's only a test for now, Allmendinger thanked the Penske camp and team owner Roger Penske on his @AJDinger Twitter account for sticking with him :

"So happy and feel so blessed to have a chance to test for @penskeracing at sebring in an indycar. The whole organization and Roger...Especially is such a class act. Cant thank them enough for the chance and for keeping me a part of the family throughout it all"

He ended that particular series of tweets with the hashtag "nevergiveup."

Allmendinger, who recently helped get Michael Shank Racing on the podium at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, raced in Champ Car from 2004-2006. Heralded as one of the top Americans in the series, he netted five wins and 14 podium finishes across 40 starts for the RuSport and Forsythe Racing squads.

In 2007, he migrated to NASCAR and progressively improved, rising as high as 15th in the standings in 2011 (one top-5, 10 top-10s) for Richard Petty Motorsports. He then jumped to Penske Racing for 2012, replacing Kurt Busch in the No. 22 Dodge.

But on July 7, 2012, Allmendinger was suspended from the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona due to the aforementioned failed test. That suspension was later extended to an indefinite status and he was released by Penske in early August. However, after completing the Road to Recovery program, he came back and drove for Phoenix Racing in four of the final six races of the campaign.

After helping Sam Schmidt and his driver Simon Pagenaud charge to a top-5 finish in last year's IZOD IndyCar Series championship, Davey Hamilton will be back at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to help field Pagenaud's No. 77 Honda, which will once again feature backing from HP.

With the addition of Ric Peterson to the ownership side of the team -- which has expanded to a two-car outfit with Pagenaud and incoming rookie Tristan Vautier -- some wondered if Hamilton would find another squad in the paddock to help. Indeed, the former racer had been mulling over such a possibility recently.

But Hamilton has decided to continue his work with Schmidt into the upcoming campaign.

“I’m happy that Sam and I are going to continue our partnership with Simon driving the #77 car,” said Hamilton in a team release. “We had a great season last year and Ric Peterson joining Sam should make the entire team even stronger. Without Ric, there would have been no way to sign Tristan and provide Simon with a teammate.”

Pagenaud enters 2013 after claiming Rookie of the Year honors and finishing fifth in the standings in 2012 (three podiums, five top-5s, nine top-10s), while Vautier is moving up to the big leagues following a run to the Firestone Indy Lights title.

22 full-time entrants have been confirmed for INDYCAR's Leader's Choice program this coming season. The group consists of the 19 returning members that finished in the top 22 in entrant points last year, as well as three open spots that were filled by single-car entries from Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, HVM Racing and Dragon Racing.

Each LC member will be assured at least $1 million for this season should they qualify for the Indianapolis 500. That is a decrease from the $1.2 million that members got last season.

Here are the teams that will take part in the program:

Entrants not in the Leader's Choice program will continue to battle for payouts at each race outside of the Indianapolis 500, with the highest-finishing, non-LC entrant netting $40,000 (followed by payouts of $35,000 and $30,000 for second and third place in the group respectively).

Rejoice, Jakesy Nation, for your king will continue to battle in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

English driver James Jakes will team up with Graham Rahal this season at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, taking over the No. 30 Honda with sponsorship from longtime backer Acorn Stairlifts.

Jakes has raced the last two campaigns with Dale Coyne Racing. In 2012, he collected two top-tens at Texas (10th) and Toronto (8th), and finished 22nd in the championship.

“I wanted to put myself in a position where I could get results that I believe I am capable of and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is a good fit for me,” Jakes said in an RLL release. “If you look back at the results and the product that Bobby and the team have put on the track, he’s always got a car that is running up front and the team does things first class.

"I had negotiated with Bobby when I first came to the series, but we weren’t able to put a program together until now.  It will be great for the team to have two full-season cars to move ourselves forward and push us to where Bobby and the team want us to be – at the top of the grid.”

RLL has been working on a second car for some time, and now that the effort has paid off with their first multi-car offering since 2007, team co-owner Bobby Rahal believes that his squad is in position to make a move toward the top of the standings.

“For us to be a two-car team is a natural progression,” the 1986 Indianapolis 500 champion said. “A year ago, we restarted the team to really build toward this time. We positioned ourselves in Indianapolis to take advantage of everything the open wheel industry can provide us with and obviously, as was proven last year, a one-car team can be competitive.

"But there is no doubt in my mind that a two-car team is a much more efficient and productive way to go racing. There is twice as much information, twice as much everything, and that helps you progress that much quicker. James is obviously an aggressive, competitive driver, and I think that having both he and Graham on board raises the performance of the team as a whole.”

RLL fielded a single-car entry for Takuma Sato (now with A.J. Foyt Racing) last year.

Venezuelan racer and IZOD IndyCar Series veteran E.J. Viso appears set to land his biggest opportunity to date in American open-wheel racing.

Viso, entering his sixth year on the circuit, is now being pegged as the man set to take over the vacant fourth ride at Andretti Autosport according to a report from Autoweek -- which says an announcement is expected from the Andretti camp on Wednesday.

He'll be counted on to raise his game alongside series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Marco Andretti. Viso has yet to win a race in IndyCar, and is coming off a 20th place effort in last year's championship for KV Racing Technology that saw a high-water mark of fifth place in Milwaukee.

To Viso's credit, he managed to keep largely out of trouble; two of his three DNFs on the season (his lowest number in a single IndyCar campaign) were due to mechanical issues.

Heads-up, boys and girls: Despite having a title to defend, the Andretti Autosport gang is in attack mode for 2013.

After claiming the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series championship with American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, the team proceeded to lose some strong engineering talent to other squads in the paddock. But as SPEEDTV.com's Marshall Pruett reports, AA has filled those open positions nicely.

Craig Hampson, who helped engineer Sebastien Bourdais' electrifying run of four consecutive Champ Car World Series titles, has now joined up with AA to work on James Hinchcliffe's No. 27 program. Marco Andretti will also be getting a new engineer in 2013 -- Blair Perschbacher, who's moving up from Firestone Indy Lights.

Last but certainly not least, Pruett writes that a formal announcement for a fourth Andretti car will be made shortly, with longtime engineer Michael Cannon on board for that program.

As for who the driver will be, that's still anybody's guess.

Several notables are still looking for a ride going into 2013, including former Team Penske pilot Ryan Briscoe and Venezuela's E.J. Viso. Technically, Justin Wilson is a free agent as well, but it seems inevitable that he'll re-up with Dale Coyne's Honda-powered outfit.

IndyCar team owner signs Lights champion Tristan Vautier to form two-car lineup alongside Simon Pagenaud

You don't have to field a multi-car program to succeed in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Sam Schmidt knows this, because his single-car effort last season managed to become Honda's No. 2 team behind the Chip Ganassi Racing juggernaut thanks to a fifth-place effort in the standings from its driver (and Rookie of the Year), Simon Pagenaud.

But Schmidt, a former IndyCar driver himself, had visions of expanding his operation for some time, and he believes it's the way for his team to go even further than it did in 2012.

"We kind of made a decision three or four months ago to really push hard and try to get to a two-car team, whether it be for data collection or chemistry or growing the organization -- any number of reasons," he said during an INDYCAR teleconference on Tuesday.

"It's becoming apparent if you're really going to compete week in and week out with what is the foundation of the IndyCar Series -- whether it be Andretti [Autosport], Ganassi -- you pretty much have to be a two-car team."

Enter Tristan Vautier, the reigning Firestone Indy Lights champion that has been setting the Mazda Road to Indy on fire in recent seasons. Across his championship runs in both Star Mazda (2011) and FIL (2012), he claimed eight victories and 21 top-five finishes in 23 combined starts.

Now, after testing for Schmidt's operation late last year (now known as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with the addition of new co-owner and former Toyota Atlantics racer Ric Peterson), Vautier will get his big shot in a second SPM IndyCar program alongside Pagenaud.

"I was in discussions with Sam since the end of the season, but things got more serious after the test that I had," said Vautier. "I have been really wanting that opportunity. I wanted to stay with Sam, to step up to the big cars. It's a great day today for me to announce this news."

Vautier has certainly earned his ticket to the top open-wheel series in North America, but while he'll be counted on to perform, he knows that he has a learning process to go through first. The good news for him is that he's entering into a solid group from the outset.

As for his new teammate and fellow Frenchman, Pagenaud believes that Vautier has enough talent to not need many pep talks from him.

"I don't think I have any advice to give [Vautier]," said Pagenaud. "I'm really glad he's joining us in the team...I think Tristan knows exactly what to do. Obviously, there's a few things he hasn't done like pit stops and things like that that he's going to have to learn. But he's a quick learner, a quick Frenchman, as well."

Pagenaud also echoed Schmidt's belief in a multi-car program being better suited to face the likes of the "Big Three" -- the aforementioned Andretti and Ganassi camps, as well as Team Penske.

"I think everybody on the team is very excited also to get bigger and to work together and try to go fight with the big guys," the Champ Car veteran said. "We've already done that quite a bit last year, but now we can say we have everything we need, all the tools, resources, to go out and do the best we can."

---

The File: Tristan Vautier

DOB: Aug. 22, 1989

Hometown: Corenc, France

Resides In: St. Petersburg, Florida

Major Accomplishments: 2012 Firestone Indy Lights Champion, 2011 Star Mazda Champion

American Open-wheel Wins: 10 (6 in Star Mazda, 4 in Firestone Indy Lights)

Also Raced In: Formula Two, Formula Renault

Reigning Firestone Indy Lights champion Tristan Vautier is making his way to the big leagues.

The young Frenchman, who has won back-to-back titles along the Mazda Road to Indy (Star Mazda, 2011; Lights, 2012), will be racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series this season for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports according to a report from SPEEDTV.com's Marshall Pruett.

SPM is slated to make a team announcement this afternoon as part of an INDYCAR teleconference.

Vautier collected four victories last season en route to winning last year's Lights championship by nine points over Esteban Guerrieri. He's heading for a pretty good situation too with SPM as well, as he'll be teammates with reigning Sunoco Rookie of the Year and top-flight road racer Simon Pagenaud.

But as Pruett explains, Pagenaud isn't the only one that'll be helping him:

"The team's recent re-acquisition of championship-winning engineer Allen McDonald has been the biggest move among IndyCar personnel during the off-season, and coupled with the driving and mentoring talents of Pagenaud and the technical wizardry of his engineer Ben Bretzman, Vautier is stepping into the strongest scenario for an IndyCar rookie in recent memory."

Vautier has certainly proven to be quite a talent in the ladder series, and while he'll face a learning curve while adapting to the big cars, he seems to have everything he'll need at SPM to evolve that talent further.

This not only realizes SPM's hopes for a second program, but also boosts the depth on the Honda roster. Chevrolet rolled to victory in the engine manufacturer's race last season, and while Honda certainly has a great No. 1 squad with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, one could argue they needed more solid programs behind TCGR. Vautier will help in that regard.

It's also another name to add to the list of graduates for Firestone Indy Lights, which has been producing some good talent lately such as Vautier, 2011 champ Josef Newgarden (now with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing), James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport), 2009 champ J.R. Hildebrand (Panther Racing) and Charlie Kimball (Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing).

A familiar team was on top of the podium at yesterday Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

IZOD IndyCar Series team owner Chip Ganassi celebrated his fifth Rolex win as a car owner, as his No. 01 team -- which featured one of his IndyCar drivers, Charlie Kimball -- took the checkered flag. Juan Pablo Montoya, Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett also contributed behind the wheel toward the special triumph.

INDYCAR also hit the other steps of the podium in Daytona as well. Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was part of the runner-up No. 10 Velocity Worldwide team, and Justin Wilson helped bring the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing entry home in third place. Wilson was part of the No. 60 team in their 2012 Rolex victory.

--

Mike Conway will return to the IZOD IndyCar Series in a one-off this April at Long Beach.

Conway, who won the legendary street race two years ago with Andretti Autosport, will drive a second Rahal Letterman Lanigan machine, the No. 30 Honda, alongside Graham Rahal in the No. 15.

“The team has proven their speed and technical excellence in the past and I can't wait to start working with everybody," said Conway in a team release. "I worked with (RLL race engineer) Eddie (Jones) indirectly when he was Marco's (Andretti) engineer at Andretti Autosport so we would debrief as a group. He knows his stuff and has been around a long time so it should be fun working together.

"I hope to add more races for the upcoming season but in the meantime, I look forward to getting back on a circuit that I previously won on!"

In addition, team owner Bobby Rahal said in the same statement that the team has acquired "a new sponsor for IndyCar racing" and will be announcing it soon.

The team hopes to test Conway some time before Long Beach.

The 10-spot grid penalty for engine changes -- which constantly shuffled starting grids throughout last season -- will be back in 2013.

And it may prove to have an even bigger impact in its second year. That's because the engine change-out mark for teams has been stretched from 1,850 miles to 2,000 miles.

It's just one of multiple changes made to the INDYCAR rulebook for this upcoming campaign. Among those changes:

• Pole sitters no longer have the chance to decide where they'll line up at the drop of the green flag; they'll have to go from the inside of the front row on both starts and double-file restarts.
• Teams can determine the amount of fuel in the cars at the start of a race; previously, all teams needed to have 18.5 gallons worth of E85 at the start.
• In road/street course qualifying, a driver will not be allowed to advance to the next round AND lose his two fastest laps if he is found to have interfered with qualifications during Round 1 and 2. If said offense happens during Round 3/Firestone Fast Six, the driver will be held out for the remainder of that round.
• Finishing positions 19th through 25th will have an adjustment made on points rewarded. Instead of a flat system, there will be a one-point difference between each position.
• Any driver/entrant that leads one lap will earn one bonus point. The driver/entrant that leads the most laps in a race will still net two bonus points.

INDYCAR has a full release that features more notable changes to the 2013 rulebook here.

--

Alex Tagliani is officially back for another season at Barracuda Racing. Last year, the Lachenaie, Quebec native collected a pole at Texas Motor Speedway and eight top-10 finishes after he and Barracuda switched from Lotus to Honda power at the Indianapolis 500.

“The 2012 season was strong for us, despite the challenges we faced, and the results don’t reflect all our successes,” said Tagliani in a team statement. “In our second season together at Barracuda Racing, we can only climb upward as a team.”

“I really think that with Todd [Malloy] engineering, and the experience that [team owners] Bryan [Herta] and Steve [Newey] bring to the table, our car will be even more competitive. It will be great to show that we are a factor, that we are moving up in the field.”

--

Andretti Autosport's Carlos Munoz was the fastest of them all in Day 1 of the Firestone Indy Lights Open Test down in South Florida. The Colombian threw down a lap of 1 minute, 14.992 seconds in the afternoon session to lead the way.

INDYCAR.com's Kate Guerra's keeping an eye on things at Homestead-Miami Speedway, so check out her reports on the test. The second day of the session is currently underway.

--

Simona de Silvestro and Tony Kanaan of KV Racing Technology were in Baltimore yesterday to take part in their team's official launch for 2013. As part of the festivities, De Silvestro and her No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy team took part in pit stop demonstrations for fans along Pratt Street. You can check out some of the action here.