I can’t say I was surprised when my Blackberry buzzed to life late Friday with the news that Bridgestone Americas was closing the book on its IndyCar racing involvement. The writing was on the wall in January when the company passed on renewing its relationship with what’s left of American open wheel racing.

And besides, any news release after 5 p.m. on a Friday is never good news.

So now the silly season starts once again. Another round of “Who will it be?” complete with all of the rumors and clues and denials and shifts.

Already, a full boat of potential players have been named. Continental on the strength of its prototype racing experience. Cooper, currently playing in IndyCar’s Mazda-sponsored starter series. Michelin because of its F1 and GP expertise. Goodyear, which was the last competitive brand in IndyCar. Hoosier just because.

Not named were two other obvious options (at least based on past scuttlebutt): Kumho and Hankook.

So with just about everyone in the pool, we’ll have to watch to see how it all shakes out. Whichever tire producer/brand is chosen will face all-new IndyCar chassis and engine options for 2012, making race tire development that much more interesting.

And they will be squarely in a position where racing is an expensive promotional activity – one in which there is little chance of recouping the expense of engineering, developing, producing, shipping, installing and managing the process. Unless, of course, you can sell enough tires on Monday after those end-of-the-dial Versus TV broadcasts.

For all of its glorious history – and we have heard a lot about the Firestone brand and the “Indy heritage” – and its contribution to the evolution of the modern consumer tires, racing may have lost its mojo.