THE REPLACEMENT BECOMES A KILLER; Ryan Briscoe shuns pressure for a Milwaukee win.

Byline: CURT CAVIN

The Australian came to the IndyCar Series in 2005 as Chip Ganassi's hot young prospect, but he was foiled immediately by a Toyota-powered car that was a treacherous slug. Briscoe crashed left and right in a predicament that can be attested to by Scott Dixon, Darren Manning and the handful of other drivers Ganassi threw at the problem.

Near the end of the season, Briscoe was hurt in a fiery accident against the catch fence at Chicagoland Speedway. After a lengthy recovery period, his services at Ganassi were no longer needed.

Unemployed for the first time in his career, Briscoe bounced back in 2006, driving the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team car to a margin of success before having one of those double-crash weekends at the Milwaukee Mile.

Things began to turn positive when Roger Penske hired him last year for his American Le Mans Series program. Briscoe learned a lot about patience and got that winning feeling back. He even finished fifth in the Indianapolis 500 for Luczo-Dragon racing, a Penske satellite effort. When Penske needed a driver this year to replace NASCAR-bound Sam Hornish Jr., Briscoe was the obvious choice.

All of that was well and good until Briscoe returned to his crashing ways. The one at Homestead-Miami Speedway to start the year was not his fault, but he allowed his car to bounce off the wall on the St. Petersburg street course, he hit another wall in Japan, and he bounced off Danica Patrick in the 500.

By now, everyone knows about Indy. The rear of his car slid into Patrick under heavy acceleration on pit road, and the contact took them both out of the race. Patrick responded with a fierce walk up pit road toward him. Briscoe had to spend the week hearing whispers that Penske was looking for his replacement.