On Tuesday, XM Satellite Radio will be celebrating Danica Patrick's historic win at the Indy Japan 300 with a special edition of the "Andretti Green Racing Hour," the XM show that Danica co-hosts with fellow members of the AGR racing team.

Patrick won her first IndyCar Series race this past Sunday, making her the first woman to win a major closed-course auto race.

You can hear Danica and members of her family talk about her victory on the show on Tuesday night at 7pm ET on XM Sports Nation (ch 144). Then at 8pm ET, XM will replay its broadcast of the Indy Japan 300, followed by an encore presentation of the "AGR Hour" at 10pm ET.

If and when there is more "Danica on XM" news, or even just "something remotely related to Danica" news, it will be reported right here on Orbitcast. And not simply because it's a legitimate excuse for me to dig through photos of her. Nope. Not at all. I'm actually extremely offended you even thought that.

Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy race when she beat out pole-sitter Helio Castroneves by 5.8594 seconds at the Indy Japan 300.

Word has it that XM is putting together plans for some Danica-related programming to air this week. As soon as there's more details, they'll be posted here. But in the meantime there's always that Sports Illustrated swimsuit photo shoot to remind you how much of a winner she really is.

[Jalopnik]

Ah yes, it's springtime. The flowers are sprouting, the birds are chirping, and sports fans are dreaming about... college football?

Yep. Spring football games are a big tradition for many college programs across the country.  The coach divides the football team into two teams for a scrimmage, and the hardcore fans turn out in droves to get a preview of the new team.

This Saturday, XM will carry the 2008 spring game for the defending national champion LSU Tigers, as well as the annual "G-Day Game" from the University of Georgia, on channel 199.

The Georgia spring game kicks off at 2pm ET/11am PT, and the LSU game starts at 6pm ET/3pm PT.

This month, XM will also air spring football games from Oklahoma State, Illinois, Penn State, Tennessee, and Arkansas. (The Texas Longhorns spring game aired last Saturday.)

The 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs will air live starting Wednesday, April 9th on XM channels 204 through 209.

Pierre McGuire is joining the XM team of hosts and analysts on NHL Home Ice (ch 204), which includes Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, Gary Green, Denis Potvin, Bill Clement, Jim Tatti, Scott Laughlin, Jamie Shalley, Bob McKenzie, Don LaGreca, and E.J. Hradek.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hosts the show "NHL Hour" on NHL Home Ice. Commissioner Bettman and a rotation of NHL executives talk with fans across the U.S. and Canada on Thursdays 4-5 pm ET.

Esposito, who co-hosts the show "In the Slot" with Tatti weekdays 3-6 pm ET on NHL Home Ice, will announce his third annual Espo Awards on Monday, April 7th. Esposito will announce awards for the 2007-08 NHL season, such as Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, Top Rookie, Toughest Player and even Most Difficult Name to Pronounce. Each year, the awards are chosen by Esposito and his XM panel of hockey analysts.

Check out the full NHL schedule on XM here.

XM is poking fun at the presidential election race and has created their own "campaign" (get it?) to promote the MLB on XM. If you remember their Call Stars marketing push, think of this as Call Stars 2.0, because this time it's not just a website, but it's also a TV spot.

The new TV spot parodies of election ads with Ortiz campaigning for the "Every Game" platform, while Jeter stumps for "Every Team." The TV spot and online ads are premiering this week.

XM has also kicked off multiple websites dedicated to this campaign: XMbaseball.com, as well as JeterForPresident.com and OrtizForPresident.com - don't get confused though, they all go to the same site.

At any of the links above you can enter in a bunch of info and send your friend a personalized phone call from candidate Ortiz or candidate Jeter. Either one is sure to get a laugh from your friends.

Soon the site will let you upload a photo and create your own bobblehead image complete with your favorite team's uniform. XM will then let your personalized bobblehead star in a campaign video as the running mate for Jeter or Ortiz, and then share it with whoever you want. Pretty cool. They'll take it a step further and let you create a voicemail greeting from the candidates, or download a customized ringtone.

It brings together all the aspects for a successful viral campaign: silly humor, the ability to share (via mobile and online platforms even), and a built-in hardcore fanbase. It's great to see that XM is expanding on this even further.

Watch the TV commercial after the jump...