Category: US Sports

It looked like Penske were going to be the ones to beat at Road America with Josef Newgarden and Will Power locking out the front row and, while one’s challenge ended before it even started, the other took his third and most dominant victory of the season, ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and championship leader Scott Dixon, to vastly improve his own championship position.

After starting the season strongly, Newgarden had struggled in the last few races however, he turned that around at Road America to take the win, only failing to lead three laps which were all during the pit stops sequences. Hunter-Reay posed a constant threat throughout the race, always just a few tenths of a second behind Newgarden, shadowing him, waiting for a mistake but none came, and Hunter-Reay was unable to make a move. Power going backwards at the start helped Newgarden as everyone else had to dodge the slowing #12 Penske while his other Penske teammate, Simon Pagenaud, helped by forming a large train behind him and preventing any challenges from anyone below seventh. Despite the help, he still had Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato, Robert Wickens and Dixon to deal with – all of which put up strong, sustained challenges. Ultimately, it was Newgarden who had the better pace and therefore took the win with a victory that looks a lot more dominant on paper than it did in real life. That result puts Newgarden into fourth in the championship, overtaking teammate Power, and meaning that he’s now only 50 points back – a race win’s distance.

The other two Penske’s of Power and Pagenaud did not live up to Newgarden’s achievements at Road America. Power had started second, but he had an engine problem at the start which dropped him to last within half a lap and effectively ended his race. The Indy 500 Champion now finds himself in sixth in the championship and 65 points back, a large but not insurmountable gap. Pagenaud, meanwhile, finished the race but struggled for pace throughout, only getting up to seventh after barging past Ed Jones in the closing stages of the race. That tops off a sub-standard start to the season for Pagenaud who’s now 138 points astray in the championship; taking the #1 this season is looking more and more unlikely for the 2016 champion.

Second in the race, and now the championship, was Hunter-Reay who spent the vast majority of the 55 laps staring at the back of Newgarden’s #1 Penske. He had good pace during the race but couldn’t quite find a way past race leader Newgarden while, at one point, it looked like he’d have to fend off the charging Dixon but that came to nothing. Overall it was a decent, if not frustrating, race for the 2012 champion who has very much announced himself in this championship.

Still in the lead of that championship, with a much-increased margin of 45 points, is Dixon who took third after qualifying, rather disappointingly, in eighth. As ever with the Chip Ganassi crew, clever strategy was the name of the game and meant that Dixon jumped Rossi, Wickens and Sato, putting him in third. This was done by running an extra lap on the first stint then cashing it in on the second by having to stop for less fuel so less time. It was a masterstroke from the #9 crew which meant that Dixon didn’t have to waste time by trying to pass the three on track, which was proving difficult at best for everyone else.

For a long time, one of the biggest challengers to Newgarden was Rossi who had sat in third right from the start, after pushing Wickens off on Lap 1 in a slightly questionable move which Rossi managed to avoid a penalty for. Sato nearly passed both Rossi and Wickens after the second stops however, Rossi put a stop to that by, you guessed it, pushing him off track! Again, Rossi went unpenalized which did nothing to please Sato or Wickens but, in the interviews after, Rossi saw no error in his ways – rightfully or not. After all that work, Rossi’s race fell apart when he suffered the same suspension issue that teammate Zach Veach had earlier in the race, meaning he actually finished in sixteenth.

Season-long rival Wickens may have both started and finished fifth however, that doesn’t tell the whole story. After fighting with Rossi early on, Wickens had dropped back off the front group and had to work through the race to get back up to them. He was back with Rossi after the second stops, but any further dual was stopped by Rossi’s suspension issue. Graham Rahal got past Wickens and, after an incident with Pagenaud in the pit lane slowed Wickens down, it looked like it was going to stay that way; in the closing laps of the race, Wickens managed to get back past Rahal to take fifth but still meaning that the Canadian is 119 points back in the championship.

Next up for the IndyCar paddock is Iowa Speedway after a weekend off, this race was won by Penske’s Helio Castroneves last year who won’t be returning to defend his win this year.

Full Race Result

1. Josef Newgarden
2. Ryan Hunter-Reay
3. Scott Dixon
4. Takuma Sato
5. Robert Wickens (R)
6. Graham Rahal
7. Simon Pagenaud
8. Spencer Pigot
9. Ed Jones
10. James Hinchcliffe
11. Marco Andretti
12. Jordan King (R)
13. Sebastien Bourdais
14. Tony Kanaan
15. Matheus Leist (R)
16. Alexander Rossi
17. Max Chilton
18. Charlie Kimball
19. Gabby Chaves
20. Alfonso Celis Jr. (R)
21. Zachary Claman De Melo (R)
22. Zach Veach (R)

DNF – Will Power

Featured image courtesy of Michael L. Levitt/LAT for Chevy Racing

After a much-needed weekend off (for some at least) the IndyCar paddock are back in action, this time at the road course of Road America in Wisconsin. We are now over half-way through the season with clear title contenders starting to emerge but, as always with IndyCar, it’s still anyone’s game.

Last time out was the night race Texas Motor Speedway where Scott Dixon took all the glory with a dominant win, giving him the championship lead after the previous leader, Will Power, came to blows in a collision with Zachary Claman De Melo which was ultimately the former’s fault. The as-yet miserably unlucky Simon Pagenaud finally got his break with a second-place finish ahead of Alexander Rossi who was once again risking it all with daring overtakes.

Championship-wise, Dixon leads the pack with a 23-point advantage over Rossi who in turn has another 13 points on Indy 500 Champion Power. Ryan Hunter-Reay is the only other man who remains within a race-wins distance of Dixon, being 49-points back. Reigning champion Josef Newgarden is 68 points off the lead and then it’s a sizeable jump back to Graham Rahal and rookie Robert Wickens. Time is starting to become of the essence with a championship looking more and more unlikely for Newgarden or anyone currently behind him however, this is IndyCar… anything can happen!

The last running of Road America was won by Dixon in what was a relatively even race for both Honda and Chevrolet, with the latter looking to have the slight edge – whether that will be the case this year remains to be seen. Following Dixon home was the eventual champion Newgarden who headed the Penske quartet of himself, Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power.

Other than a few minor spins and brushes of the wall, the only major incident was when Tony Kanaan hit the wall quite heavily at Turn 11 following an unsuccessful attempt to pass Rossi. The grass margin between the track and the rather unforgiving walls helped quite a few drivers last year and, with no rain scheduled, it should do again this year.

Road America is, as the name suggests, is a road course so qualifying will be split into the three normal parts starting with two groups of twelve, followed by a single group of twelve and then the all-important Firestone Fast Six.

There are just two driver changes for this weekend; Jordan King is back in the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing car, taking over from the boss while Force India Junior Driver Alfonso Celis Jr. will be making his IndyCar debut in the solo Juncos entry.

With nine races already done, there are eight to go, including Road America, so every race is getting that bit more important for the championship contenders. The usual lot of Andretti, Penske and Chip Ganassi should be strong along with Schmidt Peterson who will be hoping for a return to their better form after a run of harder races for the squad.

After the unsociable times of the night race at Texas, this weekend’s IndyCar times are much more UK friendly with all the practice and qualifying sessions live on IndyCar’s streaming channels and the race being shown live on the BT Sport/ESPN channel. There will also be commentary for both qualifying and the race on our Twitter channel if you’re unable to watch them. The timings for the weekend are as follows:

Friday

Practice 1 – 5:00pm
Practice 2 – 9:15pm

Saturday

Practice 3 – 5:00pm
Qualifying – 9:00pm

Sunday

Race – 6:05pm

Featured Image courtesy of media.gm.com

A long-awaited break is just one weekend away from the teams and drivers but first, it’s the night race at Texas Motor Speedway – marking the mid-way point in the season. Last year’s event threw up a few surprises and, if the first half of this season is anything to go by, this race will too!

The IndyCar paddock were out for the double-header that is the Dual in Detroit last weekend with the wins being shared between Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Manufacturers-wise, the weekend was building up to be a Honda whitewash but, while Race 1 comprehensively was, Race 2 saw a resurgence of sorts from Chevrolet in what is still classed as Honda territory. Both Dixon and Hunter-Reay had comfortable runs to the chequered flag with their nearest competitors being some way off, something that will almost certainly not be repeated at Texas.

The championship is as tight as ever heading to Texas but, and for the first time this season, there seems to be a breakaway group at the front. Will Power, Dixon and Alexander Rossi are all within 11 points, fourth is Hunter-Reay but he is 31 points off the lead and 20 behind Rossi. The margins are, admittedly, small with a race win being worth 50 points – a gap that all the top 5 remain within. Certainly, Penske don’t look anywhere near as dominant as they did last year, Power may be leading but Josef Newgarden is back in fifth and Simon Pagenaud is only just clinging onto a top 10 position; the universal aero kits have done their job in bringing the field together, whether Penske like it or not.

Moving onto Texas and it was our current championship leader, Power, who took the glory at last year’s event. Only nine cars actually made it to the flag in 2017 and, given 22 started, that’s a very high attrition rate! Charlie Kimball took a surprise pole but his elation was short lived when his race was ended, just 41 laps in, by a mechanical failure. First out was actually Rossi who hit the wall in a single car crash, an incident repeated multiple times by first Helio Castroneves then Newgarden and finally Ed Carpenter. The biggest wreck of the night came on lap 151 when Tony Kanaan nudged James Hinchcliffe into a spin, wiping out seven other cars in the process, including Hunter-Reay and Ed Jones.

The other wreck came just five laps away from the chequered flag when Takuma Sato got on the grass and crashed into Dixon, also collecting Conor Daly and damaging Max Chilton’s front wing. It was a truly wild race that probably won’t be repeated again this year, judging by the difficulty in following seen in the Indy 500.

We’re back on an oval so the usual oval qualifying procedure will apply – single runs of two timed laps in reverse order of the championship standings.

Just the two driver changes for Texas; Zachary Claman De Melo will retake the wheel of the #19 Dale Coyne after Santino Ferrucci got his first taste of IndyCar last time out at Detroit while Ed Carpenter will be in the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing, taking over from Jordan King as he does for all the ovals. Juncos Racing are absent from this weekend, as planned, due to insufficient funding to participate in the whole season so no racing for Kyle Kaiser or Rene Binder.

With the championship starting to take shape and hot up, the races are getting more and more important for the drivers hunting for the crown. A wreck here, while highly plausible, would be a small disaster for any of the title contenders, there’s still time to recover lost ground but that time is starting to run out.

If you’re looking to catch the racing this weekend then the IndyCar streaming channels are your friend as usual with the race being shown on the BT Sport/ESPN channel but, given it’s a night race in America, some of the times aren’t exactly UK friendly…

Friday

Practice 1 – 5:30pm
Qualifying – 9:00pm

Saturday

Final Practice – 12:15am

Sunday

Race – 1:00am

Featured image courtesy of http://media.gm.com/

It’s that time of year again, the Month of May has nearly run its course and there is just one crucial event left in it, race day. Practice and qualifying entailed enough dramas of their own so, if they’re anything to go by, the race should be another thrilling showdown.

We had a surprisingly low amount of wrecks in practice and qualifying with just the one for James Davison but that didn’t mean that we were short of commotion. This was chiefly caused by the re-introduction of bumping, a long-standing Indy 500 tradition. Proper bumping hasn’t been present for a few years so here’s a quick run-down: the grid is traditionally only made up of 33 cars but 35 entered this year so two had to be removed from running before the race. This was done on the Saturday of qualifying where, after all drivers had completed their guaranteed runs, the track was opened for the free-for-all that is ‘Happy Hour’ following which the slowest two drivers would be eliminated.

Throughout the build up to qualifying, there had been the general feeling that bumping was going to throw up a surprise or two with someone who didn’t really deserve to be bumped ending up without a seat when the music stopped. This was, unfortunately, James Hinchcliffe who hasn’t exactly had the best of times at this track over the years. From nearly being killed in practice in 2015, to pole the year later and now this, Hinchcliffe’s pretty much had it all at this track. After a few days of speculation, Schmidt Peterson released a statement saying that they would not be trying to purchase an already qualified ride and that barring ‘unforeseen circumstances’, Hinchcliffe would not be racing. It’s a season-wrecker from a championship point of view but Hinchcliffe has proved his class and has only gained fans through his dealing of the bumping.

With all the Hinchcliffe talk, the other bumpee, Pippa Mann, was rather overshadowed, as was day two of qualifying. Over all the noise, it was Ed Carpenter, an Indy 500 expert, who took a surprising pole from Penske’s Simon Pagenaud and Will Power. Row two will be made up of championship leader Josef Newgarden, Sebastien Bourdais, who made an impressive return after his monster crash last year, and Spencer Pigot. IndyCar returnee Helio Castroneves was in the lead after day one but he couldn’t quite deliver when the Fast Nine came around, eventually ending in eighth, just behind Danica Patrick in her last race but ahead of Scott Dixon who was last in the Fast Nine. No rookies made it into the Fast Nine but it was Matheus Leist who took the top rookie spot in eleventh after very nearly beating teammate Tony Kanaan to tenth.

Other than Hinchcliffe, the next biggest shock of qualifying would have to be 2016 winner Alexander Rossi who had a puncture on his fast run, almost crashed and ended up way down in thirty-second, only ahead of the ill-fated Conor Daly. Despite this, Rossi has remained resilient, stating the well-known point of you only have to be in the Indy 500 to stand a chance of winning it.

Speaking of winning, it was Takuma Sato who took that glory following a thrilling duel with Castroneves in the closing laps. Rookie Ed Jones took third and Max Chilton followed him home in fourth, a penny to anyone who could’ve predicted that! But that’s what the Indy 500 is, it always has been, and always will be, massively unpredictable due to its length and attritional nature. Last year, 17 of the 33 cars failed to make the 200th and final lap with most being taken out in wrecks.

The biggest question from last year’s running that has remained for this year is surrounding Honda’s reliability, or lack thereof. The biggest name blow-outs were Ryan Hunter-Reay and, rather ironically, Fernando Alonso who’d come from pitiful Honda reliability in F1. Honda themselves claimed that they’d found the problem not long after last year’s running and will hope beyond all hopes that their engines hold out for this year, if not, more questions will certainly be asked and some championships could take a massive hit.

Any of the 33 entrants could win this race, that could be said for any IndyCar race but it is never more true than at the Indy 500. The dice will inevitably be rolled strategy-wise by those with little to lose while wrecks and cautions could all play a massive part in deciding the winner. Ultimately, and as they always say, Indianapolis Motor Speedway choses the winner, try as you might, if IMS doesn’t want you to win, it isn’t going to happen.

Race starts at 5:05pm UK time so tune in to our Twitter channel for commentary as well as the BT Sport/ESPN channel to find out who will kiss the bricks on Sunday afternoon.

The last race before the all-important Indy 500 had a lot more drama than anyone was expecting after last year! There were incidents for Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden, amongst others, and late cautions altered the order but, ultimately, it was Will Power who triumphed over the rest to finally take his first victory of 2018 after a horrendous run of luck.

Power drove an almost faultless race to take Penske’s 200^th win as a team and his first since Pocono last year. After taking pole by the smallest of margins over Robert Wickens, Power led off the initial start and then again off the restart after the first caution, brought out by Pagenaud and Jordan King coming together. He proceeded to build himself a lead over the remainder of the stint however, he then had to switch onto the less favourable Black Firestones, allowing Wickens, on the faster Reds, to pass and extend a lead of his own. Power came out behind Wickens after the second stops but it was only a matter of time before he sailed past him after the compounds had been swapped. Despite the late caution and an unexpected charge from Scott Dixon, Power held out to take his third win at the Indy GP.

Wickens was arguably one of the strongest forces in the race but he struggled more than most on the Blacks in the second stint, dropping him back into the clutches of Alexander Rossi. The third instalment of the Wickens/Rossi battle was somewhat hairier than the second but they, just about, managed to keep it clean after spending the majority of Lap 67 side-by-side. Rossi seemed to only have one challenge and, after that was unsuccessful, he slowly dropped away from Wickens, eventually being caught and passed by Sebastien Bourdais.

In front of that battle was Dixon who, after starting way down in 18^th, made an excellent recovery to finish in second. Despite the headline finish, Dixon made a less than great start, finding himself further down in 21^st just under one quarter of the way into the race. The #9 Chip Ganassi managed to stay under the radar for the majority of the race, just quietly making progress and, after some very clever strategy, appearing in third at the final restart. Wickens in front was still struggling for pace, despite being back on the Reds, so Dixon was in prime position to take advantage, passing the Schmidt Peterson driver for second at nearly the first opportunity. This weekend could’ve been dire for Dixon but, with that recovery, he now sits in fourth in the championship.

Bourdais was another one to stay out of too much drama in the race with his only incident coming as a result of a more than optimistic lunge from Newgarden. After initially passing Wickens, the positions were soon reversed on the restart with Bourdais then dropping back to the cars behind. Bourdais struggled on the Blacks in the second stint meaning that a frustrated and faster Newgarden was closing in on him. After waiting for all of a lap after catching Bourdais, Newgarden went for a gap that was never really there on the inside of Bourdais. The #1 Penske driver subsequently clipped the kerb and spun, narrowly missing Bourdais but wrecking his own race. It was an uncharacteristic moment from Newgarden that’s cut his championship lead down to just two points over Rossi.

Some of the biggest news coming into the weekend was the return of the very successful and much-loved Penske driver of Helio Castroneves. Despite being a catalyst of sorts in the Pagenaud/King incident, Castroneves ran an otherwise clean and confidence boosting race. While it was not the win or podium that he’d potentially dreamt of, a solid sixth place finish in one of the most competitive fields in motorsport is nothing to be ashamed of. This race, however, was never the focus for Castroneves who is targeting a fourth Indy 500 win in a few weekends time.

The most unfortunate driver of the race was, once again, Pagenaud who was caught up in an incident which, through no fault of his own, compromised the rest of his race, eventually coming home in eight. Pagenaud was running alongside Castroneves going into Turn 1 and was moved aside by his returnee teammate. This put Pagenaud into the path of King who was then going too fast to avoid hitting the back of Pagenaud’s Penske, putting King in the gravel and dropping Pagenaud down to the back of the field. It was deemed as a racing incident so no penalties were dished out but the other incident on the first lap, between Spencer Pigot and Takuma Sato, did warrant a penalty. Pigot was running alongside Sato when the former got onto the kerb, taking flight and then T-boning the side of Sato. Pigot took the blame for the collision and was handed a drive-thru penalty which dropped him way down the order.

Next up for IndyCar is the Indy 500 for which practice commences on the 15^th May before qualifying starts on the 20^th. The race itself isn’t until the 27^th so there’s a lot of build-up to go until then!

Full Race Results

1. Will Power
2. Scott Dixon
3. Robert Wickens (R)
4. Sebastien Bourdais
5. Alexander Rossi
6. Helio Castroneves
7. James Hinchcliffe
8. Simon Pagenaud
9. Graham Rahal
10. Takuma Sato
11. Josef Newgarden
12. Zachary Claman De Melo (R)
13. Marco Andretti
14. Tony Kanaan
15. Spencer Pigot
16. Max Chilton
17. Gabby Chaves
18. Ryan Hunter-Reay
19. Kyle Kaiser (R)
20. Charlie Kimball
21. Matheus Leist (R)
22. Ed Jones
23. Zach Veach (R)
24. Jordan King (R)

Images are courtesy of http://media.gm.com

IndyCar is back from its quick breather, meaning the Month of May can start in earnest. We’ve already had the Rookies and Refreshers test along with the first open test, both in preparation for the Indy 500 but before that gets underway, IndyCar go racing at the road course for the Indy GP.

IndyCar were at Barber Motorsports Park last time out with the rain-hit and eventually rescheduled race being won by the championship leader, Josef Newgarden. Newgarden started from pole, in both attempts at the race, and led the vast majority of the laps to take his second win of his title defence. Ryan Hunter-Reay followed the #1 Penske of Newgarden home to be lead Andretti for the first time this season. In fact, that was the first time that Alexander Rossi wasn’t the first Andretti home, with the American finishing down in eleventh. Elsewhere, the Schmidt Peterson duo of James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens finished third and fourth respectively, showing that both have championship potential.

While it was a Chevrolet winner, Honda were, once more, the stronger of the two with Honda locking out positions two through to eight. That performance, and those of the previous three races, has left Honda with a 67-point lead over Chevrolet in the Manufactures Standings.

Last year, the Indy GP was won by the so-far unbelievably unlucky Will Power who was one of only two leaders of the race, Helio Castroneves being the other. Scott Dixon followed Power home in second from Hunter-Reay and the other thus-far unfortunate Penske of Simon Pagenaud. It was a fairly clean and, for IndyCar’s standards, uneventful race last year with the only two retirements coming from mechanical issues for Sebastien Bourdais and Charlie Kimball.

This track has always been a Penske stronghold with the only non-Penske win coming back at the track’s inaugural race in 2014 where Pagenaud, then with Schmidt Peterson, won. That 2014 win is still Honda’s only triumph at the Indy road course to date, a record they’ll be hoping to set straight this weekend.

As with the previous two races, IndyCar is on another street course so usual qualifying procedure applies with the two groups going into the fastest twelve and then the Firestone Fast Six.

There have been quite a number of driver changes since Barber, some scheduled, some not. Pietro Fittipaldi was down to take the wheel of the #19 Dale Coyne however, after his monster, leg-breaking crash at Raidillon during qualifying for the 6 Hours of Spa, he, quite clearly won’t be racing. Dale Coyne have announced that Zachary Claman De Melo will be in the #19 in his place but they are still looking for a replacement for the Indy 500 and Texas. Kyle Kaiser is taking over the solo Juncos from Rene Binder as planned while Castroneves will make his much-awaited return to IndyCar with Penske, fielding his #3 car once more.

As always, predicting anything for the weekend is rather difficult! Given their form at this track so far, you’d expect Penske to be strong but, after the starts both Power and Pagenaud have had, the safe money would have to be on Newgarden. Equally, you can’t count out any of the Andrettis, nor the Chip Ganassis or the Schmidt Petersons so really, it’s anyone’s guess!

Practice and Qualifying will be streamed on IndyCar’s channels as usual and the race can be found on the BT Sport/ESPN channel. The whole Mazda Road to Indy lot will also be there with all of Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and USF2000 sessions available to stream in the same place as IndyCar.

The IndyCar timings, in BST, for the weekend are as follows:

Friday

Practice 1 – 2:15pm
Practice 2 – 5:30pm
Qualifying – 9:30pm

Saturday

Final Warmup – 4:15pm
Race – 8:40pm

Featured image courtesy of hondanews.eu