Category: Featured Other Series

On Sunday in the Honda Indy Toronto, Helio Castroneves would bounce back from early problems during the event to score a podium finish, finishing third behind CFH Racing teammates.

“We keep pushing ourselves, keep taking chances, and the good news is, we finish in the Top‑3 today, because we had many chances, many opportunities to not be here and, again, it happened,” he commented. “So good effort for the entire organization.  ”

The Penske Racing driver ran into problems during the early part of the race while trying to make a pass on Takuma Sato for position.

“I was trying to pass one and then ended up going straight,” he stated. “I was trying to pass Sato, and I almost spun out.”

Though when Roger Penske made the right pit call, it put Castroneves in the lead and he was able to capitalize with great lap times. A late race yellow took away the lead, but another chance through strategy got the Brazilian back up front before the end of the race.

In the end, it wasn’t enough to catch CFH Racing for the win. Castroneves, driving for Team Penske, is considered to be part of one of the big three organizations in the series as typically, Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport.

Though slowly, CFH Racing is joining them in company with their second win of the season. Castroenves says that it’s a direct result of the hard work by CFH Racing so far this season.

“They put themselves in the right place at the right time,” he commented. “People say maybe it’s lucky, but it’s better to be lucky than good.  I wish I would be lucky than good, I mean didn’t get a win yet this year.  It just proves that the series is competitive, among Penske, the Ganassi, the Andretti, they are making a great statement, and putting themselves out there, and showing in the Verizon IndyCar Series if you work hard it pay off.”

Last year, Josef Newgarden had his breakout season, turning himself in a race-winning contender with race runs near the front of the field. However, throughout the season, he continued to come up close in snagging that victory. This year, though, he’s on a roll as he picked up his second win of the year on Sunday in the Honda Indy Toronto.

Though not only was a win for Newgarden on Sunday, but his CFH Racing teammate Luca Filippi finished the event in the second spot. Newgarden says that’s  a direct result of combining the resources of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing over the off-season.

“I think they were strong divided; they’re stronger together, and now that we have a couple of results, I don’t think we can let off the gas, so we still got to be on top of our game,” he commented. “We weren’t really positioned where we wanted to be at the start of this race, and then getting in position sorta midway through there is what I think helped us achieve the victory, and Luca set a pace, and we got to keep working because there is a lot of good teams, and it’s difficult to do this on a regular basis, so I don’t think this is necessarily going to mean we can get more and more wins throughout the year.  We just gotta keep working to do that.”

The organization put together the right combination of strategy and speed, having a yellow flag fall right where they needed it for the startegy to come together as needed. Some may say that for Newgarden, it was better for him to be lucky than good to win, as evident by the flag falling where it did. However, he says he’d rather be good than lucky, as being good allowed him to capitalize on the opportunity and win the race.

“I’m not going to deny that that yellow for sure helped us win this race,” he added. “It got us in position to be able to win the race, without a doubt.  I don’t think we’ve ever had that before, so, you know, if we got a little bit of luck to win today.  Sometimes you need it, and I’ve seen many people get it before.  Once we got into the position to win the race you could see that we had cars to do, and that was the biggest factor for me.  We weren’t in position on at the start of the race to try and really capitalize and win one, but we got there with a little bit of luck, and we still did the work we had to do to win the race so I was route of our whole team.”

The victory brings a bonus bit of satisfaction for Newgarden and CFH Racing, though, as the month of May was a struggle for the organization. As a result of Newgarden and Ed Carpenter flipping at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, they lost two cars. Combined with only one top-10 finish in the previous five events entering Toronto, it feels good for Newgarden to get some redemption.

“We lost two cars, which was a big deal, kinda put us on a back foot for the 500.  We still got a couple of Top‑10s, which was really good for us points wise, and we still finished okay, but just not the month we wanted to have,” he commented. “Obviously May is the biggest month for IndyCar, and it was arguably our worst month so far, and that was tough for us.  And we weren’t able to rebound in Detroit and definitely weren’t able to redound in Texas, so now it was cool that we were able to get back on a rhythm, and hopefully we can continue to do that instead of falling into a slump again last time after winning.”

While some may have thought he’d only one-win wonder, the second win gives some solidification. However, is it enough quite yet? Newgarden says they have more work to do moving forward.

“It is nice.  I’m lucky enough to be driving a IndyCar, and to get two wins is really fortunate,” he said. “There’s not a lot of people that have won two IndyCar races, but I think if you really measure it, as a driver you don’t want to win a couple of races, you want to win a lot of races, and hopefully more often than six or eight race periods.

“You want to win consecutive races, hopefully.  I don’t know if we’re quite there yet, but I would like to get there.  That’s what you strive to do as a driver.  It’s nice to have two, but I don’t think it means anything.  It doesn’t mean you’re safe in a sport; I think you can always get kicked out.  You never know if you’re going to be here next year; you always got to prove yourself, and that case still stands, in my opinion.”

Newgarden added that whether than rest on the success, they need to go back to the shop and keep working as they’re not magically going to get better. He used Texas Motor Speedway as a spot that they need to improve on, with their oval program, after struggling there or else they’ll go to Fontana and have the same type of run.

“So we’ve got a lot of work to do, but I have faith in our guys,” he continued. “We got a lot of smart guys, we have a lot of talented people.  We can make it happen, we just got to make sure that we’re not fooling ourselves that we’re this “super team” because we’re not.  We gotta keep working just like the rest of the guys out there.”

When Josef Newgarden scored his first career victory of the season earlier this season, the thought was it would open the flood gates for more victories this season as Newgarden scored the second victory of his career in the Honda Indy Toronto.

Newgarden used a combination of pit strategy and a fast car to seize the victory after staying out when the caution flew for debris in turn eight at lap 41.

“It got a little close there with Luca (Filippi), but we were really just trying to keep up after we got into the final stint,” he commented. “I got a little bit of lapped traffic, but I couldn’t do anything with the lapped traffic, but they wanted me to because of everyone that was coming. It’s close racing and, for sure, I got a little lucky, too, on that yellow.

“But you can’t discount that because it was an amazing effort by this crew at CFH Racing. They gave me amazing pit stops and a car to win. I’m definitely excited because this is Toronto and this is an INDYCAR event.”

While it was a special win for Newgarden, it marked an even bigger day for CFH Racing as Newgarden’s teammate Luca Filippi finished second to give the team a one-two finish. It marks the organization’s first one-two after uniting the former Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing following the 2014 season.

“I’m so happy we were able to get a win, but a 1-2 is just amazing because Luca (Filippi) is such a star,” he commented. “I’m super happy for the whole group. Just an amazing team effort – I can’t believe we had a 1-2.”

For Filippi, it marks his career best-finish in the Verizon IndyCar Series and the first race that he has led laps in for his career.

“We had a goal to be on the podium and we both achieved it with both cars,” he commented. “It’s nice when you set the goal and you achieve it and the team did everything perfectly to give us the opportunity to be up front. But we had a fast car and knew we needed to be kind of in the clean air up in front and this is what we did – just kept pushing. We were faster and we ended up in front.

“I’m very happy. The team did a great job. I thank the Fuzzy’s Vodka team because they believe in me and they gave me the opportunity to race INDYCAR properly and my first podium. Many more to come.”

Helio Castroneves rounded out the podium after bouncing back following problems early in the event. It marks the second straight Toronto podium finish for the Brazilian.

“After all the circumstances today – what a great job from the Hitachi boys,” he said. “Roger (Penske) made a great call. I had no idea how they put me up there, but we were running really strong laps. The car was on rails. It’s a shame, certainly, it was crazy. I was pushing like I stole it. But in the end, it was great.”

Will Power finished fourth after dominating the early stages of the event, closing the gap between himself and Juan Pablo Montoya in the points to being 25 points behind. Defending race winner Sebastien Bourdais finished fifth.

Tony Kanaan was sixth, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato.

After entering the weekend with high hopes, Stefano Coletti finished 23rd after making contact with the wall in turn five on lap 40. The Andretti Autosport teammates of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Carlos Munoz also had poor showings, finishing 19th and 22nd after mechanical issues.

The next Verizon IndyCar Series event is the MAVTV 500 on June 27 at Auto Club Speedway. The event can be watched via NBCSN, with the telecast beginning at 4 p.m. EST.

While Luca Filippi has headed to many tracks that he is not used to, Toronto isn’t one of those street circuits as he ran the Honda Indy Toronto previously.

“Instead of having to learn everything from the beginning, I know what to expect from the car, what to expect from the circuit, and go from there,” he stated.

The familiarity has brought success for Filippi, as he was near the top of the speed charts on Friday and will start Sunday’s event from the sixth position.

Even on the familiar circuit, though, there are spots that have thrown Filippi for a curve, namely the concrete patches that at in the center of each corner on a track consisting of asphalt.

“That makes it very tricky from the driving point of view because actually you’re breaking in kind of a surface, when you turn it’s another surface again, then you get to the concrete patch in the apex, so you lose grip,” he explained. “You expect to gain more grip at the end of the exit when you don’t have the patch anymore. It’s tricky.”

Filippi added that as a result, it makes it tough on the team setting up the car as you have to balance being good on the concrete, and being good on the asphalt.

“There are also a couple of corners where you just have some asphalt, which makes it a little bit more predictable and consistent,” he continued. “Makes it difficult for us driving and for the engineers to make a perfect set-up.”

While Chevrolet has dominated the street courses, Honda has found themselves capitalizing under rainy conditions during the season. It could be the same story this weekend as three Hondas topped the Sunday warm-up chart for the Honda Indy Toronto.

Carlos Munoz would top the chart with a lap of one minute and 0.2119 seconds as he will make his fourth career Toronto start from the 13^th starting spot later today. He enters this weekend with a bit of momentum after finishing sixth last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

Graham Rahal, who has posted three podium finishes this year, was second quickest, 0.064 seconds off of Munoz. He is looking to bounce back this weekend after struggling in Texas due to not applying enough downforce to the car.

Conor Daly was third quickest as he is subbing for James Hinchcliffe for the third time this season, after running both race in Detroit. He had a solid run in the second of the two events, finishing sixth. This weekend’s event, though, marks his first Toronto start.

Tony Kanaan was fourth quickest as he was the quickest Chevrolet in the session, after finishing second at Texas. 2013 Honda Indy Toronto winner Scott Dixon rounded out the top-five.

Charlie Kimball was sixth quickest, followed by Simon Pagenaud, Stefan Colleti, James Jakes and Josef Newgarden. Pole sitter Will Power was 16^th, while his teammate and points leader Juan Pablo Montoya was 14^th.

On the streets of Toronto, a young Canadian star is emerging.

15-year-old Russell Boyle made his debut in the SPEED Energy Formula Off-Road Presented by Traxxas Series on Saturday afternoon at the Honda Indy Toronto. The event didn’t go as hoped, though, with Boyle crossing the finish line in the ninth spot.

Following practice on Friday, Boyle stated that it’s been a “big jump” for him as he has only raced go-karts throughout his career to date. He started racing go-karts at a young age, after his father took him the track. His father has a racing background, having crew chiefed in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.

Boyle spent the Friday practice making as many laps as possible, focusing on learning the track. The practice wasn’t made easy on the young star, though, as rain fell throughout the half-hour session.

“The first laps were kind of tricky,” he admitted. “I started to get the hang of it as I was set to pull in. It’s a bit of tricky in the rain, and learning the track, too.”

Boyle is hoping to continue building his career, eventually moving up to the Verizon IndyCar Series in the coming years.

On Saturday in the first of two events for the Stadium Super Trucks this weekend at the Honda Indy Toronto, it’d be Scotty Steele picking up his first career victory at the end of the event.

Steele entered the weekend confident, based on a pair of podiums last year in Toronto and a solid practice session on Friday.

Last year’s winner Sheldon Creed finished second, followed by Robby Gordon, Keegan Kincaid, Charles Dorrance, Matt Brabham, Bill Hynes, EJ Viso and Russell Boyle.

Steele will look to sweep the weekend in today’s event, which will probably take place in the rain based on the forecast. That doesn’t faze the youngster, though, as he says that he loves racing in the rain. In comparing dry to wet, he says it’s very different and the biggest spot that you have to be careful is on concrete versus asphalt.

“When you’re on the concrete, wherever your truck was pointed before the concrete, that’s where it’s going to be after the concrete,” he commented on Friday. “You really have to get your car pointed straight before you get to the concrete to really allow it to go somewhere.”

The Toronto circuit does have plenty of those patches as more corners have a concrete patch in the center, despite the track being made up of asphalt mainly. In comparing the 11-turns, Steele says the spot to watch is going into turn three.

“It’s such a big staightaway and you’re going so fast, you don’t have a lot of space to slow down,” he commented. “It makes it that much harder because these cars don’t like to stop themselves, already.”

In an afternoon practice session that saw rain throughout, it’d be E.J. Viso topping the charts behind the wheel of the No. 5 LIVE/Think Loud Entertainment truck. The Venezuela driver is looking to score his fourth victory of the 2015 season.

Sheldon Creed, who won both Toronto events last season, was second quickest, followed by fellow younggun Scott Steele. Creed and Steele, along with Robby Gordon, made up the podium in both events last year. Keegan Kincaid and Charles Dorrance rounded out the top-five.

Matthew Brabham was sixth quickest, followed by 15-year-old Canadian Russell Boyle, Bill Hynes and Gordon. Gordon missed the majority of the session, making a couple laps near the end.

The Stadium Super Trucks will run their first race on the streets of Toronto at 4 p.m. EST on Saturday, June 13. While rain was the key today, the current forecast calls for sun on Saturday and Sunday.