Category: Featured Other Series

Chip Ganassi Racing announced on Tuesday, June 9 that Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Chevrolet will feature Jurassic World this weekend for the Honda Indy Toronto.

Dixon has won in Toronto previously, most recently in 2013, and won the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend.

“The Toronto race weekend is always great because of the local fan interest and the excitement of the city,” Dixon said. “Carrying the ‘Jurassic World’ paint scheme just adds to it. It’s a classic movie series with a massive following and the timing for running this livery in step with the movie release couldn’t be better.”

The latest installment in Steven Spielberg’s series, Jurassic World, opens in theaters across North America on June 12. The film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Vincent D’Onofrio.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced on Monday, June 8 that Rousseau Metal will be the primary sponsor for Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Verizon IndyCar Series entry in this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto on June 14.

“I have had a relationship with Rousseau for many years, first in the service and parts areas of our dealership group and then with the race teams,” Bobby Rahal said.  “I’m very happy that Rousseau will be the primary sponsor of our Indy car in Toronto and we look forward to bringing them a good result. It’s exciting to see our relationship grow to this new level.”

Rousseau Metal, a Quebec-based company, is a leader in storage solutions and has been a partner with RLL since 2009. This marks the first time during their partnership that the company has been the primary sponsor.

“With Rousseau celebrating its 65^th anniversary, becoming Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s primary sponsor for the Honda Indy Toronto was perfect timing,” Charles-Alexandre Pare, Rousseau Metal, said. “We are so excited and proud to continue our partnership with such a class act organization.”

Rahal has been solid on the street course thus far this year, finishing on the podium in three of the past four races. He enters the race this weekend sitting fifth in the standings.

2015 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya would top the charts in the final practice session for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Montoya will start the event from the fifth spot as he enters this weekend as the series points lead at the halfway mark of the season.

“I think we are pretty good,” he commented post-qualifying. “The balance is not there yet. We need some work to do to be a little quicker, but it is what it is.  The aero kits drive a little different. We are just trying to figure out what we need to do and where we need to run.  We have options to run a lot more downforce if we want to. It is a big penalty so you have to figure out what is the best compromise.”

Graham Rahal, coming off a pair of top-five finishes in Detroit, was second quickest as Honda appears to be closing the gap on Chevrolet. Chevrolet has dominated early this year, but Honda was able to place three cars in the top-five during final practice. Rahal is hoping to keep the positive momentum going after qualifying sixth for Saturday night’s race. Rookie Gabby Chaves was third quickest in final practice, followed by Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay appears to have his weekend heading down a positive road after making contact with the SAFER barrier in the first practice.

Simon Pagenaud, who led the first practice, was sixth quickest, followed by Helio Castroneves, Carlos Munoz, Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais. Firestone 600 pole sitter Will Power was 11th quickest.

For the third consecutive race at Texas Motor Speedway, Will Power will lead the field to the green flag as he won the pole for the Firestone 600 with a speed of 218.519 mph. It marks Power’s fourth pole of the season as he looks to bounce back following a wreck at Detroit.

“I drew number one obviously this morning in the drivers meeting. I was a little worried about the conditions, he stated. “It kind of stayed consistent over the whole run of qualifying. I was really happy to get pole honestly. I felt if I could be in the top five, I’d be happy. Starting first, really happy about that.  The race, it’s going to be interesting. You got all this stuff you can put on to add downforce if you want. But it’s quite draggy, so you lose a bit of speed. It’s going to be about finding the right compromise for speed loss versus grip. I guess we’ll try some things tonight and see how it all stacks up.

“I think you’ll see a few different variations of what people bolt on as far as body kits go for the race. I’ve always liked this place a lot. It’s fun to drive. It’s not just stuck. The car moves around. It’s hard. I feel like it’s a real driver’s oval. I enjoy that. My wife’s from here, so I got the whole family out here. I got the pressure to always do well. Otherwise, won’t be invited to dinner.”

The Penske Racing dominance continued on Friday evening as Roger Penske will see all of his four drivers start the event in the top-five. Simon Pagenaud, who led the Friday morning practice, was second quickest.

“The car is really nice actually,” he commented. “It’s a nice carry over from Indy. Just missed it by a little bit, right? I tried to push it as hard as I could.  Yeah, we dropped a bit on the second lap, but hat off to the Team Penske boys. They’re giving us fantastic cars. It makes our lives super easy as a driver.Tonight is going to be a great session, practice in the cool condition. It’s going to be interesting to see how the cars behave in race trim. But this morning was surprisingly pretty good for us on the No. 22 car.”

Helio Castroneves, who visited victory lane at Texas last year, will start third ahead of Duel in Detroit Race 1 winner Carlos Munoz and current points leader Juan Pablo Montoya.

“We took all the downforce out of the car and see where it runs,” Montoya stated. “I think we are pretty good. The balance is not there yet. We need some work to do to be a little quicker, but it is what it is.  The aero kits drive a little different. We are just trying to figure out what we need to do and where we need to run.  We have options to run a lot more downforce if we want to. It is a big penalty so you have to figure out what is the best compromise.”

Coming off a podium finish at Detroit, Graham Rahal will start sixth followed by Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball and Sage Karam.

1. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 218.519
2. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 218.441
3. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 218.069
4. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 217.831
5. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 217.530
6. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 217.438
7. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 217.411
8. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 217.337
9. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 217.323
10. (8) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 216.920
11. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 216.876
12. (7) James Jakes, Honda, 216.864
13. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 216.686
14. (67) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 216.210
15. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 216.197
16. (19) Tristan Vautier, Honda, 215.929
17. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 215.621
18. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 215.303
19. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Honda, 215.162
20. (98) Gabby Chaves, Honda, 215.146
21. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 215.026
22. (18) Pippa Mann, Honda, 214.654
23. (4) Stefano Coletti, Chevrolet, 211.930

At the end of practice for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, Team Penske displayed that they still had the speed that led them to a 1-2 finish in the Indianapolis 500. Simon Pagenaud, the newest driver in Roger Penske’s quartet, topped the charts with a lap of 24.2307 seconds.

“It’s very stable, very good and traffic and very good on its own,” Pagenaud said. “We need to work tonight in practice, when it will be cooler like the race, we’ll try to make it even better. But this is a good start.”

Defending Series Champion Will Power was second quickest, 0.0052 seconds off of his teammate as he looks to bounce back following a wreck in Detroit. Takuma Sato carried the positive Detroit momentum over to post the third quickest time, showing that Honda has indeed started to close the gap between the pair of manufactures. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon rounded out the top-five.

Helio Castroneves was sixth, followed by Graham Rahal, Tristan Vautier, Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz. Current points leader Juan Pablo Montoya was 16th.

Ryan Hunter-Reay would make contact with the SAFER barrier during the session about halfway through the session.

“Just got up in the dirty air and the car just turned around, but not sure why,” he said.

After a wet-weekend in Detroit, the Verizon IndyCar Series is set to tackle the high-banks of Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. With safety concerns at a high due to three flips during Indianapolis 500 practice last month, INDYCAR has made some key changes to the aero kits entering this weekend. Hopefully that will keep all the cars on the ground and allow for a thrilling race for the fans on Saturday night.

Ed Carpenter leads the way into the weekend as he scored the victory last year after leading 90 of the 148 laps. Another run of that nature would be welcome as he has only made one start thus far this season – Indianapolis – where he finished 30th following a crash during the race.

“I am really looking forward to getting back to Texas after winning there last year,” he commented. “The team had a tough month of May, so I am ready to go out and build some momentum to finish the season strong.”

Though if he wants to win, he’s going to have to fend off Team Penske and they enter this weekend with a lot of confidence based on their speed and 1-2 finish at the Indianapolis 500. Juan Pablo Montoya won the Indianapolis 500 after having to restart from the back of the filed early in the event due to rear-wing damage. Currently leading the points by 21, he is looking for a strong run this weekend after finishing 10th in the second Detroit race due to running out of fuel. He knows how to do well at Texas, having posted a third place finish last season.

“I am as confident as I have ever been heading into Texas this weekend,” he said. “I told someone the other day that I really feel like we should win the race. The No. 2 Verizon Chevy team is hitting its stride at the moment. We have speed in the car every weekend. If we can just minimize our mistakes and execute properly I don’t think there is anything we can’t accomplish.

“There are two goals every year for Team Penske in the Verizon IndyCar Series. One is to win the Indianapolis 500, which we were fortunate enough to do. The second is to keep the Verizon IndyCar Series championship within the team. We are halfway through the season with a lot of racing left to go, but I like our chances to do both for Roger (Penske) and everyone that works so hard in this organization.”

Montoya’s teammates won’t be far behind him this weekend, especially Helio Castroneves and Will Power. They’re both looking to bounce back this weekend after being involved in an accident together in the second Detroit duel. Castroneves has visited victory lane four times at Texas Motor Speedway, most recently in 2013. He also badly needs to start running well if he wants to close the 65 point gap that sits between him and Montoya.

“If you look around the track at Texas Motor Speedway you notice there are streets that are named after several drivers,” Castroneves commented. “There isn’t one named after me, though. I told Eddie Gossage (track president) last year that I want to have my own street at Texas. I mean, I am the only four-time Verizon IndyCar Series winner at the track. He assured me that if I make it five wins there will be a ‘Helio Castroneves Boulevard.’ at Texas Motor Speedway. I love racing at Texas. It’s just super fast. You don’t get the sensation of speed anywhere like you do there. I’m confident we can get the AAA Chevrolet into Victory Lane and, hopefully, gain a lot of points this weekend.”

Meanwhile, Power has a win, three top-fives and five top-10s in seven starts for an average finish of 6.9. He also has momentum, as far as oval competition, with the second at Indianapolis.

“I love racing at Texas, and after how strong our Verizon Chevy was at Indianapolis last month, I’m even more confident going there this weekend,” he stated. “I know we can win at Texas because this team has done it before with my first Verizon IndyCar Series oval win there in 2011. We obviously left some points on the table in Detroit after getting caught up in the accident late in the second race. I know my teammates will be quick so we need to make sure we match their pace early and have a shot at the end. The great thing about the Verizon IndyCar Series is that you have to be a master of many different disciplines, including ovals, if you want to be a champion. We have made great strides in that area, but it’s something I’m constantly working on to stay at the top of my game.”

Chevrolet has proven to have their aero kit right now stronger than the Honda aero kit, as evident by how strong they performed at Indianapolis. Sebastien Bourdais, who drives a Chevrolet. enters this weekend full of confidence after winning the second Detroit Duel. Texas hasn’t treated him well in the past, though, as he has finished 20th in both of his previous starts.

“I am not a believer in momentum, but obviously we are coming off a fantastic win in Detroit, so we’re looking forward to a good race on the oval at Texas Motor Speedway,” he stated. “It has been kind of a trying effort for me there the last couple of years after a great IROC race in 2005. I think the Hydroxycut KVSH team is heading in the right direction on ovals. We have made some progress and are understanding the car better. Hopefully all the hard work will pay off and we can shoot some guns in victory circle.”

Despite looking to be at the disadvantage right now on the aero kit side, Honda has a slew of strong drivers that could produce a surprise victory this weekend. Ryan Briscoe, filling in for the injured James Hinchcliffe with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, has the second best average finish of active drivers with a 4.9. In eight starts, he has a win and five podium finishes. He was solid in his only start thus far this season, finishing 12th in the Indianapolis 500.

INDYCAR announced on Wednesday, June 3 that Helio Castroneves’ penalty that was assessed following the Augie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis has been reduced following the appeal process.

Castroneves was penalized eight points for violating Rule 9.3.3 (Avoidable Contact). That penalty has been since reduced to three points.

“INDYCAR established its penalty review process for instances like these and we feel the process was a success,” Derrick Walker, INDYCAR President of Competition and Operations, said. “Following our review we have reduced the point penalty to Helio Castroneves from eight to a total of three points, which is in line with a similar penalty issued earlier this season.”

Additionally, INDYCAR announced six penalties following the Chevrolet Duel in Detroit.

Stefan Coletti of KV Racing Technology was fined $10,000 and placed on probation for three events for violating Rule 7.1.3.3 Full Course Yellow Condition (reduce speed/yield to safety vehicles and personnel) during Race 2.

Sage Karam of Chip Ganassi Racing for placed on probation for five races for violating Rule 9.3.3 (Avoidable Contact) during Race 2.

A crew member for Chip Ganassi Racing was fined $1,000, while a crew member for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports was fined $500. They both violated Rule 1.2.7.2 Personal Safety Equipment (fueler visor up) in Race 1.

A crew member for Team Penske was fined $500 for violating Rule 1.2.7.2 Personal Safety Equipment (deadman no headsock) in Race 2.

Lastly, “INDYCAR officials announced that Honda has received a deduction of 20 manufacturers championship points for an engine that did not attain its life cycle at the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit. According to Rule 10.6.4.3, 20 points will be deducted for an engine that fails to reach its 2,500-mile life cycle. The engine in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport entry did not reach its life cycle minimum before being changed out. Following the deduction, Chevrolet has 777 manufacturer championship points and Honda has 758.”

On Tuesday, June 2, INDYCAR announced they have implemented the usage of closure panels to the rear wheel guards for both Honda and Chevrolet’s superspeedway aero kits beginning this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

“This has been a collaborative effort with both manufacturers and they have been working on these since the Indianapolis 500 qualifications,” Will Phillips, INDYCAR vice president of technology, said. “These closure panels serve as a blocker so air cannot flow through the rear wheel guards. This will ultimately raise the point at which cars would experience lift when traveling backward.”

The panels developed by the respective manufactures will be utilized for the rest of the superspeedway oval events on the schedule, which includes Auto Club Speedway and Pocono Raceway.

During practice and qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, three drivers flipped – Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter. None of the drivers were injured in the accidents.

INDYCAR also confirmed that the rear wing main plane angle for both Honda and Chevrolet must be between (-6) and (-10.5) degrees, which will still result in an increase in overall downforce compared to the 2014 event on the 1.455-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway oval.