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Tag: IZOD IndyCar Series

  • IndyCar: Chevrolet Teams Change Engines For Long Beach, Incur Penalty

    IndyCar: Chevrolet Teams Change Engines For Long Beach, Incur Penalty

    [media-credit name=”INDYCAR/LAT USA” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Following the tear down and inspection of an engine, the majority of the Chevrolet team changed their motors on April 12th.

    “We are still learning the limitations of the new engine controls calibration,” Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing’s IZOD IndyCar Series program manager, says. “Through our testing in Sonoma, as indicated by an engine issue, we uncovered a problem that we believe could affect all engines. So, as a result, we feel it is prudent to change all engines prior to the start of the on-track activities this weekend.”

    As a result, the following drivers are effected by the decision:  Penske Racing’s three-some (Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Ryan Briscoe), Andretti Autosports’ three-some (Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Marco Andretti), KV Racing Technology’s threesome (Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan and E.J. Viso), Ed Carpenter, and Panther’s Racing JR Hildebrand.

    As per the IndyCar rulebook, each driver will be given a 10-grid position penalty prior to the start of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The event is set to take on April 15th on the 1.986-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit.

    “We intently discussed the situation with our partners and our teams prior to determining that this was the best course of action to preserve the integrity of the racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series,” Berube continues.

    The engine inspected was that of Hinchcliffe’s No. 27 GoDaddy.com car of Andretti Autosport after it had an issue during a test on April 9th at Infineon Raceway.

    “I was already penalized the 10 spots before the decision to change out all Chevy engines,” Hinchcliffe says. “It’s a bummer, but now at least I’m not alone. There will now be some good racing happening mid-pack. The engine mileage rule is a tremendous engineering challenge and ultimately helps improve technology for the automotive industry.”

    Teams are allowed to change engines if they have reached a minimum of 1,850 miles. However, if they choose to change them before, they are subject to penalty on rules 15.3.1 and 15.6.1.1.

    Hinchcliffe says he’s proud to wear the bowtie (Chevrolet’s logo).

    “It would be easy to complain about how harsh (the penalty) is, but I think the attitude of everyone on the Go Daddy crew is that when the going gets tough, it’s time to nut up, buckle down and push hard for the best result possible,” he adds.

    Team owner and driver Carpenter says it’s going to make things interesting heading into this weekend.

    “It’s obviously not ideal, but we’re all playing by the same rules,” he says. “It’s the safest choice and, even though we’re starting at a disadvantage from the get-go, it’s better than potentially having an issue later on. It’s a learning process for all of us, and it’s not a decision they made lightly.”

    Despite the issues, Chevrolet has had success this year as they have recorded two wins and two poles in the first two races with Castroneves and Power scoring one each. Castroneves leads the points, two points over Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who is running a Honda powerplant.

    Along with the issues for Chevrolet, the No. 7 Lotus Dragon Racing car driven by Sebastien Bourdais will also suffer the same penalty due to engine change.

  • IZOD IndyCar Series Tests New Chassis at Indianapolis

    IZOD IndyCar Series Tests New Chassis at Indianapolis

    On April 4, nine IZOD IndyCar Series drivers took to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to test the new chassis and perfect it for the Indianapolis 500 in May.

    Topping the charts was Andretti Autosport driver Marco Andretti with a time of 41.1664 seconds.

    “On our own, it’s pretty similar (to the old car),” Andretti says. “But I think in traffic right now, their creating a lot turbulence and you lose a lot of grip so we’re trying to make that better.”

    Kanaan would end up second on the charts, 0.04 seconds behind Andretti. Kanaan had tested the previous version of the new car last year at Indianapolis and Auto Club Speedway, however says this test was much better.

    “It was more balanced than it was last year,” Kanaan says. “We worked on it, we talked about it. Some people criticized (the car) at the end of last year, but it’s a new car and we have to figure it out. Dallara did a great job, along with (IndyCar vice president of technology) Will Phillips and the people at IndyCar. It’s going in the right direction.”

    Kanaan added that he went out of the pits flat right away, saying the aero kits are much better.

    Teams can change the aero kits, but must utilize the new rear-wheel guards. These are both safety and they promote more downforce while creating less drag.

    Beyond that, they could experiment with the rear-wing mainplane angle, underwing stakes and sidewall extentions and the wickers on the front- and rear-wing mainplanes.

    “The configuration we have now is the one we intend to come back with in May,” Phillips says. “We need to look at what comes out of today and see if anything further needs to be changed. We’ll get some feedback from teams and drivers (regarding) what the car is like in traffic and what it’s like on their own.”

    Kanaan and Andretti joined fellow Chevrolet powered drivers Ed Carpenter, JR Hildebrand and Helio Castroneves. Driving cars powered by Honda were Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato, Mike Conway and Justin Wilson. The group recorded a total of 495 laps on the day.

    Helio Castroneves says the test was important for his team to continue to learn the car.

    “Like anything else you have to develop it, and right now that’s what we’re doing,” the three-time Indianapolis 500 champion says. “Every time we are at this place it’s extremely important because you find out what to do and what not to do.”

    The final package that has been put together by Dallara for teams to work with was tested in both scale model and full size testing in the wind tunnel in an effort with IndyCar and Dallara. They put the package together based on the testing done by Kanaan and Dario Franchitti.

    Now it’s about perfecting that package to be the team to come out on top in May.

    “Springs, ride heights … just trying to get the aero to the right attitude of these corners,” Wilson says. “It’s just a steep learning curve the first time out on the track. Once you’re behind the wheel, it feels similar to the old car through the corners.”

  • Marco Andretti: Bad Luck Bites Early, Looking Forward to Long Beach

    Marco Andretti: Bad Luck Bites Early, Looking Forward to Long Beach

    [media-credit name=”LAT Photo” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Looking at the box scores, you could say it hasn’t been the best start of a season for Marco Andretti as he finished 14th at St. Petersburg and 11th at Barber. However, it doesn’t indicate how strong he has actually been.

    “I think so far we’ve just had a bit of bad luck,” Andretti says. “We’ve been on the wrong side of that.”

    The last race at Barber Motorsports Park is a perfect example as the team played it conservatively in qualifying, not getting as much speed as they would’ve liked to out of the car, qualifying 13th. In the race, Andretti looked strong in the middle of the race, before contact with EJ Viso caused the front wing to break.

    With this year marking the first year with the new chassis, it is a learning experience for everybody, but the 25-year-old says he likes the new chassis so far.

    “The racecar, driving it itself, has been a lot of fun,” the Nazareth, Pa. native says. “So far, we’ve been quicker every road course and it’s got a lot of more downforce. As a driver, a lot more grip, you like that. You can carry more speed so on the road courses; we’ve been quicker everywhere we’ve gone so it’s been a lot of fun.”

    From road courses to ovals, it has been all about making sure the cars drive well for the drivers while producing solid racing. That diversity of types of tracks is something Andretti enjoys about the series.

    “The beauty of the IndyCar series is it is that diverse – small oval, big oval, road course, street course,” he says. “I like the diversity and I think the diversity is key.”

    In continuing to work on tweaking the cars, IndyCar Series drivers took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for some testing.

    “On our own, it’s pretty similar (to the old car),” Andretti says. “But I think in traffic right now, their creating a lot turbulence and you lose a lot of grip so we’re trying to make that better.”

    At the end of testing on April 4th, Andretti topped the chart of nine drivers that took the track. Being victorious in this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 is already on Andretti’s mind after previous success there.

    “That’s been my goal,” he says. “I’ve been on every step of the podium there, except the top one. So winning Indy would be great.”

    To go along with a win at Indy this year, Andretti added that he would like to stream together a couple of wins together.

    Beyond having a new chassis for this year, Andretti has a teammate as Andretti Autosport added James Hinchcliffe to their driver line-up for 2012. Andretti says so far working with Hinchcliffe has been fantastic.

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”149″][/media-credit]“A solid guy like him, you just hit the ground running,” he says. “As far as the camaraderie goes, it’s just made it better. The three of us (Andretti, Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay) have been on the same page with one goal in mind, and that’s winning.”

    Hoping to find his way to victory lane, Andretti heads to Long Beach, a track that has been very good to the Andretti family.

    “My thoughts are to just show up and hopefully be competitive off the truck,” he says. “I’d love to bring home there for the team, but also for the family as it would mean a lot to us. I think it’s where dad (Michael Andretti) had his first and last win, so they’ve been very successful there. So I’m looking to show up to win.”

    Success there has been definitely evident for the Andrettis through the years as Mario Andretti won there four times while Michael Andretti won there twice. Andretti Autosport also looks for their third win in a row as a team there as Ryan Hunter-Reay won in 2010 while Mike Conway won last year.

    Coming from a family with as much success in the series as the Andrettis, it is very easy for Marco to call both his father and grandfather his racing heroes.

    “They are both my heroes and they were both the ones to beat in their eras,” he says. “So it’s tough to pick between the two of them.”

  • IndyCar: Scott Dixon off to Solid Start in 2012

    IndyCar: Scott Dixon off to Solid Start in 2012

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]When it comes to developing the new car, Team Penske looks to have upperhand as they have won the first two races of the season.

    However, Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi isn’t downplaying his team’s effort as he feels they’re pretty strong too. After all, he has finished second in both races to start the season and sits second in points, two points behind Helio Castroneves.

    “Every race pays the same amount of points,” Dixon says. “My issue has been the start of the season, so we’ve tried to start strong. We’ve tried to be consistent, maybe not take as many risks as we should, but also emphasize qualifying in a good position and making the most of it.”

    Looking historically over the past four years, it is the best spot Dixon has sat since his 2008 IZOD IndyCar Series title run. In the opening races of the 2008 season, he won at Homestead-Miami, followed by a victory at Indianapolis.  That season saw Dixon score six victories and 14 top-five finishes in 17 races.

    Last year, he finished third and second in the opening races on his way to finishing third in points. In 2010, he finished sixth and 18th to open the season, which saw him finish third in points. Two years ago in 2009, he finished 16th and 15th in the opening races to finish second.

    “Points championships are so tough,” Dixon continues. “(We’re trying to) sort of taking out a page of Dario (Franchitti’s) notebook from the last few years and being consistent. He hasn’t won as many races as some others, but he’s always there on a bad day and a good day. We have to try to do the same thing.”

    Dixon feels he could’ve won at Barber Motorsports Park this past weekend, if not for some pit road issues.

    “I believe the middle stop and the last stop we had a bit of a fumble on one of the tires,” Dixon notes. “The middle one took a lot longer. Tires are done normally about the same time as fuel. You feel the fuel pull out and you’re still on the air jack.

    “On the out lap I would say Will gained two or three seconds just because he wasn’t in traffic. Then I think they were maybe a little bit quicker on their stop as well. Between that and trying to get out of the pits behind (E.J.) Viso, I’d say we lost three or four seconds in that, which gave Will the advantage.”

    Dixon says that made the difference in Team Penske driver Will Power winning as having the lead was a big advantage.

    “If you get out front, it’s very hard to stay close,” Dixon continues. “There’s so many high-speed corners. Eventually you burn the tires off. To have a dominant race and a car I think definitely if we were out front at the end would have led to the same thing and pulled away from Will. It’s frustrating when you’re in a scenario like that and you don’t collect on the win. I’d say the last two years that was probably kind of as good as we were going to get.”

    Dixon knows though that his team does need to step their game up a little bit if they want to catch Penske.

    “With our package, I don’t think we’re there yet,” he says. “But I think once we get a few things figured out on the car and the engine package, I think we’re going to be strong. If we can put points in the bag at the moment, try and gain on that later in the year, we should be in a good position.”

  • IndyCar: Will Power Victorious in Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

    IndyCar: Will Power Victorious in Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

    [media-credit name=”Team Chevy” align=”alignleft” width=”292″][/media-credit]On the final restart with 16 laps to go, Will Power held Scott Dixon off to win the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama for the second year in a row.

    This marks the 16th career IndyCar victory for Power and the first of the 2012 season.

    “That was an awesome race,” Power says. “(Team Engineer) Tim Cindric kept putting me in such a good position so we could use our speed. That last restart was kind of hairy. I knew Scott (Dixon) was going to be really quick and hounded me for a couple laps there. It’s good to get the Verizon 12 car in victory lane with a Chevy engine. It was awesome.”

    Power started the race in the ninth position, making a daring three-wide pass on lap one. He consistently worked his way through the field, getting the lead from Dixon following a round of pit stops.

    “(My crew was) on the money today,” he says. “Without these guys, there’s no way we could have won today.”

    Power’s win kept the Team Penske seal on Barber Motorsports Park going as Penske has won all three races there. They won the last two years with Power and won in 2010 with Helio Castroneves.

    Dixon would come second for his 27th second place finish of all-time after leading the most laps.

    “I think today we did a good job,” Dixon says. “We got caught up there in some traffic in the pit, the pit sequence kind of got us there. All in all, Team Target did a fantastic job with Honda, I think we’re starting to get on something with this car, so hopefully in the next few races we might be looking at the top spot on the podium.”

    Pole sitter Castroneves would finish third to keep the points lead.

    “First I want to thank AAA, Shell/Pennzoil, Verizon, SKF—those guys give us great support,” Castroneves says. “To be honest it was very difficult. Those are my tires from qualifying. Unfortunately, I locked a little bit too much, I used them a little bit too much. I mean it paid off starting from the pole position, but certainly hurt me a little bit, actually a lot, in the race. That’s why (Scott Dixon) was able to go off of Turn 2, good run but I was just staying in the middle and not do too much. But in the end, I thought it was a great battle, I think that’s what [racing’s about], and I want to apologize as well to (James) Hinchcliffe. My car was already bad with those reds and as soon as we restarted the race it pushed so bad that we kind of squeezed him and I felt terrible. We were having a great race, hopefully we’ll have a better one next time”

    Graham Rahal would finish fourth for his first top five finish this year, while Simon Pagenaud finished fifth for his best IndyCar finish since a fourth place finish at Edmonton in 2007. Pagenaud now leads the Sonoco Rookie of the Year Standings, 26 points over Josef Newgarden. Newgarden finished the race in 17th.

    After starting on the front row, James Hinchcliffe would finish sixth, followed by Mike Conway, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Bourdais and Dario Franchitti.

    Castroneves now leads the points leading, two points over Dixon and nine points over Power.

    With back-to-back wins to start the season, Chevrolet leads the Manufactures Championships six points over Honda.

  • Helio Castroneves Scores Pole Position at Barber Motorsports Park

    Helio Castroneves Scores Pole Position at Barber Motorsports Park

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves won the IZOD IndyCar Series pole for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park for his first pole in more than a year. Last week’s race winner got the pole with a best time of one minute, 10 seconds during the Firestone Fast Six session.

    “The AAA Team Penske crew did a great job, and it will keep us in good shape,” Castroneves says. “Unfortunately, we were the first ones out there because of no practice this morning. The red tires gave us a lot of bonus, so I apparently made it. We made some changes and that put us good for second qualifying. In the end, Will (Power) and some other competitors not making it was tough, but it is better to be lucky than good. (Strategist) John (Erickson), (race engineer) Ron (Ruzewski) and I were just going through the stuff and The Firestone red tires were great and have a lot of grip. The Firestone tires were able to give me Top 6 and thanks again Firestone.”

    The last pole for Castroneves came at Motegi in 2010 as this marks the 37th pole of his career and the third consecutive pole at Barber for Penske.

    Andretti Autorsport driver James Hinchcliffe qualified second for his career best start in IndyCar.

    “Obviously a great start for us to be on the outside of the front row,” he says. “It’s my best start and it’s a great result after the way practice went yesterday and being rained out, then being fogged out this morning. We only had 14 dry laps coming into qualifying. We knew we had to take a little bit of a swing at it, and give it to the Andretti Autosport guys because that green Go Daddy guy was quick. As soon as we pulled out and we got into the Fast Six and we had only done I think one quick lap on those tires and two before the red came out.”

    Target Chip Ganassi driver Scott Dixon qualified in third, followed by Mike Conway and Tony Kanaan.

    Will Power scored the best lap of the session in round one for a record lap of one minute, 9.8529 seconds. He would transfer to round two via that lap, but didn’t get to round three and Firestone Fast Six, as he ended up in the ninth at the end of the season. Last year, Power won the event after starting on the pole.

    “”It’s a pretty frustrating qualifying result,” he says. “Man, we had a great Verizon car today. We had a good first session and we were ready to fight for the pole. I know INDYCAR threw the red flag there but I’m not sure why they didn’t allow our fast lap. It’s definitely going to be tough starting ninth tomorrow, but we know we’ve got a fast car. We have to have a good start and be strong on the restarts and hopefully work our way up front.”

    The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 90-lap event is set to take place on Sunday at 2p.m. ET and will be shown live on NBC Sports Network.

  • IZOD IndyCar Drivers Continue to Prepare For 2012 Race Season

    IZOD IndyCar Drivers Continue to Prepare For 2012 Race Season

    [media-credit name=”indycar.com” align=”alignright” width=”258″][/media-credit]In an effort to try to figure out the new IndyCar chassis the quickest, many drivers are chose to take part in the test session on March 13th and 14th at Barber Motorsports Park. The test at Barber was a private test, so therefore data will not be available for viewing.

    It is hard to tell which team has an advantage this early in the season looking at test, as some are working on aerodynamics while others are working on race set-ups.

    “Any track time that we get is so valuable,” Ryan Briscoe says. “As we get closer to St. Pete, every bit of mileage gets more and more important. From getting used to all the new features on the car like the brakes or the clutch and other things like that, those are things that we will have to have mastered before the first race. I did a fair bit of testing during the winter and I feel quite acclimatized to the car, but you can never have too much running time.”

    Despite this being in consideration, drivers do pay attention to how their fellows competitors are running.

    “It’s super important to do tests days like these where there are other cars out because you do have to get a feel for how quickly other people are figuring things out,” JR Hilderband says. “At the same time, when (Sebring) gets gripped up, it’s like no place else. It’s rough like a street course and super grippy like a road course. We try to take it for what it is, but it’s great to do this much running this close to the season.”

    So far, it looks like two-time IndyCar Series Champion Scott Dixon has the advantage as he led the Open Test at Sebring International Raceway.

    The Chevrolet teams testing at Barber test were all three Team Penske drivers (Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Will Power), Panther Racing’s Hilderbrand, all three cars from KV Racing Technology (E.J. Viso, Rubens Barrichello and Tony Kanaan), Ed Carpenter Racing’s entry driven by Ed Carpenter and all three cars for Andretti Autosport (Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay).

    The Honda teams testing at Barber were both entries from Dale Coyne Racing (Justin Wilson and James Jakes), Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing’s Graham Rahal, Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing’s Josef Newgarden and Nova Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing’s Charlie Kimball.

    Elsewhere, Dario Franchitti and Dixon were testing at Homestead-Miami on March 14th.

  • KV Racing Technology Partners with Mouser Electronics

    KV Racing Technology Partners with Mouser Electronics

    KV Racing Technology announced that Mouser Electronics will be the primary sponsor on the No. 11 driven by Tony Kanaan for four IZOD IndyCar Series races. Those four races being Long Beach, Texas, Sonoma and China. Mouser will also be a co-primary sponsor with GEICO for the Indianapolis 500.

    Last season, Kanann finished fifth in the IZOD IndyCar Series Championship standings.

    “There’s no better feeling than having a solid company behind you — the kind of excitement for motorsports we share with Mouser makes it a great experience,” Kanaan said. “When Jimmy (KVRT co-owner Jimmy Vasser) and I were taking a tour of their facilities and saw all the products that they potentially supply to the sport of IndyCar, we were extremely impressed.”

    Mouser Electronics designs and distributes semiconductors and electronic components.

    “Last year, Mouser attached its name to the high-speed, high-tech world of INDYCAR as an innovative way to promote our supplier partners and gain broad exposure as we continue to expand our operations worldwide,” Larry Johannes, Mouser VP of strategic marketing, said. “Since every advanced, sophisticated component that’s built to go inside an IndyCar is about delivering a speed and performance edge on the track, INDYCAR was a natural fit.”

    Johannes said they chose to sponsor Kanaan due to his skill and experience.

    “At Mouser, we’re constantly communicating how using the most advanced technology for design delivers a speed-to-market advantage,” Johannes continued. “INDYCAR provides us the perfect vehicle to build top-of-mind awareness for Mouser and our valued supplier and manufacturer rep partnerships.”

    Along with Mouser, Kanaan will have continued support from GEICO.

    “One of things I am especially happy about is that GEICO is back as one of my sponsors,” he said. “They are a tremendous company and have really supported me. Let’s be honest, without GEICO I don’t know if I would have been in the car last year. I want to thank the entire GEICO executive staff. I am proud to be associated with them.”

    KV Racing took part in the four-day test at Sebring, which saw Kannan ranked 20th after the final day.

    “The start of the season is coming up very soon. I think we have just this test and one more before St. Petersburg and I am excited to get the new season started,” Kanaan said during the test. “There have been a lot of changes in the series. New cars, new engines, new races, new sponsors and some new faces in the driver field which all should make the new season exciting for both the fans and the drivers.”

  • Target Chip Ganassi Racing Leads IndyCar Spring Training at Sebring

    Target Chip Ganassi Racing Leads IndyCar Spring Training at Sebring

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]It may be a new chassis, but the dominance of Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske will look to continue in the IZOD IndyCar Series following testing. At the end of the four day test, the two teams shared the top of the chart with Target Chip Ganassi having the upperhand.

    After all four days, it was Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon leading the field with a time of 51.7932 seconds at a speed of 116.077 mph.

    “Overall it was a good day for Team Target,” Dixon said. “We got started late because of some issues, and probably didn’t get accomplished what we needed to in the first part of the day. We made a big suspension change at lunch time, and I actually didn’t like all of that stuff, but we came out around 3 p.m., and didn’t have time to go back on those things, so we stuck with it. We made steering changes and damper changes and seem to find a bit of a compromise for what we had. Today was more a day of learning about the new car and trying to soak up as much as we can before St. Pete.”

    Dixon’s quick lap, which saw him be the only driver under 52 seconds, came near the end of the last practice session.

    “We did the work on the car and as the sun went down a bit and the clouds came in, the track picked up some time,” he said. “We definitely worked to make the car better as well. I was good to do something for the lads at the end and it worked out.”

    Dixon’s teammate Dario Franchitti would be second on the charts with a time of 52.0157 seconds.

    “The team always does a good job, they’re very, very good,” Franchitti said. “We’re trying to learn these new cars. We’re trying to learn the new car, what might break on them, where the weak spots are, how to make them go fast. Honda is learning very quickly too so we’re just trying to get through all of this stuff just now. I’m very happy with the two days we’ve had, obviously the first two days for me right from break-in, we had a lot of questions coming in to this test and we got answers to most of them, so hopefully we can put the pieces together for St. Pete and onwards.”

    Penske Racing driver Helio Castroneves would end the session in third at a time of 52.1413 seconds.

    “Overall it was a good day for the Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet,” he said. “Chevy did an incredible job. We are still developing the car. Still making little bits here and there. But, for Spring Training, I thought all of the Chevys are in good shape. Overall Team Penske is in good shape. We have to just keep pushing each other. Hopefully we can get what we want for the first race of the season.”

    Castroneves is one of the drivers driving a Chevrolet powered car this season, and commends Chevrolet on their efforts so far.

    “Chevy is on-board,” he said. “Took the bull by the horns as they say. It is a very good commitment from everyone. Right now we are still working; still developing.”

    Ruben Barrichello of KV Racing Technology ranked fourth with a lap of 52.1615 seconds. Barrichello is trying to learn as much as he can as he makes the transition from Formula 1 to IndyCar.

    “We were able to run a good amount of laps again today and look at some different setups,” he said. “We also practiced pit stops which will served me well. I was able to see how the car reacts coming in on warm tires and leaving on cold tires and seeing where to position the car, all things that are very different to what I am used to. Overall though we have had a very good two days of testing.”

    Team Penske’s Will Power rounded out the top five with a lap of 52.2059 seconds.

    “It is clear that it is pretty even so far,” Power said. “The moment of truth is going to be St. Pete. Everyone is going to have what they’ve got. There is no sandbagging or anything. We shall see there.”

    Power added though that it’s hard to see where everybody is at due to how unique Sebring is.

    “It is so hard to tell this track, to be honest,” he said. “It is a very strange circuit for testing, because I don’t think there is any place we go that is like it. Turn 4 is probably the most representative corner of a street course. Everywhere else has way too much grip, so the car always feels pretty good. I’m not sure what we get out of these tests, but we certainly push the car to the limit I would say.”

    JR Hilderbrand was sixth, followed by Ryan Briscoe, Mike Conway, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato.

  • IndyCar: Michael Shank Racing Still in Search for Sponsorship

    After winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Michael Shank Racing continues his search for sponsorship in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Shank hoped to make an announcement in October, but that didn’t come together. If nothing is found soon, the team may not run the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 25th.

    “We’ve got the car in the shop and the people we need to go run the car, but at this point we are still working to have the full budget in place to go racing,” Shank says. “I don’t want to be in a position to just go out and make up the numbers. We want to show up and have a competitive presence.”

    Shank partnered with NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger and business man Brian Bailey to form the Indy portion of MSR.

    “My main goal is to make this thing work, and if that means working with a technical partner to make it happen or just focusing on particular races then so be it,” he says. “Obviously, there are folks out there testing right now, and that is the best-case scenario to be in. We’ve got a little bit bigger hill to climb at the moment, but we are not giving up by any stretch.”

    If sponsorship comes together, Shank is expected to compete in the IndyCar Series with Paul Tracy.