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Graham Rahal Placed on Probation Following Incident with Marco Andretti

[media-credit name=”Sal Sigala Jr.” align=”alignright” width=”301″][/media-credit]Following a lap 22 incident during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, IndyCar officials have placed IZOD IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal on probation for the next six events for blocking and initiating avoidable contact.

The probation will end following the June 23^rd event at Iowa Speedway. If Rahal does not meet necessary improvements, IndyCar may impose further penalties.

On lap 22, Rahal made contact with Marco Andretti, launching Andretti’s car into the air before Andretti made contact with the tire barrier. Andretti was uninjured in the incident.

“Due to the inability of the No. 38 car to continue the race, a review of the on-track actions of Graham Rahal became a post-race issue,” Beaux Barfield,

IndyCar president of competition and IZOD IndyCar Series Race Director, says. “All stewards have reviewed the incident and have decided that the on-track actions of Graham warranted probation because of driving that endangers on-track safety and adversely affects competition.”

Rahal broke two rules in the rule book – Rule 9.3.2 and Rule 9.3.3

Rule 9.3.2 states “a driver must not alter his/her racing line based on the actions of pursuing drivers to inhibit or prevent passing. Blocking will result in a minimum of a black flag “drive through” penalty.”

Rule 9.3.3 states “a competitor must not initiate or attempt to initiate avoidable contact that results in the interruption of another competitor’s lap time or track position.”

Following the incident, Andretti called Rahal out on the block.

“There’s a difference between blocking and chopping and that’s chopping,” he said following the wreck. “I was lucky I didn’t get upside down; I could’ve been killed.”

Rahal’s response was, “I was just trying to stay underneath (Scott) Dixon and obviously I surprised Marco. He wasn’t going to make the corner no matter what. If he stayed beside me, he was going to overshoot it. It’s just frustrating. The car felt really strong.”

The probation penalty may be protested pursuant to the rulebook.

April 18, 2012
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.”

April 5, 2012
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 14^th at St. Petersburg and 11^th 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 13^th. 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.”

April 5, 2012
Marco Andretti Puts Andretti Autosport Back on Track with Win at Iowa

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Marco Andretti (26) and Tony Kanaan (82) battle for the lead late in the race at Iowa Speedway.
Since 2003, Andretti Autosport has been competing in the IZOD IndyCar Series and since, they have three championships, two Indianapolis 500 victories and 36 wins. The problem was none of that success came recently – till last Saturday.

Last Saturday, Marco Andretti won the Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer at Iowa Speedway on June 25th, 0.7932 seconds over Tony Kanaan.

“It was a big win for us for sure,” team owner Michael Andretti said. “I think a lot of people were really pounding on us and thought we were down and out, but I can tell you this team has got tons of fight in it and we are never out.”

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Marco Andretti holds the Iowa Indy Corn 250 trophy after winning Saturday's race in Newton, Iowa.
Back in 2007 with Dario Franchitti, the team won the Indianapolis 500 and the championship and in their first four season, had a total of four victories. Though since then, they had yet to find that type of success.

This year has been a different story as they won earlier this season with Mike Conway and now with Andretti.

“I’m happy for all the Venom guys; they did a great job,” Michael Andretti continued. “The last pit stop they brought him out P1. They did it when we needed it. It was just really truly a team effort, and Marco drove a hell of a race there in the end. He was beating the best. He had Tony out there, he had Dario, (Scott) Dixon and he drove very well there in the end.

“I’m just so happy and relieved for (Marco). There’s been a huge monkey on his back, and it was on mine, as well. There was just a lot of pressure on us, him as a driver, me as an owner, because of some of the past things that happened at Indy and stuff. So to come back and win like this, it was just a great, great day.”

Nine races into the year, Andretti Autosports’ four drivers Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Conway and Andretti have scored four top-fives and 12 top-10 finishes. While Andretti won the Iowa race, Patrick posted her third consecutive top 10 after starting on the front row while Hunter-Reay finished eighth.

Meanwhile, for Andretti, the win marked Andretti’s first win since Infineon Raceway in 2006 (stretching 78-races).

“We’ve been in a position to win a lot of races and we’ve come up short,” Andretti said. “I never doubted the team, never doubted myself. I always said as soon as the stars were aligned and a little bit of luck goes my way that we’d be sitting here.

“I think it’s just the drought, so to speak, just made me appreciate what we have here in IndyCar racing. From the drivers to the teams, it just makes us appreciate being here that much more because we know we beat those guys. The competition is unbelievable.”

June 27, 2011
Marco Andretti Charges By Tony Kanaan To Win Iowa Corn Indy 250

The final 50 laps of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer at Iowa Speedway would be a showstopper as it’d be Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan battling back and forth for the win.

In the end, Andretti used one of his remaining overtake boosts to get by Kanaan with 19 to go and then used the other nine in the final 10 laps to secure it.

[media-credit id=2 align=”alignright” width=”246″][/media-credit]”Never doubt these guys,” Andretti said after the race after scoring his first win since Sonoma in 2007. “We’re down a little bit on the big ovals, but when it comes down to the end, we’ll be alright. These guys in the pits got me back in front with the great pit stop. Great racing with TK – it was fun.”

The second career win for Andretti marks the first win on an oval by an Andretti since 2000 when Michael Andretti won at Japan.

After a caution on lap 186 for Takumo Sato getting in the wall, Andretti lined up side-by-side with Kanaan on the restart. The first restart with 60 to go was called off for Andretti jumping, but the second was good to go.

The pair battled back and forth, trading the lead four times before Andretti secured the lead with a thrilling pass heading into turn one underneath Kanaan.

“I had eyes in the back of my head and I made it difficult on him,” Andretti said. “No mercy at this point. I needed it.”

Kanaan would get credited with second, keeping his string of solid runs going.

“I told him if it wasn’t for the win, we were going to talk about it so fair enough,” Kanaan said afterwards of racing with Andretti. “If I was in his position, I would’ve done the same. It was a great battle. A fun race.”

Meanwhile, it was Scott Dixon finishing third after starting 23rd on the field.

“It was a great night for us,” Dixon said. “It’s a good finish. The car wasn’t that great. The guys in the pits did a helluva job. Its obviously a good points night for Dario and I. It was crazy back there early on, but there was some good, close racing near the end.”

JR Hildebrand and Dario Franchitti would round out the top five. Ryan Briscoe would finish sixth, followed by Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Danica Patrick.

Throughout the night, a couple drivers took some hard hits, including Will Power, who backed it into the wall on lap 90. The incident came after substaining damage on pit road from contact with Charlie Kimball on lap 14.

“It was definitely a hard hit,” Power said, after coming into Iowa tied for the points lead with Dario Franchitti. “The Verizon car was damaged after the incident in the pits and we just had a problem with the steering and it came around on me. It’s a tough result for us tonight. We’ll do our best to get it back next race.”

Power would be evaluated and it’d be determined that he suffered a minor concussion. IndyCar officials said that before he can compete in Toronto in two weeks, he will need to be cleared.

Other drivers taking hard hits would be Ana Beatriz and Mike Conway in a big wreck early on and Sebastian Saavedra (Lap 116), though everybody was checked out and released as being okay.

June 26, 2011
Indianapolis 500: Conway and Andretti Only Drivers To Make Laps in Tuesday Sesson

Mike Conway shook down his No. 27 Hire Heroes Car and his Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti got five laps in driving Conway’s car, before the rains came ending the session early.

Conway’s shake down has a speed of 219.901mph (40.9259 seconds).

“We just wanted to feel some of those (changes) and see what we had,” Conway said. “These were certainly not ideal weather conditions and aren’t representative of what we’re going to see in a few days, so it didn’t make too much sense to log a lot of laps.”

Conway said that he also allowed his teammate Andretti to get some laps in the car so they could compare notes.

“We made some changes overnight, and we wanted to get a feel for what it felt like,” he said. “It’s good for me to let (Marco) have a feel and see if I’m feeling the same things as him. We had the same comments, and we got some good back-to-back running.”

Andretti said it gave him a chance to try something different, also.

“I was able to try a setup that I haven’t run yet,” he said. “I just kind of got my thoughts on it and a second opinion. You always learn. If we were going through pretty extensive test items and stuff like that, it’s different. I just wanted to feel out an overall package.”

This is the second time that a session has been cut short for racing as nobody got any laps in during the Sunday session. Some drivers are okay with the lost day, while others are concerned. Andretti had a quick lap of 224.215mph (40.1163 seconds) for the day, but only ranks 15th on the combined speed chart.

“It makes a difference,” Andretti said of not getting the full session in. “Who knows if we would have gained or they would have gained on us. I’m really worried about the speed of our car. I’ve driven exactly Danica’s setup 3 miles an hour off of her (lap time). I can’t explain why. I’m worried about qualifying for this race. It is still early days, but I honestly think if you’re not going to be qualifying in the top 10 you should be worried.”

Conway says that with the timing, you always have the conscious of the time left.

“We always think we have loads of time at the beginning of the week, and then it’s always the same thing,” Conway said. “You get to the last couple of days, and if you haven’t quite got the car right, then you’re going to be rushing a bit more. As long as the car is good and you keep chipping away at it, I think that’s the main thing. I think we’re really close. I think we’ve got a good balance, and I think the speed is there. We’ve just got to take our time and know that qualifying isn’t that far away.”

Alex Taglani’s lap of 225.878mph from the Monday sesson tops the charts so far during the testing. Testing will continue on Wednesday from noon to 6pm EST.

May 18, 2011