Indycar

Under a gloomy sky, and with 40 percent chance of rain around the 8pm mark, the Genesys 300 got underway 35mins early as IndyCar attempted to squeeze it into the TV window – and without pushing back the first race of this double-header. With qualifying having been canceled due to rain delaying practice, championship points ensured Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda led the field to the green, ahead of Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power, Scott Dixon (Ganassi), Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport-Honda), Simon Pagenaud (Penske) and Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank Racing). Palou made a superb start allowing Dixon to follow him through into second ahead of Power, and on Lap 3 Dixon took Palou around the outside of the front straight kink to take the lead. Harvey had displaced Pagenaud for fifth, while AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy’s Sebastien Bourdais ran second ahead of the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy of Rinus VeeKay, Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, and Marcus Ericsson’s … [Read more...] about Texas IndyCar: Dixon dominates, McLaughlin stars to score NZ 1-2

Practice for this evening’s Genesys 300 on the famed 1.5-mile oval was delayed by two hours due to the dampness of the track, and the 90-minute session – which includes 10mins of two-stage pitspeed limiter practice at the start and ‘hot’ pitstops in the final 30mins – will be the only time the 24-car field is seen on track prior to the race. Qualifying was to consist of two-lap runs for each car with the first to decide the grid for tonight’s 212-lap race, and the second to set the grid for tomorrow’s 248-lap XPEL 375. However, with qualifying now canceled, tonight will see the grid set by car entrant points, with Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou leading Will Power (Team Penske-Chevrolet), Scott Dixon (Ganassi) and Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport-Honda), Simon Pagenaud (Penske) and Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank Racing-Honda) to the green flag. The race has also been brought forward by 35mins due to weather forecasts showing more inclement weather heading the way of Fort … [Read more...] about Rain delays force IndyCar to set Texas grid by points

At the start, a six-car shunt eliminated both AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolets, both Dale Coyne Racing-Hondas, the sole Carlin-Chevrolet of Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi’s Andretti Autosport-Honda. It was especially heartbreaking for Sebastien Bourdais, a double DNF in team owner AJ Foyt’s backyard, despite being an innocent victim in both shunts, and for Rossi whose championship hopes look horribly tattered just four races into the season. Read Also: Six-car shunt mars start of second Texas IndyCar race At the restart polesitter Scott Dixon sprinted away from Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda teammate Alex Palou, while Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda sprinted past both Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet and Will Power in the Team Penske-Chevy. Power’s teammates Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Scott McLaughlin ran in line astern ahead of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Hondas of Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato. Colton Herta’s Andretti car initially held 11 th , … [Read more...] about Texas IndyCar: O’Ward beats Newgarden, Rahal to score first win

The accident occurred when Pietro Fittipaldi’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda hit the back of Sebastien Bourdais’ AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy, turning it into the Andretti Autosport car of Alexander Rossi. Fittipaldi said the cars in front checked up, leaving him nowhere to go and suffered a sprained finger in the impacts that followed. That triggered more chaos, with Dalton Kellett and Ed Jones ensuring both cars from Foyt and Coyne were eliminated before completing a lap. Also out for the day was the Carlin team, who saw its sole representative, Conor Daly, hit the wreck trying to follow the lucky James Hinchcliffe through. Crash at race start Photo by: NBC Daly’s impact tipped the #59 upside down and into the SAFER barrier, sliding down the track until reaching the infield grass which flipped the wreck the right way up. "I general in IndyCar I think we have too many start crashes, I think we should probably look at that," Daly told NBC SN. "There's such an accordion … [Read more...] about Six-car shunt mars start of second Texas IndyCar race

It was at IndyCar’s season-opening round at Barber Motorsports Park, where O’Ward earned pole position, that Brown made the promise to the young Arrow McLaren SP ace that he could drive a McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 car in the Abu Dhabi F1 test in December. Brown reiterated that point after O’Ward won the second race in Texas Motor Speedway’s double-header of IndyCar action this weekend: Asked about the agreement, O’Ward said: “Yes, he's going to pay up!” and regarding what would be the first thing he’d say to Brown, O’Ward replied: “Where is my F1 test? I want a McLaren!” As well as scoring the first win for what was formerly the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team since James Hinchcliffe’s triumph at Iowa in 2018, O’Ward scored the McLaren marque’s 29 th Indy car win – but the first since Johnny Rutherford won both rounds of a double-header at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1979. Read Also: Texas IndyCar: O’Ward beats Newgarden, Rahal to score first win … [Read more...] about O’Ward excited by Formula 1 test but “heart’s with IndyCar”