All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California– The BUBBA Burger Grand Prix at Long Beach had a two hour practice session early on Friday morning for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship where the 19-car field basically acted as street sweepers for the first official on track action of the weekend on the 11-turn, 1.968 mile street circuit. Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani led the first practice session in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi. That was a good showing for the car that won this year’s Mobil 1Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California– Helio Castroneves brought Acura Team Penske their first pole position of 2019 ahead of Saturday’s BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach. The 2001 Long Beach Indy car winner set a fastest lap of 1 minute, 11.332 seconds, averaging 99.321 mph around the 1.968 mile street circuit in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi. Felipe Nasr qualified second in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi with a lap of 1 minute, 11.550 seconds. Castroneves qualified fourth lastRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California– Juncos Racing is only participating in their third race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship but the team is learning with leaps and bounds ahead of Saturday’s BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Ricardo Juncos-led squad may have been 11th out of 11 cars in the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) class but the No. 50 Cadillac DPi was only 1.005 seconds off of the pace set by Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi. KyleRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, Alabama– An originally-planned two-stop strategy was Sebastien Bourdais’ best chance to win Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park for the NTT IndyCar Series. At least, that’s what his race engineer Craig Hampson thought. “We probably aren’t going to win the race just doing the same thing as everybody else so let’s try to do something different and win the race,” said Hampson. Team owner Dale Coyne said to the team that Bourdais was committed to running the strategy and theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, Alabama– Team Penske broke a nearly five year old streak during Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The NTT IndyCar Series stalwarts failed to make it to the Firestone Fast Six in qualifying for the first time since the 2014 race at Long Beach as Will Power could only manage seventh fastest while Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden qualified 14th and 16th, respectively. For Power, the weekend has been less than perfect for the defending Indianapolis 500 winner. The highest upRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, Alabama– The 2019 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama has two practice sessions in the books and quite honestly, nobody really knows what to expect for the third round of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series at Barber Motorsports Park. With a forecast changing about as rapidly as the track’s direction, it’s almost as if nobody knows where to go for the right setup, nor does anyone have any clue about the Firestone red sidewall (alternate) tires except for maybe James Hinchcliffe since he was thirdRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer AUSTIN, Texas– Sebastien Bourdais did not have a good practice or qualifying ahead of Sunday’s INDYCAR Classic at Circuit Of The Americas but sometimes luck can fall your way in the NTT IndyCar Series and that’s exactly what happened for the Frenchman. The No. 18 Sealmaster Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser/Sullivan started off 17th out of 24 cars and got up to 15th on the first lap of the race. While overtaking may have been a bit of a premium, Bourdais was on theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer AUSTIN, Texas– Eight one hundredths of a second. That’s all that separated Patricio O’Ward from the Firestone Fast Six during Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s INDYCAR Classic, the NTT IndyCar Series’ debut race at Circuit Of The Americas. The 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion made it through the first group of the first round of qualifying in his No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet by posting the sixth fastest lap around the 3.41-mile natural terrain road course. What’s crazier is that O’Ward beat out veteran teammateRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer AUSTIN, Texas– INDYCAR decided on Friday to not enforce track limits at Turn 19 at Circuit Of The Americas ahead of Sunday’s INDYCAR Classic, but several NTT IndyCar Series drivers do not agree with the decision. Turn 19 is a fast left hand turn before the pit entrance and that is the only corner INDYCAR decided to not enforce track limits, the series having placed bumps on the apex curbs and exit curbs of many corners to keep drivers honest. However, many drivers do not agreeRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer AUSTIN, Texas– Graham Rahal was quick during spring training at Circuit of the Americas and was fifth fastest during the first Friday practice session for Sunday’s INDYCAR Classic. However, the No. 15 TOTAL Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was 13th in the second Friday session, leaving the six-time winner in the NTT IndyCar Series scratching his head. “This morning we definitely had some pace, this afternoon the thing was sloppy,” said Rahal. “We’ve got to put our heads together a little bit this evening andRead More