All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California — Andretti Autosport had the full spectrum of positives and negatives during qualifying for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach as their four cars had varying degrees of good and bad fortune ahead of the third race of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Alexander Rossi wheeled his No. 27 NAPA Auto Parts Honda to a pole position-winning lap of 1 minute, 6.5528 seconds around the 1.968 mile street circuit. It was Rossi’s second career pole following Watkins Glen in 2017. “TheRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California —The opening day of practice for the 44th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach kicked off with two practice sessions with Andretti Autosport on the fast end of the grid. The duo of 2010 Long Beach winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi were second and third in the morning session but in the afternoon Rossi led the field from Hunter-Reay. 2015 Long Beach winner Scott Dixon led the first session with a 1 minute, 8.4112 second lap around the 1.968 mile street circuit.Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California — The 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season makes its first of two stops to California for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. This weekend marks the 44th time a race has taken place along Shoreline Drive, the 34th such time for IndyCar racing and the second of a back-to-back-to-back stretch. Long Beach has provided for some interesting results. Last year marked James Hinchcliffe’s return to Victory Lane after a two year drought, but it is his fellow Canadian teammate that is makingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Defending Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion Kyle Kaiser was expecting more from the track that gave him his first Indy Lights win in 2016. His first Verizon IndyCar Series race was one spent learning as much as he could, but unfortunately wall contact ended his night early Saturday night’s Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway. Kaiser qualified 14th in his No. 32 Juncos Racing Chevrolet and stayed midfield during his race, running as high as 11th before his firstRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Alexander Rossi overcame an early costly mistake and stormed back through the field to finish third in Saturday night’s Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway. After starting fourth, the No. 27 Andretti Autosport driver got around Team Penske’s Will Power for third place, where he stayed until the first round pit stops under yellow on Lap 43. Unfortunately, Rossi slid in his pit box, hitting the left front tire changer and necessitating a green flag pit lane drive-thru penalty. He was suddenlyRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Friday was the practice and qualifying day ahead of Saturday’s Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway, the first oval in the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season and it was a definite day of unpredictability. Preseason testing had Rahal Letterman Lanigan at the top of the time sheets, but after the first session Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato were 17th and 18th, respectively. Chevrolet had the top two positions with Simon Pagenaud first and Tony Kanaan second ahead of five Honda carsRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Jay Howard and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports have announced their entry for the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. Howard returns to the team with which he competed in the 2011 and 2017 Indianapolis 500-mile races and will drive the No. 7 Honda with One Cure sponsoring the entry. One Cure is part of the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University that studies cancer treatments for various animal species. “To say I am excited is an understatement,” said Howard inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDYCAR has announced that beginning with the 2019 season, Verizon IndyCar Series races will air on NBC and NBC Sports in a three-year deal. Eight IndyCar races, including the 103rd Indianapolis 500 and its qualifications, will be on NBC next year with the remaining races on NBC Sports. Currently five races are broadcast on network TV. The biggest change besides network is offering NBC Sports Gold, where fans can watch practice, qualifying, and all support series practice, qualifying and races for a nominal fee. Previously thoseRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer For the 2018 Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring, the GTD class is the largest but loses only three cars from the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Let’s take a look at the GT3-based class. The GRT Grasser Racing Team will not be racing both of their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 machines as well as Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R and Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488 GT3. However, CJ Wilson Racing will be competing with their Acura NSX GT3 machine. Now let’s look at the class by manufacturer.Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring concludes 36 hours of endurance racing for the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and the class with the fewest changes is the GTLM class. Let’s take a look at the nine car class. Corvette Racing has two C7.R machines ready to tackle Sebring and with it there are no driver lineup changes to ether car. The No. 3 C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller are looking to repeat their class win from 2017 while OliverRead More