All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After a championship battle that was closing near the end, Oliver Askew won the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda driving for Cape Motorsports. Askew will be moving up to the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires for an unannounced team and will be driving the brand new Soul Red Mazda-colored Tatuus PM-18. This move up the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires was possible thanks to a scholarship presented to the USF2000 series champion valued atRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer At a press conference at the 2017 Performance Racing Industry Show, Michael Shank Racing announced a multi-year partnership with Schmidt/Peterson Motorsports for the Verizon IndyCar Series. Without a budget for a full season, Harvey will be racing six races in the 2018 season including the streets of St. Petersburg, the streets of Long Beach and the 102nd Indianapolis 500 plus three other races with more to be added if funding can be found. “This is a long term deal for three yearsRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer The Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires recently concluded their first official test after the 2017 season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The seventh annual Chris Griffis Memorial Test was a chance for several drivers and teams to get acquainted with one another and with their machinery, as well as giving everyone a reason to see cars run at IMS. Here’s some observations about the weekend. Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires Victor Franzoni, Anthony Martin and CarlosRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After a rookie season in the Verizon IndyCar Series that rarely saw him put a wheel wrong, Ed Jones has been announced as the driver for the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. The 2016 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion finished third at the Indianapolis 500 behind winner Takuma Sato and Helio Castroneves despite having a damaged car. Jones had five top 10 finishes to his credit en route to 14th inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer It isn’t often that a Louisiana native makes waves in the motorsport world, but that’s exactly what one teenager from Sulphur has done. Aaron Jeansonne (left in above photo), 19, was announced by Team USA Scholarship as one of two representatives for the United States at the Formula Ford Festival that starts today at Brands Hatch and also for the Walter Hayes Trophy Race at Silverstone in November. He is joined by Jonathan Kotyk from Atlantic Beach, Florida. Jeansonne will follow inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Mark Twain popularized the phrase “There are three kinds of falsehoods; lies, damned lies and statistics,” which he attributed to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Statistics was how this writer looked at Team Pelfrey in a recent roundtable discussion.  In it, this writer said that the team had been disappointing because “I did not expect a large organization like Pelfrey to have only one win this season.” Motorsports Tribune sat down at Watkins Glen with Jonathan Baker to speak about the team’sRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer In the last article, we reviewed this author’s choices for moments 10-6 of the top 10 moments in the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Let’s look ahead to the top five moments. 5. The Success and Struggles of Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing had a fantastic start to 2017. Sebastien Bourdais won at St. Petersburg and finished second at Long Beach while rookie teammate Ed Jones finished 10th and sixth at the same two races, respectively. Then the cartoon anvils justRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After a Verizon IndyCar Series season filled with highs and lows, let’s look at some of the more memorable moments in 2017 both on and off track. 10. New teams on the horizon The year witnessed two new teams in the series with Juncos Racing and Harding Racing making their debuts at the Indianapolis 500. Ricardo Juncos has been a Mazda Road to Indy stalwart for the past few seasons and after returning to Indy Lights competition in 2015, the Speedway, Indiana-basedRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer SPEEDWAY, Indiana — A.J. Foyt Racing today announced that Tony Kanaan will pilot the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet in the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Kanaan leaves Chip Ganassi Racing after four seasons to join the Foyt team after scoring one win and 20 top five finishes. Kanaan will be bringing his engineer Eric Cowdin to the team with which he won the 2013 Indianapolis 500. Team president Larry Foyt said that the deal came about thanks to where both heRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Team Penske confirmed today that three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves will switch from racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series full time in 2018 to the IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car Championship, piloting one of the teams’ two Acura ARX-05 DPi prototypes. Castroneves is the third driver to be announced for the Penske sports car program after Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron were confirmed for the other prototype. Remaining drivers have yet to be announced. Castroneves will continue racing for TeamRead More