All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, Contributing Writer 1991 was a pivotal year for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 75th running of the Indianapolis 500 would be run on May 26 and the IndyCar season got off to an interesting start as it led up to the month of May. Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Sr. was without a ride as the Alfa-Romeo program signed Danny Sullivan as its main driver, relegating Roberto Guerrero to the sidelines until Alfa-Romeo picked Guerrero up for the race. Unser Sr. was unable to find a rideRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Contributing Writer The 2014 and 2015 Macau Grand Prix winner is coming to the 2016 Indy Lights Championship. Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist has been confirmed by Belardi Auto Racing as their second driver for the upcoming Indy Lights campaign alongside Zach Veach in a two car effort that puts Belardi at the forefront of a championship discussion. Rosenqvist has a strong European resume to back him up. He has won the Masters of Formula 3 race twice (2011, 2013) as well as the 2015 European Formula 3 ChampionshipRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Contributing Writer On April 2nd, the Verizon IndyCar Series returns to Phoenix International Raceway for the first time since 2005, and it is with this upcoming race that we will take a look back at the start of another era in open wheel racing’s history at Phoenix. CART was formed in late 1978 as a response to USAC’s rejection of a change in philosophy for top level open wheel racing in America. As such, CART proceeded to host its own races in 1979 that were sanctioned byRead More

January 22, 1971 – September 11, 1999 Scored a point in CART debut 3-time winner in F3000 (1998 at Spa, Nurburgring, 1999 at Monaco)  The motor racing world is one of enormous emotional toll.  Often times, its fastest rising stars are the ones that never get the chance to see how their careers would have ended had it not been for a freak accident.  Gilles Villeneuve, Stefan Bellof, Greg Moore and Jules Bianchi are prime examples of drivers that had much more to give the racing world but weren’t ableRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar Correspondent SPEEDWAY, Ind. -Simon Pagenaud should feel like he has more pressure on his shoulders as the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season draws closer than he did  in a winless 2015 campaign. Not so fast, apparently. “I think I just feel better, actually. I feel more ready for the situation,” said Pagenaud. “I think last year there were so many unknowns, you know. I was coming from a team where I was number one for three years with great teammates, but it wasn’t like three teammatesRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar Correspondent SPEEDWAY, Ind. – It hasn’t been the case that Graham Rahal is the senior figure of the drivers in a race team. Until this year, that is. Rahal has a new teammate for at least three races this year with 2015 Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot. Pigot, four and a half years Rahal’s junior, is the only change that has come to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. “These things are going to happen, right? I mean over time, you’re going to get that,” Rahal said. “Yeah,Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar Correspondent SPEEDWAY, Ind. – There’s been quite a shakeup in the world of Josef Newgarden. CFH Racing went back to its old former self of Ed Carpenter Racing after the decline in the price of oil inhibited Wink Hartman’s ability to be a co-owner of the team. But despite the ownership issues facing ECR, Newgarden isn’t worried about 2016. “There’s definitely been team differences each year, and I think I’m probably more relaxed this year than any season, for one reason or another, I don’t knowRead More

Jack Harvey has had an interesting past two season in the Indy Lights Championship presented by Cooper Tires. In 2014, he lost on a second place tiebreaker to current Bryan Herta Autosport driver Gabby Chaves while in 2015 he was leading the points heading into the final race weekend of the year but lost out to Spencer Pigot, who parlayed his “scholarship” into a three race deal with Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing. However, Harvey is putting his focus on getting his chance at the Verizon IndyCar Series as he’s felt as thoughRead More

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was announced on Tuesday and it has been received in both good and bad ways.  But how so? Let’s take a look at both.  First, the good. The schedule has been stretched out by quite a while.  Instead of starting in late March and ending in late August, the series begins in mid-March while ending in mid-September.  This will alleviate many stresses of the series for traveling, especially regarding team members not being at home and also the rest of the IndyCar traveling circus.Read More

At what point does a restart take place? This is the question running through my mind as I attempted to digest what has taken place at Talladega Superspeedway at the end of NASCAR’s Camping World 500. A caution came out for Jamie McMurray blowing an engine and the field was lined up for a green/white/checkered finish. The difference was that NASCAR had stated heading into the week leading up to Talladega that there would only be one attempt while other races had three, due to the nature of restrictor-plate racing.Read More