All posts by Joey Barnes

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief For the second time in as many seasons, Felipe Massa is announcing his retirement from Formula One competition effective once 2017 ends. The 36-year-old Brazilian retired last season, but following Valtteri Bottas’ move to Mercedes, Williams enticed him to return and team alongside incoming rookie Lance Stroll. The 2008 Formula One championship runner-up has a pair of sixth-place finishes (Australia, Bahrain) to his show as his best of the season, while also currently sitting 11th in the standings overall. A career that dates back to 2002,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The new universal aero kit is looking promising in the buildup to the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Honda completed their latest round of manufacturer testing recently with the focus primarily on their superspeedway package. James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entry) and four-time series champion Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing entry) were selected for the trials at both Texas Motor Speedway (Monday) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Thursday), with representatives from every Honda-powered team on hand as well. Admittedly eye candy for every person that has hadRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – Chase Elliott admitted that he is still upset with Denny Hamlin following last week’s late race incident at Martinsville. With two laps remaining in the First Data 500, Elliott was en route to his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory until Hamlin put an aggressive hit to his rear bumper and sending Elliott’s No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet into the wall and with a 27th-place finish. The outcome led to a heated exchange on pit road. During Friday media availabilityRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – Erik Jones is hungry for that elusive first victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. A rookie this season while driving for Furniture Row Racing, Jones is poised to move to Joe Gibbs Racing as he replaces Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Toyota Camry in 2018. While teammate Martin Truex Jr. has enjoyed a banner season with seven wins en route to the overall points lead with three rounds to go, Jones has put together a roller coaster campaign ofRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Welcome to the No. 1 club, Josef Newgarden. After claiming the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series title, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet is switching to the recognized champion’s number – No. 1 – for next season. It is a changing of the guard, literally, for Team Penske. With three titles that span the past four seasons, the organization has seen both Will Power (2015) and Simon Pagenaud (2017) run the No. 1 the following year of claiming the championship, with that record continuingRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Formula One and the FIA have come together and outlined a plan for the power unit regulations for 2021. There are several changes brought on, including doing away with the MGU-H. Although there has been some fuss over returning to V8 or V10 power, it is clear that is one thing that is set to remain the same as the aim is to continue with the 1.6L V6 turbos. The full release from the FIA can be seen below. — In the presence of FIA PresidentRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pirelli have revealed the tire choices of the Formula One teams for the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix. Although every team has elected to go with one set of the medium tire, the hardest compound offered for the weekend, there are some subtle differences with the other combinations. Mercedes will go with four soft sets, one more than Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, but will have one less set of supersofts to their rivals. Williams and Renault have both gone with only two soft sets, the fewestRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Newman Wachs Racing has revealed Darren Keane as their first confirmed pilot for the 2018 season in Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda. The 18-year-old Floridian competed in a partial schedule in 2017, debuting with Team BENIK in the doubleheader at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course before moving over to Newman Wachs Racing. Although he missed the opening three races, he still managed to finish 11th in the overall standings. His most recent time in the car came at the Chris Griffis Memorial Test atRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Scuderia Toro Rosso revealed their lineup for the upcoming Mexican Grand Prix with Pierre Gasly returning to the cockpit alongside Brendon Hartley, who was kept on in favor of Daniil Kvyat. The revolving wheel goes something like this: Hartley, who currently races in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the Porsche LMP1 program – which shuts down at the end of the season – came in for the United States Grand Prix to replace Gasly, who had a clash with the Super Formula season finale atRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AUSTIN, Texas – Mercedes took its fourth consecutive constructors’ title in Formula One after Lewis Hamilton claimed his ninth win of the season in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Hamilton’s victory was accompanied by an undesirable fifth-place effort by teammate Valtteri Bottas. However, the outcome allowed the Brackley-based outfit to better rival Scuderia Ferrari to continue their success at the top of the standings. Overall, their efforts were accelerated and enabled with recent setbacks by Scuderia Ferrari at Singapore, Malaysia andRead More