All posts by Joey Barnes

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Will Power grabbed the pole for the KOHLER Grand Prix after lapping in at 1:42.2105 (141.379 mph), edging out Verizon IndyCar Series championship rival Scott Dixon by 0.1554s. Dixon set the fastest lap of the weekend in Q2 at 1:42.14, but failed to preserve a fresh set of red marked tires for the final round for a better shot at the top starting spot. Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Tony Kanaan, came across third, followed by the Team Penske duo of Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The Haas F1 Team has confirmed that 18-year-old Charles Leclerc will make his Formula 1 debut in opening practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The current ART Grand Prix driver in GP3 is set for other Friday sessions in the VF-16 at Hungary, Germany, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, replacing Esteban Gutierrez. “This is a fantastic opportunity to get seat time in a Formula 1 car and I can’t thank Haas F1 Team and Esteban enough,” Leclerc said. “I’m honored by the faith Haas F1Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Josef Newgarden has been officially cleared to race for this weekend’s KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America. The talented 25-year-old was granted the opportunity to practice in both the morning and afternoon sessions on Friday, ending the day 15th on the combined timesheets. Newgarden, who is less than two weeks removed from a crash at Texas Motor Speedway that resulted in a broken right clavicle and fractured right hand, cited the pain on Friday but maintained his goal was to press on for Sunday. JR Hildebrand,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Graham Rahal came back from a rough morning practice to top the charts in the afternoon ahead of this weekend’s KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America. The No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver bettered morning leader Simon Pagenaud’s time to record the best overall speed of the day, coming in at 140.265 mph (1:43.0224) on the 4.048-mile road course. Team Penske’s Will Power joined Rahal as the only two drivers to eclipse 140 mph average. Tony Kanaan repeated with another top five performance, this timeRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief IndyCar has announced its format to the abnormal postponement that is the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. The event was rescheduled for Aug. 27 following a weekend spoiled by inclement weather. The race is set to resume with James Hinchcliffe leading the field in his No. 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda, followed by Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hinchliffe’s teammate, Mikhail Aleshin, will lineup third, ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Ed Carpenter. The race will restart from lap 72. Two 10-minuteRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Simon Pagenaud topped the timesheets in first practice for Sunday’s KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America. The Frenchman and IndyCar Series championship leader came in at 139.644 mph (1:43.48) around the 4.048-mile road course, with Andretti Autosport’s Carlos Munoz trailing within 0.2s. Jack Hawksworth impressively put his AJ Foyt Racing Honda up to third, while defending IndyCar champion Scott Dixon followed in fourth. Tony Kanaan recovered from a spin during the practice session to round out the top five. However, all eyes were on Josef Newgarden.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Fernando Alonso senses the end of his Formula 1 career is near and believes that the next challenge could include the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Spaniard came into F1 at 20-years-old with Minardi in 2001 and has since enjoyed two championships, 32 wins and 97 podiums in 260 starts. However, the uphill battle since reuniting McLaren has been far greater than expected and rumors of retirement have run rampant despite a contract that isn’t set to expire until the end of the 2017 season.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Daniil Kvyat became the first retirement of the European Grand Prix, exiting on lap 8 with suspension issues. The Russian enjoyed a solid Saturday, qualifying seventh and looking like a strong contender for solid points, but Kvyat’s quest came to a halt as he encountered a second retirement in the last three races. “There was an issue with the suspension, so we had to retire the car very early on in the race,” Kvyat said. “Unfortunately, we need to investigate what happened and try to understandRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pirelli have revealed their three tire compounds that will be made available for the Malaysian Grand Prix in October. The three compounds selected are the orange-marked hard, white-marked medium and yellow-marked soft tires. It is the first time since Spain that the hard compound has been selected.  The 2016 rules state that drivers must have two sets on-hand, and are required to use at least one of them. A set of softs will be made available for the Q3 qualifying session, which will returned to PirelliRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pirelli and the FIA have finally reached an agreement to keep the Italian tire manufacturer as Formula 1’s exclusive supplier until the end of the 2019 season. A deal had already been in place with Formula 1 Management for Pirelli to remain in the sport, but a testing plan needed to be agreed upon with the FIA prior to signing the contract. The agreement was to ensure that the Pirelli had enough track time to develop next year’s tires due to the wider specifications. The specificRead More