All posts by Luis Torres

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer For the second time in the last four starts, Ryan Preece has failed to finish after crashing into the Turn 2 tire barriers in the Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Monday, resulting in a red flag. On the 80th lap, Preece restarted alongside Tyler Reddick in row three, but the inside lane got the push, and he couldn’t challenge Reddick. Therefore, his challenger became John Hunter Nemechek at the South Short Chute. Preece was able to get an advantage over Nemechek and was runningRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer There won’t be a playoff berth four-peat for the soon-to-be departing Chip Ganassi Racing driver Jamie McMurray. Needing a win to make the playoffs, McMurray was on the cusp of stealing a win, running inside the top-five, but had to settle for seventh in Monday’s Big Machine Vodka at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the highest among drivers who failed to qualify for the postseason. The regular season finale saw its turning point on Lap 145 when McMurray stayed out for valuable track position, afterRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer For the first time in the history of the Brickyard 400, the defending champion won’t compete in the 160-lap contest. Due to lingering effects of extreme heat exhaustion from last Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, Leavine Family Racing announced Thursday that Kasey Kahne has been ruled out to compete in the No. 95 WRL General Contractors Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Regan Smith has been tapped to replace Kahne at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start thisRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer As a person who’s watched the Verizon IndyCar Series on a regular basis since 2007, I’ve always wondered what my INDYCAR experience would be like. This past weekend at Portland International Raceway, I had the privilege of covering the series return in the Pacific Northwest, but it also brought some flashbacks of my days at the University of Idaho. Compared to my first NASCAR race as a credentialed media member at Sonoma Raceway in June, my first-ever INDYCAR experience was like jumping into a big pound,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Oregon — Spencer Pigot represented the Chevrolet camp, bringing home fourth in Sunday’s Portland Grand Prix at Portland International Raceway in Oregon for his second career top-five finish. Coming from the 17th starting position, he survived the drama on Lap 1 and put himself in an excellent position of scoring his first ever top-five on a road course. He entered with his previous best taking place at Mid-Ohio in 2016 when he finished seventh. After hanging onto critical track position on the final restart onRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Oregon — The biggest concern happened at Portland International Raceway Sunday, first lap chaos. Not at the grueling chicane known as the Festival Curve, but at the entry of Turn 3. INDYCAR’s return to Portland saw a dramatic six-car crash right out of the gate, and it began when Zach Veach pinched James Hinchcliffe, resulting into contact and caused a huge ripple effect on several competitors, and potential championship implications. Once Hinchcliffe spun around, Sebastien Bourdais ran into the front of Hinchcliffe, and collected Jones,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Oregon — The nature of track room and practice laps didn’t reflect qualifying at Portland International Raceway, and defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden acknowledged it before and after the session. Newgarden is among the 18 drivers who have never competed in an INDYCAR race at the 1.964-mile circuit, but among the more consistent top drivers on the leader board, ending up in third, sixth and ninth in the three practice sessions. He backed up his consistency by making it to the FirestoneRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Oregon — Fast pace often comes with a heavy price, but with a whole team collaborating a misfortune, results will show, even if it has a “Frankenstein” look. This was the case for two-time Portland Grand Prix winner Sebastien Bourdais, who will start fourth in Sunday’s race at Portland International Raceway after the entire entity of Dale Coyne Racing repaired his car after a session-ending crash during final practice. Thanks in most part of having the third entry of Santino Ferrucci, it turned outRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Oregon — The two-car team of Ed Carpenter Racing showed promising speeds before qualifying for Sunday’s Portland Grand Prix, notably rookie and road course driver Jordan King. The 24-year-old from Warwick, England, had a solid result in the two Friday practice sessions, ending up sixth and ninth quickest, respectively, outpacing full-time driver Spencer Pigot. Then on final practice, King continued to show solid speed and ended up 12th. With those positive runs, he saw himself being a possible contender of making the Firestone FastRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Oregon — Opportunities come in the strangest of forms. For Carlos Muñoz, the thought of his next chance in the Verizon IndyCar Series wasn’t supposed to come at the expense of an injury of another – Robert Wickens. After spending time over the last few seasons racing for Andretti Autosport and A.J. Foyt Racing, Muñoz saw himself without a full-time ride this season. The 26-year-old has only competed in the Indianapolis 500, where he finished 7th for Andretti. This past Wednesday, it’ll change as he’llRead More