All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – He may be a full-time IndyCar driver now, but there’s no driver with more experience in various Acura prototype sports cars than Simon Pagenaud. It’s a fact that wasn’t lost on him in testing last week at Sebring International Raceway as he and his Acura Team Penske teammates prepared for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. “I’ve been fortunate,” Pagenaud said. “I’ve seen every iteration of the Acura prototype since 2008. It’s been a phenomenal timeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Too sick to start practice on Saturday, Brad Keselowski found the cure to what ailed him in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Still suffering from the effects of stomach flu, Keselowski held off a charging—and frustrated—Martin  Truex Jr. in the closing circuits of the 325-lap Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and powered his No. 2 Team Penske Ford across the finish line .218 seconds ahead of Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The victory was Keselowski’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – As darkness enveloped Atlanta Motor Speedway, and rain pelted the windshield of his No. 51 Toyota, Kyle Busch patiently waited for word he had sole possession of the all-time victory lead in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The record-setting win wouldn’t be quite that easy. After the red flag for rain, NASCAR restarted the race, rather than calling it. Five laps later, after parrying a determined charge from former series champion Johnny Sauter, Busch took the checkered Saturday’s Ultimate Tailgating 200,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – To hear Christopher Bell describe his race in Victory Lane, you’d never know that he had just won it. “I felt pretty sloppy there as a driver sometimes,” Bell said after leading 143 of 163 laps in winning Saturday’s Rinnai 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Running the yellow line (at the bottom of the track) is so hard. “I don’t know, I would just struggle on the longer runs there.” Struggling, of course, is a relative thing. AfterRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Clint Bowyer was on the doorstep of securing his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole position since 2007, but teammate Aric Almirola and fellow Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had the last say. Almirola powered his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to the fastest lap of the day in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, claiming the second Busch Pole Award of his career—and his first since winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 in 2012.Read More

By FIA Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time of the first week of 2019 pre-season Formula 1 testing in Barcelona, beating Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon by two tenths of a second. In the morning Albon maintained the hold on top spot established by Toro Rosso on day three, when Daniil Kvyat claimed that session’s fastest time, but this afternoon Hulkenberg moved well clear of the 1:17.637 to post a lap of 1:17.393. The time was the quickest of the opening four days of pre-season testing and like the Toro RossoRead More

By FIA Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat put in a superb late quick lap of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catlunya to run quickest on the penultimate day of the first Formula 1 pre-season test of 2019. With less than 15 minutes left in the session, the Russian driver bolted on a set of the softest Pirelli compound on offer this season, the C5, and delivered a lap of 1:17.704s to edge Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen by 0.058s. The Finn had held top spot since the morning session after setting a time ofRead More

By FIA After Sebastian Vettel topped the first day of pre-season F1 testing yesterday, new Ferrari recruit Charles Leclerc kept the Italian team at the top of the timesheets, finishing three tenths of a second clear of McLaren rookie Lando Norris. The session came to an early end for Pierre Gasly, however, when the new Red Bull Racing driver lost control of his RB15 and spun into the barriers. The French driver had spend most of the afternoon on short, data-gathering runs but as the final hour of the session nearedRead More

By INDYCAR INDYCAR announced today the planned introduction of the next step to improve cockpit safety for all drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series. All cars participating in an April 24 open test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval will be fitted with Advanced Frontal Protection (AFP), a titanium piece made by Dallara. AFP, which stands a little more than 3 inches tall and averages three-quarters of an inch in width, is designed to deflect debris away from the driver. It will be positioned in front of the cockpit, alongRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A popular marketing concept that has been successful in motorsports, particularly in the last decade or two, is “Business to Business,” or B2B, as it has become known in shorthand. In motorsports applications, B2B is when one participating company gets to know and do business with another company or entity in the paddock. Correctly accomplished, both businesses prosper, which leads to continued – and ideally expanded – support for what is happening out on the racetrack. For Konica Minolta – which hasRead More