All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Pato O’Ward, Driver Columnist Editor’s note: Pato O’Ward will be contributing to Motorsports Tribune selectively throughout the 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires season. The 18-year-old Texas-based Mexican racer pilots the No. 27 Mazda/Dallara IL-15 for Andretti Autosport. A Rolex 24 at Daytona winner and series champion in the Prototype Challenge class a season ago in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, O’Ward will be looking for similar success during his rookie campaign in the top rung of the Mazda Road to Indy. I can’t believe the first race of the IndyRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel broke the circuit record set yesterday by Daniel Ricciardo by almost a second to top the timesheets on the penultimate day of pre-season Formula 1 testing in Barcelona. The Ferrari ended the day over a second clear of nearest rival Kevin Magnussen of Haas, as other frontrunners sent much of the day on long runs. Vettel’s table topping time arrived in morning session as the German sampled the hypersoft Pirelli tyres. And as the bulk of drivers, including Vettel, moved to race simulations in the afternoonRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The 66th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts scheduled for Saturday, March 17features a 43-car IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entry list. The field includes 16 Prototypes, nine GT Le Mans (GTLM) cars and 18 GT Daytona (GTD) entries. Live FOX Sports television coverage of the race begins at 10:30 a.m. ET on FS1 and the entire race will be streamed live on FOX Sports Go with FS1 authentication. Live IMSA Radio coverage is available on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and via SiriusXM Radio.Read More

By FIA Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest ever lap of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to top the timesheets on day two of the second pre-season Formula 1 test at the Spanish track. The Red Bull Racing driver used Pirelli’s new hypersoft compound to post a time of 1:18.047 that beat Felipe Massa’s 2008 record. It was also good enough, on the day, to eclipse world champion Lewis Hamilton by over three tenths of a second. Hamilton had led for most of the morning session and set his quickest time onRead More

Indianapolis, Ind. – Team Pelfrey announced today Shelby Blackstock will compete in the signature yellow No. 3 Team Pelfrey Indy Lights Mazda to begin the 2018 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season. The 28-year-old Nashville, Tenn. resident will enter his seventh season on the Road to Indy alongside his new teammate, Neil Alberico. Last season, Blackstock finished a career-best third-place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. His highest finish on the Streets of St. Petersburg came last year when he finished fourth in Race One. “I’m really looking forward toRead More

By Road to Indy PALMETTO, Fla. – All three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires open-wheel development ladder will hit the ground running in Florida this coming weekend, March 9-11, in support of the headline Verizon Indy Car Series as part of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Drivers representing at least 18 states and 14 different nations from around the world are expected to be among the starting lineups when Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper TiresRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of the opening day of the second and final pre-season test ahead of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 season, edging Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by just two hundredths of a second. Bottas made the early running on a busy morning for 2018’s expected front runners, putting in 86 laps on his way to a best time of 1:20.596, set on soft compound Pirelli tyres. However, he was deposed from top spot shortly before lunchtime when Vettel logged a lap of 1:20.396 using mediumRead More

Indianapolis, Ind. (March 5, 2018) – Team Pelfrey announced today that 25-year-old Indy Lights driver Neil Alberico will drive the No. 2 Team Pelfrey Indy Lights Mazda for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Weekend. “I would like to thank Rising Star Racing (RSR) and Team Pelfrey for granting me this opportunity. I have been working hard over the course of the offseason, both in the United States and in the Philippines to generate support and awareness for my career and the sport of open-wheel racing,” Alberico said. “The GrandRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS, Nev. – If you thought last Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta was an aberration on old asphalt, think again. Kevin Harvick was every bit as dominant on the newer asphalt at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, racking up impressive numbers in winning Sunday’s Pennzoil 400, the third event of the season. In winning his second straight race and his second at the 1.5-mile track, Harvick finished 2.906 seconds ahead of runner-up and Las Vegas native Kyle Busch. Third-place finisher KyleRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer After Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. may want to make a stop at the roulette wheel at one of the numerous Vegas casinos and put his money on the number four. Truex qualified fourth, finished fourth and is fourth in the championship standings after the Pennzoil 400. While on paper it may appear to have been an uneventful day, it was anything but for the 2017 Cup Series champion and defending race winner. Truex finishedRead More