All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 may have been the opening race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff, but the real drama involved two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates outside the championship battle. On Lap 197 of 200 at Kansas Speedway, Christopher Bell caught and passed Erik Jones for the lead, clearing Jones’ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a slide job and drifting up to the outside wall right in front of his JGR teammate. Under aRead More

Lewis Hamilton maintained his grip on top spot in practice for the United States Grand Prix, but the Mercedes driver was pushed hard by a much-improved Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel getting to within a tenth of a second of the championship leader in FP3 at the Circuit of the Americas. Third place in the session went to Mercedes Valtteri Bottas, with Kimi Räikkönen fourth in the second Ferrari. Just 0.277s separated the top four drivers. Hamilton was also to the fore in the early part of the session where longer runsRead More

Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas as he beat Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen top spot in second practice for the US Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver had registered the quickest time of the weekend’s opening session to beat Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by more than half a second and in the afternoon Hamilton again went quickest, eclipsing Verstappen by 0.397s with a lap of 1: 34.668s. After an early phase on the soft Pirelli tyres, Hamilton made the switch to ultrasoft tyres, switchedRead More

The Verizon IndyCar Season wrapped up roughly a month ago, with a fresh face now it’s champion in Josef Newgarden. The group discusses  his potential, the 2018 schedule, favorite Helio Castroneves memories and more. Josef Newgarden is the youngest Verizon IndyCar Series champion at 26-years-old since a 23-year-old Scott Dixon won the first of his four titles in 2003. The two share another distinction, as Newgarden was also the first former Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion (2011) since Dixon (2000) to win an INDYCAR title. While Dixon hasRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Natalie Decker has signed a full-time deal with Venturini Motorsports and will pilot the team’s No. 25 Toyota for the 2018 ARCA Racing Series season. The deal was officially announced on Friday afternoon at Kansas Speedway prior to the series’ 20th and final race of the 2017 season. “I’m so excited,” Decker told Motorsports Tribune. “I’ve known for so long, so I’m just so pumped to finally tell everyone and be able to talk about it in my interviews. “I’ve known for like five months andRead More

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton set the pace in a wet/dry opening practice session for the United States Grand Prix as he beat title rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by more than half a second at the Circuit of the Americas. Championship leader Hamilton set a best time of 1:36.335s on the supersoft Pirelli compound tyres to finish 0.593 seconds clear of Vettel. Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas took third place five hundredths of a second further back. The session began in damp conditions after early morning abated shortly before the green lightRead More

By Road to Indy After a comprehensive review process by karting industry authority eKartingNews.com’s Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Rob Howden and Managing Editor David Cole, Mission Viejo, Calif., native Jake Craig, 19, emerged from a list of six finalists to earn a coveted ticket to the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout. Howden and Cole were tasked with the difficult decision to select one up-and-coming karter to contest the Shootout at the Bondurant Racing School near Phoenix, Ariz., on December 9/10, which will see the champions of 17 series around theRead More

Listen to “Drafting The Circuits October 19, 2017” on Spreaker. Frank Santoroski and the Drafting the Circuits panel – Joey Barnes, Gray Warren, Richard Youden, Christopher DeHarde and Seth Eggert – report on the carnage at Talladega, previews the F1 USGP in Austin, and has a healthy discussion about driver development, race series schedules, and the latest Indycar driver news. Credits: Host – Frank Santoroski DTC Panel – Joey Barnes, Seth Eggert, Christopher DeHarde, Gray Warren, & Richard Youden Producers – Anthony Arnold & Keith Hayes Special thanks to Whoobazoo for hosting the DTC Podcast. SocialRead More

By Road to Indy A little more than a month after the conclusion of a hard-fought 2017 season, teams and drivers from all three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires will officially begin preparations for the 2018 campaign this weekend. At least 40 drivers representing more than 16 nations and 11 different teams will grasp an opportunity to drive on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix road course located in Speedway, Ind., during the seventh annual Chris Griffis Memorial Test on October 21/22. TheRead More

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced today its lineup for the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Oakville, Ontario native James Hinchcliffe has renewed his contract with the Indianapolis-based team in a multi-year extension, and the 2011 IndyCar Rookie of the Year’s teammate will be countryman and friend Robert Wickens, a native of Guelph. The duo marks the first all-Canadian lineup in North American open-wheel racing since 2004 (Champ Car; Forsythe Racing: Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier). “Not only am I really excited to be able to say I’ll be back with SPM for nextRead More