All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer  INDIANAPOLIS – Six months ago, I wasn’t sure this day would happen. Or to be precise, could happen.  The COVID-19 pandemic was strangling the world last December, and nobody knew how to loosen that grip or when it would. Positive test numbers climbed at an alarming rate, and while some people got over it fairly easily, many got really sick. And people died, some I knew personally, and it scared the you-know-what out of me. A vaccination was on its way, but when?  Frankly, when I got my first vaccination on Valentine’s Day and the secondRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Not bad for a part-timer. Ty Gibbs won his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the sixth start of his career, recovering from a spin off Turn 4 to take the checkered flag in Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs led the final 20 laps, surviving two eventful restarts during that stretch to beat series leader Austin Cindric to the finish line by .437 seconds. Gibbs, who won’t turn 19 until Oct. 4, is theRead More

By Kirby Arnold, David Morgan and Luis Torres In a leadup into Sunday’s 105th Indianapolis 500, Motorsports Tribune had a roundtable discussion about seven questions regarding the race. More than just about who’ll win the race, our writers gave their thoughts on some themes that defined this Month of May. Without further ado, here’s what Kirby Arnold, David Morgan and Luis Torres’ responses: This year’s lead up to the 105th Indianapolis 500 has had a lot of unknowns. There could be as many as 8-12 guys who can win theRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – A generation has passed since anyone witnessed a driver win the Indianapolis 500 for the fourth time. The most recent was 1991 when Rick Mears joined A.J. Foyt and Al Unser in the four-timer club.  If that makes you realize you’ve been around a long time, how do you think Helio Castroneves feels?  The 46-year-old won the 500 in 2001, 2002 and 2009, and driving for powerful Team Penske it seemed he not only was speeding toward a fourth victory, five (or more) seemed entirely possible.  He’s still waiting.  In the 11 Indy 500sRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – It’s been a good month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Ed Jones. What the 26-year-old driver needs now is a strong weekend.  Jones will start 11th Sunday in the Indianapolis 500 in the No. 18 SealMaster Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan. He’s back with the team he drove for his rookie year in 2017 when he finished third in the 500, although familiarity hasn’t so far translated into great results this year.  Jones hasn’t cracked the top 10 in five races, beset with any number of race-weekend issues that left theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service With his third victory of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, John Hunter Nemechek reaffirmed Kyle Busch Motorsports’ mastery of 1.5-mile intermediate tracks on Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Nemechek held off Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar over a closing 10-lap green-flag run after a violent crash at the entrance to the tri-oval stripped the body off Johnny Sauter’s No. 13 Toyota and slowed the race for nine caution laps. The victory was Nemechek’s first at Charlotte and the ninth of his career.Read More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – It’s pretty sweet being JR Hildebrand these days.  The 33-year-old lives a nice life in Boulder, Colorado, and pursues many of his racing dreams. He drove in the Daytona 24-hour race in January, started a racing podcast, hopes to race the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in June, and constantly plots cool ideas on how he’d love to see motorsport evolve.  And on Sunday, he’ll drive the Indianapolis 500 for the iconic A.J. Foyt Racing team in a car with a paint scheme that honors Foyt’s 1961 victory in the 500.  So yeah, it’s cool being JR.  “I’m not madRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service You can’t call a Chase Elliott victory on a road course “unexpected,” but little else was predictable in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas. After all, Elliott came to COTA having won five of the previous 10 road races, and on Sunday the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix became No. 6 after NASCAR called the race 14 laps short of the scheduled finish because of excessive standing water on the track and potential dangerRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – Will Power got a different taste of Indianapolis Motor Speedway when he was surprisingly relegated to the stress of last-chance qualifying to make the final row of the Indianapolis 500.  What the Team Penske driver didn’t expect Sunday was a kiss of the Turn 2 wall on the last lap of his four-lap run.  Power, the second driver on the track in the five-car session to settle the final three spots in the race, drifted high out of the corner and smacked the SAFER Barrier with the right rearRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – The clock sometimes moves slowly when the seconds are counting down to history.  The Paretta Autosport team, the first at Indianapolis Motor Speedway owned by a woman, driven by a woman and crewed mostly by women, sat in the 33rd and final spot in the Indianapolis 500 during last-chance qualifying Sunday. Simona de Silvestro had driven a four-lap average of 228.353 mph on the third qualifying run of the day.  Then they waited.  Sage Karam and Will Power, the first two drivers to post speeds inRead More