Headline News Category

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou came up short of starting the championship trail with a win. Instead of celebrating a win in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Palou crossed the line in second. After a heavy shunt during Saturday’s practice, Palou had his work cut out for. Through perseverance and all-around teamwork, it became an overall positive weekend for the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing crew. “It was a great weekend. We started struggling a lot. Obviously my little contact with theRead More
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Californian Cole Custer was the only former Auto Club Speedway winner in the field for Saturday’s Production Alliance 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Fontana, Calif. Three overtimes, 12 cautions and more than three hours of official race time later, Custer was still the only former winner in the Fontana field, having beaten runner-up Noah Gragson to the finish line by .565 seconds. It was a long day’s journey into night, a race that started in mid-afternoon and unexpectedly ended under the lights inRead More

Posted On February 26, 2022By Motorsports TribuneIn Breaking News, Cup, Headline News

Saturday Auto Club Speedway Notebook

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric stays on top with Fontana pole In a qualifying session that should have merited hazard pay for the 10 final-round drivers, Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric backed up his victory in the Great American Race with a pole-winning run on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Cindric will start where he finished the 500 in Sunday’s Wise Power 400 NASCAR Cup Series event at the 2-mile track (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).Read More
By INDYCAR ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Scott McLaughlin targeted a main goal after his rookie season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in 2021 – improve his qualifying performances. Consider that job done after just one race in 2022. McLaughlin earned his first career NTT P1 Award by leading the Firestone Fast Six with a lap of 59.4821 seconds Saturday afternoon in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet, taking the top starting spot for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. The pole also cameRead More
By INDYCAR ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Talk about making an entrance. Romain Grosjean led the first practice of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season in his first official drive with Andretti Autosport, pacing the Friday afternoon session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on the streets of the Florida city. Grosjean’s best lap of 1 minute, 1.0525 seconds in the No. 28 DHL Honda led by more than a tenth of a second over reigning event winner and Andretti teammate Colton Herta, second atRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the first time in two years, NASCAR is back at Auto Club Speedway. After missing out on racing in 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunday’s Wise Power 400 marks the Cup Series return to the two-mile D-shaped oval and the kick-off to NASCAR’s West Coast swing. Built on the site of an old steel mill featured in the movie “Terminator”, the two-mile oval has been a part of the NASCAR schedule since opening in 1997. During its 20+ years on theRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer For the first time since 2004, the NTT IndyCar Series kicks off its season in February. Like in 2004, the championship trail began in Florida, but rather than Homestead-Miami Speedway, it’s at the St. Petersburg street circuit. Entering the first round of a 17-round odyssey, the field is arguably one of the more stronger ones in recent memory. This Sunday, 26 drivers are eager of getting the campaign going with aspirations of delivering a strong result. Some drivers like Will Power and Alexander Rossi aren’t hesitantRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The future is indeed now in the NASCAR Cup Series. Not because it’s the first-ever regular season race with the current car (known as NextGen), but it also saw another first-time winner in the Daytona 500. In just his eighth career Cup start, Austin Cindric brought Team Penske its third win in “The Great American Race.” While the No. 2 team celebrated, other drivers were either heartbroken or collected in wrecks that’ll prove costly to team’s due to the supply shortage of the current car. DespiteRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The NTT IndyCar Series have an influx of young stars, established veterans and competitors who are looking to break through. When you look at last season’s top-five points finishers, all three traits can be applied. Two championship veterans continued to be the standard bearers, but the youth movement was more vibrant than ever before. More so when they were the ones occasionally winning and racking up max points. In the end, one of them hoisted the Astor Cup at Long Beach for the first time. InRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Many competitors in the NTT IndyCar Series hope to fight for the championship. Some have the equipment and talent to do so, but it also requires luck and consistency. One bad run does set a driver back if the rest of the field deliver better results. All throughout 2021, there were drivers that were unable to keep both in tact. In the case of a couple of drivers, off-track incidents kept them out of the hunt. Furthermore, those who’ve won races or been around for aRead More