Headline News Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Grabbing the lead from Carson Hocevar after a restart on Lap 111 of 134, Ben Rhodes pulled away to win Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Rhodes, the ninth different winner in 11 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races this season, also collected a $50,000 bonus for winning the first of three events in the Triple Truck Challenge, a bonus program that could mean $500,000 for a driver who can sweep all three.  “I didn’t think we were thatRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Let the Marcus Ericsson sweepstakes begin. Arrow McLaren team boss Zak Brown is living in the here and now of this weekend’s 107th running of the Indianapolis 500, but is also keeping an eye on the future of his organization and where it could go from here. All four of the team’s entries will start in the first three rows on Sunday, with Felix Rosenqvist the highest in fourth place. Pato O’Ward starts fifth, team newcomer and 2016 Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi willRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – No attack, no chance. Takuma Sato, the 2020 winner of the Indianapolis 500, paced Friday’s Carb Day practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, flexing his muscles in the final track time before the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on Sunday. Driving a Chip Ganassi Racing Honda this season on just the ovals, the two-time Indy 500 champion paced the session at 227.855 mph ahead of his teammate, six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon. Will Power timedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Just call Tony Kanaan the Tom Brady of the NTT IndyCar Series. After a number of announcements that he was retiring from driving only to reverse course the next season, Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500 really is the end of the road for the 48-year-old Brazilian driver. Kanaan, who has won 16 races in his career dating back to the early 2000’s, including the 2013 running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, is doing his best to take in all of the sights and surroundingsRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The long wait is almost over as 33 of the bravest competitors in the world look to make Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500 as their moment to shine. From record speeds to milestones, each driver have their own story with a few standing out more than others. Good, bad or indifferent, this year’s buildup to the 200-lap race has seen it all. Starting up front is an all-European front row, an Indy 500 first. Leading the cavalry is Alex Palou, who was two laps away from winningRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – Heading into Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500, Meyer Shank Racing are looking to turn things around as the two-car organization have had little to celebrate in recent memory. For 2019 Indy 500 champion Simon Pagenaud, he’s had an knack of running stellar at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 11 previous 500 starts, Pagenaud has completed 2,197 of 2,200 laps. That’s all but three laps. Through it all, Pagenaud’s Indy 500 career is highlighted by his aforementioned win from the pole in 2019, and a thirdRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Auto racing’s long day’s journey into night begins on the European continent and ends with NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’s a feast for the motorsports enthusiast, from the Grand Prix of Monaco to the Indianapolis 500 to the Coke 600, which provides a perfect nightcap to the Sunday before Memorial Day. The Charlotte race is a welcome home game for the race teams, in that it takes place in theRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor INDIANAPOLIS – Of the hundreds of laps each driver has run in practice for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, they had little chance to work on one of the most important factors that could lead to victory. The last lap before a pit stop and the first lap after a stop around the 2½-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway are critical to gaining – or losing – track position. In laps and out laps, as they’re called, have won and lost this race, and there isn’t a driver inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Just two days ago, it appeared Graham Rahal would be watching the 107th Indianapolis 500 from the sidelines after getting bumped from the 33-car field, but a cruel twist of fate has delivered him a second chance to race. That second chance comes as he steps in to substitute for Stefan Wilson, who was injured in a practice crash on Monday, leaving him with a fractured vertebrae and ruled out for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. As soon as news broke that Wilson would be unableRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The first crash of the week leading into the 107th Indianapolis 500 came with disastrous results for Stefan Wilson, who will have to miss out on the race after suffering an injury in a practice crash on Monday. Wilson, who was set to take part in his fifth Indy 500 in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports entry, tangled with fellow British driver Katherine Legge just past the halfway point of the two-hour session, sending both drivers hard into the Turn 1 wall. As the freightRead More