championship Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer After 16 grueling and intense months of competition, the championship trail ends in Monterey. Out of the 25 full-time drivers that accepted the season-long challenge at St. Petersburg in March, only five remain that have a shot of hoisting the Astor Cup this Sunday. Of those five racers, they come from two race teams in Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. Between championship leader Will Power to fifth-place Scott McLaughlin, the gap is 41 points. It rivals the 2003 championship battle where it also had fiveRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Ore. – Will Power will enter the season finale at Laguna Seca still as the championship leader after finishing second in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland. This season has been a strong one for Team Penske with all three of their drivers winning a combined total of nine races. However, out of those nine victories in 16 races, the man leading the championship trail has one which took place at Belle Isle. Despite this, it has been a tale of strong consistency for Power, somethingRead More

By FIA Max Verstappen won his first World Driver’s Championship at the end of one of the most intense title-deciders in Formula 1 history, passing rival Lewis Hamilton to take the lead and the race win on the last lap of a dramatic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.  With 54 laps of the race gone and with Hamilton in an apparently comfortable 11-second lead, Verstappen’s chances of taking the title appeared to be over, but when Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed out and the safety car was released, the Red Bull driverRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer MONTEREY, California – Tears of joy was the best way to describe Josef Newgarden’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. That’s because for the second time in the last three years, the 28-year-old Henderson, Tennessee native is the NTT IndyCar Series champion, beating Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud by 25 points. After a grinding 17-round championship trail, Newgarden was emotionally worn out and just thrilled, where he led the points in all but one race, is finally done with. “I’ve been dreadingRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer MONTEREY, California – Four of the best NTT IndyCar Series drivers this season will have excellent starting positions for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca as they’ll start in the top-six. Defending series champion Scott Dixon leads the group as he’ll start alongside pole sitter Colton Herta. Considered the long shot out of the group, Dixon trails points leader Josef Newgarden by 85 points. After qualifying, Dixon felt his No. 9 PNC Bank Honda has gradually improved. Notably, finding a wayRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer MONTEREY, California – The three NTT IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year title contenders swept Friday morning’s practice charts at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with Colton Herta being both fastest and snake bitten by “The Corkscrew” to close out the 45-minute session. Herta’s time of 1:10.7335 was just 0.0719 seconds faster than rookie points leader Felix Rosenqvist. Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top-three as he was 0.1502 seconds behind. In the closing seconds of practice, Herta’s rear of his No. 88 Capstone Turbine Corporation Honda lockedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Nothing will be different for Alexander Rossi, heading into a vital 67th career NTT IndyCar Series start at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Rossi has a pivotal task at hand and that’s overcoming a 41-point deficit and dethrone fellow American Josef Newgarden to become the new champion. What Rossi can’t afford is have another finale fiasco like he endured a year ago on the opening lap at Sonoma when he ran into the back of Marco Andretti, costing him dearly as Scott Dixon, who had the betterRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer KANSAS CITY, Kan.— Sheldon Creed wheeled his No. 28 MDM Motorsports Toyota on to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway on Friday morning for practice, officially clinching the 2018 ARCA Racing Series championship. Creed, like all of the competitors who have competed in all of the previous five series events, received a 250 point bonus, the fourth and final leg of the 2018 “enter and compete” bonus program which rewards owners and drivers with bonus points following each of the four five-race segments that comprise the season.Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer SONOMA, California — Neither of the IndyCar Series title contenders scored bonus points as Ryan Hunter-Reay snatched the Verizon P1 Pole Award for the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway Saturday. For the three drivers who are hunting down points leader Scott Dixon, their tasks became increasingly difficult after the New Zealander’s qualifying effort. He’ll start alongside Hunter-Reay in second, with Josef Newgarden following as the highest of the chasing trio after qualifying third. The reigning series champion kept his strong pace from FridayRead More