Charlie Kimball Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The first race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park in Detroit was unkind to both Graham Rahal and Verizon IndyCar Series debutant Santino Ferrucci, ending their Saturday afternoons on the hook after separate crashes with less than 25 laps to go. Rahal was running a two-stop strategy as the only driver to have started the race on the black primary Firestone tires. Eventually, he pitted for the softer reds on Lap 26, but struggled adapting on those alternate rubber. As theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DETROIT — After the massive high of winning the 102nd Indianapolis 500, Will Power’s dream week came back down to earth with a seventh place finish in the first of two races in the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit as the top Chevrolet-powered driver. Starting sixth, Power had a boost problem at the start from not warming up the engine enough and dropped two positions behind the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing duo of Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal. Power then committed himself to a two stop strategyRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Oriol Servia gave Scuderia Corsa their first taste of Indianapolis 500 action and leading the race with an off-strategy call gave the Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan assisted No. 64 Honda all the TV time they could’ve asked for and more. Servia started 26th following some qualifying difficulties and worked through the field and was in tenth place by Lap 74 before taking the lead briefly on Lap 95 before a pit stop one lap later. Servia would hover in the upper midfield and gained ten positions inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Pole Day has come and gone in preparation for the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500. There were surprises and interesting happenings during the day so let’s take a look at them. First of all, Ed Carpenter scored his third Indianapolis 500 pole with a four-lap average of 229.618 mph, almost a full mph higher than Simon Pagenaud starting second. It was interesting to see Helio Castroneves fall so much on his Fast Nine qualifying attempt. The fastest driver in yesterday’s runs, the speedRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Wednesday practice came and went for the 35 drivers entered to qualify for 33 spots in this year’s Indianapolis 500 and Marco Andretti was on top of the time sheet. The 2006 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year turned a fastest lap of 227.053 mph in his No. 98 Andretti Autosport Honda but on the unassisted draft chart Andretti was only tenth fastest. Tony Kanaan was fastest on the unassisted lap chart with a lap of 223.048 mph. “Checking off the boxes right now,Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — In the first official test day ahead of the 2018 Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan set the fastest speed with a lap of 226.181 mph in the late afternoon. Behind the A.J. Foyt Racing driver in the second session was Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud, Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti and Harding Racing’s Gabby Chaves. In the morning test, Andretti was quickest with a lap of 223.997 mph ahead of defending Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato and 2008 Indianapolis 500 champion Scott Dixon. This was the firstRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Torrential rain provided damped spirits for both Charlie Kimball and Will Power, as separate incidents dashed their afternoons during Sunday’s portion of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham. Rain was expected to plow the 2.3-mile road course without much leeway that it’ll light up, forcing the Verizon IndyCar Series to move its starting time to 3:08 p.m. EST. The brave 23 drivers accepted the daunting challenge and once the race went green after the opening lap, the actionRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The final practice session for Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama finished with a familiar face on top of the time sheet. Team Penske’s Will Power went around the 2.3-mile natural terrain road course with a fastest lap of 1 minute, 07.3430 seconds. Robert Wickens was second followed by Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi. It’s interesting to see where many teams are on Saturday compared to where they were on Friday. Power was in the top four positions in allRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Friday practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama has concluded for the Verizon IndyCar Series and there’s a lot of interesting storylines following the hour and 45 minutes of practice that the competitors were granted. First of all, the reduction of downforce with the new Universal Aero Kits is felt almost immediately with many drivers losing control of their cars heading to Turn 5. Sebastien Bourdais, Zach Veach, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Gabby Chaves among others had issues with theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California — Sebastien Bourdais had the most entertaining move of Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He also had some of the worst luck in the Verizon IndyCar Series field after penalties, an ill-timed caution and contact ruined his day. Bourdais started ninth but climbed his way to second before making his first pit stop on Lap 30. After his tires heated up, Bourdais raced his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda to third place before making a pass that looked like somethingRead More