Honda Tag

By Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer Heading into qualifying this afternoon, Penske Racing’s Will Power set the fastest time in the final practice session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opening round of the 2016 season for the Verizon IndyCar Series. Power, a two-time winner of the event, crashed heavily in Friday morning’s practice, and came back to lead the afternoon session which was interrupted for track repairs. Today’s session went forward without incident, save for a brief red-flag to retrieve the Andretti Autosport Honda entry of RyanRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer The stars and cars of the Verizon Indycar Series recently completed a two day test at Phoenix International Raceway where the Series will return for the first time in more than a decade. It was our first opportunity to see the Chevrolet and Honda 2016 configurations head-to-head on the same track. It also offered us the first glimpse of some of the rookies in the 2016 field. Allow me to share some observations. 1) The Speeds are Incredible Eighteen of the twenty-one drivers involved in theRead More

AVONDALE, Ariz. – The Test in the West is already bringing out the best in Team Penske. Record best. Helio Castroneves led four Team Penske drivers in the top six after the first session of the Phoenix International Raceway promoter test Feb. 26, with a lap time that unofficially eclipsed the track record on the 1.022-mile short oval. Indy car great Arie Luyendyk, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner just named one of three officiating stewards for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season, holds the official one-lap record of 19.608 secondsRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer While some may have been taken by surprise with the recent news that Andretti AutoSport will be absorbing Bryan Herta AutoSport into their organization, keener observers may have seen the writing on the wall. Indeed, Bryan Herta’s team was the smallest and most under-funded team on the 2015 grid, but their efforts showed tremendous potential with Rookie driver Gabby Chaves. Although it was a struggle at times for the team to keep afloat, they did manage to enter all 16 events on the 2015 schedule makingRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor McLaren-Honda protege, Stoffel Vandoorne, fresh off his domination of the 2015 GP2 championship is set to race in Japanese Super Formula for the 2016 season. While he awaits his eventual F1 debut, Honda will have the 23 year old Belgian drive for their Docomo Dandelion team in what are the world’s top spec racers. Outside of Formula One and perhaps IndyCar, Super Formula cars are the quickest in the world. Audi’s WEC superstar and brief F1 racer for Caterham, Andre Lotterer finished third in last year’sRead More

TORRANCE, California (February 2, 2016) – Honda today announced that the company has renewed its commitment to INDYCAR, signing a new multi-year agreement to continue participation as a manufacturer in the Verizon IndyCar Series through 2017, with an option to extend the agreement through the 2020 season. American Honda and its racing subsidiary, Honda Performance Development, have been a part of open-wheel racing in North America since the founding of HPD in 1993. The company entered Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) competition at the start of the 1994 season. InRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar Correspondent SPEEDWAY, Ind. – It hasn’t been the case that Graham Rahal is the senior figure of the drivers in a race team. Until this year, that is. Rahal has a new teammate for at least three races this year with 2015 Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot. Pigot, four and a half years Rahal’s junior, is the only change that has come to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. “These things are going to happen, right? I mean over time, you’re going to get that,” Rahal said. “Yeah,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Appropriately enough, after 24 hours of seemingly non-stop action, the fastest car still running was the overall winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Luis Felipe “Pipo” Derani, a baby-faced 22-year old racing prodigy from Brazil, took the checkered flag on Sunday afternoon in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Honda-powered Ligier JS P2, 26.166 seconds ahead of 2005 overall winner Max Angelleli in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP. Derani brought home victory for teammates Scott Sharp,Read More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Formula One’s four engine manufacturer’s: Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda, have finally agreed to a season cost cap for their customer teams after months of speculation, argument and strife. The soon to be announced deal comes on the heels of two days of meeting in Geneva for the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission. The plan proposed by the engine manufacturer’s calls for a cost cap of €12,000,000 per season for each of their customer teams. It is a significant reduction compared to current costs which haveRead More

By Josh Farmer, Journalist IndyCar has granted Honda permission to improve its aero kit in order to close the gap to rival Chevrolet. Following aerodynamic tests at Windshear in Charlotte, North Carolina, it was determined that Honda’s aero package used on road/street courses and short ovals was found to be at a competitive disadvantage to Chevrolet and that the performance gap was big enough to implement IndyCar Rule 9.3, which states that a manufacturer  can make improvements to their package if there is a clear disadvantage and it is detrimental to theRead More