Indianapolis Motor Speedway Tag

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer The Month of May 2017 has now come and gone. Andretti Autosport’s Takuma Sato will see his image added to the Borg-Warner Trophy after coming home victorious in the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights. 1 ) A Popular Win  Sometimes you hear the saying, “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” and that holds true in this case. Sato is certainly one of the nicest guys in the paddock, despite thatRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Harding Racing has perhaps one of the more interesting team dynamics in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage area. It’s a mix of old school experience with some new school enthusiasm and talent and it’s helped a partnership that started as a technical alliance between Dreyer and Reinbold Racing and Harding Group. For the driving side of the team, the old school/new school partnership is between Al Unser Jr. and Gabby Chaves. Unser Jr. drove in 19 500s and with theRead More

By Takuma Sato, Driver Columnist In his fourth column for Motorsports Tribune, Takuma Sato highlights some of his favorite memories of the Indianapolis 500 as he prepares for his eighth start, first with the defending champions, Andretti Autosport. He also gives an update on how two-time Formula One champion-turned-teammate Fernando Alonso is acclimating to the Verizon IndyCar Series in his one-off run at “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” The Indianapolis 500 means a lot to me, as I am sure it does to a lot of people. I’ve learned that as youRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer This coming weekend the Verizon IndyCar Series hold its most prestigious event of the year, The Indianapolis 500. Race day is scheduled for May 28, 2017. About the Race The Indianapolis 500 is round six of seventeen for the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2017. The event is held on a paved oval track, one of six such events in 2017. The defending race winner is Alexander Rossi. The Andretti Autosport driver won the 500 as a rookie, and it is was his first IndyCar careerRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor In an effort to drive new life into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, NASCAR announced a huge realignment to the 2018 schedule on Tuesday, with several key races undergoing changes for next year’s campaign. The new changes to the 2018 schedule start right off the bat with the Daytona 500 moving back to President’s Day weekend, with the race running on February 18, 2018. Jump ahead to April and Richmond’s spring date, which had been run on Sunday afternoon over the last fewRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — In the last complete day of practice before the 101st Indianapolis 500, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Max Chilton was the fastest car on track. The former Formula One driver turned a fastest lap of 228.592 mph in a day that saw more laps turned than any other day of practice so far with 2,705 laps completed. Chilton knew that this wasn’t a full six hour session like what was had during the week and had to get in the carRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — In eight laps, James Davison was already over 217 mph. The Australian was drafted overnight to replace the injured Sebastien Bourdais after a savage accident left the 2017 St. Petersburg winner on the sideline with multiple pelvic fractures and a fractured right hip. Davison was got back up to speed quickly during Mondays’s post qualifying practice and turned 44 laps within the first 80 minutes of practice. His fastest lap to that point was 223.670 mph, good enough forRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — In an Indianapolis 500 qualifying day marred by bad weather and a serious accident from a top qualifying contender, Ed Carpenter Racing’s eponymous team owner came out on top. Ed Carpenter’s No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet was one of the last five cars to qualify for a chance to win the pole for the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 and poked the nose of his car to the top of the speed chart with a fourRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Sebastien Bourdais was the fastest car in qualifying for the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500, turning two laps that would have put the Frenchman on provisional pole until an incident on lap 3 ended his qualifying run. Bourdais turned laps of 231.472 mph and 231.595 mph and was in Turn 2 when the back end of his car got loose. The No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing driver steered to correct the car’s pitch but the tires gripped, sendingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Qualifications are beginning for the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 and here we will have live coverage of each attempt. Because of the weather, each car will only have one attempt to qualify on Saturday. First up is No. 63, Pippa Mann for Dale Coyne Racing. Lap 1: 225.773 mph Lap 2: 221.785 mph Lap 3: 214.643 mph Lap 4: 215.314 mph Average: 219.282 mph-Provisional Pole No. 22 Juan Pablo Montoya for Team Penske Lap 1: 229.038 mphRead More