Indianapolis Motor Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 2017 calendar has reached mid-July and with it comes one of the marquee events on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Brickyard 400 at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year’s Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400 marks just seven races remaining in the regular season, making Indianapolis a crucial stop in determining who will be in the playoffs and who will be on the outside looking in. First joining the circuit in 1994, the track has provided some classic moments andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Since 1994, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has been racing on the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the past 23 years producing some memorable moments and some that were, well, not so memorable. For this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater,” we’ll jump back to the 2002 running of the Brickyard 400 that resulted in NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott finally adding an Indianapolis win to help end his career on a high note. Between 1982 and 1994, Elliott won 41Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Kyle Larson left Kentucky Speedway last Saturday night with a runner-up finish and the points lead in hand, but on Wednesday afternoon, a penalty from NASCAR wiped all of that away as his team was hammered for a Level 1 violation found in post-race inspection at the NASCAR R&D Center. Larson failed to make a qualifying run for last weekend’s race, causing him to have to start the race from the back of the pack, but he was able to rebound all the way upRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Becoming a sophomore in high school comes with a lot of responsibilities between school and other obligations, but when those obligations include a championship-caliber drive in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda, the cream rises to the top. And rise it has for Kaylen Frederick, who, at 15 years old is the youngest driver in the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires. The Maryland native drives the No. 81 Team Pelfrey Mazda in USF2000 and is currently thirdRead More

 By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS — After a topsy-turvy race that saw two of his teammates eliminated before the finish and himself a lap down early, Max Chilton led the most laps en route to a fourth place finish at the 101st Indianapolis 500. Chilton was a lap down right before the savage incident that eliminated teammate and pole sitter Scott Dixon but was able to get back onto the lead lap when the lead lap cars pitted. The former F1 driver managed to grab theRead 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 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