ISM Raceway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. finally found the extra speed he needed at ISM Raceway. Saving his best lap for the final round of knockout qualifying on Friday at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, Truex sped around the circuit in 26.288 seconds (136.945 mph) to win the pole position for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Truex beat Kyle Larson (136.643 mph) by .058 seconds to earn his firstRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer ISM Raceway isn’t just Alex Bowman’s home track, but the site where his racing career positively changed after capturing his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole at Phoenix in November 2016. Bowman returned to the site of his career-defining weekend on Friday and looks to improve from his career-best sixth-place finish in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500. In his last Cup trip to the “Valley of the Sun,” Bowman was a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who sat out the final 18 races of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor New name, still the same old Phoenix. For now. After the kickoff to the West Coast swing last weekend in Las Vegas culminated in a second straight domination by Kevin Harvick, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix this weekend to take on the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. Phoenix has resided on the Cup Series schedule since 1988, but the track looks completely different than it did 30 years ago, having undergone a reconfiguration back in 2011. The reconfiguration added progressive bankingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads into Phoenix for the second race of the West Coast swing. In this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we take a look back to the race that started it all in the Valley of the Sun, the 1988 Checker 500. As the series headed into Phoenix in November of 1988, Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace were locked in a championship battle that had seen Wallace gaining on Elliott’s lead over the last quarter of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Go Fas Racing and Matt DiBenedetto have found themselves in sponsorship trouble heading into Sunday’s race at ISM Raceway, but the NASCAR community has banded together to make sure they will make it to the grid for the TicketGuardian 500. Starting with a tweet from DiBenedetto on Tuesday morning, alerting the world of their predicament, the effort started picking up steam, with fellow drivers and others in the sport pitching in to help out the small team make it to the track. Though Go FasRead More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer The Verizon IndyCar Series completed their first full-field test with the new 2018 aero kit during this weekend’s third-annual “Prix View” weekend at Arizona’s ISM Raceway. New year, new tires Tire manufacturer Firestone changed their tire formula for the 1.022-mile oval. Cara Adams, chief engineer for Bridgestone Americas, said that the reduction in downforce and drag required some changes to the formula.”The G-Load is significantly lower on the right side tires, they were able to bring a softer construction which has a better contact patch forRead More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer AVONDALE, Arizona – Takuma Sato completed a Rahal Letterman Lanigan sweep of this weekend’s Verizon IndyCar Series open test at the ISM Raceway. The driver of the No. 30 Mi-Jack Honda logged the fastest lap of the weekend at 19.379 seconds (189.885 mph) late in the three-hour session during Saturday evening’s final three-hour session. “The open test was very successful,” Sato said. “Lots of things done and lots of things to be tried, and I think over the course of two days we learned a lot. Great car,Read More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer AVONDALE, Arizona – The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing pair of Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato topped the charts in Friday’s Verizon IndyCar Series’ open test at the ISM Raceway. Rahal lapped the 1.022-mile oval in 19.457 seconds (189.090 mph) during the evening’s three-hour test session. The driver of the No. 15 United Rentals Honda, who turned his first laps with the new aero package on an oval, was pleased with the team’s progress. “The pace of the team, the pace of the cars, it seems good,”Read More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer AVONDALE, Arizona – Rahal Letterman Lanigan announced that Colorado State University’s One Cure will serve as the primary sponsor of Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Honda in two Verizon IndyCar Series races this season. The Colorado State University animal research arm will serve as Rahal’s sponsor for the Phoenix Grand Prix in April and the Verizon IndyCar Series penultimate round at Portland International Raceway in September. They will also serve as an associate sponsor for the remainder of the year. Rahal, who finished sixth in the 2017Read More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Chip Ganassi’s lead driver Scott Dixon has completed the first test of IndyCar’s new windscreen driver protection concept at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona. This was the first time the windscreen has been used on track after two years in development which included lots of work in the wind tunnel, CFD and simulators. The main aim of the test was to be see how the screen worked in different lighting conditions and how that would effect the driver. To that end the four time series champRead More