jr hildebrand Tag

By INDYCAR INDIANAPOLIS – There’s a pattern forming after two full days of practice for the 106th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge: Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon are really fast. Sato and Dixon were 1-2 on the speed chart Thursday for the second consecutive practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Two-time Indy 500 winner Sato led at 227.519 mph in the No. 51 Nurtec ODT Honda, with six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and 2008 “500” winner Dixon second at 227.335 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “We’reRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The NTT IndyCar Series will run its first of five oval races of the season this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Unlike last year, it’ll be a single race at the 1.5-mile oval as part of a two-day show. There’s a lot of anticipation for Sunday’s XPEL 375 with the sport being three weeks removed from Scott McLaughlin scoring his maiden series win at St. Petersburg. The new Penske INDYCAR winner will look to have another strong oval outing where it all began in TexasRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – It’s pretty sweet being JR Hildebrand these days.  The 33-year-old lives a nice life in Boulder, Colorado, and pursues many of his racing dreams. He drove in the Daytona 24-hour race in January, started a racing podcast, hopes to race the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in June, and constantly plots cool ideas on how he’d love to see motorsport evolve.  And on Sunday, he’ll drive the Indianapolis 500 for the iconic A.J. Foyt Racing team in a car with a paint scheme that honors Foyt’s 1961 victory in the 500.  So yeah, it’s cool being JR.  “I’m not madRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – JR Hildebrand has raced up Pikes Peak in a sports car and has long wanted to experience that Colorado mountain in a current-era IndyCar.  Hey, we’re all entitled to pipe dreams, right? Hildebrand, who’ll attempt to qualify this weekend for his 11th Indianapolis 500, is serious about this one, though.  Whether it happens for the June 27 hill climb remains uncertain, but when the entry list was released several weeks ago, Hildebrand’s name was listed as driving a 2021 Dallara DW12/IR18, the current chassis being used inRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer This year’s Indianapolis 500 will mark 60 years since A.J. Foyt etched his face onto the Borg-Warner Trophy for the first time. To honor “Super Tex’s” maiden Indy 500 triumph, his race team announced Thursday its fourth driver for next month’s race. J.R. Hildebrand will be piloting the redesigned 1961 throwback livery with ABC Supply sponsoring the effort. Perhaps the one thing that stood out was the fact the fourth entry will have the No. 1 plate in their Chevrolet powered Indy car. The year thatRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Sage Karam’s month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had many peaks and valleys, but the 24-year-old managed to find the pace to qualify 31st for the 103rd Indianapolis 500. After confidence in his No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet became hard to find, the 2013 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion had teammate and former Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year, J.R. Hildebrand drive it on Fast Friday. Karam’s struggles on Saturday included very light wall contact. That meant that Sunday’s LastRead 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 — Graham Rahal led Thursday’s practice ahead of the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 in the second-busiest day of track activity so far. Rahal’s No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda turned 102 laps but the fastest was the second lap at 226.047 mph. That lap was assisted with a tow but Rahal unfortunately could not get a proper solo run in and was 34th on the unassisted speed chart. “Every qualifying sim I did today everybody came out in front of me, saidRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer JR Hildebrand will be back in the Verizon IndyCar Series paddock for the Month of May. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced Thursday that Hildebrand, 30, will pilot the team’s second entry in the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500. The Californian will pilot the No. 66 entry in the event, returning to the organization where he made his IndyCar debut in 2010. The effort will be sponsored by Salesforce, a cloud-based platform for customer relationship management. Thursday’s announcement marks the first time in seven years thatRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer With the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season rapidly approaching, Motorsports Tribune is previewing each of the teams competing on the tour. The site’s IndyCar staff will break each team down, laying out their results from the previous season while previewing the year to come for the organization and their driver(s). Team: Schmidt Peterson Motorsports  Drivers: James Hinchcliffe, Robert Wickens What Happened Last Year: The 2017 season gave Hinchcliffe his first victory since New Orleans 2015 when the likable Canadian won at Long Beach. That plus two third-placeRead More