Pato O’Ward Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – What a day it’s been for Rinus VeeKay. After putting up the fast time in Saturday morning practice at Barber Motorsports Park, the driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Honda kept the momentum rolling in qualifying, streaking around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course in one minute, 6.250 seconds to score the pole for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. “It was a great run,” VeeKay said. “Feel great out there. Actually a little bit surprised. My goal was to getRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Rinus VeeKay kicked Saturday morning off at Barber Motorsports Park on a high note by leading practice with a lap of one minute, 5.926 seconds to place his No. 21 Chevrolet at the top of the scoring pylon. “I knew we had potential yesterday. We didn’t know we had potential to be fastest right now,” VeeKay said after improving on his 10th place run in Friday’s lone practice session. “The reds really give us what we need right now. I think there’s aRead More

By INDYCAR BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Andretti Autosport was on the pace Friday at Barber Motorsports Park as Colton Herta led opening practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst with a best lap of 1 minute, 6.5149 seconds in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. Defending race winner and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou followed closely behind in second at 1:06.5657 in the No. 10 The American Legion Honda, just .05 of a second behind Herta’s quick lap. SEE: Practice Results “I was really happy withRead More

By INDYCAR LONG BEACH, Calif. – Josef Newgarden kept Team Penske unbeaten in three NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season with his second consecutive win of 2022, capturing the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in a taut, three-way tussle under brilliant Southern California sunshine Sunday. Newgarden earned his first career Long Beach victory in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, holding off Romain Grosjean in the No. 28 DHL Honda and reigning series champion Alex Palou in the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Grosjean tied aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – Felix Rosenqvist will lead the field to the green in Sunday’s XPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway after putting up the fastest lap in qualifying to score the pole position. The two-lap average of 221.110 mph (46.891 seconds) was enough to boost the Arrow McLaren SP driver to the top of the board just 11 cars into qualifying, where he would outlast the remaining drivers to score his first pole since 2019 and first career pole on an oval. “It was aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – Simon Pagenaud is off to a flying start on the first day of NTT IndyCar Series action at Texas Motor Speedway. Aided by new downforce options for the 2022 running of the XPEL 375 and a clear, cool morning, Pagenaud piloted his Meyer Shank Racing Honda to the top of the board early on in the first practice session of the day with a lap of 23.2376 seconds (223.087 mph) and remained there throughout the hour of on-track activity. “It was aRead 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 David Morgan, Associate Editor LONG BEACH, Calif. – Almost as quickly as the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach began, the championship hopes for Pato O’Ward vanished just as fast. Starting the day with high hopes that he would be able to put up a challenge for the Astor Challenge Cup, it took just one lap on the Southern California street course for everything to go awry. As the field stormed into Turn 11 on that first lap, O’Ward found himself in the middle of a hornet’s nest, when EdRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, Calif. – A lot has changed in the world since 2019. The three NTT IndyCar Series title contenders are no exception as their racing careers have also undergone change over the course of the past two years. When the checkered flag dropped at Laguna Seca that year, Josef Newgarden was celebrating his second INDYCAR title, which lifted a tremendous amount of stress off him. Current championship leader Alex Palou was racing in Japan’s Super Formula, along with Pato O’Ward, who was also racing inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LONG BEACH, Calif. – Qualifying has been the bane of Josef Newgarden’s existence in recent weeks, but Saturday, the tide turned in his favor with a lap fast enough to score the pole for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Still mathematically eligible for the NTT IndyCar Series championship, the elation among the No. 1 team was palpable, with Newgarden emerging from his Team Penske Chevrolet following his pole-winning run with arms stretched upwards, yelling “F*** yeah!” to his team, knowing he was still inRead More