simon pagenaud Tag

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: Team Penske (@Team_Penske) Drivers: Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power What Happened Last Year: Josef Newgarden was the new guy for Roger Penske’s IndyCar squad. But the Hendersonville, Tennessee native immediately showed everybody why he wasRead More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer Scott Dixon added another Rolex watch to his collection, and with co-drivers Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook scored Chip Ganassi Racing’s monumental 200th win in the GT Le Mans class at the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona. The trio piloted the No. 67 Ford GT, which saw Briscoe leapfrog defending race co-winner Joey Hand – and teammate in the No. 66 sister car – on the second to last pit stop with around three hours remaining. The Aussie drove a flawless final two stints, putting 11.166 seconds onRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — The middle eight hours of the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona had a decent amount of action that involved all three classes and some of the results were certainly shaken up. The GTD class-leading No. 29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 was given a stop and hold penalty for five minutes for a balance of performance violation. The team was determined to have refueled at their pit stops faster than the BoP regulations allowed for. The Audi was a lap ahead of theRead More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer  Highlighting the star-studded field of the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona are drivers from six drivers from the Verizon IndyCar Series – Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal, Spencer Pigot, Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon. Overall victories of the historic race have been captured by Dixon (2006, 2015), Bourdais (2014) and Rahal (2011). The 56th edition of the event will see Hunter-Reay lead the charge for the open-wheel crossovers. Driving for 2016 Rolex 24 winning team Wayne Taylor Racing, the 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner finds himselfRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona has achieved star power status with world championship-caliber drivers and manufacturers in the Prototype ranks in the second year of the DPi/LMP2 rules package. (what is a DPi? https://www.imsa.com/qa-2017-daytona-prototype-international-dpi-concept) The entry list has four manufacturers in the DPi ranks with Nissan (two cars), Mazda (two cars), Acura (two cars) and Cadillac (four cars) going up against 10 LMP2 cars from Oreca (six cars), Riley/Multimatic (one car) and Ligier (three cars). Let’s look at the Prototype portion of the entry listRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Motorsports Tribune reviews the season of the top 10 drivers from the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. Our list concludes with champion Josef Newgarden. Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet 2017: 1st in the championship, 642 points Wins: 4, Top 5: 10, Top 10: 13, Poles: 1, Laps Led: 390 Best Finish: 1st (Barber, Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Gateway) Why did Roger Penske hire Josef Newgarden? Potential. Potential that Newgarden showed by his supreme race craft at the third race of the 2017Read More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer Motorsports Tribune reviews the season of the top 10 drivers from the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. Our list continues with the second-place championship finisher, Simon Pagenaud. Simon Pagenaud, No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet 2017: 2nd in the championship  Wins: 2, Top 5: 13, Top 10: 15, Poles: 1, Laps Led: 187 Best Finish: 1st (Phoenix, Sonoma) For the second-consecutive year, 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud put together an impressive season-long campaign to position himself to contend for the title. But unlike last season’sRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Welcome to the No. 1 club, Josef Newgarden. After claiming the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series title, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet is switching to the recognized champion’s number – No. 1 – for next season. It is a changing of the guard, literally, for Team Penske. With three titles that span the past four seasons, the organization has seen both Will Power (2015) and Simon Pagenaud (2017) run the No. 1 the following year of claiming the championship, with that record continuingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Team Penske confirmed today that three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves will switch from racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series full time in 2018 to the IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car Championship, piloting one of the teams’ two Acura ARX-05 DPi prototypes. Castroneves is the third driver to be announced for the Penske sports car program after Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron were confirmed for the other prototype. Remaining drivers have yet to be announced. Castroneves will continue racing for TeamRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief A French Revolution in Formula 1 is upon us. The racing talent that exists in France has long been considered in the upper echelon, but in Formula 1 it endured a depression of sorts. Those days are over. The country has enjoyed seeing the likes of Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier conquer World Rally Championships many times over, with the two combining to win the last 13 titles (Loeb 2004-’12, Ogier 2013-’16). It is quite possible that total will move to 14 with Ogier currently leadingRead More