simon pagenaud Tag

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Fresh off his first win with Team Penske in Long Beach, Simon Pagenaud claimed the pole for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Pagenaud quietly advanced his way out of Group 1 and into session 2 but made it count when it mattered in the Firestone Fast Six. Pagenaud had an extra set of red tires at his disposal and with only six minutes on the clock in the Fast Six, that was all the time that Pagenaud needed. The Frenchman went out with aRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor LONG BEACH, Calif. – Simon Pagenaud claimed his first win in nearly two years and his first for Team Penske under a bit of controversy. Pagenaud’s didn’t take the lead until lap 54, but his march to the front started at the very beginning as he muscled past Scott Dixon on the first lap to move into second place behind teammate Helio Castroneves who dominated the opening stint of the race. Dixon ran around 1.5s in arrears to Castroneves and ended upRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor The highlighter green colors of Menards will return to IndyCar racing as they will back the #22 Penske Chevrolet of Simon Pagenaud for three races. Menards will sponsor the Frenchman in the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil and the round at Road America in Menards’ home state of Wisconsin. John Menard entered cars in the Indy 500 every year from 1990-95 before joining the Indy Racing League full timeRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the final half of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to take his second consecutive win in the season opening event for the Verizon IndyCar Series. Montoya mostly ran in arrears to his Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud for the opening 46 laps of the race as the Frenchman pulled out to a sizable lead over the course of the opening stint. Following the first round of green flag pitstops, Pagenaud continued to keep his teammate at bay for theRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Will Power claimed his sixth pole at the Streets of St. Petersburg in the waning seconds of the Firestone Fast Six Session while Team Penske swept the top four spots for the second year in a row, and with a stomach flu no less. Power first broke his own track record in Q1 with a lap of 1:00.5768 and come the second session he made an astonishing lap of 1:00.0658, nearly a half second quicker his track record set a year agoRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud led a rather uneventful first session for this weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The Frenchman set fastest lap of the session (1:01.7246s) with 10 minutes remaining in the session. “It’s the first practic eof the year, so it’s nice to start of nicely,” said Pagenaud. “There’s still a lot of work do.” Pagenaud’s lap was just .0624s quicker than the Honda of A.J. Foyt Racing’s Jack Hawsworth. Pagenaud’s teammate and three time St. Pete winner Helio Castroneves wasRead More

AVONDALE, Ariz. – The Test in the West is already bringing out the best in Team Penske. Record best. Helio Castroneves led four Team Penske drivers in the top six after the first session of the Phoenix International Raceway promoter test Feb. 26, with a lap time that unofficially eclipsed the track record on the 1.022-mile short oval. Indy car great Arie Luyendyk, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner just named one of three officiating stewards for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season, holds the official one-lap record of 19.608 secondsRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar Correspondent SPEEDWAY, Ind. -Simon Pagenaud should feel like he has more pressure on his shoulders as the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season draws closer than he did  in a winless 2015 campaign. Not so fast, apparently. “I think I just feel better, actually. I feel more ready for the situation,” said Pagenaud. “I think last year there were so many unknowns, you know. I was coming from a team where I was number one for three years with great teammates, but it wasn’t like three teammatesRead More

Simon Pagenaud captured his first pole in nearly a year and his first pole on an oval during qualifying for Saturday’s MavTV 500. The Frenchman logged the fastest lap of the day at a 219.112 mph average time and backed it up on his second lap with a 218.792 average to complete a 218.952 pole winning average. “Thanks to my crew for the preparations and it’s exciting to get a superspeedway pole,” said Pagenaud. “Qualifying is one thing. It’s a reward for performance. We have a 500-mile race and hopefullyRead More

Simon Pagenaud reared his double-down times from yesterday with a lap of 230.698 mph to lead the final day of practice before qualifying for the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500. The Frenchman’s lap was aided by a slight tow while 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon led the field in the non-tow category with a lap of 230.698 mph. The top two were followed by Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Will Power and Sage Karam, who were all north of 230 mph. Andretti was one of only two other HondasRead More