Takuma Sato Tag

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer For the 42nd consecutive year, the streets of Long Beach have come alive with the sounds of high-powered race cars screaming through the city streets, as the drivers of the Verizon IndyCar Series held their first practice for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. At the end of the session, we saw a familiar sight: Penske-Chevrolet cars taking the top two spots. Juan Pablo Montoya, who took his first career CART race win at Long Beach some seventeen years ago, led the session withRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer This coming weekend the Verizon IndyCar Series will return to the streets of Long Beach, as they continue their 2016 season. The race weekend is slated for April 15-17, 2016. About the Race The 42nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is round three of sixteen for the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2016. The event is held on a temporary street circuit, one of six such races on the calendar. The defending race winner is Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon. The New Zealand-born driverRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer AVONDALE, AZ. April 2, 2016 – Heading into tonight’s Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix, Honda teams are left scratching their heads as Chevrolet-powered cars swept the first ten grid positions led by Penske Racing’s Helio Castroneves. After completing a two-day test in February, all the Verizon IndyCar Series teams reported that track conditions were remarkably different upon returning to the 1.022 mile oval.  The track had hosted the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in the interim and, despite a power-washing of the surface, quiteRead 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 Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer Heading into qualifying this afternoon, Penske Racing’s Will Power set the fastest time in the final practice session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opening round of the 2016 season for the Verizon IndyCar Series. Power, a two-time winner of the event, crashed heavily in Friday morning’s practice, and came back to lead the afternoon session which was interrupted for track repairs. Today’s session went forward without incident, save for a brief red-flag to retrieve the Andretti Autosport Honda entry of RyanRead 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

Sebastien Bourdais managed to stretch his fuel and make the most of the circumstances and claim his 33rd Indy car win in the second race of the Chevrolet Duel in Detroit weekend. Rain once again became a major factor as the Belle Isle circuit was drenched in the hours leading to the second race of the weekend. Bourdais started in the 9th position and remained steadily in the top 5 while Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the early stint of the race. His only challenge came from teammate Will Power, butRead More

Will Power edged teammate Helio Castroneves and set a lap record in qualifying in the final minutes of the Firestone Fast Six to take the pole for race 1 at the Raceway at Belle Isle. Power elected to wait until the final few minutes to take his shot at the pole while Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Takuma Sato and Simon Pagenaud all took to the track right away. Castroneves laid down a lap of 1:16.1200 that looked relatively safe to keep the pole but Power was not to beRead More

The Month of May has arrived in full force as the drivers of the Verizon IndyCar Series are logging thousands of practice laps in preparation for qualifying this weekend. Every running of the Indianapolis 500 generates compelling and memorable stories that become a part of Brickyard folklore. For every driver that drinks the milk on Sunday afternoon, there are 32 drivers that walk away disappointed, thinking about what might have been. There are three non-winners in the field this year who were at the wrong end of a thrilling finishRead More

2011 Indianapolis 500 polesitter Alex Tagliani has joined A.J. Foyt Racing alongside Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth for the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500. The Canadian will drive the #48 Honda/Dallara in tribute to Dan Gurney, complete with the same livery he raced to a second place finish in the 1968 and 69 Indy 500s. Gurney is expected to return to the speedway for the first time since 2011. “My good friend Dan Gurney used to run that number and he’s supposed to be back at Indy this yearRead More