Texas Tag

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – On lap 151 of a thrilling Rainguard Water Sealers 600, contact between the No. 10 of Tony Kanaan and the No.5 of James Hinchcliffe led to a pile up that involved nine cars. Along with Hinchcliffe and Kanaan, were Mikhail Aleshin, Tristan Vautier, Ed Jones, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter, JR Hildebrand and Carlos Munoz of those involved. Kanaan received minor damage and would end up finishing second. Hinchcliffe and Aleshin, the two Schmidt Peterson team mates were running side by side comingRead More

By INDYCAR Dale Coyne Racing is bringing a familiar face in to drive its No. 18 Honda this week for the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Tristan Vautier, who has made 11 of his 30 career Verizon IndyCar Series starts with the team, will fill the seat this weekend as fellow Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais continues to mend from injuries sustained in a May 20 crash during qualifying for the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. Vautier will team with rookie Ed Jones in the DCRRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Author’s note: This is part of a 10-part series discussing tracks around the world that I feel would be a good fit for the Verizon IndyCar Series. The opinions here are expressed solely of the author and not necessarily of the Motorsports Tribune. While two races in any given market can over-saturate the market, the state of Texas could handle two with an additional race in the city of Houston. CART first came to the streets of downtown Houston in 1998. The race is bestRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The intense speculation and fear for Circuit of the Americas and the United States Grand Prix’s future after 2015’s torrential floods killed attendance and morale are history because the US GP is well and truly back. Attendance figures for last weekend’s event came to a fantastic 269,889 people for the three day event. Whether it was due to Taylor Swift’s massive Saturday night concert, the perfect weather, Haas F1, or a combination of factors, the numbers topped even the attendance of the inaugural race in AustinRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer The Verizon IndyCar Series has now run the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, a race that began in June. The conclusion of the rain-interrupted event saw Graham Rahal take his first win of the season in the closest IndyCar finish at TMS. Lets take a look at some of the storylines coming out of Saturday night’s race. 1 ) Worth the Wait  With eleven weeks between the red flag for rain and the restart, TMS fans had a long wait for the finish. TheRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor American Formula One fans rejoice! Recent troubles that have put the US Grand Prix’s fate at stake may have been averted by a recent settlement. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Circuit of the Americas has reached a settlement with the Travis County Central Appraisal District that has lowered the 2015 appraised value of the circuit by over $180,000,000. The move, pushed for by COTA bosses since 2014 will see the track save millions of dollars in property taxes. Enough to recoup the losses from state funding andRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor The U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas will know its fate by the end of February, according to circuit chairman Bobby Epstein. This follows news from early November that the future of the race is at stake due to issues with funding from the State of Texas. The original deal between the track and the state had annual contributions from the government coming in at $25,000,000 per year through 2022. However new leadership in the State comptroller’s office and a new formula applied toRead More

Lewis Hamilton claimed his third Formula One World Championship title with victory in an incident-packed United States Grand Prix that saw the Briton’s Mercedes’ team-mate Nico Rosberg take second place ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. The win, Hamilton’s 10th of the season, puts him on 327 points in the championship, 76 points ahead of nearest challenger Sebastian Vettel. With a maximum 75 points on offer from the final three rounds, Hamilton cannot be overtaken in the standings. Hamilton joins a list of three-time champions that includes Jack Brabham, Sir JackieRead More

Nico Rosberg edged Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second to claim pole position for this afternoon’s United States Grand Prix. The German took his fourth pole of the season with his Q2 time as heavy rain once again disrupted running and led to the final part of the session was cancelled. Row two of this grid at the Circuit of the Americas will be an all-Red Bull affair with Daniel Ricciardo qualifying fourth ahead of Daniil Kvyat. Q1 began with steady rain falling across the trackRead More

Dale Coyne Racing announced via Twitter that Tristan Vautier and Pippa Mann will return to the team for this weekend’s Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Vautier and Mann were DCR teammates at the Indianapolis 500 where Vautier was eliminated in a pit road collision with the third member of the team’s stable James Davison. Mann was also involved in the incident but continued on to finish in 22nd place. The Frenchman was tapped to drive Coyne’s #19 at Detroit where he passed several cars on the last lap toRead More